Auto Meter STACK for Bonneville Salt Flats Racing From the analog data of "Old School" and to accuracy, speed and ease of digital data logging. That's the simple goal here. From there, the Volk Brothers Racing 1929 Model A roadster is looking to use the data at the race track to modify or update the engine setup to ultimately go fast and break a record. Then, the reality of salt flats racing steps in... Photo courtesy of SCTA website Backing up a step, Auto Meter Gauges, Volk Brothers Racing and MyRideisMe.com teamed up for Speed Week 2010 and World of Speed for some high speed runs down the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Our salt infested friends, the Volk family, run a Ford roadster with a fuel injected big block Chevy engine. They compete in the B/GR (373ci-449ci engine/Racing Gas, Roadster) class at Bonneville during Bonneville Speed Week and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Associations World of Speed. "...all while trying to keep a 200 mph rolling brick on a straight line for 5 miles." The Volk family salt flat racing pedigree includes (what seems like) 200 mph club membership for...

1969 Mustang - The Ultimate Street, Drift, Track Car Our friends at Speedhunters.com just released the first photo of the finished 1969 Mustang RTR-X!  It is debuting or just debuted at SEMA 2010 an hour or so ago.  Much info has been shared about the design process that Team Need For Speed at EA Games on Speedhunters.com. Check out Build Progress and pictures. The quick rundown of this ride can be found in the Drifting + Pro-Touring story here.  Thank you Vaughn Gittin Jr (2010 Formula Drift Champion) and Andy Blackmore (Speedhunters.com graphic artist) for dreaming up this...

1961 Chrysler Hemi Nitro Dragster from the UK Story by Brian Taylor Sydney Allard’s 1961 Allard Chrysler dragster (source Crazy Horses, National Motor Museum, Beaulieu) Drag racing has come a long way since its beginnings in the USA during the late 1940's. And although it had a culture of straight-line sprinting (runs against the clock rather than a knock out competition) dating back to the early 1900's, Europe had to wait until early in 1961 before it saw its first dragster. It was born when British sports car manufacturer Sydney Allard stormed into the office, slammed a copy of a Hot Rod publication featuring Chris Karamesines’ Chizler dragster onto the table and announced, “We’re going to build one of these”. Sydney Allard, the father of British drag racing. (source Crazy Horses, Gavin Allard collection) The Allard Chrysler being built. Sydney Allard watches from the cockpit as designer David Hooper (left) checks the plans and John Hume (right) adjusts the steering. (source Crazy Horses, National Motor Museum, Beaulieu) There were no official drag racing regulations in existence in Europe at the time. Royal Automobile Club building regulations for cars used for...

Hot Rods at Bonneville Salt Flats   Every year tons of hot rods, rat rods and some customs make the road trip of a lifetime to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week.  I spotted these hot rods cruising around the pits and thought you might like to see 'em.  I gave you all a sneak peek in the Speed Week 2010 Cruise In blog post for some of these rods.  This time we'll get down and salty with my favorite rides of Speed Week.     This is H.A.M.B.er Bass's bad Model A 5 Window Coupe that made the Hot Rod Pilgrimage from Dallas, Texas by himself.  Yes, SOLO!!!.  My jaw dropped when I saw this Coupe parked next to the tech inspection area.  All I could say was "Wow!".  I was too curious and found his thread on the HAMB HERE and read that this is bare metal.  It had already started to surface rust by the time he got home after being out on the salt and going through a humid Texas.     I really like this photo.  Gives you a detailed shot of the well executed...

Rat Rod BMW from Stanceworks Go ahead, click to Zoom, right click, Set as Desktop Background like I did today.  Go ahead, I'll wait... Mike Burroughs is the man behind the website/forum/blog STANCEWORKS, a site dedicated to cars with seriously low stance.  Their motto or slogan is "Low is a Lifestyle".  Mike is definitely livin' low.  His 1980's 5 series BMW you see here is his personal ride, and canvas.  If this isn't My Ride is Me, then I might as well just click Start-Shut Down and go to bed.  I'm giving this... this car, the name Bimmer Bomber. Its one of those cars that is meant to stir up people's opinions.  Love it or Hate it, there aren't many cars around that can piss off so many car guys, while at the same time, making others stand up and applaud.  Hmm... sound like the rat rod movement to anyone? Being a World War II fan, I see those tiger shark teeth and think warbird.  Since this car is German built, I personally thought about the German fighter planes like this Messerschmitt ME-109 pictured above.  This is what made me think of the name Bimmer...

Custom Car 1965 Crown Imperial Sedan What does a hot rod shop owner's wife drive?  It's gotta have some purple and lace right?  Even some fur... Even though its a ladies ride, I think you dudes out there will dig as well. This is Julie's 1965 Crown Imperial custom.  Julie is married to Scotty Birdsall, owner of Chuckles Garage.  If you missed the story on his ride, click this link, '62 Ford Falcon Straight Axle Gasser. This 1965 Crown Imperial (alot of folks call it a Chrysler, but Crown was its own entity at the time) is definitely My Ride is Me.  Let's see why... You can see it certainly fits in as a "Mild Custom" build.  There's not alot of mods other than a super crazy paint job, some suspension work, a groovy fur dash (it is a lady's ride remember!) and some 600-15 wide whitewalls.  When the goal is to personalize your classic machine, those are simple and effective touches. Here's the face of a not-often seen 60's classic luxury sedan.  I can't say I've seen one of these before, but I like the mid 60's era Detroit...

