Aaahhh, spring!

The rain has stopped….mostly anyway…the flowers are in bloom, and for the 72nd time, the Autorama kicked off our 2023 event season.

Though the Autorama is the only custom show we attend each year, it’s the only show we attend every year. After all of the record flooding and storms of December and January we really needed something in our lives to let us know all that madness was over and that a new year of events is on deck for us. We’d like to thank Rod Shows for having us again this year.

Admittedly the event was a bit smaller than in past years, and we were a little disappointed not to see the lowrider showcase in the Expo Center. That said it was no less a great time and as usual delivered some of the most beautiful hotrods and customs from around the country. Like Sacramento itself, the Autorama is nothing if not diverse. Between the impossibly beautiful full-custom competition cars, hot rods, rat rods, lowriders, survivors, muscle cars, and bikes, there’s a little something for everyone. Looking around, you see people from every walk of life and all with smiles on their faces. We wish more events had such a great vibe.

And now, on to the cars….

We may have a tendency to highlight examples of competitors that aren’t necessarily mainstream, or the “people’s choice,” but in the case of this year’s entries, we think the judges nailed the choice for the Custon d’Elegance award. The 2023 trophy went to Cody Walls from Traditional Metalcraft for his 1949 Buick Sedanette, known as “The Buick E-Job.” (NOTE: The dictionary defines the suffix, “ette” as forming nouns denoting relatively small size. There was nothing small about this beauty) We must have walked around this magnificent golden behemoth half a dozen times, taking in the sheer size of the thing, all the curves, and the richness and depth of the paint that seemed to collect all the ambient light, amplify it, and blast it back at us. Our hats are off to Cody and his team for creating such an outstanding piece of rolling art.

The next car we’re going to highlight is a bit of an odd one….amazing, but odd. If we tried to describe it to you without showing you a picture, you’d probably think we were out of our minds. It’s pretty much different than anything we’ve ever come across and no word or series of words do it justice. It’s dark…browns yellows and oranges, it’s a mixup of things, it’s got stripes of different colors louvers on the roof and trunk, but not around the engine, a hemi lump in a Ford, and it’s called St. Christopher. It’s about as untraditional as the Buick above is traditional.

Behold!

St. Christopher (who’s namesake is the patron saint of travelers) comes from South City Rod and Custom, which was also selected by the Autorama as 2023 Builder of the year. We think that title was well earned and commend the folks at South City for challenging convention and delivering such a shocker.

Believe it or not, at some point, the car was a mild mannered 1934 Ford coupe. After an extensive “remodel,” and an unbelieveable paint treatment by Compani Color, that mild manneded Ford coupe is no longer. It’s wild now, it’s mean and aggressive and it looks like it wants everyone to get out of its way. Mad props too for going with 8 gigantic hood piercing velocity stacks rather than a blower. This thing is cool on cool.

The third car we’d like to focus some attention on isn’t like the other two. It’s not bright like the sun, and it doesn’t look like it wants to hurt anyone. It’s Daniel Dorsett’s absolutely lovely 50 Merc custom and it’s everything. It’s chopped and shaved and frenched, it’s low and skirted, just like it should be. It’s a Merc sled textbook execution and it’s prefect. So many interpretations of the 49-51 Merc are chrome clad and candy and flake draped, and that’s absolutely fine and appropriate, but this example kills with subtlety. The medium blue it wears is understated, but it still shows off the car’s natural curves as well as all of the custom craftsmanship applied the folks at the Dorsett Speed Shop.

So, another Autorama is in the books. 2023 has officially begun for us and we can’t wait to start ticking off all of the events on our calendar. We hope you enjoy this recap of our umpteenth visit to this Sacramento institution, and we hope you will take some time to look at the images in our mega gallery below. Regardless of your tastes and prefrences, we know you’ll see something(s) you’ll like. We know we did and that’s why the Autorama is always first on our calendar and should be on yours too. It’s good for you.

-The Loud Pedal