START your engines, get set and look – but don’t touch.
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The Ballarat Mechanica amazed thousands at the weekend with the state’s best display of classic and custom hot rods.
Organiser Anthony Darwin said he expected up to 4000 people to walk through the doors.
He said the last hot rod exhibition held in Ballarat was close to 15 years ago.
He said Ballarat’s hot rod culture was growing.
“It’s bigger than you think, there are a lot of guys here who build cars,” Mr Darwin said.
“I guess it’s the style, the colour of them, that get people interested.”
He pointed toward one of his top picks of the show – a coke-coloured Model A Ford 1930 Tudor.
Richard Dabbs, who owns the Tudor, said many people were passionate about hot rods.
Mr Dabbs builds hot rods for a living in Melbourne and he can’t remember not loving the cars.
“The love of anything late 1950s Americana. It was just an awesome, simpler time,” he said.
As part of his Tudor’s display, salt covered the ground underneath the vehicle which he said was a throwback to the 1950s hot rods showcases.