Members of the club, which disbanded during the Vietnam War and was restarted in 1998, chose Bob’s for its shows because of its historical ties to car watching, they said.
“You’d basically go to Bob’s to look at the girls and look at the cars,” said Burbank resident Blake Wilcox, the owner of a 1931 Ford Woody that drew looks from interested passers-by throughout the evening.
The restaurant chain developed into a destination for car lovers, and that created a cruising culture in the 1960s, Wilcox said.
“Sometimes you’d start out at Bob’s in Toluca Lake, and you’d go up to Van Nuys and you’d go up to San Fernando and you’d just cruise through Bob’s [locations] and have them look at you,” Wilcox said.
With the change of restaurants at the club’s monthly home base, members were disappointed to see some of their shows’ nostalgia fading, but were optimistic that the car-loving culture would thrive at Glenoaks Cafe, which might even draw a new demographic of enthusiasts, they said.
“People like to go out and come look at cars,” said Bill Waldmann, the group’s sergeant of arms.
Hits from the 1950s and ’60s played over loudspeakers set up in the restaurant parking lot as sports cars ranging from old classics to the latest in automobile engineering rumbled past open hoods and shimmering paint jobs.
Burbank resident Arsho Kazarian stood by his 2009 Rossian, a new South African racing car that was the fourth chassis made worldwide.
Enthusiasts asked to look under the hood of the Lamborghini-esque vehicle, which was assembled using the South African body and modified Ford Taurus mechanics that could power the $120,000 car to the power of 600 horses, Kazarian said.
