Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

IT'S SOAP BOX DERBY TIME! GET INVOLVED!

BE THERE! Saturday, March 29, 2008, the "14th Annual Coachella Valley Don Berry Memorial Soap Box Derby" will be run on Avenidas Bermudas in La Quinta, California. From 9am until every entrant has run, late in the afternoon, there will be all the excited thrills and spills which occur in every kind of speed contest, but also a lot more. There will be great amounts of love, enthusiasm, coaching, learning, caring, mentoring and winners and losers ... But truly, no losers at all. All the competing girls and boys, from age 8 through 17, have, along with their adult "partners", built their own Soap Box race cars, made from kits which are shared by every participant, developed new ways to coax more traction and speed from their vehicles, learned about working with sponsors and, especially, the local media, to get the word out about this great annual event. These are great lessons for anyone of any age ... Just imagine if you'd had these kinds of lessons when you were much younger!

And the winners can make it all the way to the this year's "71st Finals" in Akron, Ohio.

This coming July 26, 2008, over 100,000 spectators will gather in Akron for the finals of the "71st All-American Soap Box Derby". Over the decades, the Derby has had its highs and lows, as any large event might, but in the past few years, along with a resurgence in Americans' patriotism, it has re-built itself into a huge, exciting contest not only for boys and girls, but also for their moms and dads, aunts and uncles, granddads and grandmoms, mentors and coaches of all types and kinds.

We'll be there at Avenidas Bermudas on March 29th, cameras and microphones in-hand, interviewing and taping all the kids and their great efforts, along with those of their mentors and sponsors, who are often the most emotional people at the event, based on past experience, for a future  'CAR NUT TV' show, and of course we'll post all the video on this website, too.

Over the years, many people have been great contributors to the Coachella Valley's Derby, including the late US President Gerald R. Ford, who with his wife, Betty, was for many years a local resident, and always a great font of encouragement for the Derby and all its participants and supporters. Don Berry, for whom the local Derby is named, established the event and was a person of non-stop action and enthusiasm, doing everything which needed to be done to guarantee the local Derby would continue on for years, even without him, as it has. Fred Mohler, now a longtime local Coachella Valley resident, was the national winner of the Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, in 1953, and gives willingly of his time and effort, wherever he might be of the greatest good to encourage his "kids". We do point out, however, that while Mohler was from Muncie, Indiana, the next three finishers that year, 54 years ago, were from Los Angeles, only 100 miles from where our local Derby will be held on March, 29th, in La Quinta.

And we want to encourage all the adults from the Southern California area who visit this website --- more than several hundred a day --- To participate as sponsors and mentors in their own local Soap Box Derby! It's fun, it's a great learning and teaching experience,  and it's a fantastic way for kids and adults together to learn patience and teamwork. And all the local events need sponsors of all kinds, large and small, as you'll read below.

To paraphrase Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday, "Here's just the facts":

Race Date: March 29, 2008, 9AM Start - till approximately 4-5PM

Location: Avenida Bermudas in the La Quinta Cove area

Contact information: 760-564-3761; E-mail: [email protected]

Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby Local Website: www.cvsbd.org

Ages: Stock 8-13, Super Stock 10-17

Divisions: Stock & Super Stock (Masters Division to be held in 2009)

Local area for competitors: All of Riverside & Imperial Counties (and portions of San Bernardino, i.e. 29 Palms)

Cost of New Car: Approximately $700

We are always looking for sponsors to help with the costs to send the winners back to Akron. 

Anyone interested in a sponsorship, please call 760-564-3761.  We can get your names in the event program for this year's event if you contact the Derby by March 25th.

Click below to read more for the sponsor and contact information ... Maybe you can help out! Maybe you should help out! What if someone had helped you when you read about the Soap Box Derby as a kid ... maybe you dreamed about participating ... but for whatever reasons, you couldn't ... Maybe that was because that someone who could have helped you never called when they should have ... So NOW is YOUR chance to help! It'll be fun! You'll LOVE it ... So DO it!

SEEN ON THE FREEWAYS OF LOS ANGELES

From the phony paint-and-tape "Saleen Mustang" elsewhere on this blog to all manner and kind of BMWs with the ersatz "M" badge pasted on them to make them look more expensive, So Cal's freeways are the greatest car show on earth --- Real cars, trucks and motorcycles and those vehicles just imagined in the owners' very active minds! The photos in this posting were digitally captured by Steve and Carey Parker (using a Sony 7meg hand-held digital ... a true workhorse!)during a one-day trip from the Palm Springs area to Los Angeles and back ... Enjoy!

