Back for 2009 with Don Shumacher Racing, Ron Capps is in his fifth full season with Shoe's team driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T for the 2nd time and of course, his crew chief is long time friend, Ed “Ace” McCulloch. Born in San Luis Obispo Capps has always been a So-Cal guy and now lives with his wife and their daughter and son in Carlsbad, CA. With a B.S. in Software Engineering from Santa Clara college, Capps joined the NHRA super-team of Don Schumacher Racing, in 2005 to drive the Brut-sponsored Dodge Charger Funny Car. With Schumacher, he's won eight national events and finshed 2nd in 2005, 3rd in 2006, and 4th in 2007. He's hoping to turn that trend around for 2009 Capps joined DSR after driving for longtime friend and team owner Don Prudhomme. DSR is only the second Funny Car team for whom he’s driven since entering the nitro classes in 1995. Since 1995 Capps has collected 25 wins in 54 final rounds, in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He's been close, but has never won it all after claiming that crown,...

Nitro Burning Model A Ford Coupe Twin blown 1930 Ford Coupe ready to run Nitro as seen at the 2009 So-Cal open house in Pomona, CA When Canada natives Ken and his partner Frank Bevacqua from Top Ten Hot Rods and Customs build a hot rod, they follow their motto: "Bad Done Good". That exactly describes their ground pounding, nitro burning, fuel injected, hemi powered, twin McCulloch blown, tube frame 1930 Ford Coupe. Do I have your attention? Built as Top Ten's calling card of badness, Frank told me he loves the funny cars and front engine diggers you usually see at the popular cacklefest events, but where are the coupes? At drag races and for the first time at the 2009 LA Roadster Show, cacklefests are awesome. If you've never seen and more importantly heard a "cacklefest" then you're missing out. Imagine 5-20 nitromethane or "fuel" burning beasts from the not-forgotten yester-year of drag racing's lined up, and lit up, usually at night or just dusk to see the signature yellow flames shooting from the exhaust pipes. You know you're in the right place when the push cars...

At the recent 2009 LA Roadster Show, I was lucky to meet Debbie Baker, the president and chair fro Crusin' for a Cure.  Cruisin' the largest one day charity car show with proceeds going to the City of Hope for prostate cancer research.  MyRideisMe.com supports all things that bring cars and a great cause together... Plus, Debbie's just good people.  With Casey Simpson singing live and Event MC, straight from the NHRA Dave McClelland MC'ing, this is a must event for everyone within driving distance to Costa Mesa, CA on Saturday, September 26th. Here's a little info about Debbie and how the show got started: Cars have always been central to Debbie Baker’s life. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, she spent her formidable years – the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when tail fins gleamed, V8’s were king and heavy metal came with four tires and a steering wheel – cruising up and down Van Nuys Boulevard and hanging out at Bob’s Big Boy. After graduating from Van Nuys High School, she headed south to Orange County in 1973, leaving her Valley Girl ways, but not her love...

    The Bountiful, Utah "Coats For Kids" Car Show was just another example of small town USA and the car nuts that make up this great hobby/pastime.  Personally, I think its crucial that towns big and small keep hotrodding alive and passing the automotive genes onto the next generation by supporting and putting on car shows and cruise-ins like this one in downtown Bountiful, Utah.          Looking over these pictures again, I thought about how events like this create a sense of community and make family memories for years to come.  Nothing more american, or human, than a good car show with your friends and family.    Here are some of my favorite pictures I took while hanging with my family.  How else can you teach your kid to hang his arm out the window like a true hotrodder than by owning a '32 roadster?  How else will he know what a 4bbl carbed big block V8 sounds like unless he can stand next to it and feel the ground shake!  Shoot me an email at hechtspeed@myrideisme.com and I'll post up your "small town USA" car show pics and...

