"The Thing That Everybody Should Know About Us Is That We Want Our Club To Be Involved In Something Positive."
Originally laying claim to the Lowrider Car Club of the Year crown back in '97, Lowrider Magazine is proud to trumpet Oldies Car Club as the winner of the 2005 Club of the Year title. We're sure that the second time around is just as sweet for this veteran organization founded in California some 30 years ago. The club's leadership features a variety of unique personalities who regularly play host to local community events and friendly rivalries, and who scored a sensational victory at the Lowrider Super Show.
With the big win going to the Oldies, LRM took the time to find out who's who in the Oldies organization. Longtime leader of the bunch, club president Ricardo Alvarado, fields an impressive resume of high-quality Chevy classics and even more worldwide connections in the vintage and restoration field. "The Oldies are dedicated and here to stay," says Ricardo, after convening a club meeting at Mission Park in the San Fernando Valley, where vibrant laughter and serious decisions are made amid the splendor of neatly landscaped shrubs and water fountains. We got Ricardo to speak on the record about the club's new honor and how he got his members to respond to his surprising challenge.
Oldies C.C. is primarily a '50s and below car club, meaning that a club ride should be American made manufactured before 1960. Since the club's inception, Oldies members and chapters persevered throughout the years, and that lasting drive has only added to their now powerful ranks with rides so detailed that they're near priceless works of automotive art worthy of the finest museum.
Some Oldies members prefer to be private and personal with their projects, while others hit the fast lane for media accolades and equal recognition among established rival lowrider builders. A friendly and fierce leader, Ricardo, with aging hair and clad in standard issue black shirt with gold lettering, goes on to say, "Sometimes, you make enemies by pushing the club to be the best."
But being the best doesn't just happen; ask members George Mirzoian and Richard Wright, who love pumping the gas to hear the muffler roar on other revived bombs in town. George's black '50 Chevy original makes a retro statement, while Richard once claimed the Best Bomb Truck title in 2002. Oldies C.C. has made it a standing order to attend shows in force. A favorite hot spot for the classic guys are auto swap meets; they're like the Wal-Mart of genuine parts.
Now for a bit of history. Picture the early '90s when the lowrider scene in California was blowin' up like an nuclear earthquake. Back then, you could've had a Yugo and been ridin' low and slow with all of the homies. Ricardo recalls when he met up with Noah Hipolito (formerly a member of L.A. Antiques C.C.) at a Lowrider Tour show in Pomona, California-the biggest lowrider show at the time. Noah was debuting his two-tone green "Gumby '48" Chevy Fleetline (which later became a cover car) and Ricardo took notice like a coach recruiting a star player. That's how the San Gabriel Valley chapter came into existence.
Since then, Ricardo has hooked up with the boys in San Diego, California, who also ran with the same name, and they mutually agreed to unite way back in '79, some 27 years ago. Other chapters include Northern California's East Bay region, and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, along with distant and capable cruisers in Houston and El Paso, Texas.
Noah, a wise elder and an automotive repair business owner and painter by trade, has been the president of the largest chapter for 20 years. We asked him how it feels to be crowned Club of the Year for the second time. "It feels great," he replied. "We made the Lowrider Tour mandatory!"
Noah considers his club as a show club as well as a family oriented group. "We do a lot of family functions in town," he explains. And what's the number one thing that you would like to express to the automotive world, we asked? "The thing that everybody should know about us is that we want our club to be involved in something positive," says Noah as he takes a break from a club meeting under a tree.