Old Cars Weekly – 29 August 2019

26 ❘ August29, 2019 http://www.oldcarsweekly.com

art and clothing vendors. Many spectators

imitate a look I recall from when I was a

kid growing up in the ’50s: DA haircuts,

pegged jeans, car club jackets with ladies

sporting Bette Page hairdos. I can attest

that mid-century girls almost never had

tatts, so that’s a modern interpretation.

Outside the “palace,” I was captivated

by Clifford Mattis’ maroon chopped and

lowered ’41 Buick coupe. I was absolute-

ly stunned by this car last year when it

won the Steve’s Auto Restorations Award.

It’s just perfect. OK, I’ll admit to being

a Ford and Mercury enthusiast, and I

love slinky Lincoln-Zephyr coupes, but

this svelte Buick really talked to me. The

Buick’s alterations are minimal—a little

de-chroming and an artful top chop—and

that’s just enough to expose this car’s es-

sentially perfect silhouette when it’s low-

ered to within inches of the pavement. It’s

what great customizing is all about; the

best practitioners dramatize the essential

good looks of a potential custom, but re-

move the chrome gingerbread and let the

car’s sexy shape come through.

A few steps away, a rust-laced ’32

three-window coupe from the legend-

ary stash of the late Julian Alvarez of

Garden Grove had everyone talking. An-

other long-term storage survivor, we all

thought it was badly rusted, even inside,

indicating it had been left outside for de-

cades. However, a peek through the side

windows revealed old Stewart-Warner

instruments, dried-up old tuck ’n’ roll

Naugahyde and other period goodies.

Viewed from the left side, the rear axle

seemed to be a bit crooked; it was offset

in one fenderwell—and the old gold met-

alfl ake paint was peeling, but everyone

wanted to take this baby home.

There were a lot of great cars parked

outside. I drooled over a lowered ’37 Lin-

coln-Zephyr with a blue California plate

that read, “Slinkin’.” If you have the time,

you really need to walk the parking lots,

because there are so many wonderful cars

outside the show. Inside, there are build-

ings with customs, lowriders, hot bikes,

dragsters and gassers—the entire spec-

trum of the hot rod hobby, with more than

900 cars in all. You really need three days

to see it all, check out the vendors and

talk to old friends.

Throughout the GNRS weekend, the

competition in Building 4 dominates

discussions. Every car in the nine build-

ings competes for dozens of glittering

trophies at Pomona, but the biggest prize

is the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster

Award. The winner’s name is engraved

on the giant AMBR trophy while he gets

to take home a smaller version and that

check for 10 grand. Fourteen show cars,

both roadsters and phaetons this year,

each on a custom-built stand, vied for the

coveted Sunday night win.

I closely followed the build of one

entrant, because the roadster was con-

structed at Hilton’s Hot Rods, a small

shop in The Plains, Va., just 20 miles

from my house. Bobby Hilton, a former

drag racer-turned car builder, achieved a

national reputation overnight when one of

his “Angry A” coupes won the Goodguy’s

Hot Rod of the Year Award. Hilton’s hard-

tops typically ride on Zee-ed and C-ed

re-pop Deuce rails; have a hard chop; an

exposed early-overhead-valve V-8 mill

such as a Buick, Olds, Chrysler or Caddy

from Tony Lombardi’s Ross Racing En-

gines in Niles, Ohio; interiors by Mike

“Mikey Seats” Lippincott; and paint by

Travis “Tuki” Hess from Bucky’s Ltd.

in Martinsburg, W.V. Time has proven

that it’s a combination for one seriously

good car. No two Hilton confections are

alike, and they’re all runners, as attested

by their long drive each April to the Lone

Star Roundup in Austin, but Bobby had

never built a roadster.

His effort for the GNRS was a 1930-

’31 Brookville steel Ford roadster body

on ’32 rails. Eric Black did the initial

renderings, and the Hilton team didn’t

depart much from the prepared text.

When show-goers looked at the car,

they knew something was different, but

most couldn’t fi gure out just what it was.

Bobby likes to perform what he calls an

“anti-section.” He adds a 1-1/2-inch strip

of steel all around the perimeter of the

Model A body to give the car the heft and

presence of a ’32 roadster.

“This car just wants to be a Deuce,”

Bobby likes to say. He doesn’t do hoods,

so the car’s gleaming Ardun V-8 overhead-

valve engine, with its sexy eight-stack

fuel injection system, was open for all to

see. It was built by Ross Racing Engines

with the block and heads, sourced from

noted Ardun guru Don Ferguson. Skill-

fully machined and massaged internally

by Tony Lombardi, the raucous Ardun

sounded really wicked when Bobby fi red

John Mumford brought the famed Barris Ala Kart (which won the Bruce Meyer

Preservation Award), and the family of the late Blackie Gejeian were on hand with

the ex-Chuck Krikorian 1960 AMBR-winner, better known as “The Emperor.” Rem-

iniscent of 2007, when the show presented most of the Top 75 Deuces, this A-plus

display, engineered by Karpo Murkijanian, was a never-to-be-repeated tribute.