From a 1933 Packard to a rare Yenko Camaro featured in the movie “The Fast and the Furious,” car enthusiasts of all stripes will revel in the 14th annual Rocky Mountain Rod and Custom Car Show this weekend at the Colorado Convention Center.
This event celebrates anything with an engine and four wheels. More than 500 vehicles and 70 vendors are on-site for this show, dubbed the “crème de la chrome.”
Visitors will be treated to plenty of hot rods and customs, but the show also includes restorations, exotics and race cars. “Any kind of car a (person) might like, we’ll have one or two,” says event founder Joe Haska.
Weather permitting, visitors also can experience a “cackle fest” in which vintage dragsters are lined up outdoors and fired up in unison. “It’s like standing next to a jet engine,” Haska says.
In addition to the cars on display, a gallery of automotive art will feature 20 local and national artists. Styles range from oil paintings to digital art and caricatures, but each artist shares a common theme — the love of car culture and automobiles.
Denver artist Dave Kurz is known for his detailed pastels, often commissioned by car collectors to celebrate a special vehicle. Kurz begins with a photo, and works with the car’s owner to create the ideal background.
For his noncommissioned works, Kurz’s autos serve as “a character in a larger story.” For instance, in his lush illustration called “That Dry Desert Air,” a 1932 Ford Roadster is pictured in a desert scene complete with sage, sandstone bluffs and black buzzards perched on a cactus in the foreground.
“Every car guy dreams of finding that rust-free vintage car preserved by dry desert air,” Kurz says.
This piece was created from photos of a real Roadster found in an Arizona barn.
“That is a highly desirable car,” he says. “So the buzzards in the painting represent car guys gathered around, looking at it.”
Pinstripers will also be at this show. Pinstriping is a specialty in the custom-car world. Four or five pinstripe artists will be working live during the show, including Louie Allison, whom Haska has dubbed the “world’s fastest pinstriper.”
Haska doesn’t charge vendors to participate, making the event purely a labor of love.
“I’m just a gearhead,” Haska says. “I drive them like I stole them, and if it has a motor in it on land, water or air, I love it.”
The Rocky Mountain Rod and Custom Car Show is today from 9 a.m to 9 p.m and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for kids 12 and under. (Discount tickets at Checker-O’Reilly Auto Parts stores.) .