While we were driving our test car of the week, a 2007 Jaguar S-type, on the I-10 Freeway, coincidentally in the East Los Angeles area, nearby the LA County Sheriff's headquarters facility (and women's jail ...), this Scion xB from "Lipstick Bail Bonds", driven by a middle-aged lady with bleached blond hair and a lot of gold jewelry, was seen zipping along to meet-up with her next bad-luck client ... perhaps a "frequent-flier" customer ...

Remember the "Excalibur", one of many "neo-classic"
autos designed to look like classic 1930s autos, but built on top of an existing platform? For some reason, in the 1970s, these things really took off. Excalibur was just one of them. A trusted friend told me that one day, while driving in Hollywood, he spotted Lyle Wagoner (remember the "Carol Burnett Show"?) in one of these monstrosities, uh, we mean neo-classics, with license plates reading, I kid you not, "MR. COOL". This car was snapped while pulling out of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey, CA, with the driver in his cut-off T-shirt (known to some as a "wife beater" ... What an idiotic name!) and the prerequisite blond sitting next him, apparently bundled-up against the cold of the California summer day, about 85 degrees when we shot this ... Other neo-classics included the Clenet, Zimmer, Gatsby and Archer, and way too many others. Incidentally, whatever happened to Lyle Wagoner? He now owns "Star Wagons" (get it?), which is, if not the largest, certainly one of the largest suppliers of luxury trailers and motorhomes for the film industry used on shooting locations worldwide. Yes, he did just fine ... No fundraising banquets necessary.

What a find! A real and running (in a sense) Ford Torino from the TV era of "Starsky And Hutch", the late 1970s. This car was such an absolute piece of running junk that as soon as we saw it, we wished we were CHP officers and and were able pull this travesty over and never allow it to run on the highway again, at least not legally. Note the snappy American flag waving in the freeway's breeze. This was shot on the infamous I-405 (San Diego Freeway), southbound from the carpool lane, at about 5pm on a summer's hot Friday afternoon about 3 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport.

Here's the rear view of that Torino. Note the nice touches by the owner. The bungee cord holding the trunk closed, the bent license plate, the taped-over and only possibly-working taillights, the lovely "crown" logo on the backlite (rear window) and don't even ask us what the "WK 5" means ...

We apologize for the backlighting of this photo, but it was shot while Carey hung out the passenger window while we were on the eastbound Ventura Freeway (I-134) at sunset, about 7:30pm at this time of year. We hope you appreciate our efforts for you! Obviously, and from this angle, it appears to be VERY loooong Hummer something-or-other. The owner calls it and H4 (the "real" H4 from General Motors is currently under final preparation for production next year).

Here's a shot of what we can only call the "central section" of this "H4" Hummer. Whoever built this thing had their work cut-out for them ---- On a positive note, we did note that there was no "sagging" in this part of the truck, though the vehicle appeared empty at the time. Put a couple of thousand pounds of people, animals, drugs, what-have-you, in the passenger compartment of this beast, and the mid-section might wind-up touching the ground ...

OK, here's the rear-end of the H4. Notice the tasteful canvas patio top over this section of the truck, an outdoor area which appears to be able to hold about 10 people. We do not know if there is a spa under that patio cover ... Several Hummer limo conversions we've seen in the LA area do indeed have working spas.

THIS JUST IN --- HELP SAVE JOHNIE'S!

This just crossed our transom today, Saturday, January 13th ... Maybe those of you in the So Cal area can stop by JOHNIE'S at the appointed time and show your support! For more info, email: [email protected], at the Los Angeles Conservation Committee!

JOIN US AT JOHNIE'S THIS SUNDAY, JAN. 14th -- we'll be meeting up with the Friends of Johnie's & a few classic car clubs & circling Johnie's Broiler from 3:30-5:30pm -- in honor of the one week anniversary of the brutal & illegal demolition of Johnie's.

Wear a black armband & bring a token of tribute to leave at Johnie's. It can be a flower, a photo, a child's drawing, a note, a balloon...something you can leave in memory of Johnie's/Harvey's.

We should get some media coverage -- KCAL-9/CBS-2 has been GREAT covering the story for us.

