Good Guys Car Show-Nov 2014

25th AUTUMN GET-TOGETHER
NOVEMBER 8 & 9, 2014

GOODGUYS 25tfh AUTUMN GET-TOGETHER
The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association is based in Pleasanton CA (in the San Francisco Bay Area), and so are we. While they put on numerous events all year long, all across the country, they do four car shows per year in their hometown of Pleasanton, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. The Autumn Get-Together is the last show of the year, more than in any other location. Some years the weather doesn’t cooperate, but this wasn’t one of those years. The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect. There weren’t quite as many cars or quite as many people as in their biggest-show-of-the-year West Coast Nationals in August. But it actually made it much easier to move around, and for me to take pictures of cars without mobs of people moving in and out of frame.
BELOW: Muscle cars were everywhere. Yonder be a gaggle of Mopars.

ABOVE: The array of cars, trucks, rods, customs, classics and all the rest is staggering!
BELOW: A special area was set aside for trucks. And as you can see, there were a lot of them.

GOODGUYS CAR SHOWS – FUN & FRIENDLY
Goodguys Classic Car Shows are meant to be fun events for everyone. There aren’t any mega-million-dollar Delahayes or Birdcage Maseratis. Just good ol’ fashion Classic (mostly) American Cars, Hot Rods, Customs, Pickups, Lowriders, and Specials. Cars that anyone can afford. Cars that you can actually drive and enjoy. The cars we grew up with. They’re all here. And the people who built them, restored them, customized them, are there to share their passion with an eager audience. It’s fun, low-key, the car-owners are friendly, and the array of cars is literally mind-boggling. But a Goodguys Car Show is much more than just cars.
ABOVE: There was a special section devoted to trucks. And one entire building housed an enormous indoor truck display that included custom and classic big rigs.

BELOW: While classic Corvettes are immensely popular, modern Vettes are always a hit.

ABOVE: The Mustang was well-represented also, both old and new.
BELOW: Vendors were everywhere, selling everything under the sun, some car-related, some not. A lot of it I’ve never seen anywhere else.

LOTS TO DO AT THE GOODGUYS
Besides thousands of amazing cars, there was a huge swap meet, a car corral (cars for sale), an autocross track, a truck show, a lowrider show, cool vendors, scrumptious food, and more. There is literally something for everyone, and you could easily spend your whole day there and never run out of stuff to do or see.

ABOVE: As always, there was a huge swap meet, where you could find things you never knew you needed. A must-see if you’re looking for hard-to-find parts for that project car.
BELOW: The Car Corral had a few hundred cars for sale, and there were some really good deals out there.

VETTES FOR VETS

VETS DRIVING VETTES
As a way to honor our veterans on Veterans Day, and especially our wounded vets, the Goodguys sponsored a special ceremony that included a parade of Vets driving Corvettes, cruising the massive Alameda County Fairgrounds, waving American flags. And the crowds were waving their flags right back at them as they rolled by. It was great fun, and made you feel very proud to be an American.

Good Guys AUTOCROSS

GOODGUYS AUTOCROSS – ALWAYS A BLAST!
There’s nothing like watching overpowered rear-wheel-drive cars claw their way around a tight autocross course. This one is laid out in the asphalt parking lot, and tests the skills of the driver and the performance and handling of the car to get through the twisting, turning maze. The corners are so extreme, and so close together that there is little time to accelerate hard, or even shift before the brakes must be nearly locked up for the next turn. Smooth driving us usually rewarded with better times. Sometimes the ones who look the fastest and fishtailing out of turns, accelerating and braking hard, are the slowest ones. Often its the ones who look like they’re hardly moving that ace the course, looking almost like they’re out for a Sunday drive.
ABOVE: A ’65 Mustang Fastback clears the apex.
BELOW: A modern Pontiac GTO rips through the course, with power, handling, and technology on its side.

ABOVE: This DeTomaso Pantera looked and sounded great. That big wing probably did more harm than good on this tight, low-speed course.
BELOW: An early Mustang entertains the crowd.

GO TO A GOODGUYS CAR SHOW NEAR YOU
The Good Guys put on great car shows all over the country, all year long. Check our Events Page for a calendar of upcoming events. Or visit their website at www.good-guys.com. But, be there, be there, be there!

In the end, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CARS!

MORE GORGEOUS CARS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT!
When I attend these events for this website, it is with 3 missions in mind: 1.) To cover that event, as I have done here, above; 2.) To promote this site by meeting with people at the show, talking to car owners, taking pictures of their cars and encouraging them to come to the site to see them; and 3.) To add to our growing image library of American Muscle Cars. This go-round, I got full sets of photos of 40+ cars. You will see one shot of each, below. Over the next few weeks, I will be building pages around these cars, or adding their photos to pages that already exist. Remember, our goal at American-Muscle-Cars.net is to put together the world’s greatest and most complete online index of every American Muscle Car, organized by Make, then Model, then Year, all with eye-popping Pictures, Specs, History & more. We’re not there yet. There are still some gaps in our inventory of cars, but we’re adding to it all the time. If you happen to own one of these gorgeous cars below, and you’d like a complete set of high-resolution, large-format digital images sent to your email, CONTACT US with the make/model/year/color/event of your car & we’ll send you everything we have on it for $20 PayPal. The cars below are arranged by year, old-to-new. There were literally thousands more. Enjoy…

ABOVE: Super sweet 1955 Chevy Bel Air 2-door Hardtop. Also referred to as a “Sport Coupe”, they were only available in the Two-Ten Series and the Bel Air.
BELOW: A 1955 Chevy One-Fifty Series 2-door Wagon. They were 6-passenger workhorses.

