Ridetech is out at the 2011 NSRA Louisville show. Here are some of the latest reports:
Post Show Report
The NSRA Street Rod Nationals is always the largest show of the year for us at RideTech, but this years event was the best one yet… by a large margin!
RideTech debuted the new impact forged coilover shocks last year at this event. This year, we offered to weigh your street rod and perform ride quality analysis. To say this service was successful would be an understatement… we weighed and evaluated 182 cars!
We encountered everything from a 1978 Austin Mini that weighed 1,475 lbs to a 1930 Packard that weighed 5,000 lbs! We also uncovered a vast array of performance issues… leaking and broken shocks, bent suspension components, incorrect spring rates, and inadequate suspension travel. These are all issues that can be corrected and whose correction will add immeasurably to the enjoyment of your street rod!
Tony Bicknell of RideTech commented, “These 182 hotrodders had us evaluate their car because they knew it could be improved… they just didn’t know how. Now they can take our written evaluation and decide how they should proceed… be it immediately or maybe this winter. Now they don’t have to spend the money to build a new car… they can upgrade their current car!”
The evaluation included corner weight and total weight of the car, measuring the shock lengths, measuring the geometry of the suspension, and then calculating the proper spring rates and shock settings. There was no charge for this service and RideTech plans on making this an annual event and potentially expanding the evaluation service to additional shows throughout the year.
Pictures from Sunday:
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Pictures of the 1932 NSRA giveaway car, with Ridetech Shocks!
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Saturday Report
The crowd is out in full force today, the show draws up to 50,000 people on a Saturday and it shows. There are people of all ages walking around today; it’s good to see so many younger spectators getting interested in hotrods. A lot of them also came for the roasted almonds and blue wigs, but there’s nothing wrong with that, the smell of roasted almonds is irresistible.
We weighed over 55 hotrods today, which brings our total to around 150 cars for the entire event. We’ve measured everything from a regular 32′ ford roadster to a loaded VW bus. It will be interesting to see all the data laid out when we get back home, fortunately for you we will make all this data available online next week. There is just one last day left to the show, last chance to make it out!
Pictures from Saturday:
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Friday’s Report
Rain threatened for a while out here in Louisville but it turn out to be a pretty nice day out here. The crowd is much bigger today than yesterday and we’ve noticed more cars came to our booths. We weight over 50 cars today and we were able to capture many more pictures of the cars pulling up. Each car is being recorded so that after the show we will share the weights online for anyone browse. This project will benefit everyone involved, it will be a great online resource for car builders looking for a proper spring rate for their project.
If you’ve never been to an NSRA show before the first thing you’ll notice is how laid back and friendly everyone is. The Louisville show is one of the largest shows of the year, and definitely the largest NSRA show. There are usually around 12,000 hot rods out at this show, and for those who don’t know the show is now open to vehicle just over 30 years old. The cool part about running a booth at a show this large is to see people from all over the country who make a trip to make it out here. From California to New Jersey, no amount of distance will keep some people from this show.
If you live nearby, make your way out, there is always something exciting going on Saturday.
Some pictures from Friday:
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Thursday’s Report
Ridetech is here at the NSRA Louisville show in full force. We’re manning two booths this week, the usual inside booth that is housing the unusual 56′ Ford Ridler award winner owned by Bruce Ricks, and our car weighing trailer outside. We measured 45 cars in the outside booth today. It’s been a blast guessing at weights before they reach the scales, it kinda feels like a “guess your age” booth that you see at fairs. If you’re at the show you definitely need to stop on by and have us take a look at your car, it’s free of charge and you will receive a free t-shirt! (while supplies last) The show will last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so you still have plenty of time to make it down here if you live nearby.
Some of the cars that made it out to the booth:
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