No organization, just free wheelin’ car lovers…
by Wallace Wyss –
Photos by Richard Bartholomew –
I know there’s the formal Malibu gatherings, one organized by a guy named “Fireball” twice a month at a park across from Malibu Pepperdine but this impromptu gathering of exotic cars is at a shopping center to the east side of Pacific Coast Highway and Cross Creek Road. It seems to be growing in size exponentially. My photographer and I went last Sunday and the Sunday before last and were impressed.
As far as Ferraris the same red SWB 250GT showed up but also a mint 275GTS, and many current decade Ferraris. McLarens were there to show Ferraris are no longer the top dog. And an almost complete absence of Japanese cars. Methinks that’s because they don’t have the grand touring tradition so there’s nothing like Porsche or Ferrari. And hardly any American muscle cars, except a 2020 Corvette two Sundays ago and a Shelby GT350 at the most recent one.
One problem due to the pandemic is a shortage of food sources. There’s Starbucks where you have to wait outside in line and then a market where coffee is $4.00 a cup. The restaurant one block away is still closed. So basically it’s high priced but hey there were at least a dozen million dollar cars, right? So it’s not like the car drivers can’t afford it.
Bespoke Fine Art Jackets by Wallace Wyss – Info: mendoart7@gmail.com
It remains to be seen if the hot doggers (doing burnouts as they leave) will spoil this event like they did Trancas where a local attorney got the monthly meet banned. I think Malibu is a glorious place to start off the morning because you have that sea breeze, and 75 degrees compared to 95 degrees inland. And a lot of canyon roads to do that curvy thing on. The cafe racers were there too but I don’t even think about motorcycles. It hurts too much when you fall off…
This time no 356 “bathtub” Porsches but lots of later models including two mid-engine ones, one was a Carrera 918 but they seemed to have different rear end treatments. Matching the two Porsche supercars were two recent Ford GTs. So I can’t guarantee how long this gathering will continue as there’s no organizer to call but all I can say is that it’s a great way to start the morning.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is compiling an anthology of 25 car-based fiction stories. Interested publishers can reach him at mendoart7@gmail.com
THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Richard Bartholomew is an artist and photographer based in Southern California. Visit his YouTube channel here. He is open to interesting consignments and can be reached at zeroagenow@aol.com
More photos are in the slide show below.
This looks like a fun car day. Maybe this type of event will take the place of Concours d’Elegance? There has already been a drop in the number of concours events even before the novel coronavirus hit us.
What time does this happen?
I got there both Sundays at 7:30 am and the first cars were just arriving. But the bulk of cars were there by 9 am. I already left by 10:30 a,m. so don’t know how long it goes on. I think the event may survive criticism if the sporty cars dissipate before the regular shoppers arrive though, because of the pandemic , 90% of the shops were closed.
The Porsche is a Zagato Bodied 356 owned by Spike Feresten AKF the soup nazi episode on Seinfeld and Car Matchmaker. Spike has his own podcast called ” Spikes car radio” which IMO is one of the better podcasts out there. On the show Spike and his rakish sidekick Paul Zuckerman discuss everything Porsche and cars. Seinfeld shows up about every 5-6 episodes and gives his take . Andrea Zagato built the car for Spike and Paul last year and they are getting the few bugs out, but say it’s a fantastic driving car.