The Reunion 2012

Way back when I was a very enthusiastic outdoors kind of person.  From going on 2 week expeditions in the backwoods while carrying every I required on my back, to climbing the highest peak in the continental United States (Mt. Whitney). But also being a gearhead, it's rare to mix both.  But when traveling to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion; formerly Monterey Historics, I can actually do both.

Yes. Friday is good

For Good Friday I had the day off. To take advantage of this rare weekday off, I headed in search of tools. Sure I probably could have assisted in helping a privateer in the Formula D event this weekend. But i'm semi retired from wrenching and nobody asked.


In a nondescript building in Huntington Beach, California, is a tool distributor known quietly selling Beta tools. Fortunate for me they just opened up the show room just a week ago. I can't say I have a tool fetish like some others, but I do own some rare tools that have some european heritage. This is where Beta comes in, it's the Snap On of europe and have supplied tools to


Formula One and MotoGP.

Here some stuff if you're a Ferrari owner and need tools to work on your prancing horse, cause you know will. But you probably take your car to Luigi anyways rather than work on it yourself.



Another thing that may tickle your fancy is that Beta is just a side business. The place is actually called California Hot Rod Shop. Their main business is of course high end hot rods. If you've seen the show Chop, Cut, Rebuild on Speed. Then you'll know of this shop. It's where they built the bonneville car. I was given a small tour of the shop and it is definitely a cool shop to see.

Finding the place is also very easy. As most racers know of Sube Sports, this place is right up the street from them.

And no the shop doesn't look like this. This was actually the shop up in Denver, Colorado. It's closed down and all operations are at the Huntington Beach facility.

For more information on Beta tools USA please take a look at the site. For the Italian site click here

A little bit of Italy

After attending my first Monterey Historics race, I began a curiosity of European cars. No not them supercars that you either love or hate. But cars that never shared the limelight with their supercar brethren. This led me here to Eddins Moto. The owners been tweaking around with Italian cars for 30 years, though it looks like he dabbles in anything European. From Appias (say what?), Ferrari, to Maseratic and everything else in between. The website has many write ups of cars he's worked on at the shop. He also has cars for sale if you're going for a different car from you typical Porsche or Benz. They're up in Berkley, so next time I'm up in nor cal, I'll have to visit his shop. But that's after I rummage through Hasselgren's trash for some parts.

Here's a link to his website.

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