It's no wonder there are a ton of 2.3 engines out there making power. They're one of the top engines for Ministock racing, we knew that, and there's a few companies making go-fast parts for them like Esslinger (http://esslingerengineering.com/) and Racer Walsh (http://racerwalsh.zoovy.com/). We've even got a near fanatical following for the turbo 2.3's over at turboford.org. But, I had no idea folks like Dennis Wright were racing these Pinto 'bangers in hydroplanes! I met Dennis over on the HAMB board. He was responding to my post about this finned aluminum valve cover I designed. I think the market for it would be big enough to manufacture it for profit, but I'm busy working on other things, like MyRideisMe.com! Dennis wrote the info below in an email and said I could post it with a few pics. This isn't a car or a bike, but you'll see by reading, this story fits: My Ride is Me. The 2.5L stock class boats have the letter "S" designation with the boat number. Most "S" boats these days use the Ford 2300. The motors are basically the pure stock version of the...

A short 55 miles away from my house in Chandler, AZ, I met up with AzAmber, at the Saturday night 83rd Ave and Beardsley cruise-in. What a great show! I took off Saturday and stopped by Industrial Chassis, then hit the Safeway parking lot at about 6PM. There weren't many spots left! The show was a nice mix of cars. You had your hot rods, street machines and even a few exotics, but there were also a couple low riders mixed in with the new factory muscle. Something for everyone! I handed out every card I had that night to a warm group of people saying I'd write a blog about it, so here it is. I won't feature the cars I saw in this blog, but they're coming! (Leave a comment if you see your car!) Here's the sneak peak: That nasty looking 1954 Studebaker's running a former NHRA Top Alcohol dragster engine! Watch for a feature story on that one! The pretty Jag's for sale and will be show at the Brighton Ranch Paint and Body show coming up next weekend 5/17/08. Look at their website for...

My Ride is Me had a busy weekend! NO! I didn't hang out with my mom! I went to my friend Steve Szymanski's shop called Industrial Chassis Inc. and got this ultra cool video of what has been transformed from a really nice truck to a full-on Big block Chevy - twin turbo -1000HP badass! I'm doing a full story on this car soon, but for now, here's the video: Here's a sneak peak under the hood too! That's a 427! Fuel injected, custom headers, you name it, this thing is done right. Much more later... Take a look at Steve's Garage (Click HERE) and see what else he's up to. I have a bunch more pics to show and a profile of Industrial Chassis coming up. What do you think? Wicked! (your comments are...

It takes a while for a cruise in to catch on, but that doesn't mean while it's growing you won't see some super nice cars. Plus, when it's new, you won't hear the old... "Hey, I'm saving that spot..." or "This is for XYZ cars only..." Whatever. So here's a few of the cars I've spotted at the Friday night cruise-in at Arizona Ave. and Ocotillo. It gets started at about 6PM or so and runs until about 9:00. I think it's sponsored by the Checker Auto nearby, so they supply a DJ and once a month there's a bouncer for the kids. I'd have a few more pics if I could ever get there earlier! Me (aka shaky) and poor lighting don't get along well at all. What I should be sharing with all these pics is who owns the cars and where there from... or something interesting like how the car is completely homebuilt with only a screwdriver and duct tape. Too bad I can't read my able assistants hand writing is so hard to readl! I hope to see you down there. Make sure when you...

I met Keven Carter doing what I do best... surfing the web for the best Hot Rod and bike sites out there. Keven's been sharing his work at Photobucket where old ladies looking for pics of grandkid and quilting pics browse. I talked him into letting MyRideisMe.com have a few. It's a cool mix of black and whites and color shots of mostly period correct style hot rods and kustoms with a few pinups mixed in just for fun. Keven shared this brief bio... Ever since I was a young boy I wanted to grow up and own a car with fins. Since the automotive world looks to never go back down that road, I was compelled to look to the past. I have always been fascinated with old cars and vintage design elements, from packaging to advertising. I'm a graduate of The Center for Creative Studies (now College of Creative Studies, CCS) in Detroit, Michigan where I received my bachelors of fine art with a focus in Animation. My creative endeavors aren't limited to animation, but rather they span from Video installations, Sound Design, Film Production, Music, Photography,...

If you want to have some funny on the net, type in Nostalgia Drag Racing. From wild fuel altereds to stockers banging 4 speeds to top fuel funny cars, I like it all! No delay boxes or throttle stops there, just honest drag racing. I can't get enough. So stumbling around, I found Army Armstrong of The Funny Factory. You ever wonder who builds the bodies for the growing wave of nostalgia racers? You found it. The Funny Factory's got a short but impressive list of funny car bodies and it sounds like they're growing. Here's what Army had to say about his business: We were mainly racers so I guess the funny factory was kind of an accident. We mainly wanted to race a 1969 Charger bodied F/C but settled for a 1972 Vega body. Nothing against Vega's, but we really wanted to be different so the search went on for a few more months with no luck. During the search, we heard a rumor of a Charger mold hiding in Chicago. With a few phone calls we were on a road trip to get the mold... Once...

