It’s that time of year again! Time to decide what goes in next year’s calendars. As last year I’m going to let all of you help decide. There are about 135 photos to choose from in the Hot Rod edition. I weeded out a few thousand to get down to that. So here’s how it will work, the calendars will be available for pre-order in a week or so but before that we have to get down to 26 photos to use in the calendar.
So I need you to comment at the bottom of this blog post and tell me the number that is BELOW your favorite images, one image per person. Yes you must be logged in to Facebook to comment, sorry, but them’s the rules. I will pick one comment to win a free copy of the Royboy 2017 Hot Rod Calendar!
The show is held on the main drag of Goodland, KS, a brick street with some amazing old buildings lining the east and west sides. Show registration is in a school building right on the main drag and was set up to flow a bunch of people quickly. Some bigger shows could really take a hint from how they had the room set up.
After getting the car washed and registered it was time to grab the camera and grab these images. Being a fairly small show I knew it wouldn’t take long to cover the event so I took my time walking the street and talking with folks. Lots of great cars and people were on hand. The forecasted bad weather over Friday night might have kept some away, it was certainly ominous as I drove up the highway friday night. Still lots of great cars on the brick street though.
At the end of the day each show registrant had a wrist band for a free chicken fried chicken dinner at the Elk’s Lodge, then we gathered back on the main street for a cruise. All of the motorcycles that I had missed because I never ventured past the center of the show were all lined up heading south, the cars were lined up heading north and the two groups started cruising at the same time. It was almost like a parade with how many vehicles were on the street, some throwing out candy, one with a trailer featuring a guitar player jamming as they drove down the street, hot rods, customs, drag machines, muscle cars, trucks, etc out having a great time.
After that a band fired up in Murray’s Kustoms and we had a great time until I had to split because I found someone to help me load my 51, which now had no brakes. So the car was loaded and I was in the room a bit before I wanted to be but it was still a good day.
My buddy Matt Murray of Murray’s Kustoms in Goodland, KS has been inviting me out to the Flatlander Fall Festival Car Show for the last couple of years. Finally with no other conflicts on my schedule I was able to make it out this year. With my Galaxie in Joplin getting some prep for the 48Cars 48 States trip I am down to 1 cool car, my 51 Ford. It wasn’t quite up to the 500 mile round trip journey so I borrowed a truck and trailer and headed out Friday evening.
Arriving after most had gone to bed I was awoken Saturday morning to texts telling me what time to be where, etc. I was already late. Matt is a member of the Lonely Knights Car Club out of Colorado Springs and a bunch of the LK folks come out to KS each year for the event. They saved a spot for me just in front of Matt’s shop so I slid in there and the day began. More tomorrow with Part 2 of the event coverage.
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
I honestly didn’t plan on shooting that many photos, I hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage from the 2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb! The new venue of Central City, Colorado worked out wonderfully. The only hiccup I saw was that the host hotel should have let anyone in to the Saturday night party as long as they had a pit pass wrist band on. There were a ton of people that were turned away from the party because of that. So other than that (completely out of the hands of the event organizers), the event seemed to go amazingly from my vantage point. I will be back!
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
A new addition for the Hot Rod Hill Climb this year was a giant tower that was a great vantage point. Most of this post was shot from the top of the tower. Enjoy the new view! More tomorrow, one last post coming.
Cal Kennedy behind the wheel of T33 was all smiles.
After the National Anthem and the parade lap it was time to start the action! First car up is always the T-33 recreation that Nick’s Garage built, driven by Cal Kennedy just like he drove the original car in the 1953 Hill Climb. The smile on Cal’s face was the best of the many smiles that were seen throughout the weekend. Enjoy the start of the Hill Climb action!
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
Today I show you the rest of the parade that started Saturday’s activities. The parade was used not only to show the spectators the cars in motion and out of the pits but also to give all of the drivers a real world view of the course and the return run. Being in Central City allowed the Hot Rod Hill Climb to run basically continuously all day long because of the return run. In the years at Georgetown each car could expect to make either 1 or 2 runs as the road had to be re-opened after the group went up. This year cars made up to 13 trips up the mountain.
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
Finally we’ve come to the Saturday part of the coverage! Early Saturday morning with a couple of plates of the host hotel’s breakfast buffet in our bellies the crew headed out to the event parking and the starting line! When it was time for the event to start a crane hoisted a huge USA flag and a flathead over the track while we were treated to a live singing of the National Anthem. Then it was time for the cars that were running to make a parade lap.
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
The 2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb Reliability Run was fantastic. I cannot stress that enough. After waiting for the next group to make it to the Echo Lake check point I headed down to Idaho Springs to grab a bite. Even though I was in the daily driver I decided to take the “Oh My God Pass” version of the final leg of the Reliability Run. The choices were to take a short jaunt down I-70 and then take the brand new Central City Parkway over to Central City or to take the gravel pass. It was steep, washboarded, narrow and ROUGH, oh and there was no guard rails for 99% of it. It was awesome, even in a boring daily driver. Here’s the rest of the Friday pictures, the Saturday shots start tomorrow!
