What a bunch of garbage. Some of my friends have been bugging me to go forever. Well, i went,............. ONCE. The end.
A whole lot of BillyBob shit. A few nice cars, just not nearly enough for the 7 hour drive. Swap meet was the usual cell phone covers and Chinese chrome valve covers. I only walked 2 rows of the swap meet before getting disgusted. I LOVE swap meets. I drive 13 1/2 hours to Portland in April for one of the best i've been to. I DID find a pretty nice 67 Grand Prix i'm trying to figure how to get to LA. Oh yeah, in the cruise, you should've see the array of Cutlass's that were jacked up about a foot higher than stock to fit what appeared to be 30 inch wheels. HOLY mother of god
Man I coulda told you that much....I lived there for 12 years....HAN is never worth it. The swap meet is a bunch of folks with super inflated prices on their stuff ( well except the first couple years I was livin there....there were SOME deals) These days its more about the tourism and mostly Boyd or GG style cars (which its always really catered to...) and in the last few years some "gangsta" cars.... The only time you can score on cars or parts from Hot August Nights is when you look around the last day for folks that dont want to trailer their stuff back home, and they decide to deal then..... I'd rather stick to a local cruise night.
yeah, the gangbanger "Donks" were out in force. You're lucky- I HAVE to go every year, there's no escaping! What a bunch of pricks, I had one guy yell, "Right on- FUTURE hot rod!" I should have yelled, "Future paraplegic!" dumbass. I did snap a couple pics, only two cars out of a couple thousand I saw caught my attention, will post later. There were a couple others but I refused to take pics and support the a-holes that built them. They're fake rat rods, built by a street rod shop that were purposely "weathered", and whose owners talk shit about HAMB cars. Crap like that makes me sick.
I went, eveything sucked. The National Automobile Museum kicked ass though. Shot two rolls of film in there. Tito
It's funny, went for the first time last year, wont go back. Just nothing interesting out of 5000 cars. Mark
yup- that seems to be the consensus from EVERYBODY I know, yet every year it is sold out with a waiting list Did you know they claimed 800,000 people came? Probably only 300,000 of them were gang members form the bay area though. That's still a ridiculous estimate- the population and traffic did NOT quintuple over the week, there's just no way. Real world traffic and crowd samplings on my part show that the attendance is going down. And strangely absent was the push from the past couple years urging young guys to get involved. I got kicked out of every cruise through I tried to attend! Because I never paid their outrageous entrance fee, and they have converted all the open cruises to participants only. It used to be some spots, like Victorian Square allowed ALL pre-72 cars to cruise. Well hey, if you want young rodders you just missed out And the Auto Museum is pretty cool- but are the Roth cars back yet? The Beatnik Bandit is on permanent loan, but I think it's out on the road now.....
And the Auto Museum is pretty cool- but are the Roth cars back yet? The Beatnik Bandit is on permanent loan, but I think it's out on the road now.....[/QUOTE] Beatnik Bandit was there as was the 2nd he did in the early 90's. Acouple of his go-karts too. Wish there were more of his creations, but they are out on tour I think. Tito
i went to the swap meet only. did not even try too look at the bullshit cars. and i'm glad i went to the swapmeet i got two sbc dist. cheap and a factory radio delete plate for my car.
I too was there all the way from texas for the most part it was good did score a set of original cal custom valve cover mint but saturday must of been gang day i had never seen so much trash in a 10-12 block area we usually go to louisville but was talked into reno if i would go back i would stay in sparks that was really nice and clean and great cars
i was in reno working the whole week before this business got started. i left sunday. walked down virginia ave before i left to get on the plane. nothing really that eye catching. but i did go to that museum and it was awesome. and the beatnik bandit was there. of course i would've rather had been home that weekend so i could've went to louisville for the street rod nats.
Oh man...one of the guys I work with had family here for the week, they kept on & on at him to take them up there.....He's a car guy & asked me if he should take them...I said...NOOOOOOOOoo..... He's back tomorrow, I'll have to see what happened!
i notice mostly everyone who complained about HAN is from CA. you guys are freakin spoiled!!! When I lived in reno I loved HAN but compared to shows in CA it sucks ass for sure. I enjoy going but it does suck that most cars are camaros with those stupid dolls and furry dice and the cliche bullshit.
