“Wow, you’re much shorter in person than I realized,” said the woman with the fantastic wood-paneled Buick Roadmaster wagon, looking (down) at me with a mixture of confusion and, maybe, alarm. She was absolutely correct, of course. I’m much shorter in person than evenĀ IĀ realize, and yet that never gets in the way of enjoying some fantastic cars, of which plenty were brought by our incredible Autopians. I realize for a number of ridiculous, insipid reasons (“I’m thousands of miles away,” “I have a court date,” I’m in the hospital, bleeding”) many of you couldn’t make it, so allow me to show you some of what you missed.
The turnout was far better than I expected. In my mind, as I drove to the event, I was sort of expecting maybe one or two other cars parked sadly in a corner of the parking lot, one of which maybe would be holding an irate reader who just wanted to yell at me for being such a numbnuts online, punctuating his loud, saliva-spraying points with a thick finger jabbed into my chest.
But that’s not what happened! At all! We hadĀ so many Autopians show up, rolling up in cars that spanned such a gleefully wide variety of styles, types, car cultures. mechanical lineages, you name it. So let’s look at them!
May as well start with this Roadmaster, complete with the Vista roof window and the remarkable, Black Magick-engineered dual-hinge tailgate that, as you can see, can open like a massive door or drop down like a tailgate: 
Such good stuff on this wood-paneled whale of a car. There were also a whole coterie of cars that showed up that could easily be considered prime Torch Bait, in that if you wanted to set a trap to capture me, perhaps to raise me for my meat or whatever your perverse goals are, any of these cars would do the trick.
Most obvious was this incredible 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle, the first year with the big, curved windshield and the “real car”-style dash. This one was in shockingly good shape, and the engine ran perfectly, making all the right sounds. The interior was like new as well, and even the cardboard trunk liner looked like Ford was still in the White House. Wonderful.
Keeping things rear-engined and air-cooled we had this glorious first-generation Corvair coupĆ©, all charming and classy and blue. This was a real delight to see, especially when the owner, understanding his audience with an almost eerie perception, offered to let us watch that crazy 90Ā° fan belt do its thing:
This thing soundedĀ so good.
How about this scrappy little guy? A 1980s Mini, of some special edition whose name escapes me. Something like pepper or chili-related? I don’t feel like looking it up right now but I did like the fender flares and clear-lensed taillights.
Speaking of taillights, I wasĀ given a taillightĀ by one of our Autopians!
Yes, this fine 2-series light is now mine, all mine, to scrutinize and contemplate. The hockey-stick section in the middle glows with a really satisfying diffused light, too.
Also on the taillight front, check out this dedication:
One reader brought a cop-spec Chevy Caprice that he specially ordered Australian-market taillights so he could have amber rear indicators! Dedication, love to see it.
[Editor’s Note: Our stupid CMS lost everything I wrote from this point on so I’m having to re-do everything and boy am I not happy about it — JT]
Okay, back to these Torch-bait cars. Remember the Corvair? Well, the guy who brought that’s son also showed up, and look what he rolled in with:
Yep, a Yugo! A Yugo GVX, which was carbureted (unlike my Yugo GV Plus, which if fuel-injected for someĀ realĀ power) but still was sort of a sporting model, as it has “ground effects” plastic on the side and bigger bumper covers and some kicky seats.
The Yugo pilot takes this thing on long road rallies like the Lemons Rally and has a fuel cell in the back that likely costs more than the entire car. It’s great.
Alright, let’s show that not all Autopians are content do toodle around in little shitboxes; some genuinely valuable cars showed up as well, like this incredible TVR Chimaera:
There’s so much to say about this car, but as usual I want to focus on one of the stupid details. Here, look at the center console:
What do you think that center brushed aluminum knob does, nestled there in that oddly scrotal area. Want a hint? Look at these:
That’s an ashtray on the door, looking exactly like an interior door handle, only it’s not, because it’s an ashtray. You know why? Because that bonkers little knob in the nutsack thereĀ is how you open the doors. Only TVR would think that a central, rotating knob made sense for door opening. Love it.
TVR too big for you? Autopians have a solution:
How about an Autozam AZ-1? This astoundingly clean little example was like 16 pounds of charmium crammed into a coin purse. Also, ever wonder what it looks like under the front hood of an AZ-1? We goit you, fam:
Honestly, more room than I thought!
See what’s next to the Autozam? It’s a deliriously-clean Porsche 928 with only 40,000 miles on it. 
Want to know an amazing weird detail about the Porsche 928? No, not that one. This one:
That’s the tool kit on the left there. Nice, well-populated toolkit. But what makes it great is how it just folds right up into the rear trim, all clever and clean and hidden and so good I just want to spit.
We also had the internet’s best-known lemon-lawyer, Steve Lehto here with his stunning Viper. Look at this glorious detail Steve showed me about the Viper:
[Editor’s Note: the fucking system crashed again and lost the rest of the post, so I’m just publishing it and going to add it back in real time, or until I finally lose my shit and explode, in rage. — JT]
This is a little liquid, graduated level for aiming the headlights. I’ll have to dig deeper into this!
Look how clean and perfect this time-capsule Trans Am is!
This off-road modified Infiniti G35 was an incredible sight to behold. It’s perhaps the only Infiniti G35 with a freakingĀ snorkel,Ā for flapjackery’s sake. And it gets actually used off-road, to the point where the grime was so thick and rich that I could inscribe the Autopian logo into the back with the relative cleanliness of my finger:
Old MGBs are tragically under-appreciated, I think, and I was thrilled to see this really well-sorted example:
The intake on these looks like it was cobbled together by a Victorian tinkerer who sourced the parts from his failed steam-dirigible experiment. I’ll have to do that up in a future post, too.
This lovingly-restored GMC Sierra was a real treat as well, being such an ideal example of a sort of hardworking, unpretentious American truck.
This non-US-spec Smart car was incredible, too, and that bumper sticker is accurate: this man’s other car is a Yugo.
I lost a lot of images of amazing cars, so if you came and don’t see yours, my apologies.
But I’d also like to sincerely thank everyone who showed up and helped us see what a really stellar community we’re building here.
We’ll do more of these, wherever we can. You’ll see!
You guys should have a car show in Greenville, SC or Charlotte or Atlanta. I’ll bring friends.
great turnout! and while that’s an epic Trans Am, its wheels negate its Time-Capsuleness as they’re of a later era (but aesthetically still work, thankfully).
The Mini is the Viscount Denbeigh Commemorative Special Edition 1066 cc Super Chauvinist.
I had a GREAT time at the gathering. Really glad I came!
I know for a fact Mr. Tracy not only enjoyed my 1996 Nissan Cedric Y33 but also remembered me from a gathering on Woodward in 2019! I had a W126 Mercedes 300SDL at the time!
Met some cool new people I definitely hope to see around the car scene this year for sure!
Only got a quick departing handshake in at the end with you, Torch, but Iāll make it a point to catch you at the next event nearby!
-Cody C.
How did I not know Steve Lehto has a Viper? I’m also surprised he didn’t roll up in a turbine car.
That was an absolutely great time! Even if all the other pictures got posted and weren’t lost, I fully expect that my Cobalt and my brother’s Regal GS would not have been in them – they blend in a bit too well sometimes (…and that’s partly intentional).
I can’t wait for the next one!
Since David T. spends a good amount of his time on German soil anyway, why not get a ‘European Autopian’ gig organized? From where I live (and I assume this is true for several other Autopian readers) it’s a hell of lot easier to travel to Germany than it is to the US. By car anyway. And bring some of those sweet Autopian shirts! In XXL, preferably. š
You found the new owner of Robert Dunn’s smart car! He said he sold it to someone in Michigan, I’m glad to see it back on the road! Mercedes Streeter did a great write-up on these 1st-gen grey market cars a while back on Jalopnik, they have a neat story! Only about 3000 were imported, and they’re quite rare! (PS: if you guy could hire Mercedes that would be fantastic, I always enjoy smart car content!)
Torch hoists the championship belt:
This looks awesome – hoping to make it to a future one! I’m only nine hours away… 12 if take the Biscayne.
You should or well this site should host meets around the country. Kinda cross promote doing so! I’d love to go or help organize a meet. ( I run a large monthly cruise in south Georgia).
I like all the different vehicles that showed up!
I live 4 miles from there (and DT). Iād have been there except I was 2000 miles away working at the EV development lab of a consumer product company you have heard of. Also I havenāt owned a vehicle since 2013 and drive only fleet and rental SUVs that are boring. But I still love cars and car people are the best. Catch you next time if Iām in town. Iāll get something interesting from Hertz (Probably I wonāt) for the occasion.
I’m not sure I’ve seen such a high percentage of right-hand drive vehicles at a local meet-up. We had, what, 4 out of about 25 cars?
My Cedric was one of them!