That is a nice car but to me it is just another cookie cutter McMullen style Roadster that we have seen and can see dozens of at any number of big shows or rod runs. One you don't bat an eye at jumping in and heading out 2000 miles to an event that you want to go to but know you may see another one almost exactly like it when you get there. In years past a car that wasn't in contention for the AMBR won best hot rod though. The best thing about all of this years contenders is while several outwardly appear similar none have what you would call the gotta have to be a cool guy trinkets, None seem corporate sponsored with wheels or engine trim that already have been photographed for the next magazine issue's add for a manufacture. All of them show a lot of hours in the planning stages getting things just right. There is only one that I don't see as a truly potential winner and that may be due to photo angles rather than the actual car, I've seen a lot of cars that are incredible in person but don't photograph well unless they are set up in a studio or staged at a location. This is going to be interesting
Please remember that's what P& J actually wanted to achieve with this car. An All around Hot Rod. I saw this car being built in 1987. Was in my early 20's and that car has aged way better than I . I hope that someone has the forethought to award it an award of some kind and Carol, Peter 4 and Nicole and even Jake & P-Wood get to receive it in Pete's honor as it was a collaborative effort really only built to a Kick Ass Hot Rod .
Thanks for posting that - I tried to insert links to a couple of the individual photos in this post but for some reason I couldn't get them to come up... Operator error no doubt. But check out a couple of the photos in that gallery: Photo #83 of the Mathew Gordon RP - the guy sitting on the floor by the rear tire is holding a toothbrush! So, you think you've got what it takes to detail a car for the GNRS!!? LOL Photo #88 of the Scott Hawley '32 hiboy - check the reflection of the paper (or whatever it is!) on the floor next to the car. Holy shit. Neat to see some home-garage-built cars in the mix though. And you guys are right, this will be a tough choice for the judges.
Really nice to see a field of cars for the first time that I can actually see "beautiful " applying to each one. The award isn't "traditional" or even "hot rod" but " beautiful roadster" Rick Dore's car and the Mulholland car are amazing works of art and about the pinnacle of what a car builder can do with a blank slate. This is the first year that I don't care really who wins , they all qualify. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Every car has some special and custom additions but this RPU has several things missing... Like knobs, switches, levers, buttons, lights, handles, and so on. clever
These shots were taken in my shop less than one week before move-in day..Killion brought it to me for some brake and suspension tuning/adjusting. Then it had to go from my shop to Mangus for upholstery. I have no Idea how he did it..but I'm proud of Shawn and his commitment to build himself a "contender" sorry about the crappy pictures.
It,s funny that he hides all that stuff and leave a goddamn ugly gas filler neck visible in the pickup bed
Ok, that's funny. I said the exact same thing while I was showing my wife the picks for this year's trophy. Odd choice indeed for that filler neck.
The 2017 America's Most Beautiful Roadster: "The Mulholland Speedster" Congrats to Bruce Wanta, Eric Black {@Blackie}, Troy Ladd {@hhrTroy}, @cretin, and the entire crew at Hollywood Hot Rods !!!
It truly is a beautiful roadster and I have to agree with the judges call this year. It is pure art. It's not my kind of thing, but I get it.
Thanks for all the comments on the car guys. Even the comments about what people didn't like. If we all liked the same thing this would be pretty boring! Obviously, we couldn't be happier with the outcome, and we definitely think we were in a great group of contenders. I have to say personally, that I think this was the first year out of all the years that I've been going to GNRS that there wasn't one car that was a contender that made me think "ewww". And I think that says a lot, because I'm pretty picky. Everyone who had a car competing should be very proud of what they built because they all truly were beautiful. Not to mention that everyone else that I spoke with who was also competing were such great guys. It was a great reminder of the kind of people that do this. I'm glad that I didn't have to judge. The 3 cars that I really liked were "The Muroc Roadster" '28 Ford, "The Time Merchant" '32 Ford RPU, and "Hill Country Flyer" '32 Ford. We definitely studied that car during the engineering of the roof function. I originally wanted to do it this way because it made spacial sense to me. When the roof flips, the shape of it and the rear deck, and the kickup in the frame all work against each other. This was the logical solution to me. The customer wanted the roof to flip, so we made that work. To our knowledge, we haven't seen another car with a roof that flipped like that in one piece, so we wanted to pursue it, even though it presented some extra challenges.
Mandatory driving of the participants is a good idea, '805. Of course, those roadsters/roadster pickups just tug at me for some reason ! I'm weird like that. That is so neat to be able to just go to the show for the day. You guys are so fortunate. Did you see Cyclone ?
The Jalopy Journal
