Summer Hues

JULY 21, 2021

Summer is officially here in Los Angeles. It takes you about 45 minutes to go 10 street blocks in downtown Santa Monica on a weekend afternoon, so unless you have a penchant for overcooking your engine, you're best off leaving your aircooled-whatever at home on the battery tender. If we're being honest, you probably want to avoid the late day beach-goers and tourist anyways.

I will admittedly say I’m not used to some of the mugginess either, though my standards for what that means have dropped significantly since leaving the East Coast. There is a great bit by the comedian Kevin James, who, absolutely drenched on stage mid-way through his set, is discussing the difficulties faced by someone who sweats profusely. “Jesus man, did you just jump rope in the attic for an hour?” a friend asks. “Uhhh no, I peeled an orange in an airconditioned room about thirty minutes ago, why?” Most days the summer sweats aren't this bad, but they do have me thinking about bringing extra t-shirts around when I'm in the 911 for prolonged periods of time...prolonged meaning more than 10-15 minutes (side note: if you need extra t-shirts, peep Heritage Gruppe's latest blueprint series!).

But enough about the bummer parts of summer - it also means that the bright colored cars that zoom about SoCal have become your hottest vibe accessory. I will forever been in the minority, believing that the best automotive color ever created is brown, and bonus points if its metallic. But when the temperatures rise, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a pretty big part of me that didn't want a 911 Targa in Miami Blue for sunset cruises up and down the PCH. Summertime just feels that much better when your evening's automotive backdrop is sheathed in Dakar Yellow, "Pink Panther" Pink, Long Beach Blue or Birch Green.

And then there’s orange - that citrusy blast cool enough to quench your vintage thirst on even the warmest of summer mornings. Starting July, Heritage Gruppe is offering VIP registration and show placement for special cars, so make sure you reach out to the team if you're interested in having your car front and center at the monthly meets. This month's VIP group included Steve Vartantian's (@svarooom) 914 in Signal Orange, and what a very important car it is.