A Week of Vintage Steel, Horsepower, and Chrome

8/9 – 8/12/2017

Bit of a different format for this post on Hot August Nights! Rather than endlessly telling you about the thousands of cars I see and dozens of activities I participate in all day, for each day, I’m just going to consolidate it all into one post with a ton of pictures. It’ll be great! You won’t have to read about how I went to see the car show, again! You won’t have to read about how I went in the nightly cruise, again! It’s just one big highlight reel from here on out for the Hot August Nights content.

For the uninitiated, Hot August Nights is the nation’s biggest classic car festival / show. It’s hosted by about seven casinos in downtown Reno/Sparks and features daily car shows, cruises, drag racing, autocrossing, drifting, auctions, swap meets, vendors, and music over a five-day period. Anything that you can do with a car is featured here, as long as it’s legal. It’s open only to 1976 and older cars, but is truly a “run whatcha brung” type event. At this show you’ll see everything from junkers thrown together that barely run to six-figure show stoppers. You’ll see old workhorse vehicles that missed the scrapyard and vehicles that are built entirely out of bits pulled back out of the scrapyard once they’ve been there for a few decades. You’ll see home-built rat rods, hot rods, and classics of every conceivable year, make, and model. It’s a show that has something for everyone, but is really best described as “hot rod heaven”.

Jane, Dad, and I met up with some old friends from previous years of traveling and hung out with them for the majority of the show. Our days were for the most part filled with car shows, most frequently the one in downtown Reno. There, several blocks of the main strip are closed down for HAN participants only, and everyone fights to park under the Reno sign. I asked some of the guys there what time they arrived to park under the sign and they proudly said, “6 AM!” to which I very strongly replied, “oh HELL no”. So I didn’t park under the sign, because I’m not a crazy person. Or that crazy, at least.

But here's the guys who parked under the sign - please recognize their sacrifice of a lot of sleep to get those spots. 

 

Had to get another shipment of my trusty all-in-one cleaner (what I use in lieu of car washes) in to the hotel! I ran out trying to keep the ash off of Jane while driving through the PNW fires.

Parked in front of the courthouse instead of the sign, and didn't have to be up at 6 AM to do it either!

Creeping on a guy looking at Jane's books.

I saw thousands of cars over the course of the week – this year’s turnout was over 6500, I hear – so here’s some pictures of some of them.

 

Jane and another rear-ending victim. This guy got hit by a distracted driver (same as me, 4 years ago now) on his way into Reno. Major bummer, but he didn't let it get him down! Kudos to him.

Golly, if that ain't a pretty '57 Chevy

Lovely saddle-colored leather interior. I'm jealous, but I also know I'd ruin this interior within a week of my normal use.

Another very cool custom! 

I was fascinated by the bracket the builder fabbed to make this rack and pinion work right. The owner wanted to tell me about the palm tree logo on his gauges. There was a bit of a disconnect in what we each found interesting about this car, I think.

 

Think this may have been my favorite show car of the week. The lines on it were incredible.

Really liked the design and execution of this engine bay, except for one thing...

I, too, have always aspired to be so prepared that I feel the need to carry an extra eight spark plugs on the firewall LOL

But really, the car had some awesome custom work.

You could not possibly get tinnitus from driving this vehicle for extended periods of time.

Lovely paint job and a really well-done chop.

Not entirely sure about the stud decorations on the top of the valve covers, but they did tie back into the rest of the car.

Bigfoot by Summit Racing. People for scale.

Jane parked next to what is, at first glace, a hot rodded '66 Shelby GT350H.

But if you look at it from the side, you see that it's a straight drag car... and they have inexplicably lengthened the nose by a good 18". In this photo Jane's back end is aligned with this car's, for the record.

If you can see out of your windshield clearly, you're doing it wrong.

Also, if you can see out of your side windows clearly, you're also doing it wrong.

Tiny and adorable.

A 1931 Model A on a Dodge pickup chassis and drivetrain... a Fodge, if you will. This monster puts down almost 1400 ft/lbs of torque, and it's 4WD. To say that it smokes all four tires at the drag strip is a serious understatement.

God bless the car guy that went, "You know, I think that people would really like it if I restored a 50's cement truck just because".

A moonroof in the hood, because the engine needs more sunlight than the top of your head.

 

The guy that drives this dresses in a Grim Reaper costume at night for the parade! Alternatively, this vehicle is just actually driven by the Grim Reaper.

Reno Fire Department made a good showing with a lot of its old engines.

What is this? Who knows!

Yes, that is a Thing

No street like Bro Street

Even more adorable than the other one. I have never actually seen anyone driving one of these, and am somewhat convinced that no one actually fits in them.

Perfect prop for this Charger.

My favorite part about this Corvette is that it's driven. I saw the owner autocrossing it (and flogging it HARD) the day prior to seeing it at the show.

Proof.

The Addams Family vehicle!

Iconic fins.

Size comparison.

These guys always look like they're having a ton of fun when they cruise past with a good 16 people hanging out the windows throwing candy.

Longest sunroof I've ever seen.

We also went autocrossing and had a ball watching the drifting events. I didn’t put Jane in the autocross – my insanity only reaches so far, you know, and I draw the line at thrashing my car when I’m several thousand miles away from home and running low on cash – but I did ride along with a friend in his 1969 Mustang convertible, which was nothing short of hilarious.  Sometimes all you need in life is a high horsepower motor in a stock unstiffened chassis on a very small course.

 

This is the most stable in-car photo I succeeded in taking. It is just too difficult to shoot while whipping around in the backseat of this car and giggling madly to boot.

My nights were occupied by cruises and concerts and cruise-ins. Most nights, I would wait until the sun went down and the Reno sign lit up. That was my cue to get in line for the downtown Reno cruise with a bunch of my buddies. They do it 50’s-style, here. Hundreds of cars all cruise slowly down the main drag in a big loop, with people hanging out the windows hollering at each other and revving their engines at the thousands of spectators that gather to hang out on the side of the road. For many in line, it’s a revival of their teenage years. For me, of course, it’s more a novelty, something that could have been, had I been born in that era. It evokes a great feeling of nostalgia – even though I’ve never experienced the real thing before – and excitement hangs in the air in a veritable cloud. And let me tell you, it’s a great ego-stroking experience to slowly parade your car past the spectators and listen to what they have to say.

 

First night's cruise was a bit rainy, but the temps were perfect.

Saw one of my friends who came from southern Arizona!

A rare picture that includes both me and Jane.

Perfect reflection. 

A massive wing in my headlights... that can only be a SuperBird! A legendary classic, famous both for its speed and exceptional absurdity.

Friday and Saturday night found me at the Grand Sierra for the evening, as there were concerts worth attending! Friday night’s show was Rick Springfield, which was spectacular; Saturday night’s was Joan Jett, which was good but not nearly as entertaining. The front lot of the resort felt overwhelmingly like a giant fair, with food stands and vendors and people galore. The carnival rides you would normally find at a fair were instead replaced, of course, by thousands of rides of a different sort: our cars! Hot rods and classic cars were jammed in every spot they could fit, and in some places that they couldn’t. It was hard to say who was more crowded, the people or the cars. Normally, car shows are very hands-off kind of affairs, where owners watch their vehicles like hawks and chase away any who stray too close to the paint jobs. But in a show like this, where almost every spectator has a car of their own, and where space is not a luxury that anyone can afford, people throw caution to the wind. And that’s how you end up watching a Joan Jett concert stuffed in between two hot rods along with a few dozen other people. But hey, it’s all good, we’re all friends here! That’s what the lady standing on my foot said to me, at least.

Kinda far from the stage, but that's because there were a bunch of cars parked in the places they wanted spectators to stand in... oops.

Taken at 11PM and the crowds are not about to leave.

Observing some people checking Jane out from afar. I did go talk to them afterwards, but I like to watch people peering in through the windows and looking for wreck damage under the car and stuff first.

Enjoying the nation's biggest hot rod party. 

I never did succeed in getting back to my hotel before midnight, and usually it wasn’t til 1 AM or so that I rolled in. And even then the day wasn’t done, as the Sands parking lot tended to turn into its own car show once everyone was docked for the night. People would set out their chairs, grab some food, grab some friends, and grab some wrenches, and would sit out there for hours just shooting the breeze and fixing whatever needed to be fixed. Seems like every night I would come in and someone different would be working on their car. That’s the classic life, I guess, especially if you don’t drive frequently. I’m fortunate in how little trouble Jane gives me in comparison, though I was still keeping a hairy eyeball on the starter issue. It seemed to have gone away as soon as I reached Reno, but Jane tends to hide mechanical problems when around other cars.

 

Just another shot of how long this car is.

An awesome American Graffiti display at the Mels attached to the Sands, where I was staying.

These guys were trying to ask me about Jane and I was trying to take pictures of the fireworks and really neither worked out I guess.

Winding down for the night.

What are the chances of seeing two Grabber Orange Mavericks?? I mean, really.

Lotta diversity in this shot.

A good parting shot... "who cares what my other car is"

The week came to an end all too soon. I had spent five days running myself ragged hanging out with friends, cruising around town, attending car shows, and generally hot rodding myself half to death. Which is exactly how I like it. If I’ve run myself into a state of complete exhaustion and delirium by the end of a car event, I’ve done it right!

I was sad to say goodbye to my friends again – it never seems like I see them for quite long enough - but I was ready to get back on the road. Dad and I planned on hanging out for one more day before splitting ways, and then I would be back on my own again. Well, as alone as I ever can be when I’ve got Jane backing me up. So tomorrow will see me leaving the city of classics and moving on south towards Mono Lake, a peculiar lake filled with peculiar deposits. Until then… Kelly signing out.