Our best photos of 2020

Tour D' Smo

This '79 Intermeccanica was disassembled by the previous owner and it sat near the water on the north shore of Maui for 14 years. A two year effort in "House of Tarp" brought it back to life.

The amount and quality of work you did on that car is amazing @Michael Pickett!

Getting my 16 year old son out for his first lesson and a great drive to nowhere at the end of August on beautiful day.

When your money get's sucked into your other hobby that has a similar sort of Madness  This is a 50 year old Dolphin 24. She was designed by Sparkman and Stephens back in the 50's and was original designed as a wood hull. After the first few were produced in Denmark the design was taken over in the US by George O'Day the father of plastic boats. This particular boat was built my Yankee Yachts. There were responsible for the build of the production run from the late 60's to the early 80's. She is in the class of Midget Ocean Racing Design and they have been sailed around the world. Yes sailors are also crazy.

She is now ready to race and is future proofed with auxiliary electric propulsion.

That is how I spent my Covid summer.

@Ryan (formerly) in NorCal  as per your request.....

OH buoy,,,what a money pit they are

2 happy days

1. buying the boat

2. happier day, selling it

This is just what I needed! Thanks for all the contributions so far.

I infrequently post my favorite photos and calendar submissions here, but I'll share a couple standouts from the year.

My favorite road of the year was Stewart's Point / Skaggs Springs Rd. It traverses one of the most beautiful and unspoiled sections of California. I chased a '64 Stingray down the coast from Fort Bragg, on a Monday during quarantine. We had the road all to ourselves. 5-10 minutes between any other cars. I can't recommend this road enough.

From a trip up the California coast this July:

Another highlight was a sunrise trip through the Sierras. The 4am departure was worth every minute of lost sleep.

Unfortunately, I took better photos of my friend's car than mine.

Here's the video from the day:

I look forward to seeing the rest of your pics!

@jncspyder! That first one is amazing. Where were you? That sure looks like another calendar cover shot to me! Great work.

Just outside of Phoenix.

@Ryan (formerly) in NorCal that is the mandatory westward beach/zuma parking lot shot

Thanks! I pinned that on my map for a future stop. The scene reminds me of my stop in Morro Bay a couple years back.

^{Not a 2020 shot! This doesn't count for Our Best Photos of 2020. Keep scrolling...}

@Ryan (formerly) in NorCal Let's be honest - 2020 really, really sucks and I have zero photos from this year to share, so I'm going back a few years for this gem.  Hope you like it.  Not far from Walterboro, South Carolina, about half way between Charleston and Beaufort.

Here is a video that our esteemed video creator and producer, and CEO of Five Cent Racing, Gordon Nichols,  did on the build of my IM6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtWj9LEKELc

The only change I have made was to replace the Porsche D90 wheels with Fuch imitations a year or so ago.

Hey guys ,looking at these  wonderful photos and videos I have to say we are all truly blessed regardless of what's been going on in the world this year. Here's a photo, shot this fall looking up the hill of one our many beautiful backroads in SW Ontario. Canada

One more. From a socially-distanced neighborhood parade.

The speedster was therapeutic for me in 2020.  Amid the craziness, especially when we were led to believe one could get the virus by simply touching their mail, I used the speedster to get away and clear my head.  A return to normal if you will.

Prior to the pandemic, it was great being the camera car to shoot @ericthered petrolicious video.  The planning of the Napa Valley 750 occupied my December-March.  Only to have to cancel the April date.  Luckily there was still a lot of interest, therefore the date was rescheduled for August 2020  the rally happened, and was quite successful.  There will be a 2nd NV750 in April 2021.  

I still have/had to drive in to San Francisco for work.  And now that half the city is gone, I find myself driving the speedster more and more to work.

I love seeing everyone’s photos.  Hope you all enjoy “the little pickle”.  I created the car’s own Instagram account, for those interested:  lil_pickle356

@Kevin - Bay Area, beautiful car! What a camera setup, you don't fool around, do you?

@Kevin - Bay Area DANG! Thanks for sharing those cool pics, my brutha!

WOW. I just caught up on @Kevin - Bay Area and @ericthered’s Instagram feed for the first time in months. I’ve been missing out. What an inspiration!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Looks like @TheMayoMachine found the video they shot months ago. I'm still catching up. For others who missed it:

Nice Kevin! Where do you put/keep your year sticker? Mine are on the unsightly aluminum tabs provided by CA DMV.

Some from my archive and some from this year ...