I honestly loved Hot August nights in years past but the last two or three years have been horrible, as a few others have said the main area was filled with gang bangers and thug-mobiles lifted up on like 26's. It used to be a great show (if you dont include the boydsters and over priced auctions) but its turned into thug haven here recently....Hopefully they do something to fix it. We ended up going to the Hilton show and checking out the cars on sunday after I got stared down by a bunch of thugs for my Reds hat in the main downtown area......lame. The Hilton show wasnt horrible though. I'll post some pics in the morning.
I don't figure why you guys go Downtown,that has always been the trouble spot.Virginia square is the place to be for HAN.Mellow and always a good cruise when it,s moving.
Well, what can I say. Contrary to many of the other opinions here, I had a great time at HAN. I must admit that this was my first time so I had nothing to compare. I did not have my car with me as my wife and I and our friends who went with us preferred not to drive from upstate NY so we flew the not-so-friendly skies. If I had driven, I would have been upset over the $150 entry fee. Yikes, that is a lot os scratch!!! But, apparently it did not cause as much grief to those that entered. However, we did like the fact that something was going on wherever we went. Victorian Square was lots of fun when the cruising was taking place and the performers were on stage. Little Anthony and the Imperials were great. We liked the Hilton and the Atlantis for all the action that was taking place. The Silver Auto Auction was very interesting and there were some real deals to be had if you were looking to buy something. D'Augostino's candy gold '61 Olds hardtop was there and DID NOT meet reserve. I saw it still for sale in the room where they went after going through the auction. It had a price on it of $32K or B.O. !!! That's a deal, although it is a lot of money. I also enjoyed the swap meet and didn't really think the prices were out of line, at least with what we see back East. However, I did think the cars in the corral were priced very high. Better to go to the auction where there were lots of things to choose from. Last, we really enjoyed the Reno area, including side trips to Lake Tahoe, Carson City and Virginia City. We probably will do this again. Oh, did I mention that my wife and her friend both LOVE the casinos! That kept them busy while Ron and I immersed ourselves in the car scene. Perfect.
We went many years, but will never go again! Gangbangers and scum! Buddy had his Harley stolen from the hotel secure parking! I saw the film. They never report crime there. But 49 cars stolen that week! Been goin to Reno for 40 years, love the town, hate HAN! I had a good time there on my honeymoon. They really need to clean that shit up! Sorry to vent, but can't say how I really feel!!!!!...........OLDBEET
My buddy went.I told him to keep an eye out for a late 50s early 60s tach. He called me saturday morning to tell me he found one. A sun half sweep tach without the sending unit for $75.00, and did i want it? I said o.k. what the hell. He goes back to the guy, and he ups the price another $100.00!!! WTF! I was pissed. So my buddy says "it was $75.00 a few minutes ago, why $175.00 now? The guy says "i know ,so what." Needless to say i told him never mind.
this is kind of funny to read about the scummy thugs- that is a constant, and I agree. But, I don't think they were just in town for the show, a lot of them are locals! There's wannabe gang crews like that all year round, mostly on weekends. There's a Greyhound pipeline that runs drugs and prostitues up every Friday night to downtown, get their money and head home. HAN, 4th of July, New Years, it doesn't matter, any excuse to come up and take advantage of the crowds and try to look tough is enough for them. It's just a sign of the times, but now that they're all into old muscle cars, it's even worse cause they have an excuse to be at every HAN show!
In defense of the $150, it got my friend a hat and t-shirt, his car wherever he wanted it, and got BOTH of us laminate passes that got us both lunch at one joint, breakfast at another, free to the swap meet/car corral for 3 days($6 a day i think each), free into the auction for both for the 4 days (at $12 a day each), etc. So, since my friend paid for it, "I" thought that part was great. The gold 61 Olds was the hilite of the trip for me. I love that car.
last time i went people were throwing trash cans at cars. real cool. i guess if you like 24 ct. gold all over your car or boyd hawian shirts this is the show for you. i'll never be there again.....
I always heard it was a good show. That was about 15 years ago. Not even gonna waste my time now. Too far to drive for that Goodguys kinda show.
Well, I talked to my workmate today, he said he will NEVER go again either....for many of the same reasons stated above...
The Jalopy Journal
