CAR SHOW CELEBRATES CORVETTE.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Like many other men of his generation, Dennis Judd spent a good portion of his teen-age years ogling a Corvette.

His uncle had one. With a paint job the color of candy apples and an engine that sounded like the roar of a furious animal, that car was about the best thing he could possibly imagine.

``It was the hot car,'' he said. ``There wasn't much better in the world.''

Last Christmas, the high school teacher finally put those teen urges to rest. He bought himself a 1962 Corvette, the exact model Chevrolet was producing when he entered his freshman year in Wisconsin.

In another nostalgic touch, he ordered a personalized license plate reading ``RUNAWAY,'' the title of the Del Shannon single released the same year.

The car has made him a very happy man.

``Sometimes I go to bed with a smile on my face just thinking about my car,'' he said.

Such automotive passion was standard issue at the fourth annual Red Line Corvette Club show in Thousand Oaks on Sunday. The car show attracted 65 Corvette owners to show off their prize wheels. The cleanest and most mint-condition cars were driven home with trophies. All the proceeds went to the local anti-drug abuse program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Judd was one of several judges assigned to look over the cars, scrupulously reviewing the most minute details. Points were deducted for everything from frayed sun visors and rusty gas caps to smudged rearview mirrors.

Every detail counts, something Carl Cruz learned long ago. In 1971, the retired electronics supervisor bought his first Corvette, a fuel-injected roadster with an unusual black and green color scheme that he's pretty sure makes it one of a kind. The car has taken home literally dozens of trophies at shows like this one, he said.

``My wife told me if I brought home another trophy, both me and it would have to stay out in the garage,'' he said.

Cruz has become an old hand at the show routine. Cooler and thermos at his side, he sat in a folding chair in the shade surrounded by piles of cleaning supplies for last-minute touch-ups.

Like other owners, he had popped open the hood to show off the spotless engine, each part gleaming in the afternoon light. But Cruz had done the other owners one better: He had propped full-length mirrors at the front and back of the car to give spectators a view of the engine's underside, which looked for all the world like it had never known the existence of dirt.

The attraction of the Corvette, he said, has a little to do with nostalgia; it's also tied to sex appeal.

``Corvettes have always been the car the ladies enjoy,'' he said. ``If you have a Corvette, it isn't hard to attract the opposite sex.''

Being noticed is part of the appeal of owning a Corvette, said Fred Smith, who drove his turquoise 1993 model to the show from his native Santa Barbara.

``It's a boost to your ego when a little kid sticks his head out a window and gives you a thumbs-up,'' said Smith. ``Everyone seems to like these cars. It doesn't matter if they're in a Pinto or a Cadillac - everyone loves them.''

Probably the most admired car at the show belonged to Noel Park, the owner of a Bellflower Corvette service and parts shop. He brought along a 1958 model that had been converted into a race car. The attraction of such a car, Park said, has as much to do with its classic styling as the era it represents, he said.

``When we were teen-agers, these were the fastest cars of the street,'' he said. ``None of us had the money to get one. Now we're older and we do.''

Park paused while another herd of spectators approached his car, heads bowed, staring intently at every curve.

``A friend told me he thought all this was was a bunch of middle-aged guys living out their teen-age fantasies,'' he said. ``And you know, there's a lot of truth to that.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color in CONEJO only) Car lovers inspect mode ls Sunday at the Red Line Corvette Club show in Thousand Oaks.

(2--color in CONEJO only) Carl Cruz brings out the shine on his immaculate '65 Corvette.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News