#and brian and smokey and and literally everyone in it

[ribcagebonemeal]

BEATLES '64 PHOTO DUMP BECAUSE I TOOK A GAZILLION SCREENSHOTS!!!!! WHAT A GOOD DOCUMENTARY!!!!! (it's 98% JUST ringo and george though ough)

[haengbokjae-blog]

Day6 at Prom♡

A/N: okok so this is my first blurb/scenario post,, sorry if its a little messy but i tried my best to keep it organized to each member!!

all my friends and i are talking about prom right now, and thinking about it so much now only made me want to write about a magical night with day6!!

(disclaimer im sorry for the emojis theyre just hilarious to me gfskdkgj my humor is shit ok ty for reading bbye!!!)

word count: 1196

SUNGJIN

i think simplicity would suit sungjin the most out of anything, but that definitely doesn’t mean he can’t clean up well… i mean have you seen him sheeeeesh. but all in all, he’d wear a suit and tie (and tbh i really think his flowy, brown, middle parted hair would look so dreamy for a prom) ((i can really see him wearing a deep navy color with silver or gray accents)), and leave it to you to steal the show with a beautiful fit and flare dress (maybe a baby blue to compliment his navy suit!!), a stunning makeup look, and flowing hair to match it. as soon as he saw you i KNOW he’d literally lose his breath and just… deadass stare for a solid 3 minutes before snapping back to reality and just sputtering out how beautiful he thinks you look… wow he would literally be so whipped and affectionate towards you, calling you his angel… ouch my heart  yea so ik we joke ab it but sungjin is such a dad when it comes to dances like prom . gggggh  he doesn't quite like dancing so you kept him company throughout (people watching, talking, singing along to random songs, walking over to the dance circle to see jae and brian being literal asshats-) but oh heavens to betsy,, he would so pull you so so close, hold the small of your back, sway with you and sing sweetly to you when there was a slow dance. he would get so shy about it after tho ghdfgh prom would really highlight how masculine and genuinely chivalrous he is ...owie😔✊

JAE

tbh jae screams a classic hollywood beauty style. he would want to be in a black tux with a red rose to accent it, letting you wear a black dress (tbh any shape but maybe a halter or a-line top), red heels, bombshell curls and a striking yet classy red lip to coordinate it all perfectly. golden accents for sure, him with an 😤iCy GoLdEn WaTcH😤 and you with a golden nameplate necklace of either jae’s or your name (prolly his name bc . let’s face it, he’s lowkey about it, but hehehe he’s possessive and what better night to showcase that you’re his than tonight???) he would be showering you in compliments all night and keeping his hand locked with yours to show everyone what real beauty is (its you btw . you literally can't forget it bc he's constantly telling you so). okok he danced sO MUCH OH  MY GOFD ?? jae really is jyp’s #1 freestyler i-  yall got in the circle and did the stupidest crap, eventually you were too shy for it but jae was brave and TORE IT UP W YOUNGHYUN OKAY what a legend . but fr when things slowed down, he would let you rest your head on his shoulder or your forehead on his chin and he would make sure to press lots of little, soft, meaningful kisses to your forehead or cheek any chance he got. he wanted to take care of you all night and make sure the night was special and fun for you in every way possible

YOUNGHYUN

let’s get real, we know younghyun can be sweet and genuine, but for a night like this, he’s gonna want to go all out. sexy time!!!🤠 younghyun would just be drooling all night for you in a tight mermaid dress and a thick smokey eye look with statement lips to tie it all together. not to mention, he would be such a killer… no matter what color concept you go for, he’d pull it all together with a sly little smirk playing on his lips the whole night… plshelpmesomeonebrianistoomuchformypoorheart he would dance with you to any song you wanted, his hands on your hips to make sure everyone watching knew you were his ;)))) jesus im sw e  a  t t inh gfn but honestly when he wasn’t tearing up the floor with you or his friends, he would be chatting up with you, keeping you entertained, or when the slow song finally came on, he would pull you extremely close whispering little sweet nothings, making it feel extremely and perfectly intimate uwu

WONPIL

classy classy classyyy kim wonpil-ssiiiiiii👀.. ok like on god . wonpil SNAPS for prom. he would wear either a black/maroon turtleneck with a jacket/blazer (idk mens fashion shhh) ((with a silver/gold chain showing under the turtleneck bc … the taste this man has.. i-) or a fitted button up with suspenders and a bowtie. wonpil cleans UP and he would look so … handsome . holy shit im sweating  good lord save me you would wear a wine colored dress, maybe a high-low ?? (tbh any style would make his jaw DROP sis i KNOW) wonpil would sing every song with you and act up occasionally but would probably let you do most of the dancing bc he knew you had fun with it he was just scared to look like a complete fuckhead like jae and younghyun but… ok tea but wonpil really would like to dance in a silly way with you, like holding hands and just grooving along, he loved spending time without a care with you, it felt like the real world would melt away. slow dances would maybe take him a bit of courage initially because .. gaddam u just looked so pretty and he wasn’t sure how to go about it all, but once you showed comfort in slow dancing with him, it all melted away again, back to a lovely and romantic night

