The Vacation - Part 8

The last chapter.

We reluctantly leave Pismo Beach heading to the final stop of our vacation before hitting the highway home to reality.

We were off to Oxnard, CA, which some of you may remember as the site of the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash January 31, 2000 in which 88 people perished.

From previous visits we knew Oxnard as a smaller out of the way town with a nice beach and a relaxing place to stay.

We had seen the big trees, the water and the trains and now it was time to see the cars.

The car museum is only open on weekends and we had stopped by on Friday late afternoon to get hours of operation so we were sure to not miss out on seeing the cars.

Sometimes you happen to be in the right place at the right time which happened to us.

I had walked to the museum door to see the hours and noticed two people inside on the phone and looking like they were about to leave.

As we sat in the car trying to remember where the outlet mall was, the two men exited the museum so I asked them for directions and also about the museum.

Not only did they give us directions to the mall they also advised us that the next day at the museum was special because Andy Granatelli was going to be there to accept an award.

For those of you that may not remember the name Andy Granatelli, he was a car genius and a marketing genius as well.

As Chief Driver and Engineer at Studebaker Racing, he set over 400 world land speed records. At the age of 62 in his street legal passenger car, he drove to an amazing record of 241.731 mph on pump gasoline.

He took the immortal Novi racing engine and increased the horsepower from 450 to 837. (The Novi engine was a Dual Overhead Cam Supercharged V8 engine.)

He also designed the Chrysler 300 engine, the Cadillac Eldorado engine and the Studebaker Avanti, R I, II,III and IV engines.

He was responsible for starting March Works, which is a Formula land II car constructor. He designed, built and raced the world famous Indianapolis turbine engine cars in 1967 and 1968, and his race cars have won the Indianapolis 500 twice.

His business accomplishments are still buzzed about in financial circles. He took an unknown company called Chemical Compounds, changed it's name to STP, and in nine years it zoomed from seven to over 2,000 employees. He made STP a household word.

You may also remember him from the automotive repair chain named Andy Granatelli's Tune Up Masters.

STP became a world-famous company with some 20 million cars around the globe displaying STP decals. Annual sales exceeded $100 million, and Granatelli pocketed $135 million when he sold the company to Esmark Corp in 1974.

In January 1976 he then purchased another little-known company, Tune-Up Masters, for $300,000. Within nine years he duplicated the feat he had accomplished at STP...namely, selling out for millions. He sold Tune-Up Masters and walked away with another $60 million!

Quite an accomplishment from a man who, though not proud of it, had quit school at age 14 due to the great depression.

For me it was a thrill to see a legend, for Vicki she enjoyed the cars and the period dresses on mannequins throughout the museum more than the legend. As for Mr. Granatelli, she was less than impressed. I suspect it's because it's a guy thing.






















The museum had vintage hot rods, luxury cars and race cars - what more could a person want?

Well, there you have a synopsis of our fantastic vacation.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed the locations where they were taken.

Due to the length of today's story, there will be no Friday post.