1933 Ford Street Rod Featured Ride I first shared a quick photo of Jim Baugh's light blue 1933 Ford Sedan Street Rod in the Salt Flats Speed Shop Open House story. When Jim pulled up to the shop, I immediately started taking pictures.  Let's have a closer look... First of all, this '33 was built with a mix of two styles, Street Rod and Traditional Hot Rod.  When Jim was telling all about his '33, he sounded almost disappointed that it was a Street Rod.  I think he's been bit by the Traditional hot rod style bug that is so prevalent at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Street Rod comes from the  big 'n' little tires, a reliable 350 small block Chevy and TH350 auto trans and front disc brakes.  The Traditional Hot Rod style's evident from several features: the chopped top, fenderless hot rod rake, authentic Ed Roth laid pinstriping, heavily louvered decklid and solid front axle. So which is it? Who cares! Jim nailed the complete execution and made a long-haul driver at the same time. Jim drove his '33 from Washington state to Alabama (or was it Arkansas?) for a family...

Straight Axle Ford Falcon Gasser Meet the Chuckles Garage "Strange Bird" 1962 Ford Falcon Futura A/GS drag car.  This car started out as a $200 Craigslist beater and through some odd chain of events, became the "Strange Bird". MyRideisMe.com stumbled on Scotty Birdsall, owner and chief ornithologist at Chuckles Garage, a full service fab shop in Santa Rosa, CA. In Scotty's words, here's more info on this wicked Ford Falcon and what hits you first, the blown 401 Buick Nailhead:   "The 'bird's powered by a Littlefield supercharged Buick 401 Nailhead originally in a 1960's drag boat. The Nailhead sports a shop-fabbed blower manifold, custom pistons & rods, a wild Comp Cams bumpstick and lifters, custom valve springs and hi-flow valves, mild port work, custom pushrods, custom headers made in-house, vintage Weiand valve covers, dual Buick Wildcat Rochester 4 Jets that were modified for use with the blower with custom linkage, Nicson front cover/engine mount, custom motor plate, custom oil pan, and is backed by a built Buick ST400 transmission from a 1965 Riviera."   Can you say CUSTOM FALCON!!!??? Can't wait to hear what a blown Buick 401 Nailhead...

2010 Speed Week Hot Rod Shop Tour As Speed Week 2010 arrived, one of the events to attend for the local Utah natives and those making the hot rod pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats is the Open House at the Salt Flats Speed Shop.  Owner Chris Davenport, invited the guys from The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop. I arrived around lunch time and chatted with a few of the people who were enjoying the scene that the Salt Flats Speed Shop provides.  Chris has not only been working on his "shop car" 1932 Ford Tudor but has evolved his shop into a piece of hot rod art! The entire shop is a time machine.  Old metal crafting tools and equipment, vintage gas station signage, WWII type hangar aluminum sheeting and of course, the hot rod projects. Here's just one example of vintage signage.  So cool!  Chris was telling us he found a jackpot of a source that will go un-named. The front view of Chris' 1932 Ford Sedan rod built in the 40's and 50's Traditional Hot Rod style, Chris' specialty and passion.  Hundreds of individually stamped louvers! ...

Subaru WRX Performance Mod Sup?  Time to update you all on Project Subyrod, my 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX.  I was getting really excited for Speed Week 2010, the Nugget Cruise in and everything that goes with being at Bonneville.  For Subyrod's first trip to the Salt Flats, I felt an itch to have a custom axle back exhaust made for it, something that would turn some heads, maybe make my car fit in with all the old iron running around with loud exhausts.  It had to be on a budget.  I kicked around the idea and then dropped in at JDM Legends (See my Introduction Story of JDM Legends here) to see what Eric Bizek could weld up for me on a small budget. Take a look at some in-process photos below of the custom exhaust work.  I was thinking of a few options, mild steel painted or stainless and 2.5" or 3".  We ended up going with stainless 3" dia. tubing to match the rest of the exhaust system.  One way to achieve my budget was using some of Eric's stainless scrap pieces laying around. Here's Eric Bizek of JDM Legends...

Datsun 510 Driver from Australia Datsun 510... I called it the Ultimate Japanese Classic Car in my "Hot Rod Ramblings Part 2".  Why?  I explained that it had all the right ingredients for a pure driving experience.  The Dime is lightweight, rear wheel drive, independent rear suspension (rare for those days), manual trans and high revving, efficient, over head cam 4 cylinder that was willing to rev.  Now, I know there's a lot of hot rod guys and gals out there that might be reading this, going "What is that car?"  or "What's that little 4 door doing here?" Let's take a look at a 1969 Datsun 510 four door owned by our web friend from Australia, Anth of Build-Threads.com fame.  His website has gone crazy in the last year or so.  He's also been busy updating and fine tuning his '69 510 as well. I love rolling shots like this.  The car doing what it does best, putting miles of asphalt and concrete behind it, quickly. Comparing this compact import classic with the domestic behemoths that we at MyRideisMe love so much... I can agree, land missiles like 60's Camaros, Mustangs,...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Truck I met Pete and his son (the driver) at Speed Week 2010, but we had been talking through email the last couple months.  I was cruising through the pits at the Bonneville Salt Flats on day 1 when I saw Pete and his Comanche heading to the Tech Inspection area to check in.  I followed behind them and then went over to say hi.  Before we get into the Jeep's performance at Speed Week, first, let's see what it took Pete to get there. In Pete's own words: "At this point I have more time than money. The Bonneville truck was to be a budget build but that didn't quite work out...  I consider myself to be a good mechanic and a reasonable engineer.  I have worked on my cars my whole life  and was a mechanic in the Army.  All of that said, I had never built a race car. I had re-built engines, but never built a race engine.   So what made me think I could build a record setting race truck?  Maybe it was more balls than brains.  And why a Jeep?   That question I know...