THE 69TH GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW, POMONA, CA, January 26-28, 2018

admin — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 19:55:57 +0000

The 2018 Grand National Roadster Show ended Sunday evening January 28 when America’s Most Beautiful Roadster 2018 was named. AMERICA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADSTER – 2018 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster is the Martin Special – a 1931 Ford Roadster owned by Dave Martin of Signal Hill, CA. This year the theme of the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS) was “A Pirate’s Life”. A hot rod shop from New York called Rolling Bones created a 24-car diorama depicting racing at Bonneville, El Mirage. etc. This was a unique exhibit featuring racing styled hot rods. The buildings at the Fairplex in Pomona were full of cars. As always Building 10 held the Suede Palace, Building 9 was the Muscle Car Gathering, Building 6 included the Rolling Bones exhibit as well as motorcycles, bicycles, and specialty cars. One collection of specialty cars on exhibit in Building 6 were many small, gas-thrifty cars. The exhibit also included many BMW Isetta’s. These were great little cars and it was nice to see so many of them. There were also many bicycles on exhibit. A lot of work and talent went into creating these bicycles. There were also other creative vehicles on exhibit in building six. Building 9 included a whole lot of American Muscle Cars – all of which were exceptional. Of course there were cars outside all over the Fairplex grounds including this one (below) which was in keeping with the show theme. This 1935 Chevrolet Phaeton was the 2014 AMBR winner. This year an outdoor area was set aside to highlight an icon of the hot rodding era – the 1955, 1956 and 1957 Chevrolet. The Suede Palace is also a favorite with it’s custom and unique cars. Yet another building held a lot of nice cars including a couple nostolgia dragsters. The duel engine flathead dragster shown below was very successfully raced by “the Sheriff” Jack Harris and his posse. The Snap-on Tool mechanic was there with his van ready to supply tools as needed. One interesting vehicle we saw was this Budweiser themed Chevy panel – couldn’t help but notice the air cleaner and the antenna. After a full week-end – as the sun set on Sunday – it was time to head through the tunnel to the parking lot – however, one more photo — ________________________________________________________ The 69th Grand National Roadster Show opened Friday, January 27, 2018 at the Fairplex in Pomona. As always the contenders to become America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) were front and center in the main building. This year there are 15 cars in the running. As you can see from the photos below any one of these cars could be the next AMBR. As in past years pinstripers are on hand creating masterpieces for the pinstriper’s charity auction. Auctions are held throughout the week-end. This year more than 30 artists are gathered raising money to benefit Camp Conrad Chinook for JR Diabetes. The outstanding diorama below includes a 1966 Volkswagen 21 window microbus and was built and displayed by Sergio Prado of Temecula. We will continue to post photos and info throughout the week-end. The show runs through Sunday with the awards ceremony starting around 6:00 p.m. Sunday night. The 69th Grand National Roadster Show will be held in the Fairplex in Pomona, California January 26, 27 and 28, 2018. Below is the 1936 Packard that was the 2017 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). On Sunday evening January 28, 2018 another AMBR will be announced. No doubt this year the AMBR contenders will be as fantastic as in past years. We will be at the event and will post updates as the week-end goes on. Check back here throughout the week-end to see the beautiful cars gathered at the Fairplex.

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65th ANNUAL GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

