Good car-ma in Cloverdale

By Eliot Sekuler

For the TODAY

My pappy said, “Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’ If you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln.”— Charlie Ryan, “Hot Rod Lincoln” 1955.

This year’s model of the annual Cloverdale Cruise-In will be a strictly casual affair. No registration fees and no need to fill out forms. There will be no prizes to be won, no competition, no shiny tin trophies to clutter your living room.

Instead, event this Saturday, Sept. 3, is an occasion for hot-rodders, bikers and motorheads of every persuasion to gather on the strip of Highway 101 that runs through historic Cloverdale’s pocket-sized business district and admire each other’s cars, swap stories, kick back and kick tires.

The event draws as many as 300 people and 100 vehicles of every description including custom cars, antiques, hots rods and rat rods, old trucks, muscle cars and motorcycles. If it has an engine and it runs, or even if it doesn’t, it’s welcome.

“We encourage everybody to show up,” said Tom Goodwin, one of the event’s founders and organizers. “People bring every kind of vehicle, from trailer queens — cars that hardly get driven — to the cars people drive every day, whether it’s a `32 Ford roadster or a `52 Chevrolet pickup or a `36 Studebaker. If it has even a bit of cache, it’s welcome at Cloverdale.”

It’s all good fun except for one serious component. Though there are no fees, the organizers use the event to raise donations for the Nestucca Valley Fire and Rescue Department. Past guests have been generous and Nestucca Valley Fire and Rescue has reaped significant benefits. According to Fire Chief Jim Oeder, more than $4,000 has been raised since the effort began just three years ago.

Car owners that attend the event can look forward to sharing details about their restored or tricked-out cars and how difficult, easy or expensive the process was. It can be a great place to learn about the pitfalls and advantages of owning a particular year, make and model of car.

Unlike a formal car show, where cars are primped and pampered, buffed and burnished to a gleaming finish, Cloverdale’s Cruise In is a “come as you are” event.

“People just drive in with bugs on their fenders and hang out,” Goodwin said.

The Cloverdale Cruise-In was first organized 10 years ago when Goodwin and Cloverdale auto enthusiast Dick Warren attended the Route 101 Car Show in the nearby town of Hebo.

Goodwin left the event with a case of event envy.

“I asked Dick, ‘Why can’t we have our own cruise-in here in Cloverdale?’” he said.

Warren is a veteran hot rodder who buys, restores and sells old cars and is plugged into Oregon’s car hobbyist community. During his high school days, he founded a local hot rod group that evolved into the Showmen Car Club and he eventually incorporated the building and restoration of hot rods into his trucking and excavating business.

Warren and Goodwin got the first Cloverdale Cruise-in up and running in 2012. For a few years, it was a more formal event.

“We used to have trophies and music and vendors and food and it was a lot of work,” Goodwin said. “We collected money from sponsors for advertising. There was competition for the awards. Personally, I didn’t like the competition; I just wanted people to come and relax.”

Informality seems appropriate for a hobby that began without any organization or official

sanction. Hot rod cars have been an iconic feature of American culture since the 1930s, when Southern California car enthusiasts began stripping down old Fords and racing them on dry lake beds in the Mojave Desert. The pastime picked up steam in the years immediately following World War II and by the late 1940s and mid-1950s, magazines like Hot Rod and Motor Trend sprang up to service a hobby that was fast becoming an industry. By the 1960s, hot-rodding was enshrined in such movies as “American Graffiti” and books like Tom Wolfe’s “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.”

Events such as the Cloverdale Cruise-in celebrate the DIY spirit of hot rod culture, with its core precept that people can enjoy a cool and unusual car affordably, without making an enormous investment. If they have the skill and motivation to do the work, they can trade with someone else who has the other skills or the parts needed to complete a project. Some of that exchange might well be part of the attraction for guests, but above all, it’s the opportunity to enjoy their cars (or bikes, or trucks) and like-minded company.

According to Goodwin, moving the event to Labor Day weekend a few years ago added to its appeal.

“It’s so easy now,” he said. “People are already down here on the coast driving

their hot rods and motorcycles or cruisers and this is great event for people to bring their families.”

The lack of competition, added Goodwin, underscores the spirit of the event.

“The prize at the Cloverdale Cruise-In is sharing the present together,” he said.

Cruise in to Cloverdale from 9 am to 4 pm this Saturday, Sept. 3. For more information, call 503-329-8345.