One of the best things about a come one, come all car show is that you get to see the variety of styles and ideas that other gearheads are putting into their cars. Brand loyalty is fine, and nobody ever said you need to stray from your loyalty, but just seeing the Crayola box of colors strewn throughout the parking lot, decorating a couple hundred musclecars, is like being a kid in a candy store.

How about some Vitamin C with your ‘Cuda?

We like all musclecars and hot rods, street rods and street trucks, and even the classics, restorations, and resto-mods. Give us one of each, we say, because while some people aim to drive a different car on the weekends, we’ll take option ‘B’ and drive a different car every day of the month, and then mix things up and do it all over again the next month.

That’s what makes the All American Car Show so much fun and such a success every year. There’s so much variety and so many different cool cars from just about every era of the automobile that there truly is something for everyone. Even though this yearly show is put on by the Mopar Club of San Diego, they don’t discriminate when it comes to putting on a show.

We rolled in again this year to the Mira Costa College San Elijo Campus Campus in Cardiff, California, early in the morning to an already full lot. This being the second year at this location, it was a great place to be with the cool weather and the breeze coming in through the hills from the coast not more than a mile or two away. There were plenty of trees to provide some shade to the weary, and to leave little remnants of leaves or twigs on cars throughout the day, but hell… that’s life and it wasn’t so bad anyway.

Hemi. ‘nuf said.

The very first row of cars as we entered belonged to club members, and contained everything from Gary Shadoan’s 2014 Dodge Dart to Jerry Kellers wild and injected Pro Street Hemi Dodge Polara. Once we made it past the gauntlet of Mopars, it was on to the parking lot where the theme of “All American” (meaning you must be an American) takes place and it was open to anyone and everyone.

There were very few (as in a couple) foreign cars there, and they were pretty decent rides. They’re usually a classic like an MGA or an old Triumph, rather than a sea of Japanese imports. But the rest of the cars in the show were all from the big three – or four if you want to call AMC their own company since the representation was pre-Mopar ownership vehicles like the AMX, Javelin, Rambler, and Matador. Yeppirs, there was a Matador – The Machine!

The show brought out some old relics with wooden wheels from the early part of the last century, to modern muscle like the SRT Viper TA, sitting there looking like it was just waiting to take the windy roads home at speed. As we said, the variety is what makes this a great show.

The more important part of this show, however, is that the Mopar Club of San Diego raises money for two charities that support our military troops and their families: Homefront San Diego and the USO, raising about $3000 for each organization at their show. We also caught up with other organizations that had a booth there to help our veterans, one was Wounded Warrior Homes, helping to provide affordable housing and resources for post 9/11 Veterans.

It kinda looks like some Richard Petty wannabe was going a little too fast in the parking lot, drawing the attention of the period-correct Statey.

The entire show is a very relaxed atmosphere with a great group of people putting on the show and making sure that everyone was having a great time. But the real excitement of the day came when the raffle prizes were being called out, and the awards for the best cars in several different classes and categories.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

As with most car shows you have your winners, judged as the best cars in the show – and the All American Car Show has no shortage of awards to hand out at the end of the show. But since it would take much longer to show all of the winners and their rides with you, we are going to share some of the top awards, namely: Best in Show, Best Mopar, Best GM, and Best Ford. We’ll also share with you our top picks from the show as well.

BEST OF SHOW
’75 Ford Ranchero Squire – Mike Miller

If you’ve been to a few of the local car shows in the San Diego area for the past couple of years, you probably noticed Mike Miller’s 1975 Ford Ranchero Squire. Complete with wood down the side, this beast only looks like a sleeper if you look at just a door, because out back is a massive set of steamrollers, and up front is a 640 cubic inch BOSS Hemi putting out over 900 ponies.

It’s definitely a head turner, and we’ve seen this Ranchero at Goodguys in Del Mar a couple of times, as well as a few other local car shows in town. Under the car, a 1981 Camaro front suspension supports the front end, and the rear us handled by a Kugel IRS.

Getting all those horses to the custom rear end is a GM 4L80-E automatic, which surely helps out a little on the fuel mileage with the overdrive, but we’re guessing it’s not by much. If there was ever a poster car for overkill, this all aluminum Boss Hemi would be in the running.

BEST CHEVY
’63 Chevy Impala – Elias Gallegos
SPONSORED BY HARP PEST CONTROL

BEST FORD
’64 Ford Falcon – Mike Loftus
SPONSORED BY TAMERICAN NATIONAL INSURANCE

BEST MOPAR
’36 Plymouth P-2 Sedan – Joseph & Rita Gyomber
SPONSORED BY CLIFF & LYNNE CUNNINGHAM

Street Legal TV Favorites from the Show
BEST GM

Our pick for Best GM vehicle in the show went to this beautiful 1965 GTO, owned by Denny and Diane Maley. The Goat has been completely customized inside and out, and sports a 425 hp 421 cubic inch Pontiac mill sporting the infamous Tri-Power, backed by a Tremec 5-speed transmission. The interior was flawless, and helped give this Pontiac a little nudge towards being one of our favorite cars in the show.

