America's MOST BILLET Roadster?

Until they change the judging criteria that's what they should call it. It would be interesting if the Miss America contest had NOTHING to do with style, beauty or grace- but just a list of check marks on a sheet of paper.
I think people REALLY need to voice their opinions in a rational matter on this- and if enough people speak up MAYBE they will listen. I feel a bigger portion of the decision needs to go to style (I don't think this is even a consideration at this point)- and that a panel of the best hot rod designers should decide this portion. THEN have the panel of clip boarders check off the chrome muffler bearing boxes for a smaller portion and see what happens.

 

Heres one vote from the cold Mid-west....

 

Style and actual appearance start to disappear as soon as there's a display; once a car is jacked up with doors open and so on you can't really tell what it would look like actually on its wheels in the world. It becomes natural to judge it as a checklist of modifications...

 

The car tells you more about the award than the award tells you about the car.

Irrelevance, thy name is AMBR.

 

Start one to compete w/ the billet boy's. Strict trad. value's only.

 

I think they should give the Academy Award for Best Picture to the movie that spends the most on CGI effects.

 

Jim,

That is a great analogy. I could not agree with you more.

 

The win is meaningless to any of us. Does anyone "hang" with any AMBR owner? Do any of them ever get down to our level? The car that won will now become a headliner and be trailered from show to show for a year or so. The award will become an item mentioned when it's sold by Barrett-Jackson. Really, a bunch of HAMB'rs should cruise the event's spectator parking lot and give an unofficial "HAMB-Most Really Beautiful" trophy (worth almost ten dollars.) Ha, think the hot rod media would pick-up on it? Gimmie a beer......

 

Just my meaningless 2 cents.but all of the car show trophie whore stuff really quit appealing to me along time ago. I think what really does it for me is the road trip and the people you meet along the way. I build what I like and please myself and if others dig it then great. Iam not in books or on videos and I donm't have many friends and sometimes feel like I can't even give my work away, but if those guys would stop throwing so much money at those cars and build a nice driver with soul and take some cross country road trips, they would see what a wonderfull world it is and figure out the reason we love cars after all. IT'S NOT JEWELERY !!!!

 

"Does anyone "hang" with any AMBR owner? Do any of them ever get down to our level?"

I would say Rich Guasco fits this bill. Hot rodder/drag racer to the core. Drives his old AMBR winner to several events a year.

 

Some of the smaller shows I go to have voting by the drivers themselves. I find that when the public gets to vote, they seem to be attracted to the most "BLING". Being judged by your peers means more to me then judges. Plus its a hoot when the trailer queens don't win.....

 

http://www.hotrodshows.com/guidelines.html

Lots of info on the process there...systematized irrelevance worked out to the smallest detail! I was looking for a page showing all the winners...seems to me the show started going mad in the early 1970's with vehicles more like dune buggies than roadsters...then on into following streetrod fads. Probably a natural evolution...traditional roadsters disappeared during the early '60's, leaving the show sort of rootless, then streetrodding revived early cars in the seventies. Show followed along with the times, not with any sort of traditional aesthetic. It makes sense in light of mainstream high-end streetrodding and with post-early '60's show car scoring practices. The standards and aesthetics make no sense here at all...we're viewing rodding from a different planet.

 

I think we need a....


H andbuilt
A mericas
M ost
B eautiful...............roadster, coupe, sedan, custom

 

Whew !!! That pretty much does it. Nuff said, nice Jeff. Gary

 

Best quote overheard at the GNRS........."Why the hell does it have a back-up camera? Wouldn't the four people pushing it into the trailer be good enough?"

 

Jim
That is a great analogy, here's my VOTE
"Doc" Parsons

 

1st I'm not one to voice my opinion on another Custom, Hot Rod, or any old car for that matter. I see the irony in this thread. People come off as this and that, "We don't need awards!" "Drive em' till the wheels come off!" etc. etc. I've come to the conclusion that the AMBR has lost it's true meaning and there doesn't seem to be a turn for the better, or OUR liking. I could really care less about an award. Getting a nice comment from an old timer or friends will hold more water than any award. Why must some folks lust for an award?
Ken

 

Who cares?
Let them have the cars and the trophy, why do things have to be to our way of thinking.
Whether we like the car or not it makes no difference, what good would it serve if the Ala Cart, or the cool 36 roadster from Canada won?
What would it actually change?

