Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car: I arrived at the Salt for World Finals 2009 right as the sun peaked over the mountains.  What a beautiful sight.  I pulled up to the start line where there were race cars and bikes waiting to make their record return runs.  The first car I walked up to was this bright yellow VW Karmann Ghia owned by Larry Monreal from San Bernardino.  I asked the gentleman standing next to the car if he was Larry, and he responded that no, he was Jim, Larry's friend and driver.  As with any Bonneville Salt Flats land speed race car and team, there is always a big, long and interesting story.   No long  stories today, but I do want to share some details I learned by spending a few minutes with Jim that I hope will display what dedicated hot rodders and land speed racers these guys are. I chatted with Jim Bradshaw for like 10 minutes.  Something you'll experience when you attend a land speed event at the Salt Flats is the people.  It's almost sounding cliche attending my 4th event, but the people are the heart of this amateur...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqjKxDFEK98&feature=related[/youtube] Ok, one of my dream cars would have to be the Mitsubishi Evolution.  The example in this video, The SunCyber Evo, is going after the 1 lap record at Tsukuba, home of Time Attack!  Why do I share this video with you?  A few reasons, but one is a look at how the Japanese car builders and tuners do it up right.  They are serious techies! This is a purpose built car, but it does not compete in a race series.  It competes in Time Attack competitions, also called Lap Battles.  Most of these aero, suspension and engine parts can be bought off the shelf.  The Tsukuba track is for Japanese car nuts the top track in the world, right next to the Nurburgring in Germany.  Time Attack has started to catch on in the US and Europe in the last 2-3 years.  But, the Japanese are tops when taking a street car and making it go fast for 1 lap. Enjoy this video.  A second video can be seen, a part #2, where the car hits the track!  You can get a glimpse into the Japanese tuning world. ...

TO ALL ARIZONA CRUISERS: This was a message passed onto me from Lance Baker at Hot Rod Planet. The following was passed on to me and others by Jim Frost of the T-Bucket club here in Arizona. This should help ease some of the concerns about the $5.00 parking fee imposed for this Saturday. The reason for the fee is real simple, the rent for the parking lot & security went sky high. It is costing an extra $10,000 to put this event on! So it boils down to helping out with this kind of event by paying a few bucks or NOT HAVING A CRUISE ON Central. Personally I think $5 is cheap compared to what some of these car shows charge! Where else in this state do you have a gathering of this size that you don't have to pay $50-$100 to attend. Nancy decided to help us out by offering everyone who pays to park a $5 Discount Coupon for the ARIZONA SPORTSWEAR booth. So now you can save $5 on your event t-shirt! With everything that Nancy & Arizona Sportswear has done for us and...

Not all of you ladies and gents can imagine a car being raised to the status of an icon or art form. In fact I haven’t always myself. However, the more I get to work on and see cars, the more enamored I’m becoming. After attending RM Auctions “Icons of Speed and Style” my car love-o-meter has just shot through the roof! An auction doesn’t sound that exciting you say? What if I told you that all of the 80 iconic cars being sold in this no-reserve auction were available to peruse up close and personal? Yep... you could even touch em'! At most car shows, the best cars are roped off to keep you admiring from a distance. There were no ropes at the Friday preview before RM's "Icons of Speed and Style" auction at The Peterson Museum in Los Angeles, California. With nearly seven million dollars being drawn in by the auction, people putting out the money needed to really see what they were paying for. So when I arrived during preview day, I was able to get as close as I wanted to each car. With...

Bonneville Salt Flats: World of Speed Finals World of Speed 2009 goes down on the Salt at Bonneville Speedway this Wednesday through Saturday.  It's the last event of the year on the Salt.  I'm hoping the rain we've been getting here in Utah doesn't cancel it.  I'm planning to be there Friday to cover the action, snap lots of pics and get some Salt stories.  Here's a pic I took from the last World of Speed event I attended in 2007.  This was actually my first time on the Salt and I was there with my oldest son (he was 4 at the time) and my dad, 3 Generations of Hechtspeeders!  That's poppi checking out the Volk Bros '29 Roadster as it sat in the 200 MPH Club Booth and my son giving a thumbs up! See You On The Salt!!! See all my pictures from the 2009 Bonneville Salt Flats World Finals...

So, after much adieu, drum roll please....I choose 1st generation Scion xB!  I know, its not a '32 Deuce Coupe or '55 Bel Air, but its a car that I can customize, enjoy owning, put a smile on my face and fit all 4 of my boys to take to Car Shows.  It will give me more opportunities to get into the hobby I love, modifying our Rides.  So, with that, here's to hoping this isn't just the "Car of the Week" this week (its been  days since D day) and to the search in the classifieds for that good clean example to start modifying in about 5 months.  I'm excited!   Look forward to a blog about "xB's of MyRideisMe.com" soon as well.  There's a few other Box Lovers here. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the xB and boxy cars like it, for example the Nissan Cube, Honda Element and Fit, even old school boxes like the 60's Corvair van, the Ford Econoline and even VW Bus....