Since its spring again, Has anyone gotten their car all dirty on a backroad or field? I wish I could start, but I haven't had the chance to drive mine on dirt yet.
Beautiful, just what ive been searching for. its funny seeing the lumbering boats of the late 50s and early 60s alongside hot rods from the 20s and 30s
Are they putting this on again this year? Looks awesome, I would love to get my old plymouth in the mud
I hope so, I searched around and the last mention of an event is a Facebook page for Jalopy Showdown 2021, maybe it has a new name?
Good News . It still is happening……soon !! The new place is very nice and has a ton of parking for Traditional hot rods and customs and even more spectator parking. It is just above Hanover Pa now. Bad News, not at the Latimore valley track anymore.
wow that's very soon, I might not be able to make it this year but i will absolutely be there the year after. plus, I assume you need belts and to pass a safety.
The EMMR Hot Rod Annual is an awesome event!! BUT the track time is reserved for vintage race cars groups from various eras. No more street cars sliding around in the mud.
Oh that sucks!! Still looks like a cool show, what is the "Camping" east parking lot like? Asphalt, gravel or grass? If we manage to come, we will only have a tent, so "camping" on asphalt won't go real well
you should get in contact with Ron Funkhouser . https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/ron-funkhouser.259114/ He lives a little south of you. He usually has a 5 or 6 car group and attends all of the shows.
I always camped for 3 days for the showdown. Friday night was just the best ever. Old friends and meeting new friends, for the most part everyone was on the HAMB so you connected a face to the name. There were people there from all over the country. Saturday morning, you moved your car to the desired spot before all the other cars came in. Afterwards, it was back to hanging with friends till late Saturday night. Get up on Sunday, say your goodbyes and head home. Great way to spend the weekend. One of my friends took my favorite picture of me sleeping in my old coupe
My flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was the first car that I bought with my own money saved from the little kid stage. It was the daily driver to high school, the beaches of So Cal and cruising around when there were no hot rod races or other adventures of that kind. Hello, Our escapades with our Flathead 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was done in the rain and muddy fields near our houses and the oil fields in Wilmington, just off of the Terminal Island Freeway and PCH. Since it is/was mostly industrial and the huge oil refinery, as long as we did not go into the gates, no one bothered us. It was a short distance from our Westside of Long Beach house. The current photo shows container shipping metal boxes. But, in the 1960-68 era, the field was mostly tall grass and dirt. A good description of a an empty field. It was on the back side of a huge oil refinery next to the Terminal Island Freeway and just off of PCH that ran from up the coast down to San Diego. Lion’s Dragstrip was located to the North 3 miles and the harbor to the South. We lived about a 1/2 mile East. The property was about 3 acres of empty land next to an established oil refinery. Now used for a container left over storage facility. But, it was next to a gate that was an emergency exit in time of need. So, no one was ever patrolling the area inside or outside. That was to our benefit... After a rain or two, yes, it rains in So Cal… there was enough moisture to slowly drive around the dirt field. We made several trips around the field to see what was hard and/or soft. The property was on the other side of the Terminal Island Freeway, right next to the exit of one of the big oil refinery compounds. The main entrance was about two blocks West, this gate was unmanned and always locked. No patrols and the area under PCH offramp gave us some protection during the downpour, laughing our heads off at what we were doing for the next round of activity and a snack or two. We were teenage surfers out for some fun in the rain. the flathead sedan delivery was a good car and we could repair any damage, if any, to the running gear or body. we were lucky, not one iota of damage to anything for all of the times we did our slip and sliding around the muddy field. No one came to tell us not to do it and it did not harm anyone or anything other than our 1940 Flathead powered Sedan Delivery, if at all... The large dirt field was next to a drainage culvert that went out to the ocean several miles away. We always had the place to ourselves. It was difficult to see from PCH going North to the South Bay, but if one was sharp eyed, the dirt field location could be spotted going South. The curve and elevation grade on PCH South, made everyone pay attention to driving and not the surroundings. The action of learning slides and have steering control was learned early. It was the controlled Flathead power that was the difficult thing to keep in place and still be able to steer in the intended direction. We also did not want to hit the curb next to the low chain link fence and tumble into the drainage channel that was filling up fast on its directed course to the ocean. Jnaki For some odd reason, someone was looking out for us as there was little, if any damage to the Flathead Sedan Delivery. Although, it certainly felt like we were doing our best to have fun and the brunt of the action centered on the mud covered Sedan Delivery from top to bottom. The long straightaway allowed us to get into third gear and start the turn that ended up with the rear wheels sliding out. Second gear for traction and correcting the wheel allowed us to not flip over and go the other way. There were plenty of days of doing this by ourselves as no one else wanted to take their old Chevy sedans on the muddy field. It was the most fun in an old hot rod sedan delivery, other than finding empty overhead waves on an empty beach... now, that was something. After high school, when we got our desert racing motorcycles, on days when the Impala was gone, I had to push the 250 Greeves to the side streets, then start it about half way there and ride it quietly until I could go on PCH to the off ramp. Over time, someone had created a small hill in the middle as most of the sliding was done around the outside edge. Now, we groomed the area with shovels and rakes to make a small winding dirt packed course with one hill in the middle. We had our own version of a European Scrambles course laid out. Many hours of practice was so much fun to get ready for the real desert in the weekend races. No ice or snow, but plenty of similar sliding action during the rainy, muddy season in So Cal. The rain usually washed off plenty of mud, during the runs and circles. But, if the mud had a chance to dry, to some caked on stuff, the local power wash place was a two blocks from our old house. That place saw plenty of action. YRMV It definitely was fun, fun, fun...
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