Classic car comrades

A stranger’s empty gas tank opened the door to a 20-year brotherhood hot-rod enthusiast Ed Osepian says he would be lost without.

While tooling around Huntington Beach in one of his two vintage Fords one day, Osepian came upon a man stranded on the side of the road. He was out of gas, so Osepian drove him to the nearest gas station.

On the ride back to his car, the man invited Osepian to Adams Avenue Donuts, where a group of men with a similar passion for cars would get together. “I kept going every weekend, then all my friends started coming,” Osepian said. “I’m not a kid anymore, but I am still into it. It’s been really a good thing for people.”

These men, known as the Donut Derelicts, formed more than two decades before that in the parking lot at Magnolia Street and Adams Avenue.

It used to be just a handful of guys, 76-year-old Osepian said. Now, nearly 200 cars fill up the lot every Saturday. Autos begin parading in at 5 a.m.

The weekly car migration has even gained an international fan base, boasting visitors from Europe to Australia.

It costs nothing to attend, and everyone is welcome. You don’t even need a car to come by, Huntington Beach resident Bobby Spear said. Weather permitting, of course.

“We don’t care about the cold, we just don’t want to get everything all soaking wet,” Spear said. His 1929 yellow-and-tan Model A open-top roadster would not last long in the rain.

The event is free and anyone is invited to stop by and show off their ride — just keep the engine revving to a minimum.

“You got some guys who make noise with their motorcycles, but most don’t,” Osepian said.

“We kind of keep it quiet,” the 75-year-old Spear said. “We don’t eat many doughnuts, but we drink a lot of coffee.”

Loud noise has become somewhat of an issue considering the recent ousting of the group’s Newport Beach offshoot from its spot on the Newport Coast.

The Newport Derelicts were asked to leave their meeting grounds at the Crystal Cove Promenade in October after complaints from a number of residents living above the shopping center. They are now meeting at the Ford Premiere Automotive Group in Irvine until something closer to the ocean can once again be found.

“We’ve become part of each other’s lives,” said Marc Greeley of the Newport Beach group. “Just a group of guys with a common affinity for cars, but we all come from different lifestyles. One guy needs help, we come to each others’ rescue.”

Make sure you get to the lot early. The cars clear out by the time the rest of the businesses open at 8:30 a.m.

“It’s good to be nice and get out of the way, not to bother the businesses,” Osepian said. “It’s been a good thing for the community. People come from all over, like Pasadena.”

Local eatery Zoobies even opens its doors early to feed the hungry classic car lovers. And it’s no longer a hobby for men alone; all ages and genders love to bring their cars, Spear said.

“There’s so much camaraderie, it’s just unreal,” he said.

For more information, visit the website at www.donutderelicts.com.