Thread: Last trip to nats?

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I just enjoyed the second day of the 2009 Richmond NSRA Nationals which has the "up to 1979" rule now. There were a lot of amazing high quality cars there, some so amazing one can wonder what amount of work and money went into them. It would be easy to be discouraged after seeing so many fine machines, but I will plug on to do my best with my own build. Here a few of the cars I saw. The first is a 1979 Z28 who a guy bought recently with only 9000 miles on it and he was merely cleaning up an almost new car but would you really deny such a perfect car that is now some 30 years old and in fantastic condition? The second picture is my favorite of a real 1932 Ford Cabriolet, the third is a short row of '32s, still the king of rods(!) and a very interesting '26 T coupe with model A wheels and a neat 17 stud Ford V8-60, a popular conversion in bygone days. In my opinion there were still a LOT of pre-48 cars there and most of the post '48 cars were very well prepared muscle cars including a lot of nice '55-57 Chevies. The last picture is of a very rare Nash "tub" convertible sedan!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Nice pics Don. Nice mix too! Thanks for posting these and post some more if you have em!

Stovens, I took 26 pictures but wish I had more. In keeping with the idea of a mix and guessing some of the interest on this Forum here are some that might be of interest. There was one car I did not get a picture of that had plates from Hawaii, which made us wonder how it got to the East Coast. Interestingly my wife really likes these events but she ignores all the "modern cars" and looks for the Model A-type which is why we are building an A! My wife offered up a new interpretation of Rat Rods of which there were only a few along with some sporting the black primer look; according to her those cars are "unfinished"! Next to the Nash tub was a nice Stude and you can see the front of the Nash. The Nash did not seem to have any performance enhancements beyond cosmetic chrome acorns on the head bolts but it is nice; the Stude was a full house setup but I did not get a picture of the engine. There were several nice '36 Ford coupes and here is one. The next picture is one of several very smooth shoeboxes with a Pontiac grill and a flathead engine. There seemed to be more flatheads this year than I remembr from other years and here is a very well done '32 with polished Fenton headers. Finally here is one of the most elaborate paint jobs that I saw, although it is "too much" for my taste.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

There is a limit to how much folks here might want to see but I want to add one more picture of an amazing '34 Ford Station Wagon (Woody). Unfortunately this car was given a spot in an almost hidden area well out of the main limelight but it should have been front and center in my opinion. The door panels appear to be of a kind of Birds-Eye-Maple or some such vaneer with a beautiful grain pattern. This is far and away the best woody I have ever seen!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Well as far as the main controversy on this thread, I have been through a "Dune Buggy and blown-VW era" as well as the "resto-sports car" era where I attended some events just for British Sports cars so I think there are quite a few special events including some just for '32-'48 Fords as well as meets for specific brands. It would appear that as time goes on NSRA has made a calculated decision to bring in a "big tent" array of various street cars and even among the Deuce roadsters there I did dare to touch a few and found some fiberglass fenders. So NSRA is a sort of pot pouri of interesting cars for folks who like cars! There are indeed many other specialized events and probably enough to satisfy a wide range of tastes and pocket books. Frankly for my tastes I offer a picture of my friend Warren's highly innovative roadster which was a VERY RUSTY '31 Ford coupe which he mounted on a Ford Bronco frame with the frame backward! Adding a buggy spring front end and leaf springs in the rear from a small trailer this is an "Econo-Rod" with a Chrysler 360 engine and a seat from a Dodge van. It has a hand made oak dash as well. All-in-all with my past history with an obsession for cars and a small pocketbook, I think Warren's roadster was by far the most innovative car there but he remarked that it would certainly not be an award car. He did the paint himself and all the considerable welding in the adaptation of the Bronco frame but the car is still titled as a 1931 Ford! The most amazing part of Warren's roadster is that he made his own Deuce grill out of metal strips and it rivals any commercial grill I have seen. That is what I like so if we did not have different tastes the world would be much more complicated as all the men would want the same woman!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Well the weather was "iffy". I had planned to go on Saturday but estimated I could see a lot on Friday morning and if it rained later, so be it. Well, sadly about 3 PM it started to drizzle and it was amazing as about half of the cars left so I am glad I got there in the morning. This year the indoor vendor area had more cars inside than I have seen there before so you could always see a few neat cars inside. Sorry I missed you, I wore my Club Hot Rod Tee shirt but saw none other and even then I only saw one H.A.M.B. plaque on the dash of a nice '32 highboy with a Buick V6, in fact that was the only V6 I saw there. I can't recall any '35 Fords but there were quite a few '36s and a lot of '39-'40s.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

The first is a 1979 Z28 who a guy bought recently with only 9000 miles on it and he was merely cleaning up an almost new car but would you really deny such a perfect car that is now some 30 years old and in fantastic condition?

Yes I could deny it ...

Nice enough Camaro but it should be at a Camaro/Chevrolet event ... not a street rod event IMHO.

The place looks like a GoodGuys event