Hot Rod Show

The souvenir program for the first annual Hot Rod Show in 1965.

Rat Fink T-shirt purchased at Hot Rod Show 1965, almost 60 years old!

The souvenir program from the 1974 Hot Rod Show.

An ad for the 1986 Hot Rod Show.

The Hot Rod Show was an indoor hot rod and custom car show held in Ostermans Marmorhallar in Stockholm, Sweden. The first show was hosted by Bosse "Gamen" Sandberg, Acke Nordström and Jonas Qvarnström in 1965. Gamen had gotten the idea for the show after Roffe Skoghag had hosted a very popular indoor car show at Scania's facilities at Tanto in Södermalm. Back then, Picko Troberg had the exclusive rights to host auto-shows at Marmorhallarna, and because of that Roffe was not able to rent the location for his show. Gamen was able to convince the superintendent of Marmorhallarna that hot rods were more art than automobiles, so they let him have his Hot Rod Show at Marmorhallarna.^[1]

Gamen's first show took place about a week prior to Roffe's second show and it became a major success, while Roffe's became a disaster.^[1]

After hosting the 1966 Hot Rod Show, Gamen felt that he had to up the game, so he let Matti Johansson and Lennta Möllberg buy 49% of the shares in the show. Matti and Lenna jumped on a plane to California, where they tried to convince Ed "Big Daddy" Roth about coming to Sweden. Unfortunately, they were not able to meet his demands, as Roth wanted full hospitality. Paid travel, housing, food and more, in addition to 10.000 USD in cash and free shipping for his cars and trikes, both ways. Instead, they ended up buying a custom made "Hot Rod Show" T-shirt design that they brought home a load of to sell at the 1967 Hot Rod Show. Sweden was not ready for Roth's monster shirts, and only about 20 shirts were sold during the show. The remaining shirts were sold to Gunnar Olsson's company Roach Sweden. After the failed Roth affair, Matti and Lennta got tired, and sold their share of the show to Picko Troberg.^[1]

With Picko's help, the show was moved to the winter holiday week, a much better week. Start & Speed magazine did also become a sponsor of the show. Start & Speed sponsored the show until Gamen launched his own magazine called Colorod.^[1]

The last Hot Rod Show in Marmorhallarna was held in 1976.^[1]

Hot Rod exhibition Ringvägen, Stockholm 1964

Hot Rod Show 1965 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1966 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show April 1967 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show September 1967 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1968 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1969 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1970 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1971 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1972 Marmorhallarna

Hot Rod Show 1973 Marmorhallarna