Winfield’s Open House

Our good friend Gene Winfield held his annual open house again in October, which is the right time of year for it, given that Gene’s shop is 1.5 hours north of L.A. in the Mojave Desert where it gets very hot during the summer. It’s a whole lot more comfortable in autumn. This year the L.A. Basin was suffering under a 100-degree heat wave while at Gene’s it was only 82 degrees. Brad Fanshaw of Bonspeed Wheels and I made the three-hour round trip and had a spectacular desert drive, to say the least.

For those of you who may not know the Winfield story—Gene was born 1927 and grew up in Modesto, California where he was exposed to auto body shops and auto racing. At a young age Gene opened his own business in Modesto, Winfield’s Custom Shop. Last year I did a whole work up on Gene’s illustrious career. If you did not catch it, check out Drive, January 2014. [You can also read the article on him in the recent August issue. —Ed.]

Winfield has been a great influence in my life, as my dad was a big hot rod and custom fan. Here’s another one of those impossible turn of events where I’ve become friends with one of my heroes (as is the case with Chrisman, Xydias, Parks, and Isky, etc.).

Back to the open house. Winfield’s car compound is slowly changing, and I must say the museum is really coming along, it’s a must-see kind of place. I thought the open house crowd was huge last year when 300 modified cars of every description jammed the property; but I think it’s safe to say the show was twice as big. There were four factions at the event: hot rods, customs, bikes, and Burning Man/Mad Max cars (and people) that you just gotta see to believe—very cool! All the shops were open, and Gene had the Cop Car from Back to the Future on display; you could smell the fresh paint on the just finished radical restoration!

Brad Fanshaw and I taped a podcast segment of Shift and Steer before, during, and after the event, so as not to miss any of the action. Listen to the show at ShiftandSteer.com.

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