Glorious Huntington Beach, otherwise known as the Surf City, California. Main street is one of the nicest places to chill when it’s sunny because it’s lined with tons of shops, restaurants and girls in bikinis.
The reason I bring this up is because strolling around Main street this past weekend I found this very clean Mitsubishi 3000GT.
It’s not all that often you see one of these cars and even more rare that you see one done up. Rarer still is one that’s clean. Yet here one is, sitting less than half a block off Main street in Huntington.
I know some of you are wondering and the answer is yes, they are real. Centercap says it all.
So I got to walking and thought to myself how weird it’d be to roll through Main street in a really done up J-car like a Silvia, an EVO or a Fairlady. I know I felt a little out of place when I drove through in my DC2.
Eventually I ended up at the pier and started watching a surf competition. I think it was the Southwest regionals or something.
The competition was pretty low key but still a lot of fun to watch. I don’t know if any of you have stood around on the pier watching surf competitions, but it’s one of my favorite things to do. This guy rode one right up to the pier and busted a nice floater right below me. In any case, I got to thinking some more and had an epiphany. J-cars shouldn’t feel out of place in Huntington Beach amongst all of the surf and skate places. Surf and skate are action sports and lately cars are starting to get thrown into the mix too.
Take DC Shoes for example. They made this and two other STi’s for the gumball races they have across the country. DC Shoes also participated in the Rally portion of X-Games. Better yet, what about the fact itself that Rally is in X-Games now?
One word: Pastrana. What amazes me about him is that he’s so good at so much of what he does. Pastrana has mad skills. I was in tears after he pulled off the double backflip and almost had a relapse when he won another gold in Rally.
My point is that things are changing. We, as car enthusiasts, are no longer being seen as delinquents or outcasts of society. Before, people would see or talk about import cars with a negative connotation. Now we’re ranting and raving about what Travis Pastrana can do with a STi? And did you know that we might see dorifto in X-Games next year? The fuzion across sports and cultures has begun.
All of these thoughts brought a surmounting sense of joy to me as I stood there watching the surfers. It’s just one of life’s nuances, but think about how multi-faceted things are now. 10 years ago who would have thought we could put Rally racing into the same category as Surf and Skate? Just think about the momentum and direction everything is going in. Soon we’ll roll up to Main street in Huntington Beach with our Silvias, EVO’s or what have you donning a roofrack for our surfboards. And the only reason people will point or stare is out of admiration. Life is good.