Saturday--Donut Derelicts
This is another long-running Southern California car cruise. It's been taking place every Saturday morning at the corner of Adams and Magnolia in Huntington Beach since 1986. This was our favorite spot of the week. There was a great turnout that morning, and the lot was full of really cool and unique cars and friendly people with absolutely no attitude.
 Things start early for the...  Things start early for the Derelicts, with guys showing up at 5 a.m. Not wanting to miss any of the action, we slept in the car at the shop the night before and were on the road by 5. |  We followed Brian Von Kleinsmid,...  We followed Brian Von Kleinsmid, the owner of this '73 Pinto, into the parking lot. He told us he built the car for the Grassroots Motorsports '05 Challenge, where you compete in a series of events in a car built for less than $2,005 (or whatever year it happens to be, as it is an annual event). He was over budget by about $1,000, and he still didn't even have any glass in the car. It was, however, sporting a fresh 5.0 and T5 trans from a Fox Mustang. He's a shoe-in if GRM is still around in a thousand years. | |
Cars And Coffee
Here's a spot we had high hopes for but were somewhat let down. Cars and Coffee has been happening every Saturday morning at Ford's PAG (Premier Automotive Group) facility in Irvine for a few years now. We'd heard good things about the show but had never been there. We sped out of the Donut Derelicts lot at 9 a.m., heading just a few more miles down the freeway to Irvine. This would be a great show if you're into late-model Japanese sports cars--we've never seen so many Honda S2000s and Acura NSXs together in one place before. But there was very little in the way of American muscle. We hung out for about an hour before calling it quits.
 Eurotrash was also well represented...  Eurotrash was also well represented when the corporate lawyers and hedge-fund managers arrived to the delight of their adoring fans. An impromptu swinging door contest broke out. |  This was one show where we...  This was one show where we were relieved to see a '69 Camaro. Believe it or not, this was the only one there. |  It wasn't all wine and cheese...  It wasn't all wine and cheese here, though. There were at least four muscle cars to look at. The fuelie split-window Corvette was especially nice. |