Soap Lake man shows love of classic cars at Basin Summer Sounds Car Show

EPHRATA - Classic car fans are gearing up for the Basin Summer Sounds Car Show Saturday. 

Tom Roche, of Soap Lake, is especially revved up and ready to unveil his 1956 Ford Victoria, a restoration project he has worked on for the last 12 years. Riding his own personal DeLorean, Roche travels back in time to when he was a young man, racing in Soap Lake and Ephrata. "I graduated in '58, and my memory of the cool cars back then reminds me of this kind of car."

Back in those days Roche didn't restore cars, he stripped them down and souped them up. Looking at the Victoria, the word "boat" comes to mind, but back when Roche raced, these cars were great because they were smaller than most. "They tore up pretty badly on the racetrack. They weighed less, and less weight means a faster car," he said. Roche estimates he stripped 10-12 1955 and 1956 Victorias. He feels a sense of a duty to put at least one back together.

Roche started racing in Soap Lake in 1961 in "open wheel cars," or bodyless cars. In those days, Soap Lake had a quarter-mile asphalt racetrack behind where the hospital is now. His need for speed increased and he switched to full-size cars with even bigger engines. Roche found choice Victorias in back alleys and fields. He was an engine guy and could get all of these cars running, and running fast. In the late 70s Roche traveled to Wenatchee and Ephrata racetracks to compete with Nascar-type cars.

His careers as a Caterpillar mechanic and Grant PUD fleet coordinator and manager lent experience and savings to his current project.

In 2001, the year he retired from the PUD, Roche was visiting his brother in Oklahoma when he spotted a field with four Victorias sitting and rusting. He chose the best one, bought it, and hauled it to his brother's house. Roche began traveling to Oklahoma once or twice a year to work on it. Roche works on the running parts of the car, but his brother is a "body man," and so it had to stay with "the expert." 

They replaced many rusted panels, and fabricated a few they couldn't buy. It was six or seven years before Roche could bring it home. For the next half-life of the project Roche found himself paying top dollar for parts he used to strip out of his racing cars. Most of the parts come from a dealer in South Carolina, and he said half the fun is finding and negotiating prices for the parts.

After putting more than $20,000 into the project, Roche is ready to drive the Victoria. The upholstery was just installed in basic black and maroon red. It is detailed with the diamond tuck and roll technique, as opposed to flat sewn diamonds and pleats. It gives the car a plush depth, which was important in the time "back when the back seat was the choice because we couldn't afford hotels". The exterior is done in sleek black, as well, so shiny you see yourself in the reflection.

To see Roche's Victoria, and many more local and regional classic cars, visit Ephrata's Basin Summer Sounds festival all day Saturday.