Saturday Nov. 5, 2005
Driving home from the 10th annual Best of France & Italy car show and swap meet last Sunday, Allison and I tried hard to put our fingers on why we like the show so much. It certainly lacks the vast line ups of Ferraris which are overwhelming at other California events, nor is it held on tracts of rarified real estate often a feature of events on both coasts.
Rather, we decided, it's because it's so casual and lighthearted. With no official judging, a loose format and no program per se, it's a bring-what-you- drive show. Which means that as long as it's of French or Italian origin it's welcome. Although, we did spot a VW Beetle lurking under one of the trees, apparently trying to sneak up on the Fiats parked nearby.
Held at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, which looks like anywhere else in LA to the uninitiated, just north of the intersection of the 101 & 405 freeways, the show is easily accessible. As a result, some great cars show up. In fact, some three-hundred plus cars were present this year. Two Siata 208s's, an 8V, Jay Leno in his Bugatti Type 38, several Lancia Lambdas, a Delahaye and Tom Shaugnessey’s Ferrari 166SC that had been rebodied by Scaglietti were the obvious highlights.
Then there were the Alfas, ranging from a beautiful 1900 coupe to late-model spiders, a wide variety of Fiats and a nice selection of Lancias.
But the real stars of the show were the oddballs; the nicest Renault Caravelle convertible that I've ever seen parked next to an extremely clean Caravelle hardtop, the Renault 4-CV rolling restoration project, Gary Wales's La Bestioni (is this even partially Italian, other than in female name?), Ron Lawless's home-built DML special (again of dubious Italian origin, but cool nonetheless), a nicely restored Autobianchi Bianchina resting behind Merkel Weiss's 1000 GT Longnose Abarth and Mark Mitchell's Double Bubble. Or how about that line-up of Facels, with two Facel II's, a Facel III and a FV-2B.
The north side of the park where the larger displacement cars were displayed included a nice selection of Iso Rivoltas, an Iso Grifo and a brace of Ghia 450ss's, along with a smattering of Ferraris, Maseratis and the like.
This Lamborghini Espada was particularly smiting, perfect for late night dashes down the freeway escorting harems of blue-jean, halter-top wearing blonde beauties toward the morning light.
I'm getting carried away, but this is LA, where anything is possible and the cars are actually driven.
The next edition of the Best of France & Italy is Sunday November 5, 2006 at Woodley Park. It's worth the trip.
1972 Iso Grifo.
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1960 Renault 4CV.
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1964 Abarth 1000 Longnose.
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1983 Matra Murena.
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1960 Autobianchi Biachina.
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"La Bestioni" Your guess is as good as ours.
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Lamborghini Espada.
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Fiat V8 Zagato.
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1960 Lancia Flaminia.
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1957 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sedan.
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1967 Alfa 1600 Giulia Super.
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Ghia 450SS.
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