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STREET NEO CLASSICS
That 80s/90s Show

This article is from our archives and has not been updated and integrated with our "new" site yet... Even so, it's still awesome - so keep reading!

Published on Mon, Oct 31, 2016

By: The LACar Editorial Staff

By Glenn Oyoung Fall is always a fun time of year - between the changing of the leaves (yes, that happens in L.A.), Halloween, and Thanksgiving, what's not to like? Car enthusiasts also have a host of tricks & treats to choose from as the automotive industry crams in a chock full of races, car shows before Christmas and other winter holidays start kicking in. It seemed like I just finished submitting my Japanese Classic Car Show (JCCS) article when the Street Neo Classics show came up. The volunteers from JCCS saw the demand for a show to celebrate the many venerable Japanese imports from the 1980s and 1990s - and so in 2015 the "Street Neo Classics" car show was born. The inaugural show was hosted at the campus of Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance.

A pair of clean white Z's bringing the 80s back

I wasn't able to make the first show last year, but thanks to a patient wife I was able to carve out some time to head to the South Bay to soak in the sport compact goodness that is the Street Neo Classics show. As someone who came of age in the late 80s and early 90s it was incredible to see cars that I grew up with now on display at a car show. You come to expect legendary and culturally relevant sports cars like 240Z, Integra, and NSX to be there in droves. But bone-stock (dare I say, concours-quality!) Tercels and Cressida's? Woah, I am getting old - because the cars we used to learn to drive stick on and borrowed from our friends' moms are now collectible!

This fourth-gen Honda Civic was flexing some VTEC muscle at the show

As an added bonus to this great show, Toyota was kind enough to open up their museum for free to all attendees. It was a true treat to see so many significant race cars & trucks, concept cars, and even star cars on display.

For car lovers, our rides are time capsules on wheels, preserving the memories of our youth. It's very interesting to see in recent years that the Japanese car culture has come into its own and shows like Street Neo Classics are giving fans young and old a way to connect to those magic decades of yesteryear. After heading out of the show I realized I was low on gas. At the pump, I turned to look at my early 2000's Lexus and promised myself that no matter how old I got I would try to hold on to it. - Glenn Oyoung, Editor-at-Large, October 2016