If you were looking for fun on a Friday night in the 1960s, the ideal thing to do was to cruise the Renton loop.

That is, you’d burn gallons of gas driving circles around downtown Renton, trying to pick up a date.

With a nostalgia for simpler times and cars, Ben and Nancy Remak founded the Return to Renton Car Show benefit about 20 years ago.

Sunday’s show is expected to draw about 400 cars and thousands of car lovers.

But starting the cruise in wasn’t easy or welcomed by Renton police.

The Remaks proposed the show end with a ceremonial cruising of the loop, which runs along South Second and Third streets, turning at Rainier Avenue.

The last few years cruising was popular, it had a reputation for fights and crime, Ben said.

At the time, police didn’t want to glorify something they worked so hard to eliminate, Nancy said.

“We talked to the police, and they were dead set against it,” Ben said. “They sent us a really nasty letter.”

While the chief was against it, officer Garry Anderson took up the challenge, and even led the first cruising-loop processional on his Harley Davidson.

Anderson later became the police chief.

The whole idea was “what would we give to cruise one more time,” Ben said. Cruising again was fun, but it wasn’t what it used to be, and a few years ago organizers stopped the tradition.

Ben first got the idea for the show during a drive in 1990. A Redmond police officer followed Ben and his friend to a gas station to get a better look at their classic cars.

Reminiscing a bit together about their cruising days, the officer suggested Ben start a car show with police programs as the beneficiary, he said.

Since, the show has raised about $130,000 for Renton police youth programs.

The Remaks started the show with about 110 cars in 1991.

Following years, the show’s location bounced around Renton, mostly ending up in Boeing parking lots, Nancy said.

Car entries grew to about 500 in 1999, and the locations improved to grassy shaded areas such as the iconic Renton High School.

After 13 years the program was strong, and the Remaks decided to step down.

New organizers won support from the Renton Chamber of Commerce, and finally the event worked its way into the heart of downtown Renton, the Remaks said.

“Our dream was to have it downtown,” Nancy said, adding that the show has now become a community event. “It’s evolved, and it’s evolved in all good ways.”

South Third Street and several other one-way streets will be closed for the show this year, said organizer Ryan Runge.

While Seattle had a few cruising spots of its own, Renton really was the place to go, Nancy said. “It really had a history.”

Ben grew up in Federal Way, during a time when home entertainment meant four television stations and the radio.

Federal Way wasn’t much at the time, he said. “You had to go to Renton for a good time.”

Like most youth, he spent his money working on cars and his weekends driving them, he said.

At stop lights drivers would rev their engines to show off, which occasionally ended in hot rod races in the warehouse areas.

However, most youth valued their cars too much to be reckless, Ben said.

During his college days, he studied administration of justice, which required several police ride-a-longs, said Ben, who now works for State Farm Insurance’s fraud-investigation team.

On Fridays he’d cruise the loop and on Saturdays he’d hang out with police as they wrote tickets to cruisers, he said.

Nancy grew up in Chicago and moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington.

“We used to cruise looking for boys,” she said of her high school days.

She complimented Ben’s car when he picked her up for a first date. That earned her a second date, she says.

Today he drives a blue 2004 Corvette, which he plans to enter in this year’s show.

“It feels so good to see it (the show) doing so well,” Nancy said. “We took a lot of pride in it.”