Don Schumacher's a car owner, right? Yea, that's what he is now. He's got 6 full-pro NHRA drag racing teams running including his son and Top Fuel Champion Tony Schumacher. Before that, Don Schumacher was the pilot of his "Stardust" Funny Car.  Don retired from racing  in 1974 to focus on his family business and it's said, "a huge sigh of relief was heard from rivals like Gene Snow and Raymond Beadle in Texas, Pat Foster and Don Prudhomme in California and the late “Jungle Jim” Liberman in Pennsylvania."  Known as “The Shoe” he was tearing up tracks, especially at match races and even in England where you'll find several records he set as an ambassador for drag racing across the big pond. Shoe won the winner of the  1972 Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Stars,  the 1973 AHRA World Championship, 5 NHRA (including Indy) and 9 IHRA event titles driving his Plymouth Barracuda Funny Cars always called “Stardust”. Don Schumacher, the driver and mega-team owner who wears all 6 team colored shirts on any given weekend is our next "Top Five Most Influential Funny Cars" Don "The Shoe" Schumacher's Top 5 Funny Cars “I have to start off with...

MyRideisMe.com has your Funny Car hookups! We asked 3 current NHRA superstars in funny car and top fuel what funny cars are their "Top 5" most influential of all time, and why. Look for the Top 5 from Ed McCulloch, Ron Capps and Don Schumacher. Let's get started with the Napa Auto Parts funny car crew chief, Ed "Ace" McCulloch. The "Ace" has a drag racing career stretching back more than 30 years. A socal boy living right in the middle of where hot rods and drag racing really took off. It's no wonder he's driven everything from top fuel to funny's. During those early days racing all over the country at whatever track was paying, he learned what it takes to make a nitro burning beast go fast and more importantly, win. He's got 18 wins in funny car and another 4 in top fuel and he won at Indy 5 times. "Ace" is truly a legend in funny car and a perfect kick off for MyRideisMe.com's 5 Most influential Funny Cars... Ed "Ace" McCulloch's Top 5 Funny Cars “Going back some years, probably 'Jungle Jim' Liberman would...

I first bumped into Ms. Zoe Scarlett while looking for a great hot rod pinup picture to use for the very first MyRideisMe.com flier ever made. Graphic artist and Photographer Dirk Behlau kindly let the tiny web start-up use his image. That black hot rod with stunning blond featured Zoe Scarlett who is now the June Pinup of the Month. * How'd you become a pinup? Is pinup big in Switzerland? I took my first pin-up pictures in my boyfriend’s garage on a very cold day in January. I wanted to surprise him with some cute pictures when he returned from his holiday. I never thought that this would be my future career! At the same time, Switzerland’s most famous newspaper, BLICK, advertised a contest called ‘the cutest neighbor’. I spontaneously decided to take part in the contest and sent in the pictures I’d made for my boyfriend. Two days later, there was a huge picture of me on the cover of Switzerland’s BLICK! Well, that was the beginning of my pin-up modeling career! * What's your favorite pinup picture ever? That’s a hard question, during my career as...

So, I was "stumbling" around on StumbleUpon, a cool search tool/website where you can tell it what you're interested in and just hit the stumble button. I stumbled upon "Rare American Made Autos" page. Here's a quick quote from the website that explains what the Red Scarf Club is. Of all places to find cool pictures of rare American cars, an artilleryman's website!? Car Nuts are everywhere! "The RED SCARF name comes from the color of the artilleryman's parade neck scarves. (ie; The infantry color is blue, the engineers - green, the artillery - red, and so on. Each section of the army, has its own designated color.) Our present day club was loosley formed by a small group of 553rd FA Bn veterans, their wives, friends and familys, to get together once or twice a year in Branson, Missouri for a "Dinner and a Show", and share old "War Stories" - as we call them - and each others company, for a couple of days." Here's some teaser pics...if you can name any one of these cars, well...you're just sick! ha ha Try out StumbleUpon and tells us...