DOWOON

sweet little maknae dowoonie ohghdfgh he would wear a traditional suit and tie (which sounds simple in and of itself but ... good lord he looks mature dressed up like this and you really fell even harder for him showing a charming and handsome side that night), letting you steal the show with a majestic ballgown!! he would tell you all night how you looked like a real life princess, he was so honestly starstruck. he isn’t one for dancing, but seeing how happy it made you, he would do it all night long. with that being said, he was really shy to begin with, but seeing how you let go and laughed as you danced with him, he did too. and u mmm m uhh slow dancing was new territory to him .. like entirely new fghffg but because being so close to you made him a little nervous, he was sure to spin, lift and dip you every once and a while :’) at first you were surprised bc .. he did it all with such control, it surprised you, but you really enjoyed it, it felt like a real ball!! and he was sure to flirtatiously say “its only fitting for a princess” when you’d comment on it (where did this charm come from. im not mad i just wanna talk) he was also so conscious of how long your dress was, and helped you as you walked around greeting your friends, he was making sure you would never lose your footing or have someone accidentally step on your dress (heaven forbid his princess be inconvenienced in the slightest on her special night) and at the end of it all, you pressed a small kiss to his cheek and watched as the color rushed to his face, but he just chuckled and let a little confidence take him and he put his arm around you, holding you close to him :’))) hhgfh so so f t i love

[jodyedgarus]

25 Years Of Super Bowl Halftime Show Lineups, Ranked

On Sunday, tens of thousands of rabid football fans will descend upon Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII. They will consume lots of alcohol. They will paint their faces. They will scream and howl as the Patriots and Rams engage in brutal 22-man warfare with the highest possible stakes. Oh, and about two hours into this, they will all pause everything to watch a 12-minute Maroon 5 concert.

The Super Bowl halftime show has become the spectacle within the spectacle. It used to be filler entertainment while the players hydrated and tended to their wounds. Now it serves a higher purpose. It is about world peace, joy, introspection and even grief. It’s also sometimes about giant metallic lion puppets and dancing sharks.

How are we to interpret these hopelessly silly, desperately hopeful rituals? By ranking them, of course. At FiveThirtyEight, we don’t have the technology to make slideshows, but we do have math and a history of applying convoluted methodologies to questions that don’t really need answers. So let’s get started.

Methodology

First, we need to manage expectations: We are not ranking halftime performances, rather the sheer star power that the NFL assembled on stage each year. We’ll talk about how the shows went, but only in relation to their artists’ success on the Billboard Hot 100 chart before the Super Bowl. Our methodology favors shows with many artists because they’re more likely to excite an audience diverse in age and musical interests. Purists may have enjoyed the simplicity of seeing The Who perform without any interlopers in 2010, but anyone who wasn’t excited by a few 60-something British rockers playing their decades-old hits was left with bupkis.

We chose Michael Jackson’s 1993 halftime appearance as the starting point for our analysis. His performance — widely considered one of the best — is the beginning of the modern halftime show. Viewer ratings for the 1993 show exceeded ratings for the actual game, and a blueprint was formed for years ahead. To get a sense of how MJ changed the game, note that the previous year’s show included a salute to the 1992 Winter Olympics and a bunch of kids performing a rap arrangement of “Frosty the Snowman.”

To measure the success of the featured artists — excluding cameos from the likes of Jessica Simpson, who kicked off the 2004 show by asking the audience to “choose to party” — we created a metric called Performer Points. Our methodology for calculating these points is simple:

Artists are assigned points for each of their songs to make the Billboard Hot 100 list since the list began in August 1958.

A song appearing at No. 1 is worth 100 points.

A song at No. 100 is worth 1 point.

We count each week separately, so songs rack up points for staying on the chart.

Performers listed as the main artist on a track get full credit.

Featured artists or guest vocalists get only one-third of the song’s points.1

Performers get one-third of the points from their former band’s hits. That means Paul McCartney gets only a small boost from hits by the Beatles. The weights compound, so if an artist’s former band was merely featured on a song, the artist gets one-ninth of the song’s points.2

If any of that seems confusing, let’s look at an example featuring one of this year’s performers, Atlanta rapper Big Boi.

When we add up all the points, we can see how successful the artists were for every Super Bowl. Here’s what that looks like for the 2019 halftime performers.

Super Bowl LIII nets a respectable 65,065 total Performer Points. That’s seventh on our list of best Super Bowl lineups since 1993. We’ll see whether that translates to a memorable show on Sunday, but the past five years could give us a sense of whether our methodology has any predictive power.

  Rankings

It’s easy to dunk on the Black Eyed Peas, and their uninspiring halftime show in 2011 didn’t make it any harder. Fergie, will.i.am, Taboo (!) and apl.de.ap (!!) closed out their headlining set with “Where Is the Love?” on a giant stage shaped like, you guessed it, the word “Love.” The only problem was that part of the letter “v” was literally missing. Now at least we have some data to back up what everyone was thinking the next day: Usher should have headlined. By 2011, he had already reached Billboard’s top 103 with 14 tracks, including classics such as “My Boo” and “U Remind Me.” Usher went into the halftime show with almost twice as many Performer Points as the Peas, and though he performed one of his weaker hits, “OMG,” he still managed to hit every cue, leaping over will.i.am’s head and into our hearts.