 

i understand the judging. points garnered for this and that. engineering and all. i just think they need a simple name change. america's most beautiful roadster should be a people's choice award. then you can have the ? award, the award formerly known as the ambr. as judging has gone recently, there is a need for two awards.

 

Chip tooth (Foose ) is working on his 2010 car. he has $1.7 million in design and has yet to turn a wrench or buy a blot

 

(QUOTE) "Until they change the judging criteria that's what they should call it. It would be interesting if the Miss America contest had NOTHING to do with style, beauty or grace- but just a list of check marks on a sheet of paper." (QUOTE)

The problem is that you can't judge beauty. It is a very personal thing. Some people think only one color (their own choice) is the most beautiful. Some people think there is only one building style is most attractive (their current preferrence), and some think there is only one wheel & tire combo that really works...(their personal favorite). Do you see a pattern here?

Beauty is a subjective choice. Judging has to be something that can be quantified, and compared. You can't say flat black is a better choice than gold pearl, a '50s style is better than a "new millenium" style, or wide whites & smooties are better than oversized billets & rubber bands. Those things are only opinions, not facts.

 

That's some good sh!t there!

 

PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Amen to that.Could'nt have said it better.

 

I myself dig the underground... I always get a good vibe within me when a yuppy asks why would you build a bike like that? or why would you Z your frame? Not asking why I actually did it but why I just don't build like everything else....

 

Or...

H AMB's
A lmost
M ost
B eautiful...............roadster, coupe, sedan, custom

 

As far as hanging with an AMBR owner, as stated earlier - Rich Guasco is the ultimate rodder/gentleman/cool guy. I know Jim A knows that, as do most of us who have had the pleasure to have met him, and hung with him. I am sure there are others.
The point of his post however is to emphasize just how irrelevant the AMBR award has become to those of us it should be MOST relevant to. Yeah, there have been low points over the years, and I won't name cars, BUT - The winning "car" this year doesn't embody what the lions share of rodders lust for, actually far far from it. The status of this award, and it HAS had status and relevance, in my opinion, went away when Dan Cyr bought the show, and moved it from the Cow Palace, and Oakland area in general. No offense to LA, it may be a good show still, but it's not the Grand National Roadster show of old. This should be THE award, for THE car, not just some best in class trophy, it's much more than that. They have lost sight, in a big way, of what this award means.
If the owners of the show want to regain any semblance of dignity to this award - they need to elect, select, or ask for volunteers from within the rodding community to select the car. Not the builders, not the Boyds, but actual notables, such as Guasco. It wouldn't be hard to find people who would qualify and would be happy to do it. How about a vote from the people of the US, or even the world? Or show goers? Not from a checklist of gold/jewelry and glitz, or the shiniest inner framerails of 2008, but a selection that embodies the passion, tradition and style of the rodding movement as a whole. We should be able to look back on the cars from over the years and say - 'Man were those guys spot on'. Whoever selected this car, honestly, should be ashamed. I care not to know who it was, nor do I care to know how they arrived at the decision. I just know they missed it. Big time. And I am embarrased for the winners over the last 50 and change years that DID deserve the win.
To whomever owns the show currently?? Figure it out. Go back to the first 50 years and figure out what was done right at them. If you don't, your show will lose any of the small shred of credability and tradition it and the award still may posess. I used to look forward to this show, and would drive, fly or do whatever it took to get there - until they figure it out? NO MORE. I haven't posted in quite some time, but man - the winner of thie award this year moves me, from the stomach up, to speak out. Tim

 

The judges are giving the "people" what they want. Unfortunately, the "people" don't have a freaking clue. Most of the people who go to shows like this not only don't have a clue, but for the most part they don't even own a hot rod. They sit at home and watch a hot rod reality show on the television or flip through a magazine while at the book store or supermarket. They don't know what a "Zed" frame is or why a 6" chop on one car works and doesn't on another.

I'm sure the judges have a specific list of things they are looking for, but in the end, they are giving the prize to a car that will be what the masses want. A chromed, billet, candy coated billboard for whatever product can afford the use of the winner. They don't call 'em "showcars" for nothin'.