It was a good show, and the drive to and from in the Tinyvette was fun. I've driven it distances on the street before but for some reason last weekend's jaunt got it to sink in that the car is fun to drive even when not racing. Sure, I have to layer up to stay warm, wear gloves and even glasses for eye protection because with no side or rear windows the wind beats your eyes up pretty bad. But it makes about the right amount of noise, is responsive, is too slow to get me into trouble, and is small enough to make it seem like I have all the pavement in the world to work with. It's still not comfortable, and it tires you out, but it's fun.
The show itself was something. There must have been over 500 cars there plus lots of odd old machines, such as old motors once used on farms to pump water, etc. I was hoping to see and hear a Johnny-popper but no luck.
I've seen enough glossy restored 50's and 60's cars to almost want to stay away from car shows, and to me exotics are like the Louie XIV room furnishings you can see in history museums, basically, rich people's stuff that didn't have a lot to do with the times they supposedly represent. Nice, but so what? But there were many cars that were interesting. My favorite was a really sweet little pale green 60's Dart, driven by a couple who probably bought it new and were still driving it. (Throw on a little black and white paint, a couple a NASA decals, and you'd have Escape Velocity's car.) It was a really nice contrast to the hot rodded stuff. An honest 60's car.
There were a few very shiny customs, one I actually liked. It was huge, chopped, long, and paints gold. It looked like something ZZ Top would own, except for maybe the color. The woody wagon was also very nice. The craftsmanship of these cars of course was excellent, but what gets me is the vision, the sense of design, the stuff that goes way beyond pin stripes and flames and slamming.
Then there were three Lemons. I think between them we covered a bit of the mid-range territory of Lemons cars. Some are nice, some pretty battered, all themed. We had nothing close to Spank or Homer levels of theme, but enough to get the point across. It was fun explaining the whole concept of themes, explanations the kids did not need. They loved the unicorn and a few even recognized the Space Unicorn theme. (I think that was the only BMW in the show.) The Thunderchicken got lots of attention and once in a while you'd hear someone saying "that race car is sponsored by KFC". Little did they know. People loved the "extra crispy" twist on the theme, and kids loved being able to sit in the car, wear a helmet, and get strapped in. Their parents were grateful. I think 50 or more kids must have crawled in and out of our cars. Most were boys but we did our best to encourage the girls.
The Tinyvette got the usual attention just for being an Opel, for people not knowing what it was and no doubt being confused by the Corvette decals. We heard lots of "My dad had one of those.."-type comments. A friend brought a clean Opel GT and we had hoped to be able to park them side-by-side, for the shock effect of the comparison. Unfortunately he arrived before us and got shuffled off to the other end of the runway and was trapped in by other cars. The one comment that impressed him was from the person who thanked him for bringing what seemed to be the only sports car in the show. If they only knew the GT is just a Kadett in a fancy party dress.
There were lots of questions about the series, and this time it seems more people had heard something about it and this was their first time seeing any of it and learning what it was about. At some point you could see they sort of got it but were about to dismiss these as just cheap old race cars, until we mentioned that these cars ran 600-1000 miles per race, going for 14-24 hours, against 150-200 other cars, and had done so only a month ago. Then they started to look impressed, and personally, I think that is impressive.
Several people came by telling us they were preparing a car and stuck around to ask for tips. One told us he and his friends were shooting for the Thunderhill race, and hoping to join in for another GWR attempt.
The sideshows made this event fun. The monster truck rides, helicopter rides, motorcycle stunts, and WWII era planes taking off and landing all day. I think there was a band but were were parked too close to the planes to ever hear them play. Lemons, as we all know, is it's own side show, so we don't need any of that stuff, although an occasional punk band or strippers for the Saturday night festivities are appreciated.
Getting out of there really sucked. There's only one road and traffic was creeping north and south. We had reservations at a brewery 2 miles up the road but it still took an hour to get there. We wasted as much time as possible at dinner and when we came out, near two hours later, the traffic was still creeping. There was a stop light about 7 miles away, in Pacifica, and once you cleared that it was good again.
I took a few photos, mostly of us, and most of them are of people. I'll upload a few.
Mike
