Kustom D'Elegance Winner at 2010 Motorama Custom Car Show If you're into customs, then the Long Beach Motorama is not to be missed! Although there are plenty of beautiful cars (like the ones I featured in my Motorama - First Look article) the highlight of the show is the Kustom D'Elegance award. Each of the dozen-plus contenders impressed in their own way... just being in the room sets these cars apart from the pack. However, just one could win the $20,000 cash prize along with a place on the perpetual trophy! As soon as you walk on into the Long Beach Arena, the red carpet leads you on past each of the skillful and innovative kustoms. Each one was fantastic... This roof- hammered 1959 Cadillac came all the way from Australia and was, I'm sure, one of the most customized cars present. Gene Winfield's old 1935 Ford Pickup shop truck , which had disappeared in 1965, was found in 2008 and resurrected to beautiful completion by Hatfield Restorations. This 1936 Auburn Roadster had some nice appeal. Voodoo Larry's newly completed 1946 Ford was in the running also. Those of you who...

2010 Motorama Custom Car Show Just when you thought the car show season was coming to the end, there's one more you don't want to miss! The Long Beach Motorama, featuring the Showcase of Kustoms, was created specifically to feature the top custom cars being built today. Not only that, but there's plenty of history too. Motorama is modeled after the custom car show begun in 1958 by the Renegades Car Club and  recognizes important builders, cars, and individuals from hot rodding history. To be sure that the Long Beach Motorama draws some of the most impressive custom builds around, it features a Kustom D'Elegance award that'll earn the skillful car builder a $20,000 purse! While the cars in competition for the Kustom D'Elegance award are fantastic, I wanted to give ya'll a chance to see the variety of other cars that showed up. From mild to radical customs, pickups to lowriders - this was a very well-rounded show! Scroll on down through this pick of ten from Mitzi (try not to drool on your keyboard) and be sure to leave a comment below and let everyone know which...

Car Show Invaded By The Gasoline Girls It was labor day weekend, and you know what that means... leaving LA for the 100 mile drive to Ventura for the weekend. Although the show's been going on for 8 years now, this year its name changed from "Primer Nationals" to "Ventura Nationals"... so don't get confused! Other then being filled with great cars, good music, a pinup contest... it was extra special because it also marked the first official show that me and my girl's car club attended together! I've been meaning to introduce ya'll to them, so no time is better then the present - say hello to the Gasoline Girls! We've been meeting up and getting together to wrench on one another's cars for a few months now  - and having a darn good time at it! Waking up early to get our old cars parked at the show is difficult (especially when there's so many after-hours activities going on!) But its a little easier when there's a pretty Studebaker waiting for you! The show was at capacity this year, with sweet customs like this one from Cole Foster....

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebaker The moment my Studebaker and I drove out on to the salt this year during 2010 Speed Week, what was the first thing I did? Look for other Studebakers of course! And what was the first one I found but Gord Driedger's Blue Beauty. This 1953 Studebaker Coupe looks like she was born on the salt! In fact, this was her first time there - as well as Gord's! People end up on the salt from every corner of the earth it seems, and with all sorts of fascinating stories about how they got there. For Gord, his timely meeting with Blue Beauty happened while on vacation... in Napa of all places. Sitting on the patio, basking in the California sun, enjoying Napa wine, when suddenly Gord and his Wife's peace was disturbed by the loud sound of a racing engine. With salt flat racing on his bucket list, Gord went a-searchin'. The search led him to a neighboring garage. Not to the Studebaker, but to the guy who would put him in touch with #653. As it turns out, Blue Beauty was...

