This is one in a series of special Langley Advance Times stories about what to expect at this year’s Langley Good Times Cruise-In, happen Saturday, Sept. 9 in Aldergrove. You can also check out this series in our special keepsake edition hitting the streets on Thursday and available in limited quantity at the car show.

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Once again, Jimmy Shine will be looking for winners.

For a sixth year, the superstar California car builder and land-speed record-holder will be at Langley Good Times Cruise-In, looking for eight-to-10 finalists for the Shine Speed Shop Award of Excellence.

“I can’t believe it’s already been a year [since my last visit],” Shine laughed.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back… and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and seeing all the cars that I was told last year would be out by this year.”

Shine described his involvement with the annual all-volunteer car show as a “happy accident” that started with one visit in 2018.

“It’s turned into something really fun, you know, as it’s grown over the years,” Shine enthused.

“We take our golf cart, we go up and down the strip, look at all the cars, talk to everybody, write down [names of candidates], take pictures. It’s become this really fun, one-day cruising, and I think it’s a really special thing.”

As before, the winner from the previous year – the 1962 Chevy Truck belonging to Trevor Williams, owner of Nanaimo’s Gas Boy Customs – will make the final choice.

“That person who won the year prior gets to make the final decision,” Shine explained.

“So, if we have got eight cars, 10 cars, 12, cars, whatever it might be, we’ll say, ‘okay between all these cars we really like, these are the top three contenders that the panel [of judges] is good with,’ and then we let the person who won the year prior make that final decision.”

Williams and Shine have done a little hanging out together since the 2022 Cruise-In win.

“During the past year, he’s come down and visited twice. We’ve gone to Arizona together. Sean (Sinclaire, a previous winner), he came out for the Grand National Roadster show. So I get to see all these guys. They’re becoming my friends,” Shine told the Langley Advance Times.

His nickname Jimmy Shine, came from people struggling to pronounce his legal name, Falschlehner. When he was 13, and sweeping floors in a metal shop, he was called ‘Jimmy Floorshiner.’ A friend shortened it to “Jimmy Shine” and it stuck.

Shine grew up in the suburbs of Orange County, Calif. His dad, Denny Falschlehner, was a hot-rodder, drag racer, off-road bike racer, surfer, and dune buggy fan.

Shine built his first creation, a 327-cubic-inch Chevy-powered 1940 Willys pickup in 1987, when he was a teenager, going on to apprentice at the So-Cal Speed Shop working with the late Pete Chapouris III (whose son of the same name, PC4, will be awarding his own trophy at Cruise-In this year).

He became a member of the 200-mph club by breaking a class record at the Bonneville salt flats in 2006 – going 206.454 in a Ford Street Roadster, then setting six more land-speed records.

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