38th Annual Street Rod Nationals

Arriving at the National Street Rod Association Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, is a great deal like waking up on Christmas morning. You know it's coming, you know where, you dream of presents to be given and received, yet with all this forearmed knowledge, the level of anticipation damn near kills you. The excitement of Christmas never fails. It is this very level of uncertainty that makes Christmas and the Nats the defining events they are.

This year, all things associated with the Nats came true once again. The Kentucky Exposition Center is an outstanding venue comprised of 500,000 square feet of well-air-conditioned convention center that housed 361 exhibitors and served as the focal point for 11,464 street rods (and rodders) to converge upon. (Next year, you can expect an additional 200,000 square feet of floor space, making the Nats exhibit area that much more impressive.)

Of course, it is the very size of the Nats that can be frustrating. If you think you are going to get around in four days and see all 11,000-plus cars, visit every booth, and enjoy what the city of Louisville has to offer, well, you are dreaming. It's true the exhibits are stationary and you can come and go easily, picking up where you left off. However, the frustration arises out of the very thing you want to see the most-the street rods. More often they resemble moving targets. Every year, the staff at Street Rodder gets together several times a day to report to each other what we have seen and where. It never fails; each of us will see a car or two that the rest have missed. And, of course, the car is no longer there when we go back to the location. But, that's the unknown present in the box come Christmas morning. The anticipation of something new, an emerging trend, a nugget to be had at the swap meet, the missing part for your street rod right there in the new products section, all of this is at your fingertips-you just need to be wide-eyed and full of energy because the Nats is all-consuming.

What did we see at the Nats, or, better yet, what did you see? Do any of us recognize an emerging trend or the latest car to build, popular color, and tire and wheel combo, that sort of thing? Throughout the following pages, we will take you around the Nats and give you some insight as to what was happening. Here's hoping you are sitting down and have some time to enjoy.

Surveying the Swap Meet
Even with huge numbers of cars, row after row of vendors, and everything else there is to see at the Street Rod Nationals, you haven't seen it all until you walk the aisles of the swap meet. Even if you don't need or want anything, it's always fun to just look.

Every year there is an eclectic collection, ranging from bits and pieces to complete cars. There are swappers who show up year after year; one in particular seems to have a talent for finding every brand of multiple carburetor manifold for almost every engine ever made along with a host of weird and wonderful speed equipment. Then there are those who decide to clean out their garages and get rid of extra parts; others haul in abandoned projects or bring cars that need to belong to someone else. The variety of "stuff" is always surprising, and just like every other swap meet, prices vary and bargaining is part of the process.

As has been the case for several years, anything to do with '32 Fords carried premium prices, but the supply was down noticeably this year. It also seems that the escalation in cost of anything Deuce is driving increased interest in Model As, and '33-and-later Fords, as well as other makes. Chevys are hotter than ever and so are Mopars, and of course there are those looking for orphan brands to really build something different. On the subject of non-Fords, the Louisville locale seems to be ideal for bringing them out; the swap meet always has a variety of cars and parts other than Fords, and many of them are of the big, luxurious variety.

While this NSRA event is pre-'49, there were a host of later-model cars and parts in the swap meet this year. Last year, it seemed like Chevys dominated the car category, but this time around it was more difficult to decipher, as shoebox Fords, a variety of Mopars, and even a Metropolitan were up for grabs.

Although the heat and humidity in Louisville during August can be a compelling argument for shopping for new parts inside the air-conditioned buildings, there's just something about looking at row and row of cars and parts that gets the creative juices flowing. The fact is, wandering through the swap meet is a treasure hunt of sorts-and you never know what you'll find until you go looking.