I’ve been going to car week in some fashion since I first moved to the Bay Area. A good portion of these shows cater to mega dollar cars that are well out of my budget. Out of the remaining shows most of them cater to early era cars which aren’t really in the realm of what I own either. Then there is The Little Car Show. This show is put on by the folks at Marina Motorsports and the best way to describe it is to let them describe it:
What:“The Little Car Show” August 17th 2016: American vehicles will be featured this year, but marques from all countries may be accepted. We’ll accept a total of 100 vehicles 25 years and older. That means this year we will accept model year 1991 and older, micro, mini and arcane vehicles with no greater than 1,601cc displacement engines or electric powered vehicles. Entries are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Registration will be closed when 100 vehicles have registered. “Drop in” entries will only be processed on show day if space is available! We also have a “Special Interest” category and may allow limited production and custom vehicles that meet the general rules and intent of the show.
This was already one of my favorite shows from car week, but the fact that my car met the criteria for the show was even better!
There aren’t ANY other shows I’ve been too, and certainly not competed in that have a live rag time band. This one does. There aren’t any that have an award for “most smiles per mile” this one does. This show is all about automotive fun. Something that can sometimes be missing from other shows.
Knowing the more common cars that can be found at this show I wasn’t really sure what the crowd response would be to an “80’s Toyota”. I spoke with quite a few people that had no idea Toyota ever made such an animal. I spoke with people that knew the car but thought they were all “boy racer” cars. Not that they are really wrong for the most part lol. While this car isn’t heavily modified the camber plates and strut tower bar sparked some explanations between people passing by.
I didn’t bring home a judged award but I did bring home a “Merchant Appreciation Award”, and I will have to update this to give credit to the merchant because I don’t remember the exact name right now. To bring home any award from a car week event is a pretty exclusive club, so even though it isn’t quite on that Pebble Beach concourse level prestige, this one is just a little extra cool.
To end the show most of the participants did a quick tour of the Pacific Grove area which is where photographer Steve Natale snapped this one of myself.
On the way back from home I could hear the rear end bearing noise getting worse. I just kept telling the Hachi. “All you have to do is make it home”. And it did. And that was it. That was the last time the starter worked! I shut it off to move my truck out and pull the car in and it ended up being pushed in. We will get to the repair of the starter a bit later though.
More photos from the event can be found in my automotive blog:
