Oldies but goodies rule in cars, music at Las Vegas show
No vehicle made after 1962 need apply for 20-year-old Viva Las Vegas meetup
LAS VEGAS A 1929 Ford truck rumbles in, covered in rust; a car customized in the 1960s glides in, perfectly preserved; and a lowrider Chevy follows behind, rising and lowering on its hydraulic suspension. It’s all part of the Viva Las Vegas car show, now marking its 20th year.
It happened at the Orleans Hotel, off the Vegas strip, between April 13 and 16. The cars are part of an annual Rockabilly music event, dedicated to early 1950s rock and roll and the people for whom it’s a lifestyle: men with pomaded hair and women in glamorous, pinup-style dresses. They come from around the world for the music, with some show-car licence plates hailing from Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and B.C.
Bjørn Inge Jansson came from Norway to be united with the car of his dreams. Vintage American cars are popular there, and when Jansson found a 1955 Ford Thunderbird on the Internet, he had to have it. It had been customized in 1956 by Gil Ayala, a well-known auto modifier. It became a star on the show circuit, but it disappeared sometime in the 1960s.
“It was lost until the late 1990s, when it was rediscovered by someone who recognized it and saved it,” Jansson said. “I have several cars, but when I saw it, I said, ‘Where do I send the money?’ ”
Jansson had it shipped from the seller in New Jersey to a Miami restoration shop that brought it back to its original show condition. Before the Las Vegas show, he flew to Florida and drove the car to an event in Austin, Texas, and then to Los Angeles, where he met the late Ayala’s daughter.
“There was a guy who had helped build it, back when he was 18 or so,” Jansson said. “It was a blast to show him the car, because he hadn’t seen it in 50 years.”
Jansson will drive it to a few more shows — the trunk stuffed with his luggage — and then ship it home to Norway.
Other than a pre-1963 age limit on the cars, the Viva show has no restrictions on what can come in. Walking among the thousand vehicles on display, the range of the car hobby is breathtaking. Flawlessly painted cars sit next to rusty “rat rods” made up of whatever was handy, and the weirder the better — one sported sun visors made of saw blades. Some are still under construction, their body welds still visible or hoods yet to be attached, but their owners got them to the show anyway.
A pink Chevrolet Corvair had been hastily painted the day before. And some got their final touches at the show. Beth Kearney set up shop by the outdoor music stage, deftly putting pinstripes on cars. The art of hand-drawn swirls and designs lost some of its popularity in the 1980s, but has regained a foothold as younger artists return to the style of the 1950s master painters.
“I’ve been doing it for 15 years,” Kearney said, painting an intricate and symmetrical design on the hood of a 1963 Chevrolet. “I was into photography and went to car shows, and I ended up mostly taking pictures of the stripes. So I got a can of paint and a brush and tried it. I’m self-taught, and it turned from a hobby into a career.” She now runs a shop, Lil’ Dame Pinstriping, in Colorado.
On the stage, a band sings a Chuck Berry song about Maybellene driving a Cadillac Coupe de Ville. On the asphalt, women in 1950s dresses pose by the cars, holding paper parasols to protect them from the relentless sun. Car club members in matching T-shirts stop to admire a vintage Hemi engine in a hot rod.
“This is my second year, and it’s such a great bunch of people,” said Bob Bruns, who drove his 1959 Studebaker Lark from Hemet, California, some 425 kilometres away. “My dad was a mechanic, and I’ve always loved cars.”
He has a collection of vintage trucks, but when he saw the Studebaker, “I fell in love,” he said.
It was a prize in a raffle, but when the winner took the other choice of a 1978 Corvette, Bruns tracked the Studebaker to a dealership in Oklahoma.
“We bartered a little over two years, but I had to have it.”
It’s in the style known as a restorod: It looks original on the outside, but there’s a 1992 Corvette engine under the hood.
Falling in love is a common theme at the show, and Jerry Davis wanted a 1963 Chevrolet Impala ever since someone took him for a ride in one when he was 10 years old.
“My wife bought it for me 10 years ago for my 40th birthday,” he said.
It has an air-bag suspension that raises it for driving, and lowers it for a custom look when it’s parked. It was installed when he got the car, but Davis restored everything else on it.
“It has the original engine, and I drive it at least three times a week,” he said. “That first ride in one did it for me.”