Throttle Kings – Hospitality and Hot Rods

What do Hot Rods, cool Kustoms, the LA Roadster show and Octopus have in common? The Throttle Kings of Southern California. In 2007 when MyRideisMe.com was barely idling, I hit the LA Roadster show hard with cards and t-shirts to spread the word. That was when I first met Victor Busatamante. Victor listened about my dream of “Myspace for car guys” and offered a beer to celebrate that I was done jabbering. By that time, I had the pitch down, but even I was tired of hearing it. One beer led to another, then Victor and his buddies were making carne asada and fed me well. You don’t meet guys that generous every day. I was grateful for the hospitality so I loaded up the boys with MyRideisMe.com t-shirts.

Fast forward 1 year to 2008. As Saturday at the Roadster Show was winding down, I set out to find Victor and his guys again. Not so hard, just look for the guys having the most fun! A little ways out, I found them. This year was no different then last. Everyone was having a great time, sipping beers and eating what? Oysters and fried octopus? I tried one of those little suckers too. Chewy.

I got the idea to grab a picture of each Throttle King member with their car. For these guys, their rides do tell a story about their personalities. My Ride is Me. With every member nicer then the next, they each told me how they help each other out with their rides and if they’re not working, they traveling together to one of the MANY shows and cruises in the greater Los Angeles area.

It didn’t take long to notice I needed almost every letter in the alphabet to get their names! Bustamante and Kopis Georgakopoulos (Greek if you’re wondering), give you the idea. That’s Kopis’s 51 Pontiac Chieftain.

Besides the cocktails and friendship, I also shot some pictures of Don Simm’s wife Doreen. That was my first chance to try pinup photography.

Doreen is a natural, now if I was a talented photographer… you can read that blog… Click HERE.

I hope to see everyone next year, or maybe at the Primer Nationals in Ventura.

Until then, here’s the Throttle Kings and their cars.

Thanks for everything!

See you next year.

• Victor Bustamante’s 30 Ford Coupe (Visit his garage)
• Kopis Georgakopoulos’ 51 Pontiac Chieftain (Visit his garage)
• Don Simms’ 29 Ford Roadster (Visit his garage)
• Jim Ramirez’s 36 Ford Pickup
• Paul Medina’s 47 Ford Business Coupe
• Pete Rodriguez’s 50 Ford 2 door sedan

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How to be a pinup model – 2 secrets revealed!

2010 Pin-up Girl Wall Calendars

Pinup models go with Hot Rods like whipped cream on pumpkin pie. That’s why you’ll find hot rods, muscle cars and even some hot bikes shot with the much finer sex in the pinup photo gallery at MyRideisMe.com. It just seemed like the right thing to do! Then, with the popularity of the killer photos of one of my favorite models, Zoe Scarlett done by Photographer: Dirk Behlau and, the most popular blog at MyRideisMe.com about the Hot Rods and Pinups II book shot by David Perry, I start thinking… why don’t I shoot some pinup pictures?

Piece of cake, I’ll let you in on the secrets: 1) Get a hot girl and 2) pose her next to a rad hot rod.

Done. Except for a couple of things… imagine this: Excuse me hot rod owner, I think your wife’s hot. She looks like a pinup model. Can I take some pictures of her? At that point, either you’re feeling the left side of your face caving in or you’ve met Don Simms and you’ll be fine. Don and his buddies from the Throttle Kings are some of the coolest kats you’ll meet at the LA Roadster Show, but that’s a different story (that WILL be told later).

For secret #2, Don supplied the hot rod too. The guys nearly got it all! When you making a garage at MyRideisMe.com Don?

Enough of that, dig the pics. Not bad for the crappy camera I had to use. (It’s always best when your digital SLR takes a crap at one of the best shows going.)

Thank you Doreen for being my first.

To see all of the pinup pics, go to the pinup photo gallery.

These pics work great as a desktop image, so click on them and save it. Make sure you tell a friend where you found it!

And let’s tell Doreen what a great job she did!

Check out all the Pinups here MyRideisMe.com Pinups Models & Hot Rods