What The Hell Just Happened?

The Grand National Roadster Show is a circus. Shitty food, expensive beer, lines for each, and… Row after row of polished cars lined up like fishing lures casted out by owners hoping and sometimes praying for some kind of recognition for all of the money they’ve spent with builders they now resent. Most go home empty handed, but disguise their disappointment with a lie.

“Just honored to be here.”

“It isn’t about a trophy. It’s about the people.”

And it’s been like that since the beginning of time. Last year, I was working on an article featuring a previous 1950’s era winner and was lucky enough to set up an interview. I won’t name him, because he’s too old for this shit now… But he confirmed what I’ve always suspicioned – it was a circus then too.

But that’s just the environment. What about the cars? It’s hard to argue against the early roadsters that won the AMBR award in the golden era of hot rodding. Mainly, because I’m biased and have a deep love for many of them. But then the award slowly morphed into a strange competition between art cars that were built to win an award rather than to haul ass on the street. Millions were spent on the cars. Thousands (and in a few cases, hundreds of thousands) were spent on displays.

The traditional renaissance of the 2000’s had little effect at first. It was as if the people with enough money to compete were slow to react to the fad and so the AMBR award cars remained stuck in 90’s.  Every now and then a relatively traditional car would make the lineup, but it seemed to only as a nod to those in the know and not as an actual contender. And then… 2013. A car with bias ply tires actually won the AMBR award.

That was a big deal man… Mumford won the big trophy without a display to speak of and with a car that featured old technology tires AND Stromberg carburetors. I thought at the time that this was a huge step in the right direction for both the show and the people involved, but also suspicioned that it could be a flash in the pan.

I was wrong. I was wrong about it all…

The 2016 AMBR award went to Darryl Hollenbeck. If you aren’t familiar with his ’32 roadster, that’s it pictured above. It’s a traditionally styled car that’s both clean and subtle. If it would have won given those merits, I’d have been more than pleased. But there’s more to this car than that. In fact, there’s two aspects to this win that absolutely change the fuckin’ game fellas:

1. Darryl built much of this car himself. He’s not a big money guy paying some big name to build him a big car so that he can win the big trophy. He’s just one of us really… and with the help of his buddies, he built a roadster. (Update: Just learned of the build thread Cory did on the car here.)
2. This isn’t a car that was built with an eye on the AMBR award. Nope. It was built to be driven. In fact, just last year Darryl drove the thing from California to Texas for the Round Up. Think about that. When was the last time you saw an AMBR award car on the street at all – much less on the highway barreling down on 85 mph?

I don’t know what any of this means really. I’m just happy. I’m happy for Darryl and I’m happy for the trophy. If you are a traditional hot rod guy, you should be too…