On Sunday August 11th, the 2024 edition of OBLIVION took place in Milton, Ontario just west of Toronto. This was the 6th installment of the Radwood-style 80’s and 90’s car show.
On the surface, it looks like a DMC DeLorean show, as the same type of vehicle made famous in those ‘Back to the Future‘ films was also used in the promotional posters for OBLIVION VI. Pics from previous OBLIVIONS shows more than a dozen of the stainless steel sportscars all lined up next to one another. Amazing artist Venessa Koch even made a real-life DeLorean transformer named ‘Vaporwave‘.
But since this is a 80’s and 90’s cars and culture show, the DeLorean really fits the bill as the most iconic car of the decade,just based on the popularity of the movies. Someone even brought a lifted Toyota SR5 Pickup with yellow KC spot lights, just like Marty McFly’s ‘dream car’ from the movie.
You almost have to feel bad for DeLorean drivers because all of them are completely pigeon-holed in BTTF mythology. Every one of them is a silver time machine. Just look at those license plates!
But since the DeLorean is one of the coolest cars ever built, and certainly the most iconic vehicle that Giorgetto Giugiaro ever designed, don’t feel too bad.
Here’s a little known fact; the Subaru SVX is actually related to the DeLorean. Giugiaro’s firm ItalDesign was hired by Subaru in the late 80’s to create a very Italian-looking Japanese GT car. The sleek body and long-nose / short-deck silhouette is reminiscent of Giugiaro’s other vehicle design, the Lotus Esprit.
The similarities are especially noticeable in the ‘window-within-a-window‘ design element which all three of these sports cars use, partly for better high-speed aerodynamics, partly just to look cool.
Teal paint was so fashionable in the 80’s and 90’s. Whether you were driving an Acura Integra or Honda Accord, or even a domestic like the Buick Reatta, you just weren’t Sonny Crockett cool unless you were rocking the blue-green paint.
Many vehicles at the show were cultural icons of the era, like the black-and-white AE86 Toyota Sprinter Trueno from the ‘Initial D‘ manga comics. This vehicle inspired an entire generation of gearheads to take up drifting.
The organizers of OBLIVION went to great lengths to bring back the 80’s through displays of vintage electronics including the original Sony Walkman and classic Atari video game consoles. A collections of boxes from long-ago discontinued breakfast cereals and toys from Barbie to the Care Bears were also displayed. And it turns out that Stormtroopers prefer the retro-futuristic Ford Aerostar minivan, but aren’t big fans of poutine.
The whole afternoon was a blur of hot-pink, baby-blue and teal-green with over 300 period-correct vehicles on display. And it wasn’t just sought-after sports cars from back in the day. There were a solid number of old-school daily-drivers that just aren’t seen on the road anymore.
The coolest part was the people that dressed up in their acid-wash Levi’s jeans, neon United Colors of Benetton shirts and topped off by teased hairdos to really capture the look of the era. The crowd really got into the spirit of the event.
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