Initial Wow.

I've always been a car guy. Even as a baby, all my mom had to do was give me a toy car and I would be out of her hair for hours, happily playing away. Going to car and motorcycle shows is one of my favorite pastimes as an adult. Unfortunately, for the past several years I've had a job where I work on the weekends, which makes going to such events difficult. If I want to go, I have to ask for a day off which is something I can't afford to do often. I haven't been to anything yet this year, so when I discovered the Puget Sound Toyota Owners Club was holding their meet in Fife on August 29th, I decided to bite the bullet, take the day off and have me some fun.

Yamaha, not Toyota

When I rolled up on my old Yamaha XS Eleven, they immediately had me register it for the show. While it was flattering, it was kind of pointless, since my bike didn't qualify for any of the voting categories (Best rear-wheel-drive Corolla, best truck, best in show, etc.). There were well over a hundred cars there. There was music, a DJ, umbrella girls, and free food and drink. The food was especially nice. A young woman did all the cooking. For the entire 5 and a half hours I was there, she stood at the grill, making grilled cheese sandwiches over an open flame (and you haven't had a grilled cheese sandwich until you've tried it that way), hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and teriyaki salmon that was out of this world delicious. I made sure to tip her generously.

Rolling old-school, Japanese style

My personal preference is for the older cars. I appreciate the VIP style and modern customization, but give me an old school Corolla or Cressida sitting on Watanabe wheels, and I'm happy. One of my favorite cars of the show was a right-hand-drive mid-'70s Corolla Levin imported from Japan by a big old school Toyota fan. There was also a great rear-wheel-drive Starlet set up for drifting that looked great. A nice white first-generation Cressida sedan on small wheels and stretched tires showed off the latest look for old-school cars in Japan. It was great to see so many cars from my teenaged years and older, still on the road and still loved by their owners.

It's big

I enjoyed talking to all the people there. Not surprisingly, nearly everyone was more than happy to talk about their car or truck. The highlight for me was the noise contest. Drivers would take their cars over to the staging area and shut them all off. Then one at a time, each driver would fire up their engine and rev the hell out of it. The DJ would run around from entrant to entrant asking if they wanted the mike at the exhaust or the engine (to capture the sound of the pop-off valve on the turbos.) Surprisingly, I was asked to take part in it, too. When the DJ came to me, he said "I'm supposed to be neutral, but I'm telling you right now I want this motorcycle to win!" I gave them a blast of air-cooled 1100cc fury at 7000 rpm, then ran it up to 8000 rpm just to put a point on it. I didn't win. A guy in a race-prepared Corolla with open-exhaust won, and deservedly so. But it was fun anyway.

Dorifuto

So why Toyotas? Why take a day off from work to look at Toyotas? It's not specifically Toyotas that I was attracted to, although I do like them. I really enjoy being able to talk to anyone who is dedicated to their car or motorcycle. Marque and/or model-specific meets are great fun, regardless of the car or bike. When I was in high school, one of best friends owned a 1960 Chevy Corvair. He joined the local Corvair club and went with him to a lot of meets and meetings. I liked Corvairs just fine, but it was the enthusiasm of the owners that I really enjoyed. The same with the Gold Wing owners (even if they were more interested in talking than riding), AMC owners, the All-British Field Meet, and more. At this meet, it didn't matter if someone was driving a complete stock Camry or a heavily modified FJ stuffed full of Cummins turbo-diesel out of a Dodge or a beat up Tercel. They loved their cars and loved talking about them. I had a good day off.