For many people in Irvine, California, October 3rd 2009 was just another sunny day in SoCal but for a few thousand fanatics it was a stroll through Japanese classic car heaven. Although St. Peter wasn’t there to greet the crowd, we did come face-to-face with Joji Luz’s smiley yellow #5 Celica at the front gates.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of Soldier Field. The hot sun had baked the tarmac dry and though the weatherman had predicted 85 degree weather, we knew it was going to be much hotter during Hot Import Nights.

Growing up in Milwaukee, I was not a stranger to the name Jack Safro. In fact, my parents like many other Wisconsin residents within the last forty years have come to know Jack Safro as synonymous with Toyota. Jack Safro died of a heart attack earlier this year and a large portion of his personal estate was liquidated recently at the Mecum High Performance Auctions.

It was a sunny yet breezy Saturday morning in Long Beach, California and the only thing better than the weather were the cars that were dock side to the Queen Mary. Even more tantalizing was that over half of the vehicles were Japanese classics and nostalgic models.