Pictures and words by: Doug Nykanen Gumball Rally Toronto-Niagara Falls May 6-7 2010 The Gumball Rally started as a movie from 1976. It had a hodgepodge of characters racing across America in a variety of exotic cars. Fast forward to 1999 when Maximillion Cooper founded the Gumball3000. A Rally that ran 3000 miles across a variety of countries on a different route each year. Yea, across countries! Here's the type of cars you'll find: A couple of days ago I heard the Gumball was passing through Toronto. The 2010 Rally started in London England, then on to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Boston, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto with the final destination at Times Square in New York City. Never one to miss an automotive event I headed down to a very congested event in downtown Toronto. By the time I got there it was getting dark, so the pictures were not great especially without a high powered flash and someone to clear people out of the way, there were thousands of people. The event was pretty low key, most drivers were already partying it up but some, like the Sheiks, had just...

Story and Photos by Nick Koljian Today was the 9th Annual Car & Bike show held at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo,CA. I've never been so I thought today would be a nice day to check it out. The sun was shining, a nice breeze blowing and my oldest, Mia, was really jazzed about her first show of the year with pops. So at about 9:00am the crew rolled out in route for San Lorenzo. Upon arrival at the High School I noticed that it was being held on the football field which I thought was pretty cool. Slapped down our 5 bucks (which goes to the Arroyo High Boosters Club) and we were in. As a  local show I wasn't expecting anything huge and I was right. But with that said, it was a comfortable show, maybe 100, 120 rides. There was more hot rods than channeled rusters, there was more paint than primer and there was more post 68' than pre 52'. But hey, not everyone has the same tastes in rides and that's what makes the love for cars so great. Beauty is in the...

I'm going to put this out there up front... I will not be able to do this story justice.  But, its such a great story and a cool car that you are going to get it and you are going to like it.  Ok, I got that out, now on to the man and the machine. The man is cancer survivor and current cancer fighter Dan Sallia.  The machine is the historic Burke Bros. Bonneville record holding 1962 Studebaker Avanti.  I originally found Dan's story on landracing.com in a build thread he started there.  That led me to his more detailed build thread on RacingStudebakers.com where I spent about 4 hours reading through the posts during 2 separate nights, checking out the pictures and soaking in one of the coolest car-guy stories I've ever heard.  I knew I had to share it the MyRideisMe.com readers. Here's Dan working in the engine bay of the Stude.  Now THAT is a setback motor! Dan has been racing against Cancer for about 4 years and has had 3 tumors.  Recently another tumor was discovered, so Dan is working with his doctors (one doctor is actually a land...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Speed Week 2010 Preview: ...ok, ok, for those counting (who, me?) its actually 100 Days, 19 Hours, 34 Minutes and...wait for it, wait for it...53 seconds! For everything about Bonneville and Speed Week, check this out: Bonneville Salt Flats – Speed Week, Records and Pictures Or, see for yourself at the LandRacing.com homepage, where they have a countdown clock for Speed Week.  It's going year 'round for those with Salt Fever. Here's a little taste of the Salt from Speed Week 2009.  Dig this flamed 5 window coupe hot rod and yes, oh yes, a Studebaker Avanti.  That's a teaser for a feature coming up on another certain Avanti you guys will love. Speed Week is THE coolest car show around! One of the great "unofficial" events at Speed Week is the first 2 nights (the night before races start is night #1), there is a big gathering of all those racers, crew and hot rodders who've made the trip out.  It goes down at the Nugget Casino (across the street from Montego Bay Casino as you can see in the pic above) in Wendover (about 5 miles...

It's been too long since I've posted a "Hot Rod Ramblings" feature.  For this post, I'm gonna go Nostalgia Drag and Funny Cars on you guys.  But, these "hot rod ramblings" come from my Uncle, "RickyRod" Hechtspeed.  These are my Uncle's memories of the "Pit" from the late 60's.  The "Pit" was the nickname for the first Irwindale Dragstrip. A quick background... the "Calera Kids" were my dad (Rodger "Calera Ave burnout king" and Ford/Merc' lover and his little bro, the "Chevy Puke" (as my dad would call him) and their buddies Rick Patterson, Scott Henry, John DeGraff (sporto), Lalo Gabriel, Rob Shultz, Pat Murphy and a few kids not directly in the "hood" Scott Taylor and Steve Presley were drag fans.  They lived on Calera Avenue in Azusa, California, the next city over from Irwindale. Anyway, these ramblings are taken from some emails from my Uncle.  They mean a lot to me, because it is a piece of the Hechtspeed history.  I thought you guys would really dig 'em too, so here goes, let the Ramblings begin! "It is possible that the four kids shrouded by the supercharger are the “Calera Kids”.  That was one of...

I wanted to continue my international hot rod theme of late and share some pictures sent to me by Ken Sakata of Trident Speed Shop from Nara Prefecture, Japan.  We first introduced you to Trident Speed Shop in Tano's '26 T roadster feature a few weeks back.  In an email from Ken, he told me that Trident has been in business for 10 years.  He was proud to say that he does not advertise in any magazines becaues he gets his business from word of mouth. Tano tells me that he takes his '26 T Roadster to Ken in Nara, which is on the opposite side of Japan from Sapporo, because Trident is the only shop he trusts with his hot rod.  This black and white photo above is rad!  This is Ken's roadster built in traditional hot rod style.  I love these aircraft style windscreen frames, they really give hot rods that 1940's traditional feel dont they? Ken says he loves the speed culture.  Hot Rods are very important in his life and he especially respects hot rodders. Here is Ken lubing crank bearings during reassembly.  Anyone know what kind of engine this is? ...

