For the past 22 years, the Northern California Kit Car Club has hosted its Bash By the Bay along the shores of the San Francisco Bay in San Leandro, California. The NCKCC is a nonprofit organization that promotes family fun and kit cars, and many of its members have been around the replicar scene for decades, thus gathering invaluable experience and knowledge for those wanting to know about the kit car world.
Over the years, attendance at the show has gone up and down, based on many variables, but it's not due to the lack of enthusiasm of the club members for their annual show. The NCKCC puts on a good two-day show, hands out First through Third Place trophies for seven different classes (plus a handful of specialty awards), throws in a dinner on Saturday night, and does its best to promote kit cars in general (as lots of non-kit "civilians" wander into the show because they see 50 or so shiny automotive examples parked picturesquely near the Bay).
Every year the show's entrants include all sorts of cars, from vintage Manx buggies and Bugattis to hand-built one-offs, plus the usual Cobra crowd, but this year the emphasis seemed to be with vintage neo-classics and Porsche speedsters. Though a few club members are responsible for bumping up the classic car attendance, the extra amount of Porsches were part of a concerted effort on the part of SoCal's John Steele of JPS Motorsports, who has been organizing mini Porsche events at many shows this past year.
On other occasions the NCKCC provides cars for parades, concourses, and rallies, and its club meetings often entail members driving their cars through NorCal's wine country or to a club sandwich event with another car club. For more info on the organization or updates on the 2005 Bash, check out their Web site at www.nckcc.com.