Hot Rod Nationals

Although we have been to quite a few car shows in the US, most of them have been local shows at smaller venues & so the number of cars on display have probably been about 200-300 maximum. There are a number of bigger, national shows within driving distance of St Louis, but most of these would require at least one night in a hotel. Luckily, the Hot Rod (Spring) Nationals is held in Springfield, Illinois, which is only about two-hours from St Louis.

This is a three-day event & it was advertised that there would be about 1500 cars attending. However, to be consistent with the year so far, severe weather (including some Tornadoes) hit Springfield on the Friday night which probably explained the reduced the number of cars at the event. There were , however, still some very cool vehicles at the show, including a V-12 engined rat-rod which was pretty unique since the V-12 was made up from two Honda V-6 engines placed in front of each other. There were a number of other car related activities included the DynoMAX Power to the Wheels Dyno Challenge, a NASCAR simulator (which Beth enjoyed racing on) & a real NASCAR race car that was periodically started up & driven in a semi-truck trailer on a rolling road. These race cars are seriously noisy when you are stood only a few feet away, watching as it speeds up to nearly 200 mph whilst strapped down.

The show was held at the Illinois State Fairgrounds (Springfield is Illinois' capital), which has quite a good multi-purpose arena with lots of covered seating. This was the venue for the evening entertainment & we finished our day at the show watching the burnout competition & destruction derby.