I wrote about the 24 Hours of LeMons (yea, I spelled that right) in another blog about the "Strict Racing Rules". I expected some easy going people out to have a great time. I found'm! It took the "Eyesore Racing" shown above 6 months of weekends to put their 94 Mazda Miata together. The car, built for $500 or less by the rules, was made from 2 Miatas practically welded together in the middle. One car had front end damage and no motor and the other had been carefully wrapped around a tree with the front end intact. The engine, including the small rusty-wheeled turbo from a Mexico only Dodge pickup, was resurrected from 4 engines. Where would 24 Hours of LeMons racing be without Craigslist! The team consists of neighbors and friends making up 4 sets of couples out of Long Beach, CA. In the Phoenix race, their 9th race,  6 of the 8 team members drive including "March Hare" Dave, "Tweedle Dee" Jay, "Tweedle Dum" Dan, "Alice" Sara and "White Rabbit" Sarah and my man, the "Mad Hatter" Kyle who helped with the details for this story....

John Force is back.  It's great to see the spring in his step again and now with their new, in-house chassis built by John Medlin and in-house Ford Boss motors. This could be the first of many race wins.  How long before all 3 teams are running the new chassis? Not long. -Pikesan Here's the race recap from John Force Racing: * * * * JOHN FORCE WINS 50TH NHRA WINTERNATIONALS POMONA --- John Force broke the longest dry spell of his historic career opening the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season with an emotional victory at the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals. Force was the model of consistency on race day defeating veteran Bob Bode, daughter Ashley Force Hood, Jack Beckman and Ron Capps with an average elapsed time of 4.123. “I heard (Top Fuel winner Larry) Dixon say that he grew up in California and I’m from California too but I never grew up. I just love it and I have to tell you I can drink that Full Throttle. That stuff hops me up for a race like this. The 50th of this race...

Car Art and Hot Rod Art Become Fine Art Have you ever met Tom Fritz? Chances are, you'd remember if you had. You probably noticed the dark display at one of your favorite car shows, then you were drawn in by the vivid paintings filling almost every bit of dark.  I last ran into the flip-flop wearing, ultra soft-spoken Fritz at Barrett Jackson 2010. I don't know crap about art, especially fine art except for what I like, and I like what Tom's throwing down. Tom's art is all the more sweet when he takes the time to talk with you about each piece and fill you in on some of the catchy titles like: "Feeling the Belts", "Raising Merry Hell II", "Ancient Barbaric Amusements" and one of my favorites, "Quick Sombish".  (link to Fritzart Gallery) Tom wrote about the making of "Quick Sombish" from the concept sketches to the in-process work and of course, the finished piece (shown here). To date, it's one of my favorite stories at MyRideisMe.com and a recommended read for any artist. Read about this Wheels up front engine dragster by clicking here. To pass...

At the Grand National Roadster Show, one exhibition hall, #9 I think, always has a theme.  Last year, it was former America's Most Beautiful Roadster winners. The hall was filled with with AMBR winning roadsters from back when the show was still in Oakland, CA. This year, the theme hall was the "History of the Race Car". I just published another story about the Drag Race cars in this hall, but this one's just about this 1969 Corvette named, "Revolution" and owned by the late Mike Mitchell. In a hall filled with wild race cars, this one, as you can see stands out. The paint is fantastic!  The "Fastest Hippie" theme is carried out throughout the car with the psychedelic rainbow patterns on the side then the jumbo hookah on the hood and the zig-zag man near the cockpit. I bet Mike was alot of fun! (click on these pics to see them full size) Researching for this story, I found a bit more info about Mike Mitchell, and about his passing in 2000. The story's written by Phil Elliot at our friend Draglist.com.  The story's called, "Farewell to...

