Star Road

At the Sonoma Speed Festival, they had road and race cars spanning the entire 20th century of motoring. And representing street cars of the 80’s and 90’s: Radwood, of course.

It was a fairly small display, curated with a focus on rare models and homologation specials.

I was particularly taken with this Euro-spec 964 Carrera RS. Even on a cloudy morning the Rubystone paint was stunning.

Any Skyline is still a rare treat in California.

Want a sticker?

They also had a lounge set up, courtesy of Hagerty.

Hagerty also had candy we remember from the 90’s (Warheads, Now and Later, Nerds, etc) and these sweet swag bags with sun gear.

This is a pretty rare car: Audi only made 224 short wheelbase versions of the original Sport Quattro.

I came back a little later for lunch, and yep–Rubystone looks amazing in the sun.

A few more cars had shown up, like this 959.

And Mike Musto’s 928 joined Jason Cammisa’s Scirocco in the garage.

The spectators had arrived too, no doubt helped by the proximity to the food and drink area. I hope this photo shows just how tiny the NSX is.

Showing your car and getting premium parking is pretty nice, but the real treat for people who showed their cars was a couple laps around the track.

They waited in pit lane while the Rag Time Racers finished their session.

I took the opportunity to grab a few snaps of the cars at a longer focal length, which gives a nice effect.

Spirits were high as track time loomed.

Calm your tits, Adam Sandler!!

And there they went. It was a pretty sedate drive behind the pace car, but it was still cool to see these cars on the track.

And of course, the directive was to stay with the group, driving together. Don’t drop back, they said, and then zoom up. Specifically on the hairpin, before you come on to the main straight. So what did Art do in the 355? He slowed down coming out of the hairpin and then let it loose on the front straight, raising the hairs on the back of our necks with that awesome V8 symphony. Oops!

Stay RAD, friends.