Iron Invasion October 7 Give Away Motorcycle

This custom CB500T will be given away at Iron Invasion October 7. Join us at McHenry County Fairgrounds in Woodstock IL for THE season ending bash!

https://youtu.be/UZIU1QNInZs

Here is a quick 2 minute video from Lonestar Round Up 2016.  Max Grundy tries to drive my hot rod.....

Save $ - buy Torque Fest passes NOW

Just a heads up, if you purchase your weekend passes now, you will save $. It does NOT matter if you have a car or bike.... We do not charge extra for showing cars or bikes.  Everyone pays the same entry price at the festival.  Go to www.vintagetorquefest.com and click on REGISTER

Iron Invasion 2015 Returns to Woodstock IL this Saturday

Iron Invasion happens this Saturday - Woodstock IL.  McHenry County Fairgrounds.  If you don't know what this show is all about..... go #ironinvasion  Pre party happens at Woodstock Harley Davidson on Friday night and the vintage motocross sponsored by J & P Cycles will start around 3pm.  Live bands, pin up contest, swap meet, vendors, and LOTS of vintage cycles, hot rods and customs.  Seeya there. Details at www.ironinvasion.com

The McMullen Roadster - One of the most iconic hot rods of all time will be at the Iron Invasion on Oct 3 in Woodstock IL.  Plan on being at the show - we are going to have a good time. Special thanks to Dana and Patti Mecum for the display of the McMullen Roadster

Last day to Pre Register is FRIDAY

$5 off weekend entry if you pre register before Saturday.  This applies to spectators and car/motorcycle owners.  If you are registering a car or bike, you will also get a free event poster and $2 coupon off merch.  Seeya in Dubuque Iowa - Rain or Shine.

Retro Rewind Dubuque Jan 10 - info on FB

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Retro-Rewind-Dubuque/546111972087118

Iron Invasion Woodstock IL on Oct 4

Its a good time and a good cause.

Iron Invasion 2014 is Oct 4 - Woodstock IL

if you have never been to Iron Invasion - here are some scenes from 2013

October 4, Woodsock IL - The Return of IRON INVASION

Be there!

Milwaukee July 12

Looks like Milwaukee will be the place to be July 12. During the day is Blue Ribbon Beer Run, and then a sneak peek of a new film at the Harley-Davidson Museum that evening.

Iron Invasion Vendors 2014

If you are considering being an indoor vendor at Iron Invasion in Woodstock IL. Please email vintagetorque@gmail.com. We will have FEWER indoor spots this year. We will not be segregating motorcycles and cars this year. First vendors who pay, get first choice on where they want to be. 10 x 10 is $100.

About two weeks....Vintage Torque Fest

Dubuque Iowa May 2-4. Cars are already registered from TX, OH, MI, MO, SD, KS, OK, NY, & MA! We even have some people coming from Australia to attend. Make plans now to be at the only traditional hot rod, cycle and Kustom car show in Iowa. Details at WWW.vintagetorquefest.com

Iron Invasion rainy Success!

 

Iron Invasion 2013 was a success despite the rain!  Everyone saw the forecast of 80% chance of rain, but showed up anyway.  These rides are driven rain or shine, and they did get to drive in both this year!  The downpour that lasted about an hour hit around 12:45pm and lasted about 45 minutes. After that it was sunshine and smiles all around.  The number of entries that were on site this year was 854. This is
TOTAL entries, meaning friends parking (where muscle cars park), motorcycles, hot rods and kustoms. The breakdown was 160 cars in the friends section, 93 vintage cycles, and 601 rods
and customs.

 

There were a LOT of car clubs that stepped up and gave us volunteer shifts at the show – Tin Militia, Rod Tossers, Slackers, Five Aces, Voodoo Kings, Twisted
Pistons, Oliver Built Group, The Aces, Wreckless Chicago, Piston Jammers, Instigators, Ton Up Club, Romin’ Chariettes, Blackwalls, Chrome Czars and others.  The feature cars that were in the buildings came all the way from Washington state.  The bands, pin up contest, vendors, artists, and all the spectators that made the show special are waiting to hear what the dates will be for 2014.  Stay tuned to www.ironinvasion.com for details.

