(Shelby A/C 427 Cobra. For me, the coolest muscle car affordable- sort of – to the common man of all time. Photo Socotra at Katie’s Cars & Coffee at Great Falls, VA).

It is August, and the cars are out all over the country. There are shows all over and as I typed the date this morning, I realized I will be at the 13th annual Bill Reddig Regional AMC Car Show in less than two weeks. The road is starting to call. The event will be held at the Grissom Air Museum 1000 W Hoosier Blvd., Peru, IN., 46970, where the classic cars will be parking amid the static display of gallant old warbirds.

Just a gentle reminder- registration ($15) is between 9 am – 11 am. People’s Choice awards are at 3 pm.

Remember, AMC parts vendors are welcome at no charge.

I also got some feedback from folks who regularly attend weekly informal shows in their hometowns. They are the lifeblood of car people and their rolling hobbies. A regular correspondent from Rancho Santé Fe in San Diego informed me that there is one in the village every Saturday morning- which she likes to visit if she needs to go to the Union Bank.

She is a Car Gal- she wishes she still had her 1958 Corvette convertible, which had “the black plastic hard top and white soft top. When I put the soft top away for the winter I used tissue paper to secure it.”

It is about love in a way that is quite profound. An able writer from Utah remembered her two named cars- a VW Beetle named Nelly and a yellow 1978 Camaro T-Top named “Sunny.” And the fact that none of the eminently practical Subarus she has owned since ever got names.

In the flood of mail, I got a mildly chastening note from Baha California that suggested I was being snide about the Cars & Coffee origin story from Southern California. I hastened to respond, stung to the quick. I am as nuts as anyone about cars, and all of mine have had names.

You should have seen my eyes when I came across another 1991 Syclone pick-up at Katie’s- I then had an emotional owner-to-owner exchange with Danny-the-Owner, who has 130K on the odometer, two mismatched fenders, and has been racing and tinkering with the truck since 1994.

One interesting thing I found about Great Fall’s car people- there is a significant foreign component to the crowd, one that is distinctly South Asian and Middle Eastern in origin.

That fact should not be surprising, since we drove the Porsche past the compounds of the Saudi Royal Family and that of the Pahlavis on the way to Great Falls.

And Car People? Check this link to a little show in the Persian Gulf Emirate of Dubai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-DObuH6gc

But to my Baja pal’s comment on California: SoCal made a unique contribution to the creation of the mobile American lifestyle. The people on the Coast re-invented what came out of the dirty plants in Detroit and Ohio and Indiana and Kenosha in a playful, pastel hued manner. It is the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, after all, who popularized the Love Songs to the carburetor and set us all off on the search for the Endless Summer in our Woodies.

My correspondent in Monterey gently reminded me that there are shows all over- at Detroit, LA, NYC, etc…. “but when you’re talking ‘greatest’… please don’t forget…..our own show starting here next week.. the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance….”

It is actually Car Week out there on the lush Monterey Peninsula.

The Concours D’Elegance has been going for sixty years, mostly on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach course, and has come to be the finale of other shows and auctions of historic vehicles.

(This ’67 275 GBT/4 Ferrari N.A.R.T. Spider- one of only ten built- went for $27 million at the RM auction last year. Photo RM Auctions by Eugene Robe).

He went on to note that Car Fever runs all down the Big Sur Coast- there are rallies of classic cars and auctions and classic car races at the nearby Laguna Seca Race Track.

The finale of the Concours D’elegance- which he is working, BTW- is now limited to about 175 screened classic cars, rigorously judged by world experts.

The cars themselves come from five continents and the 15,000 attendees lay out $300 per ticket. It is an impressive tribute to conservation, history, and of course, vast amounts of disposable cash.

I am looking forward to my pal’s pictures and commentary on the event.

But not all of us can afford to drive our Ferraris to Great Falls, or make the cut for the Concours D’elegance or the Hoosier Bill Reddig Rally. Madness comes in all flavors about our wheels.

There is another Concours event in the Monterey Car week, which appears a great deal to me.

Maybe we will get to that tomorrow: The Concours D’LeMons. We have all owned one of those, at one time or another, and may even be driving one now.

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocora.com
Twitter: @jayare303