You can almost smell the tires burning cruising through the "History of the Race Car" hall at the 2010 Grand National Roadster Show.  The exhibit, of course featured drag racer from the way-back-machine, especially my favorite: Nose in the air gassers! Getting up-close and personal with the "Outer Limits" Mopar, I'm reminded of a buddy who saw his first altered wheelbase A/FX'r and asked, "Who'd do that?!"  That's exactly why I love them! Make noise, look near ridiculous and have more fun than anyone! I want one, and some day I'll get it.  I might have to build my 61 Rambler American wagon as a gasser. Low-buck, fast and loud = funner-mostess. Continuing my stroll, I found the, "Fastest un-blown Ford V-8 powered dragster running in National Nostalgia Drag Racing." ...and it's driven by a woman named Kathy Lloyd out of Castro Valley, CA. According to their show card, the car was built in 1969, then restored in '85, then back-halfed in 1996, no doubt to return to racing. Safety rules have changed, juuuuussst a little since 1969. Running on a cocktail of 85% Nitro and 15% methanol, this...

Lance and his website HotRodPlanet.com is becoming quite a car show promoter in Arizona.  This is his latest effort and I'm sorry to get this up late for THIS WEEKEND 2/13/10.  Here's the info you'll need. (Click on the flier to see it full size) The show is SOLD OUT, but you can still take in the 200+ cars and the Air Museum. Mustangs & Muscle Cars – Car Show at the Commemorative Air Force Arizona Wing Aviation Museum February 13, 2010 The public is invited to attend the Commemorative Air Force’s (CAF) Arizona Wing Aviation Museum’s Mustangs & Muscle Charity Car Show, sponsored by Berg Ford on Saturday, February 13, 2010. This shows theme features WWII P-51 Mustang fighters, along with both classic and new cars. The car show is open to all makes, models and years of muscle cars, street rods, 4X4’s, Exotics, Imports and motorcycles. Come see the cars cause this show is SOLD OUT. Mustangs & Muscle Charity Car Show will be held at the CAF Arizona Wing Aviation Museum located at Falcon Field Airport, Mesa, AZ. The Museum is located at 2017 N. Greenfield...

Get set for the Second Annual Rockabilly Reunion this weekend February 12-14, 2010. How often can you get Rockabilly music, a pinup model contest and Rockabilly music all for FREE for you and your ride? Voodoo Swing is set to perform at the event held on the shores of the Colorado River at Windsor State Beach in Lake Havasu, Arizona. “We’re thrilled to be playing three days of music along with other great acts for some of the biggest rockabilly music fans in the country who truly appreciate what we do”, said Voodoo Swing’s front man Paul “Shorty” Kreutz. The Rockabilly Reunion is free to spectators of all ages and there is no charge to enter a car for display. Voodoo Swing plays throughout the weekend along with multiple rockabilly acts. The band is scheduled to play a welcome party at Nautical Inn Resort on the island at the beach in Lake Havasu City at 9pm on Friday evening following the poker run held at Windsor State Beach in Lake Havasu City on both Saturday and Sunday. Carnival rides for all ages will be in place throughout the weekend....

Member Benefits If you don't like free stuff. Stop reading now. I've posted some how-to articles from the Lincoln Electric website in the past and since then have kept in touch with the well known welding brand. Lincoln even included at tiny MyRideisMe.com back in 1997 in their iWeld newsletter when we barely had any content.  (Sure wish they'd do that again!) So now, Lincoln has asked MyRideisMe.com to make sure these brand new Viking welding helmets go to deserving members. So how do you get one? (If you don't want one, this might not be the right website for you!) How to WIN one of these welding helmets: Members Only. If you haven't signed up, click here to sign up now Members must have an avatar in their garage. (it's easy, just click on it!) Maybe that's enough rules. Write a welding tip and leave it as a comment below.  My Ride is Me is a community. Car people, in my experience are a friendly bunch and willing to lend a hand. Do that now and get some new gear! Ideas for Welding Tips: Tips or tricks you've...

