Every year I wait for the photos to roll in, hunt all the hash tags and think "dang, someday" But two weeks ago my wife realized she had some extra pto and asked if I'd like to go to Austin for the round up. Hell yes! So I thought I'd post a few photos and notes now that we are back home. I didn't take a whole bunch as I figured @Dan Greenberg and @travisfromkansas would be all over getting the good shots. I don't really know how to split this all up so I guess your just gonna get it all. The drive from Kansas City was great, it's an easy rout and very scenic. As it happens this weekend was -I think- a good guys show. So all the way from Kansas City to Austin and back we saw cars on the road. Texas!
First things first some food! Before I take a trip the first thing I do, often before I even have a place to stay is find places to eat and Austin has plenty. Along with tons of places to eat, from micro trailers to air streams and brick and motars there was also a crazy amount of cool signage. Hand painted, huge, animated, neon! I have to assume that you need a wild sign for any one to notice your shop in the aggressive mega traffic of Austin. You could spend a week just looking at signs. Any how up bright and early we nosed around and made our way to the show. Ok that's enough calories to keep our strength up for a while, let's head to the show!
Over whelming. Wow. There were tons of cars on the convoluted route to the fairground, gas stations and honestly a lot of very cool stuff in the parking lot. I didn't know what to do or think. You walk in directly to the "featured" parking. Now normally this might be a hand full of cars but at this show it was about 30 or more. If you can't stomach something even vaugly street roddy you could honestly get your money's worth by only looking at these cars. And it's adjacent to the swap area so you wouldn't even have to miss that! Seeing this stuff in person was amazing. We walked around about half of the feature area and headed to the rest of the field
On our way we crossed the featured builders Hilton hot rods and Ross racing engines. There's no shortage of photos of these cars so I didn't take many but you can rest assured the fit finish and high polish is just of ridiculous as it seems in the photos First car I ran into was this model A. I can't remember his hamb name but after following his "can't wipe the smile from my face" thread it was on my list of cars to find in person. It did not disappoint! @TexasSpeed asked me Friday night what car was my favorite. It's an overwhelming question so Sarah and I came up with our top 3. This was my hands down number one pick. This is the one I'd take home. So much cooler in person. This next car is why you should bother to walk the rest of the field. I had heard a bunch about rat rods and off topic cars flooding this show. It was honestly enough to make me Leary of going. But I can honestly say I've never seen so many hot rods in one place before or as many mild customs. There were a handful of rat rods and a hand full of weird builds but if your bitching about the ratio of good builds to bad at this show your never going to be happy. Over 1500 cars and there were easily more hot rods than street rods. If that's not enough you should probably stick to smaller more niche shows. Anyhow, lots of neat stuff hidden in the ever expanding field of cars. Even hop up feature cars! @bobbleed basement roadster. It even smelled like an old car that sat in a basement lol @Dreddybear coupe, I don't think you can take a bad photo of this thing. Love all the details and the feel it has developing as it gets driven and broken in more and more.
Sarah wants her model A to be some combination of dark and light greens so we were on the hunt for hues that felt era appropriate. Really dug this caddy for the lighter tone Detail oreintated I sometimes don't even take a photo of anything more than a neat bit of a car This was a neat build. I was mainly interested in how he did the roof insert but it was overall a cool car. It had a tone of new stuff on it, contemporary gauges and ignition etc etc but still kept with a traditional hotrod aesthetic where many cars with the same parts list would end up pretty street roddy. It was very clean and attention to detail was obvious. @speedaddict 's car in the flesh! This is one of the many cars I about fell over seeing in person. Cars that were being built when the hamb was 50 people not 50 billion, and traditional builds of any sort were far from in style. The 33 had this mega modified 46 dash in it and it made me think of @flatout51 I guess there is a way to make it look good!
The amount of vendors was way more than I had expected, and that was before I noticed the huge indoor building full of mostly hotrod art stuff! I think we know who's booth this was in Again with the details haha. Weather was great all weekend. Got a little warm Friday but as long as you kept moving or found a little shade it was still great. Just remember the sunblock as there is more wind than shade for sure. Very cool woodie from the inland emporers<- spelling? The Rex rods make over on this roadster was finished and revealed and I didn't even recognize it in color at first. Absolutely amazing. The attention to textures and colors is so on point. Make this car a 2000's Kia maroon that's "pretty close" and chrome and polish the few things left cast and this build would fall short. You'd stand thinking "man, there's something just off about it but I can't put my finger on it" This car is right on. Gotta charge my phone I'll post more later
I think I have somewhere north of 500 total photos between the BBQ and show. They started going up on Friday on my site I'll start a thread for them when I get home.
Tim, thanks for the pics! I'm really glad I went to the show. It's been years since I took that car anywhere and the bodywork is starting to show its age. The show renewed my motivation. Hope to take it to many more shows.
Hey buddy does hat have an adjustable band? if not stop reading. I have always admired this car, well executed and smooth.
Awesome! It really fired me up I'm in a better mood than I've been in months. My friend pat who drove down with us had his 54 Chevy parked next to you in the dirt Saturday but I don't know if I ever saw you around your car.
