Santa Cruz Woodies A Chapter of the National Woodie Club
The 2023 Santa Cruz Woodies Club Spring Cruise on National Drive your Woodie Day was another unique, special event. The weather cooperated with sunshine and mild temperatures. Although we localized the venue, members didn’t seem to mind the shorter driving portions of the cruise this year.
Our first stop was at the shop of Canepa Motors located in Scotts Valley, CA. There we found automotive nirvana in their 70,000+ square foot facility in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, where the world’s best automotive artisans work to preserve the most important road cars and competition vehicles of yesterday and today.
We toured their workshops, for-sale vehicle showroom and the Canepa Motorsports Museum. Whether you are into Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini, BMW, Shelby or best of all Woodies… Canepa had a little bit of something for everyone. Owner Bruce Canepa was on hand to discuss his car collection and mingle among club members. He is a super nice guy with an encyclopedic memory of specialty car, motorcycle and racing history.
After leaving Canepa, we took a short drive to the home of SCW Club Members Dana and Paula Morgan. Dana grew up in the amusement ride industry with his father and amusement rides pioneer Ed Morgan. He worked for Walt Disney and started in the industry on the floor at Disneyland. He later went on to manage the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where his first project was to build new trains for the Giant Dipper. Eventually Dana and Paula started their own company, D.H. Morgan Manufacturing, which designed and built world class roller coasters and carousels. We started this portion of the tour with a BYO lunch, gathering around a huge pool and patio area surrounded by wildlife including Deer and Wild Turkeys.
After lunch we toured the Morgan’s beautiful custom Craftsman styled home which, to me, looks like a miniature version of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. Afterwards Dana showed us their amusement park memorabilia collection and shared tales about building the tallest, fastest roller coasters (they still hold Four Guinness World Records) and world class carousels.
We were also able to tour their exceptional collection of rare classic cars and a workshop/garage that turned the mechanics in our group green with envy.
Mark your calendars for the 27th edition of Woodies on the Wharf (WOW) to be held on Saturday June 24, 2023 at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.
Click here for information about WOW events
