LCOC Members Tour Former Sunkist Facility That Now Houses Exotic Cars

By Kerry and Stacy Roscoe

Nestled in the quiet little town of Santa Paula, about an hour from LA, sit clean, simple buildings housing a most unique private collection of classic automobiles.   The Collector Car Vault is home to over 120 vehicles, most of which were on display for LCOC members who were invited by the Packard Club to join them.

A beautiful, “top down” day made viewing of visiting members’ cars a delight.  Vintage Packards, Hudsons and Lincolns were joined by a Pontiac Firebird and Mercury Cougar!

The program started with a most informative talk was given by John Nikas, automotive historian.  Covering the evolution of automobile design, he shared a multitude of little known facts, many of which  were most amusing. 

For instance, Damieler and Benz each worked in separate parts of the same company on similar projects without knowing what the other was doing.  It was when Benz’s wife took his vehicle on a 61 mile trip that attention was brought to her husband’s work.  During that trip her brakes had problems and a leather worker provided leather sheaths which were the first “brake linings.” 

In the early days in Britain, the law required that a flagman had to proceed in front of the car to clear the way.  This made for so very slow travel!

Touring the facility proved to be fascinating.  Situated on over 3.5 acres, the vault’s six buildings were once the main locations for citrus giant Sunkist Growers in 1917.  Later it served as both home and studio of custom car icon Kenny Howard, aka Von Dutch.  The two-level retired fruit packing facility currently houses some of the finest automobiles around (all underground in a contiguous vault), providing automotive storage, concierge services, and auto transport for collectors in the Southern California area. 

Walking past the underground stalls we found a host of super valuable racing cars and valuable sports cars, woodies, trucks,  VWs,  and everything in between.  For security, we were asked not to put pictures of the cars on social media or on websites.

Afterwards a group of about 30 broke away for lunch at the near-by Rabalais Bistro in downtown Santa Paula before heading home.