Event Coverage Your Most Memorable Hot Rod Event

1978 Street Rod Nationals, Columbus. My Wife and I and our 2 kids, ages 6 & 3 in our chopped deuce 3w. We left Pittsburgh and took I 70 west. I started to worry this was going to be a bust when we didn't see any rods on 70. When we pulled into registration and saw all the cars, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

 

Three events - multiple times:
- Jalopyrama [Number 14 this October]
- Jalopy Showdown in Lattimore, Pa
- The Rodder's Journal Revivals.

Thinking a bit more about it, all of these events had a driving component and that what I like to do most of all. Hit the country roads around here and add to my 'Thumbs Up' collection.

 

Del Mar 2014. Met a guy from California at Deuce Days Victoria in 2013 and we hit it off. The next year when I took my family to the "house of mouse" I made sure to have a spare day and so while the family went shopping he picked me up from the hotel in his fenderless deuce roadster and we cruised to Goodguys Del Mar. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven cruising around southern California in a 32 roadster and I've never been to a show with so many cars. Going to sound a little "hickish" but around here with the exception of the father's day show at Qualicum beach and Victoria's deuce days a good show it a couple hundred cars. My wife and kids shopping spree made it the most expensive car show I've ever been to and I went home happy, tired and sun burnt but I'm sure when I'm old and mumbling to myself in the care home I'll be talking about that day.

 

Every Jalopyrama has been great, but I think my most memorable event so far was the last Revival at Pimlico when I was accompanied by my daughter during her Senior Year of high school.

 

1982 AHRA World Finals in Spokane, WA. I was a Junior in High School and worked the gate for 3 days checking patron coolers to make sure they weren't smuggling alcohol. All I remember was that it was blazing hot (90 f) and there were wall-to-wall cute girls wearing half shirts and short shorts. Easy money for 3 days of work. Garlits won Top Fuel, McEwen won Funny Car (Snake got 4th), and Aronson won Pro Stock. Glad I got to see those guys in their prime! Here's a Super 8mm video from the same event (previous year)...

 

My most memorable event was at a fathers day show and shine with my son, when he was about six. He was absolutely enamored with a 58 Vette. Black with red interior, multiple carb set up. The fellow that owned it asked him if he'd like to sit in it. It totally made our day. My boy grinning ear to ear, just sitting in the drivers seat. Lost those pics when my computer died. the memory though just makes me smile.

 

I started going to races and car shows before I can remember. It would be hard to say which one is more memorable than any other.

A couple just off the top of my head are one weekend @ a drag strip in Norcal my ol man pulled the crippled card and talked the track officials into letting him ride me down the track on his lap. I don't know how old I was but I was still in braces.

Another was at a car show in the Cow Palace, Mr. Roth gave me a t shirt, talked me into asking a guy about his hemi (it was a flathead and I knew it sadly the car owner didn't) and knocked a guy out in the parking lot.

But I don't have pics so I suppose it didn't happen.

 

The greatest run for me was Lodi California. just south of Sacramento in '75. It was the west coast nationals at the time.
We were four cars coming down together, camping each night, three '46 to 48 Ford coupes and a fenderless T touring.
For me it was a big deal to see the cars and people that i had read about in the car mags for 15 years.
After the run, we went over to the coast and did the "tourist" deal all the way back up the coast home.
Went back the next year, but car problems ruined it for me.
Yakima Wash. became the next main spot to go to after that, and we did it till up till just a few years ago. Always enjoyed the trip down and back with our car friends.
What a long strange trip it's been!

 

For me, first Nats in Detroit, '72. Never saw so many hot rods in one place. We were there in dad's '34 3W during the day, and then on Saturday night, Gratiot Auto cruise in on Stephenson Hwy, in our '55 Nomad(my avatar). Next would be '75 Nats in Memphis, where we saw Elvis, as he was home at the time, and took a ride in Buttera's T sedan. Same year, the first time at Gatlinburg, was awesome for a teenager.

