The month of June is a busy time for car enthusiasts and performance aftermarket manufacturers alike. By this time events are in full swing all around the country and hotrodders all over the country are out on our nation’s highways and byways enjoying the company of others and showing off what they’ve been working on all winter. I fit right in the middle of the scene I just painted. Having spent the previous six days traveling across the mid-west on the 2016 Hot Rod Power Tour with our Holley/MSD crew, I headed home a bit early in order to make it out for the 14th Annual Holley National Hot Rod Reunion.
In case you’ve never been, here is what you can expect. Hot Rod Reunion is an annual destination event for auto enthusiasts from all over the country. The event takes place in Holley’s hometown of Bowling Green, KY. Historic Beech Bend Raceway provides the wonderful backdrop, with a world class drag-strip and, unlike many other tracks, covered grandstands for those who want to watch front engine dragsters exploding down the 1320.
The event is comprised of four main aspects: a schedule chock full of nostalgic drag racing classes, a manufacturer’s mid-way, swap meet, and an enormously sized car show that transports spectators back to a time when things were a bit simpler and the cars had a lot more character.
Attendees can see, hear and smell what it was like to be a gearhead in decades gone by. They can meet some of history's revered drag racers, and see them make passes in the famous cars they campaigned years ago. For our company, this is a great way for us to see our products in action, from the Holley carburetors sitting atop Weiand superchargers, or the high power MSD ignition systems and Hooker Headers that provide ignition and expel spent exhaust fumes for many of the cars at the show.
For me personally it’s a great way to get in touch with America circa the 1950’s. I enjoy perusing the rides on display, trying to figure out what I would’ve elected to drive if I had lived back in the heyday of hot-rodding. It is also a time to observe hotrodding: how it was, how it has evolved over the years, and how it is today. It is a sub-culture unto it's own, and it commands respect from those on-site just as the uncorked, mechanically injected, blown Hemi's of the dragsters on the track. Hot rodded 32 Fords, Tri-Five gassers, and hopped-up muscle cars from the 1960's all converge together on the grounds and allow you to feast your eyes upon them for the duration of the show. For a car-guy, events better than this are few and far between. Thanks for reading. If you would like to see the rest of the photos we shot of the 2016 Holley Hot Rod Reunion, follow the link to the complete Facebook album.





While our camera crew didn’t benefit from having a media pass this year, we were able to scour the venue and close the shutter on a number of vehicles that we’re excited to share with readers of this blog. Enjoy!