They call the Grand National Roadster Show—held each year at the Pomona, California Fairgrounds each January—the “grand daddy of them all.” It’s a bold proclamation, but it’s no joke. Now in its 68th year, the GNRS is the longest running indoor car show in the world. (This year, the GNRS runs from January 27 – 29, 2017.) There’s a bit of irony here because most big indoor car shows—at least the ones up north—are held indoors because of unpredictable winter weather. That’s rarely a problem here in sunny Southern California, and for this reason the GNRS attracts car owners, vendors, and spectators from all over the world. At any rate, the voluminous exposition buildings of the Pomona Fairgrounds can more than swallow the hundreds of beautiful machines and their admirers.
The GNRS has a well-deserved reputation for attracting the top street rods and customs from around the globe. Indeed, the GNRS plays host to the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster competition (AMBR), one of the largest jewels in the street rodding crown. This year, GNRS also honors the Tri-Five Chevy with an entire building devoted to the genre. But we don’t care about those guys, do we?! Real men drive Mopars, and there was plenty of ‘em at Pomona. Cars like Willie and Charlotte Maise’s 1965 Dodge Dart SL with its Green-With-Envy paint and blown Gen III Hemi. Or Darren Moore’s fuel-injected Hemi-powered 1968 Charger, built with tasteful restraint by Scott Bonowski of Hot Rods & Hobbies. The SoCal Inland Mopars club was rocking a nice section of muscle car iron that included a sweet 1972 Plymouth Road Runner and a 1970 Dodge Challenger. We also got one more parting look at Speedkore’s “Menace” 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda, which we shot for the cover of the May 2017 issue of Mopar Muscle. This is a car that is dropping jaws everywhere with its carbon-fiber bodywork and meticulous fabrication. It’ll surely be a contender for Street Machine Of The Year this June.
Whether you like street rods or not, you’ve got to put the GNRS on your calendar for January. The muscle car action runs deep at Pomona (don’t forget to visit the NHRA Museum Of Racing while you’re there!), and when it comes to that slice of history, nobody does it better than Ma Mopar!
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