I have a confession: I’ve always thought of the 2012 halftime show as “the one with Nicki Minaj.” Looking at the chart, it’s clear there’s recency bias at work — Minaj has become unavoidable since 2012. But at the time of the Super Bowl, her only top 10 hit4 was “Super Bass.” Madonna, on the other hand, stands on top of our individual power rankings with more than 59,000 Performer Points, thanks to her trove of hits dating back to the 1980s. Credit to Madge for almost single-handedly dragging this riot of grecian beefcakes and vogueing into the top five — Katy Perry and Lady Gaga could never.

I’m glad to see our formula isn’t totally set on picking shows from the past 10 years. The “Salute to Motown’s 40th Anniversary” in 1998 had all the intergenerational appeal that Madonna’s show was supposed to capture. The choreography seems a little hokey by today’s standards, but I could listen to this medley all day. Queen Latifah brings it, The Temptations sound fantastic, Boyz II Men gets a solid ballad in, Smokey covers all the old bases and Martha Reeves is so harmlessly, indescribably awful that you can’t help but smile knowing that social media didn’t exist back then.5

Super Bowl L — er, 50 — was billed as Coldplay’s performance, but the NFL let halftime show veterans Beyoncé and Bruno Mars “crash” it. This was a blessing for anyone not named Chris Martin. Both guest stars had more Performer Points than Coldplay, and they stomped away with the show. Beyoncé, dressed in a black leather homage to the Black Panthers, debuted6 “Formation” right there on the field and reminded us of just how powerful this 12-minute musical interlude can be.

We didn’t tweak the weights to get Nipplegate this high up, I promise. You can see on the chart why it’s such a good show. Janet Jackson was an appropriate headline pick, both in length of career and volume of hits. Nelly and P. Diddy were established emissaries from the rap genre, which the Super Bowl has rarely invited on stage. Justin Timberlake had teenybopper loyalty from his *NSYNC days and a new, prurient edge as a solo artist. And Kid Rock was … also there. Of course, nobody remembers anything about this show other than the words “wardrobe malfunction,” and I don’t think any chart could change that, so let’s leave things there.

You may be wondering where your favorite halftime show falls on the list. As we mentioned above, it’s a rough measure of the excitement people might have felt before the show began — Prince may be the best performer ever to take the halftime stage, but if you weren’t a fan, then there wasn’t much to anticipate. On the chart below, you can see how all the artists compare.

All the data we scraped also allows us to answer one final question: Which artists should the Super Bowl reach out to for the 2020 show? Assuming the league is aiming to please a range of viewers, we can grab the top 10 artists by Performer Points for each decade since 1990, as well as from the past two years for the Gen Z audience.

Drafting a Super Bowl halftime show fantasy lineup

Artists with the most Performer Points, by decade

1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-present 2017-present 1 Mariah Carey Nelly Drake Drake 2 Madonna Beyonce Rihanna Post Malone 3 Boyz II Men Ludacris Nicki Minaj Cardi B 4 Whitney Houston Kanye West Taylor Swift Kendrick Lamar 5 Janet Jackson P!nk Bruno Mars Khalid 6 Celine Dion Usher Maroon 5 Ed Sheeran 7 R. Kelly Rihanna Katy Perry Migos 8 TLC 50 Cent Chris Brown Imagine Dragons 9 Elton John Nickelback Lil Wayne Bruno Mars 10 Toni Braxton Alicia Keys Justin Bieber Halsey

Gray text indicates that the artist has already performed at a halftime show, that the artist has died or that a member of the group has died.

Unlike in the rest of the analysis, points earned as a member of a musical group do not count toward an artist’s individual points.

Source: Billboard

Drake would be the biggest get here for the NFL. Starting in May 2009, Drizzy held a spot somewhere on the Hot 100 for 430 weeks straight. Since 2010, he’s amassed 83,898 Performer Points. The closest runner-up in that table is Rihanna, who collected 48,153 points during the same period. If halftime producers haven’t already approached Drake, they’re sleeping on him.

It’s impossible to know who on our list has talked with the NFL. Stars are rarely as open about Super Bowl negotiations as Cardi B was this year, when one of her representatives told Page 6 that “she was not particularly interested in participating because of how she feels about Colin Kaepernick and the whole movement.” (Rihanna also reportedly declined to perform because of her support of Kaepernick.) Taylor Swift, for instance, seems like an obvious candidate. But she has shilled for Coca-Cola — a relationship that could be at risk if she were to perform in the halftime show that Pepsi has sponsored for seven years running.

Whomever the NFL picks next year, the pressure is on. Asking Maroon 5 to headline a show in Atlanta, a city abounding in talented rappers (Big Boi is the only homegrown artist on the bill), resulted in a social media backlash, and a petition with more than 100,000 signatures has urged the band to drop out to demonstrate solidarity with Kaepernick. USA Today even went so far as to publish an obituary for the halftime show as a cultural institution.

