It was uncharacteristically cold, muddy, and damp at the recent Radwood L.A. show in Orange County. Leaves were falling, dust and dirt turned to mud—it actually felt like fall in a place notoriously lacking seasonal variety. And it was a lovely setting to view some of the finest, weirdest, and long-forgotten sheetmetal of the 1980s and 1990s.
If you’re not familiar, Radwood is the car show at the center of an automotive revival for a generation of ‘tweener cars—not quite old enough to be classics and definitely not new enough to be modern. It’s a big part of why cars like the Mk4 Toyota Supra are now selling for more than their modern equivalents. The show got its name as a riff on the Goodwood Revival and Goodwood Festival of Speed, aiming to become a car show that’s less high-brow and exclusive and more, well, radical.
Any car or motorcycle built or designed between 1980 and 1999 is eligible to show at Radwood, be it a museum-spec Porsche 959 or a rusted out Subaru Brat. The first event was held in Brisbane, California, in 2017, but the Radwood machine has since touched down in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin, Sonoma, Fort Lauderdale, and even in London on the same grounds where Goodwood takes place. Showgoers are encouraged to don their raddest parachute pants, Coogi sweaters, and other period-appropriate attire.
In a land where cars never rust and automotive culture is thriving, Southern California makes for one of the better Radwood shows in the country. There was a green GMC Typhoon that stole my heart. We saw a muddy lifted TRD-liveried Lexus LS400, a mint Honda City Turbo II with a matching Motocompo mini bike, and a Subaru GL USA Ski Team wagon. Alongside the obscure stuff, there was also an Audi Quattro, a Porsche 993 Carrera RS, and a sweet BMW Z1. I also saw a man with an absurd mullet.
Honda brought a smattering of museum-spec Radmobiles, including an Electron Blue Pearl 1999 Civic Si with under 1,200 miles on it that they lent me for the weekend (stay tuned for our story on that Civic Si). The automaker’s centerpiece, though, was a restomodded Acura SLX SUV fitted with a modern 350-hp Acura RDX drivetrain complete with Acura’s SH-AWD.
Long story short, Radwood L.A. was rad as hell and we’ve got a big ‘ol photo gallery of these not-quite classic cars. Enjoy.
The post Car Show Photos: Radwood L.A. Featured the Very Best of the 1980s and 1990s appeared first on MotorTrend.
Source: WORLD NEWS
