History of Billetproof - The Original Fifteen years ago Kirk Jones and Jay Ward had a idea. The idea was to create a car show with unique, hand-crafted trophies and to express the growing old school hot rod movement. They held their first new car show at the Albany Bowl in Albany, CA. In attendance was 26 traditional cars and about 100 friends. The music was provided by The Stillman in the bowling alley's tiny, packed lounge. The year was 1997 and the show was simply named Billetproof. In 1998 on a rainy day at the Albany Bowl attendance jumped to 63 rods and the venue was busting at the seams. Billetproof was ready for a bigger venue. The next year in 1999 Billetproof thought they had found a new and bigger home. The MLK Jr. Waterfront Park in Oakland, CA. Right on the water, with grassy areas to relax in and fully equipped with built in BBQ's to cook on, the park seemed twice as big as they needed... Wrong! On this beautiful sunny day in Oakland, 129 choice hot rods and customs filled the parking lots to...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures When you hear the circus is in town your first thought is of the big top, right? Well I asked my two daughters what was the first thing that came to mind when I said, "The circus is coming to town." My youngest who's four said, "Chuck Chuck the Clown" and my oldest who's eleven said, "A big parade of people". This is the funny cause I'm sitting in my backyard writing this story as it's happening... So I ask my girls what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say, The Circus of the Wicked is coming to town? Lets listen in for their response: My youngest says, "The chicken on SNL." OK. My oldest,"Sounds like a cool name for a car show." No, I'm not pulling your leg, that's what she said. There you have it, as I lead into this feature on the Circus of the Wicked car & bike show at Holeshot Choppers in Sacramento,CA. The host car club or should I say "ringleaders" for this event were, none other than, Relentless CC. Upon my...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Midnight Mass #8 This year I thought I would go against what I was hearing about Midnight Mass and experience it for myself. For some reason Midnight Mass was getting a bad wrap for the past couple of years. Yeah, there has been some drama inside the Poor Boys car club but really, what club doesn't have a little drama here and there. Mostly when rumors are spread it just makes it 10x worse by the time it reaches it's final destination. This year marks number 8 for Midnight Mass and it was held at Gibson Ranch out in Sacramento, CA. Generally, this show is held from 5:00pm till midnight, hence Midnight Mass. Calendar-wise it's also held at the end of July. So if you are not familiar with Sacramento, especially at the end of July, I would like to give you a heads up for future summer shows out in this area... bring a ton of sun screen and enough water to fill a 50 gallon drum! Simply... it's hot. Which is pretty smart thinking by the Poor Boys CC...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Nite of the Hot Rods #5 107.7 The Bone Rock Girl Brittany Cervantes 11:05 am on Saturday morning I was in the back yard pulling some unwanted weeds and up in the skies were some wicked black and grey clouds just looming over the city of Concord, CA. As I had 10,000 years by High on Fire running through my head and anticipating the sky to rip open at any second I pondered the thought of, "How cool would it be if the weather stayed like this for the show tonight?" Meaning, the 5th Annual Nite of the Hot Rods at the Riverview Lodge in Antioch, CA. The day went on and the thunderhead started to disappear the closer it got to show time. Reason why I thought it would be cool that the weather stayed that way is because the show, like every year is held on the pier at the lodge, but this year there was something different in the air, something a bit weird. Kind of like that feeling you get when you walk into a room and...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" 2011 Strangers Car Show I would like to start off by saying the Strangers Car show and BBQ is a special show in many ways. One, it's a family show for us here at the N/K residence. The whole family piles in to the wagon and heads down 680 south in route for San Jose's Kelly park. Dave,my bro-in-law and his son roll in for the festivities. It's a family affair gig. We all park it in the same place right behind the raffle booth every year under one of the many shade trees in the park. Throw the blanket down, kick out the chairs and the girls spew out all their toys for the day. Two, it's the headliner of a double dip show weekend. On that Saturday is Gambino's Sit Down custom car show in San Jose which is always a dandy. Then you have the Strangers on Sunday. Which in my opinion is one of the highly anticipated and blockbuster weekends of the summer for shows. Third, it marks my...

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....

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...