There comes a point in a car’s lifetime when it is simply a used car. A pile of metal and rubber forgotten to all but the most dedicated owner or poorest college student. Cars that the California Air Resources Board offers you $1000 for every two years. That prompt a swipe left when included in your profile pic. That inform your co-workers that an older car to you is from twenty years ago, not five.
We’re in an odd spot, those of us who appreciate cars of this flavor. It’s even difficult to name this grouping of car so many of us are enthralled by. You can’t call them classic without fear of the homie with a ’70 Charger and matching torque wrench coming after you. Calling them vintage feels wrong, the very utterance of the word clouds your vision in sepia filters and sparks the uncontrollable urge to nonchalantly light a cigarette and exhale toward the ceiling.
I suppose we could call them…Rad.
From the dudes over at Driving While Awesome, Radwood is “a celebration of ’80s and ’90s automotive lifestyle.” This upcoming weekend brings with it the presentation of Radwood 2, hosted at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California. From all the online and social media excitement it looks like it’s going to be quite the show. A number of California based car journos are bringing along their radware, and even Mazda North America has signed up to celebrate this new gathering for old cars.
So while I’m sorting my travel plans down to SoCal and waiting for the camera batteries to charge, I figured we’d go through a few favorites from the first Radwood meet held earlier this year.
Like this Cressida, there are a lot of cars from the ’80s and ’90s that amount to a guilty pleasure for car enthusiasts. Their performance stats would fail to make a Nissan Versa blush, but they bring back the kind of memories you don’t seem to make with cars available in recent showrooms. I can’t recall the last time I even recognized the Cressida’s replacement, the Toyota Avalon, let alone having devoted more than half a thought to it. Running into this Cressida however, reminded me I’m not the only one with an affinity for Toyota’s rear-wheel drive origins.
And I’m certainly not alone in appreciating Acura’s (née Honda’s) earlier days either. The DB Integra was toward the top of the list of cars I lusted after in high school. According to Google, Jasper Green Metallic was the color I sought most. But my sixteen year old jaw would have hit the floor if I’d run into this Torino Red sedan back then. Hard to beat a slight drop on modest wheels. Together with subtle touches like the trunk lip and the smoked lights, the whole car’s aesthetic had me waxing nostalgic on creeping through the Bay Classifieds looking for my first car.
The Eurobeat intensified as I walked back through the spectator lot and happened upon a couple other high school crushes. At the actual top of my list of cars to own was a Corolla GT-S. Besides a particular manga, there was a blue coupe that ran around my neighborhood that always kept the Corolla at top of mind. That said, if you’d offered me a Civic EF hatch like the one above I’d have had a hard time choosing, especially with the clean interior this one sported; fat aftermarket wheel, funky seat fabric inserts, and all.
Eurobeat faded while the hair metal spun the volume knob clockwise and defiantly snapped it off. The tail lights, the hood vents, the wheels, and the T-tops give the Camaro such a presence that you can’t help but grin. The third generation F-body coughed onto the scene as the American car manufacturers were dragging themselves out of the Malaise quagmire from years prior. What it lacked in brute power from the various available V8s it made up for in intimidation factor and ample space for 12″s in the trunk. Didn’t spot a sub box in this one, but at least the TPI 5.7 under the hood of this later IROC-Z could generate some decent 11s leaving the Kwik-E-Mart.
Crazy to consider now, just a few yards over and a few years after the Camaro this trio would grace the scene. The NSX, making 30+ more horsepower with nearly half the displacement of the L98 powered Camaro. The Corvette ZR-1, with the early LT5 making 100+ horsepower over the Honda mill. And then there’s the Dodge Viper, sporting an 8.0L V10 making whatdoyoucarewatchoutforthatditch horsepower.
It seems this post has devolved into me just babbling about random ’80s and ’90s cars I’ve got a soft spot for. But perhaps that means there’s something real here. A lot of these cars ended up as the butt of a joke, or simply just forgotten as the used cars they turned into. The vibe here is different however. It’s fun, for sure. But there’s a genuine excitement for these cars and this newly formed community of owners who have up till now been unable to find a place hang their Members Only jackets.
If you’ve read this far then either you’re amused by my lunacy, or these cars have the same pull for you. If it’s the latter then you should know this is only a taste of what this gathering has to offer. If you’re anywhere near Anaheim this weekend (and even if you’re not) you should make sure to stop in and check out the insanity that will be Radwood 2.
It should be pretty damn rad…
