The Enderle Center was built by Al Enderle on land that was once an orange grove owned by Al’s father. The Center is the only privately-owned shopping center on the West Coast. Al used his center as a gathering place for community events, like Christmas caroling, Bell Choirs, Pops Orchestra concerts, and especially car shows. The Enderle Center hosts classic car shows twice a month and custom and single-marque car shows throughout the year.
This year, the 21st Annual Classic Car Show, was being held to provide funds for the Tustin Community Foundation. I entered the parking area at the south end of the center and saw Tom Spangler pointing me to a parking spot next to his Primrose Bugeye Sprite. We joined about 200 other American and European classics from the days of the Horseless Carriages to the days of the gas-guzzling muscle cars of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
I have attended this event a number of times over the years and it is a family-friendly event with a face painter, a balloon maestro, a pops concert by the OC Community Orchestra, raffles, food trucks, and lots of trophies.
Tom and I had a couple of hours to prepare our cars for the official opening of the car show which began with the Pledge of Allegiance while the OC Fire Authority raised a large American Flag over the crowd. This was followed by an a capella rendition of the National Anthem and introductions of VIP’s and Community Leaders.
With the show officially underway I went to eat breakfast and then made the rounds of the show, checking out all the cars on display. Throughout the day Tom and I had many visitors looking at our cars and reminiscing about the Healeys they sold, wrecked, or let rust away. The judges came by and evaluated our cars but in the end the Foreign Car trophy went to a Porsche 356 Carrera.
Back in 2015, I attended the show with my BJ7 and the event organizers asked if they could photograph the car as part of the logo for the 2016 show. It was part of the logo that year. Once again I was asked to pull the car out to be photographed and it is supposed to be part of the logo for the 2020 show. So, if you want a car show T-shirt with a Healey on it, sign up for next year's Enderle Center Classic Car Show.