I get that these cars aren't of the style here, but if you don't see creativity here you're simply not looking for it. The hidden gas door on the 63 Impala was really cool how they made that work. They blended the vintage elements like the engine in very nicely, and the fade paint job was cool to see. They also made it into a speedster style in the interior on a hardtop. The Cadillac, while not most people's jam here, was shortened 30 inches and converted to RWD. The proportions compared to stock are wild and mean. The Kindigit car is a full custom aluminum body with an LS-based V12, loosely based on a 50's concept car. The Cougar blends styling of two different cars fairly seamlessly (with a few areas that could be better), and has a wild Boss 9 engine. The Henry J is turned into a ute, something that I've seen done in some cars at cruise nights and they usually miss where that one didn't. The 56 was a creative blend of modern and vintage custom touches (the taillights emulate what Moriarty did on his Corvette), but to me was the most bland. The 59 Corvette had a really neat mix of material finishes that I didn't get at first, but seeing a video of them all a couple times I finally got it. The big Chrysler had a ton of custom touches, and to do that to that car is nothing short of creative. There's a video on YouTube showing all of the Great 8 and their details, it's interesting. But yeah, where's the creativity... I haven't been to his shop yet, but I saw his 2014 Ridler car at the Spokane Goodguys show that year. There was a Great 8 car from a previous year there as well. The craftsmanship of Jf's car was far above the other car. And a boat-tail twin turbo 64 Riviera with rear-mounted turbos, significant engine setback, and a charge pipe through the interior was just wild. It isn't my style but I can appreciate the creativity and craftsmanship and the guy drives the wheels off of it. I saw on one post, someone said the Kindigit car must be 2-3 million and JF suggested it was even higher than that. That's a car I'd be afraid to drive, and I don't like every angle, but I can't deny that it's a work of art.
I didnt waste camera /time on riddler.. walked right past to real hot rods, sumthing that can be driven.
Never really been interested in “show cars.” I do appreciate the talent and time required to build one. I’m glad rich guys and gals are contributing mega dollars to our automotive economy. Keeps a lot of folks working.
I agree with virtually all of this. This was my 16th Autorama. Up until the first year that I attended, I had seen some nice cars locally at cruise nights and shows like Lead East, but had never been to a large, national, indoor show before. I remember vividly walking into (then) Cobo Hall and seeing the Great 8 contenders and being not just awe-struck, but humbled. What I had ***umed was the zenith of quality I realized quickly was nowhere near the top, and there were multiple levels above that I had no idea existed. On one hand you could very easily say something to the effect of "screw these rich people" or dump on the car as something you don't like stylistically. And the latter is a valid point, it's not for everyone, and certainly isn't my taste either. But I don't think you need to look hard to see tremendous workmanship, creativity, attention to detail, and so on, and draw inspiration from that. Having seen the quality of cars at shows like Detroit has changed my personal perspective when I'm putting something together. Maybe take the extra time to get a door gap consistent. Take an extra minute to run an exposed washer through the buffer before I install it. That kind of stuff. Not to mention these elite builds often pave the way for new processes and procedures that we can utilize for our style of build.
those lenses are just vintage Lee "diamonds" you could buy out of a catalog back in the day. Taboo had them before the 60 Chryslers were grafted in.
Thanks for the history lesson. I thought it was interesting they went vintage on the rear and much more modern on the headlights.
I got confused at first. For a minute there I thought I'd opened the ol' "CUSTOMS GONE WRONG" thread. But once I got oriented and realized no vinyl tops or landau bars?? I'm out'ta here!!
Not to be weird, but I generally Google the owners of the Ridler winners just to see what industries they work in. If someone can finance a build of that caliber, they're typically someone of notoriety in their given profession. A common theme I see with not only folks who are competing at this level, but are high end customers of friends' shops, is that these are mostly self-made individuals. They are not trust fund kids, and even the ones that came from wealth, continued the family business or struck out on their own in their own successful businesses. It's very impressive. I'm a firm believer that in order to appreciate something, you have to bleed a little for it. And for those who are less mechanically inclined, that sacrifice might be in another industry to fund a build. Counts the same to me. They've worked hard to fulfill their role in the project.
When I saw the 2014 Ridler winner in person I was amazed. The attention to detail and quality of work is incredible. To turn every bolt on a manual lathe is a level of build I'll never have the desire to even attempt, but as you say we can take inspiration from them. As you say, if it inspires you to do a little more then it has serves its purpose. Like you mentioned, a lot of the processes used on parts we can buy off the shelf today started off on show cars. I grew up going to car shows with my dad and his buddies, and still now when looking at other's cars hear the frequent comments of "Who in their right mind...", "That guy must be on good drugs...", "That's **** ugly...", etc. I'm trying to approach it with what I can learn from a car, not just the negative of what doesn't appeal to me. Even if you don't like 99.9% of a car, there's always that 0.1% that you can learn from and appreciate. That lawyer research habit dies hard, hey? I work for a lot of lawyers in my line of work so I had to laugh at that. You're right, there's a belief that people that get these cars built haven't worked a day in their life or haven't earned what they have. I'm in no place to judge what others have. Whether or not it's what I would build and how I would accomplish it, they're having their dream built and that's cool to me.
Having a preference to one style of build doesn't mean you have to hate and find fault on all others.
What actually happens to these cars after a few years on the show circuit ? Does anyone actually drive them or do they end up in someone's collection never to be seen again. Wonder what the cost to build a car like this years winner , any guesses ?
Anthony is correct in that most of them only get driven occasionally, but I’ve seen video of JF Launier (the guy who built the green fastback Cougar) thrash the livin piss out of the bright yellow twin turbo Riviera he won the Ridler with a few years back. I always thought that was pretty cool of him to do that. Drivin it like he stole it.
Yes. Some occasional car show or cruise driving. TV auction time Some get driven and quite hard. I guess the seems to fade away comment means we sorta forget about em when the next over the top creation comes out.
I wonder how many people that are complaining about these cars never being driven put more than 300 miles on their specialty car last year.
Man, It is hard to believe that the 56 chev is running Lee tail lights that were made in the 60's. Maybe I should build a bunch of great 8 cars... I have the tail lights...
There are videos online of the green Mercury great 8 finalist built by JF Kustoms doing donuts in the parking lot before loading into the Toronto Autorama show this weekend.
Yeah I just saw that. He uses the stuff he builds. His Rivision that won in 2014 is reportedly the first Ridler car to actually be driven, drag raced, road raced, etc. That car has done a lot of donuts. I'll take a wild guess that the 2024 Ridler winner will never get used like that.
Well the 2017 Ridler winning car that was built here in Portland, cost around 11 million dollars from a handful of people I know that were close to the build (cant confirm, but each wheel was supposedly 10 grand). There was another great 8 car from 2016 was doing the me***/barrett-jackson thing going across the block a couple of times at a 1/8th of what it probably cost.
I don't see many contenders going more traditional. I'm not sure how that would benefit the hobby either.
They have an interesting collection https://maxmotive.com/private-collection/ I didn't realize it was the same customer that he has built a few cars for on the TV show.
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