by Jennifer Ebens 2025
Toppers Car Club was first organized in September 1953 by High School student, Erlyn Carlson. The first meeting was held in the Fargo YMCA. This initial meeting was attended by five of the charter members. The cars and activities were small at first, but the initial enthusiasm was promising. As membership increased so did the interest and quality of the cars. In the early stages of our existence we sponsored economy runs, reliability runs and tried to better the understanding of a car club.
The first event of major significance was the Toppers Auto Show which was held in October of 1957 in the building that became occupied by Shoppers Corner Department Store. No admission was charged at this first exhibit as it was designed to acquaint the Fargo-Moorhead area with custom and hot rod enthusiasts. The attendance was good considering it was our first venture, and the sport was rather new to the residents of Fargo-Moorhead.
The following summer we sponsored and ran with terrific success, The Toppers Drag Strip. This strip was located at Hector Airport and was another first for the Toppers in promoting automotive interest in our area.
In December of 1958 Toppers sponsored the First Annual Red River Valley Custom Auto Show held at the Fargo Arena. The Fargo Arena was located at the foot of Broadway, and admittance to the show cost fifty cents. Saturday’s hours were noon to midnight and Sunday from nine to nine. We drew many out-of-town entries which greatly contributed to the variety of the show. This show proved to be an overwhelming success in the eyes of the public, who up until this time had quite different ideas as to the words custom or hot rod. The comments on the show were very gratifying and inspired us to continue with this annual event.
Our second Annual Red River Valley Rod and Custom Show was held at the National Guard Armory in Grand Forks, ND. The location of the show was due to Fargo not having an adequate facility that could provide space for the growing show. Toppers accepted the invitation to hold our second event with another car club to spread the appreciation of Rod and Custom Cars. This event was sponsored by the Road Runners Car Club of Grand Forks and was held in November of 1959. Toppers awarded $1000 worth of trophies and gave away door prizes. This venture initiated Auto Shows in Grand Forks, and the city supported the event well.
April of 1960, we sponsored the third annual show which was held at the all-new Fargo Civic Auditorium. The show attracted more people than any weekend event held to date at the auditorium. This was a fabulous show and was featured in the national publication Car Craft Magazine noting the quality of the show and the cars that are always presented at the Toppers Auto Show.
Along with the above-mentioned activities Toppers also held club banquets, picnics and club sponsored dances. Toppers active member numbers grew to seventeen and seven inactive members. We had a club garage where members could design and work on their own cars as they desired. Toppers car club also became members of the Gopher State Timing Association, which was a governing body for car clubs in the Upper Midwest.
Club members' cars have always placed well in competitive events. The club president Erlyn Carlson owned a 1952 Mercury that was a first-place winner in the Chicago Auto show, won best paint award in the Omaha Custom Auto Show, and was featured in two national automotive magazines. Club members cars have also been entered in and won awards in Auto shows at Minneapolis, St Paul, Duluth and Winona.
The club interest has not only been automotive, but also humane. In the first nine years of existence the club gave to various charitable organizations. In December of 1960, Toppers Car Club sponsored and conducted the Toppers First Annual Children’s Village Shopping Tour.
In 1961 Toppers held their fourth Annual show again at the Fargo Civic Memorial Auditorium. This show brought new challenges in the form of treacherous weather. The spirit of the entrants was to be admired as many of the out-of-town cars came in caked in ice and snow after hours of driving. Toppers Autorama expanded types of entrants by bringing in Bikes, Dragsters, Rod and Custom cars. A total of 34 entries filled the space coming from as far as Wisconsin. Despite all the hardships of the weather, the show turned out to be an even greater success than all previous shows.
Toppers Car Club 5th Annual Rod and Custom show in April of 1962 had a total of 32 entries from five different states and Canada. Over 5000 people attended the show over the weekend, proving the growing popularity of the hobby. Show cars boasted mirror like paint jobs, built in phonographs, lined hoods and brightly colored undercoating. The most common paint colors were red and black. Toppers Car Club awarded $1500 worth of trophies to the entrance this year. Little Angels Car Club or Moorhead had a display of model cars by their too-young-to-drive set. Toppers car club also displayed the car, Toppers Car Club Racing Team built together over about a thousand hours of work. The car’s name was the Mad Hatter and sported a grill insert with specialty painted Mad Hatter character. The Mad Hatter was built using a 1932 Ford body shell, 410 Pontiac engine, 3 inch drop axle, 1950 Oldsmobile rear end with 4:30 gears, 1961 Buick finned rear brakes, Spalding flamethrower ignition and a 1941 Cadillac-LaSalle Transmission. Along with the array of Fords and Chevys, one of the entries was a 1961 Farrari worth $14,000. Toppers Car Show was not only drawing larger numbers of spectators, but a growing popularity for the culture they wanted to expose the community to.
