Bonneville Salt Flats Racer at Speed Week 2010 Bonneville Salt Flats is full of cool car guy stories.  Here's another one for you.  This one is from Ford Y Block lover, Tim McMaster (Y Block Guy) who built a land speed racing motor for this Yellow Fridge Cab pickup owned by Charlie Burns.   This Y powered pickup runs in the E/PP class, which is E motor (184-260 cu in), Production Pickup, where the record is 126.073 MPH.  On Saturday when I took these pictures, Tim ran 113 MPH while making his "Rookie Run" since he's a new driver at Speed Week. Tim McMaster tells us about his Y Block love story: "Y-Blocks, you could say, have always been a part of my life from the time I can remember riding between my dad and uncle in the 292 powered F-600 hauling a load of oranges to the Blue Goose packing house in Strathmore, CA, I know that goes a ways back and I didn't even know what an engine was back then but that truck is still working on the ranch today and I have some other stories that involve that...

Bonneville Speed Week 2010 Cruise In at the Nugget Casino The Cruise In at the Nugget Casino is a Bonneville Speed Week must-see.  Let's take a peek at some pictures of the salty hot rods that showed up this year. (Here's pictures of 2009 Nugget Car Show) Flattie powered pickup running a favorite wheel/tire combo, white walls and steelies.  Can't get enough of the salt on top of the rods. We're workin on a post that shows how it got up there! Hot Rod Bread Truck.  Perfect stance for bread delivery, how cool is that?!  I love hot roddin'. The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop cars and crew managed to grab the prime parking spot up front.  32's and louvers! Jim Baugh's 33 Ford Sedan drove out from Washington state.  I met him at the Salt Flats Speed Shop Open House.  More coming on this rod soon. This shot gives you a look at the amount of people crammed into the parking lot at the Nugget Casino.  This deuce roadster is beautiful with its blown flattie up front and silver paint that looks almost like metal.  One of my...

Bonneville Salt Flats Hot Rods and Custom Cars   I heard more than one person comment that Speed Week is like one HUGE Cruise In.  I totally agree.  This is my 4th year coming to the Bonneville Salt Flats.  I've got "Salt Fever" bad and the only fix is more salt, right?  This is my first post of Speed Week 2010 and I wanted to highlight my favorite hot rods and custom cars I spotted on the salt.  I'll dig into a few of these in later posts with more pictures of what makes these hot rods so cool to me. Keep checking back at MyRideisMe.com for more.   In no particular order... (don't forget to click on the picture to zoom in for more viewing pleasure)     The KDF Mangler Volksrod... ya, you're gonna hear and see a lot about this car on the automotive internet circles I think.  This car just popped on the salt and turned heads with its dual carbed Corvair motor, super low stance and overall COOL FACTOR.  It was one of the biggest neck-breakers out there on the Salt Flats during the 62nd Annual Bonneville Speed Week.  It was easily...

Car Show Pictures from Germany: I've got the latest scoop from our German Hot Rod informant, Pascal.  The German Street Rod Association (GSRA) is the only German club for street rod owners, which is now up to 300 members and was founded in 1993.  They have a website gsra.de you can check out, but its all in German.  Now, on to the sharp photos by Pascal and the rad hot rods from Germany. It's cool how 20's and 30's traditional hot rods can transcend time in any part of the world, as we've seen from Tano's '26 T Roadster with Olds V8 power to these rods in Germany. One of the traditional type rods that can be found worldwide is the Speed Shop truck.  I wonder if hot rodders from the 40's and 50's knew that their work trucks would be turned into street rods?  It makes sense though, I mean, you can hop up the big V8's they came with, you can slam them, put some chrome reverse wheels on 'em with baby moon caps and white walls, add the name of your speed shop and logo on the door...

Cruise Night: Utah Cruisin Car Show Taking the wife and kids to a local car show is one of my highlights of the summer.  We like to check out the Burger Stop Cruise In that happens the last Wednesday of each month in the summer time.  It's a small show by most standards, probably about 50-75 cars from the local area.  It's cool because its not all Mustangs and Camaros, there is a little bit of everything.  Variety is the spice of life is it not? I've seen this orange/red Model A coupe at this show before.  It also sports tons of Bonneville Salt Flats decals, so I know it gets run hard at the Flats.  Last year he came to the show with the Salt still stuck to the car. Here's the Model A coupe next to a pickup brother, both in a more traditional flavor.  Love the white walls and steelies with the white firewall.  Good lookin'! While the kids were waiting in line for some Clown-made circus balloons, I found a light blue convertible GTO looking showroom stock with some Cragars.  Dig the chrome everywhere. I...

We first told you about this Studebaker Avanti and its Land Speed Racing legend status in the Land Speed Racing Avanti intro.  We have a quick update for you.  Dan and crew took the #88 Avanti and its borrowed twin supercharged Studebaker V8 to El Mirage for some runs down the dry lakebed at El Mirage.  It was 191 days in the making and it was well worth it. The Stude looks right at home on the dry, cracked lake bed.  Dan suited up and was able to make 2 runs, well, 1.5 runs.  Before actually getting down the dirt track, it took many hours and helpful hands to get the Avanti to pass tech inspection.  Most of the little things are safety related, like sealing off the interior from fire hazards and the correct protection. Avanti Dan suiting up.  No racing happens without help of family and friends. Two land speed racing Avanti's at the starting line at El Mirage is a beautiful sight to see.  Dan and team were able to figure out a bunch of bugs, get tech inspected, and get another list together to get ready...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Race Car Recreation Stromberg headquarters—Stromberg is pleased to announce their valued participation in the recreation of Phil Remington’s stunning 1941 lakester. Stromberg is proud to announce their participation in the recent unveiling of the recreation of Phil Remington’s 1941 lakester. Unveiled at a special party honoring Phil, who will be 90 this year, at the NHRA Museum in Pomona during LA Roadster weekend, the blue roadster was an exact recreation by Burton, Michigan’s Dan Webb. Webb hosted the party for 400 of Phil’s closest friends, including Dan Gurney, Stu Hilborn, and more. Built in 1941 and raced at the lakes from 1946-1948, the roadster consistently ran over 130 MPH running a 21 stud Ford flathead fed by two Stromberg 97 carburetors. As Dan Webb wanted this to be a perfect recreation of the beautiful lakester, he needed to look no further than our reissue of the winning Stromberg 97. Though the new Stromberg 97 looks exactly like it did almost 70 years ago when Phil chose them on his ground-breaking race car, internal improvements have been made to eliminate leaking, warping of the body and other...

