Someone asked me, "How'd you get 10 Nissan Cubes?" I said, "Well I broke the first Cube 9 times." Figuring I didn't answer his question, I continued... "I asked and they said yes!" They is Nissan and they've got 10 Nissan Cubes being prepped for release to the media for evaluation, write-ups and sometimes criticism. That's what the consumers read in print and online magazines like MyRideisMe.com. For those of you lucky enough to live in Arizona, you'll get a sneak peak of the new Nissan Cube. And.. if you haven't seen one in person, check out the Nissan GT-R. Except for inside national super-shows like the Los Angeles Auto Show where the Cube first occupied equal space on all side 6 sides last year in November, this is the first time the geometric, love-hate styled Econo-box (couldn't resist) has been seen in the wild with other shapes. Where: Scottsdale Pavilion at Indian Bend and 101 When: 4:30 to 9 PM on May 2nd, 2009 (This is a one-time only deal!) What: 10 Pre-release, totally new Nissan Cubes, plus 1 rockin, bad-to-the-bone Nissan GT-R! Since I haven't driven it...

Bonneville Salt Flats: 2008's Pictures: I'm a little intimidated to tackle a story that even has the words: Salt Flats, Bonneville, and Speed Week included. The 2008 Speed Week day-trip I made last year was only my second time on the salt in Bonneville, the "Fastest Place On Earth" as the Bonneville Speed Week website declares. I wanted to share a few words and pictures from that day. I made the 1.5 hour drive out to Bonneville International Raceway with my good'ol 1959 JC Higgins rat rod cruiser pedal bike. The Bonneville salt-essentials strapped on the rear rack: bottles of water, sunflower seeds, sunblock and the old point and shoot camera. You need a bike just to get around the pit area. Why you ask? The pit area is 3 miles long and about 2 miles from the starting line!!! I spent most of my time near the starting line and in the pits soaking in sun, salt and of course the coolest "Car Show/Cruise-In" ever! OK, so there's no official car show, but that's what I call it. There are a few hundred old roadsters, coupes, muscle cars,...

COMP Cams®, RHS® & FASTTM Add $12,000 In Contingency To The 2009 Engine Masters Challenge EFI technology innovator FASTTM sees first visit to annual challenge while the cylinder head-valve train duo look to repeat success for the COMP Performance GroupTM After a successful year in 2008, the COMP Performance GroupTM will once again add excitement to the JEGS Engine Masters Challenge presented by Popular Hot Rodding magazine. In 2009 CPG companies will offer up to $12,000 in contingency awards to the top six finishers of the event. New to this year's event will be the inclusion of fuel injected engines, giving EFI technology leader FASTTM its first chance to enter the competition as the company hopes to enjoy the same success as its fellow CPG members have in years past. For 2009, COMP Cams® will offer contingency awards to those competitors running their camshafts, while those running RHS® cylinder heads will receive an additional payout. As the first year that EFI engines are allowed to compete, the 2009 competition will also feature contingency payouts for those equipped with FASTTM XFITM systems. In addition to contingency awards, scholarships to working...

Ford Falcon: Turbo Race Car I met, Kelly McLearran at the Speedworld Nostalgia Drags and found out she's was more then just the pilot of this 10 second quarter mile 1963 Ford Falcon.   As if that blasting 10's with 2 less cylinders than the average racer weren't enough, she's also known to turn a few wrenches, they run E85 instead of race fuel and I'm delighted to say she's a breast cancer survivor.   If you didn't know already I'm a Ford Falcon fan. Pops was a Ford mechanic for 25+ years, so when it came to drag racing, sprint cars or of course NASCAR, we were always routing for the blue oval boys.   So when I found this killer home built Falcon at the drags way up town at Speedworld, I had to take a look. I've seen this car before and heard about the woman driving it from the forum at fordsix.com. Between rounds, we had a chat about how she made a Ford six cylinder run that hard and why, My Ride is Me. Kelly's website, Quarter Mile for a Cure, tells her story....

Local small town car shows and cruise-ins are at the heart of the American Hot Rodding hobby. Layton, Utah is a good example. The cars at this show cover the gamut of usual suspects along with some nice surprises. This show is a monthly event during the summer months and is part of the JC Hackett's Rock-n-Roll Cruisin' Oldies car show tour in northern Utah and surrounding area.  The 2009 Calendar can be found on the site in Excel. I hope you dig these photos. Check out the gallery below. I was toting around my 3 sons (ages 6, 4 and 2), so I didn't get to stop and talk to any car owners and get more info on my favorites. Gotta pass on the hot rod blood, right!? Have you gone to a local cruise in spot or a big national hot rod event yet this year? If so and you took some pics, let us know about it. We'd like to see what the hot rodding scene is doing in your neck of the woods. [gallery =...

One of the fun and from what I've seen fairly unique parts of the Viva Las Vegas car show is the girls! Some of them professional pinups like the lovely Kim Falcon pictured here, and some of them girls trying to be pinups or just out having a good time! Whatever the motivation, we like! As you cruised the show, you'd see these girls done up pinup-like or sometimes just looking hot and when they'd stop at a car, the cameras would come out like crazy and a near mob-scene started as everyone tried to get their own shots. They should just come to MyRideisMe.com, it saves on film! (duh, I know) So check out Paul Swanson (Swanee@myrideisme.com) my man and chief photo madman's new Ladies of Viva gallery. He's got photos all over the place and a really nice garage filled with his favorite pics. Contact him if you want one of the photos, especially a high resolution or something without the MyRideisMe logo. He's cool like that. If we caught you walking around, let us...

You can't shake a stick at a hot rod or custom car show or here in the custom garages at MyRideisMe.com without seeing some pinstriping. We added a "Hot Rods and Pinups" gallery cause everyone likes the sexy vintage styled girls... The same kind of thinking made me add a Pinstriping Gallery. It's just a good fit. The gallery is LOADED with pictures. Well, not really, there's only the pictures from the Viva Las Vegas car show, put there's alot from that show. VLV's the kind of show where I'd say 80-90% of the cars have custom pinstripes. Here's just a few of the pictures in the gallery:[gallery = 27] To make the pinstriping gallery happen, we'll be shooting detailed photos of pinstripes at the shows and races we cover in the Event gallery and more importantly featuring pinstripe artist that are making their living pulling lines all over the country. Look for a story on Von Hot Rod and also my buddy Charlie the "One Arm Bandit". Charlie's also got a great community similar to us at Hot Rod Revival. Check it out! With the pinstripes on hoods,...

So I know ya’ll are dyin' to hear what the ladies were up to during Viva Las Vegas 12. If you had the privilege of being present, you already know that Viva Las Vegas was swarming with some of the purdiest ladies you ever did see. While you fellas might've been out merely lookin' for ladies - I was lookin' for fellow Grease Girls. Being that the car show at VLV draws one of the biggest grouping of home-built cool traditionals, customs, and rat-rods – I was hoping I'd find a few of those “builders” who also happened to be ladies. As Stude (my own 1955 Studebaker Champion) and I arrived on the lot Thursday evening, many other cars had already arrived, but we were the only girl-owned car so far. By the time Saturday rolled around the entire lot reserved for the VLV 12 Shifters Car Show was full, with ample stragglers in The Orleans parking lot. As soon as I showed up on the scene Saturday morning, I wholeheartedly began my search for fellow car ladies. You'd think finding other lady car owners wouldn't be too much...

"The Gasser Tribute Car was built as a tribute to all the drivers, owners and fans that loved these kinds of cars. It is probably one of the last A Gas Supercharged Olds powered Willys coupes left in the country." Del Wiesner The Dean Seevers, Del Wiesner and Harold Owens '33 Willy's Olds-powered A-Gas Supercharged Gasser original reigned from Loveland, Colorado and ran at dragstrips across the country from 1962-1966. These 3 Loveland High School grads and car nuts started the first car club in town, the "Loveland Zephyrs" and soon after began racing the Willys. One highlight for the 3 friends was holding the American Hot Rod Association National Record in 1964 with a 10.00 seconds at 146.86 mph run. The crew raced some of the top names of the day and were very competitive. Del says after working 40 years with his businesses, he never forgot the impact that car had on him. "Once you get that in your blood, it's hard to let it go. It was the most exciting time of my life, so I decided to rebuild a part of history." Do yourself a...

Before I dive in, let me introduce myself real quick.  I go by Hechtspeed on all the car forums I join.  I'm a certified car nut.  It doesn't matter what type of car, if its modified and customized, I can dig it.  I'm really excited to be blogging for MyRideisMe.  Hopefully I can bring cool content that you readers will enjoy.  So, let's get to it shall we?  The internet is home to thousands, even millions of websites. That means there has to be cool websites out there displaying hidden hot rod treasures. This "Internet Barn Finds" series of blogs will venture into the world wide interweb to see what we can find. Part 1 takes a look at a couple cool Scale Miniature Hot Rod engines. These are not your typical scale plastic model kits you put together during Christmas vacation, these are billet aluminum, high precision, CNC machined engines that actually run, some even powering 1/4 scale radio controlled hot rods. The first Barn Find is from weberprecision.com. Searching through Weber's website you'll find detailed pictures of both the end product and the tools/machines used to build...

Info about the October 2009 Cruise and the $5 Charge Carbon footprint size 12 triple E, but that was fun! For those of us living in Arizona, April's not necessarily the START of the cruising season, but it the sure is nice! After some ill timed rain canceled the cruise on April 11th, we got treated to some especially nice weather for April 18th. Wow, enough BS about the weather! So how was it? PACKED! I showed up late after a busy day of honey-do's and sports with my boys to find a packed house! At 8PM, about when I got there, some of Arizona's finest hot rods, customs and lowriders were found cruising to the delight of the packed sidewalks along Central in front of the Park Central Mall just south of Osborn. I didn't get a chance to cruise into the parking lot, but from the street it looked packed with cars and people and even the mandatory kettle corn vendor. For about 2 miles, it was a rare treat to actually enjoy "stop and go" traffic cause you were surrounded by cool cars and folks having...

Hot Rod Model A Shop Truck     The post man doesn't go for a walk on his day off and hot rod builders, painters and upholstery guys never get a chance to finish their own cars. That's almost a rule! That's why it's my pleasure to show you the finished product when they do. This is th 1932 Hot Rod "Shop Truck" is owned by Glenn Kramer of Hot Rod Interiors, located in Glendale Arizona. Glenn says, "I've been doing upholstery since 1980, and decided the best ride for me would be an all around hot rod shop truck that I could use for work & play." If you can't reach Glenn at his website, or cruising his cool new shop truck at the Mesa Cruise or downtown on Central, then head over to his website at hotrodinteriorsbyglenn.com or give him a call at 623-872-2242. Glenn will be the guy grinning ear to ear when you see him and his wife cruising all over in the shop truck. Way to go Glenn! [gallery =...