Monday, May 18, 2015

10th-Annual 2015 Goodguys Nashville Nationals at LP Field

Goodguys celebrated their 10th anniversary in Nashville at LP Field over the weekend. Unfortunately, on-and-off rain showers put a damper on what is normally the biggest car show of the year. That didn’t prevent many people from bringing their cars anyway, as there were still hundreds of cars on the show field. I went out on Sunday, which is typically not as busy as Saturday, but there was less rain, and they allowed newer cars to share the spotlight. So there were still plenty of nice rides beneath the shadows of downtown Music City. Let’s check a few of them out!

I think the most impressive all-out custom was this ’49 Cadillac convertible, which was parked in the PPG paint display. Known as the “Golden Empress,” this had all the high-quality workmanship and razzle-dazzle that you would expect to find in a high-end build. The outside modifications were mild but impressive, with ’56 Oldsmobile headlight bezels, rich, perfect gold paint, cleaned-up bumpers, and a general reduction in chrome bits. Inside was a bit more radical, with white leather show car-style bucket seats and the speedometer cluster relocated to the center of the dashboard. You could spend a lot of time soaking in the details of this truly spectacular car.

There were several neat Corvettes, but my favorite was this Nassau Blue ’65 roadster. On paper, it isn’t super special. It has the 300-hp 327, no air conditioning, no leather, and no aluminum wheels. But in person, the ultra-high quality of the restoration makes this car really stand out. I talked to one of the guys that restored it for a bit, and he said it had the original engine and transmission, but there were quite a few little details that needed to be addressed. All that hard work paid off, though. This car is by far better than it ever was new. It’s one of those cars that you can just spot the quality from a mile away.

If you like old trucks, it would be hard not to be impressed with this ’49 Chevy. Green was the standard color on these, but this custom shade is prettier than the original. All the modifications on this truck are mild but right. It still has the 235-six, but now it has two carburetors, dual exhaust, and a finned valve cover. The original-style hubcaps reside on a nice set of cream-colored artillery wheels. The pristine interior is mostly stock. And the stance is just a little lower, but not too low. There are so many ways guys try to customize old trucks, but there aren’t many of them that seem to hit the bulls-eye quite like this one.

This ’56 Plymouth Belvedere convertible was in the Maguiar’s display, so you know the detail was impeccable. Actually, the whole car was pretty amazing. The pictures under the awning don’t really do it justice, but take my word for it, in person, this is a show-stopper. This was a runner-up for the coveted Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama, so it isn’t exactly a daily driver. But with the late-model Hemi and modern leather interior, you could imagine taking a road trip in it. Old Plymouths are fairly unusual custom car fodder, but remote control car builder Gil Losi, Sr. is into them. With such deep red paint you think you should drink a glass of it with dinner. Add those one-off Foose wheels, you’d be hard-pressed to find another ’56 Plymouth with this kind of craftsmanship.

This ’37 Ford coupe isn’t really customized, but I liked it anyway. It does have a few deviations from factory by way of accessories. Little things like mud flaps, luggage rack, fender skirts, and exhaust tips really doll this baby up. I just like the condition. The paint is nice. The wool seats are nice. Everything is exactly the way you want it to be. So many of these have been made into hot rods at this point, it’s nice to see one that still looks like it might have back in the ‘30s. It might seem strange, but I’ll remember looking at this car, and if it had been a hot rod, I probably wouldn’t have given it much thought.

For the MOPAR muscle fans out there, this ’71 Plymouth ‘Cuda is notable. Now, there are nicer original ‘Cudas out there. This one has some severely cracked Rally Red paint, ripped-up white vinyl seats, and a white vinyl top that borders on gross. It would be a good candidate for restoration, and it would be worth a lot more for it. But as they say, “they’re only original once.” The fact that this car made it to this point without being restored is pretty remarkable. And I have no doubt that this car draws as much, if not more attention because of its condition. It’s also more fun to drive and park a car like this, while you’d always have to worry about a restored car. This car definitely stands out.

There were several more cars that I could easily have chosen to write about. I mean, this was a Goodguys show, and they bring out the best of the best. But you probably just skipped all my write-ups anyway and went straight down here to the pictures. See 591 of them from the 10th-Annual 2015 Goodguys Nashville Nationals in the slideshow below, or click this link for a nicer version.

1 comment:

  1. Nice show, great pcs....Thanks, Tom Musolf

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