BTS | 2019 GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

RIDES THAT INSPIRE THE SPECTATORS THAT DESIRE

IT’S ANOTHER FIRST FOR THIS EDITOR AND I CAN ASSURE IT WON’T BE THE LAST. As we fl ew out to the West Coast of the United States from our home base in north central Florida, expectations were high for not only this yearly spectacle of trucks tucking rotors and chromed out motors. I’ll admit that my original goal was to shoot each and every custom truck that lined the halls in all eight individual buildings that fi lled the Fairplex in Pomona, California, although the moment we noticed hundreds of additional trucks were piling in to set up in the outdoor portion of the event, our preconceived plan of attack was thrown out the window and a new game plan was set. Instead of documenting all the unbelievable builds that debuted over the weekend, we directed our attention to the most relatable rides that our readers can appreciate. The No. 1 goal with nearly everything we print is to provide motivation and inspire your minds eventual creation. Naturally, it’s fun to look at quarter million dollar hot rods with custom molded body panels mixed with modern day technology, but all the home-built hot rods that drove to the show are pretty sweet, too! We get as excited about the next handcrafted hot rod as most, but when the majority of our readers are hard working guys and girls with blue-collar backgrounds and budget-minded builds, it’s hard to ignore their ingenuity at any event.

…WE DIRECTED OUR ATTENTION TO THE MOST RELATABLE RIDES THAT OUR READERS CAN APPRECIATE. THE NUMBER ONE GOAL WITH NEARLY EVERYTHING WE PRINT IS TO PROVIDE MOTIVATION, AND INSPIRE YOUR MINDS EVENTUAL CREATION.

Whatever your fl avor, we aim to please. So after the tough task of choosing around 25 trucks from this years event to represent the Street Trucks culture, I hope you agree that this event is for sure one your want to attend next year. Naturally our hard drives are full of additional content including video walk-arounds and high quality photos, so be sure to check out our website extended coverage and behind the scenes media.

The photo captions will help you connect with the customs but there are a few rides that we just have to discuss in detail. Number one in particular is the freshly debuted Inter-Raptor which in our opinion clearly stole the show. This 3- week-old build was assembled using a 1967 International SUV and a 2017 Ford Raptor that once had a life of its own as an award winning SEMA build. After some overzealous oŽ -roading that left it a totaled out pile of parts, the crew over at Hot Rods and Custom StuŽ in Escondido, California, loaded it on the trailer and dropped it by the shop to cut, chop and blend together into this one-of-a-kind masterpiece. We will have much more soon on this stellar concept turned reality in an upcoming issue.

Other notable neck-breakers included an incredible double decker RV with a VW Bug grafted to the roof. Polished aluminum at every turn and an extremely detailed drivetrain kept the spectators speechless, luckily for us media was able to enter an hour early which gave us a clear path for pictures. Combining all these crazy creations with loads of unique vendors at every corner, vintage music in the air and the smell of fried food fi lling the streets was enough to confi rm our travel back next year. The streets of California may be the worst we’ve seen in all our travels, but the snowy mountain landscapes and practically perfect weather were enough to mitigate the madness. Now let’s see some pics!