Art & Inspiration Where is the best hot rod town?

That's why cooling systems are of particular concern to us.....

 

In my travels around the Good Ole' USA, I was somewhat shocked and pleased by the number of old cars and trucks I saw "being driven" around Ohio.

 

That 1500.00 per month figure is obviously a bit of an exaggeration.
Southern California area, 2400+ square foot home, three adults (two women). My natural gas was $12.00 and change last month (includes heater, water heater, and stove). Electric was $60.79 (Oven, microwave, a/c, compressor, and every other appliance known to man). Water was $55.12 (and I water the crap out of my yards and gardens, because we get less than 9" of rain per year). Of course, your mileage may vary ...
As far as traffic is concerned, when you live here, and if you pay attention, you can avoid every single traffic "jam" by utilizing alternate routes, and time of day (and which day of the week) is paramount.

 

^^^This. 1967-'69, Ex wife and I lived out in the valley, Canoga Park. (unbeknownst to me at the time, Can. Park was the center of Porn movies being filmed.) Huh! Right there in my own back yard! So to speak...

I worked in Van Nuys, so instead of the Freeway, it was Vanowen St. most of the way, stopped one evening to ask about the white '54 Ford Coupe parked on the street...little old lady sold it to me for $15.00! Drove it away, too. Stick V8!
Loved the hot rod comeraderie there, much better than here. Miss good ol' Southern Cali!

 

Sunland/Tujunga, in the Crescenta Valley, Regular Car get togethers on Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, History home of Norm Grabowskis' T bucketand the 50's car club, The Owls, that stole the Hirohata Merc and drove it to our Verdugo Hills High School, home of the Ray Vega 38 Ford tub for several years and Sandy Millers T bucket the 2nd T bucket built after Norms T .

 

When I was traveling all the 48 lower states I found the Hot Rod/ Muscle Cars population was similar in percentage to the area I was in.

 

Hello,

So Cal is a thriving place for any car activity with its roots going back to the early hot rodding/drag racing days. The local shops and car clubs have kept the "whole thing" going for all of these years. Yes, some have come and gone, while some have started with a big following to keep the So Cal style going for the next generation of enthusiasts.

But, my pet peeve is separation of the big events. One, we all know the LARS has made other smaller venues stay away from the Father's Day Weekend for the past years. The little events just gave up competing with the LARS. Now, they (LARS) are going against the family values people, which is a battle in itself.

So Cal is car culture crazy and just last weekend, April 28 there were at least 7 major events going on within a 60 mile radius, not counting the NSRA Hot Rod Show approximately 150 miles away in Bakersfield.

So, what was so important that those had to compete with each other in the last weekend in April. Couldn’t they contact each other and separate the events for better attendance for all those enthusiasts? They need to step out of their, “my show is better than your show,” mentality and coordinate these events.

Jnaki

We were going to go to several of these, local to us, car shows, but my wife decided to attend a home/garden/car show with her sister on Saturday, April 28th. It was another competing event for some car enthusiasts/significant others, that had a thing for older custom homes.

We like going to these events locally, but 7+ in one weekend? Yikes !

Standard cars and coffee + Donut Derelicts
Aces Car Show, Huntington Beach
Doheny Wood, Doheny State Beach
Seal Beach Main St Car Show
Historic sports cars, Fontana
Car show, Main St Huntington Beach.
NSRA hot rod show, Bakersfield*

If you expand the car show area South to San Diego or North to Santa Barbara, the shows continue to multiply like bunnies.

But, just about every small town or city in So Cal has some kind of weekly car show event going on for the hot rod group. It is a way to bring in some more business and notoriety to the event promoters. People like old things that remind them of “their days.” So, hot rod people have to be choosy in So Cal almost every week of the year. For some reason, it does not get tiring as there is always something that is new or catches the old hot rod eye. Most of the time...

Besides, who does not like donuts and coffee?

 

A few years ago I was at the year end awards for the San Diego over the hill gang club. The winner of the most events was 300 events in one year.

 

Hey JS,
So Cal, in that region, is known to have that many sunny days per year, easily. One year, I gave up at 340 days and counting. It is not the total amount of events per year, but if they are all on a specific weekend. Since the Cars and Coffee events started up, locally, it adds up a few more competing events. But, to have several big time events all in one weekend is not cool for anyone.

Last weekend, for example, I wanted to go to several of those events, starting with the very early A.M. Donuts and Derelicts in HB. (Donuts, Seal Beach Show, Aces Huntington Beach, Fontana Speedway, Doheny State Beach, and ending the day back at Seal Beach...) As I went through my proposed list, and time schedules, I ended up late in the afternoon with approximately 178 miles of driving all day, on a Saturday. Even if I left off the Fontana Speedway event, that is still a lot of Orange County driving. (Almost 90+ MILES)

Jnaki
That was all moot since I chose not to go to any of them without going to the small car event with my wife about 15 minutes away. (Final decision, not to go to any of them...period.) No one is that much of a fanatic for one day of driving and walking around, "oogling" cool cars and trucks. Hey, we are not 20-somethings anymore... But, So Cal is a great "area" for hot rod events and history.

But, a year ago, I did a granddaughter's ballet performance in Irvine, CA. Then drove to Long Beach for the Lions Dragstrip event until the evening. Because of the traffic, I had to go down the coastal route back to Orange County. A 100+ mile trip for two events. I slept quite well that night. I just HAD to do these two events, even though it was a very long day/night. (When my granddaughter heard of what I was going to do after the ballet performance, I earned many "granddaughter plus" points for attending her event, yes...)

 

Hello,

Here we go again. Next month in June, for you die hard, L.A. Roadster Show folks that got cut one day off this year, fear not, So Cal has plenty to go around. This is not good for everyone. Local city events are still struggling to keep the tradition alive with their annual events. The new pop-up events are trying as hard as they can. On June 16th, there are now, 19 events with the following big annual events:


LARS 58 years, Murrieta 49y, Anaheim 36y, San Clemente 23y, Whittier 12y, Beaumont 6y, to mention some of the yearly,monthly/weekly events. That is just on a Saturday.

Add in the Sunday events and the area covered in So Cal is almost equal. So, what is an avid hot rodder to do on these popular weekend events? Is it becoming overkill or is the need for something “old time” enough to whet the appetite of the general public and hot rod fanatics?

Jnaki

I guess, local shows will rule for a while until something big comes along. Or, you have all day to cover approximately 890 square miles of prime, So Cal landscape to satisfy your hot rod needs and cameras.

 

It's hard to not throw Indy in the mix.........

 

San Diego's not bad..all these cars in my alignment shop on the same day

 

I vote for Fresno......................as the worst.

 

Really you have to ask...
DETROIT !!!!
The Motor City
Home of Ford,GM & Chrysler
Home of Auto-Rama ... and The Ridler Award
The Mother Road ... the First Paved Road in America... Woodward Ave.
and The Woodward Dream Cruise

 

I vote Calwa Ca as the greats hot dog city in America.