Rosie ready to roll tonight at Kannapolis cruise-in

Sarah Steele and Rosie, her restored GTO. Submitted photo

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Keith Steele works on the GTO. Submitted photo

By Joanie Morris

For the Salisbury Post

CHINA GROVE — Sarah Steele has been in love with cars for as long as she can remember.

“I was born into it,” says Sarah, 32, whose dad always owned race cars when she was growing up. Always the girl with the coolest cars at school, it’s only fitting that is still the case. Sarah was drag racing a Super sport Camaro before she had kids. She’s got a son, Jacob, 5, and a daughter, Ava, 2. “After Ava was born, I was kind of nervous about racing anymore.”

She took pictures of the beautiful white Camaro with the personalized tag “Haulin SS” and listed it on Craigslist.

“I put it for sale or trade,” she admits. “It was too small for four people to cruise in.”

Plus, she wanted a classic.

“Fifteen minutes later, this guy emailed me,” she adds.

When she saw the pictures of a 1970 Pontiac GTO, she knew there was something there. She traded the guy for the Camaro and drove down to South Carolina in April 2009 to pick it up. For a car that had spent the last 10 years in a junkyard, it looked nice, and drove, but up close, you could see the flaws. The nose of the car was cracked all the way down, there were open holes where mirrors should have been, and other cosmetic overhauling was needed.

Since they bought it, they haven’t really done a lot to it, but they have driven it.

“That’s our church car,” says Sarah. In January, the red GTO fondly named “Rosie” blew a head gasket. In the process of tearing down the engine to figure out what was going on, Sarah and her husband, Keith, decided to just go ahead and rebuild the classic car to its former beauty.

“I’m blessed to marry a man who could do all of this himself,” says Sarah. “I like his motto, ‘If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.’ ”

In fact, Keith seems to have gone above and beyond making mama happy with this pretty baby. Project Restoring Rosie began Feb. 19 and was finished June 24. In addition to a brand new paint job – Sarah and her son Jacob sanded down the car and frame themselves – the car has new wiring, engine, suspension, wheels and tires, and a new headliner.

Pretty handy with some aspects of fixing a car — “I can change the oil, fix a tire, that kind of thing” — Sarah admits she “pretty much handed (Keith) tools the whole time.”

Sarah and Keith actually met at a car cruise-in in Charlotte eight years ago.

“He just happened to ride by one night and we’ve been together ever since,” she says. And since their schedules don’t match — she is a Hospice nurse several days each week and Keith is a supervisor at UPS on second shift — cruising in Rosie as a family is especially special.

“I know it’s just a car, but it’s how we bond as a family,” Sarah says.

Rosie will have her inaugural Kannapolis Cruise-In tonight, where some rain is expected but forecasters don’t think it will be enough to cause a rain-out. The entire Steele family will be out enjoying the display of cars — classic and modern.

The Kannapolis Cruise-In will begin at approximately 3:30 p.m., with cars arriving as early as noon. All makes, models and years are allowed. Event organizers ask that those who attend don’t touch or allow their children to touch any vehicle without permission. The event will end at 9:30 p.m.

Cars are not allowed to spin tires, or repeatedly rev engines. No alcoholic beverages will be allowed in the cars, on the street or in parking lots.

Joanie Morris is a freelance writer for the Salisbury Post. She can be reached at 704-797-4248 or news@salisburypost.com.