Eye Candy at The Turkey Rod Run

Just a Car Guy is a blog I frequent. Over the weekend, we traded emails about blogspot and navigating around it. Well, he checked out By The Numbers and inserted this old man's blog into his with reference to the Turkey Rod Run in the Home of The World's Most Famous Beach, the town just to the south of the Birthplace of Speed, my hometown.

In that post of his he pulled some shots taken at the Turkey Rod Run from their website. I thought I would do a blog with some of the cars I have seen, over the years, at the Rod Run. Of course, come Thanksgiving, I will be posting a lot more of them and will keep you posted as to them.

The Turkey Rod Run is held over Thanksgiving weekend and features, predominately, street rods, but everything shows up. They have a huge flea market, car show, car corral event at the

Daytona International Speedway. No racing this weekend though. They shut down the entire facility to racing and have a huge event. 5,000 plus cars, uncountable vendors and tons of food trailers.

Everywhere you look there are cool old cars, new cars and everything in between. In the photo above, shot at the 2006 Rod Run, I can see in this photo a Barracuda, Corvette, Thunderbird, LeSabre, Challenger and an old Longroof. I know there are many I am missing.

This year will be the first year I will attend the event as a local resident. In the many years past, I have driven in the day after Thanksgiving, gone to BelAir plaza on Friday nite, attended the show on Saturday, BelAir plaza on Saturday nite and home to wherever on Sunday.

This year will be fun as I am now a local resident. As a matter of fact, my Taj Mahal is located 5 short blocks north of the BelAir plaza and is home to my local Publix grocery store, something I think is pretty cool.

Now, I realize I have not noted what significance the BelAir plaza is.

During the Turkey Rod Run, there are the sanctioned events out at the Speedway, but every nite during Thanksgiving weekend, a whole bunch of cars fill up the parking lot at the BelAir plaza, with a hundred more in the LaPlaya Hotel across A1A in the parking garage, as well as another several hundred or more just cruising around. It is like something out of the 50's and early 60's. A giant cruise in....and a total blast.

But during the day on Saturday, for several years, I have attended with the Kid and his sister Taylor, sometimes their Mom and usually the jeep junkie hooks up with us after work.

One year I gave Taylor my digital camera and when I got it back, the memory was full!! Not a lot of useable shots but that is what Uncle's are for.

She did like this Purple People Eater Dodge Power Wagon.

the jeep junkie got a kick out of this Vega Woody. As I mentioned, there is a bit of everything at this show.

I love this early 60's Pontiac # 3, campaigned, not by Dale Earnhardt, Sr., but by David Pearson.

This is the jeep junkie's friend's mid 60's Bronco we took to BelAir last year. Note the oleragtop in better days in the background.

Gratuitous picture of me next to an old farm implement. Can you say, "Do you think my tractor is sexy?"

A cool old Studebaker Ice Cream Truck. "You scream for ice cream, I scream for ice cream, we all scream for ice cream."

This is a cool old Buick longroof. After the show, I saw this car for sale on ebay. I emailed the seller mentioning I saw this olelongroof at the Rod Run and he included that description in the ebay ad. The price shot up $4,000 the day after my comments were posted. A really super sharp piece of art, by the way.

The next couple shots were taken at BelAir plaza. Sorry about the preference toward longroofs but, well, enjoy. A late 50's Merc.

Same era Pontiac. Surf boards are okay but not necessary. I would rather have seen some period correct luggage.

A decade later, Dodge produced this Monaco longroof.

And three decades later GM came out with this longroof, although this one is highly modified.

On the way to Daytona Beach for the Rod Run, I saw this Mercedes McLaren while driving by the refueling depot on International Speedway Boulevard. I believe this was the first year they were introduced.

Again, that is me, even long before this blog came to being, I was keeping an eye out for this kind of stuff.

A not so good shot of an old bug. The local VW contigent has some really nice stuff here. I was surprised I didn't have more images of them in my library. Don't worry, that will change come Thanksgiving '08.

Another old bug.

I have always been an admirer of this body style Mercedes 280. Look at the variety of cars in this image. That is the Rod Run.

Conversely, I love this olelongroof just as much. I know, I know.

This one is cool also but the roof isn't long enough for me. But, if I had the bus's toy budget, it would be in my livery.

Taylor took this image. I think she loved the color. It is a pretty car though.

Now this is a pretty cool old Nash but look at that wagon in front of it. You see all sorts of that kind of stuff down this way.

An old Indy Pace Car.

I told you about those old wagons.

You can rest assured, this year the Kid will be at BelAir with his cj5

and I will be parked right next door to him

in the oldstationbus.

If you are there and see us, stop and say hello. the jeep junkie will probably have a cold adult beverage he can spare.