Brandon over at AmericanTorque.com sent over some info about a fun game that tests your knowledge of American V8 Engines. Here's how the idea got started: One night when I was a kid my Dad and I were at a dirt track watching the Sprint Cars racing, and he pointed out which cars had Chevy engines and which had Fords. How could he tell from the bleachers? He explained that you could tell by the spacing of the header tubes. The Fords were evenly spaced and the Chevys were not (the middle two exhaust ports are right next to each other on the Chevy small-block). Years later, I'm thinking of ideas for an automotive trivia game, and it hits me - make a game where you identify an engine from a photo. Soon after my first engine ID game was born. After hearing feedback from players of that game I made another engine ID game, and more games are on the way. You can check them out at: http://www.americantorque.com/game/ This one pictured's too easy. AmericanTorque.com's get tougher... much tougher! If you can't figure this one out, don't bother! Please...

Story Submitted by John C. Hill or MoparMagic Jungle Jim vs. Joe Jacono, April 1972 Those of you who are drag race fans, especially from the 60's and 70's probably fondly remember certain races. Maybe you remember a national event, or a local "class racing" show, or the "Coca Cola Calvacade of Stars", or even a booked in Funny Car match race. For me, one of my most memorable experiences was a nostalgia funny car match race between "Jungle Jim" Lieberman and Joe Jacono and his "Brief Encounter". Now let me set the stage for you as to why this particular race was so memorable to me... My family lived in New Castle, Delaware and my brother and I loved cars and drag racing. Now lucky for us, our grandmother had a farm in Conowingo, Maryland and to get there, we had to travel down Theodore Road near Rising Sun, which is the road that Cecil County Dragway is on! We literally had to travel by the "Traction Capitol of the World" every weekend when we were growing up visiting our grandmother's farm. On a cold April day in...

I've always liked my car... Good thing, right? I guess I always wanted a hot rod. Bonnie, as in Bonneville, sure has changed since I bought her at a Goodguys show. The 3 pictures shown here are the 3 evolutionary changes of the car. Step 1: As I bought her: I was thinking of buying a Zipper bodied Lakes Modified until I found out there's a 6 month wait to get one. I felt pretty lucky to grab this when I did. You'll see the long split wishbones hooked to a 3 inch dropped axle. The rear axle is a old school banjo. The wheels are the 1935 style wires with some hard as hell bias ply or tractor style tires. I'm not sure what kind of paint the original owner used, but that yellow is tough as NAILS!! The engine block hasn't never changed, but it did get updated. I've got the original header on it too. The quarter elliptical spring suspension front and back is there, but there's friction shocks (only better then nothing at all!) in the front and nothing in the rear. Step 2: My...

Story Submitted by John C. Hill or MoparMagic Virtually everyone who has an interest in automobiles knows who Richard Petty is. "The King" is considered the very best NASCAR driver fomr the early era, about the early 60s through the late 70s. Richard went on to win hundreds of NASCAR races, and multiple NASCAR Championships until his retirement from active driving in the early 90s. But, did you know for a very brief period in the mid-60's, King Richard was a drag racer? It's true, and not only was he a drag racer, but Petty Enterprises created and built one of the earliest "F/X" cars, which could arguably be considered the first Hemi powered funny car. It's also quite possible that without this particular car, the Chrysler 426 Hemi as we know it may have been eliminated from production in early 1965, never to be produced again! If this doesn't peak your interest, nothing will! So read on about "43 jr" and find out how a Plymouth Barracuda with Richard Petty at the wheel, saved the 426 Hemi from extinction. "NASCAR, If you can't outrun 'em, outlaw 'em." On...

Speedseekers is new book by German born designer and photographer Alexandra Lier. Visiting Speedweek's salt for the first time, she was hooked. Suddenly a fascination with fast cars, hot rods and customs drove her from her design studio to garages shooting top mechanics and builders or she was off to races to get more pics of the cars she loves. That passion is captured in her first book, Speedseekers Organized into five main chapters, History, Garage, Speed, Landspeed, and Style & Sound. That first chapter about history might as well say "vintage drag racing" cause the included photos are a fantastic collection of legendary racers from Wild Willie Borsch to to Big Daddy Don Garlits to a fiery burnoutin his first rear engine dragster by the legendary "TV" Tommy Ivo. I spent over an hour studying the vintage pictures, then explained some of them to my sons: "This guy held on with only one hand!" I can't get enough of nostalgia drags and the people and cars that made it great (and still do in some cases). From there, I skimmed over the Garage chapter to check out Speed....

The Goodguys Southwest Nationals rolls into Scottsdale, AZ only once a year and with it comes a mad thrash to get your car ready and some great chances to roll your car out (even a roadster since it was in the 80's that week!) have some fun and meet some other rodders in the area. Doug Jerger the owner of Squeeg's Kustoms in Mesa, Arizona landed the lunch stop for the Goodguys Show. Doug was kind enough to let me take up some space at his shop and hand out some of the posters we made. The open house came at a perfect time as Squeeg's was debuting 3 trick hot rods. Doug's shop can build and paint anything you want and do it to near perfection. The 34 Ford Roadster shown above was one of the cars. Everything on this car screams professional builder and the style and execution let you know this car had a solid plan right from the start. The other 2 hot rods finshed were a 32 Ford Roadster and a 40 Ford coupe. I'm not showing the 40 Ford right now because we're...

Over at the NHRA.com site, one of my favorites, I read that the NHRA Technical Services is making all Top Fuel cars run what they're calling the "Electrimotion Safety Shutoff Controller". This new rule will be in effect for the 2009 NHRA Drag Race season. The Electrimotion Safety Shutoff Controller was designed by Dave Leahy of Electrimotion of Delaware, Ohio. Electrimotion.com has a very detailed explanation of what the box does detailed on his website in Adobe pdf form. Download the info here: Drag Race Safety Device info. The basics are that the device will: Sense manifold burst panel failure Activates the fuel shutoff, Shuts off ignition, and Deploys parachutes Pretty cool, but am I the only one that's thinking, "Its about time!" I almost can't watch drag racing since the death of Eric Medlen. I never knew him, but he seemed like a nice guy and as part of the Force Racing team, I always routed for him. Then John Force got seriously hurt and next Scott Kalitta died. I don't know all the facts, but shortening the track wouldn't have saved Scott. Shutting off the fuel and...

Cruisin' Main Street New Downtown Mesa Monthly Cruise Beginning this Friday night December 12th, from about 6pm to 10pm, the downtown Mesa merchants will host a monthly cruise night on downtown Mesa's Main Street from Center Street to Country Club Drive. All years and types of vehicles are welcome to cruise or park along Mesa's Main Street to enjoy the parade of rolling sculpture's pass by. Most of the stores and restaurants will be open late so bring the whole family and make a night of it. This cruise night will become a monthly event to coincide with the downtown Mesa merchants successful "Friday Night Out" program held on the 2nd Friday of the month. Mesa's next 2nd Friday Night Out event and cruise night is scheduled for January 9th 2009, so be sure to mark your calendars. Among the many activities planned for Mesa's "Friday Night Out" event will be an "Art Walk" featuring over 80 artists displaying their wares along Main Street. Also, live music will be playing at several locations along Main Street too. As I said, most of the stores and restaurants will be open...

Not a Rat Rod Custom Woodie Story submitted by MyRideisMe.com member: Woodbutcher This project started out as a 32 chevy woody pedal carI built for my daughter, she put it in two local shows and won 2 1st's. Took it to goodguys KC and won "Best Bitch'n" pedal car. So why not build me one? Mine started as 2 1/2 ton dual wheel flatbed truck. I bought the cowl for $85.00 took a pile of parts in the shop, and came up with a plan. I took the pile of part's and a concept to Matt Schroeder of Newton KS. He built a all custom 100 inch chassis with 20" kick up in rear, front axle over frame 10 bolt posi with stock trailing arms and direct port air bags in rear. I got the chassis back and my work began. I ran all brake lines installed 305 with vintage offenhauser intake /edelbrock 600 carb, chrome Sanderson shorty headers. (Matt also fabed a full exhaust with tail pipes) and it doesn't need any more then that. It's all backed by a flip-o-matic turbo 350 trans.   After I had...

I first found this pinup beauty in a set of pictures from my friend and professional photographer Justice Howard. Justice shot some pics of Frenchy La Femme getting pinstriped on her chest. The picture is steaming hot, no doubt about it. Those pics are shown in the Pinup Pinstriping post. I contacted Frenchy through her myspace page to be December's Pinup of the Month. This photo was taken by a friend! His name is Chris and he's a self taught dude with a good eye. He's also a car builder. Frenchy tells me he's,"a unique individual with style in the custom culture car scene." I wonder if that's his car? So does Frenchy like cars? "Hot rods, lead sleds, ranfflas, rat rods whatever you call your ride- I love them all. My dream car would be a ’49 Chevy pick up truck- Pink satin with a white pearl flake top- very frenchy- I know…a Desoto front end grill and Packard headlights! Any fella out there who is willing to make any suggestion please send me little message." What'd you think when you were getting your chest pinstriped? He's kinda...

After accomplishing a major record in Hot Rod Magazine's Drag Week 2007, ProRides (www.goprorides.com) is about to embark on a new level of performance never seen before. Not only did ProRides head to Drag Week with the intention of beating the old record (think mid-low 8 second 1/4 mile times!), but to finish the event, driving 1,000 miles while pulling a trailer. While the bets were being placed that the clean black Camaro wouldn't even finish the week, the car shook the hot rod and race world by posting a first pass E.T. of 7.64. Truly the pass heard 'round the world! Granted, the ProRides team was as surprised as anyone, and the venture served to underscore the positive results that come from combining great companies and partnerships with a thorough process. So many have asked "what is next?" After talking to Rob Kinnan of Hot Rod Magazine at this years Drag Week, the ProRides crew had the idea of building a 6-second ET capable car to drive the grueling 1,000 mile Drag Week course. Imagine.... a 6 second ET vehicle driving 200-300 miles per day while pulling a...