#i should order their glow on vinyl . [looks at the price & all the sold out tags] fuck my gay life

[marsdemo]

soooo happy with the vinyls i picked up i finally got the chance to sit down and listen to them and im like this -> ( ^___^)👍

[maladaptivewriter]

The Enchantress Who Sold the World

A SlyvieXLoki Fanfic * This is not cannon to Marvel comics or MCU this is inspired by the Enchantress and Season 2 of Loki. Enjoy my time travel novella. I will be posting every Thursday a new chapter.

The Enchantress who sold the World.

Prologue:Let’s do the time Warp Again.

1975, Braxton Oklohama

Variants Records, Downtown Braxton.

Rhianna -played in the background as Sylvie arranged the brightly colored vinyl in order, everything had to be at least in order the store records were disorganized-yet again. 

She sighed it was close to 7 and she had to get home to celebrate her older adopted brother’s acceptance into Stark Industries. He was going to be leaving for New York tomorrow. Sylvie would be lying if she didn’t feel a small pang of jealousy for her brother getting to finally get out of this small town, small minded place.They didn’t even appreciate anything remotely interesting.Her brother was no exception.Phil was such a square, and now he is going to the home of studio 54! Its NOT FAIR! She hissed to herself remembering the alphabet. It will have to do she had countless things to get done this evening and being here any longer. She rushed through her list before, she flipped the sign to closed. 

She ran down Main Street seeing some of the familiar places of the homely sleepy town in the midwest the sweet smells of the ice cream and candy store, the bridal dress shop that hung beautiful dresses that shown like diamonds. Sylvie  was greeted by several familiar people, everyone in town knew who she was. She was lost in thought when she was bumped almost off her feet by an older tall woman with long black hair, her eyes deep green and narrowed, she had on a black cloak and was dressed in all black to her stylish heeled boots. 

“Beg yer pardon,” the woman said in an polite English accent, but gave her a curious stare then and took off. 

Sylvie turned around watching the stranger try to blend into the background. 

“Beatnik weirdo,” She muttered to herself when suddenly she heard a loud ringing and than a large BANG. It shook the whole Downtown. 

A  large group of soldiers in strange suits and helmets all of sudden swarmed the entire picturesque area. She heard someone say in a strange southern draw. Hunter-23 today is your Lucky day! We got two for the price of one! Two rogue Variants. 

Sylvie trying to figure out what was going on when she found herself jumped by the English woman from earlier she seemed to teleport her to inside the ice cream store. 

“WHAT THE HELL JUST-DID YOU-.” She stammered for a second never feeling the sensation to teleport to another place and about puked in the process. The woman led her through the families all eager for ice cream and treats to the back way towards an alley away from the men, she narrowed her forest green eyes on the very confused college student.

“OK CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON? IS IT THE RUSSIANS ARE YOU CIA?” 

She heard her companion groan becoming more annoyed by the second. She turned around and faced her, “did you really come here Amora, to forget him was the spell cast not enough?” She pursed her lips in disgust  and then gave a small taunting giggle.

 “Did you think you could hide from them?You cruelly hid from him, with no care you forgot EVERYONE!  Or even me your- only friend who you double crossed!”  

Sylvie still confused by the whole thing barely noticed the flashes of green light that came from the woman as she pointed her palms at her. 

“Hey wait a minute, who is Amora? I am Sylvie! Forget who?” Nothing made sense the woman was looking angrier by the second.

“ I am sorry I have never met you in my life.” Her voice shaking, who was this woman? Who was Amora? Who would she want to forget?

“We should have left you to rot in the TVA in that PRISON! !”She hissed her voice growing angrier as the womans energy became stronger.

A small crackling, with a glow of a small zap of energy came from her finger tips swirling a green light came from her hand, as she sent it shooting to her like a green fireball , the oddest thing happened instead of being hit by the ball or jumping out of the way. Sylvie’s eyes went from their sage aqua green to a cloudy white and sparks of, green and white bolted from her hands, the two fireballs fighting and crackling as they fought a tug of war. These new powers coming out of nowhere. Sylvie looked at her hands in complete confusion, as she felt the need to give one big push, throwing the woman into a brick wall. 

Sylvie caught her breath for a moment when she ran to the now crumpled brick wall to see if the woman was gone? “How is this even happening? I did this what is happening to me?” She muttered to herself when she came face to face to one of the soldiers.  Sylvie heard on their strange radios they called for someone called. 

Hunter-23, we got one of the rogue Variants. Excellent work team. Lets take her back,another voice announced. We will find the other two soon! Jeez how many Loki’s are in this timeline? Another voice scowled with annoyance.Why Oklahoma? The hiss of the radio disappeared. 

“Lokis?” What is a Loki? Do they think I am one of those things she looked up at the visored soldiers?” Her thoughts were gone when one of the Minutemen tossed a small floating ball that released a net covering Sylvie and knocking her down to the floor hard the gravel scratching her cheek.

“Owe!! Hey I think you totally got the wrong girl! I am Sylvie Lushton! I was adopted by the Lushtons when I was 12! Please!” They ignored her pleas, pulling her bound bundle up form.

One of the soldiers pulled Sylvie like a bundle over their back and with blink of an eye everything froze around her. Her bonds suddenly disappeared the solider let her down. She couldn’t even thank them, before the soldier transformed into a tall slim man, in a green suit with the most ridiculous horned helmet and sardonic smile graced his fair face. He had a large button on his lapel that said-Loki 4 President? 

