Mechanical Music and Eye Candy at the Goodguys Nashville Nationals

The Goodguys brought their huge automotive circus to Nashville, TN, for the 15th BASF Nashville Nationals over Memorial Day Weekend, and Wilwood was there. This year Wilwood is the title sponsor of the Sunday All-American Autocross events for any post-1987 American (or American powered) car, including late models. This show also included the Wilwood Music City Mayhem Shootout, a single-elimination autocross battle for one fastest, most consistent driver/car.

Like every Goodguys event, Nashville brought some of the best cars from the most talented builders in the area. Hot Rod of the Year went to John Hornbrook for a traditionally styled, chopped top 1932 Ford coupe in dark blue, built by Murray Custom Rods of Texas. Bobby Alloway was there both as a judge and competing for awards, but everyone agreed his 1970 Chevelle (in black with blue stripes, blue line tires, and blue Wilwood calipers) deserved to win the GM Iron Award.

To entertain your ears, live bands played music, which is to be expected in "Music City." But also to be seen and heard were the screaming engines of the burnout competition. For us, the best music came from the zoomies of the blown Hemi in the Rat Trap fuel altered cackling and spitting flames, which is entertaining even while standing still.

Goodguys Autocross

Autocross ran all weekend long, with classics taking the course on Saturday and modern classics added to the mix on Sunday. Like at LS Fest West, the top car was the Wilwood brakes equipped 1964 Corvette driven by Josh Leisinger in the PRO-X class. The Crusher II Corvette was the quickest all weekend, but in the back-to-back elimination rounds of the Wilwood Shootout, he beat everyone, including Robby Unser in the Speedway Motors Camaro.

In the PRO class, Jason Brady beat all the cars in his Wilwood-equipped 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer. In the actual TRUCK class, Danny Cartwright used Wilwood brakes on his 1968 Chevy C10 truck to win the class and the shootout as well.

Wilwood All American Sunday autocross is open to modern cars, including foreign vehicles with American engine swaps. A perfect example of this was the winner Gary Farless in a 1996 Nissan 240SX powered by an LS3 Corvette motor. Not only did Gary beat the other modern classics with the fastest time, but he went on to beat the C5 Corvette driven by autocross expert Brian Johns (whose Camaro we featured in our March Brake Bracket Challenge fan vote) in the Wilwood Shootout.

For more details on the autocross and pictures, check out the Goodguys Fuel Curve Autocross Recap. For more on the other events, including over 100 pictures from the show and shine, check out the Goodguys Fuel Curve Weekend Rewind.

All images come courtesy of Goodguys.