What was the first NSRA Nats that you attended and what do you remember about it?

I understand NSRA may not be a favorite subject to some but there is no denying that it has been a major factor in our history.

My first of only a few was Columbus 1978. Our club was attending and bringing a 31 model A roadster to raffle. A full fendered roadster with a 394 Olds and Hydromatic.

I didn't have anything on the road but I found a running 47 Chevy Woody wagon a month before and went on a thrash to drive it. I was youngER and stupid. Since it ran, I worked on the brakes and suspension. Busted my ass for 3 weeks finding out at the last minute that the block was cracked and I ended up driving a 76 Chevy P/U.

That was the first time I saw Barry Lobeck's burgundy 32 roadster before it became famous. There was a black 33-35 Chevy 3W coupe there that lit my fire also. This was before Outlaw cars. It stood out in a crowd.

We watched as the Holley tech rebuilt a 4 bbl for a guy in a 34 Ford at the Holley booth. I can still hear the tech yelling at the top of his lungs STOP STOP! Don't pump the gas pedal when you are turning it over. He popped the power valve and the tech had to replace another one.

It just dawned on me that was 30 years ago. WOW.

I know there are guys that have been to a hell of lot more than I have. Remember the driving events?

What do you remember?

PS if you don't like NSRA don't turn this into a bashing fest. Let us old farts reminisce.

 

i was lead east years back,,we got there and the first stop was the beer booth ,there were 14 of us so i got 14,,,then i saw that everyone had two in there hands..being the true gentleman i couldnt spill them so i stould there and drank them all rite down in two minutes. got real sick , then real drunk. i think i looked at some cars

 

A bunch of my fellow club members from OTHG Berdoo and myself attended the Nats in Tulsa in 1976. Made the trip from California with a half a dozens cars and one motorhome. I remember lots of cars, lots of heat and humidity, and lots of beer. And oh yes, lots of crazy bars and women!!! Did we have a good time, bet your ass we did!!!! Longer time ago than I care to think.

 

Oklahoma City 1983, My dad Got a "Top 25" award with the 38 chevy (see profile) that was a proud day, a room full of red 32-34 fords and one purple chevy.

 

Went to the Nats in Memphis in 1980...........biggest heatwave that the Mid-South had ever seen........it was 105-106 degrees every day!! You felt like you were walking around in an actual oven..........old people were dying.......schools and public buildings were being pressed into use as shelters for people.........

As I recall there were about 5-6000 cars there........now they get that mjasny at some of the regional Nats......

CB

 

My first was Louisville in 1988. The 25th anniversary.

I remember how hot it was & my aunt being pregnant with Kennedy. My uncle sold a good steel Deuce 3wd body for 5K in the swap meet.

JH

 

I drove my 36 touring sedan to that one. We played hop scotch with a roll back carrying a candy red 32 3W show car through Tenn. At one of the stops a buddy put a "trailered cars suck" bumper sticker on one of the roll backs rear cross members. I'm sure he was pissed when he found it.

Damn it was hot! If you did rod joisting that year I think I manned the second ring. We were glad when that was over.

 

1973 Tulsa-I was in absolute awe of the quality of the cars that showed up

 

My first was 1971, which was the second NSRA Nats.I met Tom Medley, Andy Brizio, and Tex Smith. Elvis was rumored to be there in a wig and beard. Somebody can only beat me by one which I think was Peoria.
Seems like yesterday.

 

i've never been.

 

1976 to Tulsa from Seattle with 3 of us, later picking up a couple more along the way. It was hot, there was 14 acres of blacktop, the building was great and had a/c, the chili dogs were outstanding, and Tulsa is a long ways from home. Lots of cool stuff along the way then and we discovered that every KOA in the country is built next to a train track. Tom McMullen's roadster went by spewing water like a geyser, there was a full-custom 27 La Salle roadster running around that was unforgetable (in several ways), everyone was having a great time downtown, even the police were doing burnouts with their patrol cars. Great trip.