“Are you a Loki?” Sylvie looked at the man puzzled as if she knew him from somewhere? It was TV maybe a game show?This day was getting weirder by the second. “Am I a Loki? Oh darling, I am the best Loki! I am President Loki, well not yet but they will kneel” He turned to her dramatically. “In the voting boxes of course.” He winked, now about questions lets ask later, since I have suspended time from about 5 minutes, the Minutemen won’t know what hit them! I caught them at their own game.” His voice dripping with arrogance his eyes narrowed giving her a look. By the way though darling, don’t take this the wrong way, but you were quite the bird in your day, no wonder the younger fell so hard.” He laughed as he put his arm around Sylvie.

 “Of course I fancy more redheads,myself? Funny doesn’t matter the Loki we still have differences in love and desires.” He gave her a devilish grin.”Oh well let us go.”

“What are you talking about? I am not going anywhere!”

 She wanted to be free but it was as if she was being pulled like a magnet to the man and had no control as she followed him. He looked over to her and smiled. He waved his hand as she felt the freedom lift from her shoulders yet felt like a wall was in front of her she couldn’t go anywhere.

“Alright Sylvie Laufeydottir you got a lot of people looking for you, I will say this trick you did was a certain finesse. You enchanted that family making them think you were their adopted daughter? What is it with you people and families?” He groaned, Sylvie noticed he had something in his hand that zapped lines of electricity traced what appeared to be a door. He pulled the wall away from her but still had a pull on her. “I mean Sylvie you are an obsessed creature when you said, you would forget him you weren’t joking! I mean you enchanted the whole town? Variant records? So unoriginal!” He snickered, that whole town thing, beautifully done darling, I only heard of one other who could do that.Now lets talk about your powers in somewhere a little more private.” 

He cracked his impish grin,before she could protest and pushed her into the glowing door with him behind her the door flashed and disappeared quietly into the newly pruned timeline.

[audio-luddite]

Number 1

AUDIOFILE

I have a nice stereo. I do not have one of those systems that cost more than a car or even a house. Still I think it is pretty damn good. If my house burned down I could probably replace the main parts of it for less than $8000.00. The LPs though, that would take a lot of time and a lot of money.  I have some pretty good ones.

Back Story:  

This will take a while.

Let’s set the wayback machine to a time when everyone knew what a wayback machine was.  I entered the engineering program at a big eastern US university in 1973.  I had some cash and I wanted a stereo in my dorm, as that was a good thing to have. The year before my brother and I travelled to NYC to buy exotic bipolar power transistors that went into an amplifier design out of a magazine.  They were about 60 Watts per channel. We each built one. Frankly I do not remember what kind of preamplifier I had. We probably built that too.  I had built some big ass speakers with a lovely 12” die cast aluminum frame woofer in a two way system.  It got loud. I thought it sounded fine.

The only “factory” components I had was a Dual Turntable and a Shure phono cartridge I think it was an M95. That system lasted two years before I caught the bug or curse as the case may be.  In the second year my amplifier was sick.  Whenever my roommate played Queen it went crazy and demonstrated what I now know as thermal runaway.  Only Queen had this effect for some reason.  I did not like Queen.

Over the next summer I bought and built a Dynaco 400 Amp and a Dynaco Pat 5 preamp kit.  I also made a friend who turned out to be even weirder with more money who bought a Harmon Kardon Citation 11 and 12 with a really nice Sony Turntable with an SME arm.  He had these speakers called Advents that some guy in Boston was selling to raise money to build a big TV.

The two of us got a subscription to a sort of underground magazine called the Absolute Sound.  It eschewed advertising as that was corrupting and yet somehow convinced serious manufacturers to loan them equipment. When they managed to get an issue out we devoured it.  We also managed to visit stores that actually had much of the equipment they listed as good stuff. We heard almost everything on their lists.

My friend got tired of his Sony Turntable and I bought it from him and I sold my Dual.  He kept his SME arm and I do not remember what he did with it.  I bought a Grace 707 tone arm and a Sure V15 cartridge as that was considered really good if you tweaked it a bit.  It was so tweaked.

I remember he went from the Sony to a HK ST7 turntable.  It had pretty lights.  Then he went off the reservation and got a Transcriptor Skeleton Turntable.  I think he managed to get the SME arm on it as the funky transcriptor arm was a recognized PITA.  He had a part time job at a stereo shop and could order stuff wholesale.

He also sold me his old Advents which were wrapped in vinyl phony wood stuff and bought a pair of Advents that were covered in real wood.

He also traded his Citation 11 for an exotic tube thing called an AR SP3.  He later sent it to the factory to have it upgraded to SP3 a1 status.  

At that point I had his old Sony 2251la turntable, Grace 707 arm with a Sure V15, playing into a PAT 5 preamplifier and a Dynaco 400 amplifier feeding into a pair of Advents.

All that should tell you that for a couple of college students we had some pretty good stuff. It should also tell you I have no fear of cracking open a case and messing with things.  When Dynaco upgraded the PAT5 to better OP Amps I got a set and soldered them in.

A very strange Grad-student with an all tube system would visit and offer restrained praise of our systems.  About mine he said it was really good for a transistor system.

As all good things had to come to an end I graduated and had to move far away.  I sold almost my whole system to another guy keeping only my LPs and my turntable.  I still have that turntable that arm but not the Sure V15.

When I arrived at my new home and job in the Frozen North (Edmonton Alberta Canada) I had no tunes. Once paycheques started I got some stuff.  I bought a preamp and I do not remember what kind of amplifier or maybe I did not have one, but I had a project.  I was building electrostatic loudspeakers.  Big ones too.   For those I bought a pair of Dynaco Mk3 tube amps.  I almost killed myself with high voltage building the speaker power supply. The palm of my hand got charred by being too friendly with some capacitors while they were “hot”.

