My First Land Speed Racing Friends Get Their Record If you’ve never heard about the kindness of folks involved in land speed racing, at Bonneville Salt Flats or at El Mirage, let me reiterate. You’re bound to meet some of the greatest people on the planet. I met “Bonnieville Bob” and his son Rocky on my first trip to Bonneville in 2009.   Bob’s been racing long enough to, literally, know everyone out on the salt. Like you’d expect, Bob and Rocky introduced me to everyone and now, years...

OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational Qualifier   May 21, 2013, (MILWAUKEE) – Back by popular demand, OPTIMA Batteries will once again host the OPTIMA Faceoff at Road America event in Elkhart Lake, Wis., June 21-23. Presented by Royal Purple and K&N Filters, the OPTIMA Faceoff at Road America will showcase one-of-a-kind performance vehicles during an action-packed weekend of high-powered activity. The OPTIMA Faceoff at Road America brings together a wide range of the best street-legal performance vehicles including vintage, late-model, import and domestic entries of all makes, and is a...

Land Speed Racing at the Ohio Mile Kris Henderson build this car with the help of friends in the 80s and has been tinkering with it and racing it ever since. In it’s current configuration, it’s running a custom built 572″ BBC with nitrous. During the Ohio Mile, Kris was trying out some new tires that were taller and skinnier. The decrease in traction was more than he was anticipating – making for a few wild passes down the 1 mile course. This video is a compilation from several...

Land Speed Racing: Quest for 1000 mph #2   We can’t get enough of Bloodhound SSC. A quest for 1000 mph? Awesome, even to think about it. So.. when the Bloodhound gang releases a press release, I share it. Here’s a few more tasty bits of info your mind to chew on… The world land speed record of 763 mph is held by Thrust SSC, a UK team lead by BLOODHOUND’s Project Director Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green. Components for BLOODHOUND SSC are being manufactured by specialists...

Meet Uncle Jed: A Robert Killian creation aimed to run 200-plus mph Story by Ben Mozart Photographs by our friends at Moore Good Ink Now here’s something you don’t see every day! You’ve seen mash-ups of a pro-touring Mercury Comet, but this one’s the ultimate combination of hot rod style and pro-style motivation. Robert Killian, you out did yourself! Robert Killian hails from Canton, Georgia. He’s been building hot rods for most his adult life, and he has always indulged himself in the unorthodox.   But when contemplating Uncle...

Ariel Atom Racer: Hit the Race Track! By Ben Mozart Photographs by our friends at Moore Good Ink If you’re looking to get into racing, the Ariel Atom may be a great way to start. A fairly low cost, great power-to-weight ratio for a fun time, and a good looking package that’ll fit my 6’4″ frame! Check it out!   Alton, VA: Probably the most significant milestone in the past two years for Sportsman road racers, those who pay their own bills, is the introduction of the Spec:RaceAtom (SRA)...

Ford GT40′s, Porsche’s and Vintage Jag’s Hit the Track Written by Vic Moore Photographs by our friends at Moore Good Ink When Vic told us about this event, of course we wanted pictures and info for MyRideisMe.com faithful. See, we’re not just about hot rods!   Braselton, GA: Each year the Historic Sportscar Racing association (HSR) organizes the largest and oldest event for Historic race cars on the East Coast. It’s called the Walter Mitty and it takes place at Road Atlanta, usually in late April.     Founded...

Challenger 2.5 Rebuilt by Danny Thompson for Bonneville Land Speed Racing I ‘m honored to hear Danny Thompson’s story of how he’ll rebuild the race car his father, legendary racer Mickey Thompson, originally built in 1968 with help from Ford. I believe, and I’ve said it before, land speed racing folks are extraordinarily kind people. Count Danny Thompson as one of those people and as a brave and dedicated man. After losing his father roughly 25 years ago, Danny now knows: “… It’s still a father son project, nothing’s changed… he’s just not...

Mike Ryan and his Freightliner Drifting! 10,000 lbs and over 3000 ft-lbs of torque. This was one of the highlights of the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Follow along as Mike get’s her sideways at Spring Mountain Ranch. (Click to see any picture full size) If you listen closely, you can hear Chad Reynolds from Bangshift.com quietly whimpering in the passenger seat as they use every bit of the track drifting out of this turn. I had to share this one too: The aftermath of one of the smokiest...

Top 25 and Can Tow the Other Cars! (Click to see any picture full size) I give you a bitch’n five-pack of race inspired (ok, they’re pretty much full on race cars except for the Blazer) of 70s Chevy C10 trucks! As I said, the Optima Invitational was a diverse event, filled with the coolest and fastest cars from SEMA, and not just late model Camaros and Mustangs. I’ve seen some great looking C10′s bagged and laying frame in Arizona, but I haven’t seen any that could hold their own...

1966 Mustang Fastback – Pro-Touring on a Budget   One of the hightlights of the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (aka OUSCI) was meeting Ron Schwarz, the owner of this extremely well done – homebuilt – 1966 Ford Mustang fastback. Sporting all the pro-touring trim, MyRideisMe.com featured this car long ago as part of a how-to story: Build A Pro-touring Mustang for $5000 The key point was, as you can imagine, “Do it yourself”. With a few stickers, new wheels and a new, budget blowing LS motor, Ron’s Schwarz’s...

More than just Camaros and Mustangs at the OUSCI (Click to see any picture full size) If you’re in the corporate world, you’ve heard about diversity. You’ve probably had some training on it so you can be more sensitive or some other nonsense like that.  The way I see it, different strokes for different folks and that’s never been more true than in the rides we choose. Am I right? At the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (damn that’s a long name!) the race car diversity was on overload!...