street rods – Timing Tower

2017 WESTERN STREET ROD NATIONALS

admin — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 04:47:57 +0000

The 41st Western Street Rod Nationals, Bakersfield, CA, April 28-30, 2017. As the Western Nats enters its 5th decade it is truly amazing to see the changes that have occurred over the years. No longer is this a pre-49 street rod only show- now it not only includes cars from the fifties, sixties and seventies, but also offers a varied selection of name plates. Where else could you find an AMC Gremlin (humorously displaying Yenko racing graphics) and a pricey Kurtis roadster at the same event. This show continues to demonstrate that car folks are some of the most innovative and creative individuals around. Which is why the NSRA Western Nationals continues to be one of the best. The 41st Western Street Rod Nationals kicked off on Thursday evening, April 27 with the annual Welcome Back Bar B Que at Stramler Park. The bar b que is sponsored by the Bakersfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and offers a really good dinner. It’s worth coming to Bakersfield a day early just for the bar b que. This year 925 dinners were served. The Kern County Fairgrounds started filling up on Friday and by the end of the show 1,735 cars were on display – which is a few more than last year. The fairgrounds has plenty of room and parking is never a problem. Some of the nice cars at the fairgrounds are shown below. Friday morning a continental breakfast was hosted by the Selohssa Car Club. This is the 30th year the continental breakfast was held and along with coffee, 62 dozen donuts were given out – that’s a lot of donuts. And after breakfast there were more cars to see. All of the photos shown in this article are available on our SmugMug site and all photos are available for purchase on our SmugMug site. Safety Inspections performed by the NSRA Southwest Division Safety Representatives were available both Friday and Saturday. This is an invaluable service provided by NSRA to its members. The inspectors perform a 23-point inspection to ensure a vehicle is safe and road worthy. Below are the items a car must have to pass the inspection: Required Equipment Horn: Electric only. Speed Indicator: Speedometer or calibrated tachometer at 65 mph. Rear View Mirror: One inside or outside on driver’s side of vehicle. Glass: Must be safety plate, lexan, or tempered glass. Lighting: Hi-beam; low-beam; tail; brake; license. Windshield Wiper: Electric or vacuum operated. Automatic Transmission Lockout: Neutral and/or park start only. Tires: 3/32 tread acceptable. Must meet D.O.T. specifications. Steering No excessive “play” (2″ radius max.) or binding; system must be safely mounted. Throttle Linkage: Must not travel past center. Fuel System: Check Vent on Trunk and Interior Mounted Tanks; no clear, plastic lines allowed. No leaks. Exhaust System: No Leaks: Must pass rear edge of front door and exit exhaust away from vehicle. Self-aligning Rod End Bearings: Check for fractures, insert sloppiness or binding. Shock Absorbers: One per wheel, no leaks, 2″ travel in each direction. Brakes: Four-wheel brakes, no leaks, check brake pedal travel, no copper tubing, check length of flexible lines. Scrub Line: No steering, suspension or chassis components should be below this line. Recommended Equipment: May be reason for failure Windshield: Should be AS-1. Shift Pattern: Shift pattern should be visible except on three speed standard column shift. Fuel Lines: Should be safely mounted and routed. Parking Brake: Should be activated independent of vehicle’s hydraulic system. Self-aligning Rod End Bearings: Ball should have 1/8 inch spacer on each side of the ball if there is any misalignment. Rod ends should not have more than 10° misalignment. ROD ENDS and 4 BAR-PARALLEL RADIUS ROD SYSTEM rubber bushed ends should have a safety washer at least the same outside diameter as the housing or larger. Brake Lines: Should be safely mounted and routed. Chassis Fasteners: Self-locking nuts, lock-washers, safety wire, or cotter pins. For Your Safety Safety Equipment: Fire extinguisher in driver/passenger compartment, seat belts, a third brake light and a dual master cylinder. Safety inspectors can be seen hard at work below. The individuals performing the inspections donate a great deal of their time and talent to make sure everyone stays safe. This year at the Western Nats 140 inspections were performed, 127 cars passed and 119 passed the entire 23 point inspection. Since the safety program began countrywide 412,000 inspections have been completed. This year the Streets of Rods, held on Saturday, included categories for Flamin’ Freeway, Memory Lane, Camaro Court, and 29 Below. This special event is held in a grassy courtyard off the main entrance to the fairgrounds and is a nice area to look at the cars and talk to the owners. Being separated from the main fairgrounds, the courtyard offers a peaceful break from the activity outside its gates. Below are some of the cars in the Streets of Rods. Starting at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday the award winning cars gathered in the Circle of Winners. The winners remain in the circle until the awards ceremony providing a good opportunity to see some very spectacular vehicles. Most of the owners stick around with their vehicle so it’s also a good time to find out the name of that special paint color, who painted those flames, who sells a particular part, or to just stand and stare. Below are some of the cars from the winners circle. Every year timingtower.com is lucky enough to be able to select a car to receive a trophy. This year we chose a fantastic 1932 pick-up owned by John and Mary Booth. John has owned this pick-up since he was 14 years old. Once he was old enough to drive he took it to the first NSRA Western Nats which was held in Merced, CA. We’ll have more info […]

