2014 Detroit Autorama - Ridler Award Winner   I told ya! JF Customs run by JF Launier out of Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada came to Detroit, not to compete, but to DOMINATE!   Standing around the car, I frequently heard: What is that? It's a mid engine car.... and often: WOW. Compared to the other cars competing, all blow-out successes for the builders and owners, did not gather the crowd or the buzz the Buick had. This car embodies all that is custom like a new chapter in custom cars. The only thing more rad than that? JF plans to Autocross the car ASAP. The car's built to drive!  All the hating, "Oh, that'll never see the road" folks out there... I'm waiting to say, "I told you so" for when JF hit's 200 mph in a Ridler Award winner!!   If you skipped right to this story, you might want to review the Ridler Award rules, or, there's a summary at the end of this story.   Other than that, we have a few more 2014 Detroit Autorama stories and picture galleries here. If the Ridler cars aren't your style... check out...

2014 Detroit Autorama - Ridler Award Contenders Great 8!! In case this is your first visit to MyRideisMe.com, welcome to what I hope you'll find is the best photos and info about easily one of the best indoor shows in the USA, and probably the world. This is Detroit Autorama, and the BIG award handed out each year is the Ridler Award. For this three day show, the first step in choosing a Ridler Winner is to pick the "Great 8". These are the cars, "in the running" for the Ridler.   Looking for the 2014 Ridler Award Winner? Click here.   Picking the Great 8, then judging what's selected... I wouldn't want that job! There are always a few cars where you just can't figure out why they weren't selected. It's a tough competition, one that's been going on since the 1960s. MyRideisMe.com usually does a "Not Great 8?" story for the ones that weren't selected.   If you'd like to know more about the Ridler Award and the rules, click here   Favorite Detail: Just like for 2013 Ridler Pictures, I asked each builder one question. This...

Bad Blown Chevy Nova rips up Wild Horse Pass Quarter Mile     Glen Bolz, a buddy from near me in Arizona hooks us up with timely info about how his purpose drag race built 1966 Chevy Nova is doing at the track. He's doing well!!   The car's great enough to win at a car show and now does low 7's at almost 200 mph now that Glen's able to step on it some. It's even nice enough to grace the August cover of Chevy High Performance magazine. Glen's best pass is shown below. The 3 camera compilation is right on!   [youtube]http://youtu.be/Z7rvquTtxAI[/youtube]     There you have it! 7.25@193 mph - the fastest this car has ever run! She's a bit out of place as the only non-stickered car running in Top Sportman (non of that throttle-stop nonsense!) at the Division 7 race at Wild Horse Pass. Glad the rain let up long enough! If there's an update from the race, I'll post it.   Thanks again...

Amazing Metal Flake Paint   Would you say 10 miles of masking tape??   By now, you've probably seen that the Grand National Roadster Show is one of the best. I used some pretty stupid criteria to say that: 1) Diversity of cars 2) Show at a ridiculously high caliber.   There aren't many shows with Hot Rods, the "America's Most Beautiful Roadster" contenders, then motorcyles and really, the most radically detailed and perfected rides of the event: Lowriders. Combine that fact (discuss/object if you like) with my amazement or maybe sheer disbelief in how metal flake paint like this is done and you've got some cool pics!     Taking a walk down Lifestyle Blvd (the car club that dominates GNRS lowrider hall every year) there's eye candy everywhere. The loweriders don't just wear candy-flaked-striped custom paint. That's only the start! On the highest-end lowrider, every single part of the car is customized.... either painted, chromed, etched... sometimes a combination of all. Then the interiors are perfect, the stereos rock and of course, they're laid out on hydraulics. There's not one ride half-stepping.   And my favorite of...

Dino's Chevy Truck Show to be bigger than Goodguys?   How many "Pre-shows" or warm-ups get their own show poster? And one done by ProblemChildKustoms.com no doubt? How should I know?!   I do know that Dino Battilana and his Chevy truck buddies, including new friends from http://67-72chevytrucks.com put on a show before Goodguys that brings in some great looking trucks and cars too. I even sneak my Ford powered roadster in there sometimes to hang with the "Chevy Only" crowd. To see what makes Dino tick... dig his Dropped Custom Chevy C10 Dually. So just a few pictures to share... This is Dino's latest finished build... As I said about Dino's last Dually (he sold it already)... He's got a knack for building trucks just enough to make them unique and highly desireable. Why steel wheels and caps? Minimal chrome? Simple, but ultra clean small block Chevy under the hood? Maybe because you've never seen a truck like that laying frame? Or ever? Dino's the master custom Chevy C10 builder! (more pics of this truck down below!)   Here's what's up next!   Another 60's C10... another dually and to stay...

2014 Grand National Roadster Show - Kermit Green El Camino   When I saw this super clean El Camino, I had to shoot it. For one reason, I knew a bunch of people would miss it. Did you?       ALlan Clark of Red Top, CA parked this show stopping custom in the farthest corner of the Main Hall down by the pinstripers jam. If you went to the pinstriping auction or to see the pinstripers in action, you couldn't have missed it glowing in the corner.     Taking info from the show card (Allan, feel free to help me fill in the details...) the top was chopped 3 inches, then an Impala bedcover and back end were used. Headlights and tail lights were frenched in then the custom wheel vents, side exhaust exit and hood scoop were custom made. It says hard-top doors were used as well. All these custom features and the amazing custom paint were handled by Ray Ramirez of Dos Palos, CA.       Clearly the interior was just as custom as the exterior. Upholstery duties were handled by Castillo Upholstery of...

