Hot Rod & Rock Show 2002

Following the good experiences of the last year, AMCCF entered the show with 2 cars and a couple experienced AMCers to answer any and all possible questions regarding the club. Here's a quick report on what went on.

For the last few years the show has been set up in Pirkkahalli about few kilometers from the City of Tampere. A large enough place to host a couple hundred cars comfortably indoors. The show's organizer is FHRA Tampere and it has done a good job for many years now at attracting the hottest show cars even from the USA. This years show was no exception.

Here's a view of the main showroom from the left.

A view from the center.

And here's a view from the right, and if you can't see our showplace from the picture above..

Here it is closer. Our entry to the show this year was 2 AMCs. Juha Pihkanen's light blue '65 American 220 2D with a 196cid & 3 on tree and Juha Makkonen's bright red '70 Rebel SST 2D HT with a 360cid V8 and an automatic on console. Pihkanen's car was in excellent condition, being already registered as a 'classic car' (museoajoneuvo) but Makkonen still had some issues with his Rebel 2 days before the show. He was also meaning to get it painted for the show, but unfortunately he ran out of time. Nonetheless his car looked mean and quite cool even with the old paintjob (and the Machine look hoodscoop...).

Like last year, we had a couple members take part in the showcase. This year it was Juha Makkonen and his girlfriend Virve Mustonen, Johanna Kölli and her man Juha Ropponen and A-V Nauha and his girlfriend Anu Nummikari. Couple other people took turns on the department as well including Petri and Hely Henttula (whom also provided the cool blue carpets), Juha Pihkanen (whom drove his car there) and Jarno Ahonen along with Juho Koivisto (whom helped with getting all the needed stuff for the show, like tables, etc). From Tampere FHRA a few people whom also belong in our club were also very helpful including Jouni and Irmeli Lipponen (thanks for the place to sleep 2 nights!) and Raimo Vuorensivu.

Here's a few pictures of the people listed above doing their share of making the Finnish hobbyists aware of AMCs.

But what do we have here, Raimo Vuorensivu was insisting to the last minutes of the show that his car wouldn't be appearing on the showfloor becouse it wasn't a show car (he drives it daily). But along with couple other people we kept responding that it was such a cool car that it should be in the show. Happily he changed his mind in the last minute.. Click here for a closer picture.

Be it a show car or not, the American really collected some positive comments and will soon be appearing in a leading old-car magazine in Finland. Lookout for it! Here's a picture from the rear and an interior shot as well. The car is sporting it's original 232cid engine, which has been beautifully redone by Raimo. He's got couple of these engines ready for install incase something goes wrong with this one.

And look what we've got here. Another American..? That's right. There were a total of 3 Rambler Americans at the show, and all of them being '65 models. This is propably the first time American has ever appeared in the serious showfield in Finland, and this time the model did it with 3 cars. Not bad.. not bad at all... This Frost White '65 American 220 2D wasn't part of the club roster before the show, but it sure is now. What a nice car! A Completely redone engine and the car basically looks like new.

Next we've got a few pics of our club installment on the show, with both cars and with the people that made it all possible. First we'll go with some pictures of Juha Pihkanen's Arctic Blue '65 American 220...

Looky here, no drips, no drops. the mirror is actually clean after 2 days on the showfield.. talkabout a totally redone engine... Juha Makkonen (in flames), Juha Ropponen and Johanna Kölli are paying their respects to the Rambler...

And then on to Juha Makkonen's Mean Machine.. '70 Rebel SST Hardtop with the 'Machine look' scoop new (just installed) bumpers to top it off... Next inline will be the paintjob as it's getting quite old... I still think it's looks great on these pics... =)

Something most guys from the United States hope their Rebels had in the speedometer. Numbers up to 200. Too bad it's km/h... =)

And sure, just to give a general idea on what the show was offering here's a couple pictures of the other cars (incl. Barris Custom & others from the US) gathered on the showfield...

Hope you enjoyed the ride.. There'll be more on the show next year! Be sure not to miss it!

/ A-V 2002