PHOTO ALBUM

Goodguys 11th World of Motorsports Show
Santa Clara Convention Center, San Francisco

They say getting there is half the fun.

Whilst in San Francisco I was scouring the local paper checking out the auto classifieds and happened upon an ad for the Goodguys 11th World of Motorsports Show at the Santa Clara Convention Center and this was to be the first show for Frankenstude. Checking out the tourist maps showed it was about 40 miles southeast of the city. Piece of cake, I thought to myself.

Before leaving Australia I had considered hiring a car, as I had driven in Los Angles on a previous visit. But San Francisco was different, lots of one way streets and trying to read a map and drive and stay out of everyone's way did not appeal to me so I decided to catch the train instead, plus I would have a better chance to rubberneck on the train. It took about half an hour to walk to the CalTrans depot, the train ticket was $9.00 return, then I looked at the timetable, it would take an hour and a half to get to Santa Clara. Ah well, I'm in no hurry.
The trip was very interesting, you get to snoop in heaps of back yards and behind all the shops and factories backing on to the train line. I guarantee there were at least one or two dead cars or pickups for every property and just looking at them some looked to be in reasonable nick and there were some definite rough diamonds in there.

Anyway I finally get to Santa Clara and start looking for a taxi, as I had no idea where the Show was although I knew it was at the Convention Center next to Greater America (wherever that was!). Just as I begin to give up hope, a bus turns up and its going to this Greater America joint, so I figure that’s close enough and jump on. $1.50 for the fare. The bus heads into a industrial / business park type area and I noted all the computer companies buildings (it wasn't till I got home and was looking at some other maps that I realised this was Silicon Valley). After about 15 minutes on the bus I'm there, about two and a half hours after leaving the Hotel.

The first thing I noticed was absolutely no rods in the car park or out the front. But once inside it was a different story. There were over 200 rods, pickups, drag cars, oval trackers and other collectable cars. There was even an old time, wooden hulled, blown, hemi powered speed boat! For about the next 5 hours I just soaked it all in. It was interesting from the point of view that there was no attempt to display the cars, no boards, special stands, lighting or props. They just parked 'em and roped 'em off. I have never seen so many '32 roadsters in the one place. The level of detail and finish of each car was as good as the best cars we have here. It was the components that really set them apart, all top of the line, the best of everything.

There was a trade area with all the usual memorabilia, models and collectables. As well as several rod orientated businesses. There was also a stand with two Hummers (as in US Army 4 wheel drives) specializing in custom accessories.