Northern California Car Show - Hot Rods and Customs in Vallejo Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" Round 2 was a TKO 2012 NorCal Knockout Coverage Here Just 365 days after the 1st ever Nor Cal Knockout, Korena and Hollywood Hank were at it again with the 2011 Nor Cal Knockout. Simply put it's Nor Cal Knockout Round 2. I will tell you this: Round 2 was just that with local heavy hitters the Swanx CC stepping in to lend a well needed hand to the founders of this amazing show. The morning of the show while sipping on a cup of joe in my front yard waiting on my ride I thought to myself, "It's going to be tough to top last years phenomenal showing." As Scotty of the Villianz CC pulled up in his 51' flamed Chevy (shown above with knockout Sarah Neary) I hopped in and we were off to Vallejo to meet up with the rest of the club. Once everyone was in-check and the coolers where filled with ice, grub and of course bevmo's... We set off to the Solano County Fairgrounds....

51 Mercury Coupe  Charlie Runnels, better known throughout the kustom scene as Mercury Charlie, has a background as unique and colorful as his world famous ’51 Mercury coupe, the elegant "Sweet Nadine". Growing up on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks in rural Oklahoma, Charlie’s early days in the car scene began with him hustling to stock pile as many tri-five Chevy parts as he could get his hands on. Before too long, drag racers, kustomizers and repair shops alike came to know Charlie on a first name basis as he always seemed to have those hard to find pieces. Fast forward several years and lifestyle changes and Charlie found himself in Austin, TX appraising properties and working side jobs in the real estate business. While appraising a foreclosed property near the University of Texas one afternoon in 1987, Charlie would meet the lady he would spend the next 25 years of his life with. As he walked the property Charlie noticed an old abandoned car out back resting below a pecan tree. Upon closer inspection, the old car turned out to be a complete ’51 Mercury....

Hot Rod Hemi's, Flatheads and Bangers - Take Your Pick! #1 Overhead Valve Conversion Banger Ford Flathead in a Slick looking Slingshot. Best Engines of the 2011 LA Roadster Show We tried this at the 2010 LA Roadster Show and it's been a great story with interesting feedback. So why not try it again? Everyone's got their own style and as you can see from the engines I picked out, I trend towards nostalgic, blown, FAST looking engines. How about you? Take a look at these and choose which one your favorite! Hit the "Like" button above and call it out by number. Or, if this is your car or you happen to be an expert on early Hemi's or overhead valve conversion flathead motors, then let us know what we're looking at. I hope I caught something to your liking! #2 Another well executed Ford "Banger" Flathead - Think there's enough carburetion? #3 I'm a sucker for the black and chrome look with simple lakes style headers. This Ford Flathead engine's got Harrell Los Angeles Racing Equipment on board. Learn more about Jim Harrell and the flathead parts...

PDX Car Culture Alive at Portland Car Show Rain Didn't Spoil This Parade! - Story and photos by Nick K. This time of the year Portland,Or has it’s Rose City festival. Which includes a number of festivities such as the Starlight Parade, Fleet Week, Rose Cup Races, a number of firework shows and now, the Rose City Round Up car show. Which is becoming a Kustom Kulture staple in a rich history of Portland’s Rose City Festivals. Portland's best hot rod and kustom kulture show geared up for it's 4th Rose City Round Up. The Rose City Round-up is an annual event hosted by the Driven Dead Car Club (CC) to celebrate the hot rod lifestyle of the Pacific Northwest. This being my 1st run at the Round Up, I was quite revved up for this event. It's no secret that I have a fondness for the Great Northwest not to mention a love for the culture. I had plenty of time to think about it as we drove 10hrs up Interstate 5 to get to Portland, Or. I have to admit it's quite a drive when you have...

Hot Rod, Street Rods and Customs Pack Pomona (click on any picture to see it full size) In all the years I've been going to the LA Roadster Show, I've always attended the SoCal Speed Shop's open house car show on the Friday night before the Roadster Show. By about 4PM on Friday, everyone's already setup their swap spaces and scoped out the early deals, so besides grabbing a bite, there's not much else to do except see some great local custom hot rods and see what Jimmy Shine and the other builders are up to at the shop. Outside the shop, the streets are lined with hot rods and customs like this 49 Buick Sedanette. Out of all the cars I saw this weekend, this Buick was one of my favorites. It was for sale too. Got an extra $45k? Much like the high style and high dollar cars found at the LA Roadster Show, SoCal brings in some of the finest hot rod examples to be found in all of California... and farther. They normally have at least one Billy Gibbons project going on, and he's, "Bad,...

Nostalgia drag racing all weekend in Beaver Springs, PA Located about an hour's drive north of Harrisburg, PA, Beaver Springs Dragway is a dragstrip with lots of heart. The crew running the show goes out of their way to make you feel like part of the family. Their advertising slogan is "Nobody does it better!" and I would have to say that's definitely not false advertising! The "Beav" is the perfect location for Gasser Magazine's Gasser Reunion that was held June 10-12. We hit the road early to make the 3 hour drive from our home base in WV and it rained the entire trip! When we arrived, the spectators' parking field had an inch of standing water. Do you ever get the feeling that maybe you are wasting your time making a long trip for nothing? Well, luckily that feeling for us was wrong and the sun was shining by 8:30am. Everyone was able to enjoy a full day of racing. Randy Campbell's 1950 "Full Metal Jacket" Studebaker sits in the pits drying after the early morning rain. The track crew did an excellent job getting the dragstrip prepared...

