The Flashback Car and Motorcycle Show

My buddy Jim and I rode our California Scooters to Glendora last night to help Steve, Josh, and Kyle at the Glendora Flashback Car and Motorcycle Show.  The weather finally broke here in southern California, and we went from temps in the 105-degree-range last week to a cool 80 degrees.   The cooler weather felt great.  

Steve and the guys already had the booth set up, so all we had to do was park our bikes under the California Scooter canopy.  We had a spot right smack dab in the center of the show, and the cars and bikes in the show were beyond show quality.  I’ll bet the attendance exceeded 2000 people.  

Our spot at the show was just to the right in the photo below… 

As always, folks loved the Scooters, and as always, we loved showing them.   Let’s see if I can tell the story with a few carefully-selected photos…

If you flashed on that silver Mercedes in the photo above, my compliments to you – you obviously recognize and appreciate automotive exotica.   It’s a 1955 300SL Mercedes Benz, one of only about 1400 gullwings that Mercedes made back in the day (they call them gullwings because of the way the doors open).  These cars sold for just under $9K back then (that was a ton of money in those days), but it’s a pittance compared to what a 300SL goes for today.   You can Google it yourself, and you’ll find the prices on these classics ranging upward of $600K! 

Here’s a cool shot…my buddy Jim’s black Classic framing the Mercedes 300SL… 

I was really blown away when I saw this car rolling down the street…it’s only the second one I’ve ever seen in my life.

The 300SL was way ahead of its time.   The frame was constructed of tubular steel segments, kind of like Ducati’s trellis frames are made today.   Aerodynamics drove the body style…those ribs above the front wheels actually cut down on the aerodynamic drag.   And the engine was a slant 6, canted to the left to keep the hoodline low.  It had the world’s first fuel-injected engine in a street vehicle.

The show wasn’t only about fully restored, concours condition imported sports cars, though.   Mostly it was about hot rods and American classics.   Take a look at this Woody…

And this early Chevy pickup truck…

The bikes, like always, drew a crowd.   Everybody wanted to know about them, touch them, and sit on them.  Some of the folks were exceptionally photogenic…

My friend Adam, who’s ‘do is kind of a direct opposite to mine…we’ve been talking about going after a younger market…

My friend Bill, moto mechanic and rider extraordinaire (yep, we use the same barber).  Bill makes the Sarge look good, don’t you think? 

Beep beep!  A Plymouth Roadrunner!  

The Plymouth Roadrunners are cool cars.  They were Chrysler’s answer to the low-cost muscle car challenge in the late ’60s and early ’70s.  Chrysler paid a ton of money to Warner Brothers for use of the Roadrunner logo, and they spent another ton of money developing a horn that sounded exactly like the cartoon roadrunner’s “beep beep.”  Those were cool days.  The Roadrunner’s base engine was a 383-cubic-inch wedge, but you could also get them with a 440-cubic-inch wedge or the Big Daddy 426 Hemi.   My best friend in high school, Bobby O’Connell, had a Hemi Roadrunner back when we were kids.  It was an awesome car.

 A Willys pickup with a monster motor.   This car was beautiful.

I asked this young lady if she wanted to check out the Sarge.   I think she liked it! 

Theresa on my red Classic… 

A young family under the spell of our purple-flamed Greaser.   They even dressed this little lady to match the bike!

Like I said, we’re targeting a younger market…

There were awesome motorcycles at the show, too.   Check out this metric cruiser and sidecar…the military theme is alive and well.  At first glance, this looked like a Ural, but it wasn’t… 

A 955cc Triumph Daytona, and every bit of bodywork on it was carbon fiber! 

Wade, who builds big bikes for us, also helps his friends build bikes.   This is a bike Wade assembled for Justin (that’s Justin in the photo below…he’s the LA Harley service manager).   Justin’s bike took 2nd place in the show last night.  It’s a magnificent machine. 

I grabbed this shot of a very cool Chevy pickup beneath the lights just as we were getting ready to leave…it was one of many, many cool cars we saw at the Glendora Flashback event… 

We’ve got another fun week in front of us, folks…planning continues for our Baja trip…just 12 more days!   We’ve had lots of emails flying back and forth between myself, John, J, Arlene, and Simon…and I’ll be posting them in the next several days.   Boy oh boy, things are happening!