The 60th Grand National Roadster Show - Ain't It Grand

America's Most Beautiful Roadster
The Willett Special
Built and Owned by Harry Willett
Will you look at that?! America's Most Beautiful Roadster is nostalgic!

When Harry Willet, who builds cars at Willett Coach Works in Orlando Park, Illinois, talks about his Willett Special '32 Ford, he tosses out phrases like "1950s design" and "period styling" and "Modified Specials" and "Ak Miller." His influences seem to come from all corners of mid-century motorsports, combined with contemporary engineering.

Harry made numerous modifications to the dimensions of the all-steel body, creating what he calls a "uniside" body. The entire body is built from individual removable panels. It's channeled over a GT road racing-style chassis featuring lower rails tied to a tubular upper frame and roll bar, with front and rear independent suspension.

The Viper V-10 engine is fed by the 10-port FI system used on the LeMans-winning Vipers in 1997. It's set back on the rails for the correct 50/50 weight balance. A Hurst shifter operates the Tremec T-56 six-speed. Harry says the engine makes 600hp and that the roadster will go 200mph.

The sports car-style bucket seats are dressed up for comfort and elegance, and the engine-turned dash maintains the period-appropriate look of the whole car. Inside and out, the whole combination looks beautiful-just like the trophy says.

Just try contacting a rod shop during the first three weeks of the year. As soon as the holidays are over, the realization that the Grand National Roadster Show is only a few weeks away sends a wave of panic through the pro builder side of this hobby. Any shop trying to finish a car (which is most of the shops we know) have the doors locked, phones off, and coffeemakers perking overtime until it's time to drop the wrenches, get the car on the trailer, and head to Pomona.

This year's GNRS marked the 60th celebration of the world's longest running indoor hot rod show, established by Al Slonaker in 1950. Although the GNRS welcomes all body styles and includes hundreds of rods, customs, musclecars, bikes, trucks, lowriders, and race cars, it's the handful of roadsters competing for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster title that draws the most attention and generate the most drama.

Bill Niekamp's tracknose '29 was the first AMBR winner in 1950, followed for several years by roadsters that today we call "traditional." George Barris' Ala Kart changed that in 1958, ushering in an era of wildly modified show rods. Tall tops and crazy paint dominated the mid Seventies. Another new trend marked the Eighties: smooth high-tech cars with billet accessories. In the Nineties, the emphasis shifted to elaborate engineering and sophisticated color schemes.

We can't predict the next trend for AMBR competitors, but we're glad to see a nostalgic influence coming back. The judging contains enough emphasis on innovation to prevent a genuinely old-time hot rod from winning in the near future, but it's great to see that style honored in some of the 2009 entries, including the 60th America's Most Beautiful Roadster.