Goodguys’ 2025 Classic Instruments Street Rod of the Year & PPG Street Machine of the Year
A 1936 Ford Roadster & a highly modified 1987 Buick Grand National took home this year’s honors at the 27th Summit Racing Nationals Presented by PPG…

Goodguys Rod & Custom Association has awarded Ross Myers and his 1936 Ford Roadster as their 2025 Classic Instruments Street Rod of the Year. Angelo Vespi and his 1987 Buick Grand National were presented the 2025 PPG Street Machine of the Year Award. These coveted awards were announced during the Goodguys 27th Summit Racing Nationals presented by PPG in Columbus, Ohio, on July 12th.
The 2025 Classic Instruments Street Rod of the Year: A 1936 Ford Roadster Owned by Ross Myers
Rad Rides by Troy of Manteno, Illinois, built the roadster in just over two years. Unlike most project cars, where a builder starts with a body or rusty remains of a car, the Rad Rides team completely scratch-built the body with innovative modifications to the car’s form and proportions while keeping it recognizable as a ’36 Ford. The car is finished in a tailor-made Porsche green metallic paint with a custom, hand-formed lift-off top.
The coach-built body is mounted to a full custom chassis featuring a torsion bar suspension with wishbone-style radius rods, a quick-change rear axle, and rides on one-off custom machined wheels. For power, Myers selected a vintage 312 cubic-inch Ford Y-block that is force-fed from a vintage McCulloch supercharger through three throttle bodies machined to look like original carburetors from Autotrend EFI.
The interior starts with a custom dash featuring a modified gauge cluster from a ’50 Buick, a unique column, steering wheel, bench seat, pedals and handles. The Rad Rides team covered the entire interior in a comfortable leather. In the end, every part from top to bottom on this street rod has been designed, built or modified by the talented crew at Rad Rides, company officials noted in a press release.
The 2025 PPG Street Machine of the Year Award: A 1987 Buick Grand National Owned by Angelo Vespi
Built by Dutchboys Hotrods in Vicksburg, Michigan, over four years and nearly 10,000 hours, the highly modified Grand National raises the bar for modern street machines, noted the release. Originally, Vespi said he came to Dutchboys with the goal to build the ultimate Grand National, and being named the Street Machine of the Year solidifies their achievement.
One of the biggest challenges when working on a vehicle built in the mid ’80s is the form and fitment of the steel body panels combined with many plastic pieces that warp, crack and fit poorly even when new. The Dutchboys team replaced all the plastic panels with their own hand-fabricated and machined metal panels throughout the body, tightened every gap, formed the fender flares and even made the bumper strips from aluminum. The final touch was a menacing black finish to carry on the Grand National heritage.
The factory chassis was pushed aside as the Dutchboys designed a custom frame and channeled the body over it to achieve an intimidating, low stance and fitment for the custom-machined 20-inch wheels. A front subframe and rear suspension setup from Detroit Speed were incorporated into the new frame, providing performance handling with huge Baer brakes pulling the GN to a stop.
Originally, Grand Nationals were powered by a high-performance, turbocharged 3.8L V-6 Buick, but Vespi wanted to double the fun by adding twin turbos feeding into a Mast Motorsports 7.0L LS engine. The fuel delivery, boost and ignition are all managed by a Holley EFI system, with the engine easily producing over 1,000 horsepower.
The interior pays homage to the original Buick design, but there is not an original piece to be found. Avant Garde Design 3D scanned the entire interior and set about 3D printing and machining all new panels, seats, trim, pedals and handles. Once complete, everything was wrapped and stitched in leather and suede materials with a flat-screen display from Holley monitoring the drivetrain and controls.
It took a little longer than anticipated, but the Dutchboys and their partners created the ultimate Grand National, which they call the GNXS, after the uber-rare GNX, which was only offered in 1987.
More Goodguys Award-Winning Cars to Come
Goodguys will be crowning seven more vehicles to complete for their “Top 12 of the Year” awards program presented by BASF over the remainder of the 2025 season, including Muscle Car of the Year presented by Snap-On, Muscle Machine of the Year presented by Griot’s Garage, Custom Rod of the Year presented by Vintage Air, Truck of the Year (Early) presented by LMC Truck, Truck of the Year (Late) presented by Dakota Digital, Custom of the Year presented by Fuel Curve and Goodguys’ Most Bitchin’ presented by BASF.
Back in May, Goodguys announced the second winner of its Top 12 of the Year awards. Dave Kroona’s 1933 Willys built by South City Rod and Custom took home the 2025 Tanks Inc. Hot Rod of the Year award.