The Valley of the Sun has some great car shows. The top tier of those shows is the intimate, yet well attended Alpio’s at Troon Event Center, in North Scottsdale, Arizona. Suggested donations, benefitting the St. Vincent de Paul Society, provide great coffee, good breakfast eats, and live music. It is a meeting place for many a group, headed out from the show for a drive on the surrounding mountain roads.

The parking lot around the facility is loaded with Ferraris, Porsches, and many other exotics, ranging from vintage to showroom new. Yet, the diversity of cars brings together many sects of car culture every second Saturday of each month. We found plenty of ground-pounders worthy of a slot amongst the many beautiful specimens.

This ’55 Chevy C-Gasser blew our mind. One of the oldest and most diverse classes in the NHRA, this door slammer has probably seen some serious action over the years. Clearly a street survivor, the patina and beat-up interior tells the observer a story of nearly 70 years at the strip. A faded Carlsbad Raceway decal on the window reveals a west coast lineage that probably saw action at the many quarter miles in California, including the legendary Lions Dragstrip.

Patina-ladden ’55 C-Gasser. Umph!

David Brown has been the caretaker of this ’74 Camaro for 20 years. As he explained to us, this F2-bodied beauty has been an Arizona Car its whole life, and has been lovingly kept close to original — but for a 468 cubic inch Keith Black big block upgrade. We are pretty sure it will pass just about anything on the road, except, of course, a gas station.

David Brown’s ’74 Camaro was bitchin’!

Sitting a bit off the beaten path was this stunning ’70 Pontiac GTO convertible. The body was period correct, including scoops, and the hood-mounted tach. A gander inside the cockpit, however, told a different story. A black steering wheel, not matching the red interior, low profile tires on larger wheels, and a modern six-speed shifter could all be found inside. We did not get a look under the hood, but wondered if this was a neatly disguised Restomod?

A cleverly disguised Restomod…

It’s much fun when we get to see insane builds like this ’34 Model A modified dragster. The blown big-block on rails, back in the day, would probably be one of the most intimidating cars to line up against at the Christmas tree. The proud owner started it up and the straight side pipes emitted a sound that would wake the dead — but was music to the rest of us.

Not your Grandfather’s Model A — or was it?

We see a lot of Superformance Cobras out there — and bless Hillbank owner, Lance Stander, for putting the ‘60s supercar into many hands. But this one caught our eye, particularly for being one of the racing models. It features a Windsor 418 stroker power plant paired with a Tremec TKO 600 transmission. The current owner rescued the car from nearly 15 years of storage. We’re glad this beauty is seeing the light of day again to carve up the desert roads.

Superformance Cobra Racing Edition

Alpio Barbara, the proprietor of Alpio’s event center, is a collector of cars and memorabilia from movies, racing, aeronautics, and sports. Make sure after drooling (not directly) over the cars, to take a walk through the event center to see the eclectic collection which includes art, die-cast, retro decor — and even a life-size statue of Marilyn Monroe.