admin — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 07:33:19 +0000

The 65th Grand National Roadster Show kicked off on Friday January 24, 2014 at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA and ended on January 26, 2014. SUNDAY – AND THE WINNERS ARE ….. AMERICA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADSTER 2014 OWNED BY WES RYDELL AMERICA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL MOTORCYCLE 2014 OWNED BY FABIAN BECASSE Being in competition for America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) means climbing to the top ranks of car building. This year the students of the Roseville High School Auto Shop, Roseville, Michigan built a 1931 Ford roadster pickup that sat proudly on the floor with the other AMBR contenders at the Grand National Roadster Show. This AMBR contender was built entirely by the students in Paul Tregembo’s auto shop class at Roseville High School. These kids didn’t take home the AMBR award but they did collect the Rising Star award. Photos of all of the AMBR contenders can be seen below in our FRIDAY reporting section. The theme of this year’s GNRS was Century of Speed and one entire building was devoted to Bonneville cars. On display was the Blitzen Benz which set a land speed record of 142.8 mph in 1914. Many other notable cars were also on display such as: the Kugel & LeFevers 1992 Pontiac Trans Am which in 1999 was the first passenger car to exceed 300 mph with a speed of 307.468 and a round trip speed of 300.788; Al Lamb’s 2012 Honda Motorcycle at 262.4 was the fastest sit on motorcycle; and, the fastest motorcycle on earth ridden by Chris Carr at 367.382 mph. There were also some long-time Bonneville cars such as: Vesco Racing’s Little Giant 444 built by John Vesco in 1957 which is the holder of four current land speed records; the Paramount Forge, built by the Fergurson family, set 16 Bonneville records and 7 LaMirage records, 10 drivers joined the 200 mph club in this car and 2 went into the 300 mph Club at Bonneville with 6 drivers joining the 200 mph Club at El Mirage; the Daytona Charger, owned and driven by Lee Sicillio, has raced at Speed Week continuously since 1999 and has broken 11 land speed records. There were also some iconic cars such as: Golden Rod built in 1952 by Tommy Thompson; and the Pierson Bros. 2D coupe now owned by Bruce Meyer. The book “Bonneville a Century of Speed” was being sold as a fundraiser for Save the Salt and raised $40,000. Also this year was a separate Gasser exhibit which occupied its own building. Stan Johnson’s slingshot dragster Silver Bullet, took home the Best Slingshot award. Representative of the modern Gasser movement is Stan Chersky’s ’55 Chevy Quicksilver, Joe Hickenbottom’s ’41 Willys pickup Blue Thunder, and Glen Krapff’s ’40 Ford Coupe, Flip Front Forty. Also on hand was the Copperhead a 364” Nailhead Buick dragster owned by Bob DeBurn. In the past couple of years, the Famoso Speed Shop dragster, a 1965 competition coupe owned by Randy Winkle, Roy Pool’s 1965 D/Gas Mercury Comet, and Don Lindfors’ Blair Speed Shop ’48 Anglia have raced on the drag strip at Famoso Raceway near Bakersfield. One feature of the GNRS is the pinstriper’s charity auction. Every day several pinstripers pick up their brushes to stripe everything from panels to chairs to helmets which are then auctioned off. The proceeds of this year’s auction will go to the Ronald McDonald House. A whopping $38,198 was raised. Like Saturday, Sunday included a drive-in during which cars of all kinds drove in for the day and parked in the alleys and streets around the buildings. The awards ceremony was held at the end of the day on Sunday. Participants and class winners were awarded trophies and several special awards were given out by notables such as Penny Pichette, Roy Brizio, Blackie Gejeian and George Barris. The Von Dutch Pinstriping award was given out by Herb “The line Dr.” Martinez. Von Dutch was a famous and infamous pinstripper in the 1950’s. This award was originated by St. John Morton in 1994. The trophy is a copy of Von Dutch’s paint box. This year the winner was Willis Dormer. The Al Slonaker Memorial, the ABMB and the AMBR awards were given out last to close the show. Next year the 66th Annual Grand National Roadster Show will be held January 23-25 2015. You can see more photos from the event on our SmugMug site at timingtower.smugmug.com Saturday Not only will the AMBR (America’s Most Beautiful Roadster) award given away this week-end but the AMBM (America’s Most Beautiful Motorcycle) award as well. Below is a look at the contenders. Lee Smith from Roswell, GA put a big smile on a lot of faces when he put every kid around on his AMBM contender. Today the drive-in started and a lot of nice cars were lining the alleyways between the buildings. The Suede Palace held a lot of nice cars and it was easy to spend a lot of time in this building.. Tomorrow is the last day of the GNRS. We will have a more coverage including the winners of the AMBR and the AMBM. Friday Below are photos of the 11 cars competing to be America’s Most Beautiful Roadster for 2014. Which one will become America’s Most Beautiful Roadster? The Show will continue through Sunday. This year the theme is Quest for Speed and the Century of Speed exhibit features many streamliners and other salt flat racers. Saturday and Sunday will include an outside drive-in where hot rods, customs, classics, etc. will be on display in the areas between the buildings. Keep checking timingtower.com. We’ll continue to post with a final article and photos posted by Monday evening.

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Suede Palace – Timing Tower

THE 69TH GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW, POMONA, CA, January 26-28, 2018

65th ANNUAL GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW