Wheels-Up Racing at the 2011 Gasser Reunion

Nostalgia drag racing all weekend in Beaver Springs, PA

Located about an hour’s drive north of Harrisburg, PA, Beaver Springs Dragway is a dragstrip with lots of heart. The crew running the show goes out of their way to make you feel like part of the family. Their advertising slogan is “Nobody does it better!” and I would have to say that’s definitely not false advertising! The “Beav” is the perfect location for Gasser Magazine’s Gasser Reunion that was held June 10-12.

We hit the road early to make the 3 hour drive from our home base in WV and it rained the entire trip! When we arrived, the spectators’ parking field had an inch of standing water. Do you ever get the feeling that maybe you are wasting your time making a long trip for nothing? Well, luckily that feeling for us was wrong and the sun was shining by 8:30am. Everyone was able to enjoy a full day of racing.

Randy Campbell’s 1950 “Full Metal Jacket” Studebaker sits in the pits drying after the early morning rain.

The track crew did an excellent job getting the dragstrip prepared for racing after the rain stopped. There was only a short, 1 hour delay before Saturday’s time trials.

It was like you stepped back in time as you watched hot rods and gassers driving in the pits.

Gassers were reaching for the sky all weekend. Dan Bergeron (yellow) actually took second place in the wheelie contest for the weekend.

Lew Stitley put on a great show all weekend in his “Tijuana Taxi” Corvette and ended up with the win in Nostalgia Gas.

Mike Etchberger would later go on to take home the trophy for the Wheel Stand Contest in his street legal Willys.

Great people + a great track + a great event = a can’t lose great time! Hopefully you’ll have a chance to check out some of the other nostalgia racing events in the future at the Beaver Springs Dragway.

Until then, check out a few more photos over in the Hot Rod & Racing picture gallery.

38th NSRA Street Rod Nationals – York, PA

Cool Hot Rods from 2011 York NSRA Nationals Car Show

More than 3500 hot rods and customs registered for the 38th Street Rod Nationals East.

You must be doing something right to be able to say this is the 38th time you have hosted an event and the 2011 event wasn’t any different. The city of York, PA has been lucky enough to be the location of this massive gathering for 31 of those 38 years. It has only been a few years since the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) relaxed the age restriction for vehicles entering the show grounds. Now, you can find more vehicles than just street rods, as long as they are 20 years old or older, driving around the event fields. Some of the best rides the East Coast has to offer attend this show annually.

Right when we walked through the spectators’ gate I was greeted with one of my favorite paint schemes. There is just something about gloss flames on a flat black finish that appeals to me. Paul Kain’s 1948 Ford was done exactly the way I like it.

Would you believe this hot rod is all fiberglass? Vernon Akers spent almost two years in the bodyshop getting his 1934 Ford just right and the effort really shows.

While there aren’t many rat rods that attend this show there are still enough to put a smile on your face if that’s your thing.

One of the best parts of the York show are the vendors. It’s a great time for you to pick up some catalogs and ask question about your latest project. Scott Bowers, owner of Ron Francis Wiring, and Larry Troth were manning the booth when we stopped by to say, “Hello.”

Do you build model cars? The guys over at Central PA Model Car Club sure do. They had all sorts of realistically detailed miniature hot rods to gawk at over in their display area.

I don’t know about you but I get a big grin on my face when a see a ride that has a motor with the air intake scoop at the same height as the roof like Eugene Bowles’ 1929 Ford T-Bucket! Sure they are a pain in the rump to drive but they look so cool; almost cartoonish. What do you think?

Glowing Paint on custom 1959 Thunderbird

From T-buckets we move on to T-birds. Don Russo’s 59 T-bird custom was just one of many fabulous customs that were scattered around the York Expo center over the weekend.

If you ever have to tow your car at least do it in style. Carl Zimmerman’s 1948 Autocar would be the perfect rig to ferry your hot rod!

The Street Rod Nationals East was a perfect weekend event. Well, except for the brief 15 minute shower on Saturday. These major shows have a little bit of everything to keep you entertained. If you enjoy this type of event you need to make an effort to get out and support the promoters. While 3500+ vehicles is still a very large show it wasn’t that long ago that you could count on 5000 cars at this event and that was when it was restricted to street rods only. Many great shows have closed their doors because of lack of support from the rodding community and we can only blame ourselves. Get out there and drive!