Retro Rewind - The Official Pre Party for Vintage Torque Fest - Jan 11

details at www.retrorewinddubuque.com

Jan 11, 2014

Cars and Guitars

Fuel Injected Film Festival

Nikki Hill is the Headliner

Make plans to join us in downtown Dubuque

Vintage Torque Fest Returns to Dubuque for 2014

 

We are pleased to announce Vintage Torque Fest will return to Dubuque in 2014.

 We want to thank the volunteers, vendors, sponsors, artists, car clubs, spectators, car owners, staff of the fairgrounds, the Chamber of Commerce of Dubuque, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Dubuque.

All of these people helped make the show a success.

We learned a lot this first year and we are confident we will be able to iron out some of the kinks that we had to deal with. We have even more in store to keep the festival atmosphere rolling for 2014 and hope you will make plans to join us on May 2, 3, 4. 

 

 We are going to try our best to weather proof the show.  The fairground has agreed to be flexible with our times on the track.  So if the weather looks bad on Saturday - we will be able to get cars out on the track on Friday.  If we have weather like we did this past year, then we will be able to get some action in on Sunday before everyone takes off.  We plan on doing a Bloody Mary Brunch on Sunday morning and have a possible bluegrass band to send everyone off.  Perhaps a couple of other things as well.

This will be just one of the changes next year that we will keep everyone updated on.

Another change will be about camping - giant RVs will have limited space for  next year.

This will be given to those who reserve first, and yes, the county fairgrounds are ready to take your reservations now.  This will only be around 10 spots so don't delay.

 

If you had fun at Vintage Torque Fest and want to attend the same kind of show, we will be hosting

Iron Invasion in Woodstock IL October 11-12 and Retro Rewind an event with Cars & Guitars & Fuel Injected Film Festival. Retro Rewind will be the official pre party for Torque Fest-Jan. 11, 2014 at the Five Flags Theater in downtown Dubuque.

Hope to see you at a show down the road!

 

Vintage Torque Fest - This is not your old man's car show - Accept No Substitutes!

www.vintagetorquefest.com

www.ironinvasion.com

www.retrorewinddubuque.com

Vintage Torque Fest 2013 posters sets available

Buy some posters - All 3 of these are only $15 + $7 shipping.  What a deal. 

Size of posters is 18"x 24"

Send paypal to coolstuff@earthlink.net

email vintagetorque@gmail.com if you have questions

 

Total Success - considering

Given the weather we had - Total and complete success....

 

For the weather and prevailing conditions we had to deal with, I am not sure how the show could
have gone any better.
I knew it was going to be a tough hill to climb when the weather report said 100% chance of rain
on Friday.  Add to that, reports of people digging out 2 foot snow drifts just to get their cars out of their
garage north of Minneapolis and jack knifed big rigs all along I-35 and I-80.  For the guys on bias
plys, this turned into a treacherous road trip and for those that emailed me privately apologizing
about turning around.....no apology needed.  While our show is a good time, it is not worth
risking your ride or your well being.  There were MANY people that came up to me at the show and
apologized for not bringing their ride to the show, and we totally get it. Ultimately we were just happy people showed up in the wind and rain which had a wind chill of 29 degrees!

We started the show with 535 pre registrations.  We ended up with 625 registrations given out.
Of those 535 pre registered rides about 125 did not show up.  There were a total of just under 600 cars on site.
We had about 175-200 cars show up without the pre registration.  So when you add up the pre reg
the pre reg that did not show up and those that drove up, we would have had over 700 traditional
rod and custom cars on site.  The classic and chrome section was only about 25-35 cars so that was
nothing compared to the almost 300 we had last year.  It seems the classic and chrome guys refuse to
drive their cars even if there is a hint of rain.  That's ok, that is not what our show is about anyway.
So while many were complaining about the lower car count from 2012 to 2013, we actually had
about 600 traditional rods and customs both years.  People also seemed to think we had a lower
spectator count as well.  There is no doubt we had a fraction of the people show up on Friday,
but Saturday we actually had the same amount of spectators as 2012.  The difference is the size
of the grounds.  Dubuque County Fairgrounds are bigger than where we have been in the past, and
therefore it will take more people to fill the place up.  I am confident we will get there.

