HOT ROD Week (Sacramento Area) ... Aug 21/06

The flyer reads: "Kick off Hot Rod Week 2006 with a drive northeast to the historic Sacramento Valley and California’s capital city. We’ll visit Flowmaster Muffler’s amazing manufacturing plant and they’ll serve us some great barbecue! After lunch we visit auto aficionado John White’s private collection “Rams Head” featuring regally restored classics from the 40s & 50s. To wrap up the day it’s off to drag racer John Cox’s private collection, which highlights classic cars from the 1950’s as well as some amazing gas pumps and service station memorabilia. Maybe we can get him to fire up his “Cheetah III” 3,000 horsepower nostalgia top fuel dragster!"

Braving Monday morning commute, a bunch of us came together in the Pleasanton Hilton parking lot. Route instructions were handed out and away we went ... a gaggle of hot rods and customs heading East to Sacramento at 8:30am. Two hours later we pulled into the Flowmaster Muffler parking lot, had the tour, ate tri-tip and lied to each other for awhile. From there we headed cross town to John White's collection, looked around ... went "ooo wow!" then left for John Cox's garage, located a few blocks away off an alley in a down-town residental area ... talk about old Sac! More "oooo's and wow's" and then we all went our separate ways.

On my hour-long drive back home West on 80 then South on 680 I had time to think about what I experienced. With plugs in my ears, the loud rumble and wind of Black Widow 2 at speed, reduced to just a little low rumble that didn't get in the way of my thoughts. I saw history, met a lot of great, low-keyed guys, and ran with the "pack" at freeway speeds without a care in the world. Yeah ... this is addictive.

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