Nitro Burning Model A Ford Coupe Twin blown 1930 Ford Coupe ready to run Nitro as seen at the 2009 So-Cal open house in Pomona, CA When Canada natives Ken and his partner Frank Bevacqua from Top Ten Hot Rods and Customs build a hot rod, they follow their motto: "Bad Done Good". That exactly describes their ground pounding, nitro burning, fuel injected, hemi powered, twin McCulloch blown, tube frame 1930 Ford Coupe. Do I have your attention? Built as Top Ten's calling card of badness, Frank told me he loves the funny cars and front engine diggers you usually see at the popular cacklefest events, but where are the coupes? At drag races and for the first time at the 2009 LA Roadster Show, cacklefests are awesome. If you've never seen and more importantly heard a "cacklefest" then you're missing out. Imagine 5-20 nitromethane or "fuel" burning beasts from the not-forgotten yester-year of drag racing's lined up, and lit up, usually at night or just dusk to see the signature yellow flames shooting from the exhaust pipes. You know you're in the right place when the push cars...

Bonneville Salt Flats: 2008's Pictures: I'm a little intimidated to tackle a story that even has the words: Salt Flats, Bonneville, and Speed Week included. The 2008 Speed Week day-trip I made last year was only my second time on the salt in Bonneville, the "Fastest Place On Earth" as the Bonneville Speed Week website declares. I wanted to share a few words and pictures from that day. I made the 1.5 hour drive out to Bonneville International Raceway with my good'ol 1959 JC Higgins rat rod cruiser pedal bike. The Bonneville salt-essentials strapped on the rear rack: bottles of water, sunflower seeds, sunblock and the old point and shoot camera. You need a bike just to get around the pit area. Why you ask? The pit area is 3 miles long and about 2 miles from the starting line!!! I spent most of my time near the starting line and in the pits soaking in sun, salt and of course the coolest "Car Show/Cruise-In" ever! OK, so there's no official car show, but that's what I call it. There are a few hundred old roadsters, coupes, muscle cars,...

Hot Rod Model A Shop Truck     The post man doesn't go for a walk on his day off and hot rod builders, painters and upholstery guys never get a chance to finish their own cars. That's almost a rule! That's why it's my pleasure to show you the finished product when they do. This is th 1932 Hot Rod "Shop Truck" is owned by Glenn Kramer of Hot Rod Interiors, located in Glendale Arizona. Glenn says, "I've been doing upholstery since 1980, and decided the best ride for me would be an all around hot rod shop truck that I could use for work & play." If you can't reach Glenn at his website, or cruising his cool new shop truck at the Mesa Cruise or downtown on Central, then head over to his website at hotrodinteriorsbyglenn.com or give him a call at 623-872-2242. Glenn will be the guy grinning ear to ear when you see him and his wife cruising all over in the shop truck. Way to go Glenn! [gallery =...

As a Viva LasVegas car show virgin, I drove blindly into a sea of horseshit opinions about what the Rockabilly Weekender is... without first hand experience, I checked and heard varying opinions about the show, especially about what I'm most interested in, the strolling pinups... no, scratch that, the hot rods! Just like the saying goes, everyone's got an opinion and I have to say, most of what I heard STANK! Living in Arizona, and only about 5 hours from Las Vegas, I decided to roll up and check for myself. (so here's my opinion... keep the air-freshener handy) First off, what had I heard about the Viva Las Vegas Car Show or "Rockabilly Weekender" as it's called? I heard the quality of cars sucked. NOT true. I heard it wasn't a fun crowd. Also not true. Then, even though I'm not a big rockabilly fan, I did enjoy the music... and I only got to hear what was played outside at the car show. About the rides... The cars I found were almost all right up my alley. Nobody goes to a car show and only finds what...

I can never get too much Nostalgia Funny Car racing! If you can, then maybe you ain't right. When I saw that Lisa Jennings was promoting Funny car fever at my old "home track" of Sacramento Raceway, I wanted to help, so here's some info for you die-hard cracklefest-ing nostalgia drag racing folks! Funny Car Fever Is Back with it's first 16 Funny Car Field At Sacramento Raceway. The 28th Annual Funny Car Fever is back April 24th - 25th at Sacramento Raceway Park. 619 Promotions has added a new marketing partner… Mickey Thompson Performance Tire and Wheels. "Having such a valuable marketing partner as Mickey Thompson, has made it possible to put on the first ever 16 nitro funny car elimination field at Sacramento Raceway Park, giving the fans twice the show of last year’s event." said Lisa Jennings at 619 Promotions. "We are looking forward to working with Mickey Thompson on this historical event and hope this turns into a long partnership that benefits us both in the years to come." Mickey Thompson will have a fully manned support trailer on hand at Funny Car Fever at...

I met Jean Marie at the Grand National Roadster Show in January 2009. His card had a stunning photo on it and it said he does pinup photography, so we started chatting. See all the photos he shared with MyRideisMe.com in his Hot Rod Photo Gallery 43 year old Jean-Marie Michalski grew up in a town called Perwez in Belgium, as the single child of Jean Michalski, a now famous artist & painter. His father Jean Michalski was born in Belgium in 1936. At 12 years old, Jean and his friends attempted to climb up an electricity pole to better see a soccer game. Jean lost his balance, fell off the pole and was electrocuted with 12,000 volts. The injury and subsequent complications led to the amputation of both arms. After the accident, Jean was placed in a rehabilitative institution for three years, where he learned to write with his mouth. When Jean was 16 years old, the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (AMFPA) contacted his mother, and Founder Erich Stegmann visited the family’s home to recruit Jean as a student artist. The Association assisted with tuition...

