Saturday, June 7th, came with the typical Southern California “June Gloom” in full swing. The temperature hovered in the low to mid-60’s, ideal for staging our babies at the Saturday portion of the Huntington Beach Concours. This non-judged event was marketed as The Great Britain All English Motorcar Show, and attendance was robust.
Entry to the event went smoothly, goodie bags were distributed all around (who needs to buy cleaning and detailing products when you go to so many shows?) and the British cars were assigned the upper meadow, as they were last year. Parking the vehicles was a bit sporadic as staffing was minimal. We all settled in with folding chairs, detailing products and cleaning cloths, looking forward to a long day of cars, networking and maybe swapping a lie or two...
Our Austin Healey club was graced with the presence of George McHarris with his 1956 100-4, John Hummer and Alice Johnson in their “primrose girl”, a 1957 100-6 BN4, Tim McNiff in his red 1963 BJ7 baby, myself in my 1961 3000 MKII (which I purchased at last year’s show) and Steve Schryver and Nancy Asahina in their 1972 British Racing Green MGB, and Amanda Walker and Tony Esposito in their immaculate 1970 MGB. Howard Macken drove up from San Diego in his 1954 Austin Healey 100-4 with a Chevy 327 engine (how did they shoehorn a V8 into that engine bay?), to add to the Healey turnout.
Notable was a recently restored 1973 TVR brought by Stephen DeMocko, and a duke’s mixture of MG’s.
The local Jaguar club was represented well with the biggest population of British cars-noteworthy was a 1938 Jag in impeccable shape and a 1938 BMW; both pre-WWII cars were museum-quality! Just as we were about to take a final group photo before bugging out, a professional photographer popped up and offered to take on this chore. Wow, experience and good equipment always shines through! Thanks go to Walter Santos at waltersantosphotography.com for a quality group photo.
My Ginal head count of the British section was 33 cars, 6 Austin Healeys, 5 MG’s, 18 Jaguars, 1 Land Rover, and 1 Jensen Healey Interceptor. The same could be said about the hot rods and American classics parked “down the hill”—maybe the Sunday show will be better populated? All in all, it was a very light attendance, especially when compared to last year’s show.
The June Gloom Ginally started to burn off and the sun came out at 2:00 PM, right on cue and right on time for our departure. Despite the light crowd, a good time was had by all the great company and cool cars. The only thing I would do differently was PUT ON SUNSCREEN: a cloudy day emits just as much UV rays as a sunny day, and wow, did I realize the error of my ways when I got home. Well, next time...
People in the photo: Amanda Walker and Tony Esposito, Alice Johnson, Jim Bennett, Tim McNiff, Howard Macken (San Diego), George McHarris, Joe Cristerna, John Hummer, Nancy Asahina, Steven Schryver, (the son of a famous motorcycle dealer, I didn't get his name...) This photo was actually taken by Alice, after we were all posed by the professional photographer...