'17 Grand Nat'l Roadster Show through JZG's lens,

Lets see' it's mid-january, it's in the sixties, sunny, snow covered mountains in the distance, palm trees and hot rods everywhere..............we must be near Los Angeles. Pomona actually, to be more precise. The Roadster Show has been on my bucket list for a very long time, and with the miserable winter we're "enjoying" this year in the northern California area, more rain than we've had in decades and a serious case of cabin fever, what better than a road trip with a most worthwhile destination, and a prospect of a warm weekend in the sun.

It all fully lived up to expectations and turmed out to be a great weekend. A perfect venue, lots of incredible cars, and wonderful ambiance. Met one person I knew the whole time down there ( photo #4 ) when I ran into Rollie as one of the first attendees at the gate. Rollie, an ES Reg and R Gruppe member with most impressive credentials as afull-fledged all-around car guy, mentioned that he's been into hot rods for decades, having owned an ex-Robert Petersen '32 coupe that raced on the dry lakes many moons ago.

The only negative, embarrassing detail I must confess to is that I walked right by the Packard Roadster which eventually won the "America's Most Beautiful Roadster" award, but I recognize now that I made two mistakes when I passed by it without so much as one snapshot: I never thought the judges would select such a car for the top award since it wasn't at all in the family of early hot-rod Roadsters that traditionally win, and I was certain that it was just an over-the-top commercial display, and not in contention for top honors...............live and learn.

I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed the show, and I'll probably make it a regular stop in the future.

Other than that major faux pas - thanks for looking,

JZG
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Tthe shots are posted in no particular order, nor was there any effort to group them and to present things in sequence or category. The show took place at the Pomona Fairplex, virtually next-door to the legndary Pomona Drag Strip with the displayed cars spread in classes in 5 buildings, and most commercial displays outdoors in the parking lot, although quite a few vendors were sprinkled among the contestants in the show-halls, causing my confusion regarding the overall winner.

This first set is presented to more or less give you an idea of the layout, the grounds, to set the stage before moving indoors to view the cars on display and to try to capture and portay the vast range of interests and facets of the hot-rodding hobby/' community in general. I'll be in and out all day and will continue to post the rest of the 250 or so images I've selected when I get the opportunity later in the day. Thanks for your patience.

A few more from the outside vendors area and moving inside for a few images of the actual entries.

There are many 'kits' available to build your own hot-rod from readily available components, but the blue roadster is the first I've seen that uses a quite professionally designed looking space frame.

Continuing with a series of images of various vendor displays as well as show entries.

As a personal observation, it appears some in the Hot-Rod community have discovered the elegance and aristoratic good looks that a non-metallic 'slate Gray' paint job imparts to a car...............and why not. As good as that shade looks on 911s, older Mercedes, especially Gullwings, or older Ferraris, it can certainly improve a well designed and built hot-rod - I thought the gray '62 Chevrolet Impala was quite a knock-out with its red interior. Well done !

Note. The indoor lighting proved to be a real challenge. The level of illumination indoors was barely adequate to shoot without flash, consequently I had to increase ISO to 1600 to be able to shoot at a shutter speed adequate for handholding without blurr, but I didn't want to open the lens excessively because I wanted to keep a generous depth-of-field, in order to keep all of the the subjects in sharp focus. I hate using flash, which might have given all the indoor images a uniform cast, but the worst part of the problems with the lighting was the proximity of neon displays and light sources other than the overhead reflectors bulbs, which all contributed ghostly green, purple, blue and pink shades which proved almost impossible to supress, edit out and make look natural. I must have spent 20 minutes trying to get the two shots of the Impala to show the same grey...........to no avail. The light simply had a diffrent cast to it from a different angle. You'll notice this unwanted phenomenon throughout the presentation - and I apologize for it, but at this point in my digital processing skills I just don't know how to address this flaw.

JZG

Another set between running some errands.

Love it!...

Very nice, Thanks

To continue, we've now arrived at the first of the super-stars of this show................at least that's what I think of the following car. As is my habit, when I run into a car that I consider really worthwhile, and extra-ordinary I always stop, study and take way more photos than I'll post to make sure I get the 'best' out of the subject under the circumstances, for those who might be interested in sharing my good fortune in seeing such a special car, for future reference and to simply have these images at hand and on file to view whenever I feel the need.

The English have a great phrase to describe what happens when you see something that just renders you incapable of expressing a coherent thought......................"to be gobsmacked". Well, I was well and truly gobsmacked at this '51 Ford Business Coupe. I took dozens of images, but have narrowed it down to 14 'keepers' which I would like to present in two sets of 7 photos each, instead of 10 and 4 for the sake of continuity.

I had heard about an other-worldly custom Ford from a few friends who attended SEMA last October, and there was some mention of a remarkable new custom effort from somewhere in the Northwest, but all of the rumors and inuendo fade to zero when you actually lay eyes upon this masterpiece. Owned by Bruce Leven ( owner of Bayside Disposal ) the largest disposal company in the area, very successful Porsche racing driver and equally succesful racing team owner ( Bayside Racing ) he has chosen to call this exquisite creation a GT -51.The most stunning aspect of the car is the manner in which the lowly, entry level Ford utility coupe has been restyled in revolutionary, yet subtle ways that bring to mind & rival the best work by the likes of Touring, Vignale, Bertone and/or Pininfarina on any premier 1950s vintage Italian custom GT from Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia, OSCA or Alfa-Romeo. It's been reshaped significantly, but there isn't a bad line anywhere nor can one find a detail or an attempt to trick, decieve or get the viewers attention with garish graphics and over-the-top treatments.

Wicked Fabrications was the lead builder of the project, with Byers Custom doing the metal prep and painting. Interior by Stitches Custom upholstery. A 368 c.i. '56 Lincoln motor with the rarest of rare Hilborn injection set-ups ( one of only 4 ever produced )scoupled to a T-5 transmission driving through a quick-change IRS, Art Morrison front suspension , disc brakes and one-off custom magnesium wheels, combined with far more addtitional details than you can name complete this jewel.

I know I'm given to hyperbole when it comes to talking and describing cars I like and appreciate, but this car is absolutely one of the finest I have ever seen, period. Elegant, startling in its beauty, impressive in its execution, incredible creativity, vision and workmanship, and most of all, a genuine 'of one piece' nature of the total package. Everyone who had a hand in creating this car should be very proud of their accomplishment.

Another example of the perfectly appropriate and inspired choice of Slate Grey for a custom hot-rod. I don't think I would have even noticed the car had it been displayed in a more typical hot-rod candy color or something fashionable that changes hue depending on the time of day and light.

A genuine Masterpiece.

...............and the second set of six images.

Continuing the walk through the exhibit Halls.

To carry on...................

The rear view of the little pick-up with the wood deck and the engine compartment without hood show the same car.