[poll id="3"] These pictures are a look back at my first year of blogging at MyRideisMe.com.  I've met some cool people and made memories that mean a lot to me personally.  This poll is a cool way to remember my favorites from the year.  Take a look at the pictures below and vote for your favorite.  Don't forget to click on the images to see them Full Size!  Check the links for the full stories as well. Bonnie's Bonneville Homecoming at Speedweek 2009.  The first roadster I've ever ridden in.  What a blast!  This beauty shot on virgin salt will stick in my brain for years.   Hilborn Injectors from Larry Volk's '29 roadster project.  This Hemi powered Model A will be an epic project that I plan on writing more about in the future as Larry builds his dream ride. The Hot Rods by Dean '55 Chevy at World Finals blew me away when I saw it waiting in line.  One of my favorite cars I shot all year.  Nothing like a stock bodied car with great stance!  Nick Hoesing's ex-Galaxie Custom and his buddy's 5 Window Coupe from Nebraska.  Cruising...

After doing the Volk '29 Roadster story last week, I was way into traditional hot rods.  But, knowing that my daily driver/hot rod needs to be more practical, have a heater and a back seat, 1960's rods make more sense. My parents were up visiting from California and of course, poppi and I talked cars.  He had a 1964 Mercury Comet Cyclone for about 15 years or so.  I've thought many times I should do a tribute Comet, black just like dad's, high revving 289 ci or 302 ci and a modern 5 speed.  The problem is, Comet's are hard to find clean.  Plus, they're a little bigger  than I typically like.  I'm a small car kind of guy.  The Ford Falcon is the Comet's baby brotha from another motha. I was doing my usual daily classifieds browsing on Craigslist and found this 1964 Ford Falcon Futura with a V8 and 4 speed trans, front disc brakes,  and a straight body already being used as a daily driver. Typically what I do when I get hooked on a new "Car of the Week" is I go straight to Google Image searches.  My...

The BringaTrailer.com website is home of the Internet Barn Find.  You guys and gals need to check this site out!  It's the best of the best in cars for sale on the web.  No, we're not talking the best deal on a used Hyundai, this is the hidden treasure that makes you want to expand your garage and put off that family vacation for one more summer. Take a look at the BringaTrailer.com About Us page : "We put together BringaTrailer.com because finding great vintage cars online has become too much of a hassle. There is no need to keep sifting through hundreds of hopeless projects or overpriced dealer inventories to find that one car you’ve been looking for. We pick the winners and save you the trouble… the best bargains, the best dream cars, and the best rarities." Gander at a few of my favorites from the BringATrailer.com site.  It gives you a sample of the quality you'll see.  You can search the site by various categories like American, Japanese, British, Under $20k, Project Car and Race Car and so on. As you know, we here at MyRideisMe.com have Salt Fever.  I give you...

This 1962 Ford Galaxie 500 was easily one of my top 3 favorite cars from Speedweek 2009.  I first noticed it in the pits then saw it again while Pikesan and I were cruising down the Long Course after the drivers meeting.  We sort of cruised the rest of the Long Course along side Nick and his Gal' then turned onto the Return Road back to the pits. Almost 7 miles from the start, we spied some pristine, undisturbed virgin salt and decided to make a detour for some salt-throwin' pictures Craig's '27 T, Nick's Galaxie and Nick's buddy's 5 window Coupe you see in this picture above. Here's some more shots of this Mild Custom! I love this car!  That red satin paint against the bright white salt is rockin'. I dig the long lines.  That stance is perfect with its Air Ride Technologies 4-way system with electronic controller. I dig this shot with Pikesan's roadster in the background. From Nick: "This car has been a great driver for the past 4-1/2 years. It originally had a 390/auto and I decided to swap in a 302/T-5 and 3.70...

We've got another treat for you guys and gals from Motorbooks.  This time, we take a look at Basem Wasef's "Legendary Race Cars". "Legendary Race Cars" is Basem's Top 25 Race Cars of all time.  I dig how he's chosen cars from all corners of the globe and from all forms of racing.  The book includes an off-road race truck, a WRC Rally Car, a Pikes Peak turbo monster, Le Mans cars from various decades, F1, a Nostalgia NHRA dragster and a few cars from the early 1900's. The pictures and photography are excellent.  It includes shots taken by the author himself as well as old archive photography from the race car's hey-day.  Here's a few examples below of Basem's quality work. You can't have a Top Race Car's list without the legendary Ford GT40 can you? Here's a Jaguar D-Type which won the 1956 24 Hours of LeMans with a 200 HP 3,442 cc Dual Overhead Cam inline 6 cylinder.  The curvy lines of these 50's LeMan's cars are pure sports car perfection. Another legend, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, winner of the 1965 LeMans race.  The author explains the details...

