Ray Ho – 10/23/2016
I woke up early this cloudy Sunday morning, grab my keys and headed down the freeway. It was refreshing to drive without the usual weekday mornings commute traffic. I quickly found myself in the fast lane sandwiched between a Nissan NISMO 370Z and a debadged Infiniti Q50. Obviously, it was impossible to even try to adhere to the speed limit so I pulled to the next lane. As I was coasting I heard a loud roar. A white Porsche GT3 was expanding rapidly in my rear view mirror. The white blur zoomed by then quickly faded into the traffic ahead. All that’s left was the dwindling sweet exhaust note. I wonder if he was also going where I was heading?
As I was approaching my destination, traffic visibly slowed down. I could see the venue, yet not a single ticket scalper in sight. No one was trying to peddle parking spaces either. I cautiously pulled into the parking lot narrowing missing a reporter who was covering the event while holding a selfie stick. While navigating through the parking, I noticed that the closest thing to cheerleaders and tailgate parties were a couple of young ladies serving coffee and bagels. Then I saw the home team. There they were, like gladiators outfitted in shiny armors, and they were originally from Germany? Of course! I have arrived at SuperCar Sunday and today’s marque manufacturer is Porsche.
SuperCar Sunday is being held every Sunday morning at the Westfield Promenade Mall parking lot in Woodland Hills, CA. It was founded and organized by a gentleman named Dustin T and sponsored by the Auto Gallery. Auto Gallery set up a tent toward the Topanga Canyon Blvd side. Besides serving refreshments, Auto Gallery also carry some marque merchandises, ample promotional materials, and sometimes a driving simulator. There were also a few other vendors selling anything from t-shirts, die-cast model cars to car insurance. SuperCar Sunday presents rotating marques throughout the year. And for today’s featured Porsche cars, a section of the parking lot is dedicated for all Porsches on a first come first serve bases. Due to the huge concentration of Porsches in Southern California, there were overwhelming numbers of Porsches on display with models ranging from vintage 356s to a 918 and everything in between. It seemed like endless Porsches were flooding the event where they quickly overflowed to scattering spaces throughout the mall parking lot.
As I surveyed the field, it reaffirmed that SuperCar Sunday welcomes all types of “Super” cars. Besides the marque cars, there were whole arrays of other interesting cars on display. Many proud owners hung out on their foldaway chairs eager to share their stories about their rides. I met a gentlemen with a black 911 (964) where he told me decades ago a Porsche dealer received a few 356s and offered to trade one plus some cash for his other classic 911. At that time he thought the 911 was more exciting therefore he refused. He really fumbled the ball because up to this day, he is still kicking himself over that decision. I spoke to another enthusiast about his 1975 911s with gorgeous factory Mexico Blue paint. As a former and destine 911 owner, I received valuable recommendations on nearby independent Porsche service shops. I also encounter an inspiring young woman, Denise, who overcame Cystic Fibrosis to realize her dream of customizing her car. She tackled the project entirely on her own in her friend’s garage. Her built was a Dirt Brown 2004 Ford Focus Kona edition with custom interior, European headlights and extensive engine work (200WHP vs. 130HP stock). Lastly, I chatted with Victor, an animated owner of a right-hand-drive (R33) 1995 Nissan Skyline GT-R. He bought the car after the U.S. Custom held it for 8 years because the previous owner poorly modified it and was trying to brought it over from Canada. He spent tons of money and insane amount of work to get it back to stock condition. He mentioned that the car is still barely legal in the US and he must file annual registration paperwork until it is 25 years old. He also recommended physically go to another country to buy a 25 year plus GT-R but enlist help from a VIN broker to ship the car back to the U.S. It is definitely a good option for someone longing to own a legendary classic sports car.
There were some cars for sale as well. Besides several pre-owned Porsches from the Auto Gallery, a few examples of the private party vehicles included a 2005 Pontiac GTO with the 400HP LS2 engine for $10K, a rare 1965 912 for $53K and an out-of-this-world custom 1984 Camaro for as much as $250K.
SuperCar Sunday is not just for car enthusiasts; it is also a very family friendly event. There were many kids and more than a few folks brought Fido with them. Since it could get fairly noisy in a packed mall parking lot, Dustin (the organizer) would periodically use his megaphone urging the participants to slow down while driving in the lot and also not to rev their engines. Inevitably, a few boneheads would still full-blasted their exhaust and peeled out of the parking lot. Again due to the event is in the mall parking lot, SuperCar Sunday could only lasts a few hours from 7am. The crowd usually clears out by 10am giving ample time for the mall opening at 11am. These hours actually worked out
great as we can still go home afterward to watch some Football.
The Cars And I 