There are some shows that for whatever reason become a "must-do" on many people's calendars. The Lifters Car Club's King of Clubs event is just that. This July saw the fifth such event, and my third consecutive year. Held on a Saturday at the eighth-mile dragstrip on the Barona Reservation, just east of San Diego, it offers the chance to put your rod or custom up the strip-and inter-club rivalry is encouraged with trophies in three classes: street, flathead, and race, as well as five bands and a burlesque show on an outside stage. There are more vendors every year, with beautiful surroundings and some killer cars.

If it's Father's Day weekend it means the annual L.A. Roadster Show and Swap Meet has come around again. A well-established tradition for hot rodders in Southern California, this year marked the 45th such event for the club which was formed in 1957. The established format of only letting finished, painted, and upholstered 1936 and older roadsters into the main show area is the main draw. But at least double the real estate taken up by the finished roadsters is set aside outside the gate for the huge swap meet and specialty parking area, where pre-'75 hot rods, customs and other special interest vehicles are made welcome.inline_mediuminlinewithtextright24936212/eventcoverage/0911rc_la_roadster_show_and_swap_meetParagraphImage.jpgFalse

I may have only lived in this country for four years, but I've been coming here on hot rod-related vacations for over 20 years, and can remember going to Back to the Beach when it was a West Coast Kustoms event in Huntington Beach, California. Owned for the past few years by Trophy Queen Productions (yep, the kustom kulture handbag, clothing, and accessory people), and moved to Trophy Queen owner Jenny Tanner's hometown of Ventura, a little farther north on SoCal's coastline, the show attracts enough showgoers and vendors to be held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.inline_mediumwraptextright30775284/eventcoverage/0912rc_back_to_the_beach0912rc_01_o+back_to_the_beach+engine.jpgTrue

Do you remember years ago, before rat rods, before 95 percent of the nostalgia movement had gathered steam, before satin paint and primer, when the Cruisin' Nationals was about kustoms? If you do you would have thought you'd stepped back in time at this year's event, the 28th Cruisin' Nationals. Okay so the venue's changed, but not for the first time. There are way more cars and public in attendance, and the quality of some of the cars would have been unattainable not so long ago, but this year's show was definitely a kustom aficionado's dream weekend.

As far as having fun behind the wheel goes there aren't many things better than cruising a roadster on a nice sunny day. Throw in about 100 roadsters that all share a traditional style and the good time just got great. I recently had one of these great days while participating in the 10th Annual Pasadena Roadster Club Reliability Run. The "annual" part of that is a bit of a misnomer, but the club started the run in 1947 and held the run until 1950 (partnered with another Pasadena club, the Pacers, the last couple of years). The PRC then disbanded and took several decades off until it was revived in 2002 with members sharing an interest in early-style traditional roadsters. In 2004 they started the Reliability Run again retracing the same route as the 1947 run.

A month later and the feeling still keeps coming back-that combination of awe, excitement, and sensory overload.inline_mediumwraptextright30746385/eventcoverage/0912rc_36th_msra_car_show0912rc_01_o+36th_msra_car_show+parking_lot.jpgTrue

Having flown out to the Lonestar Roundup last year, I was determined to drive out this time, so despite the forecast of thunderstorms for much of the journey, myself and Ryan Manson from Street Rodder magazine jumped in my '46 roadster pickup on Thursday afternoon and headed some 1,500 miles east, with not much more than a couple changes of clothes, a bag of tools, camera gear, and a scrap of paper that read "I8 to I10, turn left on 290 to Austin." Okay we had techno-whiz Manson's GPS-equipped Blackberry too, but that just showed us how far we had remaining to travel! Some 36 hours later, with a brief motel stop when it got too cold to concentrate in the middle of the night in New Mexico, and a few hours lost trying to buy steering parts on Friday morning, we rolled into Austin amid fog and damp weather, but dry.

There are a lot of things we make a point of doing twice a year-visit the dentist, reset the clocks, pay the car insurance; what we enjoy the most is the semi-annual trip to Ventura for Back to the Beach in May and the Primer Nationals in September. The Back to the Beach Hot Rod and Motorcycle Show, presented by Trophy Queen Productions, is a Saturday show held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and draws a lot of traditional and "neo-traditional" hot rods and customs, in additional to bikes, from southern and central California. The photos shown here represent only a small fraction of the rides on site. Scattered among all this iron are vendors peddling everything from aftermarket parts to hot dogs-which would include artwork, books and mags, custom bicycles, and retro apparel. We can't even imagine how hard the promoters from Trophy Queen work to organize all the cars, trucks, bikes, and vendors-not to mention bringing in live bands (the Dave Gleason Band, the Del Reys, and Captain Jeffrey & the Chumbuckets this time), but we appreciate it and we sure have fun. The Primer Nationals-a two-day event scheduled for September 5 & 6, usually draws even more people and vehicles than Back to the Beach. We'll be there soon. Back to the Beach and Primer Nationals information can be found at www.primernationals.com.

Usually it's not much fun being second, but despite the Sacramento Autorama being the world's second longest running indoor car show--after the Grand National Roadster Show--it's a completely different affair to what was once its local cousin (The GNRS starting out as the Oakland Roadster Show in nearby Oakland before its move down south to LA County). Where the GNRS top honor is the America's Most Beautiful Roadster trophy, Sacramento draws from its historic custom ties and awards the World's Most Beautiful Custom trophy. Those ties include the city being the hometown of Dick Bertolucci, George and Sam Barris and home to Harry Westergard throughout his custom career. The Autorama has a featured builder each year, with Dick Bertolucci honored for 2009. Bertolucci's Body Shop has been a Sacramento landmark since the '50s, and Dick had a number of his cars on display at the show.