 

Memphis, 1980...hotter than Hades there...just as hot on the way to and from...driving across Kansas in an un-A/Ced '40 Stude coop was miserable. The asphalt parking lots in the fairgrounds were actually melting...it was like walking on soaked grass...you just sorta sunk with each step.

I remember heading back to the Holiday Inn downtown at 12:30 AM one nite and it was still 101 degrees...uuggghhhh...good thing I was young then...!!!

R-

 

My first was Oklahoma City, sumtime in the eighties. My most memorable was the 25th anniversary nats. Dad and I had gotten a hotel room at some little town just outside louisville, I remember waking up in the middle of the nite bc the "people" in the room directly above ours making a bunch of racket. it actually sounded like they were chasing each other around the room. It was about 2am and someone knocked on the door. I woke dad up and got him to go to the door. I didnt see or hear who it was till dad came back in and told me to get dressed quickly and quitely. Ok? As we went to leave there was a SWAT officer at our door and one at each end of the hallway! WTF? The entire hotel was surrounded with theses guys! They bussed everyone over to a nearby hotel. Thats when dad told me that the SWAT officer told him the nutjob in the room DIRECTLY over ours had taken his girlfriend hostage and was VERY HEAVILY armed and apparently really pissed off! Took them several hours to get the guy out. I remember one of the guys there telling us that would be the last time he stayed there, said they evacuated the same hotel the year before because of a bomb threat!

That was the first and only time I ever saw Richard Rattys, Doug Thompson built Packard...to me that was worth it all

 

1992 Louisville. I had just got my permit and was driving my dad's 1940 studebaker coupe. Was on that awful Watterson Expressway during construction and a garbage truck came down the on ramp and pushed his way in next to me. So at that point we were running 3 wide between jersey barriers that were meant for 2 wide. The folks behind us saw what happened and backed off enough for me to get behind the truck. I got off the expressway a the next exit and handed the keys to dad. He had that car another 10 years...I never drove it again.

The next year I drove my 40 chevrolet sedan to Louisville. I changed no less than 10 fuel filters on the way there...and then came the FLOOD. I remember riding a beer cooler across the parking lot.

 

1974 ...

I have been to most of the ones since then. My 32 Roadster went to the 1st Nationals in Peoria ... but someone else owned at that time.



St. Paul was a long, long way from South Carolina.
I really liked the way that the fairgrounds had little streets and shade. Everyone was driving around in the fairgrounds in their rods and the swap meet had a decent 32 Ford sedan delivery project ( non runner ) for what was decent money at the time. I had the money but no way to get in back to South Carolina. Wish I had found a way to get it home. I did buy a few good 32 pieces for cheap money ( at the time )

 

i was at the first in peoria, when cars from cal. started rolling in, i knew something big was going to come.
riverrat

 

Tulsa, 1973 driving the 48 Chev that I still own.
I thrashed for two months to take a 75.00 beater to a painted and upholstered rod with Z28 Rally wheels.

Probably one of the highlights for me was walking back to the truck and seeing a guy about 18 standing beside it getting his photo taken with it by his buddy because he had one at home that he was in the process of building.

Another memory was standing in the line to get into the "dinner" at least we were close to Tex Smith in line and got to hear some of his stories.

Seeing the well known hotrods from around the country all in one spot had to be a highlight. Dan Woods must have put 500 miles on that C cab style T inside the fairgrounds that weekend.

Listening to to the stories that the guys from the Michigan Hot Rod Association about different cars that they either repaired that weekend.

Walking miles and miles in the Tulsa heat while I took many rolls of photos.

Just going out in the evening and cruising with my wife in our truck. We had a lot of fun just riding around.

Seeing Mike Minette's slingshot dragster for two that he drove from Dallas pulling a small trailer holding his slicks and floor jack. He caught a lot of flack over that car but it was unreal at the time and quite a site to see him running down the freeway with the trailer in tow.
Lots of great memories and it was the first trip or rod run for the truck.

 

Tulsa 1976...for the NSRA Street Machine Nationals....you know...back when NSRA had a post-'48 Street Machine division.... Man I'm getting old..... No wonder I feel like nine miles of bad road. I've got some pics around here somewhere...

