There are reunions, and then there are returns so improbably timed they feel scripted by the nostalgia gods.
This year’s May Madness: 36th Annual Classic Car Show & Parade arrives with one of those stories. The long-lost 1932 Ford Roadster that helped inspire the event has been found and is rolling back into San Rafael after more than three decades away.
For devotees, this is akin to discovering the Holy Grail had been parked in Pomona the whole time.
The roadster belonged to Greg Borrelli, founder of May Madness, the annual downtown celebration of cruising culture that has, for 36 years, turned Fourth Street into a gleaming corridor of horsepower and hair grease. Borrelli launched the event to honor the old cruise nights of the 1950s and the local legend later immortalized by American Graffiti, which famously filmed scenes in San Rafael.
Then the car vanished into the blur of time, sales and geography. Borrelli passed away in the 1990s. The roadster became one of those local myths people talk about at barbecues and car shows—surely still out there somewhere, but probably not.
Not so fast.
“For decades, we had unsuccessfully tried searching for Greg’s car,” organizer Rick Lewis said. “Tracking it down seemed too easy once we used the correct method, which is why it was hard to believe we had found it.”
That “correct method,” in a sentence fit for the modern age, was Facebook.
Borrelli’s roadster had appeared in a prominent hot rod magazine in 1989. Armed with that old issue, and encouraged by Borrelli’s widow—who wanted to see the car back in San Rafael—the organizers posted scans in a Facebook group devoted exclusively to Ford Roadster owners.
Within minutes, someone replied: They had Greg Borrelli’s car. Better still, it was for sale.
Photos arrived showing the vehicle’s distinctive details matched Borrelli’s original build. The team was nearly convinced, then confirmed it through a DMV vehicle history request.
Against all odds, the lost roadster was real.
Lewis sees the return as more than a novelty. “It brings it back to what we started,” he noted. “This car was Greg’s dream. It shows that Greg’s memories and vision for Downtown San Rafael are alive and going strong in today’s world.”
That’s the deeper appeal of May Madness. As the longest-running street rod show and parade in Northern California, there are more than 200 vintage vehicles, a downtown parade, live music, trophies, food and chrome for miles. But beneath it all is a longing for simpler pleasures.
“We try to spread the joy of what cruising brought to us when we were youngsters,” Lewis said. “Getting back to a time of simplicity without all of the distractions is what cruising is about.”
A pointed sentiment in the era of algorithmic entertainment, when many people experience community by scrolling past it.
This year’s festivities include a Friday Night Cruise at 6, Friday, May 8, and the main event noon–6pm, Saturday, May 9, with the parade at 5pm along Fourth Street from Lincoln Avenue to D Street. There will also be screenings of American Graffiti, a cinematic touchstone for cruisers everywhere, at Rafael Film Center.
As for the younger generation, Lewis has an invitation ready: “We hope the kids jump in the car and come join the excitement.”
And if Borelli’s roadster teaches anything, it’s this: Sometimes the past doesn’t disappear—it just needs better social media strategy.
More information at maymadnesssanrafael.com.
