First Look at the 75th Annual Grand National Roadster Show!
For being 75 years-old, the Grand National Roadster Show is looking amazing! Day one America’s longest-running car show is in the books and there was plenty to celebrate. The event takes over a number of buildings at the historic Pomona Fairplex, along with hundreds of local and regional cars filling in the spaces between. Plus, with this being the Diamond Anniversary of the show, there was plenty of cool things to check out.
The Grand National Roadster Show is known for two incredibly sought after awards; America’s Most Beautiful Roadster along with the Al Slonaker Memorial Award which we’ll get to in a minute. One of the first collections we wanted to check out was the 75th Anniversary feature building presented by the Petersen Automotive Museum. The room was full of over 50 previous AMBR and Slonaker winners dating back to the first winner of the award; the NieKamp Roadster. This was the most past winners that have ever gathered under one roof – quite a sight to behold. Along with the cars, there was also plenty of cool artifacts and history.
Back to the major awards, the AMBR contenders included a collection of 11 fresh roadsters vying for prize money from ARP Fasteners and more importantly, to have their names added to the huge, perpetual trophy. It was all Fords this year, but included a historic T-bucket, a pair of Model As, three ’36 models (two Phaetons!) with the rest being Deuces.
Just a couple buildings over were a varied dozen of vehicles competing for the Al Slonaker award which also includes some cash from ARP! These cars are basically looking to earn the title of best non-roadster of the show and include a ’33 Pontiac, a VW Thing, a couple pickups, a DeTomaso Pantera, a Roadrunner, Fairlane and a Canopy Express ’38 Chevy.
The Suede Palace is always a fun place to hang out with cool live music, loads of traditional hot rods and fun artwork and clothes to shop. Another building featured a George Barris Display with 12 of his signature builds provided by Galpin Speed Shop. The builder of the year was South City Rod and Custom and he had some great cars, including two fresh builds, on display.
With the Grand-Daddy Drive-in filling the outdoors and parking areas combined with nitro cars firing up, loads of top manufacturers showing their latest hot rod goodies, the 75th Grand National Roadster Show was looking spry and ready for another 75 years! Here’s a little look at the fun!
Photos by Damon Lee and Todd Ryden
