1963 – 1990
The Gents Auto Club was formed in 1963 by five teenagers who attended West Valley High School in the Spokane Valley. By-laws were created, officers were elected, and an inspection committee was formed. At one point membership grew to approximately one hundred. Because The Gents set very high standards for cars, membership in the club was considered an honor.
Through the years club activities included such events as sponsored dances, hay rides, and shopping mall car shows. The rites of spring were ushered in every year by the Auto Boat Speed show where a club display was always included as well as entries by individual members who consistently placed well.
Every year the 4th of July meant a cruise to Harrison, Idaho for a club picnic. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the Gents sponsored several overnight rod runs to places like Diamond Lake, Bear Lake, and Lake Chatcolet. A Christmas party wrapped up each year.
From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s the club worked with the rock radio station KJRB to operate a popular Halloween haunted house. Each year the Gents manned firework stands to fund activities and charities selected by the membership.
After almost three decades, the membership began to dwindle and in 1991 the club went into hibernation.
2010 – Present
In 2009 a group of old Gent’s member decided that we should try to start the “new” Gent’s Auto Club. So during the spring, summer and fall of that year, names and telephone numbers were collected. As the year went by, there were more and more people interested and more and more people were added to the list.
In November of 2009, all people who showed interest were contacted and a time and date at the 5 Mile Heights Pizza was set for the meeting. The first meeting was set for the middle of the month at the 5 Mile Heights Pizza in north Spokane. There were about twenty-six at the meeting who were interested. We talked about the perceived good and bad about the old club which existed from about 1963 to 1990.
Most of the issues were good. The things this group wanted to see changed were the following:
- Not so many meetings
- Not as strict as the old club
- Make the club a “Fun” club
- Old members (1963 to 1990) were “Grandfathered” into the new club.
- And so on & so on
In December of 2009, we had a second meeting at the 5 Mile Heights Pizza and about the same amount of people were there. We discussed more and then decided to have a meeting in January of 2010. At that meeting we voted to start the New Gent’s Auto Club.
We established new By-Laws, became a 501© (3) organization, established rules and we were on our way. We went through growing pains in the next few years, just like any new organization would.
During our first 5 years or so we established car shows, charity events, benefits etc. We have had our monthly meeting at places like Jeff’s Custom Auto Detail, Darcy’s, Shakey’s Pizza, Suncrest Pizza, and sometimes some of our member’s houses. Starting in about late 2014 we started having our meetings at the Eagles Aerie # 2 in North Spokane. During the summer you will find us there on the first Wednesday of the month at 06:00 pm. During the winter time you will find us there on the first Sunday of the month unless there are conflicts with holidays.
As of 2015 we grew from the twenty-six or so to the number we are now, which is about sixty.
We are an open club of “American Cars Only” with No start year, end year and welcome all makes. We have 3 types of classes of cars in the club: Under construction class, sticker class, and the plaque class. We have cars form strictly street drivers to very high end show cars and everywhere in between.