2012 Goodguys Mid-Western Nationals Saturday: Here comes the rain again

Every year about this time, the car show world descends on the infield of Kansas Speedway for the Saturday installment of the Goodguys Mid-Western Nationals.  This is the biggest car show of the year in this area, and Saturday is the biggest day.

But not this year.

After what may be the driest summer in history, remnants of Hurricane Isaac decided to let loose on Kansas City this very weekend.  Saturday was soaked, and the Goodguys show suffered.  Only a few hundred cars showed up, which would be great for any other show, but was downright depressing for this one.  By the time the rain let up mid-afternoon, this event was already a washout.  Plus, the festivities had been moved from the infield to the parking lots due to construction.

Don’t get me wrong, there was still some good stuff there.  My favorite was probably a ’58 Edsel that the owner had arranged the emblems to read “SLEDSEL” based on its vintage, lead sled persona.  It looked great with its black finish and sparkly red top, beautiful red interior, and red wheels with spider caps.  The extra grille where the air cleaner would normally go was another neat and unusual touch.  It really drew a crowd when it showed up and he dropped it to the ground by letting the air out of the bags.

This ’32 Ford three-window coupe was also mighty impressive.  It had great details everywhere, including a highly detailed 409 under the hood, gold anodized wheels.  And that dark maroon metallic paint job was ten miles deep.  This car was more modern than I normally get excited about, but it was so nice, and executed so well, that it would be hard not to like it.  You could look at 100 of these cars and never see another one like it.

This Deuce highboy was on all the tickets, T-shirts, and promotional materials for the show.  And it was pretty cool.  It had a monotone green theme that carried from the body to the interior to the engine.  Oh, and that engine was a big fat Hemi.  Breaking up the pea soup a bit was a splash of bright orange, which found its way to the wire wheels and pinstripe.  This was another high-quality build, and you could see why the Goodguys folks chose it to represent this show.

Here’s something really different.  It looks like a big sprint car that A.J. Foyt (can you believe that my spell-checker just underlined the word “Foyt”??!!) drove back in the day.  Those huge rear tires, velocity tubes snaking out of the sides of the hood, and open headers looked like it was ready for the track.  But hold on, cowboy.  Are those little hidden lights I see?  And a license plate?  Turns out this baby is street legal.  Maybe it’s what Super Tex used to drive to the office.

Between the car corral, the swap meet, and the vendor area, there was actually quite a bit to look at in spite of the weather.  And actually, most of the cars were parked under the grandstands out of the rain.  Heck, even my truck was under there, which would never have been allowed if attendance was at full-capacity.

And for something that I’m complaining about the turnout at, I still managed to take 595 pictures on Saturday, which you can see in the slideshow below.  Or click this link to see a better version of this show.

Oh, and by the way, I went back to this show Sunday,which you can read about here.  And let me assure you, there were plenty of cars to look at for this one.