It's funny how times and attitudes change. Take the "traditional" section of our hobby for instance, be it rods or customs. It wasn't that long ago that they were shunned at mainstream shows. I talk from firsthand experience as my own trad '29 A-V8 roadster received many unfavorable comments in the mid to late '80s until it was painted. But in recent years we've seen a shift in attitudes and it's good to see a promoter like John Buck making space for, and encouraging participation by this segment. Of course you could say these mainly younger builders somewhat hold the key to the future of the hobby too!

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!

The Saturday before Mother's Day was a "twofer" for me-morning and early afternoon at the George Barris show in Culver City and then a 15-minute straight shot down Sepulveda Boulevard to El Segundo for the 4th annual California Screamin' Art & Hot Rod Show. The entire 400 block of Main Street was blocked off and packed with traditional and traditional-style hot rods and custom cars, with a few bikes thrown into the mix. The activity from the street continued into Gasoline Gallery, sponsor of the event. Gasoline (www.gasolinegallery.com) sells kustom kulture apparel in the front store and exhibits hot rod oriented fine art in the gallery in the back. And once in a while, as on this day, they fill the street with rods and customs.

For five years in a row now, George Barris has been coming from North Hollywood to beautiful downtown Culver City to host the Cruisin' Back to the 50s car show, held in May. From the way this event is growing, we expect it's got a lot more years ahead of it. The Exchange Club of Culver City sponsors the show, with proceeds benefitting local kids' charities, and the city fathers let George shut down a section of the main drag and a few side streets and fill 'em with show cars. Actually George usually brings a handful of his better-know TV and movie cars, and the participants do the rest. This year, approximately 400 musclecars, lowriders, street machines, novelty cars, custom classic pickups, and plenty of rods and customs filled the streets-plus (almost forgot) a row of modified Smart Cars (they're customizing them already folks!). Any leftover space was packed with spectators, vendor booths, and concessions. Thousands came out to see the cars, check out the merchandise, listen to the live music, and, if lucky, get autographs from Butch "Eddie Munster" Patrick, Elvira, and, of course, George himself. The awards, as always, were custom made and plentiful. We'll be back next year.

I was able to break away from coloring Easter eggs for a couple of hours and swing out to old town La Verne to check out the Cool Cruise (benefitting the Loma Linda Veterans Hospital) this past Saturday. The show has grown into quite an event and takes over a large portion of the downtown area. A thousand or so cars were lined up and down the streets and when show-goers wanted a break from the cars they were able to browse many of the local shops. I grabbed a bite to eat in a pretty good burger joint while still hearing some of the live music from the stage.

The seaport Marina Hotel in Long Beach, California, was the venue on March 21 for the premiere of the Hot Rod Havoc III DVD. Film-makers Mark and Arie Van Schyndel took a break after Hot Rod Havoc II to make Two Wheel Terrors, but the third in the HRH series lived up to expectations, with a screening mid evening in the ballroom of the hotel, with four bands playing throughout the event. Plenty of So Cal car clubs brought their cars long in the afternoon for a car show in the parking lot prior to the evening's shenanigans.

Here are some pix from the 10th annual Pasadena Roadster Club Reliability Run, held on May 2 in the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Pasadena, California.

Somehow, we missed the 1st annual B&M/Hurst Charity Car Show last spring. We decided not to make the same mistake twice (at least not that particular mistake) and took the short drive to Chatsworth, California, last Sunday, for the 2nd annual event.

This years Fabulous Fords Forever! all-Ford car show took place on Sunday, April 19 from 10 until 3. The event-sponsored by The Ford Car Club Council, Western Region-was held, as always, at Knott's Berry Farm's Independence Hall parking lot-right across the street from from the famous theme park in Buena Park, California.

Over 600 traditional hot rods and customs filled the lawn at Big Daddy Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida, on March 21, 2009 for the 2nd annual Billetproof Florida. The crowd was delighted when Big Daddy fired up Swamp Rat V, the first top fuel dragster to run a wing, and a Hemi powered air raid siren. A record crowd of spectators enjoyed the bands, the vendors, a swap meet with some of Big Daddy's own parts for sale, the full size cars and the state's largest model car show.

We know the Southern California cruise season has officially began (not that it ever really seems to shut down) once the hot rods and customs start filling the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum's parking lot for its monthly cruise night. Cruise night might be a bit of a stretch as the parking lot is pretty full by 3:00 and it doesn't get dark for another four hours or more. The 2009 season kicked off with perfect weather and more cars than spots. The overflow parking area was as packed as I have ever seen it and the quality of cars was as high as usual.

Here are some photos from the 7th annual Huntington BeachCruiser show that my son Grant and I attended on March 21. It's held in "Old Town" Huntington Beach, California, on Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway and in the parking lot north of the pier. The show it open to any pre-1968 vehicle that would've been likely to carry a surfboard. That includes Woodie station wagons, Nomads, sedan deliverys, panels, vans, VW campers and transporters, trucks, etc.), though as the images show, there is some leeway regarding the vehicle entry guidelines these days. This used to be a one-day deal, but last year it expanded to include Sunday, too, and features Woodie-only parking along the length of the famous Huntington Beach municipal pier.