Toppers Car Club continued to host Annual shows each spring with growing numbers of cars. With the times the hobby was also growing, and more cars were becoming “show cars” that were not used as daily drivers. Cars on display ranged from a 1923 Model T for $3500 to the lower end, a 1956 Chevy worth $1000. These “show” cars were modified and custom. Many had a minimum of 12 coats of finish on them. The car enthusiast would put in thousands of hours of labor into making these works of art.
In spring of 1981 Toppers Car Club hosted their 21st annual show. The show had a special guest: Tommy Kramer, Minnesota Vikings Quarterback, grand prize drawings for an Engine, and free Pepsi. The value of the cars that entered the shows had dramatically gone from high end of $3500 to $25,000 over 20 years. The number of current active members at the time of the 21st annual show was only six. The club didn’t host these shows to make money, rather for the enjoyment of putting on a show. Toppers Car Club was one of only three Car Clubs at this time to be an independent club with no direct affiliation with any national group! It is a huge testament to the love of the hobby that only six men were able to host this large and popular show.
In 1983 the Toppers Car Club hosted their 25th Anniversary show. The huge draw was not only the cars on display, but the chance for one lucky spectator to take home a Fully Restored 1957 Chevy built by the club’s nine members as a door prize. The club picked the car based on the straight body. Local businesses donated the engine, transmission, exhaust and new tires for the project. The club members put in over 400 hours of work restoring the 1957 Chevy. In addition to giving away the car for grown-up kids, the club also gave away a Dr. Pepper go-cart for younger kids. One of the things that makes all this even more impressive is that the club was made up of only 9 active members, in 1983. Toppers Car Club was one of the three oldest car clubs in the nation that was still in existence from 1953, at this time. If you asked the guys why keep the club small the answer was simple, “it works.” They held weekly meetings, hosted club events and were more of a family.
Toppers Car Club members were known for the custom work and additional options they would add to their cars. Radial tires, cruise control, AM-FM radio, and power antennae were on most of the members cars. One even sported a 24 karat gold carburetor. While Vintage Automobile restoration was called a “sport” it was an expensive one, unless you could trade services. This was just one more additional benefit to being part of a club. Members could trade for parts or services with each other, like a paint job for upholstery work or front-end labor. Toppers members would each have a display with their own car in the car show each year. Geller’s Salvage and Tiny’s Auto Wrecking were two companies that the club members would hang out at and buy auto parts from for their project cars.
Each year Toppers Car Club would search for ways to draw the crowds into the show. At the 27th Annual show, the authentic Richard Petty car was featured. Selland Pontiac GMC had the first public showing of the brand new Fiero GT at the 28th Annual show. The club would even bring back the big winners of the past shows for the Hall of Fame Display. The 29th Annual Car Show advertised a 50’s dance open to the general public, Drag Broadway Parade, the world’s fastest snowmobile and model car and truck contest. The club was always working to make the show bigger and better. All the while donating proceeds to a variety of charities and local organizations.
In 1988 Toppers Car Club presented the 30th Annual Rod & Custom Show. The club brought in all different cars for the show, nothing that had been in previous years. The displays had not only rod and customs, but pick-ups, motorcycles, and even a semi-truck. Participants were also coming from not only the tri-state area, but as far away as Pennsylvania. The Kindred High School 50’s Stage Band performed at the shows on Saturdays. Club members felt that both the variety and the displays themselves made the show. The flashing lights, mannequins, and water fountains really brought enjoyment to the whole show. Charter member, Wayne Kerr, also donated the 6ft trophy awarded to the Sweepstakes Winner, from his business Wayne’s Trophies of Fargo.
As the Toppers Car Show grew, public interest continued to grow as well. The Kindred Stage Band and Swing Choir became a regular at the shows, performing popular songs from the 50’s in costume. Toppers brought in valve cover races, magic shows, remote control cars, and popular characters appearances. They showcased the MSRA custom of the year and street rod of the year. Toppers handed out a traveling trophy to an individual they felt best promoted having fun with cars. Other trophies were awarded for best paint, first time show, best display and people’s choice.
