annual car show post event newsletter july 10, 2013

ANNUAL CAR SHOW POST EVENT NEWSLETTER
THE FOURTH ANNUAL TMPCC CAR SHOW
By: Ken Latka TMPCC President and Founder
This year’s Fourth Annual TMPCC Car Show was held at
CBS Studio Center on Thursday July 4, 2013. CBS gave
us the B lot which consists of parking areas around the
Mack Sennett and the main Administration buildings at
the studio. This allowed us to display approximately 60
vehicles, which gave our show a smaller, more intimate
feel (compared to the huge shows we’ve all attended over
the years). This also gives our members more of a chance
to check out the cars, say hello to old friends, introduce
themselves to the new members and still have time to
walk around the studio, eat some food, listen to the live
entertainment and see some fireworks. It was one of the
most entertaining shows we’ve ever hosted and the most
important factor is that people had fun.
Before we get into the people and the cars, I would like to
thank all our volunteers. As you may know, we run the
daily operations of the club with a skeleton crew, and that
means we wouldn’t be able to host a show of this scope
without some wonderful people who stepped forward as
volunteers, gave of their time and helped make the show a
success. We will mention each of you by name later in
this article, but we wanted to thank you up front, because
without your help, this show would not have been possible. Plus you helped us pull off a really fun event. Okay,
let’s get to it.
Each year our shows get better and our fourth annual car
JULY 10, 2013
show was no exception. The quality of the rides, as well
as the variety of vehicles that were on display continue to
improve each year. One of the largest vehicles ever to
grace our annual car show was the 1919 La Bestioni Race
Car belonging to member Gary Wales. It’s the yellow
beast in the picture in the column to the left. Gary’s car
was placed in the heart of the show, within feet of where
the dragsters were fired up, where our VIP’s signed autographs for their fans and where our raffle was held.
Members B.J. and Scott Killeen of “Driver’s Talk Radio”
always come through with some interesting manufacturers
vehicles. Back in 2011 they brought one of the very first
Audi R8 Spyder’s to our show. Then in 2012 they brought
a Fisker Karma. This year they were able to get Maserati
to supply one of their new Sport Coupe’s as well as a
BRZ courtesy of Subaru. We’re very fortunate to have
manufacturers like General Motors, Nissan, Audi, Subaru
and now Maserati who have displayed their latest models
at our annual car show.
Rich Waitas from Magnaflow (shown above just before
unloading) brought his show truck “Revolver”. Many of
you have seen Rich on Overhaulin’, Rides, Hot Rod TV
and many other automotive shows over the years and we
were thrilled that he took the time to attend and bring his
show truck to our event.
Since we usually have a few television and movie cars on
display at our shows, at first glance you might think
“Revolver” has rocket launchers in the truck bed, but all
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that plumbing are eight Magnaflow mufflers that can be
rotated into position so various exhaust systems can be
heard. More pictures of Revolver and ALL the other rides
at the show are on the Past Events page of our website
and of course they’re also on the club’s Facebook page.
We have posted more than 150 images from our show, so
there’s a lot to see.
whining behind me for the several block trip from the
trailer parking lot to our car show area.
TMPCC is honored to have two of the best television and
motion picture car companies in the world in our club.
Our thanks to members Ted Moser, Bob Hartwig and Phil
Fiori at Picture Car Warehouse for bringing the van from
“Little Miss Sunshine”, Bella’s truck from “Twilight”, a
1962 Corvette from “Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and a bullet
ridden LAPD Police Cruiser that has appeared in dozens
of television shows and motion pictures to our show.
Member Ken Fritz and his team at Studio Picture Vehicles
also brought an impressive list of screen used rides from
their inventory. SPV brought the Medical Examiners van
from N.C.I.S., a Scooby Doo Mystery Van, an N.Y.P.D.
