Cars on display at the Portsmouth Rotary Club’s Annual Father’s Day Car Show. Even with the rain, about 100 cars were on display, with awards given in a number of classes. Below, Gardner LePoer looks over a 1907 Renault.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PORTSMOUTH The rain held off Sunday for the 53rd Father’s Day Car Show at Portsmouth Abbey, which carried on in festive if subdued and shortened form.

“All things considering, it’s a raging success,” said MC “Cruisin’” Bruce Palmer, the radio DJ who emceed the event, the state’s longest-running annual car show.

He said slightly more than 100 cars attended the event, which normally attracts 400 to 500 vehicles.

But that was better than last year when it was raining and only about 60 cars attended.

“It’s too bad,” agreed Warwick collector Dick Shappy. “Especially after last year.”

Shappy brought his 1911 Cadillac Demi-Tonneau, which he said had come out of a six-year restoration only the night before.

“It was one of the last non-electric Cadillacs,” he said, pointing to the carbide, or acetylene gas, headlights and crank handle.

But with the sky overcast, he said he didn’t want to run it out of a closed trailer so he kept the doors open on all sides to let people see it.

Close by was a row of classic Volvos, including Gregg Child’s unusual red-and-white 1962 Volvo wagon. The car was boxy even by Volvo standards, allowing for an astonishing amount of storage in the rear.

He said he bought it at last year’s show.

“I really wanted this car,” said Child, who is in the yachting business and divides his time between Newport and Fort Lauderdale.

He said the car, which he uses as his “island car” when he is in Newport, came with its name — “Victoria” — spelled out in auto script on the sides of the hood.

Alongside, John Cottrell of Tiverton had a couple of Volvos, one a white 1966 Volvo 122 4-door wagon and the other a 1966 Volvo P1200 coupe, also white. Indeed, its license plate read an appropriate ISAINT after the 1960s British TV show starring Roger Moore as a super sleuth known as the Saint who drove a white Volvo P1800.

Cottrell said his wagon was original except for various “add-ons” such as the bumpers, the grille package, visor and safari roof rack. He also pointed out the “horn-style bumpers” on the P1800 along with the “spear styling” of the side chrome and air scoops.

Next in line was David Farrington’s red Volvo P1800 ES, a red coupe wagon with a glass hatchback echoed in Volvo’s current C30 coupe.

He said he limits his use of the car to summer months, although noted that he had driven to the famed car show in Carlisle, Pa., which is about 400 miles, and back again.

Also in the upper field was Pierre Myette of Portsmouth with his two black Porsches, a 1985 944 and a 1992 968, that were produced in conjunction with the better known 911 series.

“They were the poor man’s Porsches,” said Myette of the car that was a successful entry model with the 968 replacing the 944 (1982-1991) in 1992.

Myette said he had done some minor work on the cars, including the brakes on the 968.

“They’re easy (four-cylinder cars) to work on,” he said.

Patty Connors brought her delightful 1982 black-and-maroon “Charleston-style” Citroen 2CV, which she said her late husband gave to her as a wedding present in 1983.

She said she had been expecting a Mini, but fell for the 2CV anyway, looking after it and driving it on limited trips in the summer months, which has resulted in a car in very good original condition.

Lloyd Adams, of Bristol, was sitting by his chocolate brown-and-cream 1964 Karmann Ghia, which he said he bought about 10 years ago because he loved the design.

“It’s a sports car with a different design,” he said, noting that while he limits his driving to coming and going to shows, he has “a 1974 (Karmann Ghia) convertible to run around in.”

Two 1954 Bentleys sat side by side, one with a custom Mulliner aluminum body, the other with a standard Rolls-Royce steel body.

Kurt Nordren of Dartmouth, Mass., said he was the fourth owner of the left-hand drive Mulliner Bentley R-Type, which he bought in 1973.

The elegant car had recently been painted in two-tone, with Rolls-Royce royal blue on the body and a General Motors sky blue on the upper body and roof. “It works,” he said of the GM paint.

Robert Higgins’ right-hand drive Bentley was also two-tone, maroon and dove gray, but with a body that was more upright and sedate than the sportier Mulliner design

Higgins said he had gone out to eat in Westport, Mass., one night about six years ago and saw the car with a For Sale sign in the window.

“It was very rough when I bought it,” he said. “The paint was peeling, it had no brakes. I brought it back over a period of years.”

American cars from the 1950s included a striking royal-blue-and-white 1959 Pontiac Eight and a 1957 black-and-white Buick Special Riviera

“It’s one of the last four-door cars with all of the chrome of the 1950s,” said Buick owner Pat Keeley of Middletown. “There are not many left around.”

Chuck Wingate’s 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner had the appropriate license plate — FLP TOP. The model, which he said was produced for only three years — 1957-1959 — has a hard top that lifts up and cantilevers over into the trunk.

A boxed-off area in the trunk contained copies of three made-to-measure suitcases that Ford sold with the car to make up for the lack of trunk space.

Wingate, of Westport, said the car had recently come out of a frame-up restoration.

Next to the Fairlane was Bill Jeffreys’ pink — officially Desert Rose — 1956 Chrysler New Yorker Town and Country, which he said had originally been sold out of the Fred W. Smith dealership on Old Tower Hill Road in Wakefield, where he worked and had continued to have serviced there.

He said he thus knew the entire history of the car, noting that for years it belonged it a potato farmer who used to garage it while he spent the winter in Florida.

Jeffreys said he recently bought back access to the now closed Smith dealership from adjacent Speedcraft Volkswagen and buys and sells old cars, and hosts cruise nights out front on Thursday evenings.

Among the older cars was John Silvia’s green, black and varnished wood 1921 Ford Model TT wagon. He said he had restored the vehicle over five years, tuning it up while a friend painted it. He said he had wanted a Ford Model A, but finally convinced the owner of the Model TT to sell it to him.

“Ah, beautiful,” he said as he demonstrated how “it starts right up.”

“I go to all the shows they have,” he added.

Tom Leferriere had driven his imposing 1934 Packard Super 8 seven passenger touring car down from Smithfield. The car has a convertible roof — which was up on Sunday — massive running boards and a large trunklike container attached to the rear.

Leferriere, who favors Packards, said he had recently purchased the car and had worked up the mechanicals. The white paint was peeling in spots, but he said it had been painted over the original green and so he was not concerned.

Seated in the back seat were his young son and daughter and he said he had driven down with the whole family.

“Everyone fits,” he said. “It’s a great family car.”

A number of muscle cars sat at the far end with David Quattromani’s bright green 1970 Dodge Challenger standing out. Trimmed in black with an orange engine, the car was as dramatic a statement as the orange 1971 Plymouth Road Runner, which had its original price sticker on the window: $4,618.

“It’s a nice cross section,” said emcee Palmer. “A little bit of everything from muscle to brass era”

He cited Manny Sousa’s 1907 Renault — which was at the recent Newport Concours d’Elegance — as particularly “breathtaking.”

One car, however, did not earn his admiration: his own 1966 Mercury Comet Villager station wagon, which he used to bring his equipment. (Palmer said he has a collection of about 12 cars.)

“I can tell you now, that Comet won’t even take last place,” he said laughing.