Bringing Gear Heads Together

Get your Kicks (and Coffee) on Route 66

Glenn Oyoung

I’m not originally from Arcadia so it seems like every so often I learn something new about this city, like the fact that the famous Route 66 runs through our city for more than two miles from where Huntington Drive in the east intersects the 210 Foothill Freeway to the split at Colorado Place which it then follows to Colorado Street to the western border of Arcadia. Route 66 was the main road that adventurous Americans took out west, well before the Interstate Highway System was built.

Its place in pop culture was immortalized by the famous lyrics “Get your kicks / On Route 66” sung by the likes of Nat King Cole, made popular by rock & roller Chuck Berry, and rehashed time and time again by later pop acts (my generation may remember the rendition by Depeche Mode – did I just date myself?).

Given this treasure sitting literally in our backyard, I figured that we Arcadians should celebrate this piece of our national history in a way that could bring us together and celebrate its significance in automotive culture. I got together with Scott Hettrick at the Arcadia’s Best Foundation and Carcadia @Route 66 was born. (Like us on Facebook: Carcadia66 or Carcadia at 66.)

Carcadia’s purpose is to bring together all the gear heads and their families from Arcadia and the surrounding areas to celebrate our shared love of cars, grab some coffee and breakfast, and meet our fellow Arcadians. When I moved here I couldn’t help but notice that: a.) there are a lot of cool cars driving around Arcadia that run the gamut from modern high-end exotics to super-rare classics, and b.) with so many different areas to hang out in Arcadia, it didn’t seem to have a single “main street” where people could or chose to intermingle (unless you count waiting in line at Din Tai Fung as intermingling) like there is on Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia or Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre.

Inspired by the phenomenally successful cars & coffee-style meets that have sprung up in Crystal Cove, Irvine, La Cañada-Flintridge, we took a leap of faith and decided to give our fellow gearheads a place to show off their beloved rides and more importantly, meet other gearheads.

On Saturday, December 14th we launched Carcadia @Route 66 at the parking lot behind Denny’s Restaurant at Santa Anita Avenue and Huntington Drive – right on Route 66, (and within walking distance of delicious Moons over My Hammy). We wanted to test out the concept and through word-of-mouth and reaching out to the Purist Facebook group we had 15 cars and a couple dozen people of all ages and backgrounds show up.

The diversity that we often talk about in Arcadia was on full display, not just in terms of the demographics of our Carcadia “Pole Position” founding group of attendees, but also in terms of the diversity of the cars they displayed:

Ford and Shelby were represented by a 90’s-era Cobra, a Shelby GT500 (in Hertz colors no less!), and a beast of a truck – the Ford Raptor!

Classic American muscle was on display with a 70’s-era Camaro, a 60’s-era Corvette, and a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.

Modern “tuner” cars were represented by many Arcadia-members of the Purist automotive enthusiast group who brought GT-Rs, FR-Ss, Nissan 240SXs, and a Lotus Elise to the gathering.

Perhaps the crowd favorite of everyone in attendance to the first Carcadia was the massive and impressive Chrysler Imperial and vintage Ford ambulance brought by Rob Post and Mike Williams of Arcadia’s very own Post Alarm Systems. The siren came in handy to alert people that the party was getting started!

All in all it was a fantastic morning. I expected only a handful of people to come but sure enough, there’s a lot of automotive passion in Arcadia. The coolest thing to me is watching a young tuner guy with a Nissan tripping out over the engine block of a classic Chevy and then looking across the way and seeing an older (in age, but not spirit) hot-rodder asking what the heck a Nissan Silvia is and why the wheels are cambered out that way.

To me nothing is better than when different parts of the gear head universe collide, because new friendships are made that might otherwise never have a chance to spring forth. And at the end of the day what’s a better reason that friendship to give your beloved car a nice wash and wax and wake up a little earlier?

Please stay tuned for the date of the next Carcadia at Route 66, coming in January 2014!

— By Glenn Oyoung Glenn Oyoung, a founder of turn3 Creative marketing and merchandising services, lives in Arcadia with his wife, kids, and three dogs.