Thread: Nsra 2010

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When I went to the Louisville, Ky NSRA nats in 2007, I didnt have a rod to enter. We had a great time but I have to admit, I grew tired of seeing 29-34 billet ladin $50K+ hot rods. We had a much better time when we went to the flea market area and found all the REAL hot rodders parked out back on the grassy areas!

Gotta weigh in a bit.

There are NSRA shows that shouldn't be anything but pre '49 and that of course being York and Louisville (and possibly Kalamazoo). A couple of years ago Burlington added through either '72 or '74. I spent quite a lot of time talking to one of the NSRA officials at York about my concerns - and yes, it does concern money to some degree. With that said, what it boils down to is whether or not NSRA could continue to hold shows at fairly difficult to get to venues like Burlington, especially in the midst of leaf peeping season in Northern Vermont. They have gone to the later model cars and quite frankly, I was very pleased with the quality of the cars that were there. Instead of the 'normal' 12 to 1300 cars the first year, there was 1500. If memory serves me, last year there was close to 1800. Obviously not all were super nice - but they weren't before. Actually, I believe that the overall quality was higher then when the pre '49 were the only ones there. Am I still disappointed, yes, but let's be real about street rodding. The sheer number of available and roddable OEM cars is dwindling what with WW2 and a couple of other wars thrown in for the steel.The fact that those cars sitting in barns has gone from a few to virtually none. The hard winters here in the Northeast as well as much of the rest of the US has turned those field/woods cars into a red blotch (there is a '64 Chebbie convert in a nature preserve near me that has rotted to about 18" high). Then there are the 'glass cars. This is a viable option for many - that is until some folks finally figure out how much work is involved to marry a bunch of parts from many manufacturers. Many have the skills, but most don't have the greasy, skinned knuckle ability. This is too bad - but IMO, it has a lot to do with the instant gratification attitude of "gotta get it now" many of the current generation have. They go the ''fox tail and mud flap" kind of mods (whale tail and phart can mufflers for you younger folks)

So what does that leave us but a couple of organizations like NSRA and Goodguys (yes, they are in car attendance trouble as well - at least by what I saw at Rhinebeck the past 2 years) struggling to keep up the quality in their shows. Believe me that NSRA didn't make these changes because they wanted to, they made them to keep in the business of putting on decent car shows, and if they have to change the cut off year, well, it's a fact of life - and we collectively have to get used to it!

Then, of course, there are the Syracuse Right Coast Nationals - and that's kinda "show us whatcha brung" show that just keeps getting bigger - 7-8000 cars last year, well up from the 1200 or so the first 2-3 years. I try to do it in one day and walk so much that I start out a 6'4" at 8:00AM and by 6:00PM am feeling ~4'6" and have still only seen about 75%, and then only fleetingly. So that kind of a 30 year cut off isn't all bad