Police Cruiser and an original General Lee Dodge
Charger from the Duke’s of Hazzard television series. Our
thanks to Ken for getting the necessary clearance from
Warner Brothers to show a real General Lee, as well as
the NCIS production company so we could show the
Medical Examiner’s van from the hit television series.
One of the most unique rides on display was supplied by
our friend Gordon Tronson who trailered his hand built
masterpiece “Double Trouble” all the way from Henderson, Nevada. This feat of engineering has twin side by
side Hemi’s sporting four superchargers. Gordon followed
me from the trailer parking area (on the north side of the
studio) to our car show display area (on the south side of
the studio). It was quite a treat to be sitting in a golf cart
escorting this incredible hot rod, with four superchargers
Another supercharged custom that graced our show this
year was courtesy of Callaway Cars. Callaway is a world
class aftermarket tuner and they displayed one of their
C16 Corvette’s (only 20 of these cars exist in the world).
Our thanks to Pete Callaway for allowing the car to be
displayed at our show and to Dave Jolliffe for driving it
up from their facility in Orange County.
Our Race Car Coordinator John Ewald (posing with Anna
Octane above) was in charge of booking the four nitro
methane race cars that were fired up for the crowd this
year. He also arranged Randy Walls Nova Funny Car
which was on static display inside the parking structure as
people entered. Randy raced the car back in the day and
the car will be featured in the upcoming “Snake and Mongoose” film which premieres in August.
Joel Gruzen’s nitro methane fueled altered was first car to
be fired up at 5pm with one of our raffle winners in the
driver’s seat. Sonny Messner took the seat of his Don
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Garlits Swamp Rat 3 dragster at 6pm, followed by another
raffle winner in John Ewald’s Mastercar dragster at 7pm.
At 8pm, our final nitro methane race car fire up of the day
was member Ron Johnson’s beautifully restored Tommy
Ivo Barnstormer dragster with member TV Tommy Ivo at
the controls (picture on last page). This is the same car
Tommy drove during the 1962-1964 NHRA Drag Racing
Seasons 50 years ago and it was a fantastic photo opportunity for all the people who got to witness it in person.
Member Cynthia Carpenter of Cynthia Motorsports
brought her 1997 Budweiser Indy Car driven by Ritchie
Hearns and people could sit in the car and take all the pictures they wanted just for purchasing a $1.00 raffle ticket.
Our autograph table featured (from left to right in the picture above) member and former actor turned drag racing
legend TV Tommy Ivo, legendary cam maker Ed “Isky”
Iskenderian, member Brad Fanshaw (Car Warriors, Bonspeed Wheels and host of Street Rod and Custom Radio),
member Ray McClelland (Car Warriors and Full Throttle
Kustomz), member Cleo Shelby, member Cherielynn
Westrich (Overhaulin’), member Mike Curtis (American
Hot Rod and Overhaulin’) and member and two time SEMA Best of Show Award winning custom car builder Steve Strope of Pure Vision. Our thanks to all our VIP’s who
gave of their time to sign autographs for the fans.
Member Mort Allen has quite a collection of Hollywood
Memorabilia and he brought a ten foot tall Oscar Statue
and a fifteen foot tall King Kong climbing the top of the
Empire State Building as centerpieces between our raffle
and autograph tables. The King Kong display was one of
the actual promotional pieces used when King Kong was
released in theaters back in 1933. Mort also brought along
more than 100 Hollywood stand ups (life size cardboard
cuts out of celebrities) and we displayed several of them
around the car show area.
GENE SHARATT AND GLEN MC GUIRE
Before we get to who won the awards, I would like to
thank everyone who helped this year. First is TMPCC
Vice President Glen McGuire. Glen and I worked together
for weeks before the event and we are extremely fortunate
to have him on our Executive Committee. If it wasn’t for
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Glen, I would have had a much more difficult time getting everything accomplished in time for the show.
Joe Privitelli was our Lead Event Coordinator this year
and he made sure all our members, guests and VIP’s got
cleared to the studio without any major issues. Parking
all the show cars was the responsibility of Josh Swan,
Steve Valline, Tom Raber and Shep Blumenthal.
