“The Gear Head Revival”
By Andy Tallone
I love small, local car shows. These can range from 30 to 300 cars or so, and
during the spring-summer-fall season, there’s one almost every weekend somewhere near where you live. Of course I also love the big money shows like the Goodguys where you might see 3,000 cars, or SEMA where the craftsmanship on the cars is off the charts. If you have a driver-quality car that you like to take to shows, how do you compete against cars like that? The answer is: you don’t. I put my drop-dead gorgeous orange ’72 Corvette in the August 2024 Goodguys show in Pleasanton and it barely got noticed. I just finished customizing my 2005 Mustang GT and it came out
awesome, but at the Goodguys show in March it just disappeared.
And when I see the kinds of cars that win those shows I ask myself, “What’s the point?” I could never compete with cars like that. I don’t have the fabrication skills or the money to hire someone who does. Besides, if I built a car like that, I’d never want to drive it. It would be tucked away in some climate-controlled cocoon awaiting the next show it would be trailered to.
No thanks. I want to drive my cars. So how do you get some attention, and
maybe even a trophy with your driver-quality classic? Small locals shows like the GearHead Revival Car Show in Twain Harte CA on Saturday, July 26, 2025. I caravanned there with members of my car club, the Tuolumne Chapter of the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) and brought my Corvette to the show. The cute little downtown area was blocked off and the show and vendors took over. There were a total of 85 cars there and they gave away 14 trophies. Now that’s a darn good ratio! Check out the Awards List below for more details on that. It was a great show, with tons of cool cars and very nice folks. That’s another plus to local shows like this, you end up meeting lots of people just like you who live in your hometown! I made some good contacts and met some fine people. Like most of these great little shows, this one is loaded with history. Over 50 years ago Dennis Scroggs opened his barber shop in quaint downtown Twain Harte.
He was a car nut and attracted fellow car guys to his barber shop, before long leading to a vast network of like minded hobbyists. 22 years ago he started having annual car shows in the parking lot of the shopping center where his barber shop was located, limited to just 25 cars. It grew and evolved and as Dennis was nearing retirement age, he handed the reigns over to David and Carol Hallett who have run the show for the past 5 years.
Dennis still attends every show, and his barber shop is still open. Come get a
haircut while you’re there! David and Carol want to pay homage to Dennis and it shows. All of the show’s promo materials, posters, T-shirts, etc., include a barber pole and so do some of the trophies, all handmade by locals. David himself builds a unique trophy each year for the LD Award (LD stands for ‘Little Dennis’, the small metal sculpture facsimile of Dennis on the trophy). This trophy is awarded by Dennis each year for his personal choice of Best in Show. It is truly the most coveted trophy given out at the show each year. Each judge is free to indulge his/her personal taste in
choosing their winner and they run the gamut. Some were works of fabrication genius and others were rough around the edges. That’s good. Everyone has a chance. You see very few true ‘show cars’ or ‘trailer queens’ at shows like this. You get a sense that most of them drove their cars there and were driving them home. While some were certainly show quality and there were some #1-level restorations, most were drivers of sorts. And the awards reflected that. While some were bona fide show cars, man of the awards went to driver-quality cars that would be in reach for most middle-class car guys. That’s what I like. I love drivers. Anyone with enough money can sculpt a piece of ‘metal art’ that would never be practical to drive anywhere, but I like ‘the real cars’, cars that can still do what they were designed to do: drive forever. David and Carol are working on a Cruise Night in the Sonora CA-area, and possibly a regular, monthly Cars & Coffee also in Sonora.
Trophy Winners Outstanding Entry 65 Pontiac GTO Lance Anastasakes #6
Outstanding Entry 1946 Club Coupe #80 Twain Harte FD Hot Car 1967 Corvette Mark & Lori Cole #53 Rick Bacon’s Choice 1977 Chevy K10 Shawn Amber #78 Calif Hot Rods Choice 1932 Ford Roadster Sam Hans #65
Sierra Auto Resto Choice 1979 Jeep J10 Ed Sunday #8 Phase II Autobody Choice 1969 Chevy Malibu SS Tim Gray #69 D&D Rods & Rewire Choice 1952 Chevy Eric Brown #75 Three Amigo’s. Choice 1946 Ford Coupe Al Johnson #41 Sonora Coating/Blasting Choice 1968 Chevy C10 #84 Dave Cahal NSRA Appreciation 1967 VW Bus Randy McDaniel #86 LD Barber Pole Award 1950 Chevy Pickup Randy Shurtz #79 Gearhead Custom Best of Show 1965 Lincoln Continental Jack & Mary Wilson #58 Gearhead Coupe Best of Show 1967 Mustang Vic Costello #24
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