Carps' 2015 USA Hot Rod Vacation

[Carps]

We spent Sunday morning wandering around and shooting the breeze with our buddies before heading to the stage zone for the award winners drive by.  So here in no particular order are the award recipients!

Muscle cars are a big part of any Goodguys show, which is one of the reasons I've always enjoyed this event at Pleasanton, so I'll start with them.  And Muscle cars don't come any more muscly than a matching numbers 100% original Hemi and four speed Challenger on original Polyglass rubber and rally wheels.



Unless it's a Mustang Mach One.



Chevy Novas featured heavily in the muscle car awards.



As too did Chevelles, there's a message in that license plate for someone.



I'm thinking this is one of my favourites, it's a Plymouth Valiant based Barracuda fastback.
And under that hood scoop are a pair of giant Holley carb's feeding a 426 Race Hemi attached to a four speed gearbox.



And another cool license plate.



Another tough Chevelle with a message.



And of course there's always going to be at least one Camaro in the muscle car awards ceremony.





In fact there was more than one.



I reckon there must been at least three!



And a couple of Novas, but I think I already mentioned that.





Pontiac GTO is definitely a Muscle Car.



You may not consider this Ford Galaxie Hardtop a muscle car, but the badge in the middle of the rear panel proclaiming it's powered by a 7 litre engine, says it definitely qualifies.



Last but definitely not least, I reckon this pommy kitten fits because it was a pretty strong performer as it was built and with a nasty 454 big block under the hood, nobody is going to kick sand in it's face at Muscle beach.



And now to the commercial vehicles, pick-up trucks and Yoots, starting with a super slick candy red '55 Chevy pickup.



Among the trucks this was definitely my favourite, even if I don't fit neatly enough inside it to be able to consider owing one like it.



This one has more room behind the wheel.



This one has a pretty owner.  And yes boys, her dad gives her all the credit for it's construction, body and paint finish.



Don't see many of these GMC trucks modified like this.



Sixty one Chevy El Camino is a classy looking thing.



The gal handing out the gold, is Bill Burnham's granddaughter, a third generation hot rodder.



Here's what a rat rod looks like with smooth panels and shiny paint, cool!



Pale blue always looks great on a '56 Henry F100.



There's even an award for stockers.



And the Chevelle also get a look in at the truck prizes.



The owner of this one wanted a traditional boot but liked the pick-up cab styling, so they just lopped the top of a suburban and voila!



Chevy C10 flare side is not so common as a step side.



Late forties Chevy step side is customised in the modern style.



'37 Chevy was even classier.



Dunno for sure if they are commercial vehicles but there were a couple of familyy wagons that took home some gold, so I'm gonna plug 'em here with the heavy haulers.



Pink Plymouth is another unlikely candidate in the cool stakes.



And last but definitely not least, the grandaddy of all the commercial award winners so big it doesn't fit inside the camera and yet it was the most photographed vehicle of the weekend.  Driven all the way from Canadia, hauling a matching 35 foot long trailer and powered by the lumpiest sounding big block V8 this side of a Bonneville race prepped Diesel...............



This thing is just so much more awesome in the metal it's difficult to describe.

[Carps]

And to close out the award ceremony, we have the Kustoms, fifties classics and pre 1948 hawt rods, starting with a heavily rested '33 or '35 Chevrolet road-duster.



You knew there was gonna be at least one 1932 Ford Roadster in this bunch.



Betcha didn't figure on a forty eight Ford Tudoor Ceedan?



OK, so there was more than one deuce roadster.



There's something about a red and white '55 Crown Vic that just oozes cool.



However, this '59 Buick had a whole bunch more of it.



Ok so there were quite a few Deuce roadster given awards.



I think this '33 Ford got the gong for candiest red paint.......



....and fatties rubber on a street rod.



Black fordy coupes always look good enough to win prizes.



Same goes for '35/6 three windah coops.



Old inkun has been in the same family since it was a new *.



Model 40 Ford roadster look good from any andle.



Even when they are fitted with fat fenders from the next model year.



Custom Chevy was pearl white with green flaked roof that sparkled in the sunlight.



'55 Chevy is one tough street machine.



Wood is just good!



One of the classiest chopped Merc's I ever saw.



Mild kustom '36 Ford is also a class act.



Subtle too, can you pick all the changes?



This one was at our motel, got the hard luck award for losing all the wheel =caps on the long road trip.



Yeah it's a sporty car, but I hadda put it somewhere.



Yet another gorgeous for Tudor sedan.



T Coupe was built in the style of an old dirt track racer.



It's just about too cool for skoowul.



Yet another fine black forty Ford coupe.



I don't think John Mumford has ever tried a new trick that didn't work and his latest Deuce is a great example of Caddy style merged with an old Ford.



