The Henderson Super Run

Friday, October 17, 2008

Photo by Steve Fey
Henderson’s Atlantic Avenue draws
crowds for the Super Run

I have lived in Henderson for a bit more than four years. One day during my first year here, I heard music and revelry up on Water Street and walked over to investigate. There I found several blocks of the main street of old Henderson blocked off. Instead of the usual cars and trucks driving along, I saw a four-block-long collection of “street rods,” automobiles from as long ago as the 1920s and as new as the 1970s. There were food vendors and people selling T-shirts and other souvenirs as well. The cars reminded me of my teenage years when my friends would sometimes drag-race on back roads around our hometown.

Photo by Mark Sedenquist
Hoods up – Corvettes on display

The show was patterned, or so the signage said that year, after Hot August Nights, an annual event in Reno. Every year since that first time I visited, the Henderson Super Run (as it is called here) has grown bigger and bigger. Last year, the event took up a block on a side street for the first time; this year’s event, held over four days in late September, took more than three extra blocks on side streets, including a loop past the Henderson Downtown casinos.

Photo by Mark Sedenquist
A classic “Woody” in mint condition

Most of the entries are from enthusiasts who come to enjoy the company of other car lovers, show off their restored masterpieces, and cruise around with open headers. Open headers? Right. That means the exhaust is not pushed through a catalytic converter and a muffler before it’s released. Instead, the exhaust is expelled – with a great deal of noise – just after it powers the turbocharger. In short, there is no muffler to rob power from your engine, and seemingly no limit to the amount of noise your exhaust makes. Cars run with open headers in racing situations and at special rallies like the Super Run. Anyplace else it is usually illegal to operate a motor vehicle in that way.

There is more to the show than noise, however. Many of the vehicles are wonderfully restored to better-than-new condition. You don’t see a lot of 1937 Packard sedans any more, but as I write there is a beautiful silver-gray model parked a short way up the street. In five Super Run shows, the oldest vehicle I’ve seen is a 1912 White truck, restored and in good running condition. The newest vehicle was a 2006 model Chevrolet. The most common era of automobiles represented is the 1950s and 1960s, just the years during which I was growing up. Those cars look, well, the way cars are meant to look, if you know what I mean. For example, Chevrolet reintroduced the Impala a few years ago. Not to denigrate the new model, but it looks nothing like the long, sleek, six-tail-lighted “real” Impala I remember from my high school days.

Photo by Steve Fey
Vintage Volkswagen Beetle,
beautifully restored

One of the most interesting entries in this year’s event was not really a street rod at all, but rather a beautifully restored Volkswagen Beetle, a light-blue model with a moon roof. If you’re from that era, it looks just right. I suppose if you’re from a different time you might wonder why anyone would buy such an ugly thing. Well, you bought it because it was cheap, it was fun to drive, and all of your friends wished that they could get one just like it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really want to live back in those days. In fact I drive an imported car that could probably cross the continent on the amount of fuel one of these beauties uses to drive across town. But my little car lacks the one ingredient that the owners and fans of the Super Run look for in a car: flat-out, radical cool.

Next year’s Super Run will be held the last weekend of September along Water Street in Henderson. You’ll not only see some radically cool automobiles, you’ll also have the chance to buy products from vendors with names like “Nothing But Skulls.” You just don’t see things like that every day.

Proceeds from the Super Run all go to local charities, which not only makes it a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening, but also is a good excuse for all that noise.

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