CLUB NEWS
All the latest Club News from Valley Classics Car Club. Stay tuned, stay informed.
|
Tuedsay, October 13, 2026 The Fall Blitz Car Show at Castle Air Museum is almost here. It's this Saturday, Oct 17. For those of you who registered your car for the show, you can join us as we cruise there together and enter the show as a group. If you want to join us, we're meeting at the Home Depot at 1617 N. Carpenter Rd in Modesto, right off Hwy 99. We'll be meeting before 6:00am and leaving at 6:00 from the SE corner of their parking lot. Gates open at 7:00 and its in Atwater. So, hopefully you can join us, and have some friends to hang out with at the car show. It'll be fun. And if you haven't registered yet, it's not too late. Our cars will be parked next to historic combat aircraft, fighters, bombers, you name it. Imagine parking your '65 Mustang under the wing of a P-51 Mustang. Here's the link to register: https://castleairmuseum.org/events/ |
 |
|
Saturday, October 10, 2026 Our first 'Cars & Pizza' nights (we changed it from Beer & PIzza, it just sounded better) went great. 20 people showed up, in about 15 cars. We weren't as prepared to park them all together as we should have been, and some folks moved their cars so we could all park together. Either way, everyone had a great time. The pizza was fantastic, too. Then we had the Dollar Raffle and drew 7 numbers for prizes. Don won 3 of them!!! Talk about luck. We're already planning our next one, on the 2nd Friday in November. We'll keep you informed as it shapes up. See you there. |
 |
|
Sunday, October 4, 2026 We just locked in Valley Classics' first-ever Pizza & Beer Night this coming Friday, October 9, 2026 at Mountain Mike's Pizza in Oakdale (111 S. Maag Ave in the old KMart center). Starts at 6:00pm. BRING YOUR CAR!!!! Let's turn their parking lot into a car show! We'll also have our first ever Dollar Raffle. $1.00 raffle tickets for cool prizes Don't miss it. Show your support. Bring your car. See you there. Be there aloha. |
 |
Thursday, Sept 17, 2026
Our final Cars & Coffee in Oakdale of the season is in 2 days. This Saturday, Sept 19, 2026 from 8am to 11am we'll be at the new location, Los Capitanes Restaurant at 156 S Maag Ave, Oakdale in the Save Mart parking lot. As always, its free and everyone is welcome, all cars are welcome. Get out and have some fun with your car, with other car people. And as always, we'll be awarding a Peoples' Choice trophy. AND, this time we're doing something new. We're cruisin' up the hill about 15 minutes to Knights Ferry for lunch at the 50s Roadhouse. Join us. It'll be fun.
UPDATE: Around 10 people made the trip up the hill to the 50s Roadhouse for good company and a great lunch. What a day!
|
Thursday, Sept 17, 2026 Valley Classics Co-Founder David Gonzales had this clean, cute VW Bus and he's very involved in the VW Club, Iron Cross, so I just figured he'd have this bus for life. It was that nice. And boy, did it get the attention. At shows people would walk right by my car just to gawk at David's VW bus. They would pose next to it for pictures, pose their kids in it for more pictures. It drew crowds like a magnet! I've never seen anything like it. Well, maybe for a 6-figure show car, but nothing this 'normal'. Every car show we went to together it was the same thing. These pics were taken at the Graffiti Classic at McHenry Square on Sunday, June 7, 2026. |
 |
|
So, he did it again. David nailed it with yet another crowd-pleaser. To my great surprise the next time I saw him, he'd traded the red-and-white VW bus for this wild little burnt orange Mini Cooper. It's right-hand drive and still has the British plates on it. I thought the VW drew a crowd, this little scooter had 'em lined up. Little kids wanted to sit in it, young couples posed by it for selfies, people of all ages were fascinated by it. David sure knows how to pick 'em! |
 |
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Quick update on the new location for our new location for the Cars & Coffee in Oakdale. It worked out swimmingly, we love it, and the Los Capitanes Restaurant likes us too. It's a great new location and I think it will be permanent. See you there next month, on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
The date of our final Cars & Coffee in Oakdale of the season, on Saturday, October 17, 2026 conflicts with the Fall Blitz Car Show at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater. As you may know, Valley Classics Car Club works closely with Castle and we volunteer regularly to help them in any way or with anything that they need. We want to suppor this show as a club, and we all want our cars in it. If you've never been there, Castle has around 70 vintage military aircraft of all types arrayed on the tarmac for you to tour, and during car shows like this (they do two a year) we park our cars amongst these legendary, and extraordinarily cool planes. Besides World War II bombers, and Cold War-era jets, and lots of other stuff, they have an SR-71 Blackbird! Think of the photo ops of your car parked with these planes.
Register now, it will likely fill up quickly. Go to their website at https://castleairmuseum.org/event/castle-air-fest-fall-blitz-car-show/ and register today. See you there.
Monday, August 10, 2026
I drove by our Cars & Coffee in Oakdale-location today at the old Rite Aid and found that it was roped off. Closer examination revealed a large trench having been cut across the parking lot where are show was supposed to be in 5 days. Some men were out there talking so I walked up and introduced myself. They informed me that construction on the proposed urgent care center there was moved up and that we'd have to find another place for our events.
Fortunately, one of my car buddies that I ran into at the Del Rio car show told me that the manager of the Los Capitanes Restaurant in East Oakdale had driven by our C&Cs a few times and wanted us to do the same thing at his restaurant. So, I drove by yesterday and introduced my self to the owner, Santiago. He's a very nice fellow and immediately welcomed us to hold our events there from now on. The timing couldn't be better.
