News : Vinton Cruise: Meet the blue Pink Panther

The Pink Panther adorns the blue 1957 Chevy Bel Air that Rick Primmer entered in the Cruise.

Car Cruise spectators stop to admire Rick Primmer's '57 Chevy Bel Air with a Pink Panther theme.

Every year, Vinton Today encounters a vehicle in the Vinton Cruise that we have not seen before. Some, like Fluffy, the giant 1965 Chevy truck we first saw last year, caught our attention the first year their owners bring them to the Vinton event. Last year, we also met Shaun Swiser and his Camaro, which we went looking for after Shaun commented on one of our pre-event stories how glad he was to be able to come -- he was in Afghaniistan in 2011.

This year, parked on 4th Street, in front of the Benton County Courthouse, we saw: The Pink Panther.

It's blue.

But Rick Primmer has modified this 1957 Chevy Bel Air and added pink trim throughout and named it after the famous cartoon character.

Why use a Pink Panthere theme?

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Rick told us Saturday as he walked among the other hundreds of entries,looking at a variety of vehicles and hearing about them.

In addition to modifications in the motor and body of his car, Rick has also installed inverters that allow him to play Pink Panther cartoons in the back of his car for young car cruise and car show participants (and us older ones, too) to watch.

Even the spark plug wires and a few other things under the hood (which, naturally, has pink paw prints) are also adorned in the Panther's color.