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Nice ride: Car clubs bring the sweet chrome and subculture

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Hot Rod Church
Photo: Christopher DeVargas

Pampered cars assemble around the Dairy Queen; Little Eva’s “Loco-motion” sets a nostalgic tone, and spectators amble around the parking lot with expressions of childlike wonder, stopping to exclaim, “My dad had one just like this!” and, “Whoa—look at that!” It’s so Americana it feels like stepping into an old drive-in scene, with gum-smacking teens in letterman jackets and roller skates, except we’re mostly adults, and not dressed like we came from a sock hop.

Ask a member of the scene, no matter the faction, and all car people will tell you these gatherings are about community. There are other things they love about cars, but those mostly solitary joys live between the covers of catalogs, in parts shops or junkyards, on the endless pages of eBay, in their home garages and out on the road, cruising with the windows down. These weekly gatherings, as Cars and Coffee organizer Salomon Braun puts it, are where enthusiasts “come out to kick tires and tell lies.”

Car Clubs

The various clubs have their specialties, from hot rods to imports to high-end supercars, but they don’t come off as clique-ish. A car enthusiast is a car enthusiast, and though their trademarks might differ, their passions are the same. The owner of a storied old American car, admired for its rusty patina, could mingle with the driver of a matte black supercar who’s finicky about the finish, and still find plenty of common ground. Likewise, ​members of the car-show circuit welcome​ outsiders. They’ve poured hours of hard work into their vehicles, and they appreciate your appreciation.

Hot Rods, Rat Rods, Classics

CHECK OUT: Dairy Queen, Friday nights at Rancho & Craig; Donut Delinquents, Saturday mornings at Tropicana & Mountain Vista; Hot Rod Church, Sunday mornings at Jones & Cheyenne; Mr. D’s, Tuesday nights at Oakey & Rainbow; HellKats, third Fridays at Hard Rock Cafe (Paradise).

If you’re not familiar with rat rods, think of a Mad Max car, minus some apocalypse, plus a nod to American history. Like the dystopian flick’s Frankenstein rides, rat rods are pieced together from scavenged parts, but unlike the original’s 1973 Ford Falcon XB, ​the rods are typically older.

JunkYard Pirates is a local pre-1972 car club that organizes Rat City Rukkus each year in April, at the same time the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender ​descends. To counter the strict guidelines of shows that forbid alterations, the group ​dreamt up​ Rukkus a decade ago to ​highlight a broader range of classics​. Since then​ it has swelled to 350-plus show cars, with unofficial overflow spilling into nearby lots.

Patrick Watson of the JunkYard Pirates

Member Patrick Watson, a stuntman-turned-stagehand who got the nickname Patrick the Pirate for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean, drives a 1929 Hudson with Ford parts and the chassis of a mid-’80s Dodge. Everything is hand-crafted by Watson and his friends, including a skull-topped gear stick that extends through the roof and an exposed engine with a throttle linkage made of Arizona barbed wire from 1812. It was this kind of rugged ​flair that attracted Watson to rat rods​, in the style of automobile icon Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, who created Rat Fink, and Hollywood builder and Batmobile designer George Barris.

“I like the simplicity of it and the wide-open range of creativity that you can use,” ​Watson​ says. “You weren’t [in a] chokehold to anybody else’s specific style or rules. I’m not much of a rule guy. You could just be as creative as you want. ... I just let my mind create it. I didn’t look at anyone else’s. I used my memory, I used Hot Wheels that I owned and old cartoon drawings.”

​The 32-member club includes a mix of oldies, from a ’55 Bel Air and a ’49 Nash to a ’69 Camaro, ’66 Chevelle convertible and a vintage Dodge truck.

JunkYard Pirates

“Some are rusted out, some are shiny and painted, some are bare metal,” says JunkYard Pirates’ President Corey Talbot​. Talbot drives a 1927 chopped Chrysler sedan, with a wood top, a vodka vessel that stands in for an overflow bottle, and a chainsaw throttle linkage. The suicide-doored rod sits inches off the ground and garners attention that Talbot’s mint Buick never did.

“Before I had this I had a convertible Skylark that was all shiny and pretty, but I hated taking it anywhere, because I was worried that someone was going to scratch the paint or do something to it,” he says. “This, I don’t care. You can set your drink on top of it. I don’t worry about it. I can walk away and not worry about if someone’s going to scratch it or key it.”

