Stovebolt.com Forums The Side Lot The Texas Bolters Lonestar Roundup April 22-23, 2022

The 19th Annual Lonestar Round Up - Austin, Texas at the Travis County Expo Center
7311 DECKER LANE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78724

April 22 & 23rd, 2022


When it's Round Up time in Austin, Texas –hot rods and custom cars gather here from all over the country to create something special. A CAR SHOW, MUSIC FEST AND SO MUCH MORE!

Since its beginning in 2002, the Lonestar Round Up has grown from a humble one-day outdoor car show hosted at an old football stadium to a sprawling weekend-long celebration of hot rods and custom cars for the people who build them, drive them, and just can't get enough of the music, art, history and creativity inspired by and created around them.

Featuring the very best in live music, a giant swap meet, vendors, and tons of traditional hot rods and custom cars from across the country take over the spacious grounds of the Travis County Expo Center on Friday and Saturday, not to mention the BBQs, open house parties, and cruise nights spread out all around Austin that the Round Up has become famous for.

Its a unique, home-grown and Texas-sized experience that we hope you will join us for and share with your friends and family. Thank you for your support of the Lonestar Round Up, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

– The Kontinentals Car Club

I'm planning to go on Saturday. What I really like about the roundup is the variety of cars & trucks that show up. Not just a bunch of Mustangs, Camaros and tri-5 Chevys. Also an eclectic mix of engines, not 95% GM and Ford crate engines. Also, much more likely that owners do a lot of the work themselves.

I plan to be there.

Call if you need an old guy to walk around with Eric. 713-468-6417. I should be there by 11 in my GMC. Are you planning on driving your old truck that has what used to be my truck's seat in it?

I got up early this morning and drove to Austin for the Round Up and got there about 9 AM. Cloudy and overcast and *really* windy! Usually by that time of morning the traffic is backed up for at least a mile to get in, but not this morning. I got in in about three minutes. I parked, paid my $15 entry fee, and walked inside and proceeded to the lower, first parking area. It’s always packed, but not today. There were only about 20 cars and trucks. I spotted a buddy of mine who had driven his ‘38 Chevy two door sedan and we began to talk. It was blatantly obvious to me and him that the number of cars was *way* down! I continued walking to other parking areas and did find quite a few more cars, but there were still plenty of empty parking spaces even there. I went to the swap meet and enjoyed looking through all the things the vendors had brought to sell. Didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without. I made one last pass down through the grassy area and the trees to see what I could see and then made my way back to the entrance. I looked through about 60 vehicles there and then walked back to my car and headed back to San Antonio. I was glad that I made the trip, and I enjoyed looking at all the cars and trucks, but I have to say that I was disappointed in the show this year. No one really knew why the attendance was down, but it shouldn’t have been after being canceled for the last two years due to Covid. You would have thought that all the car owners would be chomping at the bit to go to the show this year. Did something change with the management? Did the Continental Club not promote it as much this year? What is the entry fee more expensive this year? No one seems to know. Hopefully attendance gets back to normal in 2023.

Unfortunately, when you cancel an event two years in a row people begin to make other plans for that particular weekend and it falls off their priority calendar. Prime example is the Midwest All Truck Nationals in KC. The “Club” got use to not doing it so it went away. Sad but it’s reality.

I arrived about 11 and stayed until 3. While attendance was down I still didn't see everything in the 4 hours I was there. Same $15 as the last show in 2019. Same great selection of non small block Chevy engines. At one point there were six model As in a row, all with 50s Olds, Caddy and Buick engines, 4 of them with blowers. A few Ardun flathead conversions and an absolutely beautiful '32 Ford B-400, but it had a SBC engine. And LOTS of 50s Hemis.

I drove my truck to my buddy's in Hempstead Thursday evening, and I'm glad I did because I needed to do a little tinkering to undo some prior tinkering and revert it back to how it was before, but after that it ran like a top all weekend. My buddy rode with me because his truck is still down, and we met up with some guys we're friends with in a club and cruised with them. Had a 56 Bel Air, 52 Caddy, 40 Ford coupe, 29 Ford roadster, 49 Ford coupe, 28 Dodge coupe, and my 50 Chevy 3100 in the group. Got to the show around 2 Friday afternoon and went through the swap meet before making the normal rounds to look at cars, meet up with friends, and all that. I didn't buy anything at the swap meet, but my buddy bought a "set" of headers that are a Fenton front and a Clark rear header, and a really cool cast finned aluminum 216 valve cover with "SPECIAL" on the top that neither of us had seen before.

On Saturday morning we went early to stake out a shady spot among the cedar trees out by Decker Lane so there'd be room for the club and the canopies so we could sit in the shade and cook. They let everyone in to stage on the main road through the park and while I didn't look at the time, I feel like they started letting everyone in a little early. It was much better than being in stop and go traffic on Decker Lane to get in. Attendance was noticeably down, but it still seemed pretty full on Saturday. I was kinda bummed they didn't have the building open and as a result several of the artists that come as vendors were not there.

On Saturday night we went to the open house/shop party at Murpho's and had a good time there. The truck was happy with the cool night air, and we were running 75 mph with the 216 and 5 speed on the way to/from Buda.

Sunday was a long day of scenic back roads driving to get BBQ in Lockhart and ice cream in Winchester before dropping my buddy off at his house in Hempstead and heading home to Spring. I'm sore and tired today. Give me a bit of time to recover and I'll be ready to do it again soon. The club the guys are in is pretty informal, but we have t-shirts now and an open invitation to any future stuff they do, so I guess my friend and I have joined a car club...


I also expected the show to be bigger due to not having it for a couple of years, and also kinda expected a big surge of attendance for its return. My theories on why attendance was down mirror some of yours- some folks may have assumed it would cancel again and did not make an effort to make arrangements to go. I didn't see as many out of state plates as before, so I'm sure gas prices were a factor for some. I wonder if some folks are boycotting Austin/Travis County in general and/or the Kontinentals club after the cancellations over the past couple of years.

Bill, the seat I got from you was too nice to put in my truck, so it's been in my garage attic wrapped in plastic all this time. My vinyl seat decided to split a seam at the top passenger side corner, so the last bit of my drive home felt like I was in a snow globe because of the stuffing blowing around. I guess it's time to swap your seat in and figure out what to do long term- I want a black/white tuck & roll eventually, so I will run yours while I get my old one rehabbed and covered.

I kept an eye out for your GMC, but I guess you had it in the spectator parking.