Gathering of Exotics

Art Center College of Design

Article and photos by Tom Brockmiller

On Saturday, July 28, a most ambitious and appreciated team of John Aldrich and Toby Rohrbach, two graduates of the Art Center, introduced the first annual event known as Gathering of Exotics.  Your club responded with about twenty five Ferraris that were displayed on the grass in front of the beautiful Art Center main building.

Following John and Toby?s theme of a gathering, they invited a large and mixed array of sporting cars of all varieties, from Lotus, MG, Jaguar, Smart, Mercedes, BMW and even a genuine ?32 Ford roadster. There were a lot of pleased car affectionados but the real show was to visit the working classrooms of the Art Center and seeing their projects on behalf of Toyota, Nissan,  and Pininfarina, only to mention a few.  Actually, seeing clay mock-ups with students working at their creative best was both interesting and enlightening.

Following this tour we went to the center's auditorium where we were introduced to Mr. Ken Okayama, Chairman of the Transportation and Design Department, where he presented a video of the Art Center and its many world class achievements. Mr. Okayama also discussed working with Pininfarina on many projects as well as the spectacular "Rossa" design.

A wonderful lunch was served where we all had a chance to mix with old as well as new acquaintances. We wish to thank John and Toby for preparing such a fine exhibit of cars and placing us all at such a prestigious location. We will grow to expect no less from their second annual event in 2002.

Thank you for the invite, my friends.

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