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I needed a car show. It's been a rough year for me financially, mentally, and emotional. To say I don't have any Christmas spirit would be an understatement. I just want 2009 over with. So, for my own mental health I took Friday evening off from work, gassed up the Impala, and headed to the Valley for gearhead fun.
Bob's Big Boy here in Toluca Lake (that's just a neighborhood right next to Burbank), opened in 1949. by 1950 the Burbank Road Kings car club was using it as a stop on their Friday night cruising of the Valley. Other stops were other Big Boy's, one in Van Nuys and one in Glendale. By the late 70's cruising as a whole was either out of fashion or just plain illegal in many cases. This Bob's was starting to fall to the wayside. By 1990, some developer wanted it so he could bull doze it and build another damn office building. The Road Kings came to the rescue. They got a petition and thousands signed it to have the building designated as a historical landmark. They succeeded. No more developer. In 1991, the current Friday night show started. And, it's been a success ever since.
Last night, Dodge came out with some of their toys they've been using here in town filming commercials. You'll start seeing those commercials in a couple weeks, if not earlier. They also got a local club of Challenger owners to bring out some of their rides as well and their ended up being no less than two dozen new Challengers invading Bob's parking lot. At least 15 were supercharged by at least 8 different companies, so their is no shortage of those making toys for these modern muscle cars.
I met Johnny Hunkins of PHR last night and hung out with him. Rob Kinnan of HRM showed up and I talked with him at length for the first time. I was flattered how Johnny wanted my input and opinion on the articles he's been running in PHR. That meant a lot to me. He tells me he's looking for a new tech editor as Liz Miles decided to move back to Norcal. Through these guys I met Christopher Titus, a real car guy and a contributor to Goodguys Gazette. Jay Leno showed up for about 5 seconds, then disappeared. More on that later.
All in all, it was a good way to forget about the real world for a while. Enjoy some of these pics I took.
Please excuse the pic quality. Dumbass forgot his camera so these are cell phone pics.
I'm not usually a fan of white cars. They remind too much of rental fleets. But, this Hurst Edition I liked. That's a Vortech Supercharger under hood. The wheels are updated 20 inch versions of the original Hurst wheels of the day. Inside, of course, is a gold anodized aluminum Hurst shifter for the auto.
This one was from Stack Performance. It's an SRT8 with a bunch of goodies. They had 6.1 Hemi has a cold air kit, headers, and a cat back system.
Someone brought this flamed out one. Didn't much info on it except the owner is a member of SoCal Challengers Club.
The bright yellow Challenger is from SMS Performance. Those vacuum lines running under the hood go to three vents on each side of the hood that open and close with the throttle. They aren't attached to anything like the intake. They're just neato gee whiz things. SMS also has their own supercharger which you can buy in kit form for $10k. The 570 refers to the 5.7 Hemi under hood.
This wide body Challenger was driven in by Leno. He got out and did an interview for Auto Week's show, then disappeared. Word has it a big dealer in Vegas built it for him. It still has dealer plates on it, so I guess it's not officially Leno's. It's got custom, one off 22's and 24's. Of course it does. Some guy was handing out free pictures of yourself with the car. I declined. Not sure who the dork is with Challenger bling-bling on. He's acting like it's security guard.
This Challenger is by far my favorite. It say's it's an R/T but it has the big boy 6.1 under it's hood. This particular car is a Factory Image Car built by Dodge's toy dept. It was supposed to be destroyed, but somehow made it onto their road show of fancy cars. I was told it's going to be an option called the Black Top, but we'll see. That includes the flat black on Brilliant Black paint job, two tone leather, front and rear spoilers, and 20 inch blacked out Viper rims. I like.
There were a few errant Chargers and Magnums there too. This was one of the scary ones.
Bear with me. I have more photos. I have to wait for photobucket to get their ass in gear.
Bob's Big Boy here in Toluca Lake (that's just a neighborhood right next to Burbank), opened in 1949. by 1950 the Burbank Road Kings car club was using it as a stop on their Friday night cruising of the Valley. Other stops were other Big Boy's, one in Van Nuys and one in Glendale. By the late 70's cruising as a whole was either out of fashion or just plain illegal in many cases. This Bob's was starting to fall to the wayside. By 1990, some developer wanted it so he could bull doze it and build another damn office building. The Road Kings came to the rescue. They got a petition and thousands signed it to have the building designated as a historical landmark. They succeeded. No more developer. In 1991, the current Friday night show started. And, it's been a success ever since.
Last night, Dodge came out with some of their toys they've been using here in town filming commercials. You'll start seeing those commercials in a couple weeks, if not earlier. They also got a local club of Challenger owners to bring out some of their rides as well and their ended up being no less than two dozen new Challengers invading Bob's parking lot. At least 15 were supercharged by at least 8 different companies, so their is no shortage of those making toys for these modern muscle cars.
I met Johnny Hunkins of PHR last night and hung out with him. Rob Kinnan of HRM showed up and I talked with him at length for the first time. I was flattered how Johnny wanted my input and opinion on the articles he's been running in PHR. That meant a lot to me. He tells me he's looking for a new tech editor as Liz Miles decided to move back to Norcal. Through these guys I met Christopher Titus, a real car guy and a contributor to Goodguys Gazette. Jay Leno showed up for about 5 seconds, then disappeared. More on that later.
All in all, it was a good way to forget about the real world for a while. Enjoy some of these pics I took.
Please excuse the pic quality. Dumbass forgot his camera so these are cell phone pics.
I'm not usually a fan of white cars. They remind too much of rental fleets. But, this Hurst Edition I liked. That's a Vortech Supercharger under hood. The wheels are updated 20 inch versions of the original Hurst wheels of the day. Inside, of course, is a gold anodized aluminum Hurst shifter for the auto.
This one was from Stack Performance. It's an SRT8 with a bunch of goodies. They had 6.1 Hemi has a cold air kit, headers, and a cat back system.
Someone brought this flamed out one. Didn't much info on it except the owner is a member of SoCal Challengers Club.
The bright yellow Challenger is from SMS Performance. Those vacuum lines running under the hood go to three vents on each side of the hood that open and close with the throttle. They aren't attached to anything like the intake. They're just neato gee whiz things. SMS also has their own supercharger which you can buy in kit form for $10k. The 570 refers to the 5.7 Hemi under hood.
This wide body Challenger was driven in by Leno. He got out and did an interview for Auto Week's show, then disappeared. Word has it a big dealer in Vegas built it for him. It still has dealer plates on it, so I guess it's not officially Leno's. It's got custom, one off 22's and 24's. Of course it does. Some guy was handing out free pictures of yourself with the car. I declined. Not sure who the dork is with Challenger bling-bling on. He's acting like it's security guard.
This Challenger is by far my favorite. It say's it's an R/T but it has the big boy 6.1 under it's hood. This particular car is a Factory Image Car built by Dodge's toy dept. It was supposed to be destroyed, but somehow made it onto their road show of fancy cars. I was told it's going to be an option called the Black Top, but we'll see. That includes the flat black on Brilliant Black paint job, two tone leather, front and rear spoilers, and 20 inch blacked out Viper rims. I like.
There were a few errant Chargers and Magnums there too. This was one of the scary ones.
Bear with me. I have more photos. I have to wait for photobucket to get their ass in gear.
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