You can check out more photos of the York show over in the Hot Rod Images gallery

Written by Bubba Harmon (bubbastoybox)

Elite 6 Hot Rods and Customs at NorthEast Car Show

Tammy Ray wins the Northeast Cup with “Gold Digger” custom hot rod.

The inaugural Northeast Rod and Custom Car Show, held at the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA, was an awesome show by any standard. There was so much to see and do, including hot rods, historic customs, a Pro Mod Alley, a kid’s zone, air brush artists, and local celebrities, that you would have had a hard time not finding something to peek your interest. The Expo center is large enough that we didn’t feel crowded as we gawked at the more than 300 cars on display.

The major competition at this show is known as the “Elite 6”. From the organizer’s website,

“This award package was created to recognize the creativity, engineering, workmanship, and also the “appeal” that each car has within our Show Class. Each car within the Show Class will be judged using traditional judging guidelines instituted by the ISCA, but will also judged using the above mentioned criteria.”

Winners of the Elite 6 are awarded $2000. Out of those 6, one vehicle is selected to receive the Northeast Cup.

“The NorthEast Cup is a one-of-a-kind custom, hand made award designed and built by Divine Kustomz, a hot rod builder from Rhode Island. The winner of this award will receive an additional $8000 cash award (making the total purse $10,000), a NorthEast Cup custom embroidered winners jacket, and the NorthEast Cup.”

Tammy Ray from Dahlonega, Georgia added the Northeast Cup to her growing collection of awards which includes the 2010 Ridler Award. The 1933 Ford Phaeton known as “Gold Digger” is exquisitely detailed right down to the gold nugget details on the engine and wheels. They could not have awarded the cup to a nicer person. Congratulations Tammy!

It took Harold and Rhea Schrader 10 years to build their 1935 Ford Coupe named “Sinuous”. Their Elite 6 winner’s hand rubbed and polished Lexus Candy Brown paint sparkled on the show floor.

You don’t need to enter a car to be included in the Elite 6. Chick Dietz did it with his fabulous 1983 Ford Ranger truck. There are over 200 custom handmade parts on this beast !

You will have a hard time finding a sweeter ride than Daniel Swisher’s 1957 Chevy Coupe. His custom was also included in the Elite 6.

Timeless. That’s the name of Richard and Paige Udell’s 1932 Ford Elite 6 hot rod. It is powered by a highly modified Hillborn injected 392 Hemi. A custom paint color, Montana Mint, was created by Hot Hues of Dupont to wrap the custom.

Finishing off the Elite 6 is Sam and Bonnie Lynn’s 1967 Pontiac Firebird.

“It’s so tiny,” that’s what she said. Peg went gaga over Pete Colibrano’s 1959 Fiat 500. This diminutive vehicle was definitely the smallest car on the showroom floor.

Do you like them in the weeds? You can’t get any lower than Paul White’s 1949 Oldsmobile.

Maybe your choice is a sky high donk? Sabrina and Marci Ullom’s 1961 Chevy Impala was over the top with its emerald green big flake and 26” rims.

Hmmm, not sure about this. Dare to be different like Douglas Minisci Jr. and his 1974 Chevy Nova.

Still, there is room for improvement. The only small downside was the event facility. It was a bit plain and the dim fluorescent lighting did not do justice to all the fine hot rods and customs on the show floor. Hopefully next year there will be a better selection of vendors as well. But, definitely not bad for first effort. Put this one on your calendar for next year and you won’t be disappointed.

There are more photos over in our Northeast Rod and Custom picture gallery.

2011 Motorama Harrisburg – The Farm Goes Hot Rod Again

Tunerwars, Hot Rods and Classic Cars at Motorama

If it has wheels and a motor you could probably have found it at the 2011 Motorama Events last weekend at the PA Farm Expo Complex in Harrisburg, PA.

The 2011 Motorama isn’t a single show but many shows to entertain you. Three car shows (Tunerwars, Hot Rods and Classics, and the Speed Show) were going on at the same time.

Over in the 7000 seat Autocross area there was four wheel and two wheel action all weekend. There was also a large gathering of go-karters and quarter midget racers competing for top prizes on different tracks. If you like remote control racing then you should have been here. Multiple HUGE tracks allowed for RC Nitro, 1/8th scale Electrics, RC Electrics, RC Rock Crawling, and even remote control Drifting!

Maybe you like to watch things beat the snot out of each other? Then you should have been over in the Robot Conflict area. There were also less violent activities including the Miss Motorama Pageant, Bands, and carnival games. The Hostetter Family and crew does a great job producing this show. This is seriously one of my favorite events to attend each year.

