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Gallery: 50 Past Grand National Roadster Show Winners Under One Roof
At this past weekend’s Grand National Roadster Show, the Petersen Automotive Museum helped curate 50 past winners of the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster and Al Slonaker Memorial Awards for the largest gathering of these show-winners ever assembled. Walking through the exhibit at the Grand National Roadster Show revealed how some trends have come and gone, while other past builds would not look out of place in this year’s competition. The elegant lines of the ’20s and ’30s American classics will never go out of style, especially when they’re subtly reshaped and massaged to perfection, but we loved that judges rewarded some builders who took bold risks.
In the gallery below, keep your eyes peeled for the fantastic ’80s creation “California Star,” shaped by master metalsmith Ron Covell, repeat winners, a year with two AMBR winners, and a pair of Ferrari-powered Fords. One of them was very familiar. Let us know which car is your favorite.
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That’s “Ala Kart” with a “K”. Shame on you.
Some look great! Other are, like, really? I think the Riddler Award is better in that it represents a broader class of vehicles. AMBR is mostly, “Don’t know, boomer. That flathead is junk and now you chromed it.”
The only flatheads visible in this collection are the 1953 and ’55 winners. Flatheads were the engines that were used in hot rods back then.
What about ’50 & ’51?
I don’t see a photo of the engine for the ’50, though I’m sure it’s a flattie. I see photos of the ’51, ’53, and ’55 engines.
BTW. Lay off of “Boomers.” Back then, they didn’t allow kindergarten kids to build these cars.
Ala Kart is definitely my favorite.
It’s interesting to look at them in the context of their build dates.
I could have guessed the build year of the 1969 car without reading the caption.
Webmaster…can you create a link to a page if thumbnails?
Makes it easier to browse that many photos…
“Can”, sure. “Will”, never. That’s at least three times as much work.
An interesting collection of cars. Some are not the best and others are pretty cool.
I’ve never seen NieKamp with a capital K but maybe that’s how it’s spelled but there’s no way that’s a Model T, everywhere else on the net it says a 1929 Model A, I’m not sure of the year but it sure is a Model A.
I’m saying ’29 “A”
I like all of the ones based on the ’33 Ford. The ’35 Chevy is also a great car.
You can tell you guys are big Chevy fans. This is a roadster show but you have to throw in some Chevy’s that aren’t even there roadsters.
Well, apparently the people who run the show don’t limit it to just roadsters. Some of the winners are Phaetons, pickup trucks, station wagons, and sedans, and they’re all sorts of manufacturers (like Willys and Packard). And the 2022 winner is a Chevy roadster.
1983 AMBR winner, ’32 Ford, candy apple…….sometimes simplicity becomes the most elegant.
I’m glad so many of these cars survive.