Pre-1965 traditional hotrod and custom car show
Posted: Aug 02, 2007 by Natasha Gorbachev
When summer hits I undergo a visible transformation into a festival-frolicking female.
The rest of my weekends this summer are booked with them, but there’s one in particular that changes me more than the rest.
Hotrod-a-rama.
As a matter of fact, this annual powerhouse festivity does a little something to everyone, and it affects us all in different ways.
This 6th Annual Hotrod-a-rama shuts down Jefferson Street in front of The Swiss Pub and fills it with the largest pre-1965 car show in the Northwest. It includes more than 500 traditional hotrods and customs, nine vintage top-fuel dragsters, six restored midget racers, a sweet lineup of bands, and hundreds upon hundreds of people who are drawn to the area around and inside the Swiss. This year it’s all going down Aug. 3 and 4.
Tacomans are fortunate that Hotrod-a-rama is around this year because its creator, Dale Seaholm, moved to Tuscon, Ariz., and the event might have disappeared. Lucky for us, the 15 other people who bust their ass to pull Hotrod-a-rama off decided they couldn’t let that happen, including two cool cats who jumped behind the wheel: Shawn Wheelock and Steve Glucoff.
Last year was my first Hotrod-a-rama experience, and here’s what that jalopy shindig did to me: I blazed on the scene at 2 p.m. rockin’ my hot John Fluevog motorcycle boots, and I only planned on staying for a few hours. Instead, I shook that shack all the way until 2 a.m. and discovered what would become my favorite Tacoma festival of all.
The festival is a favorite of others, too:
One festival attendee flies in all the way from San Francisco for this throwdown, and each year he’s met a new, beautiful woman.
Another group of 10 people come all the way from New Zealand for Hotrod-a-rama as a planned, annual trip. Welcome mates!
It gives gals an opportunity to dust off their ’50s dresses and red lipstick.
Hotrod-a-rama inspires people to build cars just to debut at the show.
It helps the Swiss sell tray upon tray of Pabst Blue Ribbon and offer breakfast on Saturday (yum!).
Even better, Hotrod-a-rama makes people DANCE.
This festival brings out all kinds of folks who just want to let their dander down. You’ll find mommas strolling babies, rockabilly honkey-tonkers, suds sippers, Betty Paige babes, mile-high pompadours, laid back cool folk who dig on the iron (it’s all about the iron) and sweet tattoos soaking up the sun.
Most of those people would concur that the nitro methane that pours out of the top-fuel cars is an aphrodisiac. Judging by the way people cover their ears to take in the occasional thunderous revving with wide eyes and ear-to-ear grins, I’d have to agree.
Another thing that Hotrod-a-rama did to me was that I drank so much I forgot the names of the incredible bands that are a part of the show, but I can guarantee that they’re all good.
This year’s 8 p.m. Friday night lineup includes Hard Luck Three, The Stood Ups and the AWESOME Saddle Tramps. Starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday The Scuzztones, The Juke Joint Gamblers, Marshall Scott Warner, Cold Hearted Trio, Mars Needs Women, The Verbtones, the All American Playboys and Shawn Hawkins and The Offenders will play on the outside stage. Johnny Mercury will rock our world at 7 p.m. inside the Swiss for the evening show.
DJ Zombo, aka Michael Devine, is the one who pulls together the music. Formerly a Portland, Ore., resident, Zombo — who now resides in Pittsburgh spinning rockabilly, surf and garage — is back again to coordinate the Hotrod-a-rama music. Thanks for flying in Zombo!
As an added treat, this year’s Hotrod-a-rama will feature the The Glam-O-Rama Burlesque Show on Friday and Hotrod Heidi’s Hotrod-a-rama Honies, a pinup girl competition that will be determined by audience applause and roars.
Hotrod-a-rama will also include vendors featuring vintage hotrod tires, parts, clothing and even rockabilly baby wear.
The weather for this year’s festival is calling for mid-70s (ahhh) and I can’t encourage you enough to go, because there’s one way that Hotrod-a-rama affects us all equally:
Anyone who has ever been looks forward to it every year.
VA-ROOM!
When: Friday, Aug. 3, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 4, 11 a.m.
Where: The Swiss, 1904 S. Jefferson Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2821
For more information, go to www.hotrodarama.com