For the same reason, Watson calls his ride a “rotten rod.” The rusted machine crumbles more each day, and Watson stands by to hold it all together.

Race Cars, Imports

CHECK OUT: Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring events; Sports Car Club of America race, July 11 at LVMS; Import Face Off, December 6 at the Strip at LVMS.

At 27, driver Michele Abbate is old and new to the racing circuit. She started competing in Autocross parking-lot trials as a teen, then in 2011 she hit the racetracks, where she continues to explore new avenues. She’s driven Mazdas, Subarus and Legend cars and currently races a green, sticker-splattered Scion FR-S that she and her boyfriend built. And she’ll soon dip into the world of stock cars and NASCAR.

Michele Abbate

Michele Abbate

“I never thought I would do circle track because I had such a passion for road racing, but it’s all about the people you meet,” Abbate says. And she’s not one to let an opportunity pass.

When her racing season was cut short by mechanical complications in 2014, Abbate dusted herself off and launched a $10,000 crowdfunding campaign with Dark Horse Pros, a fundraising website for extreme sports projects. She hit and then exceeded her goal by $3,000, becoming the first driver to campaign a Scion FR-S in the Sports Car Club of America’s U.S. Majors Tour.

She won the Western Conference Division championship in her rookie year, and is currently leading in the National Championship’s Super Touring Under class. This year, Abbate will compete in NASCAR’s Whelen All-American Series at Irwindale Speedway, and ultimately she’d like to qualify for and conquer the Pirelli World Challenge or the K&N Pro Series with NASCAR. But the most important thing is to stay in the driver’s seat, and she’s not married to any motorsport. Off-road racing? Bring it on!

Michele Abbate's Scion FR-S

Michele Abbate's Scion FR-S

Despite the inherent competitiveness of her sport, Abbate says the racing set is inclusive.

“The motorsports community is pretty small. Even your competitors are willing to help you get to the next level or reach your goals. We’re a pretty tight family. ... Age never affects anything. Some are in their 50s, others are teenagers.”

And though greater experience typically translates to greater skill, it’s not always the case. Sometimes newly licensed kids swoop onto the scene and school the old guys. And it’s also a level playing field for women, where physical strength doesn’t influence wins. Though she competes against few female drivers (there are three in her stock-car class of 25), Abbate says she’s always felt supported.

“I feel like we get a lot of a respect for what we do as women. Racing is an equal foundation,” Abbate says. “It’s not like football where men will really dominate.”

Luxury Cars, Exotics, Etc.

CHECK OUT: Cars and Coffee, Saturday mornings at Eastern & Serene; Las Vegas Car Museum at Palazzo; Barrett-Jackson auto auction, September 24-26 at Mandalay Bay.

Salomon Braun can tell you exactly when his interest in cars began: in Mexico City as a child, when he would visit his cousins and admire their model cars. Though he drove “appliance-type” cars like Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys for years, those practical choices gave way to a more exciting one when he and his wife bought an 8-year-old Porsche in 2007. Since then, they’ve been hooked. Today, the Brauns own a 1984 911 in Mexico blue and a 2012 911 Carrera S in racing yellow.

Salomon Braun of Cars and Coffee

Salomon Braun of Cars and Coffee

They began attending Cars and Coffee in Irvine, California, in 2007 as spectators. “We couldn’t believe how people from Southern California would show up at 5:30, 6 in the morning just to hang out,” he says. The show became an important part of their social life, so when they moved to Las Vegas they created a chapter here, and now there are 14 across the U.S. and a handful in Europe.

Perhaps the most varied weekly meetup, the Henderson show regularly draws Corvettes, Mustangs, Mopars, Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes, Lotuses, BMWs and classics.

“It’s a gathering of car enthusiasts, and they come from all walks of life,” Braun says of the Saturday show he founded seven years ago. It’s eclectic. You might have a 1963 Goldwing parked right next to a classic ’65 Mustang, an exotic right next to an import or perhaps even a classic pre-war automobile sitting next to a brand-new Corvette.”

And next to that mixed group of cars, you’ll find a similarly mixed group of people.

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