The San Fernando Valley Illegal Soap Box Federation (SFVISBF)

Yet another reason LA isn't as awful as I thought, growing up in NorCal. The San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation is a collection of handy individuals who love gravity but show much ambivalence towards their own personal safety.

They meet on the second Sunday of every month, at roughly 6am in a random parking lot. Yes, 6am. Don't worry too much, because thus far everywhere they've met contains a coffee dispensary. Where will they meet next month? You'll have to check their website to find out.

August 2007's Home Invasion was the first race I attended: two gentle curves followed by a long downhill, followed by a 90 degree right turn. My brother and I parked ourselves on the inside of the curve, wondering just what we were in store for. Nothing could've prepared us for what came next. When it comes to describing incredible events in detail, sometimes I'm good with words, other times I'm good with embedding video:
(please turn up your volume)



Needless to say, from that day forward I was hooked.

Following races will be covered in detail in the future, but for now the reader can go into more detail in our flickr sets.

HooptyRides HQ

We received the unique opportunity to tour Hooptyrides HQ, home of Mr Jalopy. If you don't know who that is, follow the link, do some reading and come back.

Basically, this was as close to a real-life Wonka factory as it gets. Secret location? Check. Eccentric Recluse? Check. Oompa-loompas? Ummm...not really, but he does have one helper-guy helping him out. I was hoping all the other visitors would be eliminated in one way or another, leaving only Daisy and I to inherit the place. No such luck.

Mr Jalopy has managed to acquire crazy-old-hotrodder-guy-who-just-died quantities of junk. While the quantity is certainly impressive it's the quality of his junk that sets Mr Jalopy apart.

A wall of metal containers:


A glass case full of Gauges:


A great collection of large-size jackstands:



He's in the process of Frankensteining two fluid-coupling dynos together, the detailed workings of which he was happy to lecture:


Don't think that just because Mr Jalopy is such a ravenous collector that he's incapable of vetting his possessions (for a price, that is):


There is one problem with the crowd that assembled for the event...they almost all fit the same description. I was trying to describe someone to Daisy on the way home, and it went a little something like this:
"You remember, the guy with the kinda shaggy beard?"
"Ummm..."
"He had glasses"
"Not helping"

Case in point:


A look around that picture shows the assortment of scruffy-faced gentlemen (and a few not-so scruffy ladies) that were in attendance.

Your reward for reading or scrolling all the way to the end is a set of links to pictures of the event. (The last one's mine)