In 1992 the Toppers Car Club made the choice to move into the West Fargo Veterans Memorial Arena because they had simply outgrown the Civic Center. This move allowed the number of displays to swell to 125. All while maintaining the small club’s size of only 14 members. This move also brought a few other changes in how the show was set up. Club members no longer showed their personal cars, unless they did not have enough other displays to fill the show. Members stated that people could see their cars anytime driving around town. People needed to see something they could not see anytime when coming to these shows. Also, with so much to do the guys wouldn’t have time to be tinkering with their own cars and displays, there was work to be done. The club did require all cars in the show to have a display, to add to the whole effect. This could be anything from lights, fake grass and plants to some that went above and beyond having wives sit on blankets having a picnic. The Car Show was not just a bunch of cars lined up, it was truly an event that engulfed the times when these cars were new.
Even as the effort put forth to host these shows each spring was increasing and demand on each member to put everything together, the club was never just a club. This was a group of men, all sharing a love for the same hobby, that had built a family. The hobby had grown over the years and there were car shows all summer long around the area. Members would meet up and all drive together, show their cars and spend evenings sharing stories and laughs. MSRA’s Back to the 50’s became an annual trip, along with a few other club favorites. The members enjoyed not only attending other shows all summer, but hosted family events for all the members to attend. An Annual Fall Hay wagon ride to the sandhills included a ten-mile round trip with a stop halfway for lunch cooked over an open fire. Acorns tossed back and forth between the two wagons, children’s laughter, and memories that would last a lifetime.
For a few years the Toppers Car Club also hosted Rally to the Valley at the fair grounds during the Red River Valley Fair. This was always a good time with cars, brats on the grill and good friends. Awards and trophies were handed out to participants along with dash plaques.
In 2003 the Club celebrated 50 years and hosted their 45th annual show. The club received an Award of Merit as runners up in the Midwest region 10th Annual Eagle One Golden Rule Award. At this time the club had increased membership to 20 and had 18 members. Something particularly special about the members at this time was it had 3 father-son combinations and a pair of brothers, taking the family factor to a whole new level. While the guys all love cars and share much in common there are different styles that appeal to different members. Some love the true street rod culture, others drawn to muscle cars or drag racers, and others that hold true to the roots of the club and are about the customs and hotrods.
By 2005 the West Fargo Arena had expanded to a second arena and the club was able to expand the show again. This allowed more cars, more displays and more vendors to be part of the annual show. The club continued to donate profits from each show to local and national charities and organizations. Holding to the original purpose of the founding members to give back while sharing the culture with the community.
In 2006 Toppers hosted the 48th Annual show and with two arenas, presented 125 cars with a total of 85 vendors. The number of attendees also continued to grow and over 8000 people came through the doors to be part of this event.
In 2010 Toppers Car Club expanded from only hosting the annual car show to also hosting the West Fargo Cruise nights. This was a chance to bring the community together on a beautiful summer Thursday night, once a month. The club and the city were both pleasantly surprised that the first night brought out 250 cars and around 3000 spectators. This proved to be only the beginning as by the August show the number of cars grew to 685 and the number of spectators swelled to between 5000 to 6000 people. This event is still hosted once a month all summer in West Fargo.
With changing times and strong hopes of keeping the community interested in these cars came some changes in the shows. A live band can be heard playing on Saturdays and Sundays each year. Popular celebrities have made appearances at many of the recent shows as well. The number of categories for awards has grown, due to the new styles and expanded cultures that are now included in the show. Larger efforts are made by all the members to bring in unique and exceptional cars from surrounding areas and beyond.
Over the last 20 years there have been numerous changes to the way that car owners restore their cars, display their cars and show enthusiasm for the hobby. There are some things that have never changed. Toppers car club continues to host the annual rod and custom car show every year, the show that starts off the season in the Fargo Moorhead area. The club membership still caps out at 20 members, who wear their black letterman jackets with a white top hat on the front. The club still gives out thousands of dollars every year to local charities and organizations just as they have done for the last 65 years. Club members are still a close-knit group of men that have a deep love of cars, building them, driving them and showing them. What started as a young man wanting to share his excitement for hot rods and customs with not only his buddies, but with the community as a whole, is still the root of this club. Trophies might get bigger, the price tag on the cars might be much bigger, and the way that these cars are build might be different, but the goal of the club is solid and steady. The Toppers car club came from roots of community, friendship and the love of car culture and that also has never changed.