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Street Machine Memories...Part 2

So last week I detailed the first half of my Top 10 Street Machine Memories. Despite the folks who hated the SM Nats, if you ever actually attended, there was no way you could walk away unchanged. They were that big of a deal. In my interviews of folks who were critical in making the shows what they were, the common theme was that the shows were an assault on the senses. Just like the decade of the '80s themselves, the SM Nats were about excess...loud, obnoxious, neon and chrome, fat Mickey Thompson-tired, race-gas fueled excess. And man, was it ever awesome. So here they are...my Top Ten Street Machine Memories, numbers 5-1.

#5. The Smell

Whether it was the succulent scent of the grilled bratwurst and burgers, the pungent odor of freshly smoked rear tires after a crowd-pleasing (but still illegal) burnout, the whiff of sunscreen and lightly burnt flesh in the searing southern Illinois summer heat, or the unmistakable smell of spent high octane race fuel, the moment you set foot on the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, your nostrils were bombarded with the odors of the show like no other. Nowhere else could you go and smell the unique blend of such a scent, possessing the unique ability to make you hungry and nauseous all at the same time. In a word...Awesome.

#4. The Wild Paint

The 80's were known for their garish excesses, and the SM Nats showed those tendencies in full display. Grown men with neon pink cars? Sure. Mini-truckers with crazy, zillion-colored graphics? We got 'em. Classic street machines painted the same color as nacho cheese dip? Got that, too. My first car, a '72 Nova, had a screamin' yellow paint job with graphics shamelessly ripped off a sweet '70 Mustang fastback that I had taken a Polaroid picture of at the show (I later discovered it was built by Ride Tech founder Bret Voelkel). Yeah, I carried a Polaroid camera around the show in all my 11 year-old coolness.

#3. The Manufacturers' Midway

In an era where the internet didn't exist and shopping never involved eBay, DuQuoin offered attendees the unique opportunity to interact with all the vendors they saw in the pages of Car Craft and Hot Rod every month. Dad always brought a little extra cash for the "show specials" that were advertised on-site every year. I bought some awesome brushed/billet aluminum Mr. Gasket Rodware parts for my car there one year, too. Even if I didn't buy anything, to me it was awesome just to see the big 18-wheelers and tents all lined up to create a mobile "street machine shopping mall" unlike anything I had ever seen before or since.

#2.  The Engines

I remember taking the picture of this engine as a kid. I kept hearing people talking about the blown Hemi in this car. Dad and I were probably at least a hundred yards away and people were walking away shaking their heads, talking about how valuable the engine alone was. I didn't even know what a Hemi was at the time, but I snapped this pic because the blown, injected, fully chromed out engine was a masterpiece. Later, I would see the likes of Rick Dobbertin's double blown, double turbo'd J-2000, Mark Grimes' triple blown Eurosport, Matt & Debbie Hay's double blown Thunderbird...the list goes on and on. Or maybe the more understated 572 CI beige masterpiece in Scott Sullivan's '55? You could eat your lunch off the intake manifold and couldn't find an exposed wire if you TRIED (I did try and was never successful). The craftsmanship by any standard, especially in a pre-computer/CAD/flowjet age was simply incredible.

#1.  The "Pro" Cars

Without question, the thing I loved about the DuQuoin show was the cars. Especially the cars of the "pro" builders. They were called the "one percenters" long before the occupiers ripped off the term. However, these were cars built and driven by the same guys. Unlike today, where some tycoon usually signs a blank check over to a high dollar dream shop, these cars were crafted by and for the men and women who drove them. In a far less commercial time, they weren't built for the line of one-off parts that would come from the build. They weren't crafted to follow the OCC inspired hyper-commercialized-profit-from-the build philosophies of today. They were built by guys like Rocky Robertson who scratch-built his Buicks in a small shop with common hand tools and an off-the-charts imagination capable of turning a vision into a reality. Matt Hay told me he used his garage door as a sheet metal brake on his first build. And the end result was awesome. Everyone converged on DuQuoin annually to see what the latest and greatest creations looked like. Perhaps due to the fact that information travelled slower then, the "big reveal" at DuQuoin fueled a competitiveness in the pro builders that led to a spirit of one-upmanship that progressively set the bar higher and higher. Ultimately, the cost and effort and time involved probably turned many away from the pro street movement, but for a solid decade it was a wild ride.

So what about you? Any memories of the show you care to share? If so, comment below!