So Cal Car Scene

Joining us in "The So Cal Car Scene" is Linda Vaughn or, as many of your know her as “Miss International Raceway" at the young age of 18 and has acquired many other titles since then, including Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. She was also chosen to be the Queen of the Dixie 400 in 1961 and Miss Firebird. Vaughn has been a notable ambassador and promoter of various forms of American motor racing for decades. In 1979, Linda was awarded the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) “Person of the Year” and was inducted into the SEMA hall of fame 8 years later. She appeared in the 1976 film The Gumball Rally, and the 1983 film Stroker Ace. She was just recently inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2019.

Enjoy this enlightening and hilarious conversation with Linda as she highlights her incredible life with the "who's who" of racing like Don Garlits, movies and notable entertainers like Dolly Pardon and Burt Reynolds. Linda is a fountain of energy and an incredible story teller with an infectious laugh...enjoy!

Tony provides a unique insight into the world of Finish Line's car condos with investment grade cars, car clubs, car reveals and car ride and drives. Tony is a principal and President of Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services and is a Co-Managing Partner of TR Funding, LLC. A thirty five year real estate veteran and top producer specializing in office properties for Westcord, Tony has handled in excess of eight million square feet of property, and recorded over 4,000 sales and lease transactions totaling in excess of $5 billion dollars.

Tony is also Co-Managing Partner of T.R. Funding, LLC. which has developed and rehabilitated over 50 properties throughout the Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange County regions since 1994. One of their recent projects is the Finish Line Auto Club Condos and the third one was just completed this past month. It’s located in Costa Mesa adjacent to John Wayne airport in Orange County, CA. The Finish Line Club has some very unique characteristics, that include an area for hosting special events and gatherings and a two story 7,000 sf clubhouse with a bar, fireplace, gaming tables, dining, conference room and more.

He is an avid car collector and his collection has leaned heavy on Porsches, but he has owned a few Ferrari’s including a Dino and a few muscle cars including a 66 Shelby.

Haugen Racing is all about drifting, celebrating the JDM culture, debunking myths about drifting and doing crazy car stuff! Matt Haugen owns and leads a professional race team, “Haugen Racing”. He also is a SEMA car builder and big time content creator. He loves drifting, comedy, off-roading, building cars, and making videos! Their youtube channel is his largest focus right now and content includes vlogs, reaction videos, how to drift content, video games, off-roading, and more. He has also created and sells automotive and japanese inspired streetwear and accessories. He is a SEMA show regular since he was 16, with 7 vehicles in the show over the years including his one off Liberty Walk Lamborghini Murcielago and his 1JZ swapped Rocket Bunny 350z, dubbed the 351JZ. He fell in love with drifting and has been pursuing that professionally since 2017. He first competed in ProAm with his Hyundai 1,000 HP Genesis Coupe powered by a CBM 4.0 Whipple Supercharged 425 LS3.
Matt and his team create some great content and his channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/MattHaugenRacing is popping with fresh content 5 days a week!

Terry Karges, Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum shares with us the incredible new and exciting developments and exhibits at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. With its re-opening just days away, Terry and his team are busy making for an immersive customer experience at the museum. Don't miss this opportunity to watch Terry and I discuss the legacy that is the Petersen and the car collecting industry as a whole.

As the Executive Director of the Petersen, Terry introduced vault tours, monthly cruise-ins, adult education programs, movie nights and specialty car events. He has helped to increase overall attendance, creating new events that engage the people of Los Angeles and the global automotive community. Throughout the pandemic, under Terry’s leadership, the Petersen has effectively launched digital Vault tours, educational virtual field trips, YouTube garage tours, and virtual global cars and coffee events to allow fans to connect with other car enthusiasts globally.

Before joining the Petersen, Terry was a senior manager in automotive OEM motorsports and theme park entertainment divisions, including Disneyland, Marine World and Sea World. His leadership background with automotive manufacturing firms includes Roush Performance, where he spent 17 years helping grow the company into the largest specialty high performance car brand in the world. There he also managed sales, advertising, new media, web development and vehicle packaging. Prior to Roush, Terry enjoyed ownership of Karges Sport where he emphasized motorsports marketing and ran his own race team.

#petersenmuseum #petersen #carmuseums #carcollecting #supercars #hotrods #thevault #collectiblecars #porsches #ferarris

Bud Brutsman, Executive Producer for BCII, joins The So Cal Car Scene to tell us all about an epic new show that launches on March 15th On Discovery Plus, "Expedition: Back To The Future". This show is a great mashup of Josh Gates "Expedition Unknown" and the original crew of the movie "Back to the Future" with Christopher Lloyd, Michael J Fox and Lea Thompson as they pursue the legend of the movie's hero cars, the Deloreans. Josh Gates and Christopher Lloyd is a hilarious talented combination that you can't take your eyes off. Bud Brutsman is a producer, entrepreneur, military buff, off road racer just for starters. He’s written 3 books on the Navy SEALs, created a special task force to rescue climbers on Mt. Everest and in Baja. He’s a high energy, type A personality, known also for producing hit series like Overhaulin’, Rides, Hot Rod TV, Extreme RVs, SCORE World Desert Championship, Dust 2 Glory, Animal Storm Squad, Flippin’ RVs to name a very few. He created the definitive event in mixed martial arts, King of the Cage and Shark Fights. He won first in his class at the SCORE Baja 1000 and was one of the 2008 Raptor development team drivers. Join us and enjoy the stories Bud shares with us on this incredibly new and excited show as well as all his Gold Standard car TV shows like Rides and Overhaulin and incredible car designers like Chip Foose and celebrities like Brett Michaels.