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40th ANNUAL WESTERN STREET ROD NATIONALS

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:07:30 +0000

WOW – 40 YEARS OLD!! IT WON’T BE LONG UNTIL THE WESTERN NATS IS AS OLD AS MANY OF THE CARS IN ATTENDANCE. Over the years the Kern County Fairground has proven to be a good home for the NSRA Western Nats with plenty of parking and plenty of cruising lanes. There was a lot to do at the Fairgrounds in Bakersfield over the week-end of April 29-May 1 – the Thursday night bar-b-que, the ladies’ tea (which hosted 135 participants), the quilt display, a free continental breakfast, Sunday church service, the swap meet, the vendors, Revell’s model car ‘make-and-take’, women’s world, the safety inspection and, of course, looking at 1,727 of the most creative, ingenious, innovative, not to mention, dazzling, splendid, and down-right gorgeous vehicles gathered together anywhere. The Street of Rods section this year had a section for 29 and below (29 refers to the age of the driver-not the car), fabulous forties (models between 1940-49), kustom korner (1936 or newer customs or lead sleds), and be-bop boulevard (Buicks, Olds, and Pontiacs). The photo below was in the 29 and below class. This photo is a line-up at the kustom korner. We saw a lot of nice cars this week-end, but one that caught our attention was a 1967 Mustang owned by Mike Payne of Bakersfield. This car was purchased new by Mike’s grandmother in Bakersfield. It has 137,000 miles on it, is all original and still looks good. In the late forties and early fifties Ford and Chevy were vying for the title of ‘best selling truck’. The photo below shows the Ford and Chevy trucks of the era. Sunday morning the 41 award winners gathered in the winners’ circle providing an opportunity for folks to get a good look at those cars selected by the judges. Awards are given by the Mayor of Bakersfield, the CHP, the NSRA Safety Reps and Division Reps, ISCA, and others. The slide shows below have photos of the winners. More photos from the award ceremony will be posted, along with the photos above, on our SmugMug site – All of the photos you see on this page, and more will also be on our SmugMug site. Timingtower.com also gives an award. This year Roy and Pamela Hawks’ 1948 Chevy Pick-up was chosen as the Timingtower.com pick. The custom and restoration work on this truck was performed by the Castro brothers at Ultra Car Care in Bakersfield. More about this terrific truck (shown below) can be found in the Feature Car section of this website. The long-distance award went to Robert Harmon who drove his 1939 Chevy from Newark, Ohio – 2,400 miles – photo below. Throughout the week-end, about $70,000 in prizes were given away, many of them through a drawing by Wings Kalahan. In addition, to playing tunes, Wings posted prize-winning numbers on a board at his trailer. The award and prize ceremony started at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. The winning prize numbers were expertly drawn by Kaiah and a lot of nice prizes were given away. The super prizes consisted of three $3,000 checks, and Jim Clendenning, Chuck Crawford and Marlow Klein each took home $3,000 – nice way to end the week-end. Below is Kaiah – ticket selector extraordinaire. The three super prize winners with Tom Wilkerson, the event director. After all the prizes were given away, the show was over. Mother Nature co-operated admirably and the week-end in Bakersfield couldn’t have been better. Next year the Western Nats will be held on April 28, 29 and 30. All of the photos in this article, and more, can be found on our SmugMug site Saturday started out cool and overcast, but by noon it was sunny and warm. As we expected, there were even more cars in the Fairgrounds today. The award winners have been selected and will be gathered in the winners’ circle tomorrow morning. Monday night we’ll have photos of the award winners including the timingtower.com pick. Below are but a few of the nice cars we saw today. Today, Friday, April 29, the Kern County Fairgrounds started filling with all types of specialty cars – hot rods, customs, classics, rat rods – as the 40th NSRA Western Street Rod Nationals got underway. We send Mike Chrispyn, the NSRA Event Director, our prayers and best wishes after the death of his wife, Laura. Laura’s smiling face at the registration desk will be missed. If the number of cars in attendance today is any indicator, tomorrow the Fairgrounds will be full. Below are some of the cars we saw today: We’ll post photos of more cars tomorrow. It’s hard to describe the spectacular sight that is the Kern County Fairgrounds this week-end. The show will continue until Sunday afternoon. It’s time for the Western Street Rod Nationals in Bakersfield. Check here for photos from the show on Friday and Saturday nights and on Monday evening for the full event coverage including photos from the awards ceremony. The Western Street Rod Nationals (“Nats”) will be held in the Kern County Fairgrounds on April 29, 30, and May 1, 2016. Event registrations will be at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield and starts on Thursday, April 28 at 1:00 pm and runs until 6:00 pm. Friday registration is from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday it’s from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. This show attracts about 2,000 of the finest vehicles anywhere.