Full Blown Dirt Track Ready Race Car For The Street! A true gearhead can point to some seminal moment when he or she was struck by an unexplainable epiphany. That moment when you knew things had changed and suddenly every motorized creation became a point of interest. It was that one time when you realized you’d never again look at any vehicle of transportation, play or collectability without the quickening of your heartbeat and a shortness of breath.   For Iowan Keith Larson, it was a walk past a car dealer’s lot in the late 1960s where a ’64 Chevelle dirt track car resided, painted up in red, white and blue and sporting all the proverbial race car stuff…full roll cage, stinking big tires, cut out fenders.   The race car didn’t make Larson want to go racing, however. His young mind thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to drive something like that on the street?” Speed forward 44 years and Larson has his “mechanical symphony on wheels”, but it was an 18 year journey only a gearhead could understand.   A race car on the street? Yup, it’s...

1961 Falcon Ranchero with do-it-yourself Custom Touches   I met Gary Kanel browsing TFFN.net, "The Ford Falcon Network", like the name says, a website dedicated to Falcon owners. In case this is your first time at MyRideisMe.com, I'm partial to the round bodied 1960-1963 Falcons, especially wagons... so much so I'm building a 1963 Falcon Wagon. Gary's 1961 Falcon Ranchero is right up my alley! I learned to drive a stick in a 1960 Ranchero with the PILE-O-JUNK 3-speed on the tree that came in these Falcons and Comets. Try teaching a 15 year old to wait until you've reached a FULL stop before shifting to first! It just don't work!! I had the 3-speed out of my 65 Comet 3 times to change the 2nd gear cluster. Luckily, my pops helped me repair the trans and my dad's buddy Brad had a few spares.   Wait, this is a story about Gary's Falcon Ranchero, I'll get back on topic!   Gary's Ranchero started as the fairly rusty, not so pretty ride you see below. If you're a fan like me, you're pretty curious, and as you'll learn later, Gary wanted/needed...

One of the Rarest 1967 Camaros In November 1989 an exhibit was on display at The Henry Ford that chronicled the life and career of famed automotive designer Bill Mitchell which talked about his two lifelong passions…drawing automobiles and driving them. 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Cherokee design concept   “They joined uniquely to create one of the great design careers in automotive history. Throughout his life, as artist, automotive designer, and General Motors executive, Bill Mitchell's best work combined a sleek, sharp-edged appearance and the sensation of great power and all-out speed.”   So the opportunity to see one of Mitchell’s personal creations at the 2013 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals was extra special and reflected the “car guy” mentality Mitchell had for every one of his “special projects.” The 1967 Camaro Cherokee is not only unique but provided Mitchell with a canvas where he could explore what the new GM pony car might become in the new war that was evolving in Detroit. Ford had introduced the popular Mustang just two short years earlier which started the salvo of vehicles that even today we enthusiasts still embrace.   Mitchell’s...

Bill Mitchell's "foggy" vision foretold GM styling cues   A class reunion typically brings together those who want to show their classmates just how “cool” they have remained, despite the passing of some years. At the 2013 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, the annual “Class of” display showed that 1963 was indeed a pivotal year for the auto industry, where luxury and sport styling were vying for public acceptance. The Class of 1963 at this year’s MCACN event displayed the very best of that year…power, grace, luxury, sport. It was a very good year indeed.   What had to be one of the most unique of this group was GM icon Bill Mitchell’s 1963 Buick Riviera Silver Arrow I. Mitchell is said to have been inspired by seeing a Rolls Royce emerging from an English fog to decide he wanted to create something very special using the newly designed (and yet to be released) Buick Riviera.   Mitchell reportedly ordered a Riv taken from the very first day of production and had it sent over to the Detroit styling studio, Creative Industries, where they fashioned Mitchell’s original vision for...

Ya Just Gotta Ask...What's The Deal With Gassers? (And Why We Love 'Em!) In the very early years of the NHRA, gassers were nothing more than slightly modified gas powered sedans that could compete in five gas classes, determined by engine size and weight. In 1958, a gas class racer was basically a street coupe with no engine setback allowed. All “gassers” had working lights, wipers, starter, generator and all other street equipment.  Fans and belts were optional, but radiators were required. Full exhaust systems, including mufflers, were required but could be unhooked for competition, but they had to remain on the car.  Cars even had to be currently licensed for the street.   Cars in the gas classes were required to have full “factory-type” upholstery but two buckets could replace the standard bench seat as long as both were fully upholstered.  Customs were allowed as long as the car wasn’t chopped, channeled or sectioned a total of more than four inches.  Cars had to have four stock fenders and the stock bumpers had to be in place.   More Gassers and Altered Wheelbase hot rods (opens in new window)...

Barn Find Hot Rods and Muscle Cars from MCACN   Yup...They're Still Out There!! Bob Ashton, who directed the 2013 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals event, not only looked high and low for rare or unique super cars, concept vehicles and one owners, but he must have looked under rocks and hay bales to track down the 22 “barn finds” that were displayed at the annual show held in Rosemont, Illinois in November. Barn finds are another relatively “new” car show entry with more and more cars and trucks turning up from storage units, sheds, long sealed garages and, of course, barns.   The “finds” are also running the gamut of rarity, some having a brief history as a family driver or as a quarter miler that someone decided to stash away, maybe when the money ran out. Whatever the reason, these relics are interesting to view and the MCACN show allowed spectators to not only see but touch the goods. You got to take a bit of the dirt and grime home with you!     We received a comment from the owner of this one of a...