BEST FORD

There were lots of great Fords at the show, but this 1953 F-100 belonging to Dwayne Richardson was our hands down favorite. Under the bright orange hood was a 1957 Dodge 335 cubic inch Hemi backed by a Richmond 5-speed transmission. The truck was built for performance and luxury, with power windows and doors, air conditioning, power steering, and power brakes. But don’t let those luxuries fool you, the rear fenders were widened two inches to accommodate the wide 275/60R17 rubber mounted on American Racing Torque Thrust II wheels. Disc brakes help bring this Hemi-powered truck to a stop, witih a Kugel IFS and a No-Limit 4-link rear suspension.

BEST MOPAR

When Marv Reiser’s 1968 Plymouth Barracuda S/S rolled in, the thunder it made from the massive Hemi turned some heads. This A-body Mopar is supposed to be a sub-compact car, but it made a very generous home for the elephant sitting between the fender aprons. There’s not much more that anyone can say about this car that would do it any justice, the car was basically a strip car that sported license plates and was kicking butt and taking names while rolling in. We couldn’t get enough of it, and neither could most of the people who stopped by to check it out.

Below is a list of the other winners from the show, with a huge gallery at the bottom:

TOP 10:
’68 Plymouth Cuda S/S – Marv Reiser
’64 Plymouth Gasser – Winfield Wood
’47 Pontiac Woody – Jim Collins
’65 Pontiac GTO – Denny & Diane Maley
’31 FordModel A Wrecker – Jim Wyman
’57 Chevy Bel Air – Mark Pitch
’32 Pierce Arrow – Grant Pierano
’70 Plymouth Cuda – Milton Karahadian
’37 MG – Robert Hanselman
’70 Dodge Hemi Challenger – Mike Mattern

CLASSIC MUSCLE:
’69 Chevy Chevelle – Nat Riddle
SPONSORED BY HAGERTY INSURANCE

BEST HOT ROD:
’32 Ford Roadster – Leon Miller
SPONSORED BY KELLER RACING

BEST ENGINE
’53 Ford F-100 Pick Up – Duane Richardson
SPONSORED BY KELLER RACING

BEST PRE-50’S
’41 Ford Super Delux Woody – Dennis Wuetherich
SPONSORED BY WALKER COMMUNICATIONS

BEST AMC
’68 AMX – Allen Tyler
SPONSORED BY WALKER COMMUNICATIONS

MODERN MUSCLE
’13 Dodge Charger R/T – Paul Ullom
SPONSORED BY VIAU MOTORSPORTS

BEST SLEEPER
’96 Buick Roadmaster – Dan Whitaker
SPONSORED BY TOM & TERRY FERRIERA

FABULOUS 50’S
Ford F-100 Pick Up – Charles Crossan
SPONSORED BY CHARLIE & NATALE SHAWL

BEST GM THAT AIN’T A BOW TIE
’66 Pontiac Le Mans – Jerry Harder
SPONSORED BY BILL & BARBARA BAUGH

BEST TRUCK
’54 Ford F-100 Pick Up – Mary Hunter
SPONSORED BY THE BOURDAGE FAMILY

BEST MUSTANG
’14 Saleen Mustang – Dick Eimers
SPONSORED BY AMERICAN NATIONAL INSURANCE

BEST FLAMES
’57 Chevy Bel Air – Mark Pitch
SPONSORED BY BOB & DEBBIE GOUGH

BEST CORVETTE
’67 Sting Ray – Dale Vermillion
SPONSORED BY LARRY & YOLANDA DEWEESE

BEST CONVERTIBLE
’71 Plymouth Cuda – Roy Minter
SPONSORED BY SVS CONSULTING

BEST CUSTOM
’71 Buick Riviera – Kyle Jackson-Croft
SPONSORED BY OLYMPIC POWDER COATING

BEST PROWLER
’01 Plymouth Prowler – Vince & Ellen Marizzaldi
SPONSORED BY THE MOPAR CLUB

BEST PAINT
’65 Cadillac Coupe de Ville – James Miller
SPONSORED BY THE MOPAR CLUB

BEST FOREIGN
’71 VW Beetle – Pat Chalmers
SPONSORED BY THE MOPAR CLUB

MOPAR CLUBMEMBERS’ TOP PICK
’71 Plymouth Cuda – Carolyn Mooney
SPONSORED BY THE MOPAR CLUB

MOPAR CLUBMEMBERS’ TOP PICK
’13 Dodge Challenger – Elsa Kleinfeldt
SPONSORED BY THE MOPAR CLUB