Yahoo Autos Cars and Doughnuts in L.A.'s Perfect Scene
It’s the regular rhythm of American life. Memorial Day arrives, those of us so-inclined binge on Indianapolis, 600 miles of NASCAR racing and satellite coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, and the summer semi-unofficially begins. In Southern California, as in most of the country, the cherished machines emerge from their cocoons, get out into the sunshine, and there’s a spontaneous on-road car show. This past Sunday, many of them were headed to the Petersen Automotive Museum along Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile in Wilshire Boulevard for the morning’s May Breakfast Club Drive-In.
“Are you here for the car show?” the parking dude asked as my 2006 Tundra pulled up to the ticketing machine. “Because that doesn’t look like a collector car to me.” He let me in anyhow, instructing that the utilitarian heap be parked on the second floor of the structure. The gathering was on the third level.
My Tundra wasn’t that far from fitting in. This wasn’t an overwhelming event, but about 100 cars and trucks of staggering diversity on the concrete slab outside the museum’s second floor entrance. There was no theme, no entry fee and no flinty judges demanding fealty to restoration standards or authenticity.
Teslas in mind-warp wraps were hard up against an old BMW 2002tii that itself was parked alongside a preserved first-generation Honda Accord. Nostalgia was backgrounded; these were mostly old cars but no one was wearing a poodle skirt and saddle shoes. The doughnuts were decent, the coffee palatable, and music was a mix of Boomer classic rock and Gen-X classic rock. All chill, no thrills. Refreshingly easygoing. “It’s an LS-5 block,” explained Jim Divecchio about his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle 454 SS which wears the air cleaner sticker of the mighty LS-6. “It’s not an LS6 but it’s got an M21 four-speed. And it’s got aluminum heads. It’s a good driver.” In fact, Divecchio went on, the car wasn’t originally an SS either. But it’s the sort of attainable muscle-era machine a retired cop living in Alhambra like him can afford and enjoy.
“I have friends with LS6s,” he continues. “They don’t drive them much.” The 450-horsepower LS6 is often considered the greatest of all muscle cars. But yeah, it’s maybe too valuable now for hooning to the local car/doughnut confab.
In contrast, there was Tom Griffith’s 1978 BMW M1 which he grabbed from Vasek Polak’s personal collection when it was liquidated back in 1998. Polak was an LA area dealer and inveterate racer who died in 1997 after wrecking a Porsche 911 Turbo at, reportedly, 110 mph while driving on the Autobahn in Germany… when he was 83. He survived the crash, but died on the way back to California to recuperate. He went into cardiac arrest when the medivac flight he was on stopped for fuel in Great Fall, Montana.
“Everyone was after his Porsches,” Griffith recalls. “But this… this was something.” Only the seventh M1 out of BMW via Lamborghini, it was built as a race machine for Polak. However, it still wears its original Goodyear Gatorback tires taking it beyond infinitely cool. It looked fantastic parked alongside what seemed to be the world’s nicest 1959 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight sedan.
Shows like this are a chance to reflect upon the, ugh, passage of time. After all, when even Honda Preludes and Toyota MR2s are collectibles, and you were born in the 1960s, yeah, it’s hard to fathom that they’re more than 30 years old.
Still, among the M1s, Skyline GT-Rs, McLarens, Ferraris, Bentleys, Ford Woodies and even the Toyota Celica GTs with JDM twin-cam engines aboard, it’s the hidden gems that reward the car show spelunker. There, in the shadows behind the main corps of the display, was a 1985 or 1986 Peugeot 505 Turbo sedan. With a body sculpted by Pininfarina, the 505 was a lovely thing made much better by the 150-horsepower, turbocharged 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine and its accompanying five-speed manual transmission. It’s not merely a car that’s rarely seen; it’s a car almost forgotten. But there it was, with no owner in sight.
A slammed to the cement C7 Corvette Gran Sport won the Kids’ Choice award and the M1 took Best In Show. These were not large trophies. More like small, Lucite bookends. Modest, but perfect, objects.
The show started at eight in the morning and by 10 the crowd was dissipating. A good way to start the day. An eye-opener, not a time-suck. R&T was there and gave away a couple cases of the latest issue and a bunch of tote bags. Alongside that display, free tortilla chips in the shape of cars were also offered. Everyone got a souvenir.
Like most SoCal crowds, it was a demographically scattershot. Enthusiasms are still the great bond of shared humanity. Whether it’s fishing or bowling or tanning at the beach or a million other things. But cars are still the best enthusiasm of them all.
Smartphones were in use to preserve memories, not generate a social media firestorm. This small event honored those who paid the ultimate price, a price paid so that we could hang out on the parking deck of a building originally built to be the California outpost of a Japanese department store. Which was bought by a guy who got rich making hot rod magazines who turned it into a gathering spot for automotive culture.
Driving back home to Santa Barbara, the car show continued. There was the ’73 Monte Carlo spotted on the 110. The slammed early-Eighties GMC S-15 Jimmy on the 101. And that Jaguar XK-120 someone let loose on roads of Montecito. It’s so nice to have summer back.
You Might Also Like