A great example of selling ice to eskimos, the Aussie body that had em all believing it was original steel.



Wow!  there was even a deuce coupe woman award.



Orv Elgie has been building stunning rods from mundane originals for as long as I can remember, this one is still wearing the paint applied in the Ford factory when it was built in 1940.  Orv does admit it took a whole bunch of elbow grease to make it look this good and if you look closely it does give up the fact it's original.



The car looks superb from every angle and yes, the upholstery is also factory original, all Orv did aside from polishing it up was update it to modern hot rod mechanicals.



Flames don't always work so well on a Merc custom.



Did I mention there ere a few deuce roadsters earned awards?



I think this one might just be a model A, on deuce rails.



This one is a badass Willys.



And this deuce was driven home by the bloke who's lucky raffle ticket was pulled from the barrel, to say he was well pleased would be an understatement.



And the final official Pleasanton award goes to the car that has more of 'it' than any other that was given a gong.

[Carps]

Across the weekend Goodguys award selectors hand out certificates to the cars that will be in the parade of winners on Sunday.  

However, we reckon the judges are nancies and stuck with too many safe choices.  So we decided to choose our own winners, figuring the owners would be chuffed as it's tougher to get our prize than than a Goodguys award.  So without further ado, here's my top 20 cars of Pleasanton 2015, in no particular order but starting with the biggest and this twenty five foot long (without the trailer) '48 Chevy Cab-Over rig is about as big as a hot rod get.



The al steel bodywork is simply awesome as is the sound from the huge exhaust outlets integrated centrally into the rear pan.  It sounds a whole lot like the Salt Lake Racing Phoenix, a Diesel Truck which used a fat cammed Allison V12 with four huge turbos to run over 300mph at Bonneville.  However, quite a few folks said it was a mountain sized petrol V8, so I don't know anything more than it sounds totally evil, in a nice kinda way.



And the really good bit, it has matching trailer kitted out as a luxury home away from home, which it towed all the way from one of the more remote parts of Canada.  Look closely and you'll see the trailer hitch receptacle in the rear body work.



Now I'm pretty confident the last thing any of you would expect to see on my top ten cars list would be a Datsun, but there's two of 'em on this one.  The first is made for going very fast around a road racing circuit or rural mountain road.



It has a full tube frame and roll cage, along with what appears to be a V8 Supercar drivetrain, although the sequentially shifted double clutch six speed manual transmission is probably a bit advanced for our racing taxi cabs.



The various elements and parts are all so neatly integrated and well put together it can't be ignored.



The other one is made for going quick and fast in a straight line.



It too has a V8, but this time it isn't hidden under the hood, simply because its so big it kinda hangs outta the hole a little.  It's the basic engine is what the locals refer to as a 'Mountain Motor' and it's kitted out more like a top fuel dragster than a pro street car where those engines are usually used.



And there is no question how much horse pressure it makes, because not only can it be heard a mile away, you can feel it sucking air in and pushing it out like a monster sized bass reflex speaker rolling down the road.  In fact, look closely at the concrete roadway below the side of the car and you can actually see it lowing the shadow out of the picture.



On a more subtle note, this Model A Tub just rings all the right bells.



As too did this 1936 termite house, which just oozes class and good taste..........



........which applies from every angle.



And I mean every angle.



As you'd expect, there's more than one wooden car on my list and this one was my third favourite.
If the price wasn't so high, I may have considered overlooking the crappy exchange rate but I'm not sure I'm ready for a $250,000 plus car, even if it is made mostly of wood.



Whilst were looking at 1940 Fords, this convertible is a bit like the black '33 coupe at Louisville, it seems I couldn't walk past it without shooting a photograph.



Clean and simple, there's no denying it has taken the top chop perfectly and is one class act.



No matter from which perspective it's viewed, it's * near perfect.



Despite being the last one to be revealed to you, my first choice among the wooden wagons is this 1937 model.



Once again it wins by virtue off simplicity, colour and stance, and black is the last colour I'd ever think to paint a woody.



Here's another station wagon that despite it's bland and boxy styling appears to be gaining in popularity.  Once upon a time something that no self respecting rodder or customiser would have considered worth a second glance, let alone any effort to make it roadworthy.



Just goes to prove, you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, just takes the right colour, stance and wheels, nothing more, nothing less.



And if you need more convincing, here's another from the same stable.





It's a given that Don's Deuce Roadster and Ron's '40 coupe are automatically on my list of favourites, but there was one other Deuce that makes it, not because of rarity, but that simplicity thing again.  Not only does it have the three critical elements, it has all of it's original equipment in place and that makes a rare car even more special.



It uses two but who'd ever have thought that even one shade of grey would work on a hot rod?  But work it does and boy does it work well on this car!



