Could've taken a lot more if I wasn't so busy gawkin'. Gorgeous day. Beautiful weather, KILLER tunes and absolutely stellar rides. Thanks to Alan and Melissa for a great time and to Big Daddy for giving a great place to hold it. http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff182/FlashGumby/Billetproof Florida 2012/ For those that have never been, Garlits has two museums onsite, one, a Drag Racing museum, with an AMAZING collection of rails, funny cars and hot rods through the history of drag racing; Snake, Mongoose, Jungle Jim and all of Don's cars (or rebuilds of them), with a separate ENGINE museum.. an amazing homage to horsepower. The second museum is cars of interest to Don; this one is what absolutely MAKES this location for Billetproof for me, as Don seems to have both Hot Rod versions and FACTORY versions of most of the classic donors for the Hot Rod form. After looking at the fantastic creations out on the green, you can come in and see what those cars looked like from the factory and really appreciate what has been done to them. Since it looks like next years' show will be held here as well, do your best to make the trip. It's well worth it!
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. We left early to avoid any possible rain, who were the winners of the various classes? Don
Rad photos! Thanks! Billet was a blast, a little warm... I think we're in for a hot summer this year! I'll be runnin' the ol' 4/60 AC
I enjoyed the detail work on a lot of those "turds", and if they weren't there, it wouldn't be so easy to really appreciate the gems (and there were many of those).
the upside to this one is that no actual cars were harmed in its creation. I think a sheet metal brake was abused though.
Went to dinner at Codys Roadhouse Sat. after show, Don and Pat were seated a couple booths down from us.
A quick word on Don & Pat, after the trophy presentation was complete and as the event was winding down, 90% of the cars where gone. Don and Pat were riding around in his golf cart looking at the remaining cars. That seems like a good sign.
Yeah, that was nice to see... I didn't see him but a few times during the day, but the one time I went out back there was all sorts of noises coming out of the shop.
I think there was an exceptionally large numbers of turds this year, competing with each other to make up for the attention the owners never got from their mothers. Having said that, there were an incredible number of gorgeous machines that spoke for themselves without the use of one iota of barbed wire or a single mailbox.
There was some nice stuff out there with some serious attention to detail and craftsmanship, ...and some stuff I was affaid to walk by, but to each their own. I also thought the awards this year were top notch and the picks the trophies went to were dead on, good job to all involved, whatta gonna come up with next year?...Brian
Some people look at a glass and say it's half full, others look at it and say it is half empty. Why anyone would have to say anything about a few cars that didn't fit their idea of what one should look like and taint the fact that there were hundreds of cars that did, is beyond me. Let it go, for God's sake. Did you have a nice time? Did your car have lots of people admire it and talk to you about it? Was the atmosphere there about as good as anyone could ask for, as well as the weather and the venue ? Those are the things that matter, and to grumble about anything only tarnishes what was one of the best days most of us have ever had at an event. If you were standing there handing out $ 100 bills there would still be someone who would complain because they are hard to break. The show was great and the people who took the pictures did a fantastic job, that is all that matters. Don
take into consideration that unless the poster states they took and posted a picture of every single car at the show, you are basing your assessment based just on what they took to the time to take pictures of and post. Just taking a quick look at Flash Gumby's photos, I see maybe 4-6 janky rides. I havent looked at allllll of the photos ( I do have a couple of discs with pics of every car that came thought the gate).... but i did walk around quite a bit and I say perhaps a handful of particularly janky rides. I just ignored what I didnt like and spent my time enjoying the overwhelming majority of rides that were there that I did like. YMMV.
... then again.. if I liked crap rods then that is what I would take pictures of and post, which would make it look like a different show than what it actually was. there was a post a while back from some back east show that looked like a total hillbilly shit rod show. it looked that way because the guy who posted the photos only took pics of shitty cars. other posts of the same show told quite a different story.
I look at it this way. Living in europe i dont get to see as many kool old cars as you guys do. When i lived in england ive seen so many, and very often, but since im in italy i hardly have a chance to see any. If i was there, other than enjoying the super beautiful cars such as the sectioned vicky i wold have enjoyed lookin at the rodents too. Not cause i like'em, cause i really dont, but because you can say what you want, but some cant be beat for a good laugh.....a trans case as a air intake? pure comedy.
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