Goodguys Southwest Nationals 2014

Have you ever been to a car show or cruise in? If you haven’t, we recommend making it to a show. The great thing about car shows is that it’s a large gathering of people from all walks of life with a common interest.

People from all walks of life like this lil' rodder.

If you’re building a car or bringing your own, it’s nice to see what other people have done on similar cars and their ideas. If you have made friends through cars, a road trip and show are a great way to catch up. If you don’t own a car, there are often cars for sale. If you just want to look around, you can get in at the gate and enjoy the nice cars and weather for the day. If you’re looking for new or old parts, this is a good place to find them or find someone who has them back at home. Car shows are all around fun events with lots to do, and it’s a great opportunity to walk around with friends and family.

This past weekend we went to Goodguys Southwest Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a great show and had a little bit of something for every vehicular taste. We wanted to take a Driver’s Log to show you the smorgasbord of what all there was to see and hopefully encourage you to go to a show. (To find one near you, check out our events page!)

It's hard to imagine mountains in Phoenix, but there were. The temperature was hovering in the 70s making for a great weekend of cars.

The first place at the show that we walked through was the outdoor vendors’ area. The vendors will travel show to show, so they bring huge trailers with canopies. Under the canopies, they usually have cars they sponsor or have built showcasing their products. Here are some of those cars:

1932 Ford built by Goolsby Customs.

This twin turbo '55 Chevy was showcasing some of American Racing's new big Rally wheels. Notice the matte black and gloss black two tone.

The next area we briefly walked around was the swap meet. Comparing the Phoenix swap meet to Oklahoma swap meets, there seems to be a lot less “junk” in the Phoenix swap meets. Lots of old speed parts and really nice, rust free cars can be found in Arizona, while in Oklahoma, it is much more farm equipment and dragster parts. Here are some pictures of a couple cool things from the swapmeet:

Besides parts, you can find old daimonds in the rough like this old squarebody.

No details on this beautiful old Indian, but everyone loved it.

One of the most exciting parts of the Goodguys shows is the autocross event. This has become more and more popular each year. It has become so popular that this year there were grand stands overlooking the cone course with a crowd that watched all weekend.

The part that mesmerized the crowd was seeing old Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes, Chevelles and other muscle cars that have been completely rebuilt for the sole purpose of sliding around those cones as fast as possible. It’s either that or the sweet smelling race fuel.

The Summit racing team lined up and ready to go.

Brian Hobaugh's Corvette that won the shootout and became the Goodguys 2014 Intro Wheels AutoCrosser of the Year!

Another really awesome thing about this part of Goodguys is that anyone can walk the cars, look inside them, see under the hood, and meet the drivers – some of which are becoming quite famous in the racing world. It’s like having a pit pass, but not having to pay for it.

There were several different areas to park at this event, but outside of the autocross and vendors, you never know what you’re going to see in these areas. It can be anything from the really obscure to the really pretty, the very desirable to the very ugly.

For more information on this International, check our Facebook.

Since we are building a truck, the best thing about Arizona is how many trucks there were. Like I mentioned, one benefit of going to a car show while building a car is to get ideas and see how others have done their cars. We are working on the suspension for our truck, so we looked at how all the trucks were done to get ideas and tips moving forward.

In Oklahoma and Phoenix, old farm trucks are plentiful. However, in Oklahoma they rust more than they do in the desert atmosphere of Phoenix. No rust means leaving the old trucks with their 50 or 60 year old paint, or as folks love calling it today, “patina”, which is just the way Mother Nature intended it to be.

There were also some really nicely done stock trucks to be found around the show. It is a meticulous job restoring them to a nice, showroom condition. Seeing trucks like these really offers you a window to the past. Anyone can see new F150s or Silverados on a car lot today, but this is what those same trucks looked like in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

This truck is a restored Napco GMC. There were about five of them parked together at the show, and all of them were this nicely done.

Here's the engine from the same truck. They restored it down to the correct stickers on the valve covers - meticulous.

If you liked looking through these pictures, stay tuned to our Instagram and Facebook for extra coverage and photos not shown here. Hope you enjoyed a look at Goodguys Southwest Nationals Phoenix 2014!

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