CHECK OUT THE FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS…..VOTE TODAY!!
Click Here To Vote (NOTE: IF YOU VOTED PRIOR TO OCTOBER 21ST, PLEASE RE-VOTE)
In the summer of 1986, Paramount pictures released the now cult-classic film Top Gun. Just in case you are one of the remaining seven people on planet Earth that hasn’t seen the film, it tells the tale of brash Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and his exploits in training at the Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, California—otherwise known as TOPGUN. Now almost 30 years old, the movie is still a great watch and an afterburner-fired, high-speed trip down memory lane for most any fan of the ’80s.
Around the same time Top Gun was hitting box offices for the first time, the pro street and street car wars of the 1980s were also heating up, both on and off the drag strip. Builders were cranking out one incredible ride after another in an era of one-upmanship we will likely never see again. Back then there was also an annual award, announced in a major car magazine each December issue, that served to define the true impact of a given car. The Top Ten Awards.
Each year from 1985 through 1996, the ten most influential feature cars that had been included within the pages of that particular publication during the calendar year were rolled back out in a special feature. In a pre-internet era, there was no reader participation—it was based entirely on the opinions of the magazine’s staff.
For the builders of the era, getting a Top Ten Award was like winning an Academy Award. It was an incredible honor and a tangible affirmation that the car they had worked so hard to create was not only cool, but it was also viewed by others as the best of the best.
Inexplicably, the Top Ten Awards eventually disappeared around the same time most would say pro street died out in the mid to late ’90s. However, the combination of nostalgia and technology got us thinking that it was time for RPM to launch some awards of our own—with a twist. This time, thanks to the power of the internet, we’re going to let YOU decide which rides we’ve featured in the past year that were the best. Here’s how it works.
Starting right now, we have posted the first of a series of match-ups right here between 32 of the baddest rides to appear in the pages of RPM in the past year. All cars have been randomly seeded in a single elimination eliminations-style bracket (there are some TOUGH round 1 matchups, but that’s just the way it goes!). You’ll have until midnight on October 25th to pick your favorite in each pair of 16 matchups. We’ll tally your votes and publish those who advance to a drag race-style “next round” of 16 qualifiers. Keeping with the a single elimination format, we’ll set up the voting again, with the eight winners of round one being named to the inaugural class of the 2014 RPM Magazine Top Guns. Just for kicks (and because it’s the off-season), we’ll continue eliminations in our “Top Gun Shootout” all the way through to determine who’s number one—but all eight will still be Top Guns, and you’ll get to read all about them in our December issue.
So tell your friends, join us on Facebook, download the RPM app—and most importantly PARTICIPATE! This is your chance to help us make history and honor some of the coolest cars you’ve seen anywhere. But don’t wait, because our December issue is right around the corner, and once voting is over, it is over forever. So is it something you’ll want to miss?
That’s a negative, Ghostrider…
Voting for Round 1 will continue through until Sunday, October 26th. If you have voted prior to October 20th, please vote again…some glitches in the software we chose created some challenges with compatibility. We have corrected the issues and the voting site is OPEN FOR VOTING! SEND YOUR FRIENDS! VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITES!