Land Speed Racing History at the Bonneville Salt Flats [Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird, Land Speed Record setting car, circa 1927. Photo courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection at http://ibistro.dos.state.fl] I think ever since engines were invented, men across the globe were seeing how fast they could get them to go. Eventually this became known as land speed racing. It was in 1898 that the first documented attempt for land speed racing was recorded. The man was the Conte de Chasseloup, the street was a long road outside of Paris, and the whooping speed that set the record was 39.24 mph! Since then we’ve been seeing how fast any sort of engine-powered, wheeled contraption would go…from empty roads, to Florida beaches, to Australian dry lakes, and of course… to salt flats in Utah. Why would so much effort be put into seeing how fast you can go? Quite apart from such factors as national prestige and technical advancement that are bound up inseparably with this Land Speed Record, there is satisfaction in knowing that you have driven faster than any other human being without any possible question of dispute. [p.13, The...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Studebakers I've already covered the two record-taking Studebakers for this 2010 Speed Week in previous articles of this Speed Seeking Studebakers series (#1 1953 Studebaker Coupe & #2 1949 Studebaker Pickup). So before looking at more racing Studes, I wanted to show you some of the fine Studebakers that spectators were driving around on the salt! To begin with, is Bob Weaver's 1953 Studebaker Coupe. I'm not sure color has as much to do with speed as the aerodynamics body of the Studebaker coupe - but in this case yellow=fast! My 5-year-old nephew exclaimed "Yellow cars are the fastest" while wandering around Gene Winfield's shop a couple of months ago, and in this case I'd say he's right! It isn't just the yellow color and aerodynamic body that's making this Studebaker go fast. This special Stude has a Chrysler Hemi powerplant! I was amazed at how snugly it fit in the engine compartment. This hot rod sure looks just as pretty under the hood as above it! Any Studebaker-fan knows that us Studebaker owners are a quirky bunch of folk! So I wasn't overly surprised...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers #898 obviously isn't a coupe, but it's still Speedy. And most importantly, it's a Studebaker! This 1949 Studebaker farm truck out of Kansas took the second of the two records for this years Speed Week. And break a record did it ever! With Chevy power under the hood in it's AA/MP class, the old record was blown away by nearly 18 miles per hour! Norris Anderson definitely knows how to build one, as he powered this truck down the line at 219.331mph! And you know what that means, its a record-breaking run over 200mph... so Norris Anderson gets his well-deserved Bonneville 200mph Club admission. He'll be a happy man wearing that red hat. In fact... he was already wearing it, even as he did broom duty around the pits! It looks like Norris Anderson and his Broom Crew have a lot of fun out on the salt! It was in 2004 that Norris first found the old farm truck and began building it into a salt flats racer in 2004. Their motto? "Safe Trucks Travel Fast." Start here for All Speed Seeking...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers Heading up the line of this year’s Speed Seeking Studes, is #4594. It may not be the prettiest out there, but what it’s got going for it is a Studebaker engine and multiple record-holdings!  Greg Meyer's from Minnesota brought his Salt2Salt Racing's 1953 Studebaker Coupe powered by a 182cid V8 Studebaker engine, putting it in the F/CGALT class. I think it was the only non-Avanti to have Stude power rolling it down the line! The engine class being F, means it’s got to be somewhere between 123-183 c.i.d (cubic inch displacement.) In order to get this engine’s c.i.d. down to 182 the Studebaker V8 was destroked, pushing it into the “F” class by just a hair! Although Greg reports they encountered a few problems and there's still more to do to get this particular engine running at its top speed, they were still able to set 2 records in their class by the end of the week. First with Greg driving in the F/CGALT catagory at 131.593. Then with partner-in-crime, Bob Waitz driving in the F/CFALT catagory (wounded engine and all) at 113.998mph! Good job Salt2Salt...

Bonneville Salt Flat Racing Vintage Studebakers If you’ve spent any time at all reading my posts, you know I drive a 1955 Studebaker Champion Coupe. Last year, during my first trip to Bonneville for Speed Week, I had no idea how many Studebakers I would find out on the salt. I knew Studebaker coupes were long-loved in land speed racing for their aerodynamic bodes—but it seemed like everywhere I turned there was another Studebaker! As I’m finding out, Studebaker coupes have a longer history with land speed racing than I would have guessed. The Bob Bourke-designed streamlined body first appeared in 1953, drastically different than any other car produced. By August of 1953, a ’53 Studebaker Hardtop made its first official run out on the salt. By the following year, the ’53 Coupe had broken its class D/CG record at 114.430mph. In fact, the first full-fendered stock-bodied car to break the highly coveted 200mph mark was a Studebaker coupe, in 1964. The official record was set at 201.744mph by Pisano Brothers/Jim Short in a ’53 Coupe with a 365c.i.d. Chrysler supercharged engine racing in the B/S Gas Coupe category....

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,...

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Since Stude's spent the past 3 months suntanning her metal in the Mojave sun outside Gene Winfield's shop...I've grown fonder then ever. The great news is (drum-roll please,) she's back on the road!!! Not only is she back, she's running better than ever! Replacing the transmission was the biggest job that needed to be done. Saving money and finding the right transmission is what took the bulk of the time. Luckily I had good friends and lots of help through the process...thanks to all who were involved! I ended up having a great guy, Rick Annis in Phoenix, AZ, rebuild a 700R4 for me. Then my car club pal, Lori, and I took the 700R4 up to Mojave to meet Stude. Up at Gene's we got a lot of help from Bart putting it in. With Bart having a lot of experience in engine tuning he wouldn't let my car out of his sight with just a new transmission - so we worked on getting Stude's little 383 small block up to par also. The first weekend we did a lot...

I've known for awhile that I needed to change the spark plugs in my Studebaker. But I'd heard things. Things like you could break the plug inside your motor if you did it wrong and to be sure to tighten the plugs to the correct tension. So although I knew they should be changed, I was scared to do it on my own, and my spark plugs in there were working...right??? As I'm learning, I'm seeing that spark plugs (although they don't cost much and are small little things) are a major, MAJOR component of your engine. Without 'em, your engine wouldn't run. Without 'em working at their best, your engine won't run at its best. So as part of last weekend's wrenching adventure up at Gene Winfield's in Mojave, I changed my spark plugs...for the very first time! Gasp! The fellow at the local parts store recommended Autolite over ACDelco plugs which I had been running (What do you think? Leave a comment below!) I was surprised, and a little confused, when he informed me the gap for my application was .052. What?!? While perhaps some people just throw...