Interview with Austin Coil about drag racing today Click to read it... 12th ANNUAL JFR HOLIDAY CAR SHOW A HUGE SUCCESS (story starts below) Press Release from John Force Racing: 12th ANNUAL JFR HOLIDAY CAR SHOW A HUGE SUCCESS YORBA LINDA, CA (December 6, 2009) --- Mother Nature and the people of Southern California cooperated to make the 12th annual John Force Racing Holiday Car Show one of the biggest in the events history. Ominous clouds made brief appearances over the 14-time champion’s shop but a comfortable breeze was the only weather variance all day as thousands of toys were dropped off making a mountain of memories for children this Christmas season. From 10 a.m. until well after 4 p.m. today toys, stuffed animals and games poured into the John Force Racing shop as fans filled the streets. Tens of thousands of people wandered through one of the largest collections of vintage cars, trucks and street rods. In addition to the hundreds of car club vehicles a number of specialty vehicles were on display including the Force Borthers “Nightstalker,” Funny Car which returned to competition this year in a...

Every once in a while when cruising Youtube, you find gold. I found it five times with these 5 videos from the "Big Go" the US Nationals from Indianapolis, Indiana from way back in 1969 when they just called it, "The Nationals". Called the "Tournament of Champions" and presented by Hurst Performance Center you'll hear the late great voice of drag racing Steve Evans narrating.  The videography's cool too. You'll have no doubt, this is the late 60's! Even cooler for me is that these are from 1969! The year I was born and like me, they're about to have their 20th birthday, again. I haven't heard a single drag racer, especially the current pros, mention any other race ahead of the US Nationals. This is THE race of the year and it looks like it has been for 40 years. Enjoy these 5 nostalgia drag racing videos from before corporate sponsors and big dollar teams. The 4-speed bang'n, the tire smoking, the love of drag racing shows clear. Here's part 1: Featuring the intro and credits. Don't want watch the first minute of this one, then skip on...

You need to watch this video to believe it!  There is now an iPod app that can control any electronic piece of your car, including turning the car engine on/off, lights, door locks and yes, even your hydraulics or air ride suspension.  That's right low car junkies, you can show off your air suspension at the local car show with your iPod.  Amazing! This story's from a site called mp3Car.com. Mp3car.com's Forum is the largest car computing community online, hosting well over 100,000 members worldwide, comprising leading mobile technologists, hardware engineers, software developers, car audiophiles, automotive installers and vendors. The community drives mobile computing innovation by allowing for collaboration on major technical challenges and product development. This ain't your daddy's 8-track! To learn more about mp3Car.com, go to the site and read the history: http://www.mp3car.com/history What's...

I met pinstriper and all around cool cat Charlie Decker online, probably at Myspace, before I met him in person at the Grand National Roadster Show. I hit him up for some samples of his pinstriping and a quick bio so you'd know his style a little more.  For you west-side cruisers, you better make an appointment! Charlie lives in Connecticut, so if you see him, grab him and his striping kit to lay down some crazy flowing lines. I've included some of my favorite pinstriping from the, "One Arm Bandit" as he's known. These animal creations and artistic forms he's blended with sweeping stripes blow me away. I'm not sure I could draw that in a hundred tries and he throws it down freehand in paint right from his mind to the brush.  I don't know if we'll see this kind of work on hot rods, but if that's what you want... Here's more about Charlie: I started striping about 14 years ago around the age of 16. I was influenced by the 50's style hot rod era and the traditionally styled hot rods I first pinstriped after...

Optima Red or Yellow top? I bet you've got it wrong! If you missed the other stories about SEMA, then you didn't read how Optima Batteries brought up car and truck enthusiasts for a "round table" of sorts to find out what's happening with their customers.  Great idea, right? MyRideisMe.com, through Grease Girl and me, Pikesan, represented the hot rod and custom car crowd. Also strongly represented was the off-road, diesel towing/performance, drag racing and serious computer-audiofile segments. Why'd Optima do it? Cause they're serious about making batteries for enthusiasts. The showed me they care about their existing customers and want to earn more by selling a great product. On the first day, I learned about the "Optima Paradox." Red top or yellow top?  Ken, my expert technical guide, schooled me on how folks that need a yellow top see that it's more expensive and buy a red top instead. Understandable, but wrong. Optima's a premium product and costs more than a run of the mill wet battery. But, experience tells  you, or should, that getting the right parts for your ride, even if they're a little more money,...

If you've never been to the NHRA Motorsports Museum, GO! If you haven't been in a while, GO BACK!! It's always changing with new cars and interesting people wondering through. NHRA Motorsports Museum Calendar of Events (Nov. through Dec. 2009) Thursday, Nov. 12 Ø       Auto Club NHRA Finals Begin www.nhra.com Ø       Museum Open House 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. – extended hours and admission is free. Friday, Nov. 13 Ø       Museum Open House – 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ø       New Exhibit Opening – 3 p.m. FREE Ø       Drag Racing Celebrity Book Signing – 5 p.m. FREE Ø       Night of Champions/Auto Club Q&A with NHRA racers – 6 p.m. FREE Saturday, Nov. 14 Ø       Museum Open House – 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ø       Racing Collectible Show – 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. $5 Admission. Sunday, Nov. 15 Ø       Museum Open House 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. – Admission is free. Free Museum admission and extended weekend hours during Auto Club NHRA Finals, Nov. 12-15. Free Tram Service from Pomona Raceway (Gate J) to Museum. Wednesday, Dec. 2 Ø       Annual Holiday Twilight Cruise and Toy Drive 4 p.m. to...

At SEMA, it's easy to find a great car, they're in almost every booth!  But like the 70 Chevelle with a Duramax diesel motor, it's a the different and sometimes unique builds that really get my attention.  That's what I found in this "Painless" Roadster Pickup. This style of roadster pickup, also called a "Truckster" was penned by well known hot rod artist Thom Taylor back in August of 2007 for Rod and Custom Magazine. The concept  is simple, but you're gonna get to know a sawzall and grinder real, REAL well to get it done. You take 50-70's pickup, then chop up the cab and the bed until proportions of a hot rod. Easy for Thom to say! I saw a Thom Taylor sketch in the pickup bed of this truck, so I'm sure he had a hand in the proportions, color and stance that make this truck one of my favorites from SEMA. So what is it? It started as a 1978 Ford Pickup. Recognize it?  From there, the cab was narrowed 16 inches, then the top and A-pillars were chopped off and the remaining cab shortened...

The best 1964 Ford Fairlane? 1964 Fairlanes will always be one of my favorites. At one time, Pops owned a Blue one, Mom's was white and mine was my high school driver called, "The Highway Bitch". Red, white and blue, we loved our 64's. Pops still has his and is done up Pro-street with a small block Ford and big-fatties in the back.  The C6 went south so it's been sitting for a while, but here's a pic so you know what a "regular" 1964 Fairlane looks like. Here's another "regular" 1964 Fairlane at Bonneville Speed Week   The not-so-casual viewer will notice this is a 2 door post model just like the factory race cars Ford built known as the "Thunderbolt".  I've seen Pops work his butt off on this car and we've had alot of fun times in it.   Not to be outdone by the factory Thunderbolts, allow me to introduce, "Afterburner" If you've seen any of the Ring Brothers' builds, you know they set the standard and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Goodguys named Ring Brother's cars "Street Machine of the Year"...

Cruising what I call the main hall of the SEMA show, it's fantastic to see the great rides that make SEMA, the parts show, become SEMA the car show. Featuring the best built cars and timeless classics, it's a mix of some of the best rides in the country. I stayed close to "Hot Rod Alley" to find the booths of manufacturers I used and wanted to check out. Seeing the Mustangs and Camaros that are no doubt classic SEMA favorites was cool and will be featured here, but I've always like something different. Big power and stupid amounts of torque aren't different to the folks at Duramax performance discussion forum TheDieselPlace.com, but what about in a 1970 Chevelle? This is one of two cars I spotted at SEMA running a diesel and starting a new trend in hot rodding? Instead of choosing from from several small block Chevy's you've already seen or even throwing cubic inches or the tech of LSX in, Mike Racke of Fullerton, CA stayed with the General, but in the form of a 403 cu. inch LLY Duramax.  This beast runs a mostly stock...

All right then, I'm a wagon freak. You could even say I'm a Ford Falcon wagon freak. I've written before about the problems I have (Extra W Chromosome) and the 63 Falcon wagon project I'm re-doing. I've learned to live with those issues and I'm doing my best in the hot rod society. But then I saw this totally clean 1965 Falcon wagon owned by Norm Huie of San Clemente, CA at the Cruisin for a Cure Show. More precisely, it's a '65 Ford Falcon 2 door wagon in the original Prairie Bronze paint. It'd get boring if I kept saying original since Norm's taken great pains to restore his wagon back to 99% stock himself. Norm's always been into Falcons but chose this odd-ball 65 because it was the last year of this model.  I say odd because it's a 2 door, no-doubt more desirable than the mor-door cousin I own. Then, it's got the factory V8 another plus, but from there, this car is plain-jane! It's a non-Deluxe, non-anything car but it does have power steering and power brakes and a rare cargo light inside near the...

It's easy to like iconic muscle cars like a Mustang, especially when it's a true Shelby. Add to that it's an original Hertz Shelby and I'm a little more curious. Without much effort, I can see a young man strolling up the Hertz counter (long before internet reservations!) and asking for a 1966 Mustang GT 350H.  "Yes, I would like the optional insurance." If you've seen a perfectly restored 350H or any Shelby Mustang, they're obviously valuable and visually, they're cool. You're likely to see one a concours show or more likely at auction. But for me, (and I hope most of you) I look twice when it's driven! I wanna hear it run! Beyond that, there's the rarest of rare: The unrestored racing Shelby. The first unrestored race Shelby I saw was out of pure luck. I was invited to an anniversary celebration for Bob Bondurant at the Bondurant Racing School of High Performance Driving. A treat in itself no doubt.  We drove the Mustangs he had back then (the 'stangs were later replaced by Corvettes) then he gave an interesting talk. After, we all went outside to...

PT Cruisers - Way Over Done So far, MyRideisMe.com has resisted the occasional urge to say anything negative about anyone else's ride. After all, to each his own and all that. But, in the words of Clint Eastwood, "A man's got to know his limitations." And I hit mine at the 2009 Cruisin for a Cure show in Orange County with the PT Cruiser club that rolled as the fog still hung low early in the morning. Love'm or hate'm, (you can say which at the end of this story) the PT Cruiser came on the scene 2000 and were immediately popular as one of the first of many, "throw back" cars.  No doubt the Chrysler company wanted to spring board off the relative success, or at least show room traffic, of the Plymouth Prowler.  The story about how it was a "light truck" to help the Dodge boys meet CAFE compliance is another, boring story... With the PT Cruiser, however, Chrysler clearly targeted the main stream, family buyers in the minivan market Chrysler invented.  I wonder how surprised they were by the following they found with PT Cruiser,...