USC Auto Club hosts weekend auto show


The USC Auto Club held its second annual auto show on Sunday along Trousdale Parkway featuring 61 cars ranging manufactured between 1965 and 2015.

The event attracted hundreds of people throughout the day.

The event was planned over the course of six months and was held in conjunction with Reach Out Worldwide, a disaster-relief charity created by late actor Paul Walker. The event also served as an act of remembrance for Auto Club member Wing Hay Tang and Matt Edmondson, who both passed away this year. The event was sponsored by Fiat, Motor Village of Los Angeles and Pep Boys.

“It’s insane; this show is 10 times better than last year’s,” said Gerilynn Eierman, president of USC Auto Club. “We have more cars, more variety and there’s a better turnout. I never thought it would be this big. It’s been a really rewarding experience.”

Club members worked with several university organizations to put on the show, including the Dept. of Public Safety and USC hospitality. The event featured cars from America and Germany to Japan and Italy, including an original and extremely rare, full-competition Shelby Cobra.

“It raced in England and the United States and set track records in New Hampshire and West Virginia in the late ’60s,” said owner of the Shelby Cobra, Anthony Boosalis. “I saw my first Cobra about 25 years ago and fell in love with the styling. Eleven years ago, I met the president of a local Cobra club and he helped me find one. It’s a wonderful opportunity to have my car here on the Trojan campus.”

Jason Perls Miller, a graduate student at the Leventhal School of Accounting, also featured his 1970 Ford Mustang convertible, the lowest produced convertible ever made by the manufacturer.

“My mom got the Mustang in 1971 with about 1500 miles on it, and it’s been in the family ever since,” he said. “In 2009, I restored it. It’s going to take a lot for me to sell it — too many memories.”

The club was founded in 2012 by Aaron Bajor, a junior majoring in business administration. Made up of only a few students in its beginning stages, the club’s membership has grown to 575 students and alumni.

“When I came to USC, since it’s in L.A., which is the car culture of the West Coast, I was really disappointed to see that there wasn’t a community for that,” Bajor said. “I wanted to create an organization in the community that would bring together car enthusiasts and have some outlet for us to come together on a casual, recreational basis. At the end of the day, it’s about having a family.”

The club holds open-door meetings for its executive board every other week, where they discuss potential events and activities. They also watch an episode of the show Top Gear every week and go out to dinner afterward. There is also a Facebook group where members make posts about anything from car recommendations to questions about repairs.

“We’ll have events with guest speakers from the auto industry, we’ve gotten people internships, we go to car shows, we might go to the race track,” Bajor said. “It’s really what people make out of it. I’m just glad to see how much it’s grown — it’s come a long way.”