Different Ways to Win at GNRS

With all the talk going on about the AMBR winner at the Grand National Roadster Show, I wanted to take the opportunity to show you some of the other great award-winning cars on display. There must have been well over 100 awards given out during Sunday’s award ceremony! This is not including awards given out  in the Suede Palace (those cars don’t run in competition with the others, it’s more of a  low-shine exhibit if you know what I mean.)

To start with, this sweet 1952 Chevrolet Coupe won the George Barris Kustom D’Elegance Award. I dug it for it’s cool green paint by Gene Winfield as well as it’s cam shaft front grill.

There were lots of nice wagon’s at the show, as I’m partial to wagons they really drew my eye. This 1963 Falcon Squire stood out to win in it’s 1955-1979 Conservative Wagon class.

I’d heard about this 1932 Ford roadster, dubbed the Platinum Bomb, as it was progressing. I hoped it would take home first prize, but it only got class recognition (this is, however, the most competitive class in the entire show!) Built by owner Zachary Norman along with Troy Ladd of Hollywood Hot Rods… be watching for an in-depth story on this baby!

While Lowriders aren’t my style, I’ve at least got to recognize the money and hard work put into these pieces of art. I was very surprised when I saw this 1988 Volkswagon Jetta pimped out! Dubbed “The Passion,” it was covered with crosses and Jesus murals. Evidently others were impressed too, it was awarded the Full Lowrider Compact Custom Award.

The ’88 Jetta wasn’t the only place for Jesus to be seen at the 2010 Grand National Roadster Show. I spotted him (along with Mary) on this sweet ride out in the Greaser’s Alley. It was all the more classic  that mariachi music was booming from inside, along with a custom light-bar beneath the radio keeping beat with the music! I don’t think this one took home any awards, but it was one of my top picks! I wouldn’t mind rolling around my East LA neighborhood in this!

I definitely don’t want to leave out the Suede Palace picks!  This beauty 5-window was the chosen winner of my favorite car club fellas, the Throttle Kings. Extra points to them for picking a car based on it’s drivabililty! This one’s owned by a fellow Grease Girl and gets driven all around, including destinations like El Mirage and Bonneville Salt Flats along with her Bean Bandits crew. Stay tuned for more on this one later also.

Lastly, I don’t want to ruin it for you, but there will be a few spectacular cars highlighted in detail here at MyRideisMe.com that took top in their classes. The only clues I’ll give ya is the classes: 1955-1959 Semi Hardtop class and Early Street Roadster – Topless Pre 1935. Keep checking back, as we’ve got plenty more to report from the 61st Annual Grand National Roadster Show!

Cool Nights in Phoenix – Cruise on Central

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 a good time. The police were out in force, but I didn’t see anyone pulled over. From what I saw, a very well organized cruise that would have probably been even bigger if not for the rain delay. I can’t wait for the next one!

After a mixup with my main photographer, Swanee, (the cruise is on CENTRAL, not in the Main Street Cruise in Mesa!!) I showed up to take some amazingly blurry night shots, as usual. The only decent one I shot was this one of this straight six powered roadster parked with my car’s kiss’n cousin 27 Roadster with 2.0 Pinto power in the Burger King parking lot.

The cruise was also somewhat of a “coming out” party for E-rock’s dually. He recently put 22′s on and sill drops it down on the pavement thanks to an air ride system fabbed by the guys at Lowboy Motorsports in Mesa. Erick was so jazzed about getting these wheels for his own dually, he’s made a couple other sets. He’s got them for sale, so get with him in his garage if you want some. Erock’s Garage

Anyone get any decent photos? If so, leave a reply to this blog and let me know how to get in touch. Also, anyone else with comments about the Cruise on Central, please leave them below. You don’t have to be a member to leave a comment, but you can join at any time… it’s free and we’re packed with folks from Arizona.

Pictures from Australia’s First Lowrider Show

My new friend Justin filled us in on a car show in Australia. Thanks Justin!

I arrived at the meet up for the Australian lowrider scene which was ogranised by one of australias newest lowrider club Loyalty IV Life. The event was held at Sydney’s Homebush Bay . I arrived at 10 am to find great weather and about 10 or so Cars which ended up around 30 cars by the end of the day.

There was various makes an models of cars at the show from Cadillac’s to Buicks to even Pontiacs and Holdens.

I walked around had a chat to few of the owners whilst walking around snapping a few images and there was various clubs representing which are LOYALTY IV LIFE, OTHERSIDE, SYDNEY STYLE, OLDSKOOLRYDZ, HEART & SOUL, ETERNAL ROLLERZ and FRESH STYLZ .

They had a barbque and a hop off at the end of the day an I was glad to have made this event which will go down in history as Australias first lowrider event.

Photos courteous of Bliss Photography & Designs

Open Invitation to All Car Types – Lowriders

Visiting MyRideisMe.com you’ll notice that it’s pretty heavy on Hot Rods. What can I say? That’s what I like most, that’s what I photograph most and hot rod shows are my scene. But… MyRideisMe.com is NOT limited to any one type of car. Not at all. It’s more then a URL, My Ride is Me is the theme of the site. What is it about your car that describes you? It’s always something! You didn’t just HAPPEN to like lifted Jeeps or 1970 Chevelles or 64 Fairlanes. There’s a reason you say, “That’s my ride.”

