Best of France and Italy 2009

While we here at Californiaclassix love all classic cars just like a mother loves all of her children, cars from France and Italy have a special place in our heart as they are so distinctively different.

The homelands of Renoir and Michelangelo have blessed us with some of the most elaborate and gifted artists in the automotive world. Names like Bugatti, Citroen, Deutsch-Bonnet, Franay, Saoutchik, Voisin, and Zagato come to mind and are just a few examples among so many who have created automotive avantgarde and designs that have withstood the challenges of time so beautifully.

Many details found only on French or Italian cars show the artists' touch and emphasis of beauty in everything, from a rather simple Bakelite light switch to an engine-turned shifter housing, all the way to a rounded, almost erotic-looking stainless steel bumper. The British, German, and American cars of the area have their own charme, but theirs is quite different from the Frankophile.

So when "The Best of France and Italy," one of our favorite cars shows here in Southern California, held its 9th meeting on Sunday, November 1, 2009, we were there early, watching some of the most beautiful cars to arrive.

Arrays of Citroens, Fiats, and Alfa Romeos provided the background for more exotic machinery. Show highlights include Jay Leno's 1937 Bugatti 57S Atalante, one of 17 cars made, featuring an aircraft-style, riveted aluminum body, a 1950s Maserati factory racer with an hand-hammered aluminum body and a history going back to the Grand Prix of Brazil, a couple of Deutsch-Bonnets, a full-fledged Abarth 850TC Corsa ex-racer, and even a truthful replica of a Maserati Birdcage that took the retired owner 9 years of his life to build.



Use this link to view the 24-photo presentation on Californiaclassix.com's Web site.

Californiaclassix’ Cars on YouTube

We have numerous fans and followers who monitor our Web site to check out our latest acquisitions. Few people, however, have such a passion as our friend Al Roy from Canuckistan in Canada has. Al, a heavy equipment operator and truck driver by day, and an experienced videographer in his off time, accompanied by his wife, just visited us past week while on a roadtrip through California and checked out Californiaclassix' home and inventory. At that time he pointed us to YouTube, where he posted his latest creations, featuring some of Californiaclassix’ most interesting cars. Using the photos and text we have in our HALL OF FAME, Al created a truly unique viewing experience using slide shows and faded images. If you like to check it out for yourself go to the following YouTube chanel: www.youtube.com/user/carclassix.
Al can be reached at carclassix@kimchiman.com.

Cash For Clunkers

People have different opinions about the US Government’s Cash For Clunker program, no doubt. While the merits of the program, namely stimulating the economy, reducing harmful emissions, and reducing our dependence on foreign oil by consuming less of it, could be discussed in great length and very passionately, our issue with the program is of a slightly different nature. Looking at what kind of vehicles are being crushed as “clunkers,” cars often only 6 or 7 years young, all of them equipped with O2 sensors and electronically regulated catalytic converters, many of them in perfect operating condition, we can’t help but wonder why the US Government didn’t take a meaningful second step. What step would that be, you wonder?

Well, take the healthy and very presentable among the so-called clunkers, have ‘em inspected and -- if it makes sense from a financial perspective – repaired as needed, and exchange them outright, car-for-car, for the “real” clunkers. As you may know, many truly poor people drive around in completely banged-up cars that barely can move on their own. Think of a 1970s Chevy Nova 4-door that smokes like a clogged furnace as a good example. Any such a car emits ten, twenty, thirty times more harmful emission than that shiny 1999 Volvo sedan or 2002 Dodge Caravan they euthanized by pouring liquid glass into its wonderfully smooth running engine.

If we are really concerned about harmful emission, don’t you think exchanging a car from the late 1990s or the New Millennium for a completely worn out car from the 1960s, ‘70s, or ‘80s, a car that nobody in their right mind would even consider worthy as a parts car, would have made a lot of sense, from an ecological as well as from a social perspective, especially since it would have cost us, the taxpayer, almost nothing?

Welcome!

For those among us who don't know Californiaclassix, please go to our Web site at http://www.californiaclassix.com/ and check us out.

We've been dyed-in-the-wool classic car enthusiasts since the early days, entered the classic car trade decades ago, founded Californiaclassix in 1999, and have since built a successful business of buying and selling exceptional, proverbial California cars.

None of this would have been possible without the help of our loyal and often repeat customers who spread the word of mouth far beyond the borders of the good ol' USA. Many claim we are among the best sources for classic cars in the entire Golden State, and we are grateful for such flattering assessments.

For more than a decade, we've been working hard on keeping our Web site interesting, updating and improving its look several times since. That's not an easy task, once you take into consideration that our Hall of Fame alone currently contains 143 always changing presentations with more than 5000 embedded images.

What we've always wanted to do, however, is to interact with not only our customers, but people who share the same passion for classic cars as we do. Here on our blog you can ask any questions that come to mind or that you've always wanted to be answered. You can discuss merits of certain Classics, aspects of restoration, the classic car market, and other topics that are related to classic and collector cars.

We're looking forward to hearing from you.