That seems a little premature to me. The Super Bowl has evolved before and could do it again. What used to be a variety show writ large, with inscrutable themes,7 Elvis impersonators and card tricks eventually embraced the market-certified success of singers like Michael Jackson and *NSYNC. The collective shrugs following picks like Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and Maroon 5, which has the second most Performer Points of any artist on our list, may herald the end of that era.8 The league has clearly taken note of this year’s controversy, announcing that the pregame press conference with Maroon 5 would not take place so that the artists could focus on their performance. What might come next for the halftime show is anybody’s guess, but one thing’s for certain: Everyone will be watching.

All images courtesy of Getty.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/25-years-of-super-bowl-halftime-show-lineups-ranked/

[jonathanbelloblog]

America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show

POMONA, California — When Al Slonaker organized an Oakland-based car show in 1949, he just wanted to showcase all the new car models for returning WWII soldiers. Local car clubs took up some of the extra space, but then he saw all those young folks walk right past the new machines and straight to the hopped-up and chopped down hot rods and customs. The following year, Slonaker ditched the dealers and the Grand National Roadster Show was born.

Like all babies, it’s grown and moved away to a new home, but it continues to host one of the most coveted awards in custom car building—America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). Fans of American car culture come from all over the world to show and to see the show.

John Buck brought the Roadster Show to the Pomona Fairplex in 2003. Under his care it has expanded from three buildings to nine, plus outside displays. “The show is kid and family friendly. We get pinstripers, cackle cars, bands, bikes, trucks, lowriders; all the representatives of American car culture are here.”

In the “Suede Palace,” you can pick up rockabilly accessories while admiring high-nosed “Gasser” race cars and paintjobs so ornate they’d make Michelangelo wish he’d had metalflake and a spraygun for the Sistine ceiling. In a building across the way, rare musclecars represent the highlights of the horsepower wars, with multiple carburetors hiding under flashy hood graphics, ready for a run down Woodward Ave. Other buildings house dry-lakes racers, etched and pinstriped cruisers, and a charming collection of micro-cars, three of which could fit in a lowrider Impala’s trunk.

The stars of the show are in Building 4, where the 15 hopeful AMBR winners hover around their roadsters, polishing and dusting until a brain surgeon would say, “Dude, it’s clean enough.” This is a big deal. People spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars—sometimes millions—to bring a car up to the level of AMBR competition. Judging takes days and can be controversial.

“This isn’t a question of restoration or historical accuracy,” former HOT ROD staffer—and former AMBR judge, Thom Taylor told us. “This is the Most Beautiful. It’s very subjective. Just being technically impressive isn’t enough.”

A stroll through the entrants is both technically and aesthetically impressive. Most of the cars are ’32 Fords—the quintessential roadster—but any pre-1937 American car with a removable roof, no sideglass, and a removable windshield is eligible. This year a lone 1936 Cadillac stands out amongst the Fords. It’s the color of the last gasp of light before nightfall, a gloaming blue with fenders like a distant mountain range. You expect to see the moon rise above them. “It’s easiest to win with a ’32,” Taylor told us. “It’s established. Judges know what to look for.”

Rick Dore has taken a risk bringing the Cad, but it isn’t unheard of for an unusual model to take top prize. In 2017, a Troy Ladd-built Packard packed up the trophy.

The engine bays are as much of a show as the car exteriors, with rare performance modifications like the Ardun OHV hemi-head conversion.

Near the stage, owner/builder Brian Cruz out of Texas dusts off the small block Chevy in an Easter-pastel blue ’32 Ford. Next to him is Scott Helliesen’s lipstick-red ’32, one side panel lifted like a bird’s wing offering a glimpse at the Ford flathead inside. Engines in the roadsters run the gamut from early flathead Fords to a modern 4.6-liter Northstar.

There are no rules governing the powerplants aside from one: the car must drive past the judges on the way into the show. Proof of functionality can be spotted in the heat discoloration on chromed headers, a light gold at the bends that won’t polish away. It’s a point of pride.

While nobody will spill the winner before the awards, everyone has a favorite. Before we even see it, we’ve already heard about Dana and Marge Elrod’s 1936 Ford.

How you display is as important as what you display at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.

“It looks so mean,” said Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design, an LA-based custom shop. “It’s hard to make a car look intimidating when it’s up in the air on a plinth, but they did it.”

“We really wanted this car to scream ‘hot rod’,” Dana Elrod told us when we approached him. We’d say it doesn’t scream so much as growl with Clint Eastwood-worthy menace. Strope was right—the Elrod car, built by Nebraska customizer Dale Boesch, is downright mobster. The rear has been shortened, the front reworked, it’s lowered and leaned out and black as an eclipse. If you could see all the seams in the metalwork it would look like Frankenstein’s monster, but you can’t see them. Nary a ripple mars its glossy clearcoat. A 392 Hemi with intake stacks and cloth wires offers a pop of chrome and color. Boesch and the Elrods worked on the car for 11 years.

Rare muscle cars filled an entire hall, including the 1963 split-window Corvette originally built by Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick and restored by collector Tom McIntyre.

“I started with a decklid and two doors,” said Elrod. “Somewhere along the way we started thinking about this show.”

Displays around the cars are as varied as the engine choices. A billet-and-black ’32 Ford built by Alan Johnson sits on a simple grey carpet with a reflective Lexan sign pronouncing its key specs. Next to it, surrounded by stanchions made of exotic overhead cam heads is the dark blue ’34 Ford of Pete Aardema.

“If the piston matches the head you can use the head,” Aardema told us as if just anyone should have thought of topping a stroked Donovan big block Chevrolet with a Porsche 928 DOHC head. Aardema has made a living out of customized engine combos and his roadster didn’t have any problem meeting the run requirement. “It’s got 10,000 miles on it. Won four different slalom events. Easily.”

The Martin Special, a 1931 Ford built by Scott Kanoski at Hot Rods and Hobbies for David Martin took home the 2018 AMBR award. The car features a lot of contemporary touches, like an emphasis on handling and a minimum of chrome.

Competition for Aardema’s mileage can be found across the way, in the Martin Special display. Another dark blue Ford, David Martin’s 1931 highboy has bragging rights too. Built to drive, the roadster was entered by Martin in the Nevada Silver State Classic Challenge, running for an average of more than 100 mph over the course. That’s a lot of bugs in the teeth. Like the Elrod car, the Martin Special was a buzz in the crowd long before the judging.

One of the reasons that the AMBR contestants can have such active backstories is that unlike the Detroit-based Ridler award, which requires that the entrants be never before seen brand-new builds, AMBR rules only specify that the car has not been in a judged competition. This means that entrants can be old builds, restored builds, and rescued historically important cars.

LA car collector Bruce Meyer brought out the nickel-trimmed and appropriately named “Nickel Roadster,” which was originally built in 1993 but never formally judged. Dan Hostetter built his copper 1927 Ford based off drawings from 1955. The fiberglass and paint show the handwork more than the highly worked steel cars around it, but its creativity and joy-of-machine might sum up the original spirit of car customizing better than any of its less-wavy brethren.

Custom builder Steve Strope told us that he comes to the Grand National show to catch up with his friends and fellow customizers. “It’s not about promoting the shop, it’s about camaraderie, about getting right under a car with someone like Troy (Trepanier) just to admire what he did with the rear suspension.”

If the AMBR trophy was given for pure spirit, though, no car would be more deserving than James Bobowski’s 1929 track-nosed “Eddie Dye Roadster.” Built nearly 70 years ago, the roadster was sold, disassembled, and nearly forgotten. Through hard work and persistence, the original rounded front clip was found and reunited, and all the missing details were replaced or recreated. It’s a great example of design and community.

We didn’t envy the judges the task of choosing a winner. Every one of the 15 contestants offered an interesting engine choice, a great nod to history, or an astounding example of metalwork and design, and man, those paintjobs. Cosmetics companies should come here to scout nail polish ideas.

“This is the highest quality across the board that you’ll see at any show,” said Illinois-based builder Troy Trepanier. He should know, his shop, Rad Rides By Troy, worked on the AMBR-winning car in 2014. “It’s California. It’s in the culture here to understand this stuff. They get it.” He smiles and leans back against the car he brought, not to enter, just to show. “We come to show ‘em we can build cars in the Midwest too.”

In the end, the Martin Special was named America’s Best Roadster for 2018. There may have been a few disappointed builders, but it was a solid choice, one that represents an ongoing change in contemporary hot rodding away from “trailer queens” built just for show and towards cars that really hit the road, just like the early hot-rodders would have wanted.

Displays in the Roadster show weren’t all big American machines. A corral of microcars featured such cuties as this Goggomobil Dart from Australia.

Along with the vehicles, the most famous names in hot-rodding strolled the halls. We barely entered the first building before we were face-to-face with Gene Winfield, an LA-car customizer so influential there is a paint technique named the “Winfield Fade.”

The coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy stands more than 9-feet tall. In the early days of the show, winners would drive away with it sticking out of their roadsters and return it the next year. Today winners get a smaller version to keep.

The post America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

from Performance Junk Blogger Feed 4 http://ift.tt/2nqIff4 via IFTTT

[jesusvasser]

America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show

POMONA, California — When Al Slonaker organized an Oakland-based car show in 1949, he just wanted to showcase all the new car models for returning WWII soldiers. Local car clubs took up some of the extra space, but then he saw all those young folks walk right past the new machines and straight to the hopped-up and chopped down hot rods and customs. The following year, Slonaker ditched the dealers and the Grand National Roadster Show was born.

Like all babies, it’s grown and moved away to a new home, but it continues to host one of the most coveted awards in custom car building—America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). Fans of American car culture come from all over the world to show and to see the show.

John Buck brought the Roadster Show to the Pomona Fairplex in 2003. Under his care it has expanded from three buildings to nine, plus outside displays. “The show is kid and family friendly. We get pinstripers, cackle cars, bands, bikes, trucks, lowriders; all the representatives of American car culture are here.”

In the “Suede Palace,” you can pick up rockabilly accessories while admiring high-nosed “Gasser” race cars and paintjobs so ornate they’d make Michelangelo wish he’d had metalflake and a spraygun for the Sistine ceiling. In a building across the way, rare musclecars represent the highlights of the horsepower wars, with multiple carburetors hiding under flashy hood graphics, ready for a run down Woodward Ave. Other buildings house dry-lakes racers, etched and pinstriped cruisers, and a charming collection of micro-cars, three of which could fit in a lowrider Impala’s trunk.

The stars of the show are in Building 4, where the 15 hopeful AMBR winners hover around their roadsters, polishing and dusting until a brain surgeon would say, “Dude, it’s clean enough.” This is a big deal. People spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars—sometimes millions—to bring a car up to the level of AMBR competition. Judging takes days and can be controversial.

“This isn’t a question of restoration or historical accuracy,” former HOT ROD staffer—and former AMBR judge, Thom Taylor told us. “This is the Most Beautiful. It’s very subjective. Just being technically impressive isn’t enough.”

A stroll through the entrants is both technically and aesthetically impressive. Most of the cars are ’32 Fords—the quintessential roadster—but any pre-1937 American car with a removable roof, no sideglass, and a removable windshield is eligible. This year a lone 1936 Cadillac stands out amongst the Fords. It’s the color of the last gasp of light before nightfall, a gloaming blue with fenders like a distant mountain range. You expect to see the moon rise above them. “It’s easiest to win with a ’32,” Taylor told us. “It’s established. Judges know what to look for.”

Rick Dore has taken a risk bringing the Cad, but it isn’t unheard of for an unusual model to take top prize. In 2017, a Troy Ladd-built Packard packed up the trophy.

The engine bays are as much of a show as the car exteriors, with rare performance modifications like the Ardun OHV hemi-head conversion.

Near the stage, owner/builder Brian Cruz out of Texas dusts off the small block Chevy in an Easter-pastel blue ’32 Ford. Next to him is Scott Helliesen’s lipstick-red ’32, one side panel lifted like a bird’s wing offering a glimpse at the Ford flathead inside. Engines in the roadsters run the gamut from early flathead Fords to a modern 4.6-liter Northstar.

There are no rules governing the powerplants aside from one: the car must drive past the judges on the way into the show. Proof of functionality can be spotted in the heat discoloration on chromed headers, a light gold at the bends that won’t polish away. It’s a point of pride.

While nobody will spill the winner before the awards, everyone has a favorite. Before we even see it, we’ve already heard about Dana and Marge Elrod’s 1936 Ford.

How you display is as important as what you display at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.

“It looks so mean,” said Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design, an LA-based custom shop. “It’s hard to make a car look intimidating when it’s up in the air on a plinth, but they did it.”

“We really wanted this car to scream ‘hot rod’,” Dana Elrod told us when we approached him. We’d say it doesn’t scream so much as growl with Clint Eastwood-worthy menace. Strope was right—the Elrod car, built by Nebraska customizer Dale Boesch, is downright mobster. The rear has been shortened, the front reworked, it’s lowered and leaned out and black as an eclipse. If you could see all the seams in the metalwork it would look like Frankenstein’s monster, but you can’t see them. Nary a ripple mars its glossy clearcoat. A 392 Hemi with intake stacks and cloth wires offers a pop of chrome and color. Boesch and the Elrods worked on the car for 11 years.

Rare muscle cars filled an entire hall, including the 1963 split-window Corvette originally built by Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick and restored by collector Tom McIntyre.

“I started with a decklid and two doors,” said Elrod. “Somewhere along the way we started thinking about this show.”

Displays around the cars are as varied as the engine choices. A billet-and-black ’32 Ford built by Alan Johnson sits on a simple grey carpet with a reflective Lexan sign pronouncing its key specs. Next to it, surrounded by stanchions made of exotic overhead cam heads is the dark blue ’34 Ford of Pete Aardema.

“If the piston matches the head you can use the head,” Aardema told us as if just anyone should have thought of topping a stroked Donovan big block Chevrolet with a Porsche 928 DOHC head. Aardema has made a living out of customized engine combos and his roadster didn’t have any problem meeting the run requirement. “It’s got 10,000 miles on it. Won four different slalom events. Easily.”

The Martin Special, a 1931 Ford built by Scott Kanoski at Hot Rods and Hobbies for David Martin took home the 2018 AMBR award. The car features a lot of contemporary touches, like an emphasis on handling and a minimum of chrome.

Competition for Aardema’s mileage can be found across the way, in the Martin Special display. Another dark blue Ford, David Martin’s 1931 highboy has bragging rights too. Built to drive, the roadster was entered by Martin in the Nevada Silver State Classic Challenge, running for an average of more than 100 mph over the course. That’s a lot of bugs in the teeth. Like the Elrod car, the Martin Special was a buzz in the crowd long before the judging.

One of the reasons that the AMBR contestants can have such active backstories is that unlike the Detroit-based Ridler award, which requires that the entrants be never before seen brand-new builds, AMBR rules only specify that the car has not been in a judged competition. This means that entrants can be old builds, restored builds, and rescued historically important cars.

