Wild Hot Rod Weekend #12 One For the Record Books!

For the 12th straight year, the Sheraton Mahwah Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey was the place for fans of the classic old days of hot rodding to come together to enjoy four days of fun. In this case it was the Wild Hot Rod Weekend run by the Dead Man’s Curve Car Club.

This year over thirty-thousand fans along with well over three thousand plus cars which filled the grounds of the Sheraton Mahwah Hotel during the run of the event.

For it is at this show fans need all four days of the event to check out all of the cars, bands and celebrities that were on hand. Folks like to start in the ballroom of the hotel where Dead Man’s Curve member Mario Colasuonno works hard all year to fill the room with the best cars that he can find.

This year featured a salute to the classic movie American Graffiti which turned fifty years old in 2023. Candy Clark and Charles Martin Smith who both starred in the movie came together at the show this year to spend time with fans and talk about the iconic film.

In addition to Candy and Charles, Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster on the famous Munster’s TV show was on hand along with several of the cars from the show which he starred in back in the sixties.

Chuck Zito the actor and boxer brought out two of his great customs from his collection to be on display as well.

There was a great display playing tribute to 100th Anniversary of the Ford Model T. Seventies tv shows Knight Rider and Starsky and Hutch were represented by the cars used on those shows.

Once outside fans were greeted with the POR-15 presents Thunder Alley powered by RacingJunk.com. In addition Tub-O-Towels made sure to provide some of their great products to all the teams as well.

Promoter Al Liebmann once again put together the greatest and largest collection of vintage race cars that have ever been seen at any single car show.

This year’s running folks could check out close to 25 funny cars, dragsters, gassers, altereds and even a wheel-stander. All of these cars fired up several times each day during the run of the show.

Car clubs from all over the Northeast make it a point to come out and support the event which included customs, hot rods, rat rods, muscle cars, antiques, and even more race cars These clubs come out in force and bring out the best of the best cars that each club has to offer.

In the midway fans could check out some very talented folks as some of the best pin strippers were on hand ready to do artwork on any cars that might need some new art.

In addition these artists had some of their artwork for sale as well. A giant swap meet area and vendor area was also located both inside and outside with tons of great stuff for folks to purchase.

Bands of all styles provided music once again all throughout the grounds as well playing everything from rock and roll, surf music, rockabilly, all sorts of music to keep everyone entertained. In addition to all the bands DJ’s Jim Fun-Zul and Johnny Belair kept everyone going with a great set of tunes played during the event. Local radio station WDHA the Rock of New Jersey once again were on hand broadcasting live as the one and only Southern Fried Maniac Scotty B came out to the show with his unique rock and roll dj style.

Fans could checkout all the lovely ladies who turned out to see who would be crowned the winner of the Miss DMC Pin-Up Pageant. The event was hosted by Hell in Heels and sponsored by Smashfire Designs and Retro Beauty by Bombshells.

Cars of all shapes and styles tried to impress the crowd in the annual muffler rapping contest. Food trucks were on hand to serve all sorts of great eats to all of those that needed a bit food to fill them up.

On Sunday once again all sorts of air cooled Volkswagens came out to have their special day during the Wild Hot Rod Weekend. As expected, a great selection of VW’s turned up to spend the day together.