2006 L.A. Roadster Show

Land Of A Thousand Trucks

By John Gilbert

Just like the old expression "you can't judge a book by looking at the cover," you can't always judge a show by reading into its name. An excellent example to illustrate our point is the L.A. Roadster Show held each year in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley on Father's Day weekend. As evidenced by our pictorial coverage of the show, one can see there were almost 1,000 customized classic trucks in the show's specialty parking lot.

The L.A. Roadster Show's origin traces back to 1960, when the club (founded in '57) held their first show with about 50 vehicles in attendance. For the first two years the show's venue was the Hollywood Bowl. These first two years were a great success acceptance-wise, but proved to be an excellent opportunity for the club to lose money.

The L.A. guys regrouped and decided if they were going to put on a show it would have to be run like a business. Next stop, the Great Western Exhibition Hall in Los Angeles. For approximately 10 years the Great Western served as the Roadster Show's indoor home until L.A.'s city fathers decided to level the place and put up a bigger parking lot.

As often happens, what appears to be a bad thing can actually turn into the best thing. The third and hopefully final destination for the L.A. Roadster Show is the Los Angeles County Fairplex in Pomona, California.

For Southern California gearheads, the Fairplex represents the custom cultural epicenter of the civilized world. Its northwest corner houses the historic site of the Pomona dragstrip, and toward the southwest corner at gate 1 you will find the NHRA Museum. Inside the fairgrounds not far from the giant train set is where Southern Californians have been getting their first look at new model cars and trucks for well over the last five decades.

In recent years So-Cal Speed Shop in Pomona has hosted an open house in conjunction with the Roadster Show that started out in its early stages of development with about 50 vehicles in attendance. For the 42nd anniversary of the L.A. Roadster Show, the entire blocklong street in front of So-Cal was crawling with cool cars and trucks. Even after arriving right on time at 3 p.m. we had to park our black GMC several blocks away. Fortunately, Super Chevy's associate editor Mike Harrington forgot how to read a map and accidentally cruised right past where we had to park. Mike had some kind of big-shot VIP parking pass for So-Cal's lot, so we jumped in his Chevy and tagged along. The thought of almost having to walk two blocks made us pretty hungry, so the sight of free In-N-Out burgers was a welcome sight. After we choked down two double-doubles we wandered around and took in the sights.

On Saturday morning we jumped in our trusty black Jimmy and headed out to Pomona. At 10 o'clock in the morning the specialty lot was already packed with over 1,000 nice old trucks. We were told the lot is capable of holding up to 2,000 vehicles, and this year's show saw around 1,800. Inside the show grounds there were 800-plus choice examples of every kind of early body style Henry Ford ever produced (and, of course, some he never made). While we were walking around shooting the show we got a call from our friend "Clean" Dean, editor of Biker magazine. He was at the show with his slumlord Allen Erickson. Earlier that morning Allen and Dean piled into Allen's '28 Model A roadster pickup and hauled butt out to the show. Allen bought his roadster pickup in '58. The first time he showed it at the L.A. Roadster Show was in '61, and he continued to do so until '95. Since showing his '28 A in the '06 show Allen said they had such a good time this year he'll bring it out again for next year's show.

For any of you reading this with a love of all things custom and cool (especially old trucks), we highly recommend you find yourself in Pomona, California, next Father's Day weekend enjoying So-Cal's open house, followed with the L.A. Roadster Show. CCT