The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) has been visiting the inland city of Bakersfield, California for the past 40 years. The ninth largest city in California, it is home to some of the best vintage street rods in the West, if not the entire nation.
With an economy based around oil and agriculture, automobiles are a necessity for locals. From the first NSRA car show hosted in the city in the mid-’70s, Bakersfield has been one of the more popular NSRA events in the car show season.
NSRA Events Are Much More Than Cars
The event started with the same opening the NSRA presents each day of the event, beginning at 9:00 a.m. with CHP Officer Rodriguez singing the National Anthem, after a short introduction by Wings Kalahari.
The slight overcast early in the morning made for great photo opportunities, with the sun shining through within an hour. Bakersfield is known for its blistering temperatures in the summer, and hot weather and hot rods don’t always mix. Lucky for us, the weather was just warm enough, without being too hot. Providing entertainment for the weekend, legendary hot rod DJ Wings Kalahari was cranking golden oldies along with running commentary, and a few special interviews were aired throughout the day.
Friday’s guest list included Paul Petersen, an actor and race enthusiast, was the first Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer to be fired by Disney after punching a casting agent. He also appeared on the Donna Reed Show.
Cars, Cars, And More Cars
There is never a shortage of cars at an NSRA event, but the Bakersfield show is larger than most. The area is full of car people from the surrounding area, and the proximity of the city allows enthusiasts to make the short weekend drive from Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. We saw cars from Washington and Oregon as well.
One of the best membership benefits the NSRA has to offer, most of the vehicles signed up for its voluntary inspection program as soon as they entered the fairgrounds. Keeping in mind that most NSRA members drive their vehicles from this event to the next, having an extra set of eyeballs checking over the mechanical condition of a vehicle is a great idea. In all, the safety inspection is a complete overview of the vehicle by knowledgeable technicians that focus on the safety of the public and the occupants of the vehicle.
We watched as NSRA Western Area safety inspectors Patrick and Jerry Fay performed a couple of vehicle inspections. To earn a NSRA safety sticker, vehicles must pass the inspection of primary systems such as steering, throttle, brakes, and safety equipment. “Technology has changed a lot over the decades,” explained Jerry. “These cars are being driven on the highways, at speeds they were never originally designed to maintain for long periods, if at all.”
The safety crew looks for required items, including a transmission lockout for cars with automatic transmissions, safe braking system, good throttle linkage, and safe tires. They also check for recommended equipment like parking brakes, self-aligning rod end bearing spacers, and self-locking nuts, cotter pins, and safety-wire or lock washers on chassis fasteners.
Cruising
The Kern County Fairgrounds is a large venue with several different paved roads winding through the property. Throughout the day, many of the show participants fired up their rods and cruised around and through the fairgrounds, and spectators walking through the venue were treated to a scene that was akin to a transport back in time.
As is the case in many shows, cars from like periods tend to park together. When birds of a feature are flocking together, you can expect to see an area where the T-Buckets roam, and another area where roadsters gather. Musclecars tend to line the sides of the street and look tough.
A Couple Of Our Favorites
Franklin was a luxury auto manufacturer that produced some of the finest sedans, touring cars, limousines, and even a few speedsters before the Great Depression. As with many of the luxury car makers, the hard economic times of the 1930’s felled the giant, never to return.
As luck would have it, we met up with Hollice Mudford, a Bakersfield resident and collector of vintage cars. He brought out his 1929 Franklin, leaving his older 1927 Franklin at home. Known for the handcrafted, high-quality workmanship and use of fine materials, the manufacturer was never a high-volume producer.
The company’s best year in output was 1929 when 14,000 units were produced, with dealers taking delivery of 9,000 cars and the other 5,000 stored in warehouses. Many of those stored Franklins ended up having a better life, and tend to be the examples that are still on the roads today. We don’t know if Hollie’s Franklin was one of those survivors, or not.
Other than luxury manufacturing, what makes the Franklin such a unique car is the engine design by engineers Carl Doman and Edward Marks. The air-cooled engine, once a very common engine design, was left only to the Franklin company by early 1930’s. Sadly, the company went into bankruptcy on April 3, 1934.
Hollice’s Franklin appeared to be a 135 sedan, which sold new for $2,485. The air-cooled 248ci, six-cylinder engine was rated at 60 horsepower. A three-speed manual transmission helped move this huge car with smart gearing arrangement.
A five-passenger vehicle with a 125-inch wheelbase, it was roomy, even for its era. Most 135’s were equipped with a clock, a rear seat heater, spoked rims, sun visor, and windshield wiper. The cars originally came with wooden spoke wheels, which have been replaced on this sedan with wire spoked split rims.
It is rare to see a Franklin in such good condition. If you ever doubted Bakersfield’s status as a real collector car location, this find should make you reconsider.
1937 Packard Limousine
This beauty has been upgraded and built to “drive … and drive … and drive.” Powered by a 302 cubic-inch Ford with an overdrive automatic transmission, this limousine never has to worry about getting down the street. The builder added rack and pinion precision steering, dual air conditioning, halogen headlights with turn signals, and 16-inch custom-built wire wheels with Diamond Back radial tires.
The exterior paint is five years-old and the interior is equally as fresh, having been restored only two years ago. The rear airbags are operated by a twin-battery electrical system that also supports twin-fans on the custom-built radiator. This one was found for sale with a price tag of $75,000.
Butch Brown’s 1957 Chevy
Butch saw us checking out his ’57 Chevy and asked: “You like it?” As his right eyebrow arched up with genuine interest while awaiting our response, he went on by saying, “It used to be a four-door.”
We liked his custom project car before, and we liked it even more once we found out how much fabrication was added to the build. “My friend told me that I needed an LS engine and he gave me a ride in his car,” he said. “It kinda scared me because it was so quick. I went to Pace Performance and bought this eRod LS engine, and I’ve loved the change.”
From a performance and economical standpoint, we have to agree with Butch, The eRod LS engine swap was a good move for a car that gets driven a lot.
Closing Time
The show started to wind down on Sunday, with everyone packing up their cars in preparation for the next adventure. The Bakersfield NSRA event was every bit as large and exciting as we heard that it would be, and we’ve already put in our reservation for next year’s event.
As for the NSRA road warriors, it was closing time in the West. No one has to go home but they couldn’t stay at the Kern County Fairgrounds any longer. Stay tuned as we look forward to bringing you future show coverage!