Case in point for this blog is Lowriders. I dig’m. Would I ever own one? Maybe not, but so what! I can still appreciate them as sweet custom cars that at times have the most intricate paint to be found on any car. Whatever your opinion is, there’s no doubt that the owners of these rides love their cars and they no doubt tell you something about who’s driving them.

I haven’t had a chance to photograph many lowriders, so I turned to my new friend Jae for these shots. He’s an avid poster at flickr and he’s got more shots on his myspace page. But to find out more about him and the photos he takes go to his WordPress blog at Jaebueno.com. Jae doesn’t just shoot lowriders, although he’s obvious got a great eye for them, he shoots whatever strikes him and does some sweet photoshop work to make the shots really pop! I’m a fan. By checking out other photographers and how frame the car and what they do with colors or custom frames, it’s a great chance to learn. I know I’ve learned alot from looking at Swanee’s pictures.

So to Jae and his buddies and all the low rider owners out there, please stop by and check out MyRideisMe.com. I’d like to know what you think. I’d also like guys in that scene to blog at MyRideisMe.com instead of free bloggers like WordPress and Blogger. Anyone interested? Please contact me! Leave a comment and I’ll know who you are.

Until then, Jae’s got alot to see for lowrider show coverage:

Scrape on the Lake

Together CC Azusa Car Show

Imperials & Techniques

Then, until we can get some lowriders here, you’ll have to search out Flickr. here’s a couple I found: bob merco & Kid Duece

I hope to see some lowrider members soon. If MyRideisMe.com ain’t your thing, let us know what you’re looking for, maybe I can swing it.

Yokohama Japan’s Hot Rod Show

While cruising Myspace looking for car and bike enthusiasts to bring to the light of MyRideisMe.com, I learned of the 16th Annual YOKOHAMA HOT ROD Custom Show 2007 that happened December 2^nd in Pacifico Yokohama sponsored by Mooneyes Yokohama.

I’ve got a special interest in what’s going on in Japan since I work for Nissan and I lived in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan in 2000. When there, I’d occasionally see a car that was completely out of place: an old Chevy wagon or a vintage Mustang, but nothing like what’s at this show.

To find the best pics of a Japanese show you look at Japanese websites, right? Good luck! That’s where a new friend from Myspace named Jiro from Gifu, Japan (near Osaka) helped me find some of those websites, especially this one: SP@RETIME. Maki Kurata from Nagoya, Japan runs Sp@retime and it is LOADED with outstanding pictures of the bike and hot rod scene in Japan. The picture to the left was just loaded. Maki and his buddies are riding in Japan now and it is COLD there now! This gallery’s called: いつものメンツで極寒ナイトクルーズ！ which loosely translates to: “The regular crew on an arctic night cruise”. Maki’s also got a Myspace page if you want to check it out. Maki’s Myspace

Maki told me a little about the show… Here’s his favorite bike:

It’s built by a shop called “Paradise Road” in Nagoya. In addition to building cars and bikes, they host the No.1 Custom car show in Japan. Paradise Road is owned by Happy Hernandez. He’s got a cool looking Myspace page too. Judging by the other photos I’ve seen of this bike floating around the web, this was certainly one of the finest at the show. I’ll share one more of pic from Paradise Road if I get permission.

Be sure to check out Happy Hernandez’s Paradise Road!

From there, I Maki-san served up his other favorites from the show and who built them.

This bike was built by “Hidemo” which I think is short for Hide Motorcycles. Here’s another website to check out: HIDEMO.

Browsing the Hidemo bikes, I found out this bike’s called Mod Chopper 3 and won Best of Show in Yokohama for the motorcycles. Check out all the details for this bike here (in English and Japanese) then go to the great photo presentation of the bike build. Click on the banner below to have a look, then check out the Other bikes built by Hidemo.

Then Dig this Old School Style built in Japan by Spice-MC.

Then you’ve got super detailed paint on this chopper called: MISARIINO from Motor Cycles-Den. At the website, there’s fantastic write-up about a bike made completely from titanium, aluminum and stainless steel called “The Titan” When you get there, click on it.

Finally, there were a bunch of trick cars at the show too. This car is in Japan!

Maki spent his time shooting the bikes, but his friend Kage got the cars. Most of these cars were Japan locals, but some had been flown in. The site is called “Rod-n-kustom Blogzine”. It’s worth checking out for the TONS of pictures and movies of Japan shows. This guy gets around! Click on his banner below.

After looking at the pictures at Sp@retime I had to say, WOW, there’s alot of innovative work going on! I haven’t seen something as cool as the Mod Chopper 3 in a long time. Next time I’m in Japan, I’m heading down to Nagoya to see my new friends drink beer and hopefully take a ride. I couldn’t be more impressed. Domo arigatou gozaimashita.

---

---