Burbank – Dodge corporate hosted the Dodge Challenger event entitled, ”Bad Boy meets Big Boy” at the famous Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, Ca. on December 18^th, 2009. The event, which featured Dodge special edition and new colored Challengers as well as custom Challengers, drew thousands of  Mopar enthusiasts. SOCAL Challengers attended by personal request from Dodge and brought seventeen members to help fill the parking lot. SMS attended with two of their specialty Challengers and Hurst brought one of their specialty Challengers as well. The centerpiece of the event was a widebody Challenger project car that was driven in by Jay Leno. The event was covered by AutoWeek and the local press.

This event was a big secret to SCC Members up until the last minute. I was originally forwarded an email from Mark Mallie, Head of Product Marketing in Auburn Hills, Michigan about 10 days before the event was to take place. All it said was that they were having a special Dodge Challenger event in the Southern California area on December 18^th, and they would like us there. No times listed, no places. No itinerary of what was happening at the event itself. I posted it on our forum and the questions began pouring in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really say much about it because I didn’t know anything to tell them. Dodge stated they would release the event info 24-48 hrs. beforehand. A lot of members didn’t know whether to take off the whole day or half a day. Some passed on this event completely because they needed to know far in advance to plan accordingly. Fortunately, between Dave and I digging around and one of our members being told information they shouldn’t have been told, we found out where and when. The mad scramble began. We wanted to show up in dramatic fashion with as many members as possible. Dave and I set up two meeting places as well as having Rick go straight to Bob’s early and give us an advance scouting report.

We arrived at Bob’s at 1:30 p.m. and found the parking scarce at best. My plans to get there early so we could all park together went out the window. Even though the event didn’t officially start until 5p.m., parking was scarce. The first six or seven of us had spaces together. After that it was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Hunting, stalking, slaughter, and mayhem trying to find spaces. All calmly narrated by a few of us SCC Members running around like flamingos. I was surprised at the rudeness and attitude of the regular Bob’s show folk. Umm, gee I’m sorry we ruined your 45^th appearance here this year by taking a front spot in the parking lot Mr. “I come here every week in my POS”. You can bring your Pinto wagon and your two-wheeled dookie mobile and have your precious space back next week. Its interesting too that only our female members got popped off to. Brave and manly men those guys are.

After the spaces were ironed out and we all parked as best we could, it was show and shine time. We had plenty of time to kill before the event. Or so we thought. Dodge and AutoWeek were already there. AutoWeek immediately began asking us to do video spots where we talked briefly about our cars to the camera for 60 seconds or so. I then was asked to do a longer video interview with Dutch Mandel of AutoWeek about my experience owning a Dodge Challenger. Dutch was a very cool guy and made the interview process fairly painless. I threw out a shout to Ryan of Stack Performance as well, as he deserves so much credit for making our cars what they are.

At around 6pm Jay Leno pulled into the parking lot in a flat gold wide-body Challenger. Topo and the guy from the “King of Cars” show designed and built the car. Jay had issues backing up the car into his reserved space. Rick and Fred took over and backed Jay into the spot perfectly. Fred has done that so many times he could do a class and offer CE credit for getting cars placed perfectly. Jay posed with lots of people for photos, many of whom were our members. He signed Chris’s car and autographed Bill’s magazine that he was pictured in. Dave got Jay over to our cars and presented him with one of our t-shirts and Heather and I gave him SOCAL Challenger stickers for his and his friend’s car. The hooks are in Jay, you’re going with us sooner or later. Jay is a super nice guy and a true car lover. It’s a pleasure to be around a celebrity that isn’t a complete tool. I’ve met so many celebrities that I’d care not to ever be around again. Not Jay Leno. He’s a class act.

As the night drew later many people checked out and photographed our cars. A lot of people really enjoyed the Custom Challengers that SMS and Hurst brought as well. Jon Dawson of SMS is a super nice guy and it was great to finally meet him in person. Mark and Eric from Dodge corporate stayed the entire time and that really impressed me. Most corporate types do the “15 minutes and now Elvis has left the building” routine. Both of them were great to talk to and we look forward to working with them in the future.  We were there so long we had lunch and dinner there. It ended up being a long day but so worth it for all of us.

I’d like to thank Jon for alerting me to this event in the first place. I’d also like to thank Dodge corporate for inviting us to be a part of their special event. We hope we represented the Dodge Challenger in the way it should be, with power and passion.  And finally, thank you to all the SCC Members who made great efforts and sacrifice to be there and represent SCC and the Dodge Challenger to those who brought us the car in the first place. We will carry that honor for years to come…

Here is a video that Dave (RedDog) put together of the Engine Block Party event at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. Thanks to Jon Sibal and David S. for the great pictures.