This past weekend I was able to make it to Ink N Iron 6 - a tattoo festival + car show + rockabilly music event held on the amazing Queen Mary ship in Long Beach, California. Am I glad I dropped anchor! Not only did I hear some great bands and see some awesome cars - but I got to meet up with car customizer Bo Huff and best of show winner Voodoo Larry! Let me fill you in on the show…this was year #6 for Ink & Iron – and I dug it! Each year it’s held in Long Beach aboard the Queen Mary – which is a huge, Titanic-ish ship. There are tons of tattoo artists exhibiting and doing tattoos. There’s dozens of bands playing throughout the day. Pinups are around too of course - vying for the $2000 grand prize in the contest (why don’t they award cars that much when they win?!?) And obviously… custom cars. This show is all about rockabilly and kustom culture. So of course the cars showing up are along the style the rockabilly crowd likes - Classic rods and crazy...

Car Drawings vs. Hot Rod Design   Over the last decade, we've seen explosive growth in the hot rod and custom car industry and hobby as a whole. This can be attributed to the popularity of television shows like Overhaulin', American Hot Rod and others, as well as Powerblock TV, the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Events, and of course, access to great personalities like Chip Foose, Stacey David and others. This brings in new enthusiasts, and naturally, more project cars!   Not since George Barris snapped thousands of photos and wrote hundreds of articles promoting the hobby back in the 1950's and '60's have we seen so much attention on our hobby, and it's amazing to witness. Yet, while there's all of this excitement, many of these new fans and participants are feeling lost when starting a project. It can be a daunting task to say the least, but when taking those first steps, having the right footing can make all the difference in the world.   Naturally, any success in a project requires a plan, and building or modifying a car requires very careful thought at this stage. I've...

For #3, MyRideisMe.com went in search of Nostalgia Funny Cars.  We scored a great find when we discovered the  www.70sfunnycars.com website in our internet search.  The website itself is vintage too, as it was established in 1998...was the internet even around back then? Ha Ha "Remember when Funny Cars actually resembled their street driven cousins? Real Funny Cars, and not show cars, actually appeared at car shows? Funny Cars had names, showed up to the races on open ramp trucks, and used tow cars often supplied by spectators after the crowd was pulsed by the track announcer for "volunteers?" This Vintage Funny Car website has many hidden jewels and is sure to bring back memories!  You'll need a couple hours to soak in all this 'Nostalgia'.  We'll launch into more in the future from 70sFunnyCars.com...we've only just gone through the waterbox and started our 1st burnout (..."Remember when Funny Cars would do 5 burnouts")! Have your own pictures or stories about your favorite Nostalgia Funny Car from 'back in the day'? Please share them by emailing to: nostalgiaFC@MyRideisMe.com Or, leave a comment below, you don't need to be a member.   If you like what you see, please Join us! as a member...

Professional Racers Owners Organization’s (PRO) “Great Helmet Auction” INDIANAPOLIS, In. – On June 6, 2009, PRO’s Great Helmet Auction will go live on eBay! This 10-day auction (ends June 15th) features autographed helmets, most worn during NHRA Drag Racing competition, by stars of the sport including: Jack Beckman Brandon Bernstein Kenny Bernstein Antron Brown Ron Capps V. Gaines Mike Edwards Ashley Force-Hood John Force Matt Hagan Robert Hight Allen Johnson Warren Johnson Doug Kalitta Ron Krisher Cory McClenathan Mike Neff Tony Schumacher Bob Vandergriff Jr. Tim Wilkerson For a full description of these driver’s helmets, including their history, photographs and a link to each helmet on eBay, visit www.GreatHelmetAuction.com. Mark your calendars now with the following dates: June 6 – The Great Helmet Auction begins on eBay. June 15 – Last day to bid and win! June 16 – Helmet winners announced. Winning bids benefit PRO, an organization that provides services and other benefits to professional drag racing team owners and drivers, with a portion of proceeds to benefit Racers for Christ (Team RFC), which has serviced NHRA for over 25...