Salt Flats Tribute Car: Boy do we have a treat for you guys?  I've wanted to do a "work in progress" story on Larry Volk's street roadster since I found out about it earlier this year.  It's finally progressed to a point where there's good progress  showing.  The Volk garage is part hot rod time warp, part skill and craftsmanship, and part inspiration. We'll get to the 1929 Ford Model A Roadster project car in a second.  First, let's talk time warp.  Larry and his family have been into racing and hot rods since the early 1950's.  He started out drag racing  and dirt sprint car racing.  His race buddy Terry Nish invited him out to the Salt Flats in the late 1950's/early 60's and that was it for Larry.  He's gone every year since (unless it was rained out) and his life has become engulfed in the Salt.  Currently Larry is in his second stint as President of the 200 MPH Club, Chairman of the Save the Salt Committee and current holder of the SCTA Bob Higbee Award given out at the Opening Ceremonies of Speed Week 2009. With all this and more, Larry's garage...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car: ...oh ya, and its FRONT WHEEL DRIVE.  Tell that to the "wrong wheel drive" haters! Pikesan and I first met Dr. Bonner Denton, Professor of Chemistry and Geosciences at the University of Arizona, in the starting line at Speed Week 2009.  His crew was performing the final preparations for a speed run.  He gave us his whole land speed racing's history in about 10 minutes.  The more he explained the workings of the Berkeley, the more interesting it got. Racing on the Salt Flats is a funny thing.  Bonner Denton, owner/driver of this record bearing 1959 Berkeley sports car describes racing on the salt similar to driving on 1-2 inches of wet snow.  Try putting 2400-2500 HP's of twin turbocharged 540 cu in of  Donovan V8 goodness to the salty ground.  Nope, he doesn't need a push truck either.  This baby drives off the line under its own power. Going back to 2000 when Bonner first started running this particular Bad Berkeley, it replaced his Bocar.  The Bocar set the record at 264 MPH with an A motor in 2001. The first thing you notice about the Berkeley is...

If you haven't seen my buddy Andy's Pinstriping blog yet, you need to check it out.  He has something in store for you for this Holiday season.  Check out these Christmas ornaments he has pinstriped.  Very creative and especially cool for us car guys!  I've got a set coming my way.  He can even do custom stuff like your initials or think outside the Christmas Box, he could stripe your hot rod car club name.    Tell 'em Hechtspeed sent ya! Happy Hot Rod Days! Hechtspeed                  ...

I am on the Utah Cobra Club's email list and got this email this last week.  I thought I'd pass it on to you charitable hot rodders.  I'll find out more about how we can send donations to Kirkham and update this later. Fellow Car Nuts: A few weeks ago a friend of mine came by and was looking at the pictures and magazine articles we have on the walls here at our shop. He noticed the cars we have donated over the years to various charitable organizations. He asked if we had ever thought about donating a car to Primary Children's Hospital. Every year Primary Children's Hospital does a fundraiser with the Festival of the Trees and KSL is a major sponsor of the Festival. He just retired as the general manager of KSL, the main Utah news organization, and so he has been deeply involved for years with the organization for years. www.festivaloftreesutah.org He then described to me the incredible things they do there at the hospital. They do hundreds of thousands of visits and procedures every year--many of them for children from all over who can't...

If you wanna know what "My Ride is Me" is all about, this car shows the spirit perfectly.  This is like the 3rd look for this car in the last year or two from what I understand. This ride is super low, clear coated metal, and a cool tigershark paintjob. The owner of this 5 series BMW, Mike Burroughs, runs StanceWorks website and forum.  I recently picked up some stickers from the site that say "StanceWorks-Low is a Lifestyle".  Cars are more than mere transportation, they can and should be extensions of ourselves, a Lifestyle.  Some may hate this car, but I love it and hope you can appreciate it too.  Whether you're into traditional hot rods, european exotics, aircooled vdubs or muscle cars, "its all about the Stance!"...

Amazing hot rod art done by Alan Brightmore. People these are NOT black and white photos, they're hand drawn sketches that amazingly look like older photos when they're done.  Pictures and text by Alan... Check it out! First up, this hot rod was done for a customer who saw my VW Bus parked at work! She left a note on my windscreen asking about VW parts and after getting in touch I ended up drawing this 5 window coupe for her father who owns the real thing. Very straight forward really, I enjoyed doing this one! . . . . . Next is a Lotus Sunbeam. My neighbor has a bit of an 80's car fetish and he owns a number of Sunbeams, one of which is this example which I drew for him. Not my cup of tea to be honest but a nice car all the same and he was very pleased with the finished piece... . . . . . . Here's something I drew quite a while back. It's called a Hillman Husky, of which I know little to nothing other than the owner dropped...

It's been a while since I last drew anything and I really need to get back into it! Full time work gets in the way these days and when I do get time off I end up busy with other stuff so I thought I'd dig out some commissioned drawings I did some time ago to share with you as well as a look at my last piece, the Chevy Camaro Black Concept. I've been a big fan of American Muscle since I was a kid and the past few years has seen a resurgence from the big manufacturers, all of which give a tip of the hat to their original 60s and 70s counterparts, combined with new aggressive styling, powerful engines, and lots of available mods and options. The new Chevy Camaro is no exception and does it for me bigtime.  When I saw the first shots of the Camaro Black concept I just had to get it down on paper! There were 3 or 4 initial reference photos I found available on the internet and decided to go with the side/rear three quarter view which is a little...