LA car collector Bruce Meyer brought out the nickel-trimmed and appropriately named “Nickel Roadster,” which was originally built in 1993 but never formally judged. Dan Hostetter built his copper 1927 Ford based off drawings from 1955. The fiberglass and paint show the handwork more than the highly worked steel cars around it, but its creativity and joy-of-machine might sum up the original spirit of car customizing better than any of its less-wavy brethren.

Custom builder Steve Strope told us that he comes to the Grand National show to catch up with his friends and fellow customizers. “It’s not about promoting the shop, it’s about camaraderie, about getting right under a car with someone like Troy (Trepanier) just to admire what he did with the rear suspension.”

If the AMBR trophy was given for pure spirit, though, no car would be more deserving than James Bobowski’s 1929 track-nosed “Eddie Dye Roadster.” Built nearly 70 years ago, the roadster was sold, disassembled, and nearly forgotten. Through hard work and persistence, the original rounded front clip was found and reunited, and all the missing details were replaced or recreated. It’s a great example of design and community.

We didn’t envy the judges the task of choosing a winner. Every one of the 15 contestants offered an interesting engine choice, a great nod to history, or an astounding example of metalwork and design, and man, those paintjobs. Cosmetics companies should come here to scout nail polish ideas.

“This is the highest quality across the board that you’ll see at any show,” said Illinois-based builder Troy Trepanier. He should know, his shop, Rad Rides By Troy, worked on the AMBR-winning car in 2014. “It’s California. It’s in the culture here to understand this stuff. They get it.” He smiles and leans back against the car he brought, not to enter, just to show. “We come to show ‘em we can build cars in the Midwest too.”

In the end, the Martin Special was named America’s Best Roadster for 2018. There may have been a few disappointed builders, but it was a solid choice, one that represents an ongoing change in contemporary hot rodding away from “trailer queens” built just for show and towards cars that really hit the road, just like the early hot-rodders would have wanted.

Displays in the Roadster show weren’t all big American machines. A corral of microcars featured such cuties as this Goggomobil Dart from Australia.

Along with the vehicles, the most famous names in hot-rodding strolled the halls. We barely entered the first building before we were face-to-face with Gene Winfield, an LA-car customizer so influential there is a paint technique named the “Winfield Fade.”

The coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy stands more than 9-feet tall. In the early days of the show, winners would drive away with it sticking out of their roadsters and return it the next year. Today winners get a smaller version to keep.

The post America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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[cebeavers]

Pigeon Forge 2005

December 16-18, 2005

In 2004 I had the bright idea to go to Dollywood in December for my first visit to the park.  Since it was open and they run the coasters in the winter, I wanted to go try out Thunderhead.  I wasn’t aware until last year just how close the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area was.  And Thunderhead was screaming at me to come and ride again.  So I brought it up to a few people and we planned an informal event on a Saturday in December.  Ten of us, and we all had lots of fun.  After coming back and talking about it for some time several other friends and acquaintances decided that they would like to come as well if we did it again.  Well in 2005 we did it again.  With seven more people than the previous year.

So, months of planning went into this weekend.  Of course, I took it upon myself to plan.  And one thing the group (or most of them anyways) learned was not to trust Clint with money.  More importantly, I should say, don’t trust Clint with Math.  Ever.  Ever ever, in fact.  I did a good job with planning the meal, though.  So after literally almost a year of planning, we had a group of 19 going.  Then Josh and Brandi had to back out.  So we were down two people, but since they weren’t going to eat at the buffet and they didn’t have to pay to get in with their season passes it wasn’t hard to adjust.

The week finally arrived.  I was driving from Southern West Virginia to Pigeon Forge by myself.  I was off for the week prior to the trip, so I was able to adjust my sleeping as I was a day sleeper during that time.  So on Friday December 16 I woke up early and headed south.  The drive from home to the Pigeon Forge area is about 4 hours, but all interstate once I reach Bluefield, Va. which is about an hour from home.  Since my Xterra drinks gas like a fish drinks water, not to mention I’m in need of new tires (c’mon income tax refund), I borrowed my parent’s Honda Element for the weekend.  I got my ginger pills, bufferin rip off, XM Radio, and CD case from my car and off I went.  Thank goodness for XM Radio.

I arrived in Sevierville around 1pm.  Beth, who had picked up Kris Allen and Danny Perkins were heading to Louisville to pick up Mike Case and Matt Scott as their flights landed…or so she thought.  Unfortunately, when Matt arrived in Cincinnati, they canceled his flight to KY, so he was on a bus that took far longer than they had anticipated.  I arrived to Pigeon Forge after Tina and Ed  so I met up with Ed as Tina waited at the NASCAR Speed Park for Nicole.  Half of the power was out in Pigeon Forge, and none of the traffic lights worked.  The coaster at NASCAR Speed Park was closed for the weekend as well.

