Anaheim – Techco’s monthly “Show and Shine” at their 150,000 square ft. facility in Anaheim was attended by SoCalChallengers this past Saturday. Techco has this show on the third Saturday of every month. A total of nineteen Challengers led by an SRT-8 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled in and took up quite a bit of parking space. Hello!

Techco had invited us to their show the month before and because of late notice most of our group had previous commitments that day. We decided to skip it. The blessing of that was that we had over a month to promote and plan to be at the event for June and show up in force. I had been in touch with Carlos Duran at Techco in the days before the show and he was excited about how many members we were planning on having there. He and Ned were leaving great posts on ChallengerTalk about us coming. Some of our members had been to this show already and spoke highly of it so the rest of us were excited to go.

The meeting place was set to be at Stack Performance which was literally two blocks away from the Techco facility. Quite a few members had arranged to have breakfast together at one of two Arthur’s Restaurants before meeting at Stack. As I needed to be at Stack to receive the early birds and newcomers, I was unable to partake of Arthur’s cuisine that morning. I did see all the full faces pulling up one after another though. Arthur’s was good. I could tell. Since Dan’s Challenger was some several feet up in the air being worked on, he brought his SRT-8 Jeep Grand Cherokee to this event. He had an idea to lead the group in to keep continuity with the lineup when we parked. I thought that was a great idea. I proposed then that Chris should be the first Challenger in line as he has a Techco Supercharger on his Challenger. I thought this was a nice way to show props to Techco. Dan also had a great idea to “color up”. All the Hemi-Orange together in line, all the Silver, all the Stone White, etc. etc. It ended up looking really good when we were parked. If someone else has a great idea, I will use it. I will steal it. I have no shame when it comes to great ideas. I know I don’t have them all. But I do give credit where it’s due, so thank you Dan for the great suggestions for this event.

Once we parked it was time to enjoy the show. A group of Porsches were there as well as a group of Ferraris and a group of Corvettes. There was a beautifully restored BMW 2002 there. I loved that car the most of any that were there. Inside the facility were cars that were in progress and a collection of very sharp cars for sale. A surprise came when Ned and Carlos told us we were getting a “behind the scenes” tour of the facility. Their Chief Engineer took us around to their many pieces of C&C equipment and then back to their blower assembly room. Lots of moolah worth of equipment in that place. It’s a very clean and sharp looking facility. I think most of the members enjoyed the tour. For the kids there was a bounce house so they could bounce their brains into oblivion. For the adults there was a very cool driving simulator as well as vendors scattered about marketing everything from insurance to handbags. Bill was kind enough to take some of his free time that day and install ‘shirtless’ Kevin’s throttle body on his R/T for him. How cool is it to have a Chrysler/Dodge Technician in our group. Bill also noticed one of our members had a belt that was out of adjustment. That was a quick fix. Thanks to Bill for lending his expertise to our fellow members. We are excited to have you and Macy aboard!

This was a quick show and was over at noon. I’d like to thank Carlos and Ned for inviting us to their show and giving us the tour behind the tape. The guys and guyettes really enjoyed it. Since this is a recurring show I’m sure we can plan to see this facility and their cars more times in the future.

Anaheim – Stack Performance hosted their first lunch cruise with SCC May 30th which began from their state-of-the-art performance shop in Anaheim, California. A total of twenty-two cars attended this event, which covered a nearly eighty-mile cruise route with two stops along the way, and culminated with lunch at Tom’s Farms in Corona.

Other than driving together to roll into the various car shows we attend, this was an actual opportunity for our members to drive our cars together over distance. Other than our track day in Nevada, this has never happened for SCC as a group. Ryan and I had pre-run the route three weeks before and had come up with what we thought was great scenery and stops with as little traffic lights as possible. As we gathered at Stack that morning, my mind was racing on all the details. Car after car began showing up. Although I was ecstatic to see everyone, the bigger the group the more difficult the logistics would be. Nevertheless, Ryan and I were on the same page and ready for the challenge. To help with the logistical issues I had divided us into two groups for the cruise. One would be led by Ryan with Dan as a spotter and the other lead by me with Dave as a spotter. This would minimize having the group cut up into pieces by traffic lights. We still had almost a dozen cars in each group so it was going to happen, but with two groups it would happen a lot less. After going over the booklets and handing out some club shirts to new members, it was time to hit the road.

Our first stop, after a twenty-four-mile jaunt through Villa Park , Orange Park Acres, and Santiago Canyon, was Cook’s Corner. It’s an old biker bar that’s been there since the twenties nestled way back in Trabuco Canyon. The fun began immediately after we finished parking all of our cars. Seems Cook’s has an old guy, a real old guy, that lives on the property and calls himself the security guard of the place. He wanted us to move all of our cars to another lot that was full of mud and debris (Our cars? Really?). As my wife made the point to him that we were coming into see Cook’s he initially was fine with us being where we were; however, in some “Sybil”-like moment he then decided a few seconds later that it wasn’t going to be ok. The conversation eventually turned into one where we just had to leave all together or we would be towed. I tried being nice. He was more of an ass. He came over and had several “interesting” conversations with a few of us and then as he walked back to Cook’s he pushed one of our members who was simply standing in front of his car. What a class act Cook’s Corner is. We took a few pics and left to spend our time and money elsewhere. I was particularly steamed as I had talked to Cook’s earlier in the month about us stopping there and they were fine with us coming that day. I can promise you this; as a group we will never stop at Cook’s Corner again. Several members had talked to me about getting shirts there and food. Cook’s lost that business that day and any future business from us as well. Cook’s Corner…You’re fired.

After leaving Cook’s we made an unscheduled stop behind a strip mall in Rancho Santa Margarita to finish taking the pics we were going to take at Cook’s. The delivery drivers behind Albertson’s flipped as we all came back there. One was taking pics with his phone, then video. We were able to get some great group shots and also individual shots for our website member profiles.

We got back on our original route after the picture-fest and headed up to Hell’s Kitchen on Ortega Highway. It was a great scenic drive for everyone getting up there. Once we all parked at Hell’s Kitchen, I met Neal, the owner’s son. He told me we were welcome to park in their parking lot, stay as long as we wanted, and could come back anytime. That was refreshing to hear after the treatment we received at Cook’s Corner. Members got a kick out of the coffin condiment station inside and the Harleys parked around the lot. We took many more pics and after some restroom and munchie time, we left for Tom’s Farms.

As we went down the hill we had a great view off to our left of Lake Elsinore. The corners on the way down the hill were handled beautifully by my KW’s. Garber was behind me and enjoyed those corners as well. Once at Tom’s Farms we parked across the street on a dirt parking lot. We parked, twenty-two wide in that lot, side by side. To date, that was the most impressive thing I’ve seen at any of our events; standing across the street and looking at that lot with our cars in it. Amazing. We partook of chow at Senor Toms and had lots of laughs and great conversation.

I’d like to thank Ryan for sponsoring the event and planning it with me. Ryan is a huge asset to SCC. He’s also a been a great friend. I think I can say officially without any reservation that Stack Performance is our official Performance Shop. It’s SCC approved. I’d also like to thank Dan and Dave for being spotters that day. They helped out immensely.  See you on the road next time….