Burbank- The 11^th Annual Kiwanis Kids For Fun Car show was held April 25^th, 2010 in Johnny Carson Park. The park grounds were covered row after row with almost four hundred cars in attendance. All proceeds benefitted local children’s charities in the valley. Participants and spectators were treated to a pancake breakfast, live music, raffles, and numerous vendor booths. SoCal Challengers were awarded the Group Participation Trophy and newest Member John H was given 2^nd place in his class. A total of sixteen SCC Members attended this event taking up an entire row in the show.

I arrived early at the meeting place for this event. Dave had scheduled the street on Riverside Drive as our place to meet and I was there first. My wife and I sat there, and sat there. The street said no parking at any time too so I was looking around constantly hoping to not get shooed away by Johnny the parking control psycho. We sat there some more. Nobody…. Crickets. Just for kicks I typed in the directions for the show. My nav said it was seven miles away. I thought to myself, ”Dave would never have a meeting place that far away from a show.” I re-checked my directions. Hmm, seems I had missed one little letter when I inputted the address. That little letter “W” in front of Riverside Drive, West Riverside Drive that is. I was on Riverside Drive. We were off to the right address. I was happy to see that we already had a good crowd there on the street.

G1 showed up in his work gear and his truck as a gag. I had talked with Jeff about him zip-tying his Challenger fascia to the front of his pickup and entering his truck that way. THAT would have been classic. It was good fun and lightened up the early morning. “B” showed up soon after with his Challenger. Dave gave the pre-meeting. I mentioned too that it was Dan’s B-Day. Heather and I had got him some gifts we would give him later. We only had to go around the corner to get in….not seven miles.

The first fun was the driveway into the park. It was definitely not made for anything less than monster truck ground clearance. Dan scraped, I scraped going out, I heard scrapes all morning from other cars. Scrape, scrape, scrape. Happily the grass was kinder to our cars and we lined up in a reserved area that Tony had set aside for us. It was a sight to see that we took up an entire row at this show. Impressive! We all enjoyed the pancake breakfast too…..Dave was right. The pancakes kicked butt.

This show had some really impressive cars. There was a 1973 Plum Crazy Dodge Challenger that was immaculate. That car ended up winning a trophy later. Also, the Chrysler 300 from the Cops For Tots Show was there too. Beautiful car. We met John that morning at the meeting place. I was excited to see his Plum Crazy Challenger. He had put in the white leather interior with purple lettering. I honestly didn’t think I would like it after seeing it in the catalogue but in person it looks fantastic! John ended up joining us that day. He also won an award too. Not bad for his first day as an SCC Member. I also enjoyed the 1936 Buick Roadmaster. Black and super clean. We gave Dan his gifts and I resumed my wars with Chris’ kids. The fun continues…

Thanks to Tony Wade for inviting us to his show and awarding us the Group Participation Trophy, even if he did give it to the SoCal Chargers dot com club. We love it! Thanks too to Dave for bringing this show to our attention. He’s gone to this show for years and we can see why.  Next year Tony let us know we’ll have our own class! Can’t wait!

Van Nuys- The weekend of April 17, 2010 marked the 24^th year of the “Spring Fling” Car Show and swap meet in Woodley Park, Ca. put on by Chrysler Performance West. Hundreds of early and late model Mopar vehicles attended the weekend festivities which included a judged car show, a parts swap meet, and vendor displays. There were also off-park parties and a cruise included in the weekends events. SoCal Challengers walked away with three awards including the Group Participation Trophy. Two SoCal Challengers members won ”Awards of Distinction” for their personal vehicles. Stack Performance and Hotchkis had an impressive vendor presence both days. The swap meet portion of the show was full of parts, memorabilia, body panels, and used cars for sale. 

Last year SCC missed the judged portion of the show by attending on Saturday. We ended up winning the Group Participation Trophy anyway which was a great surprise considering we weren’t there on Sunday for the judged portion of the show. We did miss the opportunity however for our members to win any awards for their personal vehicles last year. I wasn’t going to do that again. This year it was Sunday for us and we were going to come big…Way bigger than last year. We set the meeting place the same as last year and waited anxiously for the 18^th to come up on the schedule.

Dan’s and my car were going to be at the Stack Performance booth all weekend. We had to bring our cars there at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. Eesh. It was interesting to hang out at a car show for a day and not run around like a flamingo doing SCC activities. Not that I mind doing that, because I don’t at all, but it was sure different than usual. Dan and I were stealth wearing our SP gear. We helped Aaron and Brad as best we could with the booth and with spectator questions. Someone asked Aaron if he could pose a stupid question. “Is Chip Foose going to be here today?” Well sir, you called the question exactly. Somehow in his mind he made the decision that Aaron might know the answer to that one. Alrighty then. I walked around the car show a bit and didn’t see a huge car club presence. Sunday was the day for that, and I knew what was coming from us the next morning.

After picking up Dan, Heather and I headed for the meeting place at Continental Jewelry. There were already quite a few cars scattered about the lot. What excited me was that at 6:30a.m. there were more cars ready to roll than last year. Fred had invited a guy he met that weekend that showed up to ride in with us. In fact, we had to get creative with parking to fit all the cars in. I made my rounds and strategized with Dave as he was leading the group in that day. After that we hopped back in my beater and headed for Woodley Park. Dan and I were going to take pictures of SCC arriving at the show.

I’ve never not been in that line of cars coming in. I was either leading it, backing it up, or I just wasn’t at that show at all. This time I got to stand with Dan in the Woodley Park Car Show entrance and watch my brothers and sisters bring it. As Dave was about a hundred yards away from the entrance coming towards us I heard a female voice say behind me, ”Who’s that?”. A man with a CPW green shirt on replied,”That’s the SoCal Challengers guys, and they bring a CRAPLOAD of cars here”. That made me laugh. It also helped me understand why people flip so much when we pull in. From that point where we were standing, it’s a truly damn impressive sight especially with almost thirty cars lined down the street. It’s a different perspective for sure. I hope other members can see us pull in at some point from the entrance. You’ll see what I mean. Parking was a breeze as usual. After we shined ‘em up it was showtime.

There were not as many cars in the show Sunday as there were Saturday but that sure didn’t affect the quality of Mopars that lined up row after row. I took Tom and Marcello over to a black GTX that was just stunning. Beautiful car. Also, there were a ton of 70’s Challengers there. Loved that. I cracked up at the line of K cars across from us. Ya know, I don’t really like ‘em but I appreciate that there were a group of people who brought them and had showed them love. I always respect that even if I don’t care for the car. I was surprised to see quite a few Prowlers lined up too. I battled Chris’ kids again as always, and we had great fellowship throughout the day.

About 2:30 or so it was trophy time. The Challengers had their own class so I was excited for the members chances to win some bling. As I thought, that’s exactly what happened. Rick and Neal  won “Awards of Distinction”. And my favorite of all….the Group Participation Trophy came home with us. I remember a certain car club that said they were going to spank us this year at this show for the group trophy. Ummm, they didn’t show. I remember things like that you know…And talk is just that…talk. All in fun though. It would have been great if they showed so we could play. I only saw one of their kind of car at the show too. The spectators would have benefitted from their attendance.

Thank you to CPW for putting this show on in its 24^th year. It’s one of the better organized shows we go to. Thanks also to all the Members for showing and being a part of that group trophy. We don’t get that trophy without your attendance. Enjoy it!