5th Annual Spring Festival of LXs

I stopped by the 5th Annual Spring Festival of LXs which was being held in Irvine today. This is all about Chrysler LX platform cars, Chrysler 300s, Dodge Chargers, Magnums and Challengers. One car that caught my eye was a Hurst Challenger convertible, no, Dodge doesn't make a Challenger convertible but there are aftermarket companies converting them.

Now I think the Challenger looks good as a convertible, and there was another black one out in the rows of Challengers...

...I kept thinking these looked good and wondering what they looked like with the top up...

...well, be careful what you wish for, I walked by this one again and the top was up. That was the ugliest top I've seen lately on a convertible - too bad!

There were a lot of cars there this year, representing 25+ states, Canada and Mexico, this will give you an idea...

See all the pics here

Saw this New Retro Vette last night!

I saw this new Retro Vette last night at the Fuddrucker's Cruise on El Toro Rd. This is being produced by an Iowa company called Karl Kustom Corvettes. This one is for sale by an Irvine auto broker by the name of Tim Scaglione, so if you have to be the first in Orange County to have this see him at Orange County Auto Wholesale. This design incorporates a lot of design clues from a mid-year Corvette and is based on a C6 platform. Some of it works for me but there are some obvious misses in the angled openings for hood and trunk, the trunk line is more obvious on the fastback. Take a look at my pics and their website and feel free to leave your comments.

Here's a stock original that happened to be there too..

Oh yeah,in case you're wondering,  the headlight doors are fake - the headlights are hidden behind doors in the grille. See all the pics here.

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

Last month I found myself in McMinnville, Oregon with a couple hours of free time so I decided to visit the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. This is a fabulous facility with three main buildings at this time, one for the Spruce Goose and the Aviation and Firearms collections, one for the Space collection and an IMAX  theater in the third building. The property also has various planes and armored vehicles scattered around including a 747 that will sit on top of the new building that will house a water park. Grape vineyards surround the back side of this complex and you can buy grape juice from the grapes in their gift shops.

Next time I'm in Oregon and have spare time I'll be going back to explore this place more, for now you can see what I saw here, enjoy!

Lyon Air Museum

Lyon Air Museum, located across the runway from the passenger terminal at John Wayne Airport, SNA, in Santa Ana, CA. This is part of the private collection of General William Lyon. The Lyon Air Museum exhibit is comprised of authentic aircraft, rare vehicles, all in working condition, and related memorabilia, with the emphasis on World War II era exhibits.

 

  

The planes exhibited are an A-25, B-17, B-25, C-47 and a DC-3, again all in flying condition! There are also military vehicles from Germany, Japan and the U.S. plus war era classics from the General's vast collection. There is also a Helm's bakery van parked next to the DC-3 as if it were provisioning the next flight. Check out this fascinating collection at the Lyon Air Museum next time you're near John Wayne Airport and see the rest of the pictures here.