Made a trip from northern OR to the LARS and thought I should summarize and post a few pics. Decided to make the trip 4 days before the show, but couldn’t leave till Thursday afternoon for the Friday/Saturday show. Drove about 1,000 miles in 1.5 days on the way there, stretched it out to 3.5 days on the return. Luckily speed limit signs in CA seem to be a polite suggestion and are treated as more of a minimum than a maximum. It was a long way to drive a Model A hot rod, but well worth the effort. Made it to LA in time to visit the gathering at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank on Friday night. Attended the LA Roadster’s show on Saturday with one of my brothers from LA. Right off the bat I met @Blues4U for the first time and had a great chat. I recognized his truck from his avatar. Then came across pinstriper Jeff Styles (who I’ve wanted to take a class from), followed by a friend that also drove a HAMB-friendly hot rod from my home town. I saw Gene Winfield shortly after that - which was a treat in itself - and decided not to bother him for a photo. I was impressed with a lot of the stuff in the swap meet and picked up a Sun Football tach and sender that I don’t need. Saw a lot of great cars, talked with a lot of nice people, and had a great time at the show. On Monday I visited the new location of SoCal Speed Shop and had a short chat with Pete Chapouris Jr. - nice bunch of cars in the back of the shop. I took the scenic route home. I drove through downtown San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge on to Petaluma, CA. I visited several American Graffiti filming locations in Petaluma, including doing a burn out on ‘Paradise Road’ (Frates Road). From there it was up Hwy 101 through the redwoods to Florence, OR and through central OR back to home. In a nutshell it was a great trip and one that many would hesitate to take in our ‘old’ cars. I say hell with that…. drive that sucker! John
Far out, man! Way to go! I'm trying to get my car done so I can get at least one trip like yours in before I can't.
Thanks for the pictures. While I made the 3200 mile round trip in my Silverado hauling parts you are definitely right about the posted speed signs. Especially Sunday morning between Pomona and Vegas my pickup speed limiter shuts down at 98mph it was frequently shitting down while much of the traffic went smoking by. We had a good overall experience at the show, it was about my 30th. Doing Pomona to east of Denver in one day is a stretch for this 78 year old body.
Thanks for the pics and the story. Sounds like you had a great time, did you do it alone? BTW what tires are you running on your A?
Kool trip. A buddy of mine from Niagra Falls Canada just finished a 16 day 5700 mile trip out there and back in his 37 Chevy, now thant's called Long Haulin
Did the trip alone, which was fine. Frankly, a box of snacks and a cooler took up most of the room in the car anyway. The tires are Stahl Sport radials 5.00/16 front and 7.50/16 rear.
Thanks for that, I thought they looked familiar as I've got the 5.00x16 on the front of my coupe but couldn't get them for the rear and had to settle for Auburn Deluxe Radials which do look more like a cross ply than the Stahls. Interesting comparison between your car and the chopped one at LARS, love the W engine. Not a lot of spare room for your A in the Chandelier Tree.
Thanks for the pictures. Sounds like you had a good trip. I took a few pictures of your car. Didn't see you around or I would have stopped to chat.
“I took the scenic route home. I drove through downtown San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge on to Petaluma, CA… It was up Hwy 101 through the redwoods to Florence, OR and through central OR back to home.” Hello, One time during a potential long term vacation for a week that could be extended to two weeks, we decided to go up the same route from San Francisco. We had taken that coastal route plenty of times from using a 327 powered El Camino and other more modern station wagons to reach our destination in the Pacific Northwest’s San Juan Islands. (One year, across the border to Victoria on Vancouver Island) This one time, we decided to take a low powered 4 door sedan for great gas mileage and because it was a new sedan with a 4 speed stick shift. The winding coast highway through So Cal, central coast and past san Francisco gave us a fun time shifting up and down as we rounded various curves and slopes. Even my wife loved driving the 4 speed stick shift. As we were close to leaving California near the Oregon border, we encountered these mysterious, giant, logging trucks that seem to blast out of forested roads the ended up on the coastal highway. Once on the highway, it certainly seemed like they wanted everyone to know that they owned the road. Perhaps, they were on a cost per load basis and were always in a hurry to go from the deep coastal forests to wherever to off load. They also liked to tailgate and being in a small 4 door sedan, we obviously pulled over to let the giant go past. But, since this was our first encounter, the big guy ruled the road and we let him/them go by with ease. Jnaki Driving through this section of the California coastline was really fun. It was completely different than our So Cal coastal drives. As we crossed the border into Oregon, the coastline remained relatively the same, tall cliffs, short narrow openings to a nice rocky + sandy beach if there was a creek or river emptying into the ocean. The forest was thick and gave some nice shade during the coastal version of a nice road trip. I could see your black coupe doing its thing, envious and very nice! On our way home one year, the same or similar green forest drive scenario was seen and absorbed, as we drove inland through Oregon to our destination of Klamath, Oregon for some history. All visions of other forested areas, but without the ocean randomly peaking out between curves and coves. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
