The annual Old North State Invitational event was held this past weekend in Winston Salem N.C. I refer to it as an event because it is much more than just a static car show held in a parking lot or some fairground. My friend Phil Shevlin (wdglide on the HAMB) and I drove our A coupes over from Knoxville on Thursday morning, the drive over the mountains was a four star trip beautiful weather, perfect temps, and light traffic on a beautiful winding mountainous section of Interstate 40 . After checking in to the host hotel we immediately begin to see old friends and meet new ones. One of the local participants who was already a friend invited us over to his shop to hang out and have burgers and beer and check out his latest project. Friday morning was the well planned cruise by the master mind of this whole event Chris May. First stop was the historic North Wilkesboro race track, were we parked our cars for an impromptu car show and then were allowed to look around the facilities but didn't have access to the actual track. Then we drove to the oldest Ford dealer in North Carolina for a tour of their mini museum which held some very interesting cars, Fords naturally. After that it was a short drive to an excellent brew pub for lunch. Next up was a brief stop at another car show at the Call Family Distillery. The day ended with most participants meeting at a another brew pub for dinner and visiting with hot rodding friends. Saturday morning the official show portion of the weekend began with all the cars converging on the blocked off street designated for the event, the show ran from 11:00 AM till 5:00 PM with spectators allowed free entry to the show. No porta johns here folks, we had access to a newly renovated entertainment facility called ROAR that had nice restrooms, a food court, a mini bowling alley, a virtual golf driving range and three bars, they even arranged for several of the participant cars to be displayed inside the building. Saturday night was the crowning event in my opinion the Hurley After Party at Matt and Alysha Hurley's beautiful estate in Colfax , catered food, live music, a keg, and a chance to look at the cars and goodies to be found in Matt's shop. Every year Matt designs a commemorative T shirt with a cool hot rod rendering for the after party. This year I was blown away to find out he had chosen my coupe as the poster child, and did a spot on drawing of it. On Sunday for those who had the time or the energy left there was again a trip to the Caraway Speedway near Randleman were we had two hours to put our cars out on the short paved track for as many hot laps as we wanted at any speed we had the fortitude for. The Old North State is absolutely a bucket list event for every traditional hot rod or custom enthusiast. Hamber zman has already posted pictures of a lot of the cars so I will post a few group type pictures and some of my favorites. Then I have to get busy packing to head to Bartlesville Ok in the morning for the Gathering at the Roc another do not miss event.
WOW, just WOW, Gary. You Southern guys are just having way too much fun! What a great weekend with fabulous cars, cool venues and like-minded hot-rodders. I need to move back "home" to East Tennessee! Congrats on having your Coupe be the "poster child" for the T-shirt........Don.
@garage2small , This looks like a great event. I had planned to get to there in 2022, but I was invited to the indoor show at Jalopyrama earlier this year, thus delaying my visit to N.C. until next year. What hotel is considered the gathering place for participants? Have a great trip to Bartlesville. I attended that wonderful event in 2021.
Looks like a great weekend, congratulations on your coupe being picked for the event poster child. HRP
This year it was the Hampton Inn in Kearnersville, last year it was in a different hotel different town I think it depends on what kind of a group rate is available in one of the many towns all around Winston Salem. As I said in the original post the activities were spread out I think we were in at least 4 different towns and probably drove well 125 miles getting to them after arriving at the host hotel. But totally worth every mile driven and gallon of gas used.
Even though I'm "local" to the festivities - local being relative of course - I may have to get a hotel next year and hang out longer! Good seeing you and Phil again.
The Jalopy Journal