Throttle Magazine was the first known "hot rod" magazine, before it was even known as hot rodding.  Throttle was almost 100% focused on southern California Lakes and Midget racing.  It was only printed for 1 year, 1941, and included 12 issues.  The bombing of Pearl Harbor turned the USA upside down and hot rodding all but dried up for 3-4 years along with the magazine.  Throttle never came back after WWII ended.  "Hot Rod Magazine" picked things back up in January 1948 with their first issue.  Here's a quick look at Throttle through a Reprint book I purchased at The Rodders Journal website. Thom Taylor (check out Thom's website ThomTaylorDesigns.com), hot rod artist, was the person who spearheaded the effort to put together a quality reprint of all 12 issues.  No small task considering relatively few copies were printed and the fact that they are almost 70 years old.  That's Old School cool! Here's a glimpse from the Introduction by Thom Taylor of just what kind of effort was involved in this project: "Jack Peters, who created Throttle and was its editor and publisher, was an enigma.  Finding out what happened to him was difficult but also...

We featured Kathy's 1961 Comet back in March.  Kathy and the Comet were invited to the 2010 Fresno Autorama.  You know, the Blackie Gejeian Car Show.  It's only his 51st show.  Only!?  The Fresno Autorama is considered to be THE finest indoor car show in the States.  Kathy hooked us up with Jerry Burt and his photos on JBurtPhotos.com. First, let's see a couple pictures of Kathy and her Comet, along with Blackie Gejeian.  Check out Kathy's BIG smile.  Friends and hot rods makes for some Good Times! Wow, what a cool experience to have your hot rod invited to the Fresno Autorama by Blackie Gejeian.  Congrats Kathy and the Full Tilt crew. That deep purple paint on the Full Tilt built Comet is a sight to see!  Just gaze into the purple hue under the lights at the Fresno Autorama.  Heaven!  ha ha In this photo by J Burt, the tan leather custom interior is poppin' real nice.  The suicide doors help bring attention to the interior too.  But, its hard not to notice the low down air ride and injected powerplant. Now, on to some of my favorite...

The last post I did using Pascal Hein's photos was German cars in Germany.  Today, I bring you American Hot Rods and Customs in Germany.  It's an interesting idea to think of an American Muscle car or a traditional roadster as an "import" car.  As we saw with Tano's '26 T Roadster from Japan, there are some very cool American rides all over the globe.  Let's see what Germany has in store for us... Here's a great line up of 20-30's hot rods.  I spy a sedan, a roadster, and a pickup.  Looks like we're at a car show on main street USA right? Low ride height, white walls.  This is a beautiful 40's (right?) cruiser.  I'm not good with cars from the 40's.  Anyone know what this is? Now, something from the 50's.  A well used 4 door Chevy Bel Air hot rod project.  A little rust here, a little primer there, mismatched doors.  I love it.  You know this car gets driven. Dig this mild custom Ford Edsel!  Ya, Ford Edsel.  You can't get any more American than this.  ha ha  As big of a failure as it was back in the day, the...

Kristabelle, don't shoot! Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender is no doubt it's own car show. The cars get checked before entering so there's no billet anything or any car built after sixty-something. But it's the people and more specifically the wandering pinups that make the show. Who doesn't love Hot Rod Pinups! Burlesque Performer Sophia Sirena If you're watching closely, you'll see well known pinups like Heidi Van Horne and Dayna Delux enjoying the show, but they're generally not posing. I guess you could say they've "made it" and get paid when they're shot. Dayna teamed up with Sabina Kelly to host a "Bottles and Pinup Models"  night at the Foundation Room at the Mandalay Bay and Heidi's doing a little bit of everything. She's acting, directing, writing a blog for the Houston Chronicle... she's busy but just as sweet as ever! Viva's become a hot spot for pinup models and the photographers that make their living shooting pinup. This is Mitzi Valenzuela from Mitziandco.com shooting one of many pinup models on the long (Wednesday to Sunday) weekend. Mitzi's contributed quite a bit to MyRideisMe.com and has shot with...

Truth be told, I haven't been to an indycar race since I was a kid. At age 9 I was convinced I would be an indycar driver when I grew up. That profession was won over by being a doctor, then being a designer... and on and on the years passed. But when I got an offer for some tickets to the Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend from Optima Batteries, I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do on this beautiful Sunday. Ever since I by chance ended up driving these streets while they were blockading them off for the race, I'd wanted to check this event out. It's not some boring circle track - this 1.98 mile track has hairpin and ninety-degree turns and is on the actual streets of Long Beach! This has been a whole 3-day event, but the culmination of it was with today's IZOD Indycar Series race. All 170,000 spectators saw the 25 drivers speed away from the finish line (of these 25 drivers, I'm glad to say 3 were women!) I'd forgotten that there's nothing quite like all those cars...

I've been a little quiet of late on the MyRideisMe blog.  I have good reason.  With (as opposed to without) much adieu (it's taken me years to nail down a car I REALLY wanted) I present my new (and used) hot rod!  Not a hot rod you say?  Ok, well, then let's call it a suby rod. This blog will NOT do justice (crappy pictures, I promise better ones in the future, these were taken while giving son #3 his first ride in "daddy's suby") to how much I love this car and how excited I am to own it and drive it.  But, I'll do my best to introduce you to my new daily driver/project car, "SUBYROD" (see my MyRideisMe.com Garage HERE). Subyrod is a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX with 115,000 miles (kind of a lot I know, but it was in my budget and very clean with recent important maintenance items taken care of).  What the crap is a hot rod and custom car nut like me buying a funky car like a Subaru for?  Ok, good point... but how about a factory turbocharged and intercooled sedan with wide fender flares, all wheel...