The Hot Rod & Motor Sports Show

The Hot Rod & Motor Sports Show was a shindig put on by The National Speed Directory (coolest name ever) and the Russetta Timing Association in the Los Angeles area. I believe the first year of the event was 1947, but I’m unsure of how many years it ran.

However, it must have been a pretty well attended event as in 1952, the group was able to put together one hell of a door prize – a Barris built and customized 1949 Cadillac. Think about that… In the early 50’s, the Cadillac was one of the most expensive cars to roll off a Detroit assembly line – EVER. Hell, the base price was $3k in 1949 dollars and that was before the Barris invoice got paid.

No matter though… the boys got it done, held the show, and gave the damned thing away to a lucky guy named Lawrence Kitty. Afterwards, Hop Up/MotorTrend did a little feature on the car, but it hasn’t really been heard from since.

I’ve always wondered about Mr. Kitty. Was he just some random guy that went to a car show out of boredom and walked away with a new Cadillac. OR, was he a dedicated car guy?

Anyway, I tried to dig up more information on Lawrence and couldn’t find much. I did, however, find a complete scan of the program from the 1953 show. The production quality is CRAZY high for the period. In fact, it looks more expensive than any hot rod publication from the day. Check it out:

I come away with two thoughts:

1. The fellas that ran this show had an amazing budget, obviously… And every piece of promotional material I’ve found sets a period standard of sorts.
2. Someone in the crew had an eye for design and the patience to make sure that attention to detail carried over to every aspect of the show. This is unspeakably hard to do…

In any case, until this morning I had never paid much attention to the Hot Rod & Motor Sports Show. And now… Well, now I have a new rabbit hole to drop down into. I’ll report back with any new findings.