Saturday, March 22, 2008

Back to the routine...

...and a trip down to Orange County for the weekly Saturday car show. It's always a good time, even if it involves getting up at the crack of dawn and driving straight into the rising sun...



Aside from the regular run of new "exotics" -- your basic horde of Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs and the like -- there are always some interesting pieces on display. The owner of this '55 Chevy has put nine years of part-time work into converting it into a duplicate of the memorable '55 Chevy "Nomad" show car, which was based on that year's Corvette. He did a superb job...



Not far away was one of my favorites, a '65 Corvette Sting Ray roadster...



And there was a fine example of America's most famous factory-built "hot rods," the 1956 Chrysler 300B, complete with powerful "hemi" engine...



Plus another favorite (especially for Californians of my age group, who grew up seeing them carting surfboards to the local beaches), a '48 Mercury "Woody" wagon...



I didn't get to see as many cars as I wanted, forgetting that the people who put on this show -- and some of the attendees -- were among those most concerned about my recent health problems. I had to spend more time than expected recounting the details for people who were simply glad to see me present and moving under my own power. It's still not easy for me to talk about it, though their concern was heartwarming, to say the least.

Despite my concentrating on American cars here, there were some neat little machines from Over There on display. I'll post a few pics of them later.

6 comments:

John0 Juanderlust said...

Many of us wished we were living near the beach in CA in those days. It looked like all anyone could want. A car like that full of wahinis, topped with long boards headed to the beach, what could be better?

Anonymous said...

I would love to go to a California car show. Y'all are so "car crazy" comapred to the land of the Cowboy Cadillac (Texas). I'd be in car heaven. More pics, please.

S

MrScribbler said...

JohnO -- Gimme the wahines, and I'll let you have the longboards!

Scott -- Come on out here and join me some Saturday morning. This is normal stuff for the show. And the best thing is that all of the cars are driven there.

More pictures in a couple of hours.

Anonymous said...

Looks like another fine day of cars for ya.

Gill

MrScribbler said...

But Gill -- none of them are mine!

Doug said...

I'm loving that Nomad re-pro. I have always wanted to build an El Camino out of a '71 Coupe DeVille. Those get rarer and more expensive every year. But I would still cut one up.