Well if I could paint like Tom Fritz, I would. If I could draw like my friends Brian and Dwayne, I'd probably do that too.  Since my creativity's pretty much limited to taking pictures, I'm doing my best to catch up to the great shots taken by Swanee, my main man shooting for MyRideisMe.com. Swanee's yet to lay down his shots from GNRS, so here's mine, FISHEYE style. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. A side effect of this super wide shot is the distortion.  I'm shooting with a 10.5mm fisheye lens. Sometimes that distortion looks kinda cool with the swoopy angles of a custom or in tight on the details of an engine like the Stromberg powered flathead in Blackie Gejeian's "Blackie" Roadster. Sometimes, the look is just sinister!  This is the grille from "Camel Toe Racing" 1932 Ford.  The closer you get, the more distortion. I'm just a couple inches off this grill and I probably cropped the shot some. Too bad I have to give the lens back to my boss! Shooting in the Suede Palace...

We already covered the Grand National Roadster Show's big winner of the coveted America's Most Beautiful Roadster award.  The title now belongs to the 33 Ford named, "Possessed". So now, I want you to feast your smoke filled eyes on the "Contenders".  Usually the GNRS has 12 cars running for the AMBR, but this year, only 10 made it.  Here's 4 of them.  Which one's your favorite? The bright orange 32 roadster shown here first is my friend Todd Stevens from right here in Arizona.  Todd's got a gorgeous late 40's or 50's Mercury convertible he runs to the local Goodguys show, but in stark contrast to that cool cruisers is this nasty injected Hemi Hot Rod! Doug Jerger, the builder and another friend just a flew blocks away, runs Squeeg's Kustoms in Mesa, AZ and is no stranger to America's Most Beautiful Roadster competition. In 2008, Doug built is own AMBR roadster and we showed his shop and 32 Ford in this story. I know that just like Doug's 32, Todd will drive this car and drive it hard. Shouldn't that score points some how with the judges?...

Here it is! America's Most Beautiful Roadster, or the AMBR award as it's known.  The AMBR is easily one of the top awards in the country and this year drew 10 roadsters to competition. 2010's AMBR winner is a 1933 Ford, or loosely based on that design, and is owned by Mike and Dianne Dingman.  The car was called, "Possessed" and was built by Scott's Hot Rods, a shop that built another America's Most Beautiful Roadster winner back in 2008. (2008 AMBR Story) Beyond that, you know what?  Not much to say.  This is one of only a couple pictures we took of the car for a couple reasons: First off, it was tough getting decent pictures. On Friday, during our media happy hour and right into the time when the public crowds started rolling in, the Scott's guys were busy setting up the car and the display.  Sure, there were chances to get shots of dudes busily wiping stuff down and placing the display panels, but there's only so much you can photoshop. (We did get one "interesting" video, but that's being saved for the, "how to ruin...

Links to 2008 to 2013 Grand National Roadster Show Pictures and America's Most Beautiful Roadster 2013 Grand National Roadster Show Coverage WINNER! 2013 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster 2013 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Contenders - Best 7 5 more contenders for AMBR 2013 AMBR Cars - The Air up there Bird's Eye Look 2013 GNRS Shots in the Dark: Long Exposure Hot Rod Pics 2013 GNRS First Favorite Rides and Pinstriping Pictures 2012 Grand National Roadster Show Coverage 2012 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Winner 10 Roadsters, 40 Photos of 2012 AMBR Contenders Tons of PICTURES from 2012 GNRS 2012 Grand National Roadster Show – First Favorites Jack Howerton – Behind the 2012 AMBR Winner 2011 Grand National Roadster Show Coverage 12 Contenders for 2011 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Vote for the 2011 America's Most Beautiful Roadster Idaho Invades Cali for America’s Most Bitch’n Roadster How the AMBR Award Judging Changed Explained Suede Palace Beauties at 2011 GNRS 2011 Grand National Roadster Show – First Favorites A Japanese Man’s Perspective: 2011 GNRS Jake’s Road Savage 1954 Chevy Bel Air Custom Bubble-Topped Futuristic Customs from Roth and Winfield AMBR is all in...