You're walking around a show and when you see a car cruise in that makes you stop in your tracks. You're stunned and instantly curious. You're hear it and feel it as it drives by. Time for a closer look. Cars that make you feel that way have alot to see, but it's all skin deep. What'd he do for the rear axle setup? Are those custom engine mounts? Unless the builder took great pics and brought them, it's tough to fully appreciate what it took to bring that car to the show. That's where Build Book comes in. BuildBookUSA.com has published 5 books covering 5 cars built by some of the top builders in country. I met Scott and BJ Killeen (long time auto journalists) at the Grand National Roadster Show and they were kind enough to let me preview the complete series of books. You gotta check these out! The first book, and my favorite, is about Joe Rogan's "Sick Fish" 70 Barracuda. Built by the legendary Troy Trepanier & Rad Rides by Troy, this book oozes coolness page by page. What do you want to know...

With Youtube, you can spend all day watching car videos. (I'd never do that!) I found a few about the most amazing production car ever made. The Bugatti Veyron. 250+ mph with air and a stereo. Wow. 16.4 liters, 4 turbos and 10 radiators to keep it all cool. So check out this video from Top Gear. They're at the VW test trace on a 5 mile long straight running the Veyron up to it's top speed. Then, just for fun, check these out. Seems like everyone wants to race the Veyron. Bugatti Veyron vs. Yamaha R1 RACING DOWN...

Check out the debut of our newest guest photographer, Bubba Harmon from West Virginia. Bubba's gonna help us hit some of the eastern shows, races and get togethers that we'd otherwise miss while the company jet is being repaired. (yea right!) After you're done checking out Bubba's pictures in the gallery, you can take a look at his website: Bubba's Toy Box or have a look in his garage here at MyRideisMe.com (Bubba's garage space). He's got a wicket Hearse! Written by Bubba: Summit Point Motorsports Park, located 70 miles west of Washington, DC, in Summit Point, WV is host to many club and specialty racing events. With three tracks to choose from there is something happening almost every weekend for sports cars, motorcycles, and/or karts. Summit Point seems to be the Mid-Atlantic area’s place to go for club activity with Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Corvette, and even Morgan sports car clubs holding events at the park. The schedule can look like alphabet soup at times with WERA, EMRA, CCA, SCCA, and ASRA all holding events here. Want to learn to drive? BSR, Inc. (the owner of the facilities) has...

Somehow, I found another Kustom Kaiser! When I found Keith's Kaiser (Click here to see his Garage) I instantly thought, this is one of a kind! Well, it turns out it's not. Keith and Ron (Click here to see Ron's Hot Rod's Garage) have taken different approaches to customizing their Kaisers, but both will be equally cool because of the clean and near-custom finishes on the stock Kaiser. Ron's writing a blog for Blogger.com (Click here) that I stumbled on recently. He's let me run this blog to see what he's up to for the interior. I'm checking it out just in case I get to work on my Rambler Amercian wagon project again some day! Check it out: The priming of the miscellaneous parts for the Kaiser went well as the weather was nice and I was able to paint outside. I used PPG self etching epoxy primer DPLF and prepared the bare metal with "metal Prep" a 50/50 mixture with water then wiped the area down with a 50/50 mixture of PPG Dx330 wax and grease remover and lacquer thinner cleaning a 2' x2' area at a...

On April 16 Hendrik von Kuenheim announced that BMW will be building enough S1000RR's for homologation into World Superbike. He did not mention too much about the machine, except what is obvious. It's an inline 4, chain drive with front forks rather than any kind of superduperparatelepythagorian-lever design that they have developed. There is no telling what the price tag might be for one of these beauties. They talk about being competitive with the Japanese manufacturers. However, it was not clear whether that means a $45k bike like the Honda RC's of old or a $15k bike like any of todays superbike base machines. This is great for WSBK, but probably not so good for the regrouping of AMA SBK. I'm sure there will be plenty more information to come, but they just gave us a teaser! Enjoy the pictures for...

I dig auctions. The easy part to figure out is that it's a great place to see a CRAZY-good variety of cars with most of them in unreal condition, but there's something else too. I dig seeing guys who can afford to buy them! Some of that's jealousy, sure, but it creates DRIVE in me to better myself and keep working hard at MyRideisMe. Its also cool to see a guy buying a car that you know he's always wanted and is going to treasure. (or turn and burn for a quick profit!) So here's some info about the Mecum's Bloomington Glold High Performance Auction. What would it be like to by the first Corvette produced in 1955, 1956 and 1957? Serial #1! The 1st ZR1 sold for $1M! How much will these sell for? Man, I gotta know! Here's the press release from Cindy Meitle over at Car PR. LLC: Rare Collection of Serial Number One Corvettes on Offer at MECUM’s Bloomington Gold High Performance Auction “Only Collection of Sequential Serial Number One Corvettes Known to Exist” Marengo, IL-April 14, 2008- MECUM has announced the sale of three...