It's no wonder there are a ton of 2.3 engines out there making power. They're one of the top engines for Ministock racing, we knew that, and there's a few companies making go-fast parts for them like Esslinger (http://esslingerengineering.com/) and Racer Walsh (http://racerwalsh.zoovy.com/). We've even got a near fanatical following for the turbo 2.3's over at turboford.org. But, I had no idea folks like Dennis Wright were racing these Pinto 'bangers in hydroplanes! I met Dennis over on the HAMB board. He was responding to my post about this finned aluminum valve cover I designed. I think the market for it would be big enough to manufacture it for profit, but I'm busy working on other things, like MyRideisMe.com! Dennis wrote the info below in an email and said I could post it with a few pics. This isn't a car or a bike, but you'll see by reading, this story fits: My Ride is Me. The 2.5L stock class boats have the letter "S" designation with the boat number. Most "S" boats these days use the Ford 2300. The motors are basically the pure stock version of the...

If you want to have some funny on the net, type in Nostalgia Drag Racing. From wild fuel altereds to stockers banging 4 speeds to top fuel funny cars, I like it all! No delay boxes or throttle stops there, just honest drag racing. I can't get enough. So stumbling around, I found Army Armstrong of The Funny Factory. You ever wonder who builds the bodies for the growing wave of nostalgia racers? You found it. The Funny Factory's got a short but impressive list of funny car bodies and it sounds like they're growing. Here's what Army had to say about his business: We were mainly racers so I guess the funny factory was kind of an accident. We mainly wanted to race a 1969 Charger bodied F/C but settled for a 1972 Vega body. Nothing against Vega's, but we really wanted to be different so the search went on for a few more months with no luck. During the search, we heard a rumor of a Charger mold hiding in Chicago. With a few phone calls we were on a road trip to get the mold... Once...

Check out the debut of our newest guest photographer, Bubba Harmon from West Virginia. Bubba's gonna help us hit some of the eastern shows, races and get togethers that we'd otherwise miss while the company jet is being repaired. (yea right!) After you're done checking out Bubba's pictures in the gallery, you can take a look at his website: Bubba's Toy Box or have a look in his garage here at MyRideisMe.com (Bubba's garage space). He's got a wicket Hearse! Written by Bubba: Summit Point Motorsports Park, located 70 miles west of Washington, DC, in Summit Point, WV is host to many club and specialty racing events. With three tracks to choose from there is something happening almost every weekend for sports cars, motorcycles, and/or karts. Summit Point seems to be the Mid-Atlantic area’s place to go for club activity with Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Corvette, and even Morgan sports car clubs holding events at the park. The schedule can look like alphabet soup at times with WERA, EMRA, CCA, SCCA, and ASRA all holding events here. Want to learn to drive? BSR, Inc. (the owner of the facilities) has...

On April 16 Hendrik von Kuenheim announced that BMW will be building enough S1000RR's for homologation into World Superbike. He did not mention too much about the machine, except what is obvious. It's an inline 4, chain drive with front forks rather than any kind of superduperparatelepythagorian-lever design that they have developed. There is no telling what the price tag might be for one of these beauties. They talk about being competitive with the Japanese manufacturers. However, it was not clear whether that means a $45k bike like the Honda RC's of old or a $15k bike like any of todays superbike base machines. This is great for WSBK, but probably not so good for the regrouping of AMA SBK. I'm sure there will be plenty more information to come, but they just gave us a teaser! Enjoy the pictures for...

Lead and some content for this story courtesy of Ford Media. Without a doubt, John Force Racing is the team I'm routing for on Sundays. 3 of the 4 Force teams are in the Top 10 with Ashley Force at #1! Ashley made history Sunday at the NHRA Funny Car race in Las Vegas, Nev when she drove her Castrol GTX Mustang to the final round and jumped up four spots in the standings to #1. She's the first woman to ever lead the Funny Car standings after an event. It was Ashley Force’s second appearance in an event final in as many weeks and the third appearance in her last six starts. She remains the only female driver ever to reach a Funny Car final. I hope this made John Force feel a little better after failing to qualify for the Vegas race. I wonder if John's thinking of gambling instead of racing. He ended his streak of qualifying at 393 in Vegas. That mark will never be broken. John, you're still my man! In case you didn't know, Ashely's ROLLING! She was the 2007 AOL Hottest Female...

The term 'American Motorcycle' is synonymous with large, 45 degree V-Twins made for cruising the highways. When talks about American, they mean Harley-Davidson or Indian. Recently there are a number of small, independent companies that are attempting to take back the performance motorcycle category which all this American iron founded at the beginning of the last century. Everyone knows the story of Buell. Great ideas and interesting bikes but that Harley powerplant is the Achille's heel. Having finally admitted that fact, they will soon be moving over to Rotax engines which KTM also relies on. There are, however, some that you probably have never heard of. Fischer Motor Company, for example, produces the Hyosung powered MRX (designed by Glynn Kerr, I believe). The company offers an interesting a la carte approach to building your new bike that I find appealing. You can pick up the base model for about $8k and build up from there. Order it equipped with Ohlins suspension and carbon fiber bodywork if you like, which is unheard of in dealerships for any other company. Unfortunately, I think they may missed class the day they taught...

