Cars and Coffee, Montrose, April 24th 2010

Another weekend, another great collection of (mostly) classic machinery. We’re doing our best to bring you that which you haven’t seen before, and CnC Montrose has yet to come up short. Hit the jump to see our own little contribution to the mix.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the Mad_Science Falcon is back in action! With a new clutch, shocks, front disc brakes, rebuilt shifter and tach installed, it’s back in action is a big way. A few trips to the Day_Job netted me about 17 mpg, which ain’t too shabby for a 46 year old piece of hardware. Only two things left to take care of: fix the fuel gauge and install rear seat belts. Despite the relative rarity of a 260ci + 4 speed, the crowd largely passed it by to gawk at some genuinely impressive rides.

Yeah…so…this thing. No one’s gonna give the owner a hard time for under-doing it, that’s for sure. Our complaints are the relatively common Chevy Smallblock and autobox, but everything’s forgiven on account of the very home-fab-looking flame-painted headers.

We love 50s pickups, be they low, high or carrying a little water weight. We’d have a hard time doubting anything coming out of the mouth of that red one’s owner…it just reeks of honesty.

So yeah…stick-on fender vents that don’t match the cylinder count. Everything old’s new again.

Minus 10 points for the addition of air conditioning to this gullwing. Plus 1,000 for being a black gullwing with matching black valve cover. Also note the size of those intake runners. Impressive. A new SLS showed up to join it…right after I’d thrown my camera in the trunk to drive home. Maybe next week.

A scene you’d never witness at CnC Irvine: a bunch of old dudes ignoring a 430 Scuderia in favor of a 427 Vette. Of course, said Corvette was puking coolant at the time.

You’ve seen this Cobra in our sets before, but not this little quote on the windshield. When you do 80,000 miles in a Cobra, you earn the right to install the stereo of your choosing.

Alongside the pre-malaise machinery, a fastback 5.0L Mustang doesn’t drop any jaws, but this grey one looks to be in great shape. The roll bar, race belts, hood pins and crazy-sticky tires suggest the owner means business. We suspect some time around 2015, everyone will wake up wanting a Five-oh and will wonder where they’ve all gone.

Opposite the Windsor-powered Fox sat a trio of odd ponies. There’s a whole crew of SVO guys that show up. The engine bay of an SVO’s no V8 altar, in fact there’s so much room between the front of the engine and the radiator that they have to use an electric fan. It’s an alternate universe Mustang, the SVO.

Speaking of Weird Cars for Weird People, this Type II pickup looks like it’s in the middle of a serious restoration. Some parts are sanded, some are patched, others are fully bondo-ed and primered, ready for paint.

Man, that is one hell of an engine bay. Two oil filters, six carbs, lots of plug wires. Wrapped around it is a 1972 Ferrari GTC4, not a common site, given a total of 500 were ever made.

This is a 66 or 67 Chevelle, sporting an LS-something. It had Car Craft decals on it. There’s no front picture because there was always a huge crowd in front of it. The blocky tires suggest it’s regularly driven in anger.

This Caddy sat off by itself, exuding enough class for five car shows. The early little stubby fins only hint at what’s to come for the crested GM brand.

Based on the plate, this is a 1970 GT500. According to the ‘pedias of Wik, the ’70s were actually just leftover ’69s, as Shelby terminated his agreement with Ford in summer of ’69. Whether or not Bryan Adams had anything to do with it remains a mystery. While it’s a kickass car in its own right, the cleaner mid-60s lines of something like a ’65 GT350 are preferable in our book.

This orange roadster embodies beauty through simplicity. The paint and interior are clean and flawless. The engine looks to be an early Chevy small block with siamesed center exhausts, but the four-up old-school manifold and lack of the obvious giant small block distributor at the rear has me confused. Either way, gorgeous car.

Click through see the whole flickr set. Also, be sure to head over the CnCPics.com to check out the action from the Irvine show.