I just returned from helping judge this year’s Fourth Annual Bixby Knolls Dragster Expo & Car Show, where organizers reported more than 150 entrants.

This is unquestionably a good thing, despite our auto industry’s lingering woes, and the nagging feeling which even some died-in-the-wool car buffs like myself have–that we should find something else to love which doesn’t run on gasoline.

For a few hours this afternoon, though, you could forget the fact that General Motors–biggest of the big three automakers–is emerging from bankruptcy with just one hit car, the new Camaro, on its hands; that gasoline topped $4 a gallon last year; and that if we don’t do something to reduce our dependence on oil, we will be in trouble as a society, a nation, and a planet.

It was nice; and for those of us who love old cars, hearing the restored Beach City Chevrolet funny car be introduced with all the pomp and circumstance of a foreign dignitary was an instant flash back to the days when astronauts were still our heroes, and before we’d lost a war that mattered.

Beach City Chevrolet is, of course, still with us–but it’s hard to imagine that you could once buy a car like this–a red, second-generation Corvette Stingray–off the lot there, and go blow people’s doors off.

Seeing the restored car was particularly a blast because the name of its driver was lettered on the fiberglass body in huge letters: wildman landspeed record holder Gary Gabelich, who set a record in his car, The Blue Flame, the year I was born: 1970.

His widow, Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, was naturally on hand to hear the car’s introduction, and if you know at all about racing, and how it was then, this was close to time travel.

The rest of the show had some equally choice rides: a wing of Mopar muscle cars; a few ’50s custom Chevrolets; and a step-down ‘48 Hudson Hornet and a ‘49 Ford coupe which I would have loved to have voted on–but which didn’t appear to have entered.

Some of the best rides were actually some of the plainest: a gasser ‘56 Chevy that was far from done, but looked the part; an unrestored, all-original ‘61 Impala bubbletop with the 348 under the hood; and even a couple lowrider Cadillacs.

People-watching was good, too; I spotted John Case, Heather Morris from the Port of Long Beach; and judges including Smooth’s owner John Morris, Ninth District Councilman Val Lerch, City Manager Pat West, Redevelopment Agency Director Craig Beck, and Portfolio Coffeehouse’s Kerstin Kansteiner.

But maybe my favorite moment–aside from being ambush-interviewed by LBReport.com’s Bill Pearl when I was near heatstroke–was seeing all the rides that just drove up to spectate: a 1960s slimstyle Lambretta motorscooter; another Chevy Fleetline custom–with Year-of-Manufacture license plates; a “Two Lane Blacktop”-esque ‘55 Chevy gasser with the flip-top front-end; and even a brace of Cal-Look early Volkswagens–a split-window or Zwitter, and an early big-window sedan.

Next year, I hope all these cars are actually in the show–along with every single Sultans car that’s still rolling. I saw several Sultans cars out there today, but more is always better, right?

Tags: Bill Pearl, California, Fourth Annual Bixby Knolls Dragster Expo & Car Show, lbreport.com, Long Beach, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas