Playground Of The Cars

Back in the days when Hollywood was all about elegance and style, the Del Mar Fairgrounds was the "playground of the stars." Famous celebrities like Bing Crosby, Betty Grable, Clark Gable, and Ava Gardner would head to this San Diego hot spot to socialize, watch the ponies run, drink martinis, and do whatever else famous celebrities did.

Today, the Del Mar Fairgrounds is still a pretty hot location, especially on the first weekend of April, when Goodguys books the place for the Del Mar Nationals and thousands of participants flood the fairgrounds with hot rods, customs, street rods, show rods, musclecars, street machines, and classic cars.

It may not be a glamorous Hollywood scene, but if you want to see style, all you have to do is hike up and down the rows of rods parked all around the grandstand and inside a few of the fairground buildings. This is Southern California's first big outdoor rod event of the season and in addition to the local iron that shows up every year, plenty of top-level rods fresh from the Grand National Roadster Show or the Detroit Autorama usually show up. Of course, Goodguys recognizes the average-joe hot rodder just as much as the big-name builder, and low-buck, homebuilt rides are just as welcome as high-end trophy cars. We saw every part of the spectrum this year, picked 10 for our R&C Top Ten awards, and photographed as many as we could. Here are a few of the rods and customs that made our cameras click (more can be found online at www.rodandcustommagazine.com).

