Walking on the hallowed patch ground that is Famoso Raceway it becomes easy to see why the March Meet is now in its 52nd year. People like this stuff. In our case a rekindled interest in drag racing and hot rodding started again around 15 years ago with a wiff of nitromethane and a flashback to the Coca-Cola Funny Car Cavalcade of Stars tossing up fiberglass down a seventies-soaked New England Dragway. Move the pointer to 2010, and the anachronism that is vintage drag racing is still largely intact. Freeze time around 1978, add a few thousand gallons of nitromethane, and never forget the associated junk and iconography. The first stop at every March Meet is always the swap meet at the top end of the race track. Exposure to all this goofball stuff started as a kid seeing a Funny Car supercharger bouncing on fire down the grass in front of the grandstands, liberated from its hemi thanks to the horrors of nitro. This of course led to launching the Mongoose and Snake Hot Wheels down what seemed like five miles of orange plastic track. And though we occasionally used to race down an actual drag strip with a ‘67 Plymouth Barracuda later in life, it was all the stuff that came before moved moved us in that direction in the first place. The exquisite junk that is still with us all.
For LIVE video coverage of March Meet drag racing action head to BANGShift.com
There were more Citroëns than drivers on a Saturday morning. The task at hand was a good one. Settle into the plush appointments behind the steering wheel of a 1969 and-one-half Citroën iD21F Safari Wagon and drive. The mission was to get all cars on the move to the Pasadena Art Center College of Design for a gathering of Citroëns, and subsequent tour of the Art Center automotive design facilities. After a few tries at a recalcitrant starter button and a couple minutes of warming up for the DX21 hemi-head engine, the wagon was up on its haunches and ready to swallow the road ahead. The wagon we were driving belongs to one Andy Takakjian, who would be piloting his other DS - a 1969 and-one-half iD 19 Series B Sedan in green that would lead the way on the first leg of the safari. Destination? Pasadena.
Proving wrong the previously held belief that a car is on a certain path to the jaws of the crusher once out on the California junkyard ground is this 1983 Toyota Corolla. We have lost count of how many near mint condition cars, trucks, and vans seen at the self-service junkyards of California that left us scratching heads as to why they were junked in the first place. This road burner was found in as shown here condition at a central California automobile recycling center. The latest owner of this Corolla saw the gem out in the yard and made a deal with the junkyard overlords. After some cash negotiations, the Toyota motored away from the boneyard under its own power! A brake and lamp inspection was required for the Corolla to earn a California salvage title. The rear wheel drive coupe passed California smog with 237 thousand miles on the stock 4AC engine, and made the trip to the December 2009 Santa Clara meet still wearing some yellow grease pencil from its previous date with the steel-gnashing jaws of death. One of the last of the rear wheel drive Corollas lives on. The stylish and practical luggage rack crossed over from the air-cooled rear engine scene by way of an old school Volkswagen Beetle. Old Toyotas never die, they just find older luggage racks.
The seventies were the absolute zenith of American station wagon manufacture. The flagships of the Ford station wagon fleet featured acres of simulated wood paneling – usually a shade lighter than the millions of sheets of actual dark brown wood paneling used to convert the basements of American split-level homes into rumpus or bar rooms. This fake wood paneling trend began with actual wood. 1950 was the first year of production for these most deluxe of Ford wagons, known as the Country Squire until the last monster lumbered off the assembly line in 1991. The 1951 version shown here at the 2009 Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic in San Francisco features genuine wood paneling. Owner Fernando Robleto picked up the Country Squire complete with wood and decided to leave the car in as found condition. A few replacement parts later along with a cooler full of beverages and the Squire was pressed back into intended service. “I was ready to start sanding it, and I thought – don’t touch it”, said Robleto of the well aged station wagon, made in part with the renewable resource known as wood.
If you were traveling through L.A.’s San Fernando Valley on the first Sunday in November and experienced a sudden craving for a scoop of gelato, a double espresso, and a few puffs on a Gitanes, chances are you passed within spitting distance of the 2009 edition of the Best of France and Italy car show. With sunny skies above and a soundtrack which included French versions of Disney movie songs and the wail of fire engine sirens responding to a nearby brush fire purportedly sparked by a radio control aircraft mishap, hundreds upon hundreds of people jammed the lawn to gawk at row after gleaming (and not-so-gleaming) row of voitures and automobili, as well as cars that didn’t hail from France or Italy, but did have significant connections to one or both of the two nations. There were plenty of parts and automobilia dealers on hand, along with a dual citizenship’s worth of gastronomic delights. What could be more delightful than a car show with no less than five Facel Vegas?
If you happen to be in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles and hear a motorized ruckus rolling down the boulevard, chances are it will the the Bowls LA crew. Taking a stock Honda Ruckus onto the ninth level of customization is the best two-wheeled idea since a Honda put an inline four under the gas tank of the CB750 back in 1969. The Bowls crew brought some of their finest Ruckus out to the SEMA show. They also sell and install all of the good stuff one might need to squeeze enough horsepower out of a Ruckus to push it to a 70 mph top speed. Hanging out with the rest of the Ruckus was a turbocharged Ruckus packing a modified engine from a Ruckus knock off for 150 cubic centimeters of boosted Ruckus. Mushroom air filter and twice pipes made for total win. Check out Bowls LA if you need a pair of PF Flyers for you feet, or a Gokubuto Kit for your Ruckus.
From the unrestored race car department comes the Bob Boileau Jr. 1974 SCCA Honda Civic 1200. Any car that runs hard for sixteen years is impressive enough. One that wins six championships along the way is that much more awesome. Honda rolled out this and more historical examples of greatness here at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas, but the Civic was the first car ever witnessed on the SEMA floor wearing multiple rolls of duct tape and a band aid. Better still is that the little Honda holds (and proudly displays) the title of World’s Fastest Civic after clocking a 146.698 run at Talladega in 1976. The Bolus and Snopes Civic stands at the SEMA show as an surviving example of break it and fix it to win race engineering at its finest. 
Even though there is most certainly a guy wearing a Members Only jacket and acid washed jeans that might disagree, 1982 was a long time ago. In that same year was the first production run for a car closer to the heart around here – the Mitsubishi Starion. This month’s Santa Clara gathering brought a collection of newer and older players along with an impressive number of Mitsubishi Starions, Chrysler Conquests, and a lone Starion turbo-engined Dodgmitsu Mighty Max pickup truck. This might have been the largest gathering of StarQuests seen in Santa Clara since the then new Specialty Sports Coupes were lined up at local Mitsubishi dealerships and Chrysler Import Centers. Post-gathering driving excursions involved some tire smoke, aimless GPS-inspired motoring, dislocated intercooler hoses, and a number one with grilled onions at the local In-N-Out Burger. Thanks to a forum post and those answering the call, there were good times and turbocharged forklift engines for everyone.
We know what you’re thinking. You pine away the hours longing for the sleek lines and elegant thrift of a 1958 Fiat 600. You revel in the idea of automobiles that incorporate corrugated steel as exterior paneling. You drift off into daydreams of motoring along on a hydro-pneumatic cushion of infinite suspension adjustment, your hands leaving the steering wheel just long enough to operate asymmetrically arranged climate controls. If any of this is the case, then Woodley Park in Van Nuys California is the place to be this weekend for a meeting of Franco-Italian automobiles along with the people that love them. Not only are automobiles of Franco-Italian manufacture welcome, but also any automobile that was designed by Frenchmen or Italians. The Best of France and Italy may be one of the few places to see a Renault R5 turbo or three and an Austin Innocenti Mini in the same general vicinity.
