It doesn’t get much more quintessential Car Autance vibes than archaic hardware sitting canyon-side on a scenic overlook. It’s not just pretty; this picture represents a moment in car culture, too.
March 2, 2021 Car Autance Feature Photo Details
- Car(s): 1986 Honda Prelude; 1994 Mazda RX-7; 1987 Porsche 924S; 1996 Chevy Corvette Collector Edition; 1984 Nissan 300ZX
- Location: Southern California
- Photog: Andrew P. Collins (Twitter: @andrewpcollins) (Insta: @andrewatlarge) (Web: carbibles.com)
- Camera: iPhone XR
As big as we could make it:
If this scene speaks to you, we turned another photo I took at this pull-off into a poster you can buy from the Car Autance merch church (yep, click here)! I’m about to order one myself when I wrap up this draft.
We’re still tuning the mixture here on Car Autance, but I wanted to try making use of our big banner homepage display by featuring a parade of cool photos and a little accompanying backstory. Think “Google Doodles meets old-school car mag desk calendar.” Eventually I’m hoping we have some reader-submitted images to talk about, too. Meanwhile I’ll give you the rundown on how these five pop-up headlight-having cars came to spend an afternoon together.
You might have seen Brad Hansen’s name come up if you hang out with any ’80s and ’90s-themed online car groups or forums. He shares some good stuff on his YouTube channel Retro Cars Forever and he’s been arranging micro-meets like the gathering I captured here. Hansen seems to do a lot of networking and organizing too; I ended up on a Facebook thread about this meet that evolved into a made a calendar event, which Hansen then actively managed and changed the title everyday so we wouldn’t forget to go. All this to say: I was impressed with the dedication just to get a handful of low-output automobiles together.
More importantly, I really appreciated the opportunity to gather with a small group of like-minded motorheads… not just because it was very easy to avoid getting breathed on by strangers in this setting, but I got to know the folks I parked with a little better than I might have if we’d brushed shoulders in a huge shopping plaza parking lot takeover.
If you’ve already been enjoying micro-meets like this yourself, lucky you! But if you miss car shows and your close friends aren’t into vehicles, consider seeking out small and safe gatherings like this one. Social media’s a decent place to start looking, check for hashtags and groups relevant to your area and automotive interests. Or drop your car and city in a comment below and maybe we’ll make some friendships here in the Car Autance comment section!