ABOVE: 1955 Chevy Bel Air Convertible. All ’55 convertibles were top-of-the-line Bel Airs.
BELOW: 1955 Chevy Corvette, the first year you could get it with a V8 (the 265 small block).

ABOVE: 1957 Chevy Bel Air 2-door Hardtop, also called the “Sport Coupe”.
BELOW: 1957 Chevy Bel Air 2-door Sedan, also called a Coupe, or a “2-door Post” (referring to the B-pillar supporting the roof, missing on the Sport Coupe/Hardtop above).

ABOVE: Another 1957 Chevy Bel Air 2-dr HT, “Sport Coupe”, or “Postless 2-door” (so-called because of the absence of a “post” or B-pillar).
BELOW: 1957 Chevy Bel Air 4-door Wagon. The Bel Air was the high-line model, the Two-Ten Series was in the middle, and the One-Fifty Series was the entry-level “strippy”.

ABOVE & BELOW: It’s amazing how much the two rival heavy-hitters looked alike in 1963. Above, the 1963 Chevy Impala above, and the ’63 Ford Galaxy XL were each best-sellers for their parent companies. The Impala ended up on top and in 1965 became the best-selling model-year vehicle of all time, before or since. Both these examples happen to be red convertibles.

ABOVE: 1964 Chevy Impala. For you Impala-spotters out there, a quick way to tell a ’64 from a ’63, is the the ’63 (two above) has a straight upper front lip on the hood, whereas the ’64 hood dips down in the center between the headlights.
BELOW: A drop-dead gorgeous ’64 Impala SS Convertible in silver-on-silver. A real eye-popper.

ABOVE: 1965 Chevy Malibu SS, not a factory color, and of course the wheels are aftermarket.
BELOW: 1965 Olds 442 Convertible. Second year for the 442.

ABOVE: 1965 Buick Skylark Grans Sport, or “GS” for short. Performance with some luxury added.
BELOW: 1967 Oldsmobile 442.

ABOVE: 1965 Chevy Camaro COPO-clone. COPO stood for “Corporate Office Purchase Order”, and was a back-door way of ordering a GM car with all sorts of heavy duty gear. Some dealers, like Yenko ordered up some truly awesome Camaros with big block 427s, M22 “Rock Crusher” trannies, heavy duty posi rear ends, disk brakes, heavy duty suspension and more, all through COPO. These cars are ultra-rare today. Most were raced mercilessly, blown to bits and put together again with aftermarket motors. This one is a tribute car, or a ‘clone’, meaning it’s not a real COPO Camaro, but was built to look as much like one as possible. And they did one heckuva job!
BELOW: 1969 Chevy Nova SS. The future of muscle cars was getting smaller, smaller bodies, smaller engines.

ABOVE: 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Immensely popular at the time, and now.
BELOW: The gold standard of muscle cars, the 1970 Plymouth Cuda. Non-high-performance cars were called ‘Barracuda’, with the shortened version ‘Cuda’ reserved for the hot rods in the lineup.

ABOVE: A 1972 Hurst/Olds 442 Indy Pace Car.
BELOW: 1973 Pontiac Trans Am, the last year before the new “5MPH Front End” (not as pretty as this).

ABOVE: Oops! Here it is, I hope it didn’t hear what I just said about it. Compare this 1974 Pontiac Trans Am with the ’73 above and you be the judge.
BELOW: Perhaps the ultimate 1970s muscle car icon, a “Smokey & the Bandit”-black 1977 Trans Am. This was the Special Black Edition, and there was also an equally gorgeous Special Gold Edition.

ABOVE: The 1980 Chevy Corvette was almost featureless compared to other years. Even the wheels were lacking detail. And of course they were underpowered, smogged-out dogs at this time.
BELOW: One of the true iconic muscle cars of the 80s, the 1987 Buick Grand National delivered V8 power from a turbocharged 3.8 liter V6, and they ripped!

ABOVE: 1990 Chevy Camaro ZR1. From ’90 through ’95 Chevy built the very-special ZR1 in limited numbers. In place of the old pushrod V8 was an all new DOHC 32-valve 5.7 V8 (designed by Lotus and manufactured by Mercury Marine), along with a bevy of other enhancements, resulting in a truly world-class performer in its day. Now a sought-after collector piece. But they make great drivers, and the owner of this one told me he gets 26 MPG on the freeway!
BELOW: 1991 Chevy Corvette Coupe.

ABOVE: 1996 Chevy Corvette Coupe. ’96 was the last year for the C4 (4th-gen Corvette).
BELOW: 2001 Chevy Corvette, a C5 (5th-generation Corvette) distinguishable from the C6 by it’s hideaway headlights.

ABOVE: 2001 Chevy Corvette Convertible. BELOW: 2001 Chevy Corvette Z06. These fire-breathing monsters came with 7.0 liter small block LS7 V8s that made 505hp, practically unheard of at the time. That’s 427 cubic inches out of a small block architecture that started out with only 265 cubes!

ABOVE: 2001 Dodge Challenger RT with Hemi V8.
BELOW: 2006 Chevy Corvette Convertible.

ABOVE: 2007 Chevy Corvette Z06. The C6 Z06 is even faster than the C5 Z06 (above) mostly due to chassis & drivetrain improvements, not just more power.
BELOW: 2007 Ford Mustang GT500.