Yes, it’s expensive to live here. Yes, the traffic can be incredibly irritating, especially with three pedals. And yes, the state is about as efficient with its budget as it is with managing its water supply, but where California falls short, it more than makes up for it with its abundance of automotive activity. I’m not referring to the traffic again; I’m referring to this place being about as close to Petrolhead Heaven as possible.
Say what you will about California, but there tends to be more car events routinely happ’nin year-round on the Golden Coast than any other two states combined. It can be borderline overwhelming when trying to choose between which Saturday Cars & Coffee event to attend—it seems wherever caffeine is sold, carburetors collect in the parking lot. However, this weekend the choice to attend the inaugural Period Correct Pitstop meet was an easy one.
Why, you may ask? Well, the folks who run Period Correct have a pretty parallel-to-Petrolicious taste in cars—namely the old, fast, and badass type. So, I woke up before the sun this past Saturday, joined a Porsche convoy up to Orange County, and pulled up to the Period Correct headquarters with high expectations. I was not disappointed.
Upon entry, a row of red Porsches were there to welcome all. “Porsche, BMW, Porsche, BMW, Porsche, Porsche, Pors… holy shit, that’s a real Alfa Romeo GTA,” I ecstatically exclaimed, whipping my head back and forth between it and my driver, Alex Singer. Like a dog with his face pressed against the glass staring at a dry fire hydrant, I was all-eyes-on the early Alleggerita Alfa—quite frankly, if the only car in the parking lot had been this Autodelta homologation special, I would have been content with the morning’s attendance.
Lucky for us though, there was more than just the Bertone coupe to entertain. Our friend Dorian Valenzuela was there in his newly-prepared baby blue Giulia race car, which appeared to be one of the more popular oddballs of the event. You might recognize Tim Pappas’ Pink RSR-style P-car from Ted’s shoot last year too—what a build. Of course, there were a few 2002s to “round” things out. The white Turbo replica was extremely well done, one of my personal favorites of the day. And speaking of Bimmers, how about a trio of Dakar Yellow from the M3 family tree parked in order of production? It was interesting to see an E36 (with “Motorsport”-stamped LTW wheels), E46, and E92 parked alongside each other. It really shows how much bigger and more complex cars have gotten over the years. A real life pictograph. There were more 991s than I cared to count among the older variety of 911, but it is worth mentioning there were two 911Rs that rolled in. While I’m unsure of the pricing these cars command now, they are undoubtedly worth taking a look at whenever one’s near.
A pair of similarly colored but opposing in preparation Jaguar XKs showed up as well. One of my favorite aspects of vintage sports cars is their ability to pull off either dapper street machine or stripped down ready-to-run racer looks with seeming ease; these Jags were great examples of this split in discipline. There were a few E9 coupes parked towards the back of the lot that begged the question: is there a more handsome and proportionally perfect BMW? No, I didn’t think so either. There were even a few rare Japanese Nostalgic Cars holding it down for the Land of the Rising Sun—a wide and low Fairlady Z, a white Motorex-imported R33 GT-R, and (the Holy Grail of J-tin) a very clean and tidy “Hakosuka.”
An extra-early morning often calls for brunch to fill the gap between whatever cold muffin-like thing that serves as utilitarian breakfast and whatever lunch will be, so our group walked down the street for some grub. By the time we returned, about half of the lot had emptied out, but there was one very special piece of American iron that had arrived while we were busy with our Bloody Mary’s. What appeared to be a very original early Shelby Cobra was found sitting with its driver nowhere in sight—I left a card in the cabin in hopes to hear back from its owner. Perhaps we’ll arrange a future feature on this car. It certainly deserves more attention in front of a lens on its authentic rawness alone—notice the stacked registration stickers and brush strokes in the paint.
Generally, a new Saturday car meet takes time to build up to this level of diversity and rarity, but the quality of this inaugural gathering speaks volumes about how Period Correct is perceived by its fans. So, if you missed this first Pitstop C&C, keep an eye on @periodcorrect for future event details.
