The 51st Cincinnati Cavalcade of Customs - Survivors Alley

January 24, 2011

By Joshua Shaw

Eight years ago I was asked if I thought that rat rods and my type of cars would be accepted by the public at an indoor, turn table and mirrors, ISCA sanctioned show. My answer was, "only one way to find out." That first show was The 2003 Cincinnati Cavalcade of Customs, and we put four of "our cars" in a roped off area and piled tons of old rare speed equipment all around and on them. Well, the display was not only accepted, it was a mob scene! The entire weekend the crowd stood Four rows deep surrounding these "weird" cars. By the end of the weekend the ISCA show officials had pulled me into their offices and future plans were made for this new phenomenon. The next year I took four to six traditional hot rods and rat rods on tour to six different cities. I also went to Detroit, and with the help of Race Ruedisueli, Denis Scott and a few others we started the show within a show in the lower level that is now known as Detroit 1953 (Autorama Extreme).

While the public's fascination for traditional hot rods and rat rods has not changed, a few other things have since then. My area's do not require Carpet under the cars any more, or ropes to keep the people away. Also the amount of cars has grown tremendously! At our show in Cincinnati, my first four car area has now grown to an entire wing/corner of the show holding 70 cars, motorcycles and vintage race cars. I named it Survivors Alley, due to the large amount of unrestored race cars and hot rods we find every year to put on display.

This year (2011) was one of the best. I spent many hours on the phone, and searching collections to find "something for everyone." From tractors to Motorcycles, to Model T race cars, to COE haulers, to original untouched turn of the century vehicles, whatever you were into was represented. Another aspect of this year's group of "survivors" is that the majority of the cars are owned, or were built by guys under the age of 35. It was important to me to show people that the history that has been made, and preserved by hot rodders and racers of the past is not going to fade away.

Now its 2011 and almost every Indoor car show has a section for traditional hot rods and rat rods. Whether it's your kind of thing or not, at least take time to realize. Your shinny show car might just end up being drug out of storage one day with years of patina and dust on it only to be marveled at in a section with other survivors. One can only hope so.