Sunday, December 4 was the day of the 8th annual Motor 4 Toys event - organized as in past years by Dustin Troyan and his merry band of car-crazy elves. Dusty has been the driving force behind this event since the beginning and his passion for cars and for doing good have made it easy for StopTech to participate in this cause for the past several years.
For those unfamiliar with Motor 4 Toys, it is the single largest contributor of toys to Toys For Tots programs every year, and it is entirely supported by auto enthusiasts. The event itself is a huge car show and toy collection drive, with refreshments and vendor booths nestled at the foot of the mountain of toys collected each year.
This year's show had over 3,000 collector cars, trucks and motorcycles on display, along with a police helicopter and some armored military and law enforcement vehicles. Individual car clubs try to outdo each other in the toy collection count, and rows of Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, Ferraris, Minis, Mopars, and more attest to the fact that this event appeals to all types of car people.
The aftermarket companies also try to outdo each other every year, and once again, StopTech had the largest pile of donated toys to contribute, with seven overflowing boxes! The final toy count isn't in yet, but if past year's totals are any indication, we wouldn't be surprised to see this year's total top 30,000 toys.
Several thousand people flocked to the Woodland Hills sight this year and many stopped by our booth to check out our line of high performance and racing brakes, as well as the replacement brake components sold by our parent company under the Centric brand. Those who came by also got to see a range of vehicles we support including a Ferrari f355, Dakar-yellow BMW M3, supercharged Corvette Z06, Icon FJ40 and Saleen S331 sport pickup.
Other highlights in the acres of cars on display included new exotics from Auto Gallery, like the Ferrari 458 Italia, McLaren MP4-12C, Mercedes-Benz SLS Roadster, Ferrari FF and more. A nice collection of movie cars on hand included a Batmobile, Herbie, KITT, Starsky and Hutch Gran Torino, TNMT van, Bullitt Mustang, Vanishing Point Challenger and Ghostbusters ectomobile.
The Checkered Flag group brought a range of museum pieces that covered Mercedes Gullwings to Ferrari F40s, from boattail Rolls-Royces to an original Shelby Cobra. A rare Ford Escort Cosworth was there as was a double-decker bus, a 2012 VW Beetle Turbo and a Shelby Series 1, a 1970 drop-nose Mustang with a 427 SOHC surprise under the hood and a Yellowstone Park bus from the 1930's. To say the gathering was eclectic would be an understatement.
It was another great year for car fans and for those thousands of underprivileged kids who will have at least one reason to smile this holiday season.