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
By the time I got to the first stop on the Reliability Run I was ahead of the pack. I got a chance to see some great cars and hang out with some great people. After awhile I took off to get a spot on the side of the Squaw Road Pass and shoot some rolling shots. Then it was off to the 2nd stop on the run. After letting the group roll out I waited for the next group to show up.
2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb – Click the photo to buy a copy!
2016 marks the 3rd year that I’ve attended the Hot Rod Hill Climb. Mike Nicholas and crew put on an amazing event! This year was the first time I made the Friday Reliability Run and it was a blast! After putting in a day at the office on Thursday I hopped in the daily driver and pointed it west on I-70. 7 hours later I was at my hotel, time for some shut eye!
Around 9 am we gathered in the Wooly Mammoth parking lot just on the west side of Denver off of I-70. The first part of these images come from that parking lot. I jumped out and got on the interstate so that I could bypass the group and get ahead of them by the first stop.
In this episode Royboy talks with Roy Drapal about the hot rod that he started in 1946 and finished in 1955 and still has to this day. Look for a feature on the car in the Fall 2016 Hop Up Magazine.
A couple of years ago I counted 9 shows on the same Saturday as the Starliner show. That’s a lot of competition, but honestly with the planes of the Kansas Aviation Museum as the backdrop, they are no competition.
At around 8am I was starting to wonder if anyone was going to show up. The rain did keep some cars away, some just couldn’t get out of their neighborhoods. The weather at the show was perfect though. For those that have never been to the Starliner, it’s not a big show, but it’s a fantastic one. The people are the best on the planet, they have some fun cars too.
After about 10″ of rain on Thursday night into Friday mid day we got another round of 2 more inches Friday evening. So we had to move the party inside. We filled the breakfast area of the hotel and told stories and enjoyed each other’s company for a few hours while the storm raged.
Early Saturday I rolled over to the Kanas Aviation Museum to get some spots under the wing of the B-25-D on the ramp. Enjoy the photos, there will be more all week!
The Stray Kat Kustoms Starliner show is one that I plan on never missing. While it’s not the biggest show that I attend, it’s one of the best. This year I rolled down to Wichita on Thursday evening to start the weekend off with a dinner with a mixture of the Stray Kat Kustoms members and some of the Lonely Knights members. That’s about what time the monsoon started. From 6:30 Thursday evening until about noon on Friday the Wichita area saw upwards of 10″ of rain.
Friday is when we do the Garage Krawl, visiting shops in the area to see what they are up to and just plain driving our cars around having a great time. This time we had to cut the Krawl short due to some flooded streets and such but we still had fun. Here are the photos from Friday’s Garage Krawl
The Greaserama features live music, amazing artists, the Sweet Sixteen indoor display, swap meet, bicycles, hot rods, kustoms, drag cars, vans, just about anything you can dream up. Each year the show has a huge group of people involved in putting it on, this year the Los Punk Rods club had some help from some volunteers to make sure things ran smoothly.
It takes a huge effort to put on a show of this size and there are always a few folks that complain but honestly year after year I have a great time at the show and I keep coming back. Maybe I just realize that those complaints are pretty baseless and petty or maybe I just know a good time when I have one.
This week Royboy talks with Travis Chadwick of Sinners And Saints Tattoo and Jeb McGregor of the Primarys Car Club in Wichita, KS about the upcoming Rumble Run and a whole lot of other random topics.
Jeb in his Chevy \”Nadine\” at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular
After an uneventful drive, the best kind, I was got home from Texas late Saturday evening. A few hours of sleep later it was time to fire up the Galaxie and head east to Tracy, MO to the Greaserama. I heard reports that the show was huge on Saturday, that’s awesome! I wish more people showed up on Sunday but there were still a bunch of cars on the fairgrounds. I was barely in the gate when I saw Dennis Saum and family and his wickedly cool 32 Ford.
Because when you’re at a show in Dallas, TX at 4pm on a Saturday why wouldn’t you show up at one in Kansas City at 11am on Sunday? Especially if that Sunday is the Greaserama! I’ve been attending the Greaserama for about a decade now and I’ve made a ton of friends at the show. Each year the show is a chance to catch up with these friends and make new ones, so I couldn’t miss it!
There was only one problem with the Invasion, I had to split too soon. Later in the evening the Reverend Horton Heat played and anyone that had a car in the show had a ticket. What a great idea for a show! I was kind of hoping that I wouldn’t have a good time at the show so that I could just continue going to the Greaserama each year and not feel that I was missing anything. However… the Invasion was freaking awesome! So I guess I’ll just have to keep hitting BOTH shows during the Labor Day Weekend. Be at the Invasion next year if you’re anywhere near Dallas, TX.
The Invasion was packed early, covering a couple of blocks of Deep Ellum in Texas including some side parking lots. Lots of rods and kustoms and lowriders on hand to check out. They just kept coming in most of the morning. Talking with Rusty Davis about what it takes to put on a show like this in this location, it sounds like a whole lotta work! 10 months of working with the city, the store owners, the property owners plus vendors, bands, etc. I’d like you folks to all give Them! a big thank you for putting on a great show. Plans are already underway for next year’s 10th anniversary of the Invasion.
