Sunday Car Craziness

I spent much of last Sunday attending (and driving to) a trio of interesting car events: the Dixon All British Meet, the Friendship Day Meet, and an Arcane Auto tour of the Toy Box. I had hoped to take the MG to these events. But the threat of rain, coupled with my unease about driving the only recently reconstructed MG, pursuaded me that it was prudent to take the Camry instead.

My plan for the day was predicated on the following two facts: 1. The Dixon show also has a major swap meet; and the best stuff at swap meets goes early. 2. The Arcaners were departing from Redwood City for the nearby Toy Box at 11:30 am. So it came to pass that I encircled the most of the Bay area in one day--driving up 680 to 80 to Dixon, 80 to the Bay Bridge to 101 to 280 to Redwood City, and 280 back home.

I was up at 5:30 am, and on the road before 6. An hour and a half later I arrived at Dixon, just as the swap meet vendors were setting up. In truth, the MG is basically complete. I'm really not looking for more than a few tiny things for myself. Mostly, I was in the market for a few parts vital to Bob's now almost complete Metropolitan. As it so happened, I came across a pair of potentially valueable trunk hinges for him. Although the vendor thought they came off a Triumph TR4 and had no idea if they'd fit a Met, for ten dollars they were too good to pass up. Sir zLog has inspected them and believes that they may work. If so, this would be a great steal because Met trunk hinges usually cost upwards of $100.

I stayed at Dixon watching the cars arrive (and hoping for new vendors) until about 9:45 am. Few new vendors came, and I was a bit disappointed by the size of the swap meet in general. From what I saw of the show, the cars there were almost all of makes and models I'd seen before. The only difference being that I hadn't seen these particular automobiles before. Since I've become quite familiar with most of the British cars around the South Bay, it's nice to see different colors and variations.

After driving back down South and West, I arrived at the Friendship Day Meet in Redwood City at 11:15. I hastily took pictures of as many interesting cars as I could while searching for my Arcane Auto friends. I finally saw them just as they were departing for the gathering site for the tour to the Toy Box. Not wanting to miss the Toy Box, I hastily jogged back to my car in an attempt to catch up with them.

I arrived at the appointed meeting place a few minutes later in my decidedly un-arcane Camry--especially compared to the Citroens, Messerschmitt, Trihawk, DeLorean, Austin open door beach car, Renault Dauphine, and other assorted autos in attendance. Nontheless I was greeted warmly and invited along to Dick DeLuna's private collection, known as the Toy Box, at his new Woodside home.

The Toy Box collection is absolutely amazing, containing more than forty immaculately restored cars and motorcycles amidst a sea of memorabilia. Most of Dick's collection is housed in large barn on the grounds his beautiful Woodside home. However, the term barn is deceiving. In point of fact, the structure is a barn outside, but inside it's a shiny wood-flored shrine to the the beauty of automobiles and their history. In a collection that also includes some slightly more usual classics, such as a pair '60s Mercedes convertibles, a '60s Corvette, an MG TD, an MGA, an Isetta, and a Messerschmitt; the highlights for me were a classic 1947 DeSoto Skyview Taxi, a 1948 Nardi racer, a 1917 Hall-Scott, a 1936 Dodge Woody, and a host of early automobiles.

I arrived home at 2 pm after a full day of driving and cars, very tired and ready for a nap. Photos to follow. Full picture albums are posted here.