My trip to the GNRS

Well, made my first trip to the GNRS. Ho-ho-ho-holy crap! I thought that I had been to car shows before - Tulsa was my favorite - but now I know what a car show really is.

Unfortunately, I missed the HAMB gathering. I did ride the rental shuttle bus from the airport to AVIS with a HAMBer - but as it turned out, he was headed to the Grammys and not the GNRS.

Still, met some very cool people. Sat down for a chili dog at the show, and ended up meeting Tom Lieb, owner of SCAT Manufacturing. I've talked to him on the phone and used his parts, but never met him. Great guy. His cars won four well deserved awards, and he even treated us to a plant tour before we went home on Wednesday.

Being from KC, I'd never seen a well done lowrider before, but DAMN, the West Coast lowriders are awesome. Even had a beer with Ruben, the owner of a very cool '76 Pontiac Grand Prix 'rider.

Met Steve Strope, the Pure Vision guy who has gotten a ton of press over the last few years. Great guy. Seems very unimpressed with being Steve Strope, and more than willing to talk Chargers with a fellow Charger owner. In fact, I didn't meet anyone that wasn't a cool car guy (or gal).

Linda Vaughn is a national treasure, and it was good to see her again. The Mrs. saw George Barris signing Barris crest signs at his booth, and beelined for it; I saw Linda and beelined for her. Now, I don't really "know" Linda all that well. I've seen her three times in my life, all at PRI shows. The last time we had my dad with me. That was four years ago. Here's where it gets amazing. She saw me, saw my wife, and immediately said, "Hey you guys - how have you been?" Then looked at me and said, "How's your dad doing - is he with you?" The woman has an AMAZING memory, in addition to her equally amazing mammaries. A better ambassador for motorsport and hot rodding will never be found.

The cars, from high end to low end, were breathtaking. The Trepanier '56 300B really resonated, because I have a rustbucket 300B in the garage waiting for its turn. Nope, not going that direction with it, but it's still inspiration.

My pick for AMBR didn't win - no big surprise here. I would have picked the Dore Packard, and in fact the one that won was about 4th or 5th on my list. Had an interesting conversation with someone who was there on setup day, and was laughing about the fact that most of the "AMBR" contenders didn't even run. One Hemi powered roadster in particular tried to drive in, fizzled, farted, and popped, and died. Apparently its owner then ran the battery down trying to restart it. Kind of sad - why wouldn't you tune the friggin' engine?

Overall, the trip was great, but it only whetted our appetite for another trip to SoCal. Too much stuff, both car oriented and otherwise, to see in five days. By the way, we rented a Camaro V6 from Avis. I highly recommend it. And I'm already getting hungry for another Bob's Big Boy Broilerburger.

Thanks to all, both here and elsewhere, who advised us, gave us tips, or otherwise helped make this trip a blast.

 

Glad to see that you had a good time in SoCal. Having lived here my entire life , it's cool to hear it from a new perspective, thanks for your post .

 

Glad you had a cool time. It's a trip I need to make some day.

 

Glad you had a great time! West Coast Lowriders are the cream of the crop! Ruben is a great guy and his Grand Prix is very nice. He is part of Lifestyle Car Club who had a large portion of Building 8 at the show.

 

Glad the weather was able to cooperate..made for an even better show!

 

Was the yellow and graphiced '67 Riv a part of that club? That one would have been my pick for AMBL - America's Most Beautiful Lowrider.