Interestingly these big ass electrostatic speakers 4 ft square per channel worked!  The bass was less than great so I built a 15” subwoofer and some other bits.  I lived with my cousin and this crazy setup took a lot of space up and sounded impressive if not actually good.  For the record I now think electrostatics have more problems than benefits.

I saw an ad for somebody who was selling a Transcriptors Skeleton Turntable and as one of the few people who knew what that was in the Northern Alberta I grabbed it.  You cannot overstate how cool that thing looks. I still have that too, though I may sell it soon.  The Stock arm got broken.  I think alcohol was involved.  I still have the parts.  I modified the Transcriptors to fit another Grace 707 arm which was tricky as the bitch was heavier than the stock one and I had to rebalance the whole thing with ballast.

At this point things get fuzzy.  I tired of the big electrostatic speakers and I think I built some small more wife friendly things as I had acquired a wife.  Powered by the pair of MK3s it was pretty good.  I had tweaked my preamp power supply with bigger caps and it got better.  Then one day in a shop I found an orphan Audio Research SP12 for sale.  All tubes 6DJ8s instead of 12ax7s.  Somewhere along here I had built a copy of the SP3a1 from the circuit diagram on a breadboard and found 12ax7s to be PITAs as well.  So that was my system for a while. All glowing warn lovely tubes.

The next step was newer bigger speakers.  I had a design idea and paid a wood worker to make me some boxes.  They were fairly big towers with a biamped woofer thing and went down to seismic bass and the treble was way past what I could hear as a young man. Those were still fed by the MK3s and a midsize  transistor amp for the woofers.

Thing is the MK3s though really good are tube amps and those tubes were getting bloody expensive. So I went backwards.  Dynaco was out of business.  I found a company that had bought all their stock and I ordered a black box 400 kit and a few extra parts to build something special.

What I built was a black box Dynaco 416 with two power supplies and some really nice film bridging capacitors.  I tweaked the mother while I was building it.  No magic smoke when I turned it on.  It was wonderful.  I did another silly thing by adding an outboard power supply capacitor bank. Actually a pair as each channel was separate. Do you know how big 1 farad is at 74 volts?  Unplug the bugger and it plays loud for a long time.  Not being silly under normal operation it just made the beast remarkably quiet and potent.

I made a diversion to surround sound and 7.1 channel movies for a while.  My black box and tube preamp went in the crawlspace.  I sold the MK3s for a decent price. If you wanted to listen to records you needed the programmable remote.  Life was getting complicated.

The old SP12 came out of the crawlspace with a nasty hum.  I replaced a failed big PS capacitor with larger value but physically smaller caps and it worked fine.   I dragged out the 416.  I needed new speakers.  The big guns were tied up in the surround system.

Actually what got me going was an ad on craigslist.  I found some Advents and thought about going back in time. I also saw an ad for a speaker called Sonabs.  I remembered hearing them 40 years ago and liking them.  They were gone before I got in touch with the guy.  I read up on them and decided to build some like it.  I really liked the theory behind them. Simple and very restrained in a Nordic sort of way.  The drivers you can buy today are really good and the crossover parts are really very very good now.  They have computer programs to lock down optimum millihenries and microfarads based on the impedance curve of the drivers.  So I used those.

The idea behind these things is to put the speaker drivers as close to the wall as possible to minimize reflections.  It is a good idea, the sound I get out of them is very clear and uncluttered. Spooky actually.

So over the last few months that is what I have been playing with. I set up the Sony / Grace table and it has been a lot of fun.  The Black Dynaco lurks in the corner and things are good. You push a few buttons and the thing turns on and music is available.  No remotes required.

One of the really fun things is the cartridge on the Sony.  I have a Signets TK7e and loved it 20 years ago.  I found a replacement stylus and it still works.  The thing responds to 45 khz.  That is insane.  I do not think any current cartridge is comparable. It was designed for 4 channel sound that used an ultrasonic carrier.  Interesting the Grace 707 was also intended for 4 channel sound.  They work very well together.

So take it as reasonable that I do have a serious and good home stereo system.  I have more than a passing technical appreciation of electronics, but I am not a repair technician.

Then the fun really starts.

Set the reference frame to now. I am trying to reason out the basic issue of quality in audio.

Why do things sound different? Why does equipment have a unique voice?

One of the fundamental mathematical ideas behind low distortion is to have a given device respond to frequencies double or better than you want to recreate.  So if a tweeter can go to 40 khz it has no trouble with 20khz. Same thing for that Signet it can do 45 khz so 22khz is easy.  My latest preamp is rated to 100 khz so it really has no problem with audio frequencies. This should mean that normal frequencies are handled with respectably low distortion.

If signals are so accurate and distortion is very low should not all “good” equipment sound the same? The audiophile cohorts at this point lean back and say of course not.  So let’s restate it as “If signals are so accurate and distortion is very low, why does all “good” equipment not sound the same?” It really should you know.

Both of my preamps are both earlier 1980’s vintage.  One is the Venerable AR SP12 the other is an SAE Mk 30.  Both list distortion as a tiny percentage of the signal.  In db terms way down under -70 db. That should be effectively inaudible. Yet they sound very different. Taking it a bit weirder swapping different tubes out makes the SP12 sound different from itself though the distortion should still be low.  That should not be.

People familiar with Audio Research products will know that they built a machine called an SP11 which is still regarded as a wonderful device and much sought after.  The innovation of that design was using 6DJ8 tubes which are radio frequency capable and just much better than the venerable 12AX7 tubes. The SP12 was apparently a less expensive version of the SP11 using a much simpler power supply and I think one fewer tubes in one section.  It still measured impressively so it is not trash. The design came out of the same very capable brains. It was a business decision.

