Fans of the 1971 cult movie, Two-Lane Blacktop, starring singer James Taylor and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, will be looking forward to this year’s 9th Annual Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY. On display at the show will be one of the original ’55 Chevys built for the film.

Centered on the drag racing exploits of two car nuts in the 1970s, the film uses both the race and the road as metaphors for the participants’ struggle for identity in the face of limitless freedom. Thankfully, there is some good race footage as well.

For the movie, three cars were built by West Coast fabricator Richard Ruth. Two “hero” cars were identical – based on Ruth’s own ’55 Chevy street racer – and the third was a stunt car. One of the hero cars was sold after completion of the movie, but the other two sat until being used two years later in American Graffiti.

Car collector, Walt Bailey, because interested in the Two-Lane Blacktop Chevys after one surfaced in a 1996 car show near him, in Maryland. Bailey had remembered seeing the movie at the drive-in in 1971 while sitting in his own BBC-powered ’55 Chevy street racer. In a mission of dedication and persistence, working in concert with Richard Ruth, the first-sold Chevy was tracked down in Canada and bought.

Once back in the ‘States, Bailey and Ruth restored the Chevy to its original movie-making condition. In 2009, the car was displayed at a James Taylor concert, where Taylor had an opportunity to sit behind the wheel of it. When Taylor saw the ’55 Chevy for the first time in almost 40 years, he confirmed that it looked just like it did when he drove it across the country with Dennis Wilson.

The 9th Annual Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, will bring this iconic Chevy – along with hundreds of other custom cars, rods and trucks – for participants to admire. The event runs from Thursday through Saturday, June 16-18, 2011. For more information, or to buy tickets, call (800) 884-6472 or visit the site.