 

Don't know how to choose the L A Roadster Show or Bonneville!

 

.............Enjoy the memories, Danny.....from the January 1975 Rod Action coverage.

 

The 1974 NSRA Nats East @ Timonium set the hook for me.

 

Still have my tag bracket from 1974.

 

Lodi Mini Nationals 1976. Lost the TH400 in my '32 at the entrance to the fairgrounds. Me and some friends swapped it out on the grass in the middle of the night. Got my one and only award - the Hard Luck Award.

 

NSRA Nats Louisville Kentucky, 1993. After being away from the car scene for many years I attended the Nats that had over 15,000 cars I said "why not". Shortly, there after I started building an SBC powered 37 Chevy coupe. Since then its been a balls to the wall hobby.

Gary

 

Coming home from the '76 Tulsa Nats. Just before leaving Florida my '41 Chevy engine took a dump. Buddy of mine says heck take my '40 coupe, I'm not going, and see if you can sell it. OK, so I'm being super careful with his Chevy and having a great time. We left Tulsa and got into real heavy rain storm on the interstate in Arkansas. I'm being as cautious as I can but the coupe with its wide oval fat tires decides to hydroplane and does a 360 all the way across the center grass median and stops sideways across both lanes of the west bound interstate - stalled. Thank God there was no one close. Got it fired up and pulled back into the median said a thank you prayer and changed our underware. I drive my roadster in the rain now but when my wife says time to pull over I listen.

Lee

 

Well I could never forget this one.
Our very own Gary Nussbaum, krylon32 built this beauty.
I was the
Very lucky one to win it at the NSRA nats.

 

2nd Street closed for this 29th annual car show.

Hello,

In a previous post I mentioned the three events from back in those early days of So Cal hot rodding. But, one of the other memorable events was the first time I took my wife to a closed street, hot rod show. We grew up together in college and in the Belmont Shore area. Her little apartment was steps to the beach and the bay. So, going to the 2nd Street area of Belmont Shore was almost a daily/weekly event.

Since the 29th annual 2018 Belmont Shore Car Show is coming up this year on Sept 9, 2018, it always brings back this first time walking around, looking at the hot rods parked on the closed street. We had been in and out of the area for years, but always like this street for shopping or just going to lunch or dinner at the myriad of great restaurants, including the famous, Domenico’s Pizza Parlor.

When it started, no one had closed a street off for a car show of this size. It was a good one and the lunch was superb. Hot rods in So Cal had a beach side area to go to during the end of the summer rush and it did not disappoint.

Jnaki

Of course, we cruised the old narrow streets to see our friend’s houses and also where she lived by the sand on the Peninsula. It certainly made us want to go back to those simple, carefree times of being 20 somethings. Not that being older, wiser and having a ball growing up together wasn’t fun… !
LAST YEAR 2017
The only problem we noticed was that a big change has taken place. It is no longer limited to a certain year or older, like the first 5 years of the show. This year, the limit is that cars be older than 20 years old. That is a “1998 classic”… oh oh…

“Times they are a changing…”

 

The 2005 L.A. Roadster Show. Growing up in New Jersey and reading about the LA Roadster Show in the pages of R&C since the '60's made it a show I always wanted to see. Eventually moved to SoCal after the military and attended as a spectator a few times. But once we finished our roadster in the spring of 2005, the show was a big item in the calendar. We left San Diego at O-dark-Thirty on Saturday morning and I can't describe the feeling we had driving into the that show in our own roadster.



We made it!

In 2006 we moved to Tennessee so we haven't been back, but that show will always be a special memory.

 

I was 16 when I first went to NY's Westhampton Drag Strip and became hooked on drag racing. Attached is the 36 Ford Drag Car we built as teenagers in my Grandpa's garage. It was originally flathead powered and later swapped to a 327. I'll never forget Grandpa saying "you kids are crazy, you spend hundreds of dollars to win a 59 cent trophy". I'm the skinny guy in the middle.

Gary

 

TOO COOL