We've done an article like this before. Longtime readers, go to your archives and dig up the Mar. '99 issue of CC to see the inspiration for this iteration. In it, former staffer Miles Cook and his brother, Wayne, hit as many local cruises as they could in a week's time and lived to tell the tale.
Current staffers who are Midwest transplants can sympathize with those suffering through--and likely just now digging out of--a long, cold, and especially snowy winter. Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes cruising. So, to get you in the mood, we crammed as many cruise nights/car events into as few days as possible as inspiration to get your car ready for summer fun. As we write this, it is the first week of February and, even here in sunny Los Angeles, there aren't cruises every night. Southern Californians are a wimpy bunch, and temperatures below 55 keep people indoors with the windows shuttered tight. That scuttled our plans to attend one cruise per day of the week, but we were able to fill up a CF card or two of cruising pictures over a nine-day span. Like Miles and Wayne did nearly 10 years ago, we hit each spot in a Ford, though this time we took our '03 Crown Victoria instead of the Cook brothers' much-cooler '64 Fairlane. Here's how it went down.
Sunday--The Pomona Swap Meet
OK, right off the bat, we're stretching the rules a bit. The Pomona Swap Meet isn't technically a cruise, and it happens only seven times a year. We're counting it anyway because there wasn't much selling going on, but there were plenty of cars cruising the fairgrounds.
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Prepare to get up really early. The fairgrounds open at 5 a.m., but we personally know peo
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Those are sponges holding up the headlights.
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We really liked this '67 Valiant, but the seller was asking $11,000 for it. Maybe if we ha
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Pomona has developed a reputation over the years as a place for people to hawk overpriced
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Tuesday--Fuddruckers Lake Forest
We'd never been to this cruise before, but it's been going on in this same Orange County location for 16 years. Hector Rodriguez of Cruise Night Productions, sponsor of the show, apologized for the low turnout of about 40 cars. "Usually we'll have about 200 cars here when the weather is nice." (See what we mean!) Still, there was a really good collection of muscle cars here, and they reflect the demographic of the area--there wasn't a primered beater in the lot.
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We liked Jim DuCharme's '67 Buick California GS. It still has the original 340 4BBL engine
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Throw caution to the wind when at a new cruising spot and sample the local fare. We scarfe
Thursday--Irwindale Raceway
We're fudging the rules again to accommodate a night of drag racing. And really, your local test 'n' tune is just cruising taken to the next level to include such gross displays of horsepower as burnouts, full-throttle acceleration, and plenty of trash talking. With the CC/Rambler fresh off a clutch change, we caravanned with Editor Glad to the track for a night of eighth-mile drag racing.
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Irwindale is one of only two dragstrips left in Los Angeles County, and it fills up quickl
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We saw lots of great cars that night, including Paul Adams' deceptively quick '03 Mustang
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Gates open at 4 p.m., and racing starts at 5. By 4:30, the staging lanes were almost full.
Friday
Friday is Bob's night, as in Bob's Big Boy in Burbank. This is a legendary cruise spot in Los Angeles County, and Bob's has been hosting a Friday night cruise for decades. The restaurant itself opened in 1949 and is the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the U.S. Architect Wayne McAllister penned its swoopy, space-age design that is so distinctive-looking today among the surrounding office buildings and generic shopping centers. Because of its popularity, you'll see a little of everything at Bob's--from million-dollar Shelby Cobras to rat rods that look like they were built for less than the cost of a Big Boy burger, there's always something cool to look at and interesting people to talk to.
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.
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Things start early for the Derelicts, with guys showing up at 5 a.m. Not wanting to miss a
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We followed Brian Von Kleinsmid, the owner of this '73 Pinto, into the parking lot. He tol
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.
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Eurotrash was also well represented when the corporate lawyers and hedge-fund managers arr
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This was one show where we were relieved to see a '69 Camaro. Believe it or not, this was
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It wasn't all wine and cheese here, though. There were at least four muscle cars to look a