Jim Austin was cruising his all-steel full-fendered '32 five-window so much we had to chase him down when traffic slowed to find out that it has a 2-inch haircut and sits on an early TCI chassis. Power comes from a ZZ4 small-block (with a single four-barrel) hooked to a TH350.	PPG Mack Green and birdseye maple look perfect on Steven Early's '39 Ford DeLuxe woodie. Inside it's throwing its own beach party, with a surround-sound stereo and DVD system. A Ramjet 350 and 700-R4 get the woodie running. Chassis components include a Mustang II frontend, four-wheel disc brakes, and POSIES leafs.	John Mearns has owned this Polo Green '38 Chevy for six years and transformed it from a lowrider to a custom. A Heidt's IFS was added to the original 'rails. The ZZ4 crate engine is dressed up with Moon finned valve covers and an air cleaner. The dash is filled with restored '35 Chevy truck gauges.
The sweetest '40 Ford in Carpinteria is Jack Barnard's DeLuxe hardtop, built by Sam Foose. The suicide doors were stretched 7 inches and the top was chopped just right. The rear window is from a '46-'48 Ford. Check out the custom side trim, the frenched '39 headlights, and wheels painted and chromed to look like rings--an old trick.	Rich Guasco's steel '32 five-window is just the right mixture of old and new. Motivation is provided by a '94 LT1 350 with factory EFI backed with an auto overdrive and Halibrand quick-change rearend. Buick drums hide behind the American Racing Slat Flat wheels. A '40 dash and wheel complement the Santana interior.	Here's what happens when you mate one of Ford's best rooflines to one of their most elegant bodies. Dave Kreg's '62 'Bird gives us a glimpse of what should have been one of Ford's better ideas.
Creature comforts and high style are two things not normally associated with a Henry J, but Paul Garrett has added some of both to his '51. A Fatman IFS and Alston four-link give it a smooth ride while a Ford EFI-equipped 302 gets it rolling. The interior has been enhanced with a pair of reworked Toyota Corolla buckets and wrapped in leather.	Jim Kipp's '32 roadster may look like it just rolled out of 1951, but a majority of the pieces are new. The Brookville body rests on a SO-CAL chassis that has been accessorized with some original suspension pieces. Art Chrisman built the 276ci Flathead and capped it with Edelbrock heads and an original Sling Shot intake.	We're not sure if Terry Hegman's goal was to build the perfect '51 Mercury, but we do know he succeeded. The most obvious body mods are the 3-inch chop, slanted B-pillars, and smoothed nose and deck. The rest of them would take more space then we have here. Squeeg's Kustoms was responsible for the flawless deep blue finish.
Choosing a theme and color for a new project isn't always easy. Being a collector of Gilmore items made the decision simple for Gary Bland when it came time for his Zipper-bodied modified. Bland built the frame and incorporated a Halibrand quick-change, Magnum 4-inch dropped I-beam, and original wide-five drums to complete the early look. A Chevy 4.3L V-6 fits nicely under the custom hood.	Gold scallops and some impressive striping are part of the overall appeal of Tom Pagano's '57 Ford custom. The paint, Lancer caps, hand-fabbed grille bars, side pipes, and perfect posture all add up to a knockout ride. A '57 Thunderbird 312 resides under the hood.	Man, do we like Condren Hampton's stunning '50 Merc! From the shaved sheetmetal and louvered hood, to the whitewalls, side pipes, and wicked chop (4 inches in front, 5 1/2 in back) this small-block-powered beauty is the dictionary definition of classic sledness.
Richard Reed likes his tradition with a dash of luxury. He mixed marques with a Lexus engine and six-speed combo applied to his bare-metal Deuce five-window. The rest of the package--wide whites, red steelies, E&J headlights, and coolant overflow whiskey bottle--is the stuff we're used to.	That sign in the windshield of Willie Dorsey's tough old gasser is a Period Perfect award announcement from Goodguys. The San Diego-based '55 Chevy, nicknamed Orange Krate, really is perfect, from the straight front axle to the rear slicks.	This ground-scouring '51 Ford has been stripped of virtually all exterior trim to emphasize the body's billboard-sized slabs of sheetmetal, broken up by the louvered hood. Builder Jay Dean got a lot of attention with the metal-flaked Ford, running a 327 and 700-R4 drivetrain. Inside, it's been modified with a '59 Impala dash.
John Denich has owned this cinnamon pearl '51 Chevy for 17 years. It was flat black with a stock interior when he drove it to high school way back when, but it has looked like this since he and his dad, Jack, built it up in 1999. Engine and trans are a 350 Chevy and 700 automatic.	Kevin Grani drives this red and silver on-the-ground '60 Ford Starliner, built by Andre Carey of Andre's Customs and Rods. It's powered by a Ford 352 and rolls on Billet Specialties five-spokes. Like most of Andre's customs, it manages to blend contemporary and traditional custom styles.	We recognized Sammy V's '29 A from the Ranch Run. Now the well-patina'd roadster is owned by the entire Missfits car club, Angela Aglio and Lindsey Halvorson. In the month they've owned the A, they've driven it many hundreds of miles, and want to influence more women to get into hot rodding.
If you want to build a competition coupe...	...this '32 three-window from San Diego should provide plenty of inspiration.	Tim Wilson, from Long Beach, nailed the look on this much-louvered jet-black highboy, adding radial meats for roadworthiness, along with a 350 and TH350 engine and transmission combination.
These old race cars were pure style. The wire wheels with lugs and knockoffs are a piece of art by themselves. CD Hall owns this '22 Deusenberg, running an all-Deusenberg drivetrain: straight 8 and three-speed. The 'rails are Nash Hudson. This car was actually raced and wrecked at Indy, ended up in Argentina, and was brought back to the U.S. eight or ten years ago.	Another take on a '36 Ford is this candy burnt orange coupe, designed by father and son team Sam and Chip Foose, and owned by Ralph Weaver of Huntington Beach. The car, which features an LS1 and 4L60E, is absolutely gorgeous and was a runner-up for the Goodguys Street Rod d'Elegance award.	Larry Watson's '58 T-bird is one of the most amazing recovery stories in the custom hobby. Bill Hines and Bill DeCarr at the Barris shop helped build the car when it was new, and Watson shot the world's first panel paint job. The car was torn apart in a body shop for 15 years before being rebuilt by Watson and Gary Niemie. We'll never get tired of seeing it.