Bonneville Salt Flats Hot Rods and Custom Cars   I heard more than one person comment that Speed Week is like one HUGE Cruise In.  I totally agree.  This is my 4th year coming to the Bonneville Salt Flats.  I've got "Salt Fever" bad and the only fix is more salt, right?  This is my first post of Speed Week 2010 and I wanted to highlight my favorite hot rods and custom cars I spotted on the salt.  I'll dig into a few of these in later posts with more pictures of what makes these hot rods so cool to me. Keep checking back at MyRideisMe.com for more.   In no particular order... (don't forget to click on the picture to zoom in for more viewing pleasure)     The KDF Mangler Volksrod... ya, you're gonna hear and see a lot about this car on the automotive internet circles I think.  This car just popped on the salt and turned heads with its dual carbed Corvair motor, super low stance and overall COOL FACTOR.  It was one of the biggest neck-breakers out there on the Salt Flats during the 62nd Annual Bonneville Speed Week.  It was easily...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car Sometimes it's easy to pick a feature car. The reasons why I dig the 1964 Ford Fairlane were spelled out in the feature I did about the Ring Brothers 64 Fairlane. Beyond the family tie and the legend of the Thunderbolt, this Fairlane just looks BAD! I searched for this car at Speed Week last year, but never did find it. I wanted to get a t-shirt for pops too... For Speed Week 2010, I caught up with Brian and Celia Dean and their AA/CGC Fairlane known as "Thundersalt". The CGC stands for Classic Unblown Gas Coupe. (I guess the U is silent?) The AA in the class title for this thump'n Fairlane stands for greater than 500 cubic inches.  Thundersalt runs a 557 inch big block Ford.  (thank goodness it ain't a Chevy! It would have broken my pop's heart!) Based on a bored and stroked 429 Cobra Jet block, the CJ is then topped with Trick Flow A460 heads.  Brian estimates about 925 horsepower on racing gas flowing through the Holley 1650 Dominator carb. Brian explained, "We build shit to go fast!"...

Bonneville Speed Week 2010 1st Race Day "Just Glad to be Here" is the name of this bad 1953 Studebaker running in B/BGCC or B engine, Blown Gas Competition Coupe and I think owner/driver Loyd Huffman speaks for all of us. Speed Week rocks. From bright and early, GreaseGirl sped over to the track to catch the good morning light of Sunrise on the Salt Flats. I wasn't far behind. Arriving at the salt I found this sleeping giant of the land speed racing world. The "Speed Demon" owned by Poteet and Main. Salt Flat visitors lucky enough to stay all week may see this 299 cu in streamliner run over 400mph. While we're talking streamliners, take a look inside "The Flower of Scotland". These guys must have registered late because they're not in the program. I do know they're running I/BFS or I engine size, blown fuel streamliner. The I-engine class is only 46-61 cu. in or more likely a motorcycle engine displacing less than 1 litre! How about this! Taking practically the entire alphabet with their race class, VF/CCXF which I think is a 4-cylinder Ford Flathead....

Bonneville Salt Flats at the First Day of Speed Week 2010 This morning begins the first racing day during Speed Week, and I was up with the sun to see what I could find! What goes on just before hundreds of racers attempt to set a new land speed record? This record-holding 1949 Studebaker pickup is just waiting to make its first run. Of course, I couldn't resist a good photo-op for my 1955 Studebaker's first voyage onto the salt! The Volk's were doing some last minute adjustment to their roadster. And a few others were already lined up and ready to race! At the Racer's Meeting all the driver's and crews received instruction as heads of SCTA and BNI welcomed us. What will the day hold? How many records will be broken? Keep checking back at MyRideisMe.com for more updates! To hold ya over until then, read over all our Bonneville Salt Flat stories here! Happy Trails,...

Upcoming Pictures and Stories from Speed Week 2010 "Thundersalt" is a 215mph 1964 Ford Fairlane More about this bad Fairlane Don't wait any longer, Speed Week's here! Since last year, the MyRideisMe.com crew's caught major "Salt Fever". Starting last year, we took in, or at least tried to, the race cars, the scenery and the fantastic people of Bonneville Speed Week. Now we're hooked. From 400 mph streamliners like the Speed Demon to VW's and some kind of French owned and raced, Suzuki powered English car, there's something here for everyone. It'd be easy for me to whine about my drive to Bonneville, but these guys and my new Australian mates shipped their rides in from outa the country! Whatever this is (I'll try investigate, don't worry!) I dig it. I call this shot, "All Motor" Speed Week officially kicks off on Saturday so Friday's tech day. Don't mistakenly think the teams are relaxing with a cold one (that happens later). For the two streamliner teams I interviewed, it's serious business, checking everything and making focused plans to do one thing: Set a record (or break something trying). Anything...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures As the Doors front man Jim Morrison once put it " People are strange when you're a stranger." Hmmm, lets take a good look at that. "People are strange when you're a stranger." Does that mean you are strange if you like insane pinstriping and you're passionate about hot rods? Is that really a bad thing? Well I know a couple of strangers that would disagree with "people are strange when you're a stranger."  That would be the guys from Strangers Car Club that put on one of the biggest and most anticipated shows in the South Bay every year.  The Strangers CC Car Show & BBQ at History Park in San Jose, Ca. This being the 11th annual show there was some rumors going around that this might be the last one. But no worries that little diddy was squashed quick. This years show seemed to be double in size of last years and always brings out the who's who in the hot rod scene as well as the big names around the bay. Names like builders Alex Gambino and Scotty...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Gearing up for Everything Speed! There's always one new car or project out there that makes you go think: DAMN! I found one. Richard Noble, you might have heard of him, is leading the charge. In his words: "Welcome to the BLOODHOUND Project, the engineering adventure for the 21st century. We are pushing the limits and inspiring our young engineers and scientists with our incredible car capable of 1,000mph" 1000 mph. Richard's got the experience to do it too. He held the land speed record from 1983 to 1997 driving Thrust2 on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. His record was a mere 633mph. Now, the team led by Noble's looking to blow past the record of ThrustSSC at 763mph and break 1000mph. If they can do it, they'll be the second car ever to break the sound barrier. There's nothing more I can say about the car that's not spelled out in full (overwhelmingly so) detail on the Bloodhound SSC homepage. So let me share a couple videos: Animated Video of the Bloodhound SSC's record breaking run: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CQOWYkJSzI[/youtube] Richard Nobel's old ride, Thrust2 1983 Record...

