Tag: midwestern

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Top 10 Photo Galleries of 2013

2013 was a fun year. In total over 50 new photo galleries were added to the 2013 folder, I haven’t added up the miles yet, or the expenses on hotels and such, but the fun meter was pegged all year long. Here are the most popular photo galleries from 2013 in slideshow form, click on the slide show to see the entire gallery. The total photo views for Royboy Galleries for 2013 was 4,462,950 not counting tomorrow of course. Since moving my photos to their current home on Smugmug just after the 2010 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular the total photo views for the site are now at 11,581,517. That just blows my mind. The majority of those views comes from people looking at my car show coverage threads on the H.A.M.B. but this year a big chunk was also from right here on my own site. The largest single day of the year was 7/29 (just after the KKOA) with 183,318 however most days average under 10,000 photo views.

The top 10 Royboy Productions galleries with the most views for 2013 are:

 10. 2013 Starbird-Devlin: 82,221 views

This was the first time that I showed my Galaxie at the Starbird-Devlin show and with it’s fresh Jeff Myers paint job (the plan is for an update to that paint job just before the show this year).

9. Starbird Rod & Custom Show: 84,648 Views

The other legendary show with the Starbird name. 2014 will be the 50th annual edition of this show.

8. 2013 Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals 108,535 views

The 2nd time that I’ve made the trip down to this show at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. I have a lot of friends in North Texas so I suspect that I will return for this event in the future, not sure about 2014 yet though.

7. 2013 Pistons and Paint: 125,221 Views

Another North Texas show, this one was a first time visit for me and another that I want to have on my schedule for 2014.

 6. 2013 H.A.M.B. Drags: 131,394 Views

I missed the first few H.A.M.B. Drags events but it’s one I go to every year now. It’s great to see so many of my H.A.M.B. friends, get to see them run their cars and it’s turned into a family event for us with friends and family gathering from 4 states to hang out in Joplin.

5. Stray Kat 500: 178,022 views

A cold and rainy forecast kept many away from the Stray Kat 500, but still the car count was HUGE for the weather, with my personal estimates in the 400 range.

4. Starliner: 160,410 views

The other Stray Kat Kustoms show is the Starliner, and unlike many of the shows this year it wasn’t rainy, it was almost unbearably hot on that tarmac. Not the hottest show we’ve had in the last few years for sure but it was pretty brutal. Still one of the koolest shows on the planet.

3. Greaserama: 214,180 views

Greaserama had a new home this year, some said that they would not attend because of it. They weren’t missed, this was easily the largest Greaserama to date and has room for growth in the new venue.

2. 2013 Lonestar Roundup: 409,702 views

ANOTHER Texas show, this one a bit farther south. Austin’s Lonestar Roundup keeps getting bigger and bigger, which can cause problems in a city already experiencing growing pains with horrendous traffic and construction zones. The show was huge this year and I had a blast taking my ride to it for the first time. I’ll be back in 2014.

And the most popular photo gallery of Royboy Productions for 2013 was:

2013 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular: 828,302 views

If it wasn’t for this show, I might not be doing this today. When the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular came to Salina it breathed a great new life into the show and it’s grown year after year. The last 3 years were incredibly hot with temps over 105 degrees, but this year was different. The rain that in some way was present for most of the year was again a factor but on Sunday this year it was 65 degrees instead of the 109 of the previous year. The show reached a new high of 1,867 entries. I hope in future years we can increase the number of kustoms and hot rods!

Thanks for a great year!

See you at a show,

Royboy

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2014 Might Get Loud

In my mind there is no greater escape for me than to hop in a great car with a great stereo, roll the windows down and go blasting down some two lane highway. For as long as I’ve been driving, music and cars have gone together for me. As the years went on I found that it was possible to create a pretty fantastic listening environment in my favorite place to listen to music.

Please excuse the copious amounts of tweed, these were taken in the 90’s 🙂

About a decade ago some friends and I were going to make a run at competing for a world championship again in sound quality ranks of IASCA and USACi auto sound competitions. Life got in the way. I still have most of the equipment from that buildup as the car was never finished and I’m making plans now on putting a system in the Galaxie. Not to compete again, we were once among the very best in the world, that competitive nature is long gone from me. Now I just want to get in, put on a great song and just get lost on the road to nowhere.

Stay locked into the blog over the coming months, I hope to have a whole bunch of tech articles for you, both auto sound and just old car related. From installing new high output headlights in the Galaxie to better see at night and new taillights so you can better see me, to new weather stripping, sound deadening, proper wiring selection for a stereo system, building speaker mounts, system design, wiring harness installation (maybe), etc. I hope to provide more show coverage from outside photographers as well from shows that I cannot attend. If you have any other suggestions for the type of content you’d like to see, let me know here. As long as it goes to the common goal of talking about kool hot rods and hot kustoms built in the midwest, I’m open to hear your suggestions.

My goals for 2014 for Royboy Productions is to make this site into a daily digital magazine, turning up the volume with shop features, car features, the car show coverage that I do so much, tech articles and more. I’m throwing around the idea of creating a hard back book of car features whenever I have enough of them built up to fill a book and make it a good value for YOU. I will continue to create the occasional new books like the 2013 Squared book I just put out. Hopefully I’ll continue with the Artist Feature series as long as they keep filling out the questionnaires and agreeing to be on the site.

Stay tuned folks 2014 is about to get loud in more ways than one. Next Monday and Tuesday as we wind down 2013 I will feature some of the most popular posts and photos that I shared with you this year.

See you at a show,

Royboy