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THE 37TH ANNUAL NSRA WESTERN STREET ROD NATIONALS+

admin — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:34:14 +0000

This week-end the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield was awash in color as 1,852 of the finest cars you will see anywhere were parked side-by-side and nose to tail. It seems that since NSRA changed to add younger cars to the line-up, the age of the participants has also become younger. This is a good sign for the hobby and we hope this trend continues. Registration started on Thursday and on Friday morning the cars started filling the Fairgrounds — and they just kept on coming. This is a show with something for everyone starting with the Thursday night welcome back BBQ hosted by the Bakersfield Visitors and Convention Bureau. Then — the men’s golf tournament, women’s golf tournament, games for the kids, shopping at Women’s World, ladies’ tea with a novelty hat contest, vehicle safety inspections, three tech seminars including those by RideTech on suspension and by FAST on carburetors versus fuel injection, Streets of Rods which included Drop Top Blvd. (open to all ’37 and newer ragtops), A Bone Alley (open to all Model A Fords), Prime Time Place (open to all cars in primer), a continental breakfast which served 69 dozen donuts, church service on Sunday morning with the Pacesetters Quartet singing gospel, Saturday afternoon and evening music by the Cruise Knights, food, ice cream and beer vendors, campgrounds from bus-size RV’s to teardrop trailers both restored and repops, a whole lot of vendors in two buildings and a long vendors’ row, and, of course, crusin’ all day and into the night. All the above doesn’t include the beautiful blue sunny skies provided by Mother Nature or the welcome shade trees scattered throughout the Fairgrounds. This show runs seamlessly from start to finish and we have event director Mike Chrispyn, NSRA and a host of volunteers to thank for a terrific week-end. Below are a few of the nice cars at the show. Friday and Saturday found the safety inspectors in the barn under cars. These guys give up their “fun” to look over every car brought to them. The inspections are free and the inspectors look at everything from the windshield wipers to the throttle linkage. This year 138 cars were inspected, 118 passed and 113 received the safety 23 sticker. Last year nationwide the NSRA safety inspectors inspected 14,856 cars and since 1980 when NSRA started keeping records, 366,000 cars have been inspected. This program demonstrates NSRAs commitment to safety and all the hours that these volunteers give to keep the rest of us safe and on the road is very much appreciated. This year the 1940 Willys Coupe of Dan Semchuk was picked to receive the timingtower.com award. This car raced in the early 1960’s but nearly met its end in 1966 when a clutch explosion ripped it apart. Dan bought it in 1966 and brought it back to life. You can see a feature on this car by clicking the tab “Featured Cars” above. All day, every day, Wings Callahan played the tunes and called the raffle numbers. Thousands of dollars of merchandise was given away throughout the week-end to those lucky enough to have their entry number called. Sunday morning starting at 10:00 a.m. all the award winners gathered in the winners’ circle. This provided a good opportunity to look over the cars and talk to the car owners. Some of the cars that were in the winners circle are shown here. At 2:00 p.m. the awards ceremony started. One by one the 38 trophy winners paraded past the grandstand to be presented with a trophy plaque. Another raffle followed the award presentation which culminated with the award of three $3,000 cash prizes. Below are three of the award winners. All award winners can be seen by clicking this SmugMug link http://timingtower.smugmug.com/ And by 3:15 p.m. it was all over. Another great week-end. The Western Nats will be back at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield on April 25, 26, and 27, 2014. UPDATE: SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2013 The NSRA Western Nats kicked off on Friday, April 26, 2013 in the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield, California. 1,850 cars were on display. Below are a few of the nice cars we found. Look here on Monday evening for a complete article and photos of the event. CHECK HERE MONDAY EVENING TO SEE THE GREAT CARS AND READ ABOUT THE NSRA WESTERN NATS. Once again the NSRA Western Street Rod Nationals+ will be held at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield, CA. The event starts Friday April 26 and runs through Sunday April 28, 2013. Over 2000 specialty vehicles, 30 years and older, are expected to arrive from all over the U.S. and Canada and will be on display. Expect to see street rods, customs, classics, rat rods, muscle cars, pick-up trucks — just about everything. Show hours are: Friday 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Spectators can walk-in at the Fairgrounds. Registration for event participants will be held at the Doubletree Hotel, 3100 Camino Del Rio Court, Bakersfield on Thursday 1:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.; Friday 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; and Saturday 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. More than 80 vendors will be selling all those things you need to keep your hot rod on the road and looking good. Vendors will be in the two huge exhibit buildings and in the outdoor midway. Women’s World will again be set up and offering arts, crafts and antiques and a couple of pinstripers will be on hand. And of course Wings Callahan will be providing tunes and drawing prize-winning tickets throughout each day. This year more than $72,000 in prizes will be given away in the Super Prize Program plus three $3,000 cash prizes. But you have to enter your car to win. Sunday morning all the award winners will be on display in the Circle of Winners. These cars will be on display until […]

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