The thing with Audio Research Fans is they think every subsequent model must surpass the previous or it is a failure.  Even so that SP3a1 my friend had was once considered “a straight wire with gain” until it was later proved to be very coloured and muddy.  The SP 12 is probably much better than the SP3 but is not worth near as much.  I saw a recent sale of an SP3 for $3000.00 and for an SP12 for $500.00.

So why do they sound different?  There is no point in picking which is better as it is like saying blue is better than green. A difference in frequency response would be measured and actually the SP 12 has a much more accurate RIAA phono curve than the SP3a1.  In the high level section they both show a damn flat plot.  Distortion is very low.

One of the most informative experiences I had with Audio was many years ago.  I was reading a high end magazine extolling the virtue of a really expensive interconnect wire between a very expensive CD player and a similarly very expensive preamplifier.  The reviewer said that only with this particular interconnect cable could he hear this particular very subtle sound on this particular CD.  I had that CD, and I had heard that sound.

This was years ago.  I am not sure what the full equipment set I had then was, but I had a “cheap” Philips CD deck.  The cost of that deck, and my preamp would have been less than this wire. I could hear the sound he described. First Track Cowboy Junkies Trinity Session, down to the left a metallic rattle. There is also audile air rushing from a vent. So it was not the wire itself it was how this wire interacted with his equipment. (Good album) Most important I could hear it clearly without that stuff.

There I learned that good and better depend on a lot of things.  Later I learned that many high end designers cannot afford extensive testing of certain things. The commercial demands are severe to get stuff out quickly. Some circuits will react badly to inductive and capacitive reactive loads. That can make them freak out. Fancy wires are both capacitive and inductive so get the wrong mix of parameters with a given machine and the reaction to those changes the sound or may even let out the magic smoke.

The best I can come up with is speculation.  There is a famous Bet made by Mr Bob Carver that he could make one of his relatively inexpensive amplifiers sound EXACTLY like any amplifier a group of golden eared critics chose.  He then proceeded to do just that.  What he did was run a music signal through a channel of the target amp and inverted through his amp.  If they were perfect the signal would completely cancel.  At first they did not cancel indicating that there was a difference in how they sounded.  Then he tweaked his machine until it did cancel.  Once that was done, the two machines sounded indistinguishable.  You could say he “voiced” his amplifier. I believe they still measured very low distortion.  Very low distortion combined with a particular sound.  Vellly interesting!

Subsequently he built a mad, cost no object all tube monster amplifier then produced a product line of smaller transistor amps voiced to sound just like it.  This is very clever for business and not supportive of the idea of ultimate sonic goodness.

What must be happening is subtle interference, reactions and resonances inside the circuits. Sometimes there must be reactions between different devices entirely. Given a complex signal complex stuff happens and it comes out different if there are different components arranged differently.  Neither is right or wrong, just different. We are noticing different voicings perhaps deliberate perhaps accidental.  If you like something more than the other it is then better for you. So it ends up a personal choice.

Sometimes I hear something I had not heard before.  I have many albums I have heard many times.  A few nights ago I played a Philips recording of Stravinsky’s Firebird and a particular oboe part jumped out at me.  I have heard that part many times before, but now there was something about it.  I could tell it was made by a wooden instrument. It felt dimensional I could hear the wall behind it.  Why? Some previously interfering sound was gone is the best I can come up with.

The real problem was the turntable was the same, the amplifier was the same the preamp and speakers not the same at all.  Was the preamp clearer and more accurate? Maybe, it’s pretty good.  Are the speakers clearer and more accurate?  Was it an interaction between the two? Probably it was all of those things to some degree.

In this particular case I think the “new” things I am hearing are due to the speakers.  My amplifier is really very clean.  I assume the preamp is.  My speakers are derived from the Sonab design from 40 years ago. The intent is to minimize wall reflections by keeping the drivers close to the wall and away from major reflective surfaces.  I think that idea works very well.  

I think a lot of very respected speakers are not really that good because they react badly with the room surfaces. Sounds get to your ears that are not on the recording based on the design and placement of speakers in the room and furniture for that matter. If sound waves that are not on the recording are audible then that is wrong. Maybe that’s why people like headphones so much. Dipoles are the worst for it. (My Electrostatics were dipoles.) Box speakers set far from a wall are bad too.  If they sound “good” then these interactions must be compensating for a flaw in the voicing. Large panel speakers like electrostatics and Magnepans couple well to the air in a room and that gives the impression of presence and immediacy. That is actually good device-to-room impedance matching as large surfaces couple to the air better.  Yet you will be hearing sounds that are not on the recording. Perhaps it is better to say they were not in the recording in the place and time that you hear them in.

To a certain degree you can get pretty close to honest and true sounds coming out of these machines. A powerful amplifier pumping many Watts into a little box is very persuasive. If it produces linear power, which almost any amplifier will, you can depend on it getting out into the room.  The only limit is the frequency range of the speaker.

According to the charts of the components and the formulas for calculations I used, my speakers should respond from 30ish Hertz to over 40khz.  The bass sounds good and is much dependent on the recording.  My high frequency hearing is gone with the years but I still can appreciate the tiny metallic character of cymbals on a drum kit or bells or a lonely triangle in the back of an orchestra.  I have an FFT analyser on my tablet and it shows some response over 18 khz on some records.  I will not vouch for the frequency response of my tablet, but if something is there it is there.

