Vintage Car Spurs Gawking, Banter

This afternoon, I celebrated Los Angeles's 227th birthday by engaging in one of the city's unofficial traditions: car washing. Of course, I didn't do it myself — I'm far too lazy/delicate for such an endeavor. Instead I brought my fair Toyota Camry to my usual spot on Spaulding and Melrose where nothing but a team of hardworking guys scrub the cars down by hand. No machines, no whirling rag-things, no robots. Just good old fashioned elbow grease. Because of this 100% hand-washed policy, this particular car wash attracts a high caliber of vehicles, which surely my Camry belongs to. I'm talking about Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and various other brands that are just a tad out of my price range. Today, however, a striking, electric-blue Lincoln Zephyr pulled up, and it was so eye-catching, I just had to take a picture.

Prior to doing so, however, I talked to the owner of the car, who told me all about his experiences as a car collector / enthusiast / restorer. It was pretty interesting, but the amount of upkeep in dealing with those vintage automobiles sounded entirely too overwhelming to me. I have a hard enough time keeping my Camry clean, let alone some whale from the '40s. Nevertheless, the guy said his Zephyr was one of only forty-one in the entire world. I don't remember what year the model was, but it was a surefire stunner — and this is coming from me, a guy who really doesn't give two cow plops about cars. After the jump, one more pic of the car's front grill, which the owner encouraged me to see. It was quite spectacular. I only wish I had taken more pics of the entire car. Oh well. I'm sure there's a gallery somewhere online.