ED ISKENDERIAN, ANNA OCTANE AND GEORGE BARRIS
CBS Television City back in October 2009. Then in 2010
he suggested that we be part of the Fireworks Festvial at
CBS Studio Center every July 4th and the rest is history.
Members Kay Behling and Sheila Zaun (above) as well
as member Gene Sharrat were having way too much fun
at the raffle tent, so we never got to use the second or
third raffle shifts we had set up and ready to relieve them.
When I approached the tent on two occasions to see if
they were ready to be relieved, Kay said they were good.
So we left them alone to work their magic.
Our car show judges were Mike Harrill, Tom Raber and
Steve Valline. After the initial tally was in, a closed door
meeting with club officers Joe Privitelli, Glen McGuire
and Ken Latka allowed us to compile all the judges votes
and tally the final list of winners, which we will share
with you on the next page.
We would also like to thank Sandra Reed-Funnell and her
assistant Katie Paul. Sandra is Mike’s Executive Assistant
and from what we can tell, she oversees everything at the
event. Glen McGuire, John Ewald and I were in constant
communication with Sandra weeks prior to the event and
many of you probably have no idea just how much work
goes into pulling off an event at a studio. Sandra and I
were also in communication via cell phone throughout the
event, dealing with various concerns here and there. So if
you saw me running around all day long, that’s because I
had several things I needed to deal with and I apologize if I
was unable to say hello to each and every one of you or
take the time to talk with you. My apologies also extend to
the media, many of whom I unfortunately did not have the
time to sit down with and do interviews.
Several other people volunteered, but I’m not sure if we
got to use them in any capacity. Even so, they need to be
recognized for stepping forward to help if their assistance
was needed. They are Issac Avila, Curt Behling, Johnnie
Jennings, Randy King, Jan Stubbs, Yana Stubbs, Frank
Tirado and Randy Walls.
We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge all the
folks at CBS who helped make this event possible. First
is CBS Studio President and TMPCC member Michael
Klausman who was gracious in allowing us to do almost
everything we asked of him this year. Mike has been a
huge supporter of our club since the very beginning,
when he allowed us to host our very first get together at
Lastly we would like to thank Ed Grady and Mike Skinner
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from CBS Studio Center who helped us throughout the day
and of course our club photographers Stephen Russo and
Richard Morey who captured many of the images you see
on these pages. We are also sharing (for the very first time)
some wonderful images from Brandon at Tru Artography. I
hope we didn’t miss anyone, and if we did, I apologize.
NOW ONTO THE AWARDS!
PRESIDENT’S AWARD
Gary Wales
1919 La Bestioni Race Car
BEST OF SHOW
Bob Ratinoff
1959 Ford Skyliner
TOP TEN BEST OF SHOW (in alphabetical order)
Allen, Mort
1937 Buick Sedan
Collins, Russell
1934 Ford Coupe
Coombs, John
Lola T70 Mk3B
Guzman, Serafin 1958 Chevrolet Impala Convertible
Jolliffe, Dave
Callaway C16
Robinson, Allen
1965 Shelby Cobra
Tronson, Gordon Double Trouble Hot Rod
Valline, Steve
2008 Shelby Mustang
Waitas, Rich
The Magnaflow Revolver
Weinblatt, Henry 2008 Saleen Mustang
RUNNER UP
Cilani, Mark
1934 Ford Roadster (yellow)
BEST THEMED VEHICLE
Raber, Thomas
2005 Mustang GT Custom “Gator”
Dressed up in red, white and blue
Our Congratulations to all the winners!
Even though this was one of our best shows yet, please give
us your impressions (good or bad) because we learn what
works and what doesn’t by listening to the input from our
members.
Thank you again to everyone who helped make this event a
success and we hope to see you next year.
Ken
Ken Latka
President and Founder
The Television Motion Picture Car Club
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