1996 Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals
The 1996 Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals is today’s time capsule. The mid-summer event is second oldest Goodguys national event on their schedule. Held each July – it is the Northwest’s signature summertime hot rod show enveloping the Washington State Fair Events Center in Puyallup with over 2,500 hot rods, customs and classics. Participants come from all over the Western United States and Canada to take part in the fun. They know how to party here too! Puyallup has the best nighttime cruising of any Goodguys event.
You’re looking at Goodguys Gazette archives of the 1996 Pacific Northwest Nationals. As you can see, acid wash jeans, big hair and fat fenders were in vogue. Apparently so were tucked in tee shirts, People used film cameras instead of cell phones for pictures.
It was the 9th annual PNWN and was actually held in mid-June on Father’s Day weekend. After some rainy years, the event was moved to later in the summer and is still held the 4th weekend of July. This year’s event will be the weekend of July 27-29.
In the 1990s and well into the new millennium the event was hosted by The Oldtimer’s Northwest – a gregarious bunch of close knit car club members who manned the gates and helped Goodguys staff in many areas. In the picture below at left, Event Director George Marten (far right) is seen on stage during the awards ceremony with the late Gary “Goodguy” Meadors and Bill Burnham. Good times indeed! In fact, the event used to be split between two local event directors. Marten would handle the “early” shift from 5am to 5pm then Bobby Dye would take over from 5pm until well after midnight. The on stage entertainment was epic back then.
No vehicles later than 1964 were eligible to participate in the 1990s offering plenty of early Fords and mid-50s cars. A few early 60s machines like that dual axle ’64 Dodge A100 pickup were in attendance but not many. Cool piece! Not too many traditional hot rods are visible other than a handful. This was the era of pastels, graphics, fat fenders and an endless supply of 16 and 17-inch billet wheels.Not caught up in the billet game was Art Morrison. At that time he was best known for subframes and rear clips for sportsman drag racers and was just beginning to make full chassis for Tri-5 chevy’s.
Puyallup has always been big on closed 50s cars and as you can see, there were some fine rides here too. The red Chevy pickup (with the late model bed grafted in) was the Goodguys Gazette pick. We couldn’t locate his name but he too, tucked in his tee shirt.
We have unlimited access to the Goodguys photo archives and its a blast heading to the warehouse and seeing what we can dig up. If you want to request a specific Goodguys event time capsule, shoot us an email: info@fuelcurve.com and we will dig for that too.
1996 Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals Photo Extra!