If you have not been to Back to the Fifties.........well, it's a must! The fairground venue puts you in the right mood and the cars, lots of cars, do the rest!
Great shots man! the show within a show is a good spot to be. The enormity of that show can’t be understood til your there. If you see something you want to look at you’d better do it right this second because the chances of you finding it again, even if it doesn’t take off cruising the grounds, are slim to none. thanks for the coverage
That spot in fairgrounds has always been the epicenter of the coolest cars. Several HAMBers have their rides parked there.
I often wish that I could "Go back to the fifties"..... Wait, What !!! Oh, you mean the car show. Well, that too.....
Iffin you're using a cheese curd stand as a landmark yer in trouble, there are at least a dozen of them! And @J.Ukrop , you now realize how great the Midwest is for events. Usually 11K+ on Saturday Always wondered why most fairgrounds forgot to plant trees? MN gets it.
I have never been to BTTF, but I did go to the Minnesota St. Fairgrounds many times when the had the NSRA nationals there. Great fairgrounds! Makes me want to figure out how to go again.
head north, ver right at Kansas City. Once you see the green liquid lines on the street follow them into the fair grounds
Went to the NSRA Nats there in 1989, one of my favorite locations for the Nats. That was a great adventure, drove out from Michigan with my dad in the 31 pickup. Did make it to BTTF for part of a day I think it was 2011, the gf was going to run in a marathon (grandma’s) in Duluth, realized BTTF was happening so at least got to experience some of it. It’s a great fairgrounds.
2 things.... 1) great group of cars 2) 20k spectators is nothing. We regularly see 100k plus at the greenwood car show.
I feel like his numbers are probably very under estimated, they had close to 10,000 pre registered cars and between 2 and 3 thousand volunteer workers. It’s a shit load of people.
Just to get the facts correct, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds is in St Paul, NOT Minneapolis. And I grew up in Minneapolis.
Thats 20K spectators AT ANY GIVEN TIME. There is somewhere between 100-200K over the course of the weekend.
The “Cities” has always been a hot Rod mecca. Throughout this period pre 1970, the rod quality and style there were on a par with the west coast at that time. Two clubs, the Amblers and the Torquers had a lot to do with setting the pace.
You are correct. And the racing heritage is huge as well. The now defunct track at the Fairgrounds RIP hosted all the big names in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. If they raced open wheel and Indy they also raced in St Paul
That makes more sense. Ours is just a 1 day 8am-4pm affair. They close off 30 city blocks or so. It is packed. You can't even get pictures of the cars without someone walking in front of your shot. It's chaos. 20k at any one time over a weekend sounds much better.
The registration covers a driver and copilot so 10,000 cars = 20k spectators right there, and that's not counting the spectators who come in the gates.
10,000 vehicles?? Holy cow, guess these high gas prices didn't slow anyone down. Crossing my fingers for a decent turnout, at our upcoming Florida Dragstrip Riot October 28th/29th. Fantastic pictures, especially like the green A-Bone, with convertible top. JT
This show is on my bucket list. One of these days when my kid gets a little bit older I'm going to jump into my car and just drive around for a month or two.... Head west.
Thanks for the nifty write up! The "WCCO building" has been our ground zero for decades and it's fun to see how much it has grown. Swill does a lot of work setting up his booth and coordinating friend's and customer's cars arrivals -- and jamming them in to our limited space. I'm bummed I missed seeing you!
I need glasses. I've been reading this as 1000 not 10,000. Jesus....Just turned 39 today. Happy birthday. That is A LOT of cars.
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