The L. A. Roadster Show, 2026

David G. Fox

Roadsters

LA Roadsters and Other Club Cars

This year, the LA, California, and Bay Area Roadsters clubs set up a joint viewing area inside a Fairplex building that winter show visitors are familiar with as the Suede Palace. It looks cavernous here, lacking the multitude of colorful vendors. Cool and shady, though.

Coupes, etc.

Later Models

The black and the brown 1950 Ford convertibles shown below look like really nice finished cars. But, I really liked this shoebox coupe. The worn paint kind of belies its superb characteristics. The bright work all looks terrific, the shut lines uncannily precise, you might think it's an in-process restoration, except for the bull nose on the hood and the perfectly lowered stance. Kind of wish I had learned more about it. (I do think the bumper over-riders are a just bit much, though.).

Foose Shop Tour

I've wanted to visit Chip Foose's place since I found out they have noon-time shop tours. This car was the spur to definitely make it happen this June, even though there was no guarantee it would actually be there. Following Chip on Instagram, I had seen pictures of the build. I would have liked to see it debut at SEMA.

Continental Mk II's are my favorite mid-century American car. The design is a recognized classic, and a work of art. Given their rarity, I can hardly believe fine examples aren't worth a few times over what they seem to sell for. That said, why was I interested in what Chip did with it? No question he's a design genius. Not just on paper, he makes things become.

A few years ago, at SEMA, Chip displayed his take on a Jaguar E-type. When debuted six and a half decades ago, the E-Type was famously called the most beautiful car in the world by Enzo Ferrari. But the cars evolved over the years, and some of that evolutionary change in the outer shell just didn't work. There were US government mandates. The change to the big V12 brought a need for a wider stance, fatter tires, etc., etc. Chip took a late V12 and made it look terrific. I remarked at the time that I didn't think anyone else could pull that off. So, I wanted to see up close what he did with something that I didn't think could be improved upon. It's like what some say about the 1940 Ford coupe: you can change it, but you cannot improve it.

Much as I admire the Mk II, I have never really spent time with one. Never knew anyone who owned one. Just photographs, books, magazines, and, rarely, viewing at a car show. So, I don't know the details of every contour, the fitment of the bumpers, the terminus of a character line, the pattern of the stitch work.

Obviously, the top has been removed. (That lovely top was somewhat unusual, perhaps formal appearing, compared to the thinly framed, open-air look of most other cars of the time.) But my primary reaction to the overall look of the car? While I'm sure every inch of it has been massaged in some way, it is very much unchanged; I'm sure myriad subtle manipulations are there that suit Chip's eye. To me, he started with something beautiful, and it still is.

That's our tour guide at the nose of the '56 pickup in the outer office. We were a lucky little group of maybe ten people. She said the day before a whole bus load was there.

Kugel Komponents Visit

The Kugel family has set many records with various small block Chevy engines, But, in his spare time, Joe is something of a Ford FE-motor fanatic. Those beautiful Kugel Komponents SOHC cam covers can be used on a modern Ford Coyote by way of another company's adapter. The new exhaust manifolds in the last photo reproduce the hi-po 390/406 parts for the '60-64 Galaxie chassis. Above those is a genie, longer pair for the 427.

Newport Views

The trip to Southern California this year began with a Wednesday flight into John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Although a bit of a drive away from the LA County Fairplex and the roadster show Friday and Saturday, doing so set me up for some extra experiences. It placed me near Huntington Beach, so I could easily visit Foose Design's noon shop tour, and stop by Kugel Komponents afterward, on the drive out to Pomona on Thursday. Another benefit of this routing was getting to spend a little time on the Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach.

There is a hotel near the Newport Pier that I have used many times in the past. It didn't used to be particularly fancy, kind of a nice family run place. In my early days of visiting, it was a Best Western, but at some point, that tie was severed. A fairly small facility by modern hotel standards, it always seemed very clean, well run, and welcoming. Somewhere along the way, they annexed a small establishment next door. I last stayed at the place in 2023, and I knew it was about to be subjected to a major, long-term renovation by new owners.

Usually when you know a structure is in for a major overhaul, you figure it will be unrecognizable when done. Interestingly, the primary structure, with which I was the most familiar, was totally recognizable, yet fresh. On the outside, it seemed like all of the rooms and windows were there in the same places, but inside, the room I had Wednesday evening was reconfigured with a somehow more spacious bathroom.

So, I got to visit an old friend, and I hope to do so again. I just have to keep in mind that it gets very pricy for the popular nights, especially at the popular times of the year.

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