Text and photos by Richard Bartholomew –

Just right every time.

Car shows come in many types and sizes and they all have a flavor. Some are elegant, some are loud. They can be French wine with world class hyper cars and a classical quartet providing the ambiance ranging to shows with three of the local rockabilly bands and a beer garden or even private shows with no music at all and a very low profile, sometimes limited early morning viewing times and just coffee.

Some events reach for the moon and miss but the Lake Arrowhead Classic Car and Motorcycle Show a charity event sponsored for eight years now by the Lake Arrowhead Rotary club is not one of those events. They made the mark and hit it squarely.

A small unassuming village and lake that’s eighty miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the San Bernardino mountains and often twenty degrees cooler than the flatlands down below this time of year, Lake Arrowhead is a nice family friendly and pet friendly event that leans towards classic American cars. Mostly from the sixties I would say but it certainly isn’t a rule for the show.

The cars line up a bit after dawn for check in (I am there catching the cars in the soft morning light and without the limitations of film) and after paying fees (cars pay, people get in free) they drive into the commercial area and park along the footpath that circles the stores and bandstand. They did have a wine bar right down in the middle of things close to the stage that might have had French wine but I don’t think a string quartet was the band playing later in the day.

A nice eclectic mix of cars here, not just Nomads, Studebakers and Camaros but a pristine 1940 Special Deluxe Chevrolet, a Porsche with whale tail, an Alfa Spider, not the old classic rounded tail (boat tail) more coveted model but still an clean mid seventies version with very cool bubble headlamp covers and very clean, perhaps restored.

A rare and beautiful red Intermeccanica Omega coupe. An Amphicar and not in the usual red but a nice baby blue, also very clean. I didn’t ask the owner if he was going to take it out on the lake for a spin after the show but it would have been a short trip down to the water if he was going to.

Event report card: Friendly people and unassuming cars with a backdrop of green trees and water skiers; A +

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

Richard Bartholomew is an artist and photographer based in Southern California. He is open to interesting consignments and can be reached at zeroagenow@aol.com