There were a lot of Camaros entered into the Hot Rods and Classics show but my favorite had to be Butner Motorsports’ 1970 Chevy Camaro. Everything on this puppy sparkled and with a 540 topped with an 871 BDS blower this beast can scoot. A TH-400 tranny followed by a 9” Ford rear packing 4.56 gears gets the power to the ground.

For the classic part of the show, how about Mike Rudy’s 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass? I wouldn’t mind being seen cruising in this blue beauty with the top down. How about you?

Operation Herbie had Herbie The Love Bug on hand at 2011 Motorama. “Operation Herbie®, founded in 2003, is designed to use the increasing popularity of Herbie the Love Bug to focus public attention and funding on the health care needs of children and non-profits supporting children with an illness.” What a cool way to use a car for good!

From the “What the …” file comes Ken Miller’s 2004 BMW M3 der strabe over in Tunerwars. Since I am not very knowledgeable about European cars, this custom BMW had me circling it a few times. It was done so well that I wasn’t sure whether or not it was factory built.

While I was disappointed that the Air Force guys didn’t bring their Supercars for display like they had advertised, they did have this nice 1995 Ford Probe in their booth to look at.

Speaking of stuff to look at, what tuner show would be complete without the lovely young ladies? There were plenty of girls posing with the equally pretty vehicles throughout the show floors.

There was plenty of action happening over in the Arenacross area. Here Jerry Myers gets some air time as he competes in the Pit Bike 10 Inch 16+ division.

Have you ever seen a Remote Controlled Rock Crawling competition before? The skill these guys have to be able to maneuver their vehicles across wires is amazing!

Remote Controlled events were spread out all over the complex.

The best thing about Motorama Events is that it is all under one roof. You can move between areas and be out of the elements. Also, this is a great family event. There are plenty of things for everyone to do. Okay, now I am sounding like a sales guy. Have you been to Motorama before? If you have, what do you think about the show? Let us know; we want to hear from you.

Be sure to check out more 2011 Motorama photos over in the 2011 Motorama pictures gallery.

And mark your calendar for next year’s Motorama: February 18-19, 2012

A Ride for Everyone at the Carlisle Import and Kit Car Nationals

Who doesn’t love dune buggies? You could have gotten a good healthy dose of buggy envy at the Carlisle Import and Kit Car Nationals which was held last weekend in Carlisle, PA.

Dig that metallic green finish!  Wow!  There were two seaters, four seaters, white ones, blue ones, green ones, and just about every color imaginable.

If you strolled over to Building T you could have chatted with Bill Meyers, the designer of the first fiberglass dune buggy known as the Meyers Manx. Bill Meyers was present all weekend to sign autographs and pose for pictures if you asked nicely enough. The good news is that you can once again buy new Meyers buggies like the Manxter 2+2, which is capable of doing 0-60 times of just over 4 seconds.

Want something with a little more displacement? How about a Cobra replica? The Cobras dominated the kit manufacturer area and there were plenty of them on the show field as well. Throw a 4.6L motor in a Factory Five Racing 1965 Cobra replica like Anthony and Robin DiMemmo did and I bet you would have a smile plastered on your face from ear-to-ear. So what if it is fiberglass; it’s still a hot rod! What do you think?

Kit cars come in all shapes and sizes. There were several very exotic looking ones at the Carlisle show like this Sterling Sports Car model. Want one? Basic kits start at $11K and quickly go up in price from there.

And like the spoiler says, “It’s not what you can buy it’s what you can build.”

Club action was hot on the import side of the fairgrounds. Volvos, Triumphs, MGs, BMWs, Datsuns, and many more makes were well represented. Do you own an Opel? If you do then you would have fit right in with the Opel Association of North America group.

The Susquehanna Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) was handling the autocross as seen above in a Friday morning practice run.  Can anyone name this car pictured cone bashing above?

I always seem to enjoy myself when I attend a Carlilse Events show. The facilities and the grounds are kept clean. There is always someone around to help out and even most of the concession stand vendors are friendly. Heck, they even have onsite car wash capabilities. As long as you have a good attitude it is hard not to have fun.

So, what shows do you like to attend? Do you go with a club or are you a lone wolf? Let us know!  We want to hear from you so comment below!

Check out some more photos of the Carlisle Import and Kit Car Nationals over in the picture gallery.

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