SEMA Car Show - Custom Cars that Rocked Las Vegas Troy Ladd from Hollywood Hot Rods showed strong up in the massive Ford display at SEMA. Ford has the best booth in the central hall overlooking the rest of Hot Rod Alley every year and always has great, new and old. That must be why they featured the vintage 427 SOHC motor in this Brookville bodied 32 Roadster Pickup. Fooled you too! That's not a cammer motor, that's Ford racing's 5.0L "Coyote" motor dressed up and cleaned up to look like my favorite vintage powerplant. Troy's a wizard at having the cleanest engines showing only minimal signs of the high-tech equipment on board. It's no show piece either! Look for more pictures of this Raybestos roadster at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Straying as far away from the hot rod above as we can, dig this custom Lexus. What's old is new and there's no mistaking the hot rod or kustom car influence on this suede painted Lexus. Also note the ground scrapping airride assisted stance and the door handles shaved for the back doors, but not the...

First Gen Camaro Parts from SEMA 2010 Some of the displays at SEMA are overwhelming. Too many colors on banners flying everywhere and every part in the catalog cluttering up the booth make it hard to find anything, let alone the cool new parts for your first gen Camaro. Then I found Marquez Design. I noticed the billet gas caps above shown elegantly in the mostly black booth filled with just the right number of slick looking original designs for late-60's to early-70's muscle cars and trucks. With the LS and LSX crate motor's reliability and stout performance filling the engine bays of go-fast-turn-hard g-machines and pro-touring rides that never were real RS or SS Camaros, the LS badge fits perfectly. I asked founder and cheif designer Pascual Marquez about how he got started and he walked me over to the center billet Camaro taillight above. Back in 2003, Marquez was an admin guy that likes cars. Bored with his job and filled with desire, he created Marquez Design and put out his first Camaro taillight. That's all it took. As orders poured in, part designs and product lines were added,...

New Performance Parts from SEMA 2010 If you're too distracted by the lovely Genevieve Chappell to see the new high performance brake pads she's holding, you're probably in the right place for SEMA coverage for 2010 from MyRideisMe.com. Cruising the massive SEMA convention halls for new performance parts and the hottest new rides, I stopped in at EBC to say hi to Genevieve and learned about "Bluestuff" brake pads. Bluestuff is the name of EBC's newest whoa-enhancing product, the "Worlds first race pad that can be used on the street." Always curious, I asked why? Andy Freeman, their marketing director, CEO and chief technical writer filled me in... Turns out, racing brake pads are designed to stop a car in short bursts from high speeds, like from 130 to 80 MPH, negotiate the turn, then you're back on the loud pedal waiting as long as you can to hit the brakes again. Repeat as needed. For a track only car, no problem, but do you want to change brake pads before you go home? If you're a "track day" competitor and you're flogging your daily driver, that's just not...

2010 SEMA Car Show - Las Vegas, Nevada It's that time of year again. SEMA. If you're reading this, you already know SEMA's the place where every car-ANYTHING meets once per year to show off what's new, what's hot and what new rides will set the trends for 2011. For fellow gear heads, could that get any better? Well yea! It's in Las Vegas, Nevada! The SEMA website says, "the SEMA Show attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders from more than 100 countries for unlimited profit opportunities in the automotive, truck and SUV, and RV markets." If you dig cars of any kind: old school hot rods, chrome and billet street rods, twin turbo tuners, 100 point restored muscle cars or trucks lifted to the sky or slammed on the ground... SEMA is your car show! The only trouble is, it's not open to the public. That's why you'll have to come back to MyRideisMe.com for our coverage. Here one of our faves from SEMA 2009. What will the Ring Brother show at SEMA 2010? MyRideisMe.com will try to cover all of SEMA, but it's almost too big to show it...

Diesel Hot Rod MyRideisMe.com featured this bad Cummins powered hot rod before: Diesel Rat Rod: Blowin’ Smoke Photo by Swanee Now check out this crazy video of the "Welderup" turbo diesel rat rod doin' it's thing... [youtube width="575"...

Bonneville Salt Flats Race Car Say hello to the "World's Fastest Corvette" Maybe you're wondering how I make the "Baddest Race Cars" list? Could be any number of things, but a sure formula is SPEED!  Be the fastest in your class, or classes and maybe world's fastest - You're a lock! In other words, go out there and set a record.  Add to that a welcoming smile and a generously given chat with up-and-comer MyRideisMe.com and you're just starting to see why Oklahoma's Bobby Moore and his Moore Boys Corvette is certainly one of the BADDEST! (Other hot rods from Oklahoma) With a helping hand from crew member and friend Rudy Heaton Bobby's patiently waiting inside for a run. Bobby's story about how he started racing isn't that different from others stricken with salt fever! Racing started at Bonneville in 1996 with a trip to the salt as the driver of the Hoyle-Dickenson-Moore A/FL (that means, "A" class engine, running fuel, lakester style body). That's all it took... From there, Bobby bought bought the 219 mph Doc Jefferey's A/GT Corvette. The following year, the Moore Boys Team made several...