*Repost* technically these are shots from Greg at VMC but still... they are of my new beauty and I can't wait to pick her up this weekend

@Ryan (formerly) in NorCal posted:

WOW. I just caught up on @Kevin - Bay Area and @ericthered’s Instagram feed for the first time in months. I’ve been missing out. What an inspiration!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Looks like @TheMayoMachine found the video they shot months ago. I'm still catching up. For others who missed it:

Thanks Ryan. The director / photographer (and owner of camera equipment) for the video is: Andrea Jako Giacomini. He was the artist. Well, and Eric (Aka @ericthered).
I just drove.
Jako asked to use my car as the car was much lower than the SUV rental he had. And the throttle response and cornering was similar to the Spyder. Yes, the Spyder would beat the Speedster in a race, but their throttle response and cornering aren’t that far off, which was very helpful during filming.

it was an amazing day that I’ll never forget. It felt like we were filming our version Ford V Ferrari. I don’t know if I ever stopped smiling that day.

@ZFNHSN posted:

Nice Kevin! Where do you put/keep your year sticker? Mine are on the unsightly aluminum tabs provided by CA DMV.

I’m not exactly legal. I carry the “real” plates in the car with me. The yellow plates are for shows only.

this is better than streaming some stupid program on net flic

@Kevin - Bay Area posted:

I’m not exactly legal. I carry the “real” plates in the car with me. The yellow plates are for shows only.

I kind of do the same. When I first got my '55 plates I put the stickers on it. Then I went up to pick up my distro and Ed had his on these cool retro-looking tabs, so I heatgunned the stickers off. I haven't got around to putting them on. I just keep the current reg and the stickers in the door pocket.

Spyder is still in the Shop! So, we bought a Lotus haha

Been on Ebay and found some awesome vintage plates, can't wait to put them on! Just need the friggin' car.

Here's a few.

The first is ready to load into the trailer.

The one in the trailer is on the way to Tour de Smo', and the others are down there.

Lastly, a couple from the garage. The wide angle is from last fall.

I too, got a slightly weathered vintage plate.

Zoom in on my 5th shot, just above the front fender, 6053 feet.

This is the kind of thread we needed. I really enjoy seeing these cool pics of SOCer's cars and everyone enjoying them!

@SimplifyTALightness posted:

Been on Ebay and found some awesome vintage plates, can't wait to put them on! Just need the friggin' car.

I tried to go that route, but UT DMV has a law that you have to have both plates in order to register them in your name. Single plates go for $10-$75. Pairs go for ten times that.

In the end, I bought a single 55 plate to get the font right, then had a place that made replica plates for tv/movie cars* make me a replica of a 55 plate with the personalized plate registration I got in vintage vehicle plate.

* Apparently, that place us defunct. Their website license plates.tv doesn't open.  

@dlearl476

For sure...limits indeed. The upper black plate is my legal one, got a set of those for $50 extra, CA DMV sells these now as a special order. However, that color combo is '60s era California.

Sooo, I picked up the '56 plate for more era correctness, photos... it is a faker just for car shows, will not be running that one on the roads. Only found one, not the set. One is enough for me in this case. Awesome find that it had '550' in the sequence. 'Had to have it moment' Seller doesn't know, but I would have paid double!

I bought my car in Texas sight unseen and had it shipped home.  It is registered as a Porsche 56A. I requested historic plates and by chance got 56AA.

IaM-Ray, love that first  overhead shot of the nose of your car!  What a beauty!

@BETTYLU356Speedster Hey, I just scrolled back and saw the photos of your Speedster.  

Wicked Awesome!  

You are going to have so much fun with that car!

Here is an old shot of my first IM in 2009 when we lived in our country home.  I was the second owner and since then it has had two more owners.  It is somewhere in the west coast of Canada.

It was a burgundy/brown colour that looked black depending on the light.  

@MusbJim, you’re keeping the dream alive this year. Well done. Fantastic contributions. I love the drivers seat shot! Thanks for taking us with you.

PS - to all, this thread is amazing. We should do this every year. An annual “Best of SOC Photos” thread. Keep it up!

It’s like a Speedster Advent Calendar waking up to new photos of all of your adventures this year.

Speaking of Calendars... if you haven’t bought yours yet, I used @Michael McKelvey’s promo code. Apparently he gets $25 and we save 20%. I’m not sure how much that hits the site’s proceeds of $1.35.

https://refer.zazzlereferral.com/Michael9702463

SEE THE CALENDAR NOW