Remember back when I talked about how we were planning on doing a car show at someplace where our more chronologically advanced citizens could easily access and appreciate them? Sure you do. I realize that despite all of the efforts by organizations like the Freemasons and the Knights of Columbus (in an extremely rare show of solidarity, I should note) to attempt to make sure the event didn’t happen, we prevailed, and I’m delighted to report it was a big success. A triumph, even! And there was a Triumph there, so you know it’s true.
I’m extremely impressed by the remarkable variety of cars that showed up; it was so eclectic I’m not even sure I’ll be able to pay the eclecticity bill this month; that’s how much eclectical power was used for this. The spectrum of cars ranged from my Citroën 2CV and Pao to a Panoz roadster to a Lancia Delta Integrale to a daily-driven early ’90s Civic to a very rare VW kit car and so much more.
Oh and let me thank the Orange County Department of Aging for hosting this and helping to make this happen! Cars are for everyone, no matter how long you’ve been on Earth!
Here, I did a quick walk-around of all the cars that showed up in a reel; forgive the terrible auto-captions, I wanted to get this up fast to include in here, and you’ll just have to trust that I know that Karmann-Ghia isn’t spelled “karma gia.” Okay, check out these cars:
Holy crap, right? That’s so many incredible cars! Here’s some more good pics from the early part of the show, prior to all the pizzas being devoured:
I’m also glad for that particular post because there’s pics in there of that fantastic yellow Lotus Elan that I somehow didn’t get pics of in here? Oops.
The woman who brought that fantastic Lotus also came with this very fun tiny RC UAZ 469, which was a treat to play around with.
This ’71 Ghia was absolutely perfect. Incredible condition, an intense orange color so vivid I think it cured my scurvy just by looking at it, and check this out:
See that funny extra tank on the right there? That’s for ATF, because this a fairly rare semi-automatic Ghia! Hot damn!
Here’s that Triumph I mentioned, by the way; it’s a TR3 and it’s just lovely. It could be between 1955 to 1962, I’m just not familiar enough with these old Triumphs to know the year for certain, but it’s got so much charm and character it hardly matters.
Look at this! A Morgan! A Plus Four, I believe. It’s always a treat to see one of these ash-framed lovelies burbling around like some glorious anachronism.
Our own Autopian hero Buzz Killington drove all the way from Kalamazoo in my old Scion Xb that he’s turned into a fantastic rally car! Is there any among us walking the walk as much as this dude? I don’t think so.
An Avanti! Someone brought a damn Studebaker Avanti to the show! I adore these incredible Raymond Lowey team-led designed cars, so strange and sleek and ahead of their time. And, remember, the Autopian logo was inspired by the Avanti badging!
Our pals at Triangle Rad showed up en masse, as they like to do, and included such fantastic rides as this Ram 50 (a captive import Mitsubishi) truck with 80stastic sunset graphics.
And look at this Suzuki Alto! It’s so menacing and fierce yet still tiny, like a kitten with a switchblade. And, yes, that’s a Geo Tracker next to it!
Look at this lineup of Japanese icons: a 300ZX, NA Miata, a ’93 WRX, and a lifted Subaru Brat!
This one was really special: this is a very uncommon VW-based dune buggy kit, known as the Ocelot SS, manufactured by a company called Sand Chariots and marketed as the “Ferrari of the Sand.” The owner of this one has had it since the mid-’60s. It’s like a cartoon made real.
A Panoz roadster! Barely over 200 of these were made! These used 5-liter Ford V8s in a really pleasingly minimal body. It’s sort of the Cobra formula, modernized a bit.
At the other extreme of the sleekness spectrum, we have this AMC Eagle. The owner showed me a very tidy modification he made to the old factory radio that let it be used for Bluetooth, but only used original switches and controls to work. I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these driving around.
This Escort GT is another throwback I haven’t seen on the road in ages. This one has a massive turbocharger on it, and makes well North of 200 hp, about double what it had originally. And it still looks stock, asymmetric grille and all!
I haven’t seen an Allanté this clean and nice in since I didn’t have such a prominent bald spot. It looked fantastic, and the color, that slate blue, is just perfect.
Also, I still think the Allanté had one of the classiest third brake lights ever. It’s like subtle jewelry!
Also, it’s worth remembering how delightful these early ’90s Civics were with their drop-down tailgates. Why isn’t this still a thing?
See this little Fiat 500? It’s one of the 1957 Edition ones, with special wheels and a white roof and mirror caps. And it belongs to my 90-year-old mom, who is so tiny it’s like an SUV for her.
This Econoline pickup was meticulously restored and absolutely stunning. Why do we still have hoods on pickup trucks! Cabover is the way! And I don’t even want to hear anyone talk about “safety,” I’m not going to have my joy ruined by all that reality.
A Lancia Delta Integrale. Here. At our Old Folks car show. The owner bought it in San Francisco and drove it across the country to North Carolina. What a legend! It’s incredible.
Do you like Nash Metropolitans? Of course you do, what are you, a monster? This one, though, is even better because it’s a Hudson Metropolitan. Of the roughly 100,000 Metropolitans built, about 4300 were Hudson-badged. I’m not sure I’ve seen one in person before?
A Nissan Cima! This is one of the icons of the Japanese Bubble Era, and it still commands a lot of presence and respect when you see it today. What a class act!
Look at this super clean first-gen RX-7! It’s worth remembering just how clean and uncluttered and handsome these early RX-7s were.
This 1975 MGB GT is especially interesting; there were only 751 actually made, and hardly any ended up in America. This one was originally destined for a dealership in Belfast, but this was during the era of The Troubles, and the dealership was bombed. As a result, the owner had the car delivered to his own home, where it sat, with just delivery miles, for decades.
The current owner got it a few years back and it’s an incredible time capsule. Happily, it’s a time capsule he actually drives, though, so after all these decades, this lovely machine is finally getting to do what it was always meant to do.
There were more cars, of course, but Pete is hounding me to get this wrapped up, already. I want to sincerely thank everyone for coming out to this show, to the Seymour Center for having us, for the people who just came to look and to everyone who brought their incredible cars, sometimes from absurdly far away.
What a community this is! I love it. We’ll do more of these, so, old folks of America, you’ve been warned!
The post The First Autopian Old Folks Car Show Was A Huge Success! appeared first on The Autopian.