 

I guess that was my first time to go

 

Tulsa in 1976. I got a room at the host hotel a week before the event because my eventual wife called the chamber of commerce and someone there helped me out. It was an almost all night carshow with cars driving around the motel after hours. My favorite was a candy red 32 3 window with fenders. It was striking. I came home and repainted my race car the next week.

 

DETROIT at the 8 MILE and Woodward, Mich State Fair grounds.

I can not remember the year I think it was about 1972 to 1974.

anyone know the year for sure?

 

My first was Tulsa, in '73. My brother had come down from Kansas City in his '36 Ford Coupe. I got to drive it around some and I was hooked. My '57 Chevy is still sitting right where it was then in '73 - I've been building and driving rods ever since. A memory I have of that weekend was driving my brothers coupe. It stopped kinda wierd and when I questioned him he commented, "Yeah, I need to hook up some front brakes some day". He had taken that car to Peoria two years before...he put thousands of miles on that car. He still owns it and is currently rebuilding it.

J.

 

I've been to all the Goodguys Western Nationals... does that count?


what was the "Motate to Merced" show??? that was NSRA... not a Nationals though. that was around 1981.

I was in Tulsa a week before the Nationals in 1973 visiting my mom's aunt. I was 13 . probably would have made my head explode if I was able to go

 

my first was columbus ohio NSRA 1978, I was 8 at the time ,my dad and i went. it was verrry hot that day. i took my cub scout canteen full of kool aid to help. dad cuaght the bug that day and i was forever hooked on it. i still have the drawings of street rods from that sumer that were influenced by that one day.I,m very thankful of that day because it changed everything in my life from there. after that dad bought a 30 A coupe, joined the LANCESTER STREET ROD ASSN club in lancaster ohio , and i met in those first few years lifelong friend that i still have today

 

Saint Paul, 1974. I had just graduated, and had been on the road for some time, attending a number of weddings around the country. Met some guys from the Chicago area on the way, and they let me hang out. They seem happy to see me whenever our paths cross, all these years later; I certainly am happy to see them. Not to discount all the great cars I've seen over the years, the friends made are really what makes it worthwhile.

 

Peoria-The First Nats...I think there were 600 cars. I was amazed to see "real" hot rods with out fenders and not being hasseled about it. Jim Babb's "house car" was there. Most memorable car was a black '40 Coupe from Minn. with perfect blended flames, an R & C cover car.

 

1983 okc was my first. and like some one said it was a sea of red 32's and 34's.

 

My first was a NSRA Nats East event in 1978 at Timonium Maryland. Couple of years later it moved to York Pa where it has been since. After 1978, I didn't return until 1994 in York and have been nearly every year since.

Only been to Lou'ville once in 2002, 105 degree temperatures (115 on the tarmac) nearly killed me. Not sure I ever want to go back to that fire pit.

 

Nats East 1974 when it was still held at Timonium, Md. before moving to York. Just a spectator, I was amazed to see that many hot rods (street rods) in one place. I look back at the pictures I took that day sometimes. A few cars would fit right in today, but most still had that 70's look to them, velour interiors, lots of tru-spokes, and a lot with fairly wide tires on the FRONT. An East Coast thing I guess. Ron Francis (of Wire Works ) had his '37 Woody there and local upholsterer Doug Kaufman had his '38 Chevy Sedan Delivery there. Don't think I've missed a Nats East since that one. Damn, that means I'm gettin' old!! ...Don from Lothian.

 

First one was 1974 in St Paul. I went in a guy's '34 Ford 3 window. I've been friends with him since.
Going in someone else's car was not the best. I promised myself I would only go again in my own car. I started college so I didn't build my car until 1976. I had a rolling chassis in May '76 and drove to Tulsa the first week of August with 12 miles on the car.
I remember the first Coors I had was at Tulsa. Probably the coldest beer and the fastest 20 oz I ever drank!
I thought that was the hottest I could ever get at a Nats until the '80 Memphis Nats!
They had to drain the pool at the hotel because it was too hot to dunk in! Once the new water was in some guests set up the poolside table and chairs IN the pool to cool off.