So, I'm scrambling trying to think of every way I can to reach out to people with this last minute change. I'm going to make some larger format posters to staple onto the trees at the Rite Aid location early Saturday morning guiding people to the new location. Last Sunday, I personally put out fliers for this event (at the old location) at all 500+ cars at the Del Rio car show. Hope they get the message.
 |
LOS CAPTIANES RESTAURANT 156 S. Maag Avenue, Oakdale (in the Save Mart Center) Saturday, August 15, 2026 - 8am to 11am CARS & COFFEE IN OAKDALE Be there aloha! |
Saturday, July 25, 2026
We just had our Day at Castle and what a day it was! Valley Classics Car Club volunteers once a month to do whatever work needs to be done at the Castle Air Museum, at the old Castle AFB in Atwater CA. We spend the morning sometimes cleaning and straightening up, sorting and organizing the mountains of stuff they have, fixing support vehicles, and once in a while working on the planes! Today we got to hang missle pods on a Cold War-era A-7 Corsair II that flew 25 missions in the Kuwait War! How cool is that. Get the whole story with tons of pics.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
We're just days from our next Cars & Coffee in Oakdale. Don't miss it. This Saturday, July 18, 2026 from 8am to 11am in the same location as always, the old Rite Aid Pharmacy at 1300 W. F Street in Oakdale. As always its Free, all cars are welcome and its fun. We'll be awarding another Peoples' Choice Award trophy so, be there aloha.
Jay's Trophy Shop in Modesto is where we've been getting those cool-looking trophies for our 'Peoples' Choice Award' at our Cars & Coffee events. Yesterday I picked up this month's trophy for Cars & Coffee in Oakdale 5, this Saturday, July 18. Jay is long gone now, but his son Chuck took over the business and does a bang-up job of building great-looking trophies at an affordable price. Seen here, Chuck worked his magic and built another fine trophy for us. Thanks Chuck. If you ever need a trophy, or a bunch of them (he was filling a huge order for a big car show coming up) call Chuck at Jay's Trophy Shop, 1100 Carver St, Ste K in Modesto (209) 529-4189.
 |
 |
Sunday, July 5, 2026
A Day at Castle is coming on Saturday, July 25, 2026 at Castle Air Force Base in Atwater CA from 8:00am to 12:00 noon. Valley Classics Car Club volunteers each month to help the incredible Castle Air Museum with whatever they need. Sometimes were cleaning up, sometimes we organizing parts to airplanes, and sometimes we're stripping down a Stealth Fighter prior to paint. It's fun, it's educational, and its incredibly cool. To rub shoulders with these history military aircraft is a rare priviledge. If you'd like to help out, don't worry about your lack of knowledge about planes, there's plenty of work for everyone regardless of skill level. Join us in this worth cause and have some fun in the process. If you're interested, contact Darren for more info.
The Belmare Car Show went great, this last Saturday, June 27, 2026 in Oakdale CA. They had about 35 cars show up, provided a wonderful food and snack spread, a live DJ, and 4 trophies. They got a good crowd also. The weather was even perfect. Valley Classics lent a hand to the Belmare Senior Living Center, mostly in the form of advanced marketing for their event, but we also helped get the show cars into position. As a club, we want to give back to the community when we can, and when it makes sense for us as a car club. The Belmare Show and the Day at Castle are both examples of this effort.
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Our 3rd CARS & COFFEE was yesterday, Saturday, June 20, 2026 from 8am to 11am. We had a strong turnout, lots of nice cars and even nicer people. Our Peoples' Choice trophy went to Rick and his drop-dead gorgeous '55 Bel Air. Andy had 2 of his old friends from Hanford show up, one in a tricked-out '64 Falcon Futura and the other in a 2023 C8 Corvette. And we got another pleasant surprise: The fellow who controls the closed-down Rite Aid Pharmacy where we hold these Cars & Coffees showed up and Andy met with him briefly. To be clear, we never had permission to use the site, we just bootlegged it. Rock & Roll!! So, things went well in the brief meeting and we now have official permission to continue to use the site into the forseeable future. At some point, maybe 2 years from now, they will convert the building to an urgent care center, but until then, we're good to go. So, count on the location, and always count on the 3rd Saturday (through October).
Belmare Car Show is next Saturday, June 27, 2026 from 10am to 12 noon. The Belmare Senior Living Center is a very nice, new facility right next door to the Rite Aid where we hold our Cars & Coffees and every time several of the residents come out to view the cars and talk to folks. Belmare themselves have had 3 past car shows at their place and this coming Saturday will be their 4th annual. It's a small show, maybe 30 or 40 cars, but its free. Free to enter and free to attend, and entrants get free breakfast. Everyone gets free refreshments and a live DJ will provide the music for this event. And something like 20 trophies will be given out. Talk about good odds! Belmare is located at 1450 W. F Street in Oakdale.
Del Rio Car Show is one of the best car shows around. Held at the gorgeous Del Rio Country Club in Modesto, it's fairly steep to enter, $90, but includes breakfast and lunch for two, bottomless Mimosas in the morning and all-you-can-drink beer and wine all day, plus a T-shirt. Live DJ, raffles and more. 500 cars arrayed on the meticulous fairways. It's one big catered party that even the ladies like. This is my wife's favorite car show ever. This year will be on Sunday, August 2, 2026 from 9am to 3pm. Gates open at 7am. We Valley Classics members will be meeting at 5:30 at the gate to be the first ones in. Bring some coffee and a chair, we'll make a party out of it. First in get to park under the giant oak tree in the middle of everything, the only shade around. Be there, aloha.
Check out Events Page for more info on upcoming events, and our Archives Page for photos of past events.