The boy and I went to the show. To be frank, the magic is gone. Too corporate. There were a lot of cool cars, but the soul of the earlier shows was MIA. Too bad.
We parked across the street from Pier 30/32, next to this old E-Class.
Let's get started!
These Mondials are just so rad. I think even mainstream car enthusiasts like them now.
I swear I thought this 550 was much newer than it actually was.
Ever since I saw Derek Tam-Scott's yellow Miura at Berkeley Cars & Coffee, I have been listening to the Carmudgeon podcast. The Rover and Citroen have been discussed in detail on the show.
This Maserati made the trip worth it. I've seen every Quattroporte generation except the fourth. And here's the QP IV!
I spotted this Alpina a few days before the show near the Caldecott Tunnel and tweeted about it. Turned out, one of my followers was riding in the Alpina at the time!
Rchen was kind enough to let J sit in the back of his taxi. On the armrest was a Tomica version of the same taxi.
We planned on completing our road trip on Day 3. Didn't happen.
In retrospect, I should have deferred to my wife and let her plan the meals. But I was on a mission to get home as quickly as possible and thought she would just slow us down with meals and potty breaks. After a breakfast at our hipster motel's oatmeal bar, we headed towards Phoenix.
I was not expecting so many mountains in southern Arizona. I was expecting flat expanses of desert.
Without any plans for lunch, the kids got grumpy. Because restaurants were 50 to 100 miles apart from each other, they had to wait. We ended up at a lovely but rough cafe in Quartzsite, near the California border.
Quartzsite is known for two things. First, in the 1800s, camels were imported and raised here by the U.S. Army. Now, the town is a destination for destitute senior citizens who live in vans and RVs. It was featured in Nomadland.
The "town" was pure chaos. People on ATVs. An RV parked called MAGA...
This Brat was just one of the many wild things we saw in Quartzsite.
To lighten my mood, the kids bought me a back scratcher at the diner.
We crossed the might Colorado River! We're finally in California. The river crossing was kind of anticlimactic.
Lots of cool carspotting opportunities. Like this Mexican Suzuki Jimny next to the Morongo Indian casino.
Or this Ferrari 612!
We hit rain and traffic in Los Angeles and it really slowed us down. We picked a Japanese restaurant in Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) for dinner. The meal was easily twice what we normally paid outside of California. At least I spotted a Renault Duster in the parking lot. I gushed at the middle class Mexican dad who owned it. He was confused by my excitement.
We continued driving into the night along Interstate 5. It was simply too much mentally and physically for the kids. They were crying from sitting for so long. So we spent the night at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, three hours short of home.
Harris Ranch is known for its steakhouse. Many people driving between San Francisco and Los Angeles stop here for a meal. I knew it had a hotel, but I could never figure out why anyone would stay there.
We had a nice room and this was what we saw when we stepped out our door in the morning (on Day 4):
We walked to the restaurant and I got some beef with my eggs.
Epilogue:
We got home around noon on Day 4. I returned the car at Oakland airport with 12 minutes left. The bill was $2,200(!). We also spent $600 for three nights of hotels/motels.
I asked Southwest to reimburse us $2,800, I didn't ask for gas or food. They offered $1,400. I was PISSED. I appealed and on March 14, Southwest decided to reimburse us the entire $2,800.
Today, we checked out another Cars & Coffee, this time in Milpitas (it's a few freeway exits south of the Tesla factory). We thought we would be late, but this Countach arrived late with us. At the long red light, we could literally see the engine get hotter and hotter (the air above it got wavier and wavier).
The vast majority of the cars there were Lamborghinis and McLarens. This Ferrari GT car really stood out.
Everyone, including me, was gawking at this thing. It's apparently a kit car called the Superlite SL-C.
I like it a lot!
There were also a ton of anonymous looking Porsches. This Speedster popped out.
Alas, that Chevy S10 was not the EV version. I get the sense that the same Rivian keeps popping up all over the Bay Area, It's four dudes who probably work for Rivian, showing it off. They floored it at a red light and it was very quick. Very torquey.
No idea what this Ferrari is. I don't think I've ever seen one of these before.
Here's another one next to an iconic Diablo. @slirt tells me it's an SF90 Stradale, The only two older Lamborghinis at the show were this Diablo and that white Countach.
I had to walk back and take another picture of the SL-C.
Funny license plate.
The pedestrian Giulia Quadrifoglio was parked next to an Accord.