Words and Pics by Nick Koljian On Friday, June 18th, this was posted on the Facebook page of Road Zombie Johnny Koonce: "Went and bought 430 Hamburger patties and buns, 250 Hotdogs and buns and a shit load of other stuff for tomorrow! You guys better show up, or we're gonna have to eat it all our selves!!!!!!" Well Johnny, as they say, "Be careful for what you wish for!" 15th Annual Road Zombies CC BBQ and Car Show Saturday, June 19th at Santa Clara's Elk Lodge was the 15th Annual Road Zombies CC BBQ and Car Show. Let's just say there was no shortage of rod junkies. I showed up right at 12:00 so I could get in and get some shots off before the crowd got too heavy. As I made my way in, cars were still pulling in to jockey for position on the lawn. It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and a perfect day for a BBQ and car show. Not only were there grub and wheels, but the Road Zombies also supplied the day with some groovin tunes by booking Fresno's own...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Jeep Race Car This story is: "My Ride is Me"!  Combine Bonneville Salt Flats Racing, a Jeep Comanche and a father and a son.  Perfect! Meet Peter, a new member here at MyRideisMe.com, he's a Jeep guy, but not the off-road type  you might expect.  Here's his story... It was too good for me to mess with.  ha ha  I asked him one question, that's all it took to get him talking. -Hechtspeed Written by: Peter Lechtanski "The Inspiration?   Why do people do what they do?  What makes something (a car) so important to us? I guess to answer your question, I have to go back 40 some years, it was 1963, and a saw a story on the evening news (on a black and white TV) about this 24 year old guy named Craig Breedlove. He'd just gone 400mph+ at the Bonneville Salt Flats, breaking a record held by the British since 1949.   He was the first man to go over 400mph in a car (and later the first man to go 500, and 600mph). I was about 12 years old at the time, 2 years before we elected...

This is a Mustang for all car enthusiasts, old hot rodders and young tuners alike...its the "Game Changer!" If you like American Muscle, you'll dig the Dynacorn '69 Mustang fastback shell, Art Morrison custom front subframe,  individual throttle body/injected 2011 Mustang GT 5.0L 32Valve engine with 6 speed trans and Pro-Touring style.  If you like Drifting Imports, you'll dig the slammed stance, 50-60 degree steering angle, 7000 redline, aggressive Japanese wheels sized 18x10 front and 18x12 rear with 7" lips and Street Drift style! Meet the '69 Mustang "RTR-X"!  The coolest project car of 2010, due to intro at the 2010 SEMA show in Vegas later this year. This is the answer to my "Pro-Touring + Hellaflush" Dreams!  Remember this post I did last year? The creative mind behind this Street/Drift Mustang is Sir Vaughn Gittin Jr (ok, I added the Sir), Formula Drift points leader and "RTR" Mustang brand owner.  But you'll also notice the "Team Need For Speed" logo in the bottom right.  This is a collabo between Vaughn, Speedhunters.com and the Need For Speed brand.  Andy Blackmore of the Speedhunters.com/Need For Speed family has helped Vaughn put his Inspired Ideas on paper (or...

We spotlighted the 1st Gen Chevy Camaro RS sponsored by Optima Batteries a couple months ago in a blog (click the link to check it out) when it was being prepared for the One Lap of America 8 day long grueling competition.  The One Lap (it used to be called the Cannonball Run) of America makes the race cars drive themselves from track to track (3500 miles total) and then expects them to race hard at the track.  That's right, no trailers.  How did it do in its first year at the race?  Keep reading... Here is the updated livery for the One Lap event.  Looks just like PCK Studio's rendering/T-shirt. This Pro-Touring built Camaro RS won its class, which is called American Vintage.  This was its first One Lap race, so the fact that the car won its class (which competed against a 1981 Camaro that has run the event 20+ times before) is really a big deal. This is the Katech prepared 427ci LS7 Corvette Z06 powerplant to propels the OneLapCamaro. The team of James Shipka and car owner David Pozzi had a pretty crazy 8 days.  At one point...

So, if you missed Part 1, The Tear Down, read that first, then come back for this, Part 2: The Install.  So, at the end of Part 1, we had removed the old ring and pinion.   Now we're ready to install the Ford Racing 3.73 ring and pinion gear set from AmericanMuscle.com. First, I wanted to show you what the Ford Racing 3.73 Gear Set comes with.  Ring gear, check.  Pinion gear check.  Crush sleeve, nut and shims, check, check and check.  But remember, its SUPER DUPER HIGHLY recommended that you ditch this crush sleeve and get yourself the Shim Spacer Pack for easier preload setup.  You'll thank yourself later, trust me. OK with Ford OEM/Racing gears i have found that they are pretty much ground on the same centerlines. So if you measure the pinion and shim after you've removed the pinion bearing and match the length to your new gears by adding the correct shim to equal the first measurement, you will be very close.  Now that being said, I always have to check the gear pattern and add or subtract shims to get the gear pattern correct. it is recomended to...