DESTINATIONS

This historic town plays host to the region's largest car show.

Deadwood South Dakota's Historic Town Plays Home To The Largest Street Machine Event In The Black Hills Mark Simpson, Photos By Gary Simpson The NSMC returned to Deadwood, SD, for the annual Kool Deadwood Nites car show. For

“Some day I will go to the Salt Flats.” Many hot rodders have said that phrase to themselves at one time or another. If you’re a serious performance nut and haven’t made this promise to yourself, you certainly should.

We’re proud to report and happy to say that apparently it doesn’t matter how the economy is doing or what’s going on around the world, street machine enthusiasts still love their rides.

Terms like “hot rod” and “early ford” just naturally go together, and this year’s selection for the Great 8, is no exception. The list of cars competeing for the Ridler included five early Fords, two ’41 Willys, and one ’56 Shoebox Chevy.

The name Stanley Wanlass was not familiar to me until a few years ago when I happened upon a 1.3 sized sculpture of a 1932 Ford Roadster on a pedestal in a friend’s yard.

This year’s AMBR award winner was a gorgeous black ’32 Ford roadster owned and built by Harry Willett of Orland Park, IL. The car features a Dodge Viper V-10 equipped with a fuel injection system from a LeMans Viper race car as well as a number of other race-inspired features that really helped it stand out from the other top-notch competitors.

This has been one of our favorite events for some time. Held in the historic town of Deadwood, it once was the stomping grounds and is the final resting place of Old West legends like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

Of the vehicle manufacturers at one time based in Wisconsin, most notable was the Kissel Motor Car Company, which produced approximately 30,000 custom built cars, and later trucks, before ceasing production in 1931 due to financial hardship brought on by the Great Depression.

While cruising the aisles, we saw everything from new Dodge Challengers turned into ’Cudas to GM’s next generation Camaro tribute to the Roger Penske/ Mark Donahue Trans Am series race car (pictured) to all sorts of traditionally styled vintage rods packed with modern technology.