Online Hot Rod Magazine and Custom Car Pics

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Engines I tripped over my normally aspirated tongue on the way to this insane twin turbo Dodge Viper in the K&N booth at SEMA 2010 in hot rod alley. How do you take it all in?  I was so "blown" (I'm hella funny) away that I didn't grab any overall pics or get the rest of the details. I'll leave that to our friends at Speedhunters.com: From Speedhunters: What you're looking at is a stroked 510 CI Viper V10 featuring two Bullseye Power Borg Warner T-4 80mm turbos with a MoTeC M800 Engine Management System that was calibrated by Shane Tecklenburg. The result? Roughly 2000 horse power at 12 psi. No biggie. I agree, tame and ordinary! The guys at Twins Turbo Motorsports built this beast. From their website's "About Us" page,  "Twins Turbo Motorsports specializes in fuel injected turbo systems for race and street vehicles. We have been building and setting up vehicles for competition as well as for the street since 1996." It shows and their efforts landed them a prime spot at SEMA with K&N. Read the rest of the...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Muscle Car Engines Feast your eyes on a little on cubes 4.6L DOHC Ford modular motor that's long on horsepower. The valve covers read "720 HP". What looks like a Kenne Bell supercharger rests on top of another super clean, not-a-wire-outa-place layout that totally makes the engine bay for me. That's the detail you'll find at the SEMA Las Vegas Car Show. Outside the convention halls, I spotted this slick custom Mustang Fastback. Maybe some can say if it's a 1967 or 1968 Mustang. It's got the 68 side scoops, but doesn't have the side marker lights of 68. I could see those shaved off for this car, but I'd also say the 67 side scoops aren't as attractive as the 68's. So in the best of both worlds custom car scenario, let's call this a 1967.5 Mustang Fastback! I'd like to tell you more about this car, but unlike most cars at the SEMA show, there was no show card and I didn't notice any sponsor stickers. Clean execution all the way! (too clean?)  Too busy trying to get the best coverage...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Engines This is the kind of engine that stops you in your tracks at SEMA. Among all the great rides making the SEMA car show, standing out is tough, so hats off to the "Be Cool" Bomber project 1972 Chevelle. From their show card, this is an LS1 motor punched to 388 cubic inches and built by Terry Rosebush Performance for owner Kiet Pham. Pictured right up front you'll see the ProCharger blower force feeding the custom made Hilborn fuel injection setup. It's said, "Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown."  Why not have both?! Next two photos courtesy of the Be Cool Chevelle Facebook Page The beautiful Genevieve Chappell So this is how it started. Hilborn supplied the fuel injection setup, but from there, it was all custom. The guys from the facebook page said, "The mandrel bender will be hot on Monday!" No sweat! Eight tubes all merged to one inlet, then moving backwards, you'll go through the throttle body, to the intercooler, around to the ProCharger blower and to the air cleaner. All that fits neatly under the hood....

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Muscle Car Engines Steve Strope from Pure Vision built this subtle but nasty 1969 Mustang Fastback with a Boss 502 stretched to 521 cubes and a mind blowing 805 ponies on pump gas. The motor is an all aluminum Boss 9 built by Jon Kaase Racing Engines. Kaase took the original Boss 429 head design and improved on it. Bolt it to a Ford 460 and have some fun! Couple the unmistakable Ford Boss looks with the ultra-clean under hood layout that's sitting completely under the Mustang's hood and it's no wonder it's a favorite engine at MyRideisMe.com. Learn more about the Boss 9 head design from the Kaase "Boss 9" page. Built for Anvil, makers of Camaro and Mustang carbon fiber body panels, this new Boss Mustang Fastback should be as fast as it is beautiful. Congratulations to the Pure Vision Crew and Anvil on a great new ride! The crew at Pure Vision did a great job documenting the build of the Anvil Mustang.  I'll start with the video of the the engine, then step back to the intro of the...

NHRA Drag Racing Crew Competition How can you not like Ashley Force Hood? I just found out that Ashley Force Hood and her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang funny car crew have been nominated as one of the four finalists for the 2010 Full Throttle Hard Working Crew Award. You can vote from now until the end of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season (Nov. 15). Ashley's crew was nominated for their fantastic effort the weekend of the 56th annual Mac Tools US Nationals where they won their second consecutive US Nationals Funny Car title. Please vote for Ashley and also help us spread the word. Here's a video of Ashley Force and her crew having a little fun... [youtube width="575" height="425"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQaQrk4IsVA [/youtube] Here is the link to video all the nominees and to vote for Ashley Force Hood's Castrol GTX Mustang crew for the 2010 Full Throttle Hard Working Crew Award http://www.nhra.com/hardworkingcrew/ FOLLOW JOHN FORCE RACING AT...

Famous Car Designers Say How it's Done Have you ever attended a manufacturers’ auto show and wondered what it takes to design a modern automobile? Then, Motorbooks’ new title "How to Design Cars Like a Pro", written by Tony Lewin and Ryan Borroff, is for you. This totally revised 2010 edition of the classic first released in 2003 takes you into the world of auto design. It includes interviews with top designers and top car makes such as Marek Reichman of Aston Martin and Adrian van Hooydonk of BMW. It also includes the design inspirations of such modern vehicles like the Chevrolet Camaro and the Volkswagen Scirocco. Find out what a typical week looks like for a designer by following chief designer at Land Rover, Oliver le Grice, as he goes about his week. How to Design Cars Like a Pro tries to define what makes a good design and the steps needed to get from concept to reality. I feel the best parts of the book are the chapters on "design and great designers" and "right idea, wrong time." Those two chapters are an excellent historical accounting of...

SEMA is over and that means its time for racing! I'm out at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV and there are fifty amazing vehicles competing! The competition began before this morning though - it started yesterday evening as SEMA convention saw its close. At that time all available vehicles met up and left the convention center to head down the strip. I was lucky enough to grab shotgun in a 2009 Mercedes C63 AMG. If you think Mercedes are no big deal in the race world, think again. This car tore up the road!! I've never had so much fun in Vegas! More details on the road rally portion of the race later... but this picture is just one of the many adventures we got that Mercedes into last night. Out here on the road course and motocross are all sorts of cars! From classic style hot rods, to muscle cars, to modern stuff - it's all here! I've got to get back to the racing... so much excitement and they haven't even began the 0-60-0 brake challenge! You think that Mercedes has a chance of...

SEMA Automotive Conference 2010 in Las Vegas Racing & Performance, Hot Rod Alley, Restoration Marketplace, Tools & Equipment... These are just a few of my favorite sections of the 2010 SEMA show in Las Vegas. What's a girl to do in a sea of very cool car stuff??? What every guy does of course - run around like its Christmas morning! So while I finish hitting the pavement on the showroom floor to bring ya'll more info on some very cool stuff, I wanted to at least show you a few of the reasons why people get so excited about SEMA. First of all, there's some very fun things going on in displays. I'll never tire seeing an engine put together or taken apart. Especially when that engine is a Corvette LS7 engine as seen in the top picture - as is being demonstrated all week in the Chevy booth. Ya think if I hang around enough they'll let me turn a wrench?!? Speaking of turning wrenches, the high schoolers in the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge National Championship are getting an arm up on wrenching experience. These...

SEMA Car Show - Custom Cars that Rocked Las Vegas Troy Ladd from Hollywood Hot Rods showed strong up in the massive Ford display at SEMA. Ford has the best booth in the central hall overlooking the rest of Hot Rod Alley every year and always has great, new and old. That must be why they featured the vintage 427 SOHC motor in this Brookville bodied 32 Roadster Pickup. Fooled you too! That's not a cammer motor, that's Ford racing's 5.0L "Coyote" motor dressed up and cleaned up to look like my favorite vintage powerplant. Troy's a wizard at having the cleanest engines showing only minimal signs of the high-tech equipment on board. It's no show piece either! Look for more pictures of this Raybestos roadster at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Straying as far away from the hot rod above as we can, dig this custom Lexus. What's old is new and there's no mistaking the hot rod or kustom car influence on this suede painted Lexus. Also note the ground scrapping airride assisted stance and the door handles shaved for the back doors, but not the...

First Gen Camaro Parts from SEMA 2010 Some of the displays at SEMA are overwhelming. Too many colors on banners flying everywhere and every part in the catalog cluttering up the booth make it hard to find anything, let alone the cool new parts for your first gen Camaro. Then I found Marquez Design. I noticed the billet gas caps above shown elegantly in the mostly black booth filled with just the right number of slick looking original designs for late-60's to early-70's muscle cars and trucks. With the LS and LSX crate motor's reliability and stout performance filling the engine bays of go-fast-turn-hard g-machines and pro-touring rides that never were real RS or SS Camaros, the LS badge fits perfectly. I asked founder and cheif designer Pascual Marquez about how he got started and he walked me over to the center billet Camaro taillight above. Back in 2003, Marquez was an admin guy that likes cars. Bored with his job and filled with desire, he created Marquez Design and put out his first Camaro taillight. That's all it took. As orders poured in, part designs and product lines were added,...

New Performance Parts from SEMA 2010 If you're too distracted by the lovely Genevieve Chappell to see the new high performance brake pads she's holding, you're probably in the right place for SEMA coverage for 2010 from MyRideisMe.com. Cruising the massive SEMA convention halls for new performance parts and the hottest new rides, I stopped in at EBC to say hi to Genevieve and learned about "Bluestuff" brake pads. Bluestuff is the name of EBC's newest whoa-enhancing product, the "Worlds first race pad that can be used on the street." Always curious, I asked why? Andy Freeman, their marketing director, CEO and chief technical writer filled me in... Turns out, racing brake pads are designed to stop a car in short bursts from high speeds, like from 130 to 80 MPH, negotiate the turn, then you're back on the loud pedal waiting as long as you can to hit the brakes again. Repeat as needed. For a track only car, no problem, but do you want to change brake pads before you go home? If you're a "track day" competitor and you're flogging your daily driver, that's just not...

1969 Mustang - The Ultimate Street, Drift, Track Car Our friends at Speedhunters.com just released the first photo of the finished 1969 Mustang RTR-X!  It is debuting or just debuted at SEMA 2010 an hour or so ago.  Much info has been shared about the design process that Team Need For Speed at EA Games on Speedhunters.com. Check out Build Progress and pictures. The quick rundown of this ride can be found in the Drifting + Pro-Touring story here.  Thank you Vaughn Gittin Jr (2010 Formula Drift Champion) and Andy Blackmore (Speedhunters.com graphic artist) for dreaming up this...