Ed was at Best Wester, so we headed towards Gatlinburg, stopping for me to pick up some stuff on the way.  We stopped to look at Hillbilly Golf, which never opened, and then we rode thru Gatlinburg for my first time.  Tina called and she and Nicole decided to meet us back at the parking lot by Hillbilly Golf.  Since we weren’t far away, we drove around downtown Gatlinburg a bit.  While down there, I had seen a Ferris Wheel and a Yo-Yo and something else I couldn’t make out up on a hill.  We drove up a road to see if we could get closer to investigate, and found a park that had to have been closed for quite some time, as everything was needing to be painted, de-rusted, and what not. It was abandoned.  It only had a couple of rides in it, but it looked quaint.  I couldn’t figure out how to turn around, but the gate to the park was open, and that was the only place the road let to turn around, so I turned around by the Yo-Yo and headed back down. I’d never driven thru an amusement park before, and I didn’t really mean to this time.

So we picked up the girls at the parking lot and headed to park in Gatlinburg.  We went to the far end, paid, and left the Element in a covered car park.  Then we headed out into Gatlinburg, as none of us had ever really been there.  We were going to go thru the Ripley’s Haunted House, but I wasn’t paying $14 for it.  That was far too expensive for something I’ve done elsewhere, and while good, it wasn’t amazing.  So we walked more, found a candy shop where I had a wonderful green apple dipped in caramel and chocolate, and then we walked down to the Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokeys around 4pm.  Mike Bartlett was just arriving in the area and was going to meet us here in a while.  So we paid and went on in.

The Aquarium was wonderful!  I had been thru the Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach and loved it, so I knew I would like this one.  It was very similar, but also different; though that could be more because it has been a few years since I had been thru the one at Myrtle.  We wandered around looking at fish and what not until we arrived at the tunnel going under the shark and fish tanks.  We all really enjoyed standing on the moving walkway as sharks, sawfish, eels, turtles and more swam around us.  We liked it so much that we wanted to do it again.

Then I realized something.  Mike may have been trying to call…but you don’t get a signal when you’re under thousands of gallons of water on your cell.  So we went to call him, but actually saw Mike standing on the balcony above us.  We went up to meet him, and got a chance to do the first half of the aquarium all over again, which was fine, as we really kind of wanted to anyhow.  This place really was great.

We spent quite a lot of time at the aquarium, saw some feedings taking place, and petted the stingrays and lots of other stuff.  Then the crew picked up a few things at the gift shop before we headed out.  It was getting dark by this time.  Walking down main street Gatlinburg, someone saw a shop down one of the offshoot alleyways.  I mentioned how we had plenty of time, so we could go and look.  We did.  After coming around to the back of the shops, we walked down by the hotels and what not on the other street.  Then I saw something I had read about and was interested in, Mystery Mansion.  This was a haunted attraction in Gatlinburg that I’ve heard good things about, so since everyone wanted to go, we headed towards the Tiki Torches.  Tina was happy about that…

We arrived to the almost glowing white house to see nobody else around.  The attraction was open, but it was still early, and no one was there but us.  So we paid our way and headed in.  This was by far one of the best haunted houses I’ve done in a while.  This was a rather large attraction.  They have live actors that can not touch you, nor can you touch them.  It was really well done.  And it was an entire building filled up with haunted house offerings.  I was spooked a couple times, after complaining to the actors that they weren’t doing their job by scaring me.  They made up for it after that.

One thing that was fun was standing on one of the balconies that were outside on the front of the ‘mansion’.  Mike B. made the comment that it would be funny if it dropped.  We laughed.  A few minutes later, we were in an ancient Egyptian Tomb themed area, and I went onto another balcony.  And it DID drop.  It also made me scream.  Good job, scared me.  The actors got better.  We were the only ones getting the attention, after all.  Oh, and I have to say that the room with the doors was a nice touch.  As well as the first room, which was very much like a generic version of the first room on Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure?  Well, except that you don’t get Rod Searling talking to you, and you have to find your way ‘behind the fireplace’.

So we walked back to the main street and picked up my car after checking out Ober-Gatlinburg.  We took the girls back to their car after checking on Mike’s, which was by the Aquarium.  We were to meet the rest of our group at the Hard Rock Café at 8pm, but I wanted to get there around 7:30 to make sure they knew we had quite a few coming.  I parked, the girls parked, and the five of us went on in to the Hard Rock to meet Brian, Alicia, and his good friend Brad.

We all got a table and waited.  Beth and company were supposed to be there soon.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Beth and Co. were not having a good trip.  They did finally arrive at the hard rock around 9:20.  We had eaten by that point and had a very nice time getting to know one another in person.  Hard Rock was standard, but there were far more Mohawks & kilts working there than at other Hard Rock Cafés I’ve been to. 

When the BethBus did arrive, we walked down to Wendy’s for them to eat as Hard Rock was getting crowded.  We all sat there for quite a while, and eventually went our separate ways.  Beth had rented a cabin, so Matt, Danny, and I rode in my ride for the weekend up to the cabin.  We got turned around a couple times, but found it.  It was really quaint, even without the Foosball table and the fact that their hot tub didn’t work that nite.  Oh well.  Sleep came fast for me when I eventually made it to my bed.  Would tomorrow cooperate?