Thread: Nsra 2010

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This is what I wrote to the NSRA:

I own a 1932 Ford 3 window high boy and I’m a member of the National Street Rod Association. My main reason for joining the NSRA was because I enjoy street rods and the NSRA limiting event participation to street rods. By the NSRA definition established in 1970, street rods are pre-1949 modified vehicles.

Pre-1949 is not just an arbitrary date. It’s an issue of design and style. Pre-1949 vehicles are pre-World War II design vehicles. Automobile production was halted during World War II and the automobile manufacturers could not put their all new post World War II designed vehicles into production until 1949.

I also enjoy later vehicles and own a 1955 Chevy, 1962 Pontiac and 1974 Pantera. I belong to specialty clubs for those vehicles. I enjoy them at their specialty club events but I’m not interested in seeing them at a street rod event. Even thought they are modified, they are not and will never be street rods.

I’m very concerned about the rule change for 2010 to include pre-1980 vehicles at NSRA events. I realize this change is a business decision to generate additional revenue by expanding your membership base. Just as you are entitle to run your business the way you want, I’m entitled to spend my money the way I want. Because of the current economy I dropped my Good Guys membership this year and renewed my NSRA membership. The decision of which membership to keep was easy. The NSRA is a street rod organization and limits NSRA events to street rods. The NSRA is also more family oriented and laid back.

If you feel you must include later non street rod vehicles, I suggest having a separate custom and street machine division and doing it in 5 year increments. Pre-1954 vehicles in 2010, pre-1959 vehicles in 2015, etc. Provide a separate parking area for the post-1948 vehicles. Keep street rods pre-1949 modified vehicles.

Please reconsider your decision to include pre-1980 vehicles at the NSRA events.

I agree, the least objectionable way to handle this is to make sure the cars are parked/asigned positiomns in groups of the "era' by at least ten year increments or by some historical boundary. Maybe five year increments can be used if there are a lot of cars. Of course there are some neat late model rods/customs which deserve to be seen and appreciated but there needs to be some gradual blend. I have participated in a British Car meet back when I had a MG Midget and that format grouped the cars by manufacturer. Some sort of grouping of similar brand and era cars seems to make more sense than just random parking. There is already consideral grouping of the cars at meets I have seen and so just add a few more groups for newer cars and/or other brands. There probably will always be meets for special groups like Early Ford V8s, Bug-In, British Cars and eventually electric cars, it is just that NSRA draws on a heavy heritage of early Ford rods so mixing in Hondas or Toyotas seems strange and the way to handle it is to put the groups more or less in some new place. Still I will go to see early Fords but others have many other good cars. Hey where to place the Prius with the flame paint job? Maybe the fad to watch will be electric cars with lightening bolt paint jobs instead of flames?

Don Shillady
Retired scientist/teen rodder

I have been a member for 22 years and I welcome a change,but not to 80. And I agree that streetrodders at times are the biggest buttheads there are. They still park chairs in places they arent supposed to and usually got their noses in the air to other car owners-kinda like tuners.

I wander if the "street rod owners" are offended when they go to an AACA (antique automobile club od america) and are penalized for glass fenders or non stock suspension or motor/trans ? I agree with Dave, there are alot of organizations who would like to do away with our hobby. At Good Guy events you can see all types of cars, and sure there are some that don't interest me but maybe others there want to see that type of car. I have many friend that belong to a local NSRA sanctioned club and they welcome all to their shows. They have event let me go on some of their club events with my post 49 car (OH MY ). Why because we all like the same thing OLD Cars !!!

Remember Divide and conquer. There may come a day when the only old car you can find will be a Pacer or Honda. Every year we see "scrapping or emissions legislation that may do away with all our cars.

What I find to be ironical is that the NSRA has fought long and hard in every State legislature to get have only pre-1949 vehicles titled as street rods. And now they go and open up their shows to vehicles into the 70's. So much for the National Street Rod Association, maybe they need to change the name to something more appropriate. Like the National Street 4 or More Wheel Vehicle Association (leaves out trikes and cycles).

I would have liked a cut off of no later than 1972. But they didn't ask for my vote.

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

I agree, the least objectionable way to handle this is to make sure the cars are parked/asigned positiomns in groups of the "era' by at least ten year increments or by some historical boundary. Maybe five year increments can be used if there are a lot of cars. Of course there are some neat late model rods/customs which deserve to be seen and appreciated but there needs to be some gradual blend. I have participated in a British Car meet back when I had a MG Midget and that format grouped the cars by manufacturer. Some sort of grouping of similar brand and era cars seems to make more sense than just random parking. There is already consideral grouping of the cars at meets I have seen and so just add a few more groups for newer cars and/or other brands. There probably will always be meets for special groups like Early Ford V8s, Bug-In, British Cars and eventually electric cars, it is just that NSRA draws on a heavy heritage of early Ford rods so mixing in Hondas or Toyotas seems strange and the way to handle it is to put the groups more or less in some new place. Still I will go to see early Fords but others have many other good cars. Hey where to place the Prius with the flame paint job? Maybe the fad to watch will be electric cars with lightening bolt paint jobs instead of flames?

Don Shillady
Retired scientist/teen rodder

assigned parking by years would be good

Originally Posted by mopar34

What I find to be ironical is that the NSRA has fought long and hard in every State legislature to get have only pre-1949 vehicles titled as street rods. And now they go and open up their shows to vehicles into the 70's. So much for the National Street Rod Association, maybe they need to change the name to something more appropriate. Like the National Street 4 or More Wheel Vehicle Association (leaves out trikes and cycles).

I would have liked a cut off of no later than 1972. But they didn't ask for my vote.

i think the cutoff year should be 72 also

a few years back, i ran into a guy with billett fiberglass rod. they said they had a club and they had meetups. i told him i had a 1955 ford 2dr wagon but it wasnt done yet. he said thats like a new car to us. i said hell my 55 is old and rusty powered by a 351 cleveland and c6 tranny. the newest part of my car is the running gear 72. he was running a new 350 crate motor digital dashes ac all the works.

Originally Posted by rspears

I agree, too. NSRA is probably bending to the pressure of the GoodGuys approach - expand membership by opening events to muscle cars and beyond, but even GoodGuys made their cut pre '72.

I agree.....I changed my plans to attend NSRA nats in louisville this year so I can attend the Goodguys in Nashville. Main reason was because my 51 Chevy is too NEW to be in the NSRA nats......I do agree also that 30 years is too new....would like to see it 40 years or so.

When I went to the Louisville, Ky NSRA nats in 2007, I didnt have a rod to enter. We had a great time but I have to admit, I grew tired of seeing 29-34 billet ladin $50K+ hot rods. We had a much better time when we went to the flea market area and found all the REAL hot rodders parked out back on the grassy areas!

Gotta weigh in a bit.

There are NSRA shows that shouldn't be anything but pre '49 and that of course being York and Louisville (and possibly Kalamazoo). A couple of years ago Burlington added through either '72 or '74. I spent quite a lot of time talking to one of the NSRA officials at York about my concerns - and yes, it does concern money to some degree. With that said, what it boils down to is whether or not NSRA could continue to hold shows at fairly difficult to get to venues like Burlington, especially in the midst of leaf peeping season in Northern Vermont. They have gone to the later model cars and quite frankly, I was very pleased with the quality of the cars that were there. Instead of the 'normal' 12 to 1300 cars the first year, there was 1500. If memory serves me, last year there was close to 1800. Obviously not all were super nice - but they weren't before. Actually, I believe that the overall quality was higher then when the pre '49 were the only ones there. Am I still disappointed, yes, but let's be real about street rodding. The sheer number of available and roddable OEM cars is dwindling what with WW2 and a couple of other wars thrown in for the steel.The fact that those cars sitting in barns has gone from a few to virtually none. The hard winters here in the Northeast as well as much of the rest of the US has turned those field/woods cars into a red blotch (there is a '64 Chebbie convert in a nature preserve near me that has rotted to about 18" high). Then there are the 'glass cars. This is a viable option for many - that is until some folks finally figure out how much work is involved to marry a bunch of parts from many manufacturers. Many have the skills, but most don't have the greasy, skinned knuckle ability. This is too bad - but IMO, it has a lot to do with the instant gratification attitude of "gotta get it now" many of the current generation have. They go the ''fox tail and mud flap" kind of mods (whale tail and phart can mufflers for you younger folks)

So what does that leave us but a couple of organizations like NSRA and Goodguys (yes, they are in car attendance trouble as well - at least by what I saw at Rhinebeck the past 2 years) struggling to keep up the quality in their shows. Believe me that NSRA didn't make these changes because they wanted to, they made them to keep in the business of putting on decent car shows, and if they have to change the cut off year, well, it's a fact of life - and we collectively have to get used to it!

Then, of course, there are the Syracuse Right Coast Nationals - and that's kinda "show us whatcha brung" show that just keeps getting bigger - 7-8000 cars last year, well up from the 1200 or so the first 2-3 years. I try to do it in one day and walk so much that I start out a 6'4" at 8:00AM and by 6:00PM am feeling ~4'6" and have still only seen about 75%, and then only fleetingly. So that kind of a 30 year cut off isn't all bad

Everyone is talking about Hondas and such. How about the blown Pro Streeters?....outrageous muscle cars?....those gorgeous '50s fin cars?....and maybe some dreamy heavy customs? I think it is much more likely those will be there, than "tuners" and "donks" ...and their owners who don't appreciate earlier cars any more than hot rodders like their creations. I'd say you are all getting worked into a frenzy before you even see what the result will be.

I've said it in earlier threads, but lately different groups have been trying to dictate what is an acceptable building style, the way to run a show, put on an event, or organize a club. I've heard more experts try to define what is acceptable, than I have ever heard in my 50 years of involvement. I think it's time to grant everyone a little common courtesy, and simply decide not to pass judgement on what they do with their dollars, their time, their ideas, on their car. Just walk on by, and enjoy whatever you choose to enjoy.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Everyone is talking about Hondas and such. How about the blown Pro Streeters?....outrageous muscle cars?....those gorgeous '50s fin cars?....and maybe some dreamy heavy customs? I think it is much more likely those will be there, than "tuners" and "donks" ...and their owners who don't appreciate earlier cars any more than hot rodders like their creations. I'd say you are all getting worked into a frenzy before you even see what the result will be.

I've said it in earlier threads, but lately different groups have been trying to dictate what is an acceptable building style, the way to run a show, put on an event, or organize a club. I've heard more experts try to define what is acceptable, than I have ever heard in my 50 years of involvement. I think it's time to grant everyone a little common courtesy, and simply decide not to pass judgement on what they do with their dollars, their time, their ideas, on their car. Just walk on by, and enjoy whatever you choose to enjoy.

This one gets my vote for the common sense approach. I go to car shows based on where I want to go vacation at, not what cars will be allowed or not allowed. I've yet to go to any show that I didn't learn something, or see something that would be applicable to Hot Rodding in general... The more people who get involved in Hot Rodding with any kind of car increases our voice, gets money moving through the industry, and is generally good for all....

i will say one thing about NSRA . hopefully this will bring better car to a NSRA event than in the past . i get tired of seeing crap show up BECAUSE its " pre 48 " . you go to a
nsra event and see 3000 thousand cars , 100 cars that are nice rides and 2900 piles of crap that should stay home .

blast me thats fine , this is my opinion .

Thsi is a very good idea for the NSRA to survive long term. The membership is getting older and they are not attracting the younger folks who will keep it going.
On top of that it makes it tough for someone in their 20' or30's to find or afford a car that is 50+ years old
Good Guys have been doing a better job then NSRA in attendance and customer satisfaction the past few years. NSRA need to catch up
KennyD I agree with what you said about the quality.
Now the perfect world would be the quality of cars at GG with the home built of the NSRA.
To many people wrte checks any more....I dont think that is the case with the majority of the folks from NSRA