JUSTICE FOR JOHNIE'S!
REBUILD JOHNIE'S!
Johnie's Broiler
7447 Firestone Boulevard
Downey

Car Nut Road Trip to the LA Auto Show 100th Anniversary Announced!

  For local Car Nuts who join Car Nut TV's Steve Parker and other desert valley Car Nuts, it's been announced that we'll be taking our annual trek to the 2006 Annual Los Angeles Automotive Show on Saturday, December 9th.  This year is the auto show's 100th Anniversary and the event itself has been rescheduled from the first of the year to the end of the year.  So our Car Nut Road Trip will be Saturday, December 9th, and we'll plan to leave at about 8:30 am and return to the valley at about 6:30 pm.  Call 760 771-8157 to make a reservation or e-mail for more information and reservations to [email protected] or [email protected] .  This year promises to be another great auto show event with Steve Parker, The Car Nut and his wife "Mrs. Car Nut" / Carey Parker who will be handling reservations and greeting passengers aboard Car Nut #1 which will be whisking away desert car nuts to the great LA Auto Show this winter!   

Find more information, see photos on line from prior auto show events and join in on the fun here online now and we'll look forward to seeing many of you and new car nut listeners and viewers on this Car Nut Road Trip this season!  Cost is $49.95 per person.  Please tell a friend and bring a fellow car nut for the holidays!  Posted by Carey Parker.   

RICH GUY WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO MOUNTS 1974 LAMBORGHINI ON HOUSE INTERIOR WALL

What's a 58-year old guy with a 3.5 acre estate on the tremendously exclusive "Back Bay" of Newport Beach, CA, an heir to an incredible real estate fortune, supposed to do with his spare time? Make a great public effort to urge others to contribute to UNICEF, help-out in Darfur, work closely with former Pres. Clinton on curing AIDS? No, this guy has other ideas. Why not mount his 1974 Lamborghini, purchased for a purported $60,000 a decade back, on the big blank wall over the solid glass staircase leading to the wine cellar secured by a door from a KGB prison? Yeah, THAT'S the ticket! (PHOTOS BY RICK LOOMIS, LA TIMES)

I went to high school in Santa Ana, CA, with Richard Moriarty's cousin, Henry Segerstrom. Segerstrom's father and grandfather at that time (1972) owned acres and acres of bean fields in Orange County, CA, right where the then-new San Diego (I-405) Freeway crossed into the Orange County Airport/Newport Beach/Costa/Mesa area of the County. The Back Bay of Newport Beach is mostly a reserve for fish and birds, but parcels of it are privately owned.

Richard Moriarty, cousin of my high school friend and nephew of the original Segerstrom's, apparently did okay financially when the family sold some of their bean fields to folks who developed South Coast Plaza, one of the world's ritziest shopping areas, and followed with several office towers, hotels and the Orange County Performing Arts Center (the Arts Center land was donated by the Segerstrom family).

According to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, "Moriarty, 58, is known for his irreverent tastes. In the 1980s, he organized exotic costume parties, such as his "Pimps, Hookers, Drug Dealers and Lawyers Ball," that drew about 3,000 revelers. As a teen, he toiled in the lima bean fields that his uncle, Henry Segerstrom, transformed into South Coast Plaza. More recently, he planted a small vineyard on his 3.5-acre estate and began bottling prize-winning wines under such labels as "Wretched Excess" and "The Idle Rich."

Moriarty rented a 70-ton crane for the job. The skylight in the steel-and-concrete home was designed large enough for the Lambo Countach to fit. Architect Fleetwood Joiner (think that's his real name?) oversaw construction of the new home which will be completed later this year. Mark your calendars.

  The Countach weighed about 1,000 pounds sans engine and drivetrain, which were removed from the Lambo and most of which now serve as a cocktail table in the home's living room. That's been done so many times it is beyond cliche, Richard! Shame on you, dear! How absolutely boring!

Here's to possibly one of the world's ultimate displays in waste and greed, an exercise in futility performed by a man who has never done a full and/or honest day's work in his life and was born into his money.

This guy is a one-man reason to KEEP THE INHERITANCE TAX and possibly strengthen its rules!

The LA TIMES also said that Moriarty's "fiancee" was on-hand for the Lambo event. No surprise there; men with that kind of money and at that age in Newport Beach are rarely involved in successful marriages...