American Classics at the 2019 Goodguys Heartland Nationals

Tom Appel

5 years ago

Summertime is car-show season, and we always try to take in as many automotive get-togethers as we can. Local cruise nights, marque-specific dealership-lot shows, fancy concours gatherings, or what have you… it’s all good. Our Chicagoland home base has plenty of these kinds of events to offer, and in the upper Midwest, car folks know to take advantage when the weather is warm (or, let’s face it—flat-out hot), because it won’t be long before summer’s over and the cold and snow come again.

There’s fun to be had at outdoor car shows of all sizes, but I am especially fond of the weekend-long “mega-show” rod runs that typically take place at fairground venues across the country every summer. The National Street Rod Association essentially invented this type of event in 1970, and the format has stayed mostly the same since then. Since the mid-1980s, the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association has been producing its own two- and three-day-long rod run extravaganzas, and our closest-to-home favorite is the Heartland Nationals at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa. This year’s edition was the 28th annual, and the event regularly draws in more than 4000 registered show vehicles—that’s more than anybody can realistically take in over the course of a weekend.

Though Goodguys caters primarily to hot rod and custom-car enthusiasts, there are plenty of factory-stock (or at least close to factory-stock) vintage vehicles that show up every year. The definition of “vintage” that Goodguys uses is a 1987-model-year or earlier vehicle (the organization pushed up that line in the sand from the previous cutoff date of 1972 for last year’s show season).

Here, in no particular order, are some of the vehicles that caught our eye at this year’s show… have a look!

Unmodified Classics: Fun Finds at the 2018 Goodguys Heartland Nationals

Standout Stockers: Unusual Vehicles at the 2013 Goodguys Heartland Nationals