Radwood NorCal 2021: COVID-19 Can't Kill RAD
Hitting some local cars and coffee events and a Bugorama event last month got us a little juiced for the reopening of the world. When we heard that the good people at Radwood were plowing forward with a 2021 NorCal event, we were excited….guardedly optimistic, but excited. After the last year and a half, we’re always ready for news that something is going to be canceled, postponed or non or spectator-limited. Ready for whatever, we bought our tickets and marked our calendars.
On what was to be the hottest day of the year for Sacramento (for the record, it was 114 when we got home) we headed down to the San Mateo County Event Center for not only 80s and 90s automotive and cultural Radness, but also spectacular Bay Area weather.
The gods were clearly smiling on us. We arrived a bit early, participating cars were still pulling in and setting up. It didn’t take long to see that this event was a much needed relief from the pandemic. This was our 4th Radwood Norcal event, and it was pretty obvious that all who attended were ready to be back, and with force. We can’t prove it, but this event was even a bit more Rad than normal. The clothes were a little more day-glo and flammable than usual, bangs were a little longer, the jank was a bit jankier and the average level of rad game that people brought was, just flat out, more than usual. Everyone had smiles on their faces and we were really pleased to see even more young people, and families that we’ve seen before.
Just let it sink in…
For the unindoctrinated, Radwood is more than your average “car show.” Corny as it may sound, it’s more accurately a “celebration” of cars and culture of the 80s and 90s. As much as neither of us really long for a return to these two decades, (coincidentally, our formative years), there’s an unescapable tug at our heartstrings as we circulate through these events. Part of it is that we get to be around the poster cars of our youth. It’s always a “thing” when you walk up on an amazing red Countach, a Skyline of any “R” variety, or a cocaine white 911 turbo slant. The other part is that so many of the vehicles are, for lack of a better term, unicorns. Things that were never imported to the states, stuff that you never knew were imported into the states, stuff you only read about, and stuff you never knew actually existed.
This, as every Radwood event, had all of these things and more. As always, we’ve provided you a big gallery below with lots of images from the event. While everything there was pretty rad there were a few things we saw that we’d like to single out because of their almost excessive radness.
The first, and in the aforementioned category of things you didn’t even know were imported into the states, were not one, not two, but three Lancia Delta HF Integrales. All three were fantastic, but the white one with the Martini graphics and several mods was particularly tasty!
Firmly in the “things you didn’t even know existed” category was this amazing 1990 Daihatsu HiJet named Kiri, from the small Japanese mountain town of Kirigamine. Yeah, why not….suffice it to say that pretty much everyone was blown away by a tiny fire truck. When it started doing laps around the event center blaring warnings about confirmed Godzilla sightings, we nearly lost our shit, it was unbelievable (and naturally, the warnings were in English and Japanese, so that). Maybe the Countach was the most dazzling car at the event….but maybe not. Just now, researching it a little, we see that it was awarded the RADDEST IN SHOW award…says us, well deserved! For more on Kiri, check is out on Insta @teenytinyfiretruck
Many of these 80s and 90s nostalgia-mobiles were more than tributes to a bygone era when Miami Vice and the original Bay Watch were the top prime time programs. The contingent of Germans from brands such as BMW, Audi, and Porsche looked as if they just came from the showroom having been well preserved by their owners. Others showed signs of wear but also preservation in the same sense that a Hollywood actor or actress might also be well preserved with copious amounts of Botox. They also exemplified a style of an era that cared little for efficiency as often cars with the styling lines of shoeboxes were considered the A-listers of their day. They all brought back memories of drug deals gone bad, car chases, and of course late nights at Studio 54.. all in the movies of course.
Radwood NorCal 2021 was just the right way for us to bust out of the COVID funk and get back out into the automotive universe. If you’ve never been to a Radwood event, or if you’re already hooked, they’re are more opportunities to partake in some much needed rad. There are events planned in Chicago, the PNY, Austin, Greenwich and SoCal through the end of November. If you’re interested in any of those events, their amazing swag, or in their new RADFORSALE auctions of 80s and 90s autos, just go to their mainpage or on all the usual social media platforms @radwoodofficial.
As usual, we leave you with a gallery below to fill in any gaps that our report may have left.
