[Jamo]

THIS is Club cobra...damn good thread. I'm hoping the mfgs are reading this one.

It doesn't take much time with Leno to find out that car guys are car guys, no matter the economics or culture. Watch the hillclimb event the Top Gear boys had in the foothills of the Himalayas and you quickly realize that cars, like horses in bygone days, just draw folks together, and whenever two dudes end up on a road together, whether on horses or in cars, the shared question will be...who's fastest?

Fresno has a long long history with racing, hot rods and street machinery, and you see all the comments made here coming together. We are probably on par with New York or LA in terms of the various cultures that come together here...it's always been this way. But me thinks the folks in urban areas may have a limited view of what's going on in the heartland.

I have a special affinity for the Hmong folks that live here (I think we surpassed the Twin Cities in terms of their population) and have small farms...reminds me of Armenians coming from a broken homeland and taking stock and working hard. Their Christian center is right next door to us out here in the country, so I do indeed come across and hear their "hot rods" if you will. They are doing exactly what we did...making them look cool and go faster. Technology's a bit different, but the interest is the same. They "get" the Cobra...given a few rides and dusted off a few of the little Hondas and stuff just for fun out between the vineyards and orchards.

But out here, there is going to be a large group of folks that live and die with American iron. Farmers drive American pickups, and their employees do too. You can look under the hood of a farm labor contractor's pickup, adorned with all the goodies from aisle three at Pep Boys (the shiny mud flap chick, the bulldog hood thingy with the lighted eyes, the lightbars and window curtains along the interior ceiling, etc.), and find K&N air systems, headers, bigger carbs on the old stuff, etc. And they race as much as my dad and the boys did back in the 60s with their pickups "built up" by Boghosian and others. Hell, you'd better check that lowrider out before taking him on at the stoplight...just as easy setting up a nitrous system as it is hooking up a major sound system playing War and definitely easier than the hydraulics...those folks know their stuff. We've got some of the best 4WD builders in the country here...lots of early Broncos, Scouts and jeeps with nasty motors in them (still have my own 76 Bronco sitting out back waiting for some TLC). We even have a wicked local Meyers Manx with a blown Corvair hanging out back that will kick some major ass if you ask nicely. Then again, you can hear my friend Phil's F40 light up from his house a couple of blocks away when he takes it out for a little drive into the canyon...screaming louder than our hawks could ever hope to.

My rambling point is that I suspect the interest in cars is not going to go away soon out here in the outback, and the American V8s are always going to have a leading part. There be a mess of Cobras here in the middle of California/nowhere...cruizes always seem to involve 6 or seven different ones, and we do tend to have more than a little presence at the local car shows and gatherings, or carving through some sierra canyon road mixed in with bikes and sportscars.

Kids interested in Cobras...yup, and a few younger folks are building some kits right now with dads and friends, just like we used to do when hoping up dad's old pickup or putting together a dune buggy. SB100 is always going to be a draw for folks not wanting to deal with the expense and hassle of smog stuff...not sure that's promoted enough by the mfgs here in the important California market.

...back to work.