Lister Race Car Replica When creating MyRideisMe.com, one of the many tasks we had was to make a list of every make and model car. During that process, I learned there are alot of car makes I've never heard of. Let's not debate if a "Kit Car" is a make or not cause in this case, the kit is bad ass and one I wanted to know more about. I ran into Steve Breckley (not Bob Gribble as I said) at a day cruise in in downtown Chandler and this 1958 Lister Replica. So what the heck is a Lister? Brian Lister built these high powered race cars first in 1954. Thanks to The Jaguar Club of America and this LINK we can tell more of the story. In 1956, a fire destroyed the Jaguar factory which meant that top racers like Briggs Cunningham had no successor to the D-Type, which was already beginning to show it's age at the track. Enter the Lister. Impressed by Lister's success, Jaguar offered Lister sponsorship and access to a supply of D-Type engines. To house the Jag motor, Lister built a lightweight...

This blog, "Mayhem on Main Street" Rampage Altered Wheelbase Dart Hits the Highway was written by Steve Magnante. He took the photos too! Rather than trying to run down every driver on the information superhighway, the guys from Moparmax.com, MaxChevy.com and Dragracingonline.com pulled over to share a story with MyRideisMe.com. All three online magazines are great... That is if you like wheels up racing action! Take a look and tell'm MyRideisMe.com sent ya! Now for some altered wheelbase fun! Begin Mayhem on Main Street When is a car buildup finished? To some the answer to that question is never as continual upgrades are expected for as long as they own the car. But for me, I m the type that pretty much has a vision of what I want the car to be, how I want it to run and what I want it to look like. So when it is finished, I m the first to know. But in the case of the altered wheelbase 63 Dart I ve been chipping away at here for the last year or so, I m breaking my own rules. I've performed...

I just got off the phone with Glenn Stephenson, founder and official torch holder for the CNTA or California, Nevada Timing Association. This drag racing club was founded in 1939 and met at the track for club races continuously until about 1970 when the popularity of professional drag racing made it tough for the hobbyists to compete. Glenn is a long time friend of my Pops. I wanted to let all the CNTA members know this reunion's happening cause as Glenn said, "Since the 1999 reunion, those guys are all dying, so this might be the last one!" The details are this: March 15th, 2008 at the Richmond Rod & Gun Club in Richmond, CA For any other info, you should contact Glenn Stephenson or his wife Karen at 510-237-4238. I took notes the best I could and I hope to get more info from the reunion from Pops and his buddy Harry, but to fill you in on a few details, the CNTA was a group of racers that had an organized schedule of where they'd run. They'd rotate tracks, Baylands in Fremont, Cotati, Vaca Valley, Half Moon...

Out of all the days... It rains here 0.8" on average in February in "sunny" Chandler, Arizona, but for some sick, demented and just play wrong reason, it had to rain on my vacation day at the NHRA Nationals. Why not rain on some damn golf event! 26 days of rain a year! That's all we get... It's a fact. 7% for the math challenged... 7 days out of 100. I guess I'm just lucky. I did have a good time though! Hang'n at a track is always fun. My buddy Dave (click for his garage) races a 1974 Vega in Super Street. Lucky me had a dry trailer to hang in and I got to bring the 12 pack and the Carl's Jr. Just in case you're wondering, a "Combo meal with a side of hamburger" isn't a joke. It means get an extra burger or Joe's (click for his garage) gonna be hungry. Somehow we survived with a 4-buck hot dog to ease the hunger pain. Dave wasn't so lucky, or was he? After his shake down run, he felt his powerglide slipping. (Was that the name...

We built a new 496 c.i. engine for my dragster in Jan 06, got it race ready Feb, then found the bad fuel pump. Much to my sadness, I lost my sponsor (my wife, whose company moved to St. Louis leaving us financially unable to race. THANKS DEAR!), so I had to put my racing on hold for a while. Boy do I need a sponsor! The months were very long with all the races rained out and not being able to afford to go racing when Rick Rogers from HammerHead Racing came to me in September and asked if he could put his girlfriend Jennifer Luna in my car to get her supercomp license. I told him the fuel pump was junk and he offered to get one. DONE DEAL, WE’RE GOING RACING!. We arrive at Bakersfield’s Famoso Raceway for a test and tune on Friday afternoon. We set up the pit and prepped the car for a warm up. Rick and the crew decided that I will make a couple shake down runs first as the car hasn’t been down the track since last November, and now...

Here’s more information from our new friends at Ford Media. I’m thinking low production hot rods like this new Shelby will strike a cord with the MyRideisMe.com faithful. If this isn’t your cup of tea, let us know… (Click on any picture to see it full size) Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the original Shelby Cobra GT500KR, Ford and Shelby collaborate on a new ‘King of the Road’ Mustang with the 2008 Shelby GT500KR. Shelby GT500KR features an estimated 540-hp 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 with a Ford Racing Power Upgrade Pack, 3.73:1 rear axle ratio, short-throw shifter, and unique suspension tuning. Exterior design draws inspiration from the classic Shelby KR Mustangs and features unique carbon composite hood, wheels, and special 40th Anniversary badging and unique striping. Shelby GT500KR arrives in spring 2008 in an exclusive run of only 1000 units. DEARBORN, Mich., March 30 - Ford and Shelby Automobiles are at it again, this time in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the 1968 Shelby Cobra GT500KR. To be unveiled at the 2007 New York International Auto Show, the 2008 Shelby GT500KR—the most powerful Mustang to date—will once again mark...