Trying something new here... is it helpful to the MyRideisMe.com readers to have all of the blogs I think are interesting/cool/worth a look all located on one page here? You'll be leaving my site, but that's ok... I don't have all the info or answers, so go ahead!...

When you intend to compete for America's Most Beautiful Roadster (the AMBR) at the Grand National Roadster Show, you're asking for trouble. The time, planning, design and let's face it, high octane dollars required to build an AMBR contender make it a mission for only the top shops in the country. The folks at The Hot Rod Garage asked for "Double Trouble" and that's what they got by ignoring the lessons learned by recent AMBR winners. Past winners were modern-style show cars with custom milled billet goodies, one-off hand made body panels and alligator skinned interiors. Not for the guys at Hot Rod Garage, for them, it wasn't enough to make a show car, it had to have "Show & Go!" The trouble first started when Steve Kormondy had a Brookville roadster body and an all aluminum, brand spanking new Ardun derived flathead sitting, waiting for the right project. Deuce roadster body, Ardun flathed... yea, that's trouble! Not long after, Steve and the rest of the gang at The Hot Rod Garage out of Sand Springs, Oklahoma decided to pull in hot rod designer and illustrator, Jimmy Smith to...

2008 Grand National Roadster Show Winner It's official, at least it was at about 7:30 Pacific Coast time, 1/25/2009. The "Hot Rod Special" built by Willet Specials in Chicago is the winner of the 2009 America's Most Beautiful Roadster title. Except for being able to roll forwards and back under their own power, the judging for the AMBR title is like "Riding a unicycle on wallpaper". (I don't know what that means either.) Let's hope the judges do cause they're looking for "excellence". That part couldn't be a simpler task, really, given that the level of competition for the AMBR is ridiculous. Pretty much every car in the main hall (not just the AMBR contenders) is a "Best of Show" winner at a regular show, but this is the "Granddaddy of them all" the Grand National Roadster show. When excellence abounds, the judges are forced to find something, "wrong" with the cars. Now there's a task! Every year, however, a winner is chosen and regardless of any complaining, "AMBR winner" is something that can never be taken away. (even if the car later appears topless in Playboy... in fact,...

There's too many rocking hot rods... the customs... they're oozing coolness into the ultra-chromed and engraved super-show low riders. It's too much and perfect all at once. The aftermath is several hundred photos of who knows how many of the toughest cars anywhere. This is the Grand-daddy of them all, the 60th annual, Grand National Roadster Show. We're still arranging the hot rod and custom car pics and all there is to say from the Arizona crew that attended the 2009 Grand National Roadster Show. Starting out, we hit the road for Pomona on Saturday at 2 AM then we motored non-stop the whole weekend to try and take it all in. Only the mariachi band provided some relief. The pictures we took from the show are now loaded: Hot Rods and Customs from GNRS So stay tuned for these stories. The American's Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) winner: The Harry Willett of Willett Specials built "Hot Rod Special" (pictured here) - Read it now: "Hot Rod Special" AMBR Winner in Pictures & Video Nihon in the house! A Japanese magazines, blog and a pinstriper were in town for the...

I expect a hot rod driver or builder to know who Boyd Coddington was. Like him or not, there's no denying his influence on style and the budget of custom cars, especially the one-off rides built for his TV show, "American Hot Rod". His death almost 1 year ago shocked the custom car world. It looked like there were alot more hot rods and cars that I'll call "regular" at the 2009 Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona this year. What the heck is regular? Well, I just mean they're somewhat obtainable by more then just wealthy collectors out there. I guy with a dream who's been saving for a while might have a shot. With the "dreamers" and the collectors all gathered at Barrett Jackson, how many knew who Boyd Coddington? Quite a few! Case in point are 2 hot rods sold on Saturday at Barret Jackson. The first is this neo-classic styled: chopped, red and flamed but with billet (of course Boyd's) wheels, 1932 Ford 3 window coupe. A great looking, no-expense-spared car, no doubt, but was it worth the $200k it sold for? (without commissions) Who...

It's about time I update everyone on the interior upholster on my 27 Ford Roadster. Now that the interior is done, is it a rat rod? I didn't really think it was before, but who really cares. Now it's got car carpet, a full seat and even sound insulation! The interior was done by Todd over at "The interior Shop" in Phoenix. Todd was challenged by the inside of the modified roadster because there isn't really much to secure the interior to and there's also some funny compound curves. In the end, I think it came out great! It looks like leather, but it's not. It's a distressed looking vinyl that's perfect. When I put paint on, it's gonna be cool and not your every day blood red. Below are the rest of the shots. Thanks to everyone that voted for "option B" as drawn by Jimmy Smith from Jimmyshotroddesign.com. Here's the link to that story if you missed it: 27 Roadster Interior you chose...