So with respect to the room my little speakers work well.  I know that they have a voice, but it is subtle. Another visit with the wayback machine is illustrative.  

Does anyone remember the Fulton J Modular speaker? It was a behemoth and for a time at the top of the “good stuff” list. I heard it and was really impressed.  My college friend bought a piece of one.  The Modular moniker referred to it being built up from 3 pieces. There was a refrigerator sized base that had some number of woofer drivers a small box speaker midrange and an electrostatic tweeter array.

The piece in question is the Fulton FMI 80.  In the day it was well thought of.  It was responsible for all the middle frequencies of the unit, and those are where most of the important information is. You can see reviews of it in the archives of Stereophile magazine.  They liked it.  It was small and plain and you know it sounded great with chamber music and acoustic guitar and many instruments that had wood sound boxes.  When he got his he kept the Advents, keeping them in my dorm room to keep my pair company so for a time I ran what were called double Advents. A certain magazine liked that arrangement. My room was the main listening place and we puzzled over the FMI 80s.  They were good and not good depending on the material.  Actually it was all about the material.

So being curious we brought the little guys into my room, and fiddled. String quartets were great, Fleetwood Mac not.  We knew some musicians and invited their opinion.  They liked them for acoustic instruments with strings and some woodwinds. Horns and such not really good at all.

I was sitting between them (it was a small room) and I noticed the sound coming off the side of the box.  Revelation it was. I knocked the side of the box with my knuckle the box was made from thin wood.  When you played certain instruments the box resonated and made the sound more “real” and alive, but that is not right.  You should hit the box of almost any speaker and get a dull thud at most.  These highly respected speakers had a definite voice. If the recording was woody it made it sound more woody.

We also opened one up and found the crossover circuit was a single rather cheap electrolytic capacitor. This was an educational experience. Well that is what college is for is it not?  He sold them for what he paid for them and took his Advents back.  Here is an example of a great respected behemoth speaker with a flawed heart.  Respected reviewers were fooled, or perhaps charmed by the seductive flaws.

I wish there were definitive objective tests we could use.  Then we could depend on getting things that are actually better.  I will continue to play in this field.  I mess with my equipment to keep it in the zone and listen to music.  That is what it is really all about.

In the mean while it stays interesting.

[itsworn]

Huge Muscle Car Turnout for 2017 San Marino Motor Classic

00The seventh annual San Marino Motor Classic (SMMC), building upon the success of last year’s event, assembled another outstanding field. The concours included a diverse mix of more than 350 vehicles, with brass-era cars, American Classics, sports cars, hot rods, muscle cars, and more spread out over the spacious grounds of San Marino’s Lacy Park (near Pasadena). More than 10,000 spectators enjoyed the day’s nearly perfect weather.

This year’s Muscle Car and Pony Car classes were especially strong. Class cochairmen Joe Salvo and Paul Ginsburg invited more than 30 exceptional cars over the four classes: Class N1 GM Muscle Car Hardtops and Sedans; Class N2 non-GM Muscle Cars (Ford and Chrysler) Hardtops and Sedans; Class N3 Muscle Cars Convertibles, all manufacturers; and Class V, all Pony Cars, AMC, Chrysler, Ford, and GM.

Salvo explains the recruitment process: “Once the actual classes are determined in September of the previous year we begin to recruit. The recruiting process is ongoing, and essentially we recruit all year long for the event. We attend dozens of car events all around Southern California as well as outside the area. [In fact, two entrants for 2017 came from people Salvo recruited from MCACN in Chicago!—ed.] For each entry we ask the entrant to include a photo as well as a detailed description of their automobile with their entry.

“For cars that will be judged, we try and hold a strict line of integrity for the American Muscle and Pony Car Classes in that we are looking for original cars, not modified cars. Every now and then a car will slip by the process, but for the most part only original and original-equipped cars are what the SMMC is looking for. We have a little more wiggle room if the car is not going to be judged, however. The SMMC does try and take as many cars as we can, since we are raising money for charity at the end of the day.”

This year the show raised more than $300,000 for the Pasadena Humane Society & SPCA, the Rotary Club of San Marino, and the USC Trojan Marching Band. To date, the event has raised $1.6 million for charity. Here’s a look at some of the outstanding muscle and pony cars that came out for the SMMC.

Photo courtesy Kahn Media

1964 Ford Fairlane 427 Thunderbolt John & Martha Karelius Not only did this 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt earn First place in class N2, but it was also awarded the Muscle Car Review trophy as the San Marino Motor Classic’s top muscle car. Given the outstanding quality of the field, this honor was well deserved.

“My early Thunderbolt is one the documented 100 produced and is one of the few remaining examples of Ford’s all-out assault on drag racing in the 1960s,” John Karelius explains. “It was delivered to Max Larson Ford in Goldwater, Michigan, on December 26, 1963. It was then resold on April 21, 1964, to Jack Reformed Ford in Springfield, Ohio, where it was campaigned throughout the Ohio Valley.”

Karelius tells us that Ford delivered these “‘Thunderbolt’ Fairlane 500s to Dearborn Steel Tubing as K-code, High Performance 289, four-speed cars. They arrived less the engine and transmission. By ordering the K-code engine, the car was shipped with larger brakes and the legendary Ford 9-inch differential.”

At Dearborn Steel Tubing, the chassis was reinforced and modified to accommodate a 427 High Riser FE engine with two four-barrel carburetors. The original steel hood and front quarter-panels were replaced with fiberglass panels. A special teardrop hood was installed to accommodate the massive FE power plant.

