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"This ain't no disco. This ain't no country club either. This is L.A."
(from All I Wanna Do - by Sheryl Crow)
By Frank Colgoni

As advertised, the ever intrepid "Time Bomb" John St. Germain, accompanied by John "Blown Flattie" Walton, ventured to La La Land to take in the historic L.A. Roadster Show. We met with John to discuss the event, his impressions and indelible memories.

To digress for a few moments, let's talk about the L.A. Roadsters and the show. Like the "Classic Images" of Rodder's Journal fame, the L.A. Roadsters name, their famous Roadsters L.A. plaque and the L.A. Roadster show are classic images.

Established in 1960, the show was one of the earliest outdoor events in Southern California. From a humble beginning with about 50 cars, the show now attracts close to 700 roadsters routinely, and equally as many cars (or more), in the "preferred parking" lot.

For the first few years the event was held in the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl. Size, and expansion into parts and manufacturer/dealer displays, forced a move to the Great Western Exhibit Centre and, after a dozen years there, it moved to it's current home at the Pomona Fairgrounds.

Despite the fact that it wasn't held for a few years in the early 1960's, this has to be one of the longest running outdoor events. Further, the event ultimately became a two-day event in order to cram everything in. Not too bad from a 50 car start. We think it qualifies as a classic.

Other than thinking that it was "unbelievable" and "too cool", "Time Bomb" John was amazed at "all those roadsters in one place". Naturally, Southern California has a slight (understatement) advantage weather-wise than where we hail from. It also has the history of being a top-down car culture. While we love our drop-tops, we need more than our share of cooperation from Mother Nature. I speak from experience here.
The roadsters at L.A came in all shapes and sizes, from the key decades and representing the various genres of rodding - nostalgia, "newstalgia", stock, customized, contemporary, the mild and the wild. You'd expect nothing less. We understand that that there were in excess of 650 roadsters at this year's event.

The L.A. Roadsters, being a roadster club, have designed this as a roadster only event with age/other restrictions. All cars had to be painted (read - no primer). This has always been a rule. Interesting huh? It's their show and they can do what they want to, do what they want to, do what they want to... (apologies to Lesley Gore)

Another of John's observations was that the preferred parking lot area was a car show unto itself. You'll notice some non-roadsters in the accompanying photos.