Custom Car Photography - HDR Special Ed's 1956 Buick Special shot at the Mesa Cruise - 10/24/2010 (click on shot to zoom!) What's HDR? In case you forgot, my friend Alan wrote a great story about "High Dynamic Range" or HDR. What it is, how he does it and a few resulting shots.  Alan's Car Photography HDR. Since Alan introduced me to HDR, I've always wanted to try it. I have a Nikon D90 that makes bracketing photographs easy so it was finally time to try it. How'd I do? For me, HDR either makes a WOW effect where I can't imagine seeing something so beautiful, (just so you know, I have a soft-spot for sunsets) or the photo looks too digital, faked and generally induce a three-quarter verp.  There's certain amount of funky-artsy-cool in the shot in both cases, but obviously, I'm shooting for the WOW.  Right now, I think I'm still over digitized, pretty noisy (in film it was "grainy") and showing I've never done this before.  Gonna work on it... In my defense, I used the first free HDR software set I could find. It's called...

Traditional Hot Rod and Custom Car History If you've never heard of the "Hirohata Merc" it's about time you did. The car started as a low-mileage 1951 Mercury Club coupe owned by Bob Hirohata. In 1952, Bob caught a glimpse of the chop Sam Barris put on his Mercury and that's all it took for Bob to drive the Mercury to Barris Kustoms for a full custom treatment. In the end, Sam Barris, brother George Barris and Frank Sonzogni transformed the Hirohata Merc into a Kustom Legend. Read all about it at Kustomrama.com. Link to the full story: Bob Hirohata's 1951 Mercury Kustomrama is a Wikipedia dedicated to traditional hot rods and kustom cars. It is an online encyclopedia covering all aspects of our kulture. Everyone is welcome to contribute and start new and interesting topics on the Kustomrama Wikipedia. Check it...

Race Tech in a Wind Tunnel: Horsepower and Aerodynamics Story by Dave Salazar of A2 Wind Tunnel: Bonneville is the Mecca of speed and every year land speed race teams journey to the historic site to see if they can go faster than the year before. Top speed records can be so close that sometimes the difference from being a hero to being a zero can be 1 mph or less. Whether it's a production based car, roadster, lakester, streamliner, motorcycle, or some other rodders creation, there are some major obstacles to overcome in order to reach each vehicles maximum potential (SPEED!). The two major hurdles in land speed racing that I am going to discuss  are horsepower and aerodynamics. How do they relate and why something that you cannot see such as air can be your biggest competitor on the salt. Horsepower is something that any gear head can relate to and we all can't seem to ever get enough... But as we all know, it costs money for each pony, and the more you need the more it will cost because as an engine starts to reach...

Drag Racing Legends Maybe before cats and dogs started their bitter rivalry, there was Snake vs Mongoose. I'm not talking about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, I mean two of the best known drag racers ever to lay it all on the starting line: Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen. Back before corporate sponsorship made some racers professionals, drag racers were innovators and possibly daredevils who no doubt, did it for love and a heaping dose of quarter mile glory. Why else would Snake and Mongoose travel the country for "grudge matches" that paid not much more than gas and beer money? It wasn't until McEwen convinced Mattel (the first non-automotive drag racing sponsor) that "Wildlife Racing" and this "bitter" rivalry (actually between friends) would sell scores of Hot Wheels that drag racing became both lucrative and a common household discussion. But that's just part of the story!  Head down to the Peterson Automotive Museum for their NHRA: Sixty Years of Thunder where Don "The Snake" Prudhomme will be joined by Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen, Roland Leong (Hawaiian funny car fame), "TV" Tommy Ivo (Actor and racer of some nasty multi-engined hot rods), Carroll...

Hot Rod Pin-up Calendar Looking for 2012's calendar? Hot Rod Pinup Calendar for 2012 from Mitzi Sometimes there's just no words! Who cares what day it is when you have the lovely Monica Renee greeting you every day of January in the brand new, 2011 Pin-up Model calendar from Mitzi and Co. Not only is Mitzi buddies with just about everyone at the shows, she's also been a great friend to MyRideisMe.com supplying several pinup model features and Pinup of the Month shots. We love Mitzi, but we love her girls better! See More of Monica Renee as Pinup of the Month here. Heating up your June, this is Emily Marilyn . Make sure to grab yourself a calendar. They're a super high quality, 11x17 portrait style, wirebound calendar for only $25. International orders are $30.  If you're not clicking Mitzi' "Buy Now" page, you might want to check your pulse! Last but not least, another friend of MyRideisMe.com, pinup Notorious Ang. As an undisputed babe and self proclaimed computer nerd, she's also a radio personality! She graced Viva Las Vegas where we grabbed these pinup of the month...

7 Hot Rod Artist Pinstriping for Charity (part 2) Bid to win this helmet on Ebay now: Custom Pinstriping on Welding Helmet Next up is pinstriper Mitch Maciel. In case you missed it, this is the custom, brand new Lincoln Electric Viking Welding Helmets we'll auction on Ebay with the benefits going to our friends from Progeria Research. Want to see pics of the finished helmet? Right here: Finished pinstriping pictures Mitch pinstripes out of Los Angeles, CA and showed us a distinct scroll style of pinstriping. Looking for something in this style for your hot rod? Catch up with Mitch by email. And for a lady's touch, meet pinstriper Jenn Hallett The first thing you'll probably notice about Jenn is she's cute as a button! If you're smart enough to talk to her, you'll quickly learn her looks aren't her only great quality! Jenn's just cool and a talented artist. I asked about her brush prep technique... look at her fingers. Some pinstripers use glossy paper, like from a magazine, to prep their brushes for fine lines, but others use their fingertips like Jenn and Dave Whittle coming...