“The early Thunderbolts were delivered with a fiberglass front bumper, which was later replaced with an aluminum one,” Karelius says. “The interior was modified with the following changes: radio, heater, defroster, side mirror, and door panel armrests were deleted. Rubber floor mats, a single driver’s sun visor, single driver’s windshield wiper, single driver’s seatbelt, and lightweight Bostrom Thinline racing seats were added. The Thunderbolts were also delivered with drag racing slicks as standard equipment.”

1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Z-16 Frank & Laura Rodrigues This gorgeous Z-16 Chevelle was voted First place in Class N1. “It was funny when someone came up and questioned me about the trim on the rear,” says Frank Rodrigues. “I explained that this is a very rare Chevelle Z-16, the first Chevy to get the then-new 396 big-block. It’s very limited production. Just 201 were built in 1965, and it’s just one of 76 that we know left in existence.”

He bought the car from a town outside of Chicago from Jerry Huffman, “who has his own Z-16 that he had in high school. This restoration took four years, done by Chris Daniels, who is one of the noted experts on the Z-16 Chevelles. He still has two Z-16s of his own that he bought back in the 1970s and has restored several. I assisted with the restoration, and I can say that it was truly a labor of love.”

Rodrigues says, “What’s noteworthy is that at one time this car was owned by the automotive writer, Terry Boyce. I have some photos and documents of the car that goes back to the time he owned the car.”

1968 Shelby G.T. 500KR Robert Cassling Robert Cassling’s “King of the Road” Shelby was voted top in the N3 class. He tells us, “I purchased my KR convertible approximately three years ago following a five-year search for a black KR convertible with a four-speed transmission. Little did I know this was quite a rare combination, as there were only 18 made in this configuration. Having a black top made it even rarer, with a total production of only five triple-black KR convertibles.”

He first spotted the car on television, at a Mecum auction. “After years of fruitless searching, I gave Mecum a call, and they gave me information on the owner. It turned out that he lived only 5 miles from me! So the transaction was easy. The car was rotisserie restored by a well-known Shelby restorer and won gold awards at SAAC and Team Shelby in 2016. I think my car’s greatest attribute is its rarity.”

1965 Shelby G.T. 350 Bruce Meyer The winner in Class V for Pony Cars was noted car collector Bruce Meyer for his first-year G.T. 350. “It’s truly one of my favorites, which I’ve owned for 30 years,” he says. “It was restored almost 30 years ago by Cliff Lipke in Colorado and driven ever since. It has been on the California Classic Rally as well as the Copperstate 1000 Rally. This car does it all: comfortable, old-school fast, and handles like a dream. Very predictable with no surprises.”

Meyer says the G.T. 350 “just speaks to me. It’s a pure American automotive piece of art. Just nothing like it. A California hot rod Mustang in the traditional American color scheme perfected by Briggs Cunningham, white with blue stripes. In addition to its wonderful aesthetic, it dominated on the race track as well. It walked the walk and won multiple SCCA B/Production championships. It’s everything a Shelby should be.”

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 Ward Grappa “My Chevelle was sold new in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 6, 1970, at Ed Black’s Chevrolet Center to Tom White,” explains Ward Grappa. “Tom was a 19-year-old pharmacy major at the University of New Mexico. The purchase price of this car was $4,454.60. The original owner used this LS6 Chevelle as daily transportation until late 1980. By that time it had acquired 91,000 miles. Tom’s four daughters came home from the hospital as newborn babies in this car.”

In early 1981, White sold his LS6 to its second owner, Greg Compagnone, also from Albuquerque, for $4,500. “Greg drove this LS6 infrequently and kept it until late 1984,” says Grappa. “During that period he had the rings and bearings replaced in the engine because of excessive oil consumption, and had a ‘Mop and Glow’ paint job done because the original paint job was faded.”

Grappa has his car’s full owner history: “On December 12, 1984, this LS6 passed to Jerry Cogswell from Los Lunas, New Mexico, its third owner, for $5,500. From late 1984 until late 2001, Jerry put less than 1,000 miles on this car. At the time I purchased this Chevelle on January 13, 2002, it had traveled 95,575 miles. A complete, 2,000-hour, body-off restoration was finished by me in February 2003. All components are numbers- and date-code matching. Documentation includes the original Protect-o-Plate Warranty Folder and the new car purchase order.”

1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 Keith Watkins “I’ve owned the car for three years now,” says Keith Watkins. “I purchased it from a restorer in Atlanta who purchased it from the original owner. The car underwent a frame-on cosmetic restoration prior to me buying it. Once I bought it, I went through the car again to finish up all the fine details and get the car as close to original as possible. This included new fenderwells, OE battery and cables, OE spark plug wires, N.O.S. fuel pump, N.O.S. AM/FM radio, upgraded OE gauge package, N.O.S. tilt column, and all new correct hoses and clamps.”

The Chevelle “looks and drives exactly as it did when it left the factory in 1969, and it’s been a ton of fun working on and enjoying this time capsule,” Watkins says. “The car has the original engine, transmission, rearend, carb, snorkel air cleaner, and brakes, and sports its correct 789 Tuxedo Black paint, along with correct 11C Garnet Red interior. All the glass except the windshield is original to the car, along with the original body panels. Inside the car smells like steel and vinyl and takes me back to my childhood every time I go for a spin.”

1970 Ford Torino Cobra John Chencharick “I purchased this original, numbers-matching car with 24,000 miles in 2005,” John Chencharick tells us. “It now has 26,000 miles. I documented the mileage by contacting the second and third owners. The engine internals were photographed and documented by engine master Jim Van Gordon, and the transmission was inspected and photographed by John Saltzman. The original torque converter was also inspected and photographed. The engine compartment was expertly detailed by John Coute’s Arrow Auto Air in San Bernardino, California. The painting was done by Rounsville’s in San Bernardino, California. Parts were supplied by Jeff Sneathen at SEMO Mustangs, and any technical detail information was furnished by Phil LaChapelle.”

