BBQ at SAMIYAM's this afternoon

[av8]

It's great that many of the original RRT crowd that were part of the 2000 Hot Rods & Haute Cruizine mega-event have become good pals and continue to hang out with one another. Big infusion of HAMBers in the NorCal group, and they'd fit right in with the old RRT crowd.

Wish the Franks could be here today, plus Don Sr. and Mickey, River1, C9, DrJ, etc. I would not be surprised to see Don Jr. who often makes the NorCal GG events to which the BBQ is anchored.

Pics and stories tomorrow, I promise!

[enjenjo]

I would like to be there. But life intervenes. I worked on the BBQ trailer today.

[av8]

First off, sorry about no pictures, but by the time things got rollin it was too dark for anything other than a film camera with high-speed film and/or a substantial flash unit, neither of which I had with me.

Sam and Katie Strube were wonderful hosts, as usual, the hamburgers were excellent, lots of refreshments, and non-stop bench racing, except for Sam doing a couple of exhibition passes in the BFD modified roadster. (No, it doesn't mean what you think. BFD is shorthand for Bomb Factory Digger, the code name Sam and his crew used for the project.)  This well-built, well-balanced roadster is in the low 10s with a very mild SBC. Sam has another one spec'd and soon to be built that will very likely put this puppy deep into the 9s. Some of you saw the car at Bonneville last year and a few of you got to watch it run at MOKAN during the First HAMB Drags. Sam will run the BFD at the Antique Nationals at LACR (Los Angeles County Raceway) June 6 and at Pomona near the end of June, during the GG Nitro Nationals.

Bob Beck, who hosted the RRT SoCal BBQ in '00, delivered by Dudaki pit bike "kit" to me, much to the sorrow of his son Scotty who has been lusting after the very handsome Ducati single for the several weeks it's been parked in Bob's garage, awaiting transport to NorCal. I'm going to park the bike out of sight until my truck is done to keep me from being distracted.

There were only five of us from the RRT '03 event -- Sam, Bob and Scotty Beck, Mike McClure aka aisle7, and myself. There were several HAMBers, including a neat youngster named Dustin who's dialed back on hot rodding until's he finished his degree program, Jay Ward who produces Billetproof each year, Jim Aust who is editor of the GG Gazette and the proud owner of scrumptuous restored '29 A Tudor that he has just started to hot rod.

The fun eventually moved from the garage to the living room where we spent the last hour of the evening devouring a videotape of the HAMB drags at MOKAN, watching the BFD do it's stuff, enjoying purplepickup's purple pickup kick butt, and Denise hazing the hide(s) in Big Olds.

[enjenjo]

I'm glad fun was had by all, I would have liked to be there.

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

Wish I was there as well.  Maybe next time     Glad you had fun Mike.  It's evening like that, with friends, that I cherish so much.

[purplepickup]

That would have been such a good way to relieve the pre-spring doldrums we get in the north this time of year.  I wish I could afford the time and money to come out.  I know it would have been worth it.

Here's a couple pics I took of Sam's BFD roadster I took at MOKAN.  He did a couple passes thru the neighborhood, eh?

[av8]

He did a couple passes thru the neighborhood, eh?

Yeah, George, but it stuns Sam's guests more than it does his neighbors. First timers are inclined to panic, thinking the cops are certainly on their way to round up the entire band of miscreants hanging out in the street-front garage and on the sidewalks in this quiet middle-class neighborhood, with it's manicured lawns and 2.3 children per household.

The secret is that Sam is a great neighbor. In addition to his warm and engaging personality, Sam takes time to help his neighbors with those tasks that are beyond the capabilities of their skills and equipment. One doesn't have to mend very many broken lawnmowers or crippled BBQs to gain favor with one's neighbors. And for good measure, treat your neighbors' children like their questions are worthy of good answers, and your personal stock in your neighborhood rises dramatically.

As nuts as the hot laps sound, Sam is careful with such antics. What he does doesn't amount to much more than a long, partial-throttle burnout. It's in the context -- within a residential neighborhood -- that it looks wild and crazy, but with all the neighbors in on the trick and enjoying it as much as Sam and his guests it's little more than a few seconds of wonderful noise.

[purplepickup]

Somehow, after meeting Sam, I wouldn't expect anything less.  Wouldn't it be a great world if everyone made an effort to be good neighbors?  That's a big difference I see from the old days.  I know many people that don't even know the people that live right next door.  

I'm lucky that I live in a blue collar semi rural area.....kind of "the other side of the tracks".  Within a mile of the house, we have a well known hotrod fabrication shop, two gravel pits, a homespun body shop, a sawmill/pallet shop, a couple of guys with circle cars, and many of us have bikes or rods of some sort.   Plus there's a quarter mile marked off just down the road where there's no houses, so it's pretty common to hear hot 4X4's, rods, dirt bikes, Harleys, or whatever being tested or tuned in the evenings.  We all feel fairly comfortable with sharing our resources if asked but yet respect each other's "space" and don't over do it.  It really isn't as noisy as you might expect but when there is a little noise, it is at least greeted with a smile and a wave as the noise goes by.

I had to laugh a few weeks ago when the "Rides" TV show that featured Steve Moal's shop, showed Tim Allen running his 56 F-100 with the blown hemi thru his ritzy neighborhood setting off car alarms.  When he pulled into his garage and got out of the truck you could see that his heart was really racing....partly from the excitement and partly from the fear of cops or irate neighbors showing up.

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

That starter guy needs a belt  

[Leon]

That starter guy needs a belt  

Looks like he's carrying extra in those pants

[Bob K]

That starter guy needs a belt  

Leave it to you to notice, " Hey lady, get your hand off of my "quit it now".

B B

[Dolly]

Maybe next year.

You didn't see Carps lurking anayhwere in the background did you.

he seems to have vanished.   :?