 

Overall it was a fun time, and while it was chaotic and a bit unorganized, everyone I talked to
loved the new location and the vibe of Dubuque.  The fairgrounds staff went way above and beyond the call
of duty rearranging stages on a whim of the VTF staff.  Digging out about 30 cars out of the mud,
accomodating campers, and while the lines were long - the food never ran out.  These are all issues
that we deal with at the different shows we put on and it's nice to know the crew at the fairgrounds
care enough about the show to make whatever changes are needed.

Many are still not clear about the gate proceeds and the art auction.  The gate proceeds go to help pay for the show, and $$$ that is leftover
is given to our adopted families.  This year we were able to give the Essl family $5000.  We hope this is the first of many families we can
help.  The art auction proceeds go to Hannah Wells Medical Trust.  This is a trust set up to help us pay for all the expenses that we incur over the
year with our daughter.  This year the auction raised just over $20K!!!!  With the help of all these artists and bidders this was by far the most successful
art auction ever. We can't thank you enough - our first expenses are coming up June 7. We have to have both of our daughters looked at in Boston at
Harvard Medical.  We are not sure when we have to have more open heart surgery for Hannah, but we will be able to get more info by doing these tests.

Of course the core of Vintage Torque Fest relies on the volunteers.  They are the ones that make the
show happen.  The lead volunteer coordinator (Mitch Huffington) is not just in charge of the volunteers, he is also
always coming up with ideas on how to make the show better.  He and the Tin Militia (Thor, Andy, Jenny, & Jessica) are invaluable
and the show is infinitely better with them on board.  There were others as well, Brandon from The Bombers CC (and hosts of the
Bombs Away Bash - this year with Reverand Horton Heat!), Rocky Hodges, Steve from The Kropdusters, Rockford Mick,
family and friends that helped at the gates,Rob and Nonda, Iowa Doug, Scott from Romin'Chariots CC, &
Pat from 3 on the Tree - all these people put in at least 10 hour shifts each day.  And we also received considerable help from
the following car clubs: Rat Bastards, Wreckless Chicago, Rod Tossers, Twisted Pistons, The Instigators, Romin Chariots.
And let us tell you - the weather on Friday was TERRIBLE.  For those guys to sit on their posts in the
wind & the rain means so much to the success of the show.

We also had help with vendors who make the show unique, Tin Butchers CC running the swap, and Sara & Chez running the pinup contest.

There were also many who helped out with getting the word out about the show.  Harley Davidson corporate were very involved
in the national advertising budget and we can't thank them enough.  Regional and local advertising help was provided by
Dubuque Chamber of Commerce and Dubuque Convention & Visitors Bureau - specifically Keith Rahe and Tyler Daugherty.

 

With this support of family, friends, volunteers, car clubs, spectators, and most importantly- hot rod owners, Vintage Torque Fest will continue to be
the only traditional rod and custom show in Iowa that matters.  Others will try - but they will not have the massive support from you - the fans and
participants of Vintage Torque Fest.

 

2014 Plans will be announced soon.

 

Thanks - John & Kim Wells

525 Pre registered from 18 different states! Torque Fest 2013 BE THERE

525 Pre Registered vehicles and MANY more spectators.  We have registrations from TX, CO, WI, OH, PA, NY, IN, KY, MO, IL, MI, SD, NE, KS,  OK, MN, NC, and even Canada! This is a rain or shine show and the perfect way to kick off the hot rod season.  So come on out and have a great weekend at Vintage Torque Fest!  Last minute pre registration and weekend wristbands will be sold at the Jefferson Wisconsin Swap Meet-Building B. Sorry no mailing allowed at this late date.

Blue Christmas, Miles Davis & Bob Dorough

I know many of you out there probably think we only listen to rockabilly around here........but the truth is - we are into all kinds of music - except this new crap called country.
REAL country has a fiddle, lap steel, and NO rapping.
But that is for a different rant.
Today we must tell you that Bob Dorough is a talent that is not to be missed.
Some like him - some dont:
Will Friedwald said: “Anyone who’s ever taken a singing lesson resents the hell out of Bob Dorough for having the nerve to pass himself off as a vocalist.”

I love him and hope you dig the Christmas tune with the legend - Miles Davis
http://www.bobdorough.com/