Chencharick says he has been “actively involved with most phases of the restoration from either a hands-on or research aspect. The originality of the car is its most amazing attribute. The car has participated in three concours events and had been very well received. It was invited to the Fabulous Fords event to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Torino and has just been invited back for the 50th celebration. It has also been invited for a major, yet unannounced, event coming up in January 2018. The car has done very well in shows, and I look forward to more highlights for this special car.”

1969 Ford Galaxie 500XL Mark Rice Mark Rice tells us he bought his Galaxie in 1979 “for $400 out of an ad placed in Hemmings. It was in a repair shop where it had been parked for five years. I am sure the shop told the customer that they had blown up the engine. Don’t know how the owner of the shop had the authorization to sell it, but he did, maybe for the customer. It was the first car that I brought back, and I drove it after doing some valvetrain work on the original motor.”

The Galaxie was far from how it looks now. “It had no rear glass and had been out in the rain for four years, so it had lots of rust,” says Rice. “The entire floor section had to be cut out of another 1969 convertible that I found at an Ecology Center. My dad and I cut it out on one Easter Sunday. It also needed the right door and trunk lid replaced. In the late 1970s into the 1980s you could find four to five cars a row at the junkyards and still find a fair amount of new parts at the local Ford dealer.”

The Galaxie was born with a K-code 429 two-barrel that came with a single exhaust. Rice says, “I upgraded it to a 460ci crate motor in 1985. I never liked the way it ran—no bottom end. A man in Signal Hill [California] began the rebuild of the 460 in 1999 with the correct DOV-C heads from a 429. It is completely balanced and port-matched with Cobra Jet cast-iron headers. I helped in all the intake and exhaust porting. I restored the car myself with the exception of the paint and upholstery. It was painted in late 1989 and still has that paint on it. It’s been a part of my life for the last 38 years.”

1968 Shelby G.T. 500 Christopher Sullivan “Mine is a true Los Angeles Shelby G.T. 500,” says Christopher Sullivan. “It was originally purchased from Downey Ford, Downey, California. It was built on December 21, 1967, and received at Downey Ford on January 11, 1968. It’s all factory-correct, matching-numbers with its original, unrestored factory interior. It has benefited from a six-year rotisserie restoration process—every nut and bolt—using all the actual parts that came on the car wherever possible. All correct factory colors, details, and using correct date-coded original N.O.S. parts, turn signal switch and so on.”

Note that the Shelby has its original black and yellow California-issued license plates with the original Downey Ford dealer license plate frame. Sullivan says, “This dealer frame was the personal frame of the original owner of Downey Ford, Mr. Graham Sr. which was given to me by his son, Mr. Jim Graham from Santa Margarita Ford. He told me, ‘So you own the green hot rod. I knew that car when I was 14 years old running around my father’s shop!’”

The Shelby (No. 00909) was raced at Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, California, and at the Riverside International Raceway. “The car had some vintage Lions Drag Strip decals under the hood when I purchased it in 2009. It took many years to get the G.T. 500 to the level it is today. And I really enjoy driving it around Venice Beach,” says Sullivan.

1966 Shelby G.T. 350 Margaret Alley “In 1967 my husband Paul and I traded our VW Beetle and a little bit of cash to one of our neighbors for this car,” Margaret Alley recalls. “Over the years he would drive it to work, racing on the Long Beach freeway. He loved it, he wanted a muscle car so bad. He loved fast cars. Together we drove it in slaloms, time trials, and gymkhanas.”

Over the years, with Paul driving it back and forth to work, “the car went through several paint jobs, some not so good, the cheap-type stuff,” she says. “Over the last couple of years, I dug it out of storage and had Mike Abssy, the owner of Schraders’ Speed and Style in Azusa, do all the work. It is a true muscle car, no power brakes and no power steering. You just muscle it around, which I do about once a week.” We shot a video of Margaret at the show and posted it on Facebook. “As I left Lacy Park on the day of the show, that video must to have gone viral,” she tells us. “As we drove the car off the field, people were shouting at me, ‘You’re the real little old lady from Pasadena!’ That was so much fun, the perfect ending to a wonderful day. And now my G.T. 350 will be in Muscle Car Review magazine.”

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang Robin Grove “Salli, my 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible, found me through a friend whose father, M. E. Evans, had just passed away,” Robin Grove says. “I am the car’s second owner. Mr. Evans was a big Ford truck buyer for his ranch in Texas in the 1950s and 1960s. He bought his wife a present for her birthday, which was a triple-black, fully loaded, Tiffany-advertised, hot-off-the-assembly line Mustang. He had her delivered on a large flatbed truck with a bow.”

She says the engine had some problems in later years, so it became a father-son project. “Somehow they never finished it, and it sat in their garage for 30 years, all parts in boxes and accounted for. “My first car was a black 1964 1/2 Mustang, and over the years because of that I was named Mustang Salli,” Grove continued. “Hence, when my Mustang found me, she had to be named Salli. Salli’s a babe, and us girls always stick together. At shows, when someone recognizes it as a 1964 1/2 Mustang, I love pointing out the almost dozen or so small differences between the half-year, 1964 1/2 cars—such as the generator and sharp-edged hood—and the changes made for the full-year 1965 cars.”