I love that 54! I went there to take a 10 minute nap then back out in the sun to see more cars. The show has grown a lot bigger than I remember
Yep, I'm pretty sure speedaddict's car was probably the 1st Roundup car I'd ever seen. A friend of mine gave me a CD of photos when he got back from the show and there were about a dozen shots of it. Really nice to see it out again.
Alright where were we... Pretty cool b400 with a pine grill insert About this time I was about over it for the day and we figured we'd make a quick pass threw the second half the the "feature" area and leave to get some food and rest. Chit chatted with @Bob K for a minute and drooled over bass's dash I wouldn't normally advocate taking unlabeled booze from strangers but he seemed nice enough and it wasn't opened.... New stuff soon to come out from the airstream trailer with "Texas beer" on top of it, I think it may have been oasis? Taste sorta like orange juice and it was exactly what was needed *note smiling wife, always important It was really cool seeing so many cars you've seen online or in videos, I've seen this little roadster on Instagram a bunch the last year or so and thought it was pretty cool. Kind of a funny photo to pic but knowing this roadster and the truck has just moved from over seas, I think his name is Ben? I could be totally wrong he just moved to the area I believe, I asked Sarah what was different about the two of them than the rest of the cars. Let's just say it took longer than it should have to notice the steering wheels and I took that as a cue that we needed out of the sun. Not really a flat head guy myself but I think this roadster grabbed one of my top three pics as well. It's just got the right amount of finish and grit.
Caught @Malcolm on our way out the gate. The car looks different and better every time I see it. This time nearly a thousand miles from its home! We ended up at shady grove for some dinner, I was surprised how many food places we ate at had cars on there menus and walls. There also seemed to be an over abundance of places that had lots of out door seating. It was so incredibly nice out 90% of the weekend we took advantage of it often Then it was time to head to the Austin Speed shop for the open house. I had heard that congress gets pretty packed so we had decided to hit the shop the first night and play the second night ,when they have more of a party at the shop,by ear. Just kind of an interesting suspension detail on this "all business" coupe. The matching front and back hairpins/ladder bars whatever you want to call them, met very near each other and actually had a small plate tying the two anchors together it looks like. The light blue A roadster is the one with the flag on the page from a post back and the 32 is showing off a stout flathead. I saw it run a few years ago at the hamb drags and can't say is heard a flat motor that sounded like that previously. It really gits! Cory's five window next to the jive five and a few other Kansas City area cars. I think the Internet has got to be about littered with photos of this line up but hey they look good so I'm going to post another one About that time I decided to head inside and see what was going on inside the shop where Coop was spinning records
I don't know if that's an imbedded code it's the only one I can get via my phone but it's a video of my friends pat and Ryan pulling into the lot in the 54 Nick and the Omaha crude rolling in with Travis at the end, Matt directing them to parking And Brian Bass' blown roadster making the scene. If those don't embed maybe someone can add them for me?
Looks like it worked! Anyhow I made it inside the shop, which was spotless I might add. Didn't take to many inside photos but here is the 47 Matt is working on for Steve and his roadster beside it. He didn't make his deadline but that's not important it's looking great and the proportions are dead on. I'm excited to see how it comes together and also curious how that Weiand manifold performs. Maybe he'll bring it up to Joplin for the drags?
Back outside as more cars and people roll in. It was super chill and every one seemed to be in s great mood. Really every one in Texas seemed pretty friendly. Like they save their anger for when they drive lol This "the jewel" was Sarah's number one from the show. Can't blame her! If only we had room for the orange one and the green one at home!... I could probably figure something out haha I was about to get towed for parking across the street so I didn't get to many photos before I had to run, literally lol Did get this one though
Other duties made this the first LSRU missed since the first one at House Park. To tell the truth, I didn't even mind. Didn't attend any side events, and as I was only near and not in Austin I only saw a few cars on the road. Still, didn't mind. Maybe it was the sheer number of spectators now, or the cars that don't really fit-something made me think I wasn't missing out. Then I read your post, could feel your enthusiasm, saw the pics and the smiles and the great cars and realized just how good we have it here. Thanks for sharing Tim. I won't miss the next one!
From there we hit Top Notch for a fried pie and milk shake. I'd heard this was the place to be as congress got to hectic for some but it was kinda dead. Maybe I was to late or to early? Either way I was stoked on being there as Dazed and Confused is on my frequently viewed list We grabbed a bench and watched some American graffiti before heading out. The burgers being cooked over a big flame smelled great but id reached my limit already only thing that really caught my eye at the drive in, had a little bit of a brawler attitude to it. And that's the end of the first leg day! I'll post more later
Great play by play write up and you made my f'n day with the comment about my car. Hella bummed I missed catching up with you . Austin is well....... It's Austin. Pretty neat town. Glad y'all had a good time.
Thanks for the photos. So many beautiful vehicles on display! I really like how you grabbed the whole atmosphere thing. Food looked caloriffic!
Well you walk around that much you really need to load up on the calories Blackout! I know it would have been nice to meet up, maybe you can make the hamb drags? Be a good road trip for ya I know a handful trip up to Joplin every year. Tracks surrounded by fields and country roads, plenty of opportunity for fun
The Jalopy Journal
