Photo courtesy of Lance Shores/city of Hoover
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A thousand or more classic cars, custom trucks, hot rods and muscle cars were on display as part of the 2018 Hot Rod Power Tour at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on June 11, 2018. Hoover was the third of stop on the seven-day, 1,300-mile tour across the Southeast.
After a four-year absence, the Hot Rod Power Tour is returning to Hoover on June 15.
The traveling car show, which covers 1,000 miles across the South, will once again be filling the parking lot at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, giving spectators a chance to see at least 1,000 classic cars, custom trucks, hot rods, street rods, muscle cars and other high-performance vehicles on display. The show is from noon to 6 p.m.
Some of the drivers will also show how their vehicles perform on an autocross course that allows drivers to test car speed, agility and navigation techniques.
Hoover will be the third stop on a tour that begins at Liberty Park in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 13 and ends at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, on June 17.
The tour was originally supposed to begin at Memphis International Raceway, but organizers swapped venues due to concerns that the raceway might close.
The tour, organized by Hot Rod Magazine, sometimes draws more than 6,000 vehicles across the entire tour, with “long-haulers” who drive the entire tour and 1,000 or more vehicles that show up at each individual stop.
The Hot Rod Power Tour moves around to different parts of the country in different years. Last year, more than 3,500 vehicles participated in a tour across the Midwest.
This will be the tour’s fifth time to stop in Hoover, with previous visits in 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2018.
Hot Rod Magazine officials have said they like the large parking lot at the Hoover Met, which has enough room for an autocross course that lets people who register their vehicles for the event see how well they navigate through orange cones and tight curves at high speeds, racing against the clock.
The Hot Rod Power Tour also features colorful mobile displays from high-performance manufacturers and aftermarket specialists who show off the latest innovations in car technology and custom design and give advice to car enthusiasts.
There is normally a main stage with local musicians, celebrities, games, prizes and food vendors.
Gary Adams, a Lake Crest resident who is chairman of the Dixie Vintage Antique Automobile Club, said he has been to the Hot Rod Power Tour twice since it started coming to Hoover and loves it. People in his club frequently bring some of their vehicles to display at the Hoover Met and likely will again this year, he said.
“It’s a great event for anybody that likes vintage cars, hot rods, power cars, everything like that,” Adams said. “There'll be cars there from everywhere, cars they’ve never seen before. I like the variety of unusual and unique cars that you’re going to see.
“People from all over come to this thing,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”
Here is the tour schedule for 2022:
· Monday, June 13 — Liberty Park, Memphis, Tennessee
· Tuesday, June 14 — Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tennessee
· Wednesday, June 15 — Hoover Metropolitan Complex, Hoover, Alabama
· Thursday, June 16 — Pensacola Fairgrounds, Pensacola, Florida
· Friday, June 17 — Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Georgia
Admission to see the cars at the Hoover Met is free, but there is a registration fee for those who want their vehicles to be part of the show.
Any car or truck owner who wants to join the tour is welcome. Any year, make or model vehicle is accepted, but motorcycles are not permitted on the tour.
The registration costs varies from $60 to display a vehicle at one site to $140 for a multi-site registration and $160 for the “long-hauler” registration for all five sites. More registration details are available at hotrod.com.
Editor's note: This article was updated with some additional information on Monday, June 13, 2022.
