You do something enough times and it will eventually become a habit. Now, habits can be good or bad, but we would like to think packing up the first of August and heading to Louisville, Kentucky, for the National Street Rod Association Street Rod Nationals is as good a habit as there is, at least for street rodders.
This summer's event was everything we have come to expect, with a few extra highlights. The new wing of the Kentucky Exposition Center exhibit hall that has been under construction for the past two years was completed. The building is state-of-the-art, and on a hot day there is nothing like the extremely well functioning air conditioning the giant exhibit hall has to offer. The total square footage of the Kentucky Exposition Center is 500,000, give or take a foot, and this year's addition accounted for 166,500 sq. ft. One immediate advantage of the greatly increased square footage was the larger isles, making it very easy to get about even during the hours that see the most hectic indoor crowds. To this, the NSRA reports 337 exhibitors both inside and out, and you can add 11,664 registered entrants making this, we believe, the sixth largest Nationals of all time. (The Nationals are slatted to remain in Louisville until 2010, after that no one knows, but our question is, why move?)
One of the great ways to see the outdoor portion of the Nats is to jump aboard one of the trams that ran continuously during the peak hours of all four days. (Of course, you would just know I could never find an empty seat to enjoy the tour myself. Oh well, maybe next year.-B.B.) That brings us to what the first timer (if there is such a thing) does when he or she arrives at the Nats. While there are literally non-stop events to take in, there were a few that are must sees for everyone, no matter how many times you have been to the Nats.
For the first time, this year there was the Builder's Showcase exhibit. Many of the top flight builders in our industry had great examples of their work on hand, with many of the cars having appeared in virtually every car magazine you can think of. You name the award and one of the cars present has taken it home. If you ever wanted to look at a number of top flight cars to get ideas or find out how "the big boys" do it, this was the place to be. Builders who had their handiwork present were: Boesch's Auto Body, Don's Hot Rods, Fast Lane Rod Shop, Greening Auto Company, Hercules Motor Car Company, Hot Rod Haven, Johnson's Hot Rod Shop, Legens Hot Rod Shop, Lobeck's V8 Shop, POSIES' Rods and Customs, Rad Rides by Troy, Roy Brizio Street Rods, Steve's Auto Restoration, Street Rods by Michael, and T&T Customs.
Seminars are another staple of the Nats and have always been well-received and many a rodder has availed himself of the timely and worthwhile info made available from the pros. Companies that held seminars were PPG on Problems with Paint, Hot Rod Air on Air Conditioning and Heating, LizardSkin Ceramic Insulation on Interior Insulation, Haywire on Electrical Trouble Shooting, Coker Tire on Nostalgic Bias-Ply and Radial Tire, Air Ride Technologies on Air Ride Suspension, MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust on Exhaust, and Fluidampr on The Indivisible Enemy (engine harmonics). While there are numerous reasons why one should go to the Nats, the seminars are reason enough for the at-home builder.
The swap meet-any rodder's little slice of heaven on earth. There isn't (or shouldn't be) a rodder who hasn't spent hours perusing swap meets back home, looking for just the right accessory or irreplaceable component. This years swap meet was everything and more as there was plenty to look over and a noticeable jump in post-'49 building material. Once again, the swap meet was a great place to hang out.
The new product section is another hit with rodders in attendance. (Look at this month's Window Shopper section has we highlight 20 of these products.) There are three price point categories and a NSRA Safety Award that garner a great deal of attention. In Group A (up to $100), the mirrors with turn signals presented by Southern Rods & Parts of Greer, North Carolina, took home the honors. In Group B ($101 to $500), the stainless steel ram horn exhaust system from Speedway Motors of Lincoln, Nebraska, was the winner. In Group C ($501 and up), it was the steel 1932 Ford three-window coupe, which is an incredible piece of engineering. (The PPG / Street Rodder 2007 Road Tour will be based on one of these bodies.) Drum roll please, the winner of the NSRA Safety Award went to Lokar Performance Products for its oval billet taillights. You have to see them in action to appreciate just how bright they are. An ideal addition to any street rod, especially where the car's visibility is of importance. Here are some tidbits on the new product section provided to us by Joe Mayall of StreetScene, we thought you would get a kick out of them: The first NSRA product of the year award went to Gary McLean Enterprises for the Kelsey-Hayes wire wheel in 1978; the new product competition is in its 29th year; there have been 22 companies that have been repeat winners; the safety award was added in 1985 and won by Ron Francis Wire Works; Carolina Custom has won a record 7 new product awards; the new product section was expanded to include three categories in 1981; and possibly the most important bit of information is, over the past 28 years, 3,444 products have been introduced to our hobby in the new product section. Now that's impressive!