Saturday 9/10/2016 was the 27th Annual Street Rods Forever car show in Old Town Monrovia. What a show it was, bigger by a few blocks over prior years and jammed with hundreds of cars in various states of restoration and customization.
It was difficult but I was able to identify one car as a personal favorite to name "best of show" for the blog. It was this custom chopped and channeled low riding Mercury. The flame work was amazing, the depth of color was so rich a simple photo doesn't do it complete justice. The paint itself was so deep it was like a mirror picking up the refection of everything around it. The young man who made this car is a master in the craft of car customization.
I have several other pictures from the show in a flickr album.
Look here sometime after the weekend is over for a recap and a flickr folder full of pics from the show along with my personal choice as "best of show". Simple criteria, unique, different and stopped me in my tracks is enough to capture the title.
The show is Saturday 9/10/16 from 9AM to 2PM. ITs well attended and concurrent to the show the city of Monrovia will be holding zipcode day as our zip, 91016 coincides with the short version of the date. Why do I bring this up? The good towns folk will be in Library Park for festivities celebrating the date and zip code coincidence and parking will be tight. DO arrive early for best parking.
Where: Myrtle Avenue 300 South block to 600 South Block. Monrovia CA 91016
First up and probably the best show was the Palos Verdes Concours D'Elegance held September 14 at the Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Amazing location for all top notch restored automobiles. It was tightly curated and judged. The categories did have room for survivors or "derelicts" as they called them.
Aside from the Cords, Auburns, and Duesenbergs my absolute favorite was the Virgil Exner Design cars, beautifully finned and detailed mid-50s Chrysler products. I've never seen so many in one place, funny that the DeSoto brand died in spite of some really clean design on the cars back in the day.
Logo and nomenclature on a DeSoto Adventurer. This was one of many Chrysler products penned by Exner.
Logo from an Exner Chrysler New Yorker. Love the blend of heraldry and moderne lines. Nice touch on an overall beautiful car.
Of course a car show isn't a car show without some outrageous custom cars. The most outrageous aside from the Hot Wheels Darth Vader car was the BWM Isetta L.A. Lakers tribute car.
Of course this is just a sampling of the images produced at the Palos Verdes Concours D'Elegance. All 290+ can be found on flick in an album.
The day before the Palos Verdes Show was the equally entertaining Street Rods Forever show in Monrovia. This annual event iw well attended and the biggest in the SGV. What you give up in terms of curation you get in terms of absolute variety of customs, restored and survivors in a mishmash along a 1/2 mile long stretch of Myrtle Avenue in historic Old Town Monrovia. I haven't missed a one in nearly 20 years. Its That Good.
The Best of Show Custom was this 1937 Ford Cabriolet. The workmanship and attention to detail was unparalleled at this show. Simply a stunning custom that stood out as superior to many outstanding cars that day.
The Best of Show Survivor was this unmolested showing wear, but completely original survivor was this 1956 Buick Century Wagon. The "4 holer" was in beautiful condition and hard to believe it 58 years old and still in service.!
Of course, these weren't the only cars I shot. some 150+ images can be found in a flickr album.