Hot Rod Roadsters - Only the Pretty Ones at 2011 LA Roadster Show (click on any picture to see it full size) I mentioned in the 2011 LA Roadster Show kick-off story there's three parts of the show: the "Proper" roadster show, the "other" cars (also the part I like best!) and the swap meet. I'd say there's four parts if you include the Pomona SoCal Speed Shop open house. We'll cover all of those for you at MyRideisMe.com! Stay tuned and check back often! As you can see, there was no shortage of custom hot rods at the show. The key difference for the LA Roadster Show is of course, they all must be roadsters. The strict definition is "no roll up windows" but who cares! If the top comes off, it's a roadster to me. By the afternoon, the sky had finally cleared from its dreary (and miserable to photograph!) gray color and was showing a beautiful blue sky. Isn't this what we always think of for California? The few Model T's and late 30's and 40's roadsters were easy to spot and served to break up...

Custom Hot Rods Rock the LA Roadsters Back again! For the 5th year, this is one of the best hot rod and custom car shows you'll see, in California, or maybe anywhere. It's easy to see why this show's a success: The Roadster Show "proper" - finished, shiny painted no-roof cars only The "Other" cars... every other custom car in So-cal, pre '75, want'n a primo parking spot A freakin HUGE swap meet!! (if this doesn't get yer motor turn'n... move on now) Make your way to Pomona, make sure to Learn the NEW LA Roadster Show layout and enjoy what we found... 2011 LA Roadsters Show Here's how the day starts for most people attending the LA Roadster Show. It's a massive line. We arrived at about 3:30AM on Friday morning (no we're not psycho, that's just when we arrived from AZ!) and were in the 5th line. Each line was about 1/2 mile long with trucks, trailers and RV's filled with swap'n goodies. It's not long before you realize... you might see just about anything... Look closely, that's a right hand driver Chevy Ute. When's the last...

Cool Hot Rods and Customs from Australia It wasn't easy, but after 6 cell calls and struggling through the crowds at 2011 Viva Las Vegas, I finally met up with Luke Ray, the creative mind behind Fuel Magazine. Fuel Magazine's all about the hot rods, custom cars, bikes and oh yes... the girls that make Australia's scene one not to miss. Available in the traditional styled "Small book" format, it's a very high quality publication where no expense is spared on printing. The latest issue, #07 is "'The Customs Issue". Luke figured it'd be cool to do a customs biased issue, seeing as there are so many cool custom cars here in Australia. Sounds great to me... my book's in the mail. Luke also features some of the world's greatest artists. Here's a quick sample that's not so coincidentally pretty friendly on the eyes. One of these days, I'll go see first hand. Until then, preview Fuel Magazine Issue #7 here: Buy Australian Hot Rod Magazine: Fuel Have you seen Fuel before? Let us know what you...

Cool Hot Rods from 2011 York NSRA Nationals Car Show More than 3500 hot rods and customs registered for the 38th Street Rod Nationals East. You must be doing something right to be able to say this is the 38th time you have hosted an event and the 2011 event wasn’t any different. The city of York, PA has been lucky enough to be the location of this massive gathering for 31 of those 38 years. It has only been a few years since the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) relaxed the age restriction for vehicles entering the show grounds. Now, you can find more vehicles than just street rods, as long as they are 20 years old or older, driving around the event fields. Some of the best rides the East Coast has to offer attend this show annually. Right when we walked through the spectators’ gate I was greeted with one of my favorite paint schemes. There is just something about gloss flames on a flat black finish that appeals to me. Paul Kain’s 1948 Ford was done exactly the way I like it. Would you believe...

What's New for the 2011 LA Roadster Show Looking for show coverage for 2011? Try these links! First Pictures from 2011 LA Roadster Show Shiny and Finished – Inside the 2011 LA Roadster Show SoCal Pomona’s Open House – Nothing to See Here There's few shows not to miss. One of them is the LA Roadster Show in Pomona, CA. This is the 47th car show for the Los Angeles Roadsters Car Club and this year's Father's Day Weekend,  June 18th-19th. If you're planning to attend, you should know about a major layout changes so you don't get lost on the way in. Spectators: The biggest change is for spectators. This year, you'll be parking in the Blue Lot off White Avenue through Gate #9. If you've ever been to the Grand National Roadster Show, it's the same for that show. There's a bus/trolley available to help you get back and forth, or you can make the short walk through the tunnel. It's a long walk from the parking lot and the Roadster Show Parking/Vendors area over to Specialty Parking and the Swap Meet so make sure you jump...

The Oregon Rally and an Intro to Rallying At the beginning of the automotive era, all auto races were rallies – dedicated race tracks simply didn’t exist, and paved roads were rare outside of cities. So the only way to race cars was to start at Point A and race to Point B. That’s what they did in 1894 – the challenge was to get yourself and your car from Paris to Rouen – a distance of some 79 miles. The winning car made it in 6 hours and 48 minutes – 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of second place.  That made the average speed about 11 miles per hour. But there it was – an auto race that used unpaved roads to get from one place to another.  Almost 117 years later, the Oregon Trail Rally happened May 13-15 weekend at Portland International Raceway and on roads up in the Columbia Gorge near The Dalles.  The cars are a little bit faster, but the fundamentals of the race are the same – get your car, driver, and navigator from one place to another as fast as you...