Celebrating the 55th year of the NSRA Street Rod Nationals

More than a few things come to mind when the city of Louisville, Kentucky comes up in conversation: Bourbon, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the baseball bats proudly branded with the city’s name, and UPS Worldport, the massive distribution center. And of course, the first Saturday in May that kicks off the month of horsepower with the famed Kentucky Derby, horse racing’s first jewel of its triple crown. All of those are nothing to sneeze at.

If you’re a street rod fan, though, one more thought that comes to mind when Louisville is mentioned: The annual gathering of street rods known as the NSRA Street Rod Nationals. Put on by the National Street Rod Association around the end of July and first days of August at the Kentucky Exposition Center, the Nationals first landed in the River City in the 1990s, permanently settling into the city near the end of the decade. Before then, it had traveled around the country, first starting in Peoria, Illinois by the editors of Rod & Custom magazine in August of 1970.

In recent years, Hagerty has honed in on certain aspects of the Nationals, from its autocross to its giveaway builds. This time, it was only right to cover the Nationals itself and its history, as it celebrated its 55th anniversary of bringing thousands of street rods, their owners, and their fans together for a few days under the blue skies of the Bluegrass State. We reached out to Craig Meads, NSRA’s marketing director, to talk a little about the Nationals’ past, present, and future.

“They are kind of the same but different at the same time,” said Meads of the show’s evolving group of attendees. “Many of our members started street rodding back in their 20s and 30s. Now, they are in their 70s and 80s, and they don’t do as much of the fun stuff they would have done when they started. But there is a growing number of young adults in their 20s and 30s that are building or rebuilding some of the older street rods and coming to shows. We are seeing a lot of people that are now driving their dad’s or granddad’s old vehicles, so many are staying in the family.”

According to MotorTrend, the Nationals’ story began when a few of the editors and writers at Rod & Custom kicked around the idea of putting together a street rod nationals with the intention of not only bringing the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast rodding scenes together, but also to help change the general public’s perception of street rodding amid many states passing laws that were detrimental to the hobby.

Thus, the decision was made to bring everyone together to Peoria, Illinois, a more-or-less central gathering point. The first Nationals, held from August 14 through 16, 1970, drew a total of 600 street rods from all over the country, including a few more than capable of tackling the cones of the Nationals’ first Streetkhana (now known as the NSRA Autocross).

By 1979, the 10th edition of the Nationals had drawn nearly 5,000 street rods to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota, plus thousands of street rod fans. A few years later in 1982, the NSRA gave away its first giveaway street rod build, beginning a long tradition which ended with its last giveaway build in 2023, a custom 1977 Chevrolet C10 pickup. The annual gathering took place in several spots around the country—including the NSRA’s home of Memphis, Tennessee—before making its first stop in Louisville in 1988 (which was also the first year over 10,000 street rods appeared). A decade later, Louisville would become the Nationals’ permanent home. In 2010, the Nationals were opened up to a rolling 30-model-year minimum age limit for all custom machines, allowing newer and newer builds to join with each passing year.

“The NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville is the most anticipated automotive event in the world,” said Meads. “From the Builders Showcase in the lobby of the exhibition center, where 40 of the hottest builders in the country bring their latest builds, to the manufacturer’s midway, automotive swap meet to the arts and  crafts area, and then you add over 10,000 street rods to all of that, it just doesn’t get any better,” he added. “Then there is Louisville, what a city, from the mayor all the way down, they are so welcoming to us and really embrace the event.”

There’s nothing like being around thousands upon thousands of horsepower, whether watching cars cruise through the main drag of the expo center’s massive parking lot amid the backdrop of Kentucky Kingdom’s roller coasters and the many UPS jets flying overhead, checking out the sea of street rods parked all over the grounds, or watching them prove they can corner as well as they can cruise at the autocross in the back of the center. Yet, time marches on, and there’s no telling what street rodding will look like in the next decade, let alone another 55 Nationals from now. But Mead has hope for the hobby’s future:

“I see the market growing,” said Mead, “not as fast as it has in the last 50 years, but it’s still growing. A lot will depend on our government and regulations they may impose on the older vehicles and internal combustion vehicles. I think street rodding has changed and will continue to change with the times. People’s love for cars is generational, and what vehicles I like are probably way different than someone in their 20s, and the same for someone that is 20 years older than me and has a different taste for cars than I do.”