JANELLE STRAWSBERG
Staff Writer
I’m flying north on Highway One, it’s sunny with a high of 75, golden rays are glistening on the sparkling waves of the deep blue Pacific, windows down, my hair is whipping in the breeze, and I can’t get this grin off my face. We pull into Neptune’s Net, and as her roaring engine settles to a purr, a biker turns and giving her the old glance over says, “Sweet ride.”
And as I sit there in a bit of a daze I realize this isn’t just a car…it’s a dream on wheels.
Her name is Roxanne, and she just took me on one hell of a ride.
Roxanne’s proud owner is Waves junior outfielder Don Brown, and trust me when I say that Roxanne isn’t just your average car.
She is a restored first generation 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS, a labor of love that Brown and his father, Tom, have been working on for the past year. Built just north in Van Nuys in late 1969, Roxanne has a hopped up 300 horsepower 350 cubic inch motor, extremely rare original air conditioning and original black and white checkered Houndstooth interior. To put it bluntly: She’s smoking hot.
But the most obvious attraction is her outerwear.
“I like the paint on her best,” Brown said. “Even though I love the interior and the black and white checkers really get me, the paint is amazing. We had a guy named Randy Lance out of Oxnard do it and he does awesome work, we’ve taken cars to him before, and he did an amazing job.
“It’s a Cortez silver color which is pretty rare for the Camaro, you see a lot of orange ones and green ones, but not the Cortez silver color. And then there are the tuxedo black racing stripes, so she looks really sweet.”
Roxanne isn’t the first car that Brown and his father, Tom, a self-employed auto-mechanic in Oxnard, have restored. Along with ‘69 Camaros, 1967 Corvettes are also a favorite.
“I think mostly my dad’s love for cars got me into restoring them as well,” Brown said. “Because a lot of people just shell out money for new cars, but this is something that you build up from scratch. You take it from something that nobody is going to look twice at to something that will make people drop some jaws.”
One of Roxanne’s biggest fans is Brown’s sister Kimberly, a freshman at Gonzaga University. After driving her just once, Kimberly instantly felt a bond with the classic beauty.
“When you drive her, you feel like you are being transported back in time,” she said. “The car drives so differently from modern stick shifts. When you start her up, you really feel the engine. It has so much power, yet it’s so smooth, so you don’t feel the speed you are carrying.”
Through their common love for classic cars, Don and Tom also have the chance to grow closer in their relationship.
“It’s a really special bond, we always spend time doing this,” Brown said. “A lot of time we get into yelling matches and stuff like that but I think at the end of the day, I appreciate that he lets me do this and lets me use his shop to rip it down and build it back up. All the things I don’t know he’s teaching me and I’m learning something new every time I’m down there.”
The current Roxanne took the duo about seven months to rebuild, and then an additional six-month wait for the paint job to be perfected. Any spare moment Brown had during the week as well as most weekends he drove the half hour home to help in his dad’s shop. From the ash tray to the engine to the door handles, no aspect was too small for the father and son’s attention.
“The work can be tedious, kind of hard and really frustrating at times but when you’re driving it on a sunny day there is nothing better, and then the looks people give you and thumbs up and stuff it just makes it all worth it when you’re done,” Brown said.
That hard work is a characteristic that has spilled over into Brown’s attitude on the baseball field.
“It’s kind of a life lesson that hard work does pay off, because there are timeless hours and late nights spent on her but then when you are driving her there is nothing better than the looks you get,” he said. “It’s hard to be a perfectionist in just one part of your life, and it has carried over into baseball for me. You just want to be the best that you can in every way.”
The best is certainly one way to describe Brown’s Camaro. While the standard restored Camaro has a sticker price of around $30,000, Roxanne’s options, especially the original air conditioning, ups her calling card to upwards of 50 grand. However, no price can be put on the thrill of cruising in this pretty lady.
“There is an overall feeling of joy when I drive her,” Brown said. “This is the past, a piece of history. Those Camaros are really rare these days; you may see some old Mustangs, but not many first model Camaros.
“You get that feeling of excitement, it’s like you are 16 again and you just got your license. There is a feeling of awe when you are driving it, a respect for the car and for what Chevy used to be.”
In a school parking lot filled with the latest models of Lexus’, BMWs or Hummers, Roxanne brings a breath of fresh air to the atmosphere whenever she decides to take a jaunt down the coast.
“Some people are like, ‘Oh, it’s an old car, it’s a piece of junk,” Brown said. “But for me it is a respect of how far cars and innovators have come. You see cars now that have GPS, and they can find you if you are on the edge of the earth, while Roxanne is just old school muscle. Maybe they aren’t as fast as cars now, but they had their day. It is a timeless classic, something that will always be alive.”
Roxanne spends most of her time up in Camarillo at Brown’s family’s home. While Brown is at Pepperdine he drives a regular truck like most students. Roxanne’s pristine condition makes her suitable for special or fun occasions — not every day use, because, as Brown puts it, she’s “a very classy little lady.”
And consider yourself lucky if you ever get to go for a spin in Miss Roxanne. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a piece of American history that for one moment you too are a part of.
“She’s fast, fun and exhilarating,” Brown said. “Roxanne is always good for a ride.”
02-15-2007