1970 Dodge Charger Wins Best Of Show At Newtown Antique & Classic Car Show

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — A modified 1970 burgundy Dodge Charger captured the hearts of car enthusiasts on Sunday, winning this year’s coveted Best of Show Award at Newtown’s 2026 Classic & Antique Car Show.

Owned by Tim Nist of Columbus, N.J., and entered into the modified custom category, the car caught the judges’ attention and the top award at the show.

"Even though the body says 1970, the drivetrain is a brand new Challenger Hellcat with a new suspension all the way around," said Nist. "The car is air conditioned, which I'll be turning on when I go home," he said.

Nist bought the car as a "wrecked shell" in 2021 on Long Island. "They were hard to find, but I found one and I brought it back."

Winning the award, he said, is gratifying. "It's an objective sport," he said of the show. "There were a lot of beautiful cars here today yet I won. In the end it is a beauty contest and a matter of taste."

Around 200 cars and trucks rolled into Newtown Borough for the show, which is presented by the Newtown Business Association every summer and sponsored this year by Inspire Federal Credit Union.

Throughout the morning and into the early afternoon, thousands enjoyed the display of vehicles, which featured a century’s worth of automotive history parked along State Street from Jefferson Street to Centre Avenue.

As the event began to wind down, show chairman Angelo Louridas stepped to the microphone in front of the Newtown Borough Hall to announce this year's award winners.

He breezed through the first, second and third place trophies before getting to the four big awards of the day.

Ronald Desmedt took home the first ever Gene Epstein Legacy Award for his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. The award will be pass from winner to winner each year thanks to the generosity and support of Bucks County philanthropist and car enthusiast Gene Epstein.

Ronald Desmedt with the Gene Epstein Legacy Award.

"Gene has been such a staple in this community and the car show," said Louridas. "Now we can see his legacy continue on. The keeping it and giving it back is really cool because then the winners become part of that legacy, too."

Another first for the show - a People's Choice Award sponsored by Inspire Federal Credit Union - went to Nikita Schvarts for his 1980 Lada 2016.

Nikita Schvarts won the show's first ever People's Choice Award for his 1980 Lada 2016. The award was sponsored and presented by Inspire Credit Union.

And the Marque Award for the Best Pre-War Ford went to John Sheaffer of Willow Grove for his 1930 Ford Model A Tudor. Sheaffer is a regular at the show and is a previous Best of Show winner.

Sheaffer's dad brought the car in 1949 for $25. "It didn't run. It needed a timing gear. My uncle was a Ford mechanic. He put the timing gear in and my dad just fell in love with it," he said.

John Sheaffer of Willow Grove won the Marque Award for the Best Pre-War Ford for his 1930 Ford Model A Tudor.

But what makes John's award that much more impressive is that when he inherited the car after his dad passed away, the car was literally a disaster and had been declared totaled. "It looked nothing like this," he said. "The garage had fallen on it."

But rather than discard his dad's car, he patiently began the long and arduous job of restoring the car to working order and eventually to show quality.

It's craftsmanship like that that captures the attention of the judges, including car aficionado Charles Feuer of Newtown.

"When you look at the work people put into these cars, it's amazing. They're clean. They're as close to perfect as they could be. It's heartening to see people put so much care and effort into their cars and then bring them out so other people can see them."

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(Jeff Werner/Patch)

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What also struck Feuer about this year's show was the variety of cars that rolled onto the street.

"I've been doing this (helping to judge the show) for 15 years. This is the nicest turnout of different cars," he said. "Some years we have a lot of Corvettes, a lot of Porsche, but this year we have a smaller number of each and a larger number of everything, which is really great and people like that because they want to see all different types of cars."

Feuer said the weather was also picture perfect for the show, which he accounts for the record number of cars in this year's show. Show organizers had set the pre-registration limit at 120 cars, he said. Eighty-eight cars showed up on Sunday morning, pushing the total over 200.

"The day was pretty incredible," said show chairman Angelo Louridas. "We started with some great weather and as far as car shows go, that's a very big driver. I believe we had a record number of cars. We're somewhere in the 200 range. We're practically at capacity at what the street can hold."

With the weather and the large number of cars, attendance was also booming, which Louridas loved to see.

"There are all kinds of people here - people who love cars, people who are just kind of interested, people from outside the area. It brings everyone together and there's such commonality," he said.

Louridas also spoke about the quality of vehicles that were on the street this year.

"We had some incredible cars from every year. For me, it's amazing to see the cars that are 100 years old and in amazing condition. And the cars that are 70 years old in impeccable shape. It's just a wonderful event."

This year's Elite Sponsors were Mercedes-Benz of Doylestown and St. Mary Medical Center, with Mercedes-Benz showcasing a selection of their vehicles at the show.

(Jeff Werner/Patch)

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(Jeff Werner/Patch)

(Jeff Werner/Patch)