For four decades now, the Saturday before Mother’s Day has served as the informal opening of the Pacific Northwest’s car season. Here, on the streets of Southeast Portland, car people from all over the region gather before the sun rises for the Portland Transmission Spring Classic—a street-based car show now in its 41st year.
The event serves as a good reflection of Portland’s car scene, with a huge variety of makes and models on hand, parked both inside the cordoned-off show area and beyond. Approximately 500 cars register for this annual event—but many more do not, instead parking outside the boundaries and effectively expanding the show well into the neighborhoods surrounding it. This year, more than 1000 cars were on display over approximately 12 blocks—hot rods, lowriders, street rods, muscle cars, trucks, sports cars and everything in between.
A pair of highboys show just how much the automotive world shifted in the four-year period between 1930 and 1934. Both of these Fords draw heavily on the hot rod traditions of the late 1950s and early 1960s.Jim Pickering
Portland Transmission Warehouse has been hosting this event since 1983, and it’s grown to become nearly legendary within the local car scene. It’s a no-cost event that is mostly powered by word of mouth and tradition; there’s no website to reference and only basic information released via social media. But if you know, you know, and the car community does a good job of getting the word out beforehand. Once there, the hot dogs are free, as is the soda, and it’s all over by 11 am.
Here are some of the sights from this year’s event.
Clean Tri-Five Chevrolets were a theme this year, including this nice bronze and white 1956 Bel Air post on Torq-Thrusts.Jim Pickering This 1962 Ford Falcon wagon looked all original and stood out because of it.Jim Pickering The AMC Rebel Machine is an uncommon sight—just under 2000 of these were built in 1970, and only the first thousand or so had the blue-painted hood and lower beltline.Jim Pickering This truck, known as Fordtruss, was CAD-designed and built by owner Scott Robertson with an eye toward both hot rodding and aviation.Jim Pickering The aviation theme carries into the cab, with distinctive gauges.Jim Pickering Inside the bed, Fordtruss uses aerospace components, including a rocket tank repurposed as a fuel tank.Jim Pickering If you really, really liked “Starsky & Hutch,” Ford had you covered in 1976 with a limited run of Gran Torinos painted just like the one on the show—somewhere between 1000 and 1300 of these were sold to the public.Jim Pickering This 1960 Impala in Sky Blue sat low on 20-inch Torq-Thrust II–style wheels.Jim Pickering The Portland Transmission Spring Classic brings in all kinds of specialty cars, from vintage Ford trucks to high-dollar lowriders.Jim Pickering This ’40 Ford Deluxe is indicative of a lot of the cars on hand at this show: period-correct color, hot-rod rake, and excellent fit and finish.Jim Pickering Old-school customs are commonly seen here—the type that feature traditional custom metalwork and top-level paint and body.Jim Pickering This ’70 C10 is powered by a supercharged LT4 mated to a Tremec six-speed manual.Jim Pickering A 1933 Ford 3-window—with a massive chop and many, many punched louvers, is a throwback to dry lakes hot rodding—only now with big-block Chevrolet power.Jim Pickering The patina was deep on this weathered, salmon-colored ’64 GMC 4×4. It featured a vintage fabricated bumper and winch, along with a modern (but properly vintage looking) fabricated aluminum canopy.Jim Pickering This Willys gasser featured supercharged Hemi power and the prerequisite boldly tinted glass—in this case blue.Jim Pickering A 1955 Chevrolet—done up as a vintage-style gasser—with supercharged small-block Chevy power and pie crust slicks.Jim Pickering This Hugger Orange 1969 Camaro Z/28 restomod featured the very cool and not often seen cross-ram dual four-barrel induction.Jim Pickering The Green Monster, built in 1958, featured air-cooled aircraft V-12 power. It won the World Series of Drags in 1959 with a 7.03 ET at 212 mph running gas—and it still runs, despite not having been raced since 1968.Jim Pickering A view from the cockpit of The Green Monster.Jim Pickering The Chevrolet Cameo Carrier brought car-like style to the truck world. This is one of just 2244 built for the 1957 model year.Jim Pickering How about a six-wheel Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer next to a lifted pink Smart car?Jim Pickering Drag-spec Volkswagens are their own world—a world in which the air-cooled flat-four can be force-fed by a 4-bbl carb and turbocharger in the name of quarter-mile dominance …Jim Pickering … but those engines are usually fitted inside Beetle bodies, not VW Things. This one was in full-race spec, on Hoosier slicks and skinnies and with all the proper low-ET interior harnesses, gauges, and switches.Jim Pickering Alternatively, how about a lifted vintage Beetle, complete with off-road lights and tube bumpers?Jim Pickering And, of course, there were plenty of Cal-style lowered and accessorized Beetles as well, fitted with all the proper period aftermarket racks and accessories.Jim Pickering Tradition is alive at this show, where louvers, skinny front tires, and chrome hairpins are all over.Jim Pickering This ’31 Ford Model A featured Chevrolet W-engine power—a solid choice for a vintage-style build.Jim Pickering One of the standouts at this year’s show was this 1961 Chevrolet Impala bubbletop, which had a nice low stance on chrome Rader M/T wheels.Jim Pickering It doesn’t get much more traditional than this ’30 Ford 5-window, fitted with a ’32 grille shell and flathead power. Note the early-style lake pipes.Jim Pickering The main event takes place inside Portland Transmission’s parking lot, where free hot dogs and soda are served.Jim Pickering This was one of two black Shelby Cobras on-site—the other featured sohc “Cammer” power.Jim Pickering The Portland Transmission Spring Classic has been kicking off the PDX car season for 41 years.Jim Pickering Simple and effective: black paint, black interior, hot small-block power. This ’56 Chevrolet was as mean as it was subtle.Jim Pickering This 1948 Cadillac had only the most subtle changes from stock, but it stood out more for its fit and finish.Jim Pickering A 1965 Malibu done up with LS power, TMI seats, 20-inch steelies and a very stock-looking gold-over-gold configuration.Jim Pickering For the “Fords need Ford power” contingent, this 5-window highboy featured Ford V-8 power behind that 1932-style grille shell.Jim Pickering It doesn’t get much more traditional than a 1932 Ford roadster highboy with flathead power. This one has a set of Fenton performance heads and twin carbs.Jim Pickering Old trucks, such as this 1965 Chevrolet C10, blur the lines between utility, patina, and cool factor. This one has both a period service bed and modern LS power.Jim Pickering Portland Transmission isn’t all about speed and performance—this first-gen VW Kombi showed off cool factor with its lowered stance, patina, and aftermarket add-ons.Jim Pickering This 1932 Ford 5-window was done up as a 1960s custom, complete with custom bumpers, tuck-and-roll interior, and wide whites. This one has a flathead with Offenhauser heads and triple carbs.Jim Pickering The red Porsche 356 here couldn’t be more different than the red DeSoto Adventurer across the street—but that’s what makes this show so interesting. Everything is welcome.Jim Pickering This 1950 Mercury Custom glowed in candy red as the owner slowly made his way out of the show at 10 a.m.Jim Pickering
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