One of these years we're going to remember to bring a poncho to this show. Year after year, raindrops follow the cars onto the grounds of Indianapolis Raceway Park. It's part of the tradition at the Goodguys Hot Rod Nats, I guess, and the typical mid-June heartland weather never seems to dowse the enthusiasm of the participants or the quality of the hot rods and custom cars. Even though the rain prevented any passes down the dragstrip on Saturday and Sunday, the place stayed packed all weekend long.
This was the 18th year for the Hot Rod Nats, making it one of Goodguys' longest-running events, drawing something like 5,000 vehicles from all over the country, and a few from Canada. Goodguys lets in any '72-and-earlier iron, so rods, customs, and classic trucks mingled with musclecars, street machines, and pickups. High-dollar pro-built beauties mixed it up with high-mileage homebuilt jobs, and high-tech national show-winners rolled in alongside traditionally styled retro rides.
Speaking of traditional, they really know how to do it in Indy, especially when it comes to paint. There was metalflake and black suede in abundance, dressed up with our favorite graphics-flames, scallops, and low-key 'striping. Even a lot of the high-tech cars had one eye on traditional styling, and blending up-to-date technology with old-time style may end up as the definitive look of this decade. Take a look at some of our Top 10 picks to see what we're talking about.
We ran out of pages before we ran out of photos, but you can find a lot more rods and customs from Indy on the R&C Web site at www.rodandcustommagazine.com.