Mike Heredia's 1958 Plymouth Belvedere "Christine"

As many of you know I'm a Cars + Coffee (C+C) regular. C+C is the informal car show/cruise held every Saturday morning from 7 to 9 AM in the parking lot between Ford's Western Regional and the Mazda corporate headquarters; it's actually the Mazda parking lot. Originally the brainchild of Ford's Western Regional PR honcho John Clinard and Ford's Advanced Design VP Freeman Thomas (father of the Audi TT), C+C moved to its current location when a similar gathering got kicked out of its previous home at a strip mall on the Pacific Coast Highway in Crystal Cove, south of Newport Beach. To get there in time to snag a parking place in the main lot means a 5:15 AM wake-up for the hour-long drive from Temecula to Irvine. Typically C+C draws from 350 to 500 cars; often overflow spills into adjacent parking areas so it's not uncommon to see a Ferrari Enzo in one of the spectator lots.

Every Monday we're going to feature a different car and we are starting off the series with Mike Heredia's 1958 Plymouth Belvedere, dubbed "Christine" due to its more-than-passing resemblance to a car featured in a certain Steven King novel and film. (Heredia notes that while in the novel and film "Christine" is called a Fury, it is in reality a Belvedere as all 1958 Furys were painted Buckskin Beige, not red.) Heredia, a clay modeler at Acura, is a typical C+C attendee, someone either directly connected with the auto industry or another one of Orange County's well-heeled enthusiasts.

For a look at the details of Mike's Forward Look '58 Belvedere, like its dual-quad carbs, its sky-high fins, and its pushbutton automatic transmission, check out the Automotive Traveler image gallery.