1972 Mercury Cougar XR-7 Skip Humphrey Skip Humphrey’s Cougar is a rare cat, one of just 32 convertibles built with the 285hp 351 and a four-speed manual transmission. “I ordered the car in September 1971 from Hempstead Lincoln-Mercury in Hempstead, New York,” he says. “It took until December 23 for the car to be delivered, as Ford had trouble getting it to pass Federal smog requirements because of the four-speed transmission. On the weekend of July 4, 1973, I read that Ford had built its last convertibles. At the time she had 39,000 miles on the odometer. I went out and bought a used Falcon Station wagon, and put the Cougar in my garage, to be used only weekends and only in good weather.”

Humphrey moved to Southern California in 1988 and had the Cougar, then with 63,000 miles on the clock, shipped west. This past April, while Humphrey was driving home from the Fabulous Fords Forever show at Knott’s Berry Farm, the odometer rolled over to 85,000.

“This car is as original as I have been able to keep her,” he says. “In 2012 at the Knott’s’ show, I was award the Johnna Pepper Memorial Trophy, presented to me by Henry Ford III, the great-, great-grandson of the founder of the Ford Motor Company. She is lovingly cared for and driven to numerous shows, mainly in Southern California.”

1968 AMC AMX Mark Melvin “My car came with an interesting history, as it was Angela Dorian’s grand prize for being named Playboy’s 1968 Playmate of the Year,” says Mark Melvin of his distinctive AMX, which we featured in “Pretty in Pink” in the Jan. 2016 issue (hotrod.com).

“Although the pink car was a beauty in 1968 when formally awarded to Dorian, the car was very rough when spotted for sale on a used car lot in Southern California,” he recalls. “A contract was signed and title transferred, ending the Playmate’s 42 years of ownership, which made me the second owner of the ‘Playmate AMX.’”

The AMX, wearing black paint, was put into storage for two years until “a combination of local club members agreed to help take on the project of restoring the AMX back to its original ‘Playmate Pink’ glory,” says Melvin. “The restoration, led by club member Allen Tyler, took nearly three years, as every nut and bolt came off the car and every component was rebuilt.”

He says his AMX “does very well at all shows. Even if it misses out on an award, it still gets looks from everyone, especially the girls, who can’t pass up an opportunity to have their picture taken with the pink AMX.”

1970 Dodge Challenger Peter Treglia A couple of cars on the Lacy Park lawns were veterans of previous SMMCs. One was Peter Treglia’s Challenger. He says, “I bought the car about two years ago, 90-percent restored, from Greg Nelson, a big Mopar guy who runs The Mopar Ponderosa in Minnesota. Since then it’s been an ongoing project to make it as correct as possible. I entered the show here last year, where I was pleased to be invited, and finished last in my class. That inspired me to do better, and over the last year we fine-tuned where we felt we came up short. This year I took home the Second place trophy, which I think is quite an accomplishment.”

Treglia says his Challenger was “inspired by the remake of the movie Vanishing Point in 1997. It’s equipped with a numbers-matching 440 Six-Pack, transmission, and rearend. It’s a Dana 60 Super Drag Pack car with a 4.10 rearend. It’s finished in B7 Blue, which is one of the rarest colors and is the color the car was when it left the factory.”

1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Warren Seko Another SMMC veteran was Warren Seko’s Grabber Blue Boss, which earned the MCR award at last year’s show. He says, “The Boss 429 Mustang is a rare muscle car and was homologated by NASCAR to build at least 500 street examples for Ford to use in racing,” Warren explains. “Total production was 859 made for 1969, and 499 for 1970. My car is KK number 2171.”

Seko’s late father, Saburo, was the third owner. The car had a repaint back in the late 1980s “with single-stage paint in its original Grabber Blue color,” he says. “The interior is 100 percent original, with its slight patina, vinyl scent, and the white comfort-weave seats. The Decor Group with the woodgrain side panels was an option for the 1970 model year.”

Seko points out that “all 1970 Boss 429s were equipped with the Hurst shifter, while the 1969 models came with the Ford handle. The car has been in the show circuit in the L.A. area since the 1980s and has won numerous awards throughout the years. It currently has 25,000 miles on the odometer.”

According to the Marti Report, this Boss was one of 10 built for the Los Angeles ordering district. As such it is equipped with the special California evaporative emissions equipment on the gas tank, air cleaner tube, and a charcoal canister under the engine block.

“It was delivered to Culver Motors Ford in Culver City,” he says. “My late father, when he first purchased the car, verified its performance at the dragstrip by clocking a 13.99 at 104 mph at Orange County International Raceway, in factory stock condition, including the full complement of smog equipment and original tires. We still have that time slip to this day, as well as old Polaroid and 35mm photographs as a tribute to my dad.”

2017 San Marino Motor Classic Results, Muscle Car & Pony Car Classes

Class N1 American Big-Block Muscle Cars 1962-1974 GM 1. Frank & Laura Rodrigues, 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Z-16 2. Dan Bishop, 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 3. Keith Watkins, 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS Coupe

Class N2 American Big-Block Muscle Cars 1962-1974 non-GM 1. John Karelius, 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt 2. Peter Treglia, 1970 Dodger Challenger 3. Les Juhos, 1965 Dodger Hemi Coronet

Class N3 American Big-Block Muscle Cars 1962-1974 Open 1. Robert Cassling, 1968 Shelby G.T. 500KR 2. Dann Allen, 1969 Mercury Cougar 3. Mark Rice, 1969 Ford Galaxie 500 XL

Class V Pony Cars Through 1973 1. Bruce Meyer, Shelby G.T. 350 2. Jim Mikkelson, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro 3. James Powers, 1967 Mercury Cougar

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