Join us for this great ride as we learn about Ricardo's emergence in the custom car scene and his great story as a 3rd generation car fabricator. Check out this video as Richard takes us into his shop to see all of the cool stuff him and his team are working on like a 56 Chevy Truck for his wife named "Monik", a 59 Chevy and a 64 Mustang. Ricardo owns and operates "Customs By Lopez" in Southern California in Los Angeles and makes some of the most incredible custom muscle cars in the world! Ricardo's story is a fascinating one as he immigrated to the US from Mexico in the 90s with his brother to pursue the American dream fabricating cars. He started his business in his garage along with his brother in 2002. He got his AA degree in Automotive Management Administration at Cypress College in So Cal and as they say, “the rest is history”. Since then, a string of honors and recognition has come his way from notable shows such as Top 40 SEMA's Battle of the Builders with his Hellanor Mustang, Good Guys Best Truck, Best of Show for 3 consecutive years at the Boyd Coddington Show and Drivers Best for his VW Bug in 2000. His rides have been featured in 50 plus magazine features with numerous covers to his credit.

Ken is a big time social media influencer and motivator in the car scene. One of his Instagram pages “Classics Daily”, has 1.7 Million followers, the biggest classic car page on Instagram! He leverages his social media influence to launch and manage car shows and other events. He is one of the key influencers and partners behind one of the biggest monthly cruises in the country, “The Quarantine Cruise” in Orange County California that has over 2,000 cars. He is currently building a supercharged 1,000HP 71 Nova, “Boosted Nova” and it has taken on a life of its own on Instagram and it has not even been revealed yet. He is the owner of Musclekings, a lifestyle brand complete with events, social media, concerts and merchandise. He also owns Social Lab Media, that specializes in Facebook, Instagram and google Marketing. Watch this episode and get some ideas on how a serious influencer does it and how he can help you blow up your social media and improve your game in the classic and muscle car scene.

I hope you got to listen to the first segment of this show with Chris Ashton! This is part two where Chris talks about his next adventures in cars that are about to join the Ruffian family like a pro street 1964 Ford Galaxie with a Nelson Racing twin turbo engine that cranks out 1,100 HP on pump gas and a Ron Sutton chassis. A second generation RX7 wide body powered by Tesla that should be a real track monster is also next up as well. Chris wants to build a car with the throttle response of a Tesla P100 D drivetrain and so it will be transplanted into the Mazda. In the wings is a fuel injected big block 69 Corvette street machine. Chris also reveals why he bought a real deal retired Corvette race car. Chris discusses the challenges of ordering parts for his builds during Covid and so he plans to build the Galaxy and the RX7 at the same time in the Ruffian garage. I think you will enjoy getting insights into Chris's builds and what drives his imagination. Enjoy!

We are very fortunate to have back on The So Cal Car Scene, Chris Ashton who is the owner and builder of the Ruffian Mustang. In this episode we hang out with Chris in his garage as he shares with us his next custom car "Ruffian 40" a Superformance GT40. We had so much fun with Chris we are breaking this up into 2 segments and will have a part II where we talk future projects that Chris has already started on like his 1,100 HP 64 Ford Galaxie. In his In his day job/career Chris has has worked in computer game development for 25 years and has co-owned Turtle Rock Studios for more than a decade. During his career he has helped ship numerous AAA games such as Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Counter-Strike, Left4Dead, Evolve and Back for Blood.

An avid car enthusiast and fabricator, Chris has owned fast cars since he was a teen and has been high performance driving for 20 years. He currently owns a ‘67 Dodge Dart with a Hellcat motor, a Superformance GT40, a Superformance Cobra FIA and a pro touring 1970 fastback Mustang called the Ruffian, that he built himself and launched at SEMA a few years ago.

Cherielynn is most well known as a Car Builder on the A-Team on the hit show Overhaulin', with Chip Foose. She’s helped build over 70 plus cars and appeared on over 75 episodes on that amazing show. She brings all of the car fab skills to the table, welding, fabricating, wiring and gauge restoration. She has also appeared as a fabricator and builder on shows such as Rock my RV with Brett Michaels, Detroit muscle and All Girls Factory Five build on the Power Block. She now makes appearances at car shows large and small including hosting and appearing on the official video for the NSRA, Street Rod Louisville Nationals. She also is the proud owner of a company that specializes in Hydraulic clutch pedal kits, Malwood USA.
Cherielynn has worked along side some of the most well known builders in the industry in the Orange County and LA areas including BS Industries with Bodie Stroud, Circle City Hotrods, Cambra's Rod Shop, Poor Boys, Curtis Seed Equipment with Mike Curtis, North Hollywood Speedometer, Redline Gauge Works, to name a few. And believe it or not, she has added to her extensive resume and it now includes Iowa State Representative.