Tri-Five Chevy's are a bit like Deuces, it's hard to come up with something totally fresh and unique that will make one stand out from the rest of the same genre.  But here's a Fifty Six that does that and without any really radical changes.



Once again, it's that colour, stance, wheels and workmanship or attention to detail thing that sets this car apart from the rest.  Even the continental kit looks like it's grew there.



Whilst the Chevy is subtle, sometimes subtlety is wasted, as it would be if customising a Rolls Royce, that's why this one is here, it's the antithesis of subtle!



This is the car I want to drive to the Melbourne Cup and park on the rose garden lawn with all the toff's Rollers.



There was a second 1940 Ford it seems I couldn't walk past without shooting another photograph and this one being a lowly two door sedan, also seems to be a most unlikely candidate.



But it just talked to me every time I went near and I love a car that does that.



Sometimes, in order to make a statement, you gotta go beyond subtle, almost to sublime, like this little Dak-Dak.



It's so hard to pick what's different that the owner even had to add a label so passers by, would be able to know what had been modified.



But then sometimes, all is not always as it appears and that's what I love about this innocent looking little car.



How do you spank anything running a 426 Chrysler Hemi, or any other brand big blocks?  Why use a 426 Chrysler Max Wedge of course!  Can you say 'SLEEPER!"



Now at this point I know you're wondering how come there's no model 40 Ford on Carp's list of favourites?  Well there's actually three of them, staring with this high class fully fendered road-duster.



The one with '35 fenders was spectacular, but this one takes it to a whole other level.



It's just filled with small and subtle details, like this.



It's no less cool when viewed from other end.



The other two Model 40s on my list are coupes of the three window variety, starting with this radically traditional bit totally modern car, that doesn't get muddled up with parts from differing eras all becoming confused as to what the finished machine is meant to be.  Everything here fits together seamlessly and integrates to deliver the goods, it's all pure hot rod!



The office looks like a nice place to go about the business of driving for pleasure.



Some blokes just know how to collect and assemble an eclectic mix of parts into something special.



Gorgeous as the preceding pair are, this is the Model 40 I'd bring home and the final car on my list.



Pretty much the standard for this style of car, this one just clicks.  It's possibly once again in the attention to detail.





Whatever 'it' is, and I dunno for sure what that is, but what I do know is this puppy has it and it just makes my heart beat a little faster every time I look at it.

[Carps]

Pleasanton over and done with, we hit the road for downtown Tulare in Central California and the home of Don's Highway 99 Hot Rods.  It was a pretty easy trip despite the heavier than usual traffic along interstate 99.





You may recall the Poncho GTO that was fresh from the paint shop last August, it's coming along slowly and is starting to look like a car again.  The paint has settled down nicely and was recently given a final cut and buff before the chrome and stainless installation was commenced.



It's going to look great with polished billet wheels and cream interior.



Tony's Convertible now has the foundation for it's fabric covered top.  However, the guys didn't like a few things about it, so like the perfectionists they are, it is to be reworked to make it look even better.



It's all good around back, the tape line on the body showing where the fabric will be attached to the car's bodywork.



I hung around with Don for a couple of days then headed g back to L.A. with a day or so to unwind before it was time to head across the Pacific and back to reality.

It's been years since I last visited Disneyland and a lot has changed.  However, it was my bride's plan that she would join me and we would do it again this year, so I did.  Here's some of the automobile related stuff at the park that I think most hot rodders would appreciate.

Disney have recreated the town of Radiator Springs in perfect three dimensional reality.  This place makes it worth the price of admission on its own!



It's all here, from Flo's V8 Diner.......







....Casa De Tire.......



........Ramone's Kustom Emporium.....



.......Sarge's place................



.............the Town Hall and Court House...........



Yup, that's lightning Mc Queen heading out for a cruise around town.



Meanwhile Mater holds court on the Cozy Cone Motel driveway.





The kids can even play with the heard........



.....and grown ups can drive fast around the valley, remembering to steer right to turn left.



Yup, Disneyland never was meant just for kids, it's for everybody young or old.





And then I went home.   :cry:

[Mac]

Thanks Carps for the extensive, and I'll say magazine quality pics and commentary, travelogue !

[idrivejunk]

Wow. Thanks for making the efforts to share all this.

[Carps]

It was my pleasure, but I guess you all already figured that out.  

   

Anybody know this car, the driver looks a bit grumpy.  



Seems he abandoned it once inside the fairgrounds, sat here all day long with nobody around it.  I guess the old guy was off having way too much fun elsewhere, that's kinda how it is at the NSRA NAT's.  So much to see and do, so menay folks to catch up with and so many stories to be told etc. it's almost impossible to find folks, but when you stop searching for them, they usually turn up.

[kb426]

Holy Moly! That was great. Thank you.