(Photos by Mike Brooks) – While Chad and I were absorbing sunlight like a couple of bright red sponges in Florida, Mike Brooks and his wife went shooting out to Detroit to visit an shoot photos at the famed 2016 Detroit Autorama. We have TONS of cool photos to show you from that event which Mike took but we are going to start by showing you a quick look at the cars which made up the famed “Great 8” and were up for the Ridler Award which is one of them most prestigious awards in all of hot rodding and something that even the late Don Ridler himself could have have foreseen growing into what it has become today.
The quick and dirty is that in order to be eligible for the Ridler award your car has to have never been seen in public before the Detroit Autorama and it must start, run, stop, and turn. All of these functions are normally carried out in a very, and we mean VERY tidy fashion with the car running for a short period of time (like a handful of minutes tops). The more useful your car is the better off it will be in judging seems to be a rule of thumb. Lastly, it has to be one of the most beautiful and amazing hot rods in the world to make it to the Great 8. The combined total of money spent on the eight cars you will see below could be as high as 30-million but we can almost say with some certainly that it is over 20. Incredible craftsmanship, artistic ability, and thought went into all of these bad boys.
Being that there can only be one winner, it is featured in the image above and directly below. The 2016 Ridler Award winner was the 1939 Olds convertible commissioned by Billy and Debbie Thomas of Georgetown, Texas and built by Customs & Hot Rods of Andice in Austin over the span of four years. Yes, we said four years of constant fabrication, creation, revision, and improvement. It is an incredible piece. Being that Andice normally turns out a couple of cars a year at a half million a pop that are beauties but nothing like this, we have no idea what the dollar value on this Mondello 455 Olds powered machine would be. Ultimately it is not a profit making enterprise for the car owner but they do have the ultimate prize any hot rodder would ever want, the Ridler award.
The other cars in the Great 8? Here’s the list and you can check them out below:
-1961 Chevrolet Impala “Double Bubble”
-1976 Ford XB Falcon “XBoss”
-1937 Ford Deluxe coupe
-1938 Graham 97 “Shark”
-1939 Oldsmobile Model 60 convertible
-1940 Willys Coupe “Full Throttle”
-1941 Ford pickup “Mirage”
-1952 Mercedes-Benz 170S
It’s amazing how much money is spent on showing this type of vehicle for one show. I did the show car circuit over 20 yrs ago and couldn’t believe the politics involved. Granted in was no way near the craftsmanship involved like these cars but it did bring home trophies.
Yes the amount of money that it takes to compete at this level just blows my mind, I also competed in ISCA back in 1997 and was fortunate to qualify for the GrandFinale in Houston! I placed 3rd in my class and 19th overall in my rookie year and I thought I was a player.
I keep telling my wife I would like to do it again and she keeps telling me I don’t have deep enough pockets! Lol!
Sure are a bunch of pug ugly monstrosities on this list.