The NSRA wrapped up another fun season of street rodding on September 25-26, 2026 in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the 46th Annual NSRA Nats North.  Being the time-travelers that we are, we decided to take a look back at the 2nd Annual NSRA Detroit Nats North held in 1981, when pre-48 street rods of every description rolled into The Motor City. We had last attended an NSRA event in Detroit in 1972 for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals, that event drew just over one-thousand cars. Now in 1981, the regional Nats North drew just over one-thousand cars and both events were held at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, yes, street rodding was booming. Host clubs included the Michigan Hot Rod Association and the Easy Rodders of Michigan and both clubs remain active today. Putting things in perspective, 1981 was the first year of MTV, IBM introduced the first “home computer”, the Dodgers won the World Series and the Olds Cutlass edged out the Chevette as America’s best selling car. Yes, it was a different time.

Detroit 1981 started off wet and cool, thankfully the rain stopped, but fall in Michigan is always a cool  time to go hot rodding. The Stroker cap had given way to cowboy hats thanks in part to John Travolta and Debra Winger in the movie Urban Cowboy. Cowboy hats, mesh-back “trucker hats”, Tru-spoke wire wheels, Centerline wheels, velour interiors and hot rod sedans all accommodated the growing street rod families. If you had a Victoria or a Sedan Delivery you were king, heck, Barry Lobeck rolled in with his ’29 Sedan Delivery so you know it was cool, and yet there were still plenty of T-buckets on hand and everything was driven to the event.

The NSRA events just kept growing and the energy at these regional runs lasted well into the night with motel cruising. Cruising this far North in late September also brought out a record numbers of club jackets and  Easy Rodders jackets seemed to be everywhere.

Daytime on the fairgrounds had plenty of activities too, from Streetkhana to Street Rod Seesaw (A.K.A. Rod Balance) to simple Show ’n Shine. It was nonstop fun and maybe part of the good-times energy was because northern rodder’s realized that before long they would be going from cruising to wrenching on their hot rods over the coming long winter. Since a majority of street rods were still homebuilt, any well-built hot rod literally brought hot rodders to their knees to check out chassis and build ideas. Today cell phones would be slipped under to record the work, but in 1981, we could still remember things, so we didn’t need the photos. The tradition continues and the Nats North is a great way to wrap up another season of street rodding, but for now lets go back to 1981 and check out some early iron. 

Stay Tuned. Enjoy the Drive.