Pictures by: Doug Nykanen The votes are in both in Cobo Hall at the Detroit Autorama and here at MyRideisMe.com where you could Vote for your favorite "Great 8" car.  Funny thing is, by 2 votes, the very unofficial voting picked "Gold Digger" same as the judges in Detroit. We'll have more pictures of the Ridler winner and the rest of the Detroit Autorama soon, but for now, here's the shots we have of this beautiful hot rod. At this level, every car is perfect. Without sitting inside or hearing from the builders how they did it or why, or maybe cranking up the tunes, we just get to stare and go... yea, that's extremely well done. Anyone have a picture showing this engine compartment in a little more detail? (I asked, and Kevin from extrudabody.com hooked me up! Thanks to Tammy, the owner for sending it to him) Notice: A total lack of wires, even for what's must be electronic fuel injection.  When's the last time you looked under the hood of a modern car. If you'd remove the over-sized engine cover, you'd see a MESS of wires...

Overcast skies and the threat of actually having to wear a jacket didn't deter a great crowd from downtown Chandler, Arizona on February 27, 2010. For all the pictures I took click here. I figured I'd lead with this Willys gasser. I waited for a few minutes to snap this shot with just a few legs in still walking by. It was pretty big crowd! Even stacked with great cars, I picked this one as my favorite just for it's sheer gasser badness. Those who disagree are simply wrong! While you're looking at this picture, notice the air scoops on the front of the hood. These scoops fed the cross rammed big block Chevy. Cool setup. Besides the Willys that stopped me in my tracks, I found this car. A 1954 Darrin confirmed by trusty Google! I shot one of these up at Barrett Jackson 2 years ago. A perfectly restored piece that went for big bucks and was worth it.  The sliding pocket doors on these are so different, you'll know these when you see'm. Now I've seen 2 of the 435 ever built. An unusual car, no...

“If the guy building a 1943 Lockheed airplane decided to build a hot rod, this might be what he’d build,” said Zachary Norman, owner and builder of Platinum Bomb. While he denies that it’s a theme car, there’s a definite unifying element to this 1932 Ford roadster. One quick glance will tell you it’s aviation. From the aluminum-looking paint job to the dash full of airplane gauges, this car is full of details that make it look like a hot rod that’s ready to fly! Nothing makes a hot rod fly like the engine, right?! This baby is powered by a 1949 Cadillac 360. Its been rev’d up a bit by a 1/200th over-bore, custom pistons, and much more. All that power is steered by a yoke-style steering wheel connected to its steering mechanism via a large linked chain. A very cool looking accent on the firewall that no-doubt saved some room in the engine compartment for those custom-made headers. Rolling on to the wheels, the details keep coming. They’ve been custom built by Zach and are sandwiched together with fasteners. While its most common to use nylock or...

Story by: Megan Boyd Pictures by: Doug Nykanen Vote for your favorite in the poll below... then check out the 2010 Ridler Award Winner - Story Here Help Choose the 2011 Ridler Award Winner Here The 2010  Detroit Autorama is off to a hot start in the frigid city of Detroit. The 58th Annual event has once again gathered the best of the best to debut, show, and share their hot rods and customs ranging from the mild to the wild. Make sure to vote for your favorite below. The competition for the prestigious Ridler Award is heating up having drawn contenders from all across the nation, including 2 cars from Washington state. The Great 8 finalists for the award  include the usual Fords and Chevys as well as two unique makes this year-- Packard and Dodge. In addition to the variety of makes there has also been a cross selection of body styles chosen-- a roadster, 2 coupes, a Victoria, a touring phaeton, a two door sedan, and a pick up truck--which could make history as being the very first pick up to win the Ridler Award.  (To learn more about the Ridler Award, click...

Hot Rod and Car Art I wish I could draw cars.  I was decent when I was young, but now I'm useless.  Ryan Hadden of Hadden Hot Rod Shop is a car nut who digs drawing cars too.  His own hot rod, a '54 "Plain Lorraine" F-100 pickup was featured in a blog where Andy Kawahara painted a "shop truck" door logo.  If you missed that, check it out HERE.  Ryan has helped friends visualize their hot rod projects by sketching their custom car and hot rod ideas.  You may have seen his work in the Andy's US Forest Service Truck feature. Such a cool shop truck idea.  Ryan captured it perfectly in his sketch above and Andy built it to spec. When choosing an artist to sketch your hot rod, there are many options.  The two biggest differences I see is an artist who uses pencil/marker and paper and the artist who uses a computer.  There are also differences in price.  There's artists out there to fit anyone's budget. This is Andy Kawahara's other hot rod truck (I see a theme here), a 1961 Apache done up in a Mild Custom look. ...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Car Show or Race Car? I've been wanting to share this car with you guys for a couple months now.  I originally showed some early pics I took during a tour of Salt Flats Speed Shop (that story link here). Chris Davenport, shop owner and metal craftsman, and now louver expert, is building a '32 Sedan in the traditional style from the 40's and 50's.  He has put together a pretty detailed build thread on the H.A.M.B. He has been updating it pretty regularly the last couple months as he's been making some big progress.  Ok, enough of my words, let's see this work of hot rod art.  Photos by Salt Flats Speed Shop. Check out them louvers.  I think the top has 420 something louvers.  Wow!  It looks tough and right out of Bonneville 1946! Here's the view Chris will have when trekking out to the Salt Flats on I-15.  I wanna grab some rolling shots of this ride when you drive out to Bonneville, k Chris? This might be my favorite shot.  Add some black and white to this photo and it would appear...

The Best of PA Car shows at the Motorama 2010 Mike Smyth’s highly detailed 1930 Ford Streetrod Truck at Motorama 2010 We knew this wasn’t going to be your normal indoor car show when a cloud of exhaust greeted us as we strolled down the main hall at last weekend’s Motorama event. Actually, Motorama isn’t just a car show. It is more like a celebration of all things on wheels. While the wife and I were at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the cars, there was plenty of indoor racing and other activities to keep the large crowds entertained. Racing was everywhere; there was go-kart, quarter midget, and arenacross racing with quads and dirt bikes. While the R/C racers and the Robot Conflict participants may have been driving smaller vehicles, they were just as competitive. Bands and DJs were scheduled throughout the day on various stages to entertain your ears and of course the Miss Motorama contestants made their rounds to entertain your eyes. (Sorry, out of respect for my assistant and wife I refrained from snapping any photos of the ladies. Besides, they were way...

It was my first time to a 24 Hours of LeMons race. As soon as I could see the track, I knew I wanted to do this. How else can you race all day for so little money?  With a set of not-so-serious sounding racing rules we told you about in a another post, there were some very serious safety rules in place at the track. Off-track excursions or spins were subject to penalties and that's where the 24 Hours of LeMons style fun started. (click the picture to read) The penalties for a track infraction are wide reaching.  For the worst kinds of repeated offenses, including total disdain for judges, there were simple time penalties, but with a bribe here or there (of course bribes are legal!) you could get off with a written penalties like the ones above.  I won't guess the political affiliation of "Chief Perpetrator" Jay Lamm. So what other kinds of penalties did I see? The top photo shows the tires of one team in the stands so they could, "watch and learn how to race."  Too funny! The car was on jack stands...

I wrote about the 24 Hours of LeMons (yea, I spelled that right) in another blog about the "Strict Racing Rules". I expected some easy going people out to have a great time. I found'm! It took the "Eyesore Racing" shown above 6 months of weekends to put their 94 Mazda Miata together. The car, built for $500 or less by the rules, was made from 2 Miatas practically welded together in the middle. One car had front end damage and no motor and the other had been carefully wrapped around a tree with the front end intact. The engine, including the small rusty-wheeled turbo from a Mexico only Dodge pickup, was resurrected from 4 engines. Where would 24 Hours of LeMons racing be without Craigslist! The team consists of neighbors and friends making up 4 sets of couples out of Long Beach, CA. In the Phoenix race, their 9th race,  6 of the 8 team members drive including "March Hare" Dave, "Tweedle Dee" Jay, "Tweedle Dum" Dan, "Alice" Sara and "White Rabbit" Sarah and my man, the "Mad Hatter" Kyle who helped with the details for this story....

Story and Pictures by Andy's Pinstriping "I have a friend in Seattle that was doing some pre-Spring cleaning and needed to make some room for a new project so he called me. The offer was too good to pass up.  I was told that if I could find a way to pick up an old 1963 Chevy truck that i could have it. I had to fork out $350.00 to have it delivered from Seattle to my door step and after looking at the truck, I realized that was a great deal!   This is what I started with. A good original truck with a bad 90's Teal paint job...but I saw potential. I did some research as well and found out that this truck started life as a Forest Service truck, so sentimentality kicked in as I had a beloved uncle that was a Ranger all his life. All of a sudden, an idea was born... Obviously, it had a height issue that needed to be addressed ASAP!  This is after the front went down about six inches. This is what it looked like after the back went down...

So, its no secret that I dig Japanese cars.  I certainly have a special place in my automotive heart for the Honda Civic.  I've owned 2 and am looking for #3.  Why?  It's a Civic?  They're boring, cheap, small, chick cars with no power and are front wheel drive (FF = front engine, front wheel drive).  Well, lemme "splain"...Being a father of 4 with a mortgage, a retirement plan, food storage, swim lessons, youth baseball, basketball and soccer, 2.5 kids still in diapers...shall I go on?...then you now see the Civic's big advantage.  Cheap, reliable transportation.  For a car guy, the Honda Civic also offers a lightweight chassis (1992-00 Civics weigh 2200-2500lbs), amazing mpg (I've average 39mpg), double wishbone suspension at all 4 corners, ease of transplanting other more powerful Honda/Acura engines and likely THE biggest aftermarket, making the Civic is a great choice. For this post, I bring you one such Civic, a budget Time Attack machine owned by Tag Evanson of Arizona.  These pictures are from 2008 at GT Live at the Miller Motorsports Park.  Tag Evanson is from Arizona and made the trip up to Utah for...

John Force is back.  It's great to see the spring in his step again and now with their new, in-house chassis built by John Medlin and in-house Ford Boss motors. This could be the first of many race wins.  How long before all 3 teams are running the new chassis? Not long. -Pikesan Here's the race recap from John Force Racing: * * * * JOHN FORCE WINS 50TH NHRA WINTERNATIONALS POMONA --- John Force broke the longest dry spell of his historic career opening the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season with an emotional victory at the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals. Force was the model of consistency on race day defeating veteran Bob Bode, daughter Ashley Force Hood, Jack Beckman and Ron Capps with an average elapsed time of 4.123. “I heard (Top Fuel winner Larry) Dixon say that he grew up in California and I’m from California too but I never grew up. I just love it and I have to tell you I can drink that Full Throttle. That stuff hops me up for a race like this. The 50th of this race...