Central Valley Classic Cars

The first number is for the car featured. Only a replica mind you, but that of a the beautiful 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster. The second number in the title is for the temperature.

Ah the central valley.

To give a brief background to this event let me explain that in my former life, the one before I became a highly sought after and well paid internet auto-journalist, I worked as a filmmaker. Its true. I’ve made countless pieces of cinematic history which you will have never heard of and probably, most likely and with some certainty, never see.

But thankfully those years of toiling for my art have allowed me to get to work with some amazingly talented people, much like the motley crew pictured in these photos. They go by the name Westhavenbrook, and in this film they are pulling out all the stops. That means that when the script called for a super-hero and more importantly a super-hero’s car, they tracked down this Classic Cars of London replica of the mighty Auburn.

I even piloted the beast (or boat. . . it looks like a boat, sounds like a boat, is made of fiberglass, and steers like its floating in water) in several shots, trading my writer’s hat for that of a stunt driver. And if I may be so bold I was excellent at it. Not once did I hit a mail box. Remember that if anyone happens to be recounting to you how I almost did.

The shoot went swimmingly (no that is not a reference to the amount of sweat that accumulated in my clothes). These men are pros at what they do and what they do is film quickly. This saves money and when you don’t have any, that’s paramount. Even when the director (and star), Mr. John Soares, decided to try water skiing in gravel from the back of a pick-up truck for a couple of shots and was consequently left without his clothes intact, filming progressed at a lightning pace and thankfully got us out of there before anyone, the cars included, suffered heat stroke.

Check out these glimpses of what was accomplished on youtube: Clip 1 Clip 2

It’s amazing stuff, and there’s more to come. I’ll post more updates on the film’s progress whenever they happen, assuming there’s more beautiful boattail footage.

For myself though, the highlight of the day, historic creation of cinematic art aside, was the drive out to the location. For all of the valley’s overly plentiful heat in the afternoon, it is quite pleasant at nine in the morning. The temperature is just right for open top motoring in a classic car like this; one that makes the average classic look common. The wind in your hair, and your eyes and your ears, and well just about everywhere as the windshield is only good for directing the oncoming air straight at you, makes driving, even at 45mph, a visceral experience like driving a much faster car at a much faster speed. Even the sound of the exhaust feels so near, that I repeatedly looked for a another car behind and to the right of me only to realize the sound was my own. Its an experience I can’t imagine I’d find anywhere else.

All in all,I have to say that that was one of the best days I had all summer. I mean, like I metioned before, I didn’t hit a mailbox.