2019 SYDNEY HOT ROD AND CUSTOM AUTO EXPO

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Wade Kennedy & Adam Pink – Carpe Diem Photography

Hot Rod shows in Sydney date back to the 1960s but after years of great shows and great cars, enthusiasm in the Harbour City for these events began to falter in the new millennium. It wasn’t for lack of cars, though, as plenty of impressive metal has been rolling out of NSW workshops in the past couple of decades.

Custom car builders and industry specialists, along with hot rod clubs and fans, were all keen for a quality hot rod show to return to Sydney, but it seemed that no-one had the drive and passion to bring one back – until Andy and Donna Minas came along!

Andy and Donna run Andy’s Restorations in Kurnell and are also stalwarts of the rodding scene in Sydney. Deciding that NSW had gone without for too long, Andy and Donna pulled together a crew that that were determined to bring a hot rod show back.

Relaunched in 2014, the ‘NSW Hot Rod and Custom Auto Expo’ at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse may have been small, but proved popular enough to warrant an encore in 2015. Every year since, the event has grown, with the team behind the revival adding new elements, welcoming clubs, giving traders and specialists a chance to display their wares and reach new audiences, hosting special guests and – for the first time last year - debuting new builds.

Creating a show like this is tough work, though, with Andy and Donna experiencing their fair share of challenges along the way. They must be doing something right, because the expo continues to be embraced by enthusiasts, while Sydney’s previous car show stalwart MotorEx has relocated to Melbourne permanently.

While successful, the crew never think they’ve “done enough”, so planning for this year’s expo got underway soon after last year’s ended. For 2019, Andy, Donna and their team decided to bring the expo back to the roots of rodding and Australia’s custom car scene.

Star Cars

At recent NSW Hot Rod and Custom Auto Expos, celebrities of the hot rod, custom car and custom culture world like Chip Foose, Shige Suganuma, Charley Hutton, Sabina Kelley, Jimmy Shine, Tom Kelly and Gene Winfield have all featured. As great as these special guests are, organisers decided to make the cars the celebrities this year.

It was a great idea; owners and builders responded in force, with the quantity and quality of metal on display bringing plenty of “star power” to the show!

The public responded, too, with more than 12,000 visitors making this year’s expo the biggest yet. Organisers were rapt with the response and, like the visitors, were impressed with the variety of custom cars and bikes on show.

Big dollar show cars made their debuts on the Saturday morning of the event, spending the rest of the weekend rubbing fenders (not literally!) with milder customs, street machines, competition cars, rat rods and even a few “works in progress”; proving the diversity of the Sydney hot rod and custom car scene.

Major awards this year went the way of ’70s metal in the form of David Xuereb’s 1973 Ford Cortina (Top Car of Show and Top Street Machine) and Mario Ciarrocchi’s 1972 Valiant Charger (Elegance Award) built by Justin Hills, while Dave Dorman’s ’32 Ford cabriolet won the Top Street Rod trophy. Peter and Judy Beauchamp’s ‘Wild FB’ won the Kevin Daley Memorial Award, while the Austin Arrowsmith trophy went to the Honda custom postie bike of Dominic Napoli. Beyond these awards, there were more than 50 other trophies across Street Rod, Street Machine and Bike categories.

While it wasn’t a trophy winner, a special car on show this year was ‘Morringe Crush’. Based on a customised Morris Minor and built specifically for the event by members of the Ratpac Inc. Car Club, Morringe Crush was raffled off, with the winner announced at the expo and $10,000 from the ticket sales donated to Ovarian Cancer Australia.

Outside, drag cars were a feast for the eyes…and the ears when they were fired up periodically throughout the weekend.

Nostalgia Lane, the section of the show devoted to traditional rods, customs, lowriders and choppers, saw a big boost this year, with lots more variety in the trade stalls, too.

Adding to this, there were trade demonstrations running throughout the weekend, with everything from English Wheels to airbrushes in action.

There was also the Pinstriping Masters, where local and international stars of the thin brush and steady hand were working their magic, while for something completely different, there was the belt sander racing – even if you think you know what that is, you have to see it to believe it!

Australia’s Biggest Custom Bike Build Off, a nationwide custom motorcycle-building competition, was officially launched at the expo, too, with the winners to be displayed at next year’s event.

It’s impossible to cover everything that filled the halls and outdoor areas at Rosehill this year, which tells you just how big it was, but these pages will present a taste of what was there.

Thanks To

While Andy and Donna deserve another massive thanks for this year’s NSW Hot Rod and Custom Auto Expo, they certainly weren’t alone in making the show a success. Thanks were extended to the following:

The team of volunteers who have been involved since 2014 - Dean, Alana, Eliza, Glenn, Vicky, Ali, Jarrod, Danielle, Rob, Rene, James, Courtney, Jess, Jack, Jamie & Julie
Andy Colalillo andf Sean Hagarty who organise the cars for Nostalgia Lane
Sponsors - FORM 700, Shannons Insurance, Fraser Motorcycles, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Mothers, 3M, Lowbake Spray Booths, Dickies and Cruzin Magazine
Matt Bell for creating the floorplan
Dave Kaziro, Evan Daines and Chris Palazzo for poster and event advertisement artwork
Martin & Anthony Muscat and Alan Smith for helping with trophies
Ratpac Inc Car Club for the Morringe Crush raffle car and the upcoming 2020 ‘raffle trailer’
Drag-ens Car Club for running the belt sander racing