63rd Grand National Roadster Show

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the world who is into hot rodding who doesn’t know about the GNRS, as the event showcases the very best of the best when it comes to rods and customs. Part of the passion for the show comes from the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award, handed out yearly since 1950 to a pre-’38 roadster of exceedingly exceptional build and design characteristics. The method of judging for the AMBR award drastically changed last year in comparison to years past, and the result has been enthusiastically accepted by the show’s spectators.

Eight large buildings at the facility are packed with cars, with some of the buildings themed to a particular facet of hot rodding. The Suede Palace, or Building 10, is not only full of traditional and lowbrow customs and hot rods, but it is also lined with lifestyle booths catering to that crowd.

Building 9 was filled with only ’32 Fords and was part of the 80 Driven Deuces display organized by Bob Kolmos in honor of the 80th anniversary of the ’32 Ford.

Building 3 is smaller than the others, and sometimes overlooked due to its location, but it was full of historic and vintage Gassers, dragsters, and race cars that ran at local Southern California dragstrips, including Lions. In Building 5 customs dominated the landscape and it’s where you found cars built by Watson, Dore, Zocchi, and D’Agostino. Buildings 7 and 8 are chock full of rods and customs from all over the country, including those of some major rock ’n’ roll (such as Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters) and television stars (Tim Allen).

Michael Stanford, STREET RODDER’s art director, reported on the PPG Pinstriper Charity Auction, which was run by Art “East Coast Artie” Schilling. Stanford said Schilling’s crew of about 40 stripers included such top shelf artists as Tom Kelly, Ron Foreman, and Ron Myers from the West and Howie Nisgor and Zeke Lemanski from the East, as well as guys from as far away as France, who all donated their panels and 100 percent of their work for the auction. After famed blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan played around on a pinstriped Fender Stratocaster guitar for the crowd, it was auctioned off for $9,000. In total, the auction raised $88,500, which benefitted the Gavin Stevens Foundation, seeking a cure for a childhood blindness condition.

One of the main draws of the GNRS is, of course, the cars selected to compete in the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster class, and they are presented front and center in Building 4. This year’s competition was first rate (as you’d expect), but also many of the cars were more traditional than some of the outrageous designs of past years. In one corner Hayden Groendyke’s chocolate brown ’31 Marmon roadster, with a tricked-out V-16 engine was in the lineup as was Don Smith’s aero-inspired ’32 Ford roadster with an even rarer Riley overhead-valve conversion for power. Larry Reynold’s Flathead-powered roadster was a satin black with a green lift-off roof ’28 Ford that featured an amazing interior with lots of exposed curved wood on the floor, door panels, and seats, while Dennis Varni’s emerald blue ’33 Ford roadster appears quite elegant before you notice a Hilborn-injected, 8:71-blown Donovan small-block lurking underhood. Another ’33, this one owned by Steve Lyman, brought brilliant color to the show with its merlot paintjob while underhood was a injected 427 Ford motor.