Road Panthers of Glen Cove


Visit Website

In addition to our own annual car show, members travel to many car shows both on and off Long Island. We have a big showing at the Long Island Street Rod Show and Swap Meets in May and October. We also attend National Street Rod events in York, PA, Burlington, VT, and Tampa, FL.

The club also enjoys many cruise nights on Long Island. The one great thing about this area is that you can go to a cruise night just about every night of the week!

Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held monthly at Glen Cove High School on the second Thursday of the month.

The Glen Cove Road Panthers were formed back in 1952 in the backyard of a couple of young guys interested in cars, or "hot rods" as they were called back then.


Jack and Ed Eaton formed our club with some of the local boys, and shortly after, with the help of the Glen Cove Police Department, we became the first police-sponsored club on the East Coast. We were also the first club to have a police- and city-sponsored drag strip on one of Glen Cove's little-used streets. Of course that was when there was such a thing as a little-used street.

Mayor Joe Souzzi and Officer Izzy Goldstien helped us put it all together and make it work. It was quite a thing to do back then. We were also one of the first National Hot Rod Association Charter Clubs, and still are today.

A lot of people ask where the name Road Panthers came from. Well, it is not really clear. But while most other clubs being formed were using names of car parts, like The Piston Pushers, The Tie Rods, The Gear Jammers, etc., The Road Panthers seemed like the baddest sounding name to a bunch of 17- and 18-year-old kids.

We have watched our sport grow from a bunch of kids with backyard-built clunkers with souped up engines, to the sophisticated showpieces we have today.

We still have some of the original members (4) that are active in the sport and in club functions as well as a number of inactive original members living in the Glen Cove area.

In 2002, we celebrated our 50th anniversary with a super car show at the Glen Cove High School, which is on the same street, about two blocks away from where it all started 50 years ago.

View all Car Clubs