Car Show Pictures: 2010 Goodguys Puyallup Northwest Nationals Our friend Jason Rushforth (Rushforth Wheels) had attended the 23rd Goodguys Northwest Nationals in Puyallup, Washington with his '64 Buick (featuring a brand-new LS2 engine swap!), and he sent along some photos that he and Adam Ramseth had taken over the weekend. As Jason tells us: In addition to getting the Rushforth Wheels company car to the show at the last second, 2500 other folks made it to the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington which is the biggest and best show in the Northwest. Weather was perfect all weekend and the big open fairgrounds were packed with all manner of hot rods up to 1972. Here's a few shots from the weekend of cars that stood out but with 2500 cars... there was certainly something for everyone! Brett Anderson scored a coveted Art Morrison Enterprises "Builder's Choice" Award with his home-built, Rushforth-designed and wheeled 72 Camaro: 2-door wagons are so cool, and this slick '57 Ford is no exception! With virtually every segment of the hobby represented, this little pickup has some serious attitude and the wide whites on wires...

Carlisle Car Show: 2010 Truck Nationals The 2010 Carlisle Truck Nationals was, once again, a great event and MyRideisMe.com was there to enjoy the show. Truck enthusiasts from around the country were there competing for trophies and just to hang out with like-minded individuals. There was something for everyone including sky-high monster trucks all the way to frame laying minis. One of the highlights of the show was a display of Vietnam Gun Trucks from the reunion of Vietnam-era U.S. Army Transportation Veterans who were in Carlisle for their meeting known as "The Gathering." All of the vehicles present looked very impressive with their machine guns mounted up high. As a different form of tribute to our soldiers, Malibu Customz had their 2009 Ford F-150 truck that they call the "Freedom Truck" on display. This spectacular truck was airbrushed by Mickey Harris and depicted scenes from all the U.S. military branches. Over in Building Y, Dan Little organized a group of Rat Rodders to fill the entire building with all sorts of creative rides. Some people have an issue with the term "rat rod" but not George and Corey Green. Their entire 1936 Plymouth was...

Salt Flats Racing: Everything we got! Bonneville Speed Week 2012: (Updated as new stories are added) Hot Rods at the car show happening with Bonneville Speed Week All Smiles for Record Setters at Bonneville Speed Week Record Setting Bombshell 1952 Buick Super Riviera 2012 Speed Week Warm-up – Old Friends and New Friends on the Salt 841 Cubic Inches and 1,850 Horsepower to Bonneville for Fun, Records and Charity Bonneville Speed Week 2011: Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Record Breaking Plan Coffee and Salt – Bonneville Morning at Speed Week 2011 Heating up at Speedweek 2011 – Bonneville Salt Flats Day 1- Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Spectre Performance Blowfish Swimming Upstream – Speed Week 2011 Hot Rods of Bonneville Speed Week 2011 Day 2 – Bonneville Speed Week 2011 – Spectre Performance Day 2 – Speedweek 2011 at Bonneville Salt Flats More Speedweek 2011 at Bonneville Salt Flats Record Breaking Runs – Speedweek 2011 Chasing 400 mph – One Mile at a Time Bonneville Speed Week 2010: Bonneville Speed Week 2010 – Baddest Race Cars Bonneville Speed Week 2010 – First Look More Salt Please - More pictures...

Car Show Pictures from Germany: I've got the latest scoop from our German Hot Rod informant, Pascal.  The German Street Rod Association (GSRA) is the only German club for street rod owners, which is now up to 300 members and was founded in 1993.  They have a website gsra.de you can check out, but its all in German.  Now, on to the sharp photos by Pascal and the rad hot rods from Germany. It's cool how 20's and 30's traditional hot rods can transcend time in any part of the world, as we've seen from Tano's '26 T Roadster with Olds V8 power to these rods in Germany. One of the traditional type rods that can be found worldwide is the Speed Shop truck.  I wonder if hot rodders from the 40's and 50's knew that their work trucks would be turned into street rods?  It makes sense though, I mean, you can hop up the big V8's they came with, you can slam them, put some chrome reverse wheels on 'em with baby moon caps and white walls, add the name of your speed shop and logo on the door...

Buick Skylark's LS2 Engine Swap:   Most car guys make like-minded friends, and Jason Rushforth is proud to know car guys all over the world. Take a half-dozen of his friends who live close by him in the Pacific Northwest, throw in some emotional roller coaster moments, one '64 Buick,  a high-tech engine swap and a few late nights. From there, subtract proper nourishment and numerous hours from the daily schedule, and you get the story of some of the best friends any guy could hope for... And collectively the reason his car made it to their big, local Goodguys show.   The following tale comprises all of the above, and makes for the memories we all share in late-night benchracing sessions, and throws a decidedly modern twist on the engine swap gone- bad-but-brought-back-from-peril-by-good-pals tale. It's one of those MyRideisMe-style blips in hot rod history, where the car brings the big picture together, and all seems right in your high octane world. In Jason's words:   Every car guy has a story about a late night thrash getting a car ready for a show whether it's debuting a million...