Century-old cars shine at Sycamore’s annual Fizz Ehrler Memorial Turning Back Time Car Show

SYCAMORE – Race car drivers, families and gearheads descended on downtown Sycamore for the 23rd annual Fizz Ehrler Memorial Turning Back Time Car Show Sunday.

Car show officials estimated about 1,000 show cars were parked in downtown Sycamore for the city’s 23rd annual celebration of the automobile.

Madeline DeVito, 27, president of the car show’s board of directors, thanked city officials, the Sycamore Police Department and 75 day-of volunteers for helping to facilitate the event.

DeVito said the car show had a record number of volunteers and the car count was up from 2022.

“I don’t have an official count, there’s no way really to get a true precise count on cars but I know [when] registration last night checked in we were near 800. Which is up from last year. I would expect about 1,000 cars in town. Not everybody comes to register,” DeVito said.

[ Photos: Fizz Ehrler Memorial Turning Back Time Car Show takes over downtown Sycamore ]

She’s already got dibs on it. She’s like ‘Dad, when you’re too old, I totally want it.’ And I’m like that is perfect in my book, because then I know somebody that loves the car as much as I do is going to get it when I’m done with it – and I ain’t anywhere near done with it.”

—  Ron Bychowski

One of the hundreds of vehicles at the show was the century-old first motorized fire engine used by the Sycamore Fire Department.

Kevin Sargent, with Sycamore Fire Preservation Company, said the fire engine was in service from 1923 until 1957. The engine then was sold in 1967 to a steam punk show. After being sold a few more times, the engine was bought again by the Sycamore Fire Preservation Company. The history-minded group then raised funds to restore the 1923 Stutz fire engine in 2016 for around $25,000.

“We put together money to bring it back and then we started collecting funds to restore it. And so that took awhile, and then once we got enough money we had Marty & Sons – a body shop here, local guys – they’re the one’s that did all of the work on the truck here,” said Sargent, who retired from the Sycamore Fire Department after 30 years of service.

The 1923 Stutz fire engine holds a special place in Sargent’s heart, not uncommon for car aficionados.

Cars shows, like the Fizz Ehrler Memorial one, are just as much about family and the celebration of the community that appreciates the vehicles, as it is the car themselves, event-goers said.

Ron Bychowski, of Genoa, was in Sycamore with a car only one year younger than the centennial fire engine: his 1924 Ford T-Bucket.

“I’ve owned the car for about 35 years, so it’s kind of family now. My wife helps a little bit but it’s usually me and my daughter. We go to shows all the time – drive it about 3, 4 thousand miles a year – so it might have a couple of dents and dings here and there but we drive it everywhere,” Bychowski.

Bychowski said the engine in the 99-year-old car produces 310 horsepower but the vehicle only weighs 1,600 pounds, “so the horsepower to weight ratio gets kind of silly.”

Another car with a large horsepower to weight ratio was Ron Johnson’s 1948 Ford vintage big car – a race car that can be considered a precursor to modern dirt track sprint cars.

“It’s all stone age. There’s some stuff on there that’s even older than me,” Johnson, 79, said.

Johnson made the race car street legal after buying it, so the vintage big car doesn’t get entered into races these days, just car shows. The speed vehicle still takes Johnson to the race track, though.

“I used to motocross motorcycles back in the day. I still run this vintage midget with a flathead V-8 60 [sic] in vintage events in Iowa – there’s a club – and tonight I’ll be up in Sun Prairie [Angell Park Speedway],” Johnson said Sunday morning.

Johnson’s vintage big car has no windshield to protect the driver, just like Sycamore’s first motorized fire engine and the 1924 T-Bucket – a car Bychowski said his daughter Emily learned to drive in, to the chagrin of his wife.

Emily Bychowski’s first lesson in open-cockpit driving took place July 2020, when Ron Bychowski drove them to that year’s pandemic-altered car show.

Ron Bychowski said when he noticed his daughter had brought her learner’s permit he pulled over and told her she could drive home from Byron. It’s a memory neither of them will soon forget, but it also cemented Emily Bychowski’s love for her dad’s car.

“She’s already got dibs on it. She’s like ‘Dad, when you’re too old, I totally want it.’ And I’m like that is perfect in my book, because then I know somebody that loves the car as much as I do is going to get it when I’m done with it – and I ain’t anywhere near done with it,” Bychowski said.