My wife and I have been attending the annual Turkey Run for a number of years. As Midwesterners, we would drive down to Daytona Beach, Florida, and get in a mini vacation and one last rod run before the Midwestern winter set in.
We have given up dealing with the cold North and are now residents of the Daytona Beach area. And yes, we have attended every Turkey Run since we set up house here. Held in the massive infield area of the Daytona International Speedway, the event just keeps getting bigger and better, and after all of these years, we still enjoy the excitement, the comradeship, the huge swap meet, and the vast array of rods and customs. After all, we are both motorheads, which was another reason we selected the Daytona Beach area as our home, not to mention the ocean and the warm weather.
The four-day event that ran from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday drew over 5,000 show car entrants, filled 1,100 car corral spaces, and had over 3,000 swap meet/vendor spaces. Add in the huge food midway, four sunny days with temperatures in the mid-70s, the "world's most famous beach," and a host of nighttime activities, and you had a perfect street rod gathering.
The Daytona Beach Street Rods handle the show car portion of the event and all entry fees and other profits go to local charities. The Daytona Beach Racing & Recreational Facilities District handles the swap meet, car corral, general admission, and parking with the proceeds used to support parks and other ecreational activities and facilities in the Daytona Beach area.
If you wish to park together as a club, the Daytona Beach Street Rods arrange club-parking areas, and will direct club members to those areas during the event. In addition, there is a 100-percent blacktop parking area for rodders who require handicapped parking, making the Turkey Run a rodder-friendly event.
While there were a great variety of street rods on hand, the trend seemed to be moving toward resto-rods and engines other than the mainstay Chevrolet small-block. We viewed a lot of rods with rubber running boards, cowl lights, door handles, bumpers, and wire wheels. In the engine compartments, we saw Nailheads, Hemis, and 409s. We even spotted a 4-71 Jimmy blower mounted on a Mopar Slant Six. There were '32 Fords of all styles and '32 Ford three-window coupes seemed to be more popular than ever.
In the swap meet area, along with the usual array of goodies, we noticed a fair amount of real steel bodies and parts. The prices were real, as well, but then real steel is getting really hard to come by. Traditional parts like '40 Ford brakes, straight axle frontends, split wishbones, etc., were plentiful, and reasonably priced.
If you are looking for a great beach, a lot of fellow street rodders, a gigantic swap meet, a huge car corral, and a great time, pencil in Thanksgiving 2006 on your calendar.
(Editor's Note: You can get more information on this year's upcoming event by visiting www.turkeyrun.com)