Hotrod Capitol?

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A Atwood
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Hotrod Capitol?

Post by A Atwood »

What town in the 48 states (sorry, I just don't know much of the rest of the world) do you feel is the hotrod capitol? Like most hotrods per capita? Or has the most/best car shows? Most cruising around?
I know Somerset KY has a parade of cars like one sat of every month at least half a year. Things like that. I like where I live, and I have National Trail raceway 10 miles from me. But it just doesn't seem like there is enough muscle car "heart" around here. We do have a very large Good Guys show in the summertime in Columbus, and that is cool. But I sure would like to see more hot cars cruising around in the evenings on a regular basis.

Tell me about your town.

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noice
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by noice »

I feel like I don't live in a good hotrod area, but you would be surprised what people in your town are working on. Working in a machine shop you get to see all the different people doing things throughout your area. One side of town has a Top Alcohol Funny Car, another a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car, others doing all original 55 chevy rebuilds, and one old guy doing a car that is so old it has a tiller to steer.

It seems the cars that don't really interest me are all at the car shows.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by engineguyBill »

In my opinion, Los Angeles and surrounding cities are still the hotbed for hot rod action. After all it all pretty much started there. Also notable is Detroit in August when the Woodward Avenue Cruise draws as many as 10,000 hot rods. Then there is Hot August Nights in Reno, NV. I don't think is would be possible to pinpoint a particular city or area as the "Capitol" though.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by Krooser »

I was a member of the Minnesota Street Rod Association for several years. I remember one member telling me that the small town of Forest lake, Mn had the largest per capita population of hot rods and collector cars in the world… something like 1 car for every 15 residents.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by Barry_R »

Detroit has a pretty solid shot at this - the car industry here brings in a huge population of car oriented folks that have hobby cars.
You'd be stunned to find out how many of the California based (and other) performance products are actually made in Michigan.

Maybe the best clue as to the retail epicenter of the hobby is the location of the largest distributors of parts. Summit and Jegs are in Ohio, Motor State is in Michigan, VSI in the corner of Indiana in between Michigan and Illinois, Nickels in Tennesee. Most of the large distribution coming out of the Midwest/Great Lakes region is not an "accident" - they did not move there - they grew there. Its where the highest concentration of customers are.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by ijames »

Near Baltimore, MD there are at least six or seven weekly get togethers where cars gather and park all through the summer. They aren't shows where trophies are handed out, just people out to look and be seen. Some for hot rods, some for muscle cars, some for vettes, etc. Had a friend who would tell his wife he was going to the "Church of the Doughnut" Sunday mornings when he took his 40 Chevy to the one in front of a Dunkin Doughnuts in the parking lot of a small mall :-). We also have five dragstrips (well, four if 75-80 has finally closed for good to put in townhouses, sigh) within 75 miles of here.
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A Atwood
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by A Atwood »

ijames wrote:Near Baltimore, MD there are at least six or seven weekly get togethers where cars gather and park all through the summer. They aren't shows where trophies are handed out, just people out to look and be seen. Some for hot rods, some for muscle cars, some for vettes, etc. Had a friend who would tell his wife he was going to the "Church of the Doughnut" Sunday mornings when he took his 40 Chevy to the one in front of a Dunkin Doughnuts in the parking lot of a small mall :-). We also have five dragstrips (well, four if 75-80 has finally closed for good to put in townhouses, sigh) within 75 miles of here.
That sounds really cool!

Anyone live near Somerset KY and can tell more about what they do there?

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noice
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by noice »

A Atwood wrote:
ijames wrote:Near Baltimore, MD there are at least six or seven weekly get togethers where cars gather and park all through the summer. They aren't shows where trophies are handed out, just people out to look and be seen. Some for hot rods, some for muscle cars, some for vettes, etc. Had a friend who would tell his wife he was going to the "Church of the Doughnut" Sunday mornings when he took his 40 Chevy to the one in front of a Dunkin Doughnuts in the parking lot of a small mall :-). We also have five dragstrips (well, four if 75-80 has finally closed for good to put in townhouses, sigh) within 75 miles of here.
That sounds really cool!

Anyone live near Somerset KY and can tell more about what they do there?

ARN
You are about 2 hours from Bowling Green, KY. Drag week was there this year, as is LSX Shootouts and NHRA events. Plus it is a nice track when they feel like prepping it.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by john hennessy »

so-cal is dead now, every aspiring person with enough money to build or have built a hot rod has left for arizona, nevada or oregon.

speed shops are gone due to the internet.

you can't just go down to the junk yard and pick up a rust free 60's car anymore all that's there are hondas, toyotas and hundia and they get crushed regularly as the steel is needed in china.

the racing fraturnity have moved to indiana.

most hotrods are ordered from a catalogue and to be honest are becomming cookie cutter cars even as far as the paint, Mike Levally flames, sorry "real fire" is on everything and if you don't have a "Hiets front end", "Foose Wheels" an "LS motor" and aftermarket EFI, well why did you bother building it.

just try and find someone to make some chrome reversed rims out of old wheels, no you are supposed to have one off custom 22's now.

there are a few holdouts with nitch markets such as H&H who do the flathead stuff and guys doing the ratrod/rockabilly thing but thats about it.

have you been to SEMA lately, wheels and carbon, sand buggies and late model compact parts, sure they have a muscle car on a few stands but nothing that interests me.

i went to the rockabilly weekend in vegas, trailer queens and old iron straight out of the junk yard, sorry "vintage iron", was all that was there, nothing that was a truely hand built hotrod like it used to be.

sad really, but time marches on.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by ijames »

noice wrote:You are about 2 hours from Bowling Green, KY. Drag week was there this year, as is LSX Shootouts and NHRA events. Plus it is a nice track when they feel like prepping it.
If you like Buicks, both turbo v6 and 60's v8's, Ohio is the place to be. The two biggest meets each year are at Bowling Green, KY for the GSCA Nationals and Newark, OH (where you are :-)) for the BPG Nationals, plus a couple more smaller events at Norwalk and another track.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by 6sally6 »

Went to a "car-show/cruise-in "just out side of Dallas a few years back. EVERY Wed. night they have several hundred street rods...muscle cars...trucks...drag cars gathered there.You know......everything is bigger in Texas but....lotta-nice-carz-there!
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by A Atwood »

noice wrote:
A Atwood wrote:
ijames wrote:Near Baltimore, MD there are at least six or seven weekly get togethers where cars gather and park all through the summer. They aren't shows where trophies are handed out, just people out to look and be seen. Some for hot rods, some for muscle cars, some for vettes, etc. Had a friend who would tell his wife he was going to the "Church of the Doughnut" Sunday mornings when he took his 40 Chevy to the one in front of a Dunkin Doughnuts in the parking lot of a small mall :-). We also have five dragstrips (well, four if 75-80 has finally closed for good to put in townhouses, sigh) within 75 miles of here.
That sounds really cool!

Anyone live near Somerset KY and can tell more about what they do there?

ARN
You are about 2 hours from Bowling Green, KY. Drag week was there this year, as is LSX Shootouts and NHRA events. Plus it is a nice track when they feel like prepping it.
Well, myself, I live near Newark OH, about 10 miles east of National trail raceway. Pretty cool, when they have some bad azz cars at the track, I can hear the rumble if the weather is right.

The best cruising I get to see, is when the Mopar nats come in to town. Two great evenings of cars cruising on SR79 in Heath OH, 10 min from my house. Not only the Mopars, but all the heavy meatal in the area comes out for the cruise.

As for Bowling Green KY, I've never been to that track yet. But it is interesting that you bring that up. Next sept. will once again be Hot Rod drag week. I am currently in the process of building a '70 Z28 from the ground up. It is now finally at the paint shop, but has quiet a bit of work left in it. I am really hoping to make next yeays event (although unfortunately doubt I can enter until 2015, but still plan to go). From day one of this car, it has been purpose built specifically for the drag week in mind. I have designed the car to enter in to the pro street, wide tire, stock front chassis, back half, naturally aspirated class (building a 632 pump gas engine designed to handle the bruital 1200 mile trek that comes with it). If any of you have tricks as how to get in to the event, please PM me.

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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by rfoll »

I have noticed the hot rod activity take a steep dive when the economy tanked. Portland International Raceway runs brackets on Wed nights along with late night drags Friday and Saturday. Beaches cruise in is part of one of the weekly events at the track coinciding with the racing. The weekend stuff used to see as many as 300 cars each night, racing until 1:00.am. Attendance is now down to about 50 cars and closes down at 10:00. Gas at $4.00 + per gallon keeps a lot of cars in the garage.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by utahvette »

Here in the Salt Lake City area (Wasatch Front) we have what I consider a very active Car Culture, Typically , from April to October we have three or more Cruise Nights a week with 100 or so cars in attendance at each, With a DJ spinning tunes and awards or door prizes of some sort, and a Car show every week end with 3-400 cars showing up.Some big shows on the 4th of July In Logan ,and one in September in Brigham City will have nearly 1000 cars.We have Rockey Mountain Raceway Drag strip and circle track 10 minutes from down town and the Miller Motorsports Park Road race course 30 minutes away. And there are the Bonneville Salt Flats 2 hours away. And of course the Autorama Car Show in March. You can check out last years Calender and coverage of some events here
http://www.thanks2frank.com/car%20show% ... 02009.html Considering the conservative nature of this state , I think we have a lot of interest in cars here.
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Re: Hotrod Capitol?

Post by 1989TransAm »

Orange County, California is not to bad. I can sit in a restaurant in the city of Orange for lunch and we always see a minimum of one hot rod or classic car go by. Never fails. Then we have the direlict donut meet every Saturday morning at a donut shop in Huntington Beach. There is still hotrod activity going on. In my housing tract alone I bet there are 8-10 classic cars that I am aware of. Actually more than that now that I think of it. I can think of 5 cars up and down the street I live on.
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