Run to the Pines - 2009 The 26th annual "Run to the Pines" car show was this past September 25th, 26th, & 27th, up in Pinetop, Arizona. It's a great getaway for a fun car show up in the cool pines. We had a good time, as usual, and the weather was perfect! The car show was fully booked again. The limit is 550 cars, so it fills up pretty fast. Even though most of the cars are from Arizona, there is a pretty good showing of cars from New Mexico, as well.  Money from this show goes to local charities in the White Mountain area. The Run to the Pines car show has donated over $220,000 over the years, to special needs in the community. The event kicks off Friday afternoon with a “Cavalcade of Cars”, where car show participants meet up at a place in Show Low, then cruise from there and parade through Pinetop to the Hon-Dah Casino, just outside Pinetop. Once there, they have a “Welcome Party” with free Bar-B-Q, door prizes, music, and live entertainment. Saturday is the main “Show & Shine” with lots of cool...

It's easy to like iconic muscle cars like a Mustang, especially when it's a true Shelby. Add to that it's an original Hertz Shelby and I'm a little more curious. Without much effort, I can see a young man strolling up the Hertz counter (long before internet reservations!) and asking for a 1966 Mustang GT 350H.  "Yes, I would like the optