The Chrysler Performance West Mopar Show Hits Van Nuys
The West Coast’s biggest Mopar club took over L.A.’s Woodley Park for its 37 annual Chrysler bash.
0:00 / 0:00
We’ve been to all the big Mopar shows—Carlisle, Columbus, Vegas, Bowling Green—but the one we’re most fond of is close to home in Southern California. The Chrysler Performance West Mopar club (CPW) has been putting on their Los Angeles area Spring Fling event for 37 years. It’s become a staple for fans of Mother Mopar across the West Coast (and beyond!) due to its welcoming weather, proximity to other important attractions, and idyllic setting in Van Nuys’ Woodley Park. CPW’s show is the springboard for local Mopar clubs across Southern California and serves as a yearly gathering point, swap meet, car show, and cruise scene, including an organized run to the coast and a Friday-night hang at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and at Bob’s Big Boy in Northridge on Saturday night. Those of a road racing persuasion also had the option of hot lapping Willow Springs Raceway on Thursday before the show.
AI Quick Summary
The Chrysler Performance West Mopar Show in Van Nuys celebrated its 37th event with a gathering for Mopar fans, featuring a car show, swap meet, and cruise.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article
Read Next
This year’s attendance was a bit down due to the prediction of cooler weather with the possibility of precipitation, but true to SoCal’s predilection to better weather outcomes, rain was absent (although temps remained solidly in the 60s). The overcast skies made for easy strolling and picture taking, and the park’s normal visitors got a great no-cost show and the chance to learn new things about some cool old Mopars. As our companion video bears out, the mild weather and low turnout combined to give the event a more exclusive concours d’elegance feel with shorter lines at concessions and facilities—an upgrade for those familiar with the nation’s other big Mopar events.
Source
As is the norm around Hollywood, visitors can always expect to see some representation from the big screen at major events and Spring Fling was no exception with the mechanical co-star from Joe Dirt, the multi-colored 1969 Dodge Daytona driven by human star David Spade. Thank goodness someone remembered to protect the delicate paintjob from scuffs with a microfiber towel!
This 1968 Hemi Road Runner was rolling old school with a fiberglass tilt front end. Tilt front-end bodywork was a huge street machine trend for a minute in the early 1970s, and we’re glad to see it returning to street cars. The treatment on the dual-purpose street/strip machine looks fresh!
The “survivor” tent at Spring Fling featured some sweet Hemi cars including Troy Bergeron’s 1970 Hemi Road Runner in Hemi Orange. Survivor cars are especially prized because in order to qualify as a survivor, it needs to never have been modified or repainted. These cars are all original and often are still possessed by their original owners.
Go to any big Mopar show, and you’ll always see plenty of Hemis, winged warriors, and “rare” Hemi E-Body convertibles, but it’s a rarer occurrence to see an immaculately restored 1979 Dodge L’il Red Express truck. This one belongs to Doug and Tammy McCafferty from the Mopars of Las Vegas club.
Kerry Suprenant (near camera) talks to a showgoer about his 1967 Dodge Charger, a beautiful 440ci big-block wedge machine built with help from friends and family. We’ll have a story on it, so keep your eyes peeled for this one.
1967 Plymouth GTXs make for great muscle cars, but did you know they are also awesome to tailgate out of? This one—still unfinished in bare metal—carried a party of four, the family dog, a backyard grill, and all the trimmings for a picnic. Those hamburgers smelled mouth-watering!
This 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona was the only Stellantis EV at Spring Fling, and it looked forlorn all by itself with few looky-loos. Its owner tried once or twice to entice fans with a few revs of the Fratzonic exhaust. More telling was Dodge’s complete absence from Spring Fling after several consecutive years of interest.
It doesn’t get any better in Moparland than Joseph Daniello’s 440-powered 1972 Plymouth Satellite all done up in a sinister black super-speedway treatment that features period-correct NASCAR steelies, big Wilwood brakes with hydroboost assist, Borgeson steering, and Firm Feel suspension.
The son-father build team of Saul and Jose Gonzalez (Carson, California) pose next to their 1968 Plymouth Barracuda project. It’s been a lifelong dream for Saul to build a car with his dad, and it all came together in the last five years. We’ll have a feature on it soon.
Steve Alpert’s 318ci ’69 Barracuda convertible is a one-owner survivor car with a story to tell. This pristine example has just one defect—an odd-shaped chunk taken out of its left front fender when a tire exploded on the highway many years ago. A car that perhaps may otherwise have been overlooked now elicits quite a bit more interest.
This 1964 Chrysler 300K was getting a lot of attention with its 413ci dual-quad Cross Ram manifold and leather interior. It would be the last of the large-platform Chryslers before the advent of the corporate C-Body platform in 1965.
Chrysler 300 “letter” cars were given the nickname “the banker’s hot rod” because of their 413-cubic-inch cross-ram wedge-head engines. This is a 1960 Chrysler 300F, and its cross-ram 413 was rated at a stout 375 hp. At the time, nobody could touch Chrysler’s class and power.
While we’re on the subject of the Chrysler brand, it’s our opinion that in 1987 there was no better-looking car for sale than the Chrysler Conquest TSi “Chiller,” a rebadged Mitsubishi Starion. Your author even took a test drive in one, but its intercooled 174-hp four-cylinder wasn’t up to the task, and a 5-liter Mustang ended up in the driveway. This one is owned by Sammy Metry, and he should really consider a Hemi swap.
When it comes to classic DeSotos, we’re torn. The earlier Desoto Hemi Firedome cars are very cool and even achieved 1 hp per cubic inch in 1957 (345/345), but the 1958–1960 DeSoto lineup also had sleek styling and Chrysler’s new wedge-head big-block. The 1960 DeSoto Adventurer had two version of the 383ci wedge, because due to a manufacturing shortage, for a short time the 383 was not a short-deck “B” block like the kind we all know but a tall-deck “RB” block with a smaller bore. We should’ve asked the owner, Rip Masters, if this was one of the rare raised-deck “RB” 383s.
You want survivor Hemi cars? We got survivor Hemi cars! Steve Wall is a big hitter at Chryslers Performance West, and his survivor Street Hemi 1966 Plymouth Satellite is the cleanest we’ve seen in an unrestored state. We had no idea it had been featured in Car Craft magazine many years ago.
Skip Ewing’s ultra-rare 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda Hemi Shaker car is also a survivor.
Another Hemi survivor at Spring Fling was David Fink’s 1968 Hemi Coronet R/T.
E-Body Mopars are among the most valuable and collectible muscle cars on the market with big-block 1971 convertibles at the top of the pile. This 383 Magnum-equipped Plymouth ’Cuda convertible got lots of looks.
1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible, also with a 383 Magnum under its hood.
Johnny Hunkins, born 1963, grew up mainly in Greensboro, NC. Attended Southeast Guilford High School (Greensboro) and graduated in 1981. Received a BFA degree in Art with a concentration in Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G) in 1985. The son of a music teacher and a music composer, began playing guitar at age 6, meanwhile harbored companion interests in muscle cars, model car building, NASCAR racing, and drag racing. During and after attending UNC-G, worked as an auto service writer at Montgomery Ward Auto Express. Bought a Ford Mustang LX 5.0L in 1987 which he began modifying immediately, then started contributing freelance stories to Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords (MM&FF) in 1991. Moved to New Jersey from North Carolina and became fulltime MM&FF tech editor in the fall of 1992. Helped create, then became editor of GM High-Tech Performance (originally High-Tech Performance) magazine in 1995. While at MM&FF, invented the popular “True Street” drag racing class used by many sanctioning organizations. Moved to California in 2003 to become editor of Popular Hot Rodding magazine. In July of 2014, became editor of Mopar Muscle magazine for the rebranded TEN network. Previous and current magazine projects cars: 1987 Ford Mustang LX 5.0 (Project Excalibur), 1989 Ford Mustang LX 5.0, 1987 Buick Regal Turbo-T (2 of them), 1993 Pontiac Firebird Formula (Project Thunderchicken), 1989 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350 (Project Magnum TPI), 1994 Chevy Camaro Z 28 (The Grape Of Wrath), 1976 Chevy Camaro (Project g/28), 1968 Chevy Chevelle (Street Sweeper), 1975 Chevy Laguna S-3 NASCAR clone, 1968 Chevy Nova, and 1968 Plymouth Valiant. Other interests include fine cigars, writing and recording rock music (Hunkins is an artist on the indy label Grooveyard Records), and mid-century modern architecture and design. Hunkins lives in Desert Hot Springs, CA.
Read More