3rd shift Road Tour Express

[bearphoto]

Well tomorrow is an early day, Scott and i will be meeting up at the NHRA Museum in Pomona early in the am. We hope to do the team proud! Since i cant seem to post pics on this site, i'm sure scott will handle the honors. Talk to you soon! The Bandit team has to get some rest!

[70chevyC-10]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

We got a long way to go and a short time to get there - watch old Bandit run !!

Good luck boys -

[milner351]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

I hope they do one of these through the Midwest this summer - I can see Seth Dave and myself having a riot running this thing.

[Bamfster]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

I emailed them, they said they'll be moving it to different regions of the US. Even hinted that there may be one in CO!

Good luck guys, drive safe, enjoy the ride and do us proud.

[bearphoto]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

Ok, i am back home in Big Bear from our Los Angeles run. The day started early in Pomona at the National Hot Rod Association Museum. I had never been there before and neither had Scott. We were blown away at the quality and the cars in this place. The staff was ready for us and allowed us to tour the museum before the place was open to the public. Once we were done, we had to go up stairs and retrieve the "package". This was no ordinary package, it was a Pelican style case and inside was an Ipad with Verizon uplink card, a digital still camera and a video camera. Of of these pieces were "linked" together with wireless capability.

So we went outside to retrieve our "mission". Once we got our instructions we moved the trans am directly in front of the museum inside their gates where we photographed the car and found a guy name Martin that had heard of Bangshift.com so i did a video interview with him.

Then is was time to head off towards Hollywood to hit some of the hot spots. Somehow i happened to miss the 605 freeway which would have taken us up to Irwindale Raceway which was one location we wanted to share with all of you but i missed it. Oh well. So we continued into Toluca Lake to the infamous Bob's Big Boy, the only original big boy of the 3 that were the old hang outs and cruise in locations. Needless to say lunch was great, and our waitress Megan was nice enough to come out to the Trans Am and climb inside for some "PHOTOS" while Scott stayed inside to finish his lunch.

After giving Megan some extra tip money for her assistance, Scott and i headed out to the famous Hollywood sign. Scott knew this area like the back of his hand so we wasted no time finding the best photo location. Once done here we headed to Hollywood Blvd and Scott narrated the various sights and history of some special locations. By now, afternoon, Los Angesles traffic was jamming up the freeways so it was down to Anaheim, next door to the Anaheim Pond where we dropped the "package" off to Nick for tomorrows final leg of ROAD TOUR EXPRESS.

We had a great time, if this event comes to your area, dont pass it up. It was well done and big fun! Hopefully Scott will jump on here and load some of our pics.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

Doug, thanks for bring part of the team! Sounds like you and Scott had a great day!

[Scott Liggett]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

Doug and I had a great time. I especially, since I got to be a passenger for once. Riding around in LA's beautiful weather today with T tops off was great.

As Doug said, we were welcomed into the NHRA Motorsports Museum before it opened.





An interesting Flathead in the "Isky T" '24 T Roadster. Those are Maxi Overhead Exhaust Valve heads. Those are new to me. Digging the Isky signed valve covers.


That's a Ford 427 hemi. Yes, I said hemi. The heads were designed by Mickey Thompson. This engine made 610 hp and 537 ft lbs with it's cross ram and, I think, Vertex Mag. It is in a '64 Galaxie drag car.


We couldn't figure out what this custom started out as. It's far out anyways.



People say if a car could tell it's story. This famous land speed racer's body started out as a drop fuel tank from a P-51. Think of the stories it could tell before it was sold as surplus.


Cars, stars, and guitars was kinda of the theme in the back room. I like the time machine look of a shop behind the SoCal LSR.


Speaking of Guitars, there is one famous one even I recognized. This is Eddy Van Halen Fender Stratocaster that showed up in videos from the '1984' album. I was surprised to see how hacked up and hammered it was. I'm no expert, but this looks totally redneck to me.



Doug liked this podium. So did I. I need those headers for the Caprice. Ha.


How often do you see a '62 Caddy with a 5 speed?





There are a lot of holes drilled in these drum brakes. Yikes.






Doug used our influence and parked his T/A right in front of the museum doors. I shot a whole bunch of pics.









Stopping downtown to find our challenge, a bell, we stopped at Union Station. This was built in 1939, and was the last of the great train stations built. It is a time machine. Walking in is walking back in time. They have perserved this building extremely well. I'm a bit of a architecture nut and this place is a favorite of mine in LA.





Those seats have been there since the beginning. They originally had dark red leather and were recently recovered.


This is the old ticket area that isn't used anymore. They couldn't update it without ruining it, so they just preserved the area.


The ceiling above.



Outside on both sides of the station, are two courtyards to enjoy our weather while waiting on your train.


Joe Friday's old haunt. City Hall was badly damaged in the '94 Earthquake and it needed update badly as well. There used to be window A/C units hanging out almost all the windows. There used to be wiring and conduits hanging from the ceilings inside.


We drove past Lake Hollywood up to the closest place you can get with a car to the Hollywood sign. I took more pics of the Trans Am.





Lake Hollywood and it's dam. That is a resevoir for L.A.'s drinking water, so no boating or swimming.


Beyond Lake Hollywood looking towards Santa Monic and Venice on the coast off in the usual foggy, gray haze of the basin. That row of apartment buildings are in Park La Brea. Just out of frame to the right are the La Brea tar pits. All those big buildings are sitting on what used to be tar swamps. Not sure if the land is all that solid when the next earthquake comes.

[Bamfster]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

Nice work as usual Scott!

[DanStokes]

Re: 3rd shift Road Tour Express

Thanks, Scott. I hope to get that way one of these days.

Dan