Whenever my brother Kevin visits from Michigan, we find at least one automotive enthusiast activity in our general area to have some fun. We're both employed in the automotive arena. He's a public relations whiz for Cadillac. You'd think we might want to take a break from cars in our free time.
After a recent business trip to Southern California, Kevin planned to spend the long weekend with Dad and me at our home in Oceanside. As soon as he arrived, we went to the garage and showed him the new custom stainless steel exhaust system for the '34 Ford roadster pickup that Warner's Muffler fabricated with their stainless pipes, JBA Shorty headers, and Magnaflow mufflers ("Sweet Pipes," November '07 KC). Kev immediately noticed an opportunity to work on the roadster pickup. "Why don't we replace the fasteners they used with some stainless ones?" he said. Dad and I answered we'd do that the last time we put the exhaust system together. Since it will be coming apart to powdercoat the frame, we'll make sure the shiny nuts and bolts are used in the exhaust system's final assembly.
So instead, Kevin, car guy and friend James Uhl, and I spent our Saturday with mucho automotive-oriented activities. James and his wife, Theresa, moved from the Atlanta, Georgia, area in the spring of '07 to Southern California so that Theresa could pursue her burgeoning modeling and acting career. Theresa certainly has the looks for it, and unlike many would-be stars, is intelligent, honest, athletic, and humble.
I seem to have gotten sidetracked by a pretty woman. It's not the first time. Anyway, our plans for the day included going to a special Cars & Coffee car show. Normally, the free early Saturday morning event takes place at the Ford and Mazda parking lots in Irvine, California. On this particular Saturday, Cars & Coffee was held out in horse country off the Ortega Highway 74. To get to the event's rural destination, we actually drove on the same twisty pavement that became the idealized Zoom Zoom road in the Mazda commercials. Of course, Kevin drove a rental Cadillac STS with a 300-horse V-8, which carved up the roadway quite magnificently.
I'm getting ahead of myself again. It's not the first time a V-8 has captured my fancy. When Kev and I were first getting on the 5 Freeway for the drive north from Oceanside, the car in the other lane was a '65 Nova all hopped up and runnin' kind of rumbly with an overlap cam. I rolled down the window and asked the guy if he was going to the Cars & Coffee gathering. He said, "No, I'm headed to some big show in Costa Mesa." I thought for a second. "Kev, that's gotta be the Cruisin' For A Cure show at the Orange County Fairgrounds." We had a second event to attend.
After grabbing some Starbucks in San Clemente, we met up with James at the start of Ortega Highway 74. Since he likes to go by James, the Smith men (Dad, Kevin, and yours truly) enjoy calling him Jimbo for the reaction we generally get out of him. Jimbo, being the youngest enthusiast of the trio, climbed in the back seat. Kevin had the Caddy's GPS fired up with our rural destination. To give you an idea of how remote the top-secret Zoom Zoom road is, the GPS map showed we were in the middle of some uncharted wilderness akin to what Columbus was up against when he and his crew set sail in those three small ships for the New Land. Manned by some high school kids, there were a couple of checkpoints along the zoomy road to assure us we were headed the right way. It's nice to know that good old-fashioned planning can still beat high-tech conveniences (like GPS and cell phones-no signal on the Zoom Zoom road). Thanks to the folks at Mazda and Ford, we enjoyed the pavement's twistiness, especially my little brother, who was hellbent on making Jimbo and I carsick (the showoff). At the last checkpoint, some guy gave us a plastic Mazda bag with a Lexus nylon wine tote bag within it. Had some spy Lexus employees crashed the Mazda/Ford event? Were they giving away Lexus tchotchkes in an effort to promote the Lexus brand? Apparently so, but we'll never know for sure.
At last, we made it to the offsite C&C, which was a bit of an anticlimax. An unseasonable rainstorm made the muddy horse area more suited for a swamp buggy race. We hung around long enough to pick our favorite car. All three of us selected a Porsche 356 Coupe, with a maroon '73 BMW 3.0CSI achieving a close second. There was also a 360 Ferrari, but you see those every day down in Newport Beach (boring).
On to the Cruisin' For A Cure show in Costa Mesa. Dodging more raindrops, the three of us paid the entry fee and walked the show. Cruisin' For A Cure is the world's largest one-day charity custom/classic/kit car show, with over 3,400 vehicles on display, more than 200 vendors and exhibitors, and a 1 1/2-mile cruise route. All proceeds from the event go to the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center. Eradicating prostate cancer through awareness, research, and early testing are some of the Center's chief aims. A free PSA test is actually administered to men at the event.
The surprise show of the day was the Sevens Stock in Irvine, held at the Mazda parking lot. Now you know why C&C made a one-time move to remote horse country. We arrived in Irvine around noon. The rain had completely cleansed the sky. It turns out that Theresa had a gig at this event as a spokesmodel for some automotive Internet Web site that broadcasts video feeds from car shows across the planet. Was Theresa better at this sort of work than any other spokesmodel I'd ever seen at any car show in my entire life, or was it simply because I know her (and I'm famous by association)? It may be the latter. Still, I was mightily impressed. She looked hot, too.
You're probably wondering why Mazda fields a show called Sevens Stock. Obviously, the event honors Mazda's Wankel rotary-powered cars, like the RX7, the RX8 after it, and the various rotary Mazdas before it, including the RX2 and RX3. The Stock part of the name is after Woodstock. Apparently, the show appeals to the tuner and drifting crowd. I felt a bit out of place among this throng of tattoo-emblazoned 20- and 30-somethings. But I got over it after seeing some of the interesting machinery on hand. Hanging out with Theresa, the glorious spokesmodel/actress, didn't hurt either.
Theresa, Kevin, and Jimbo (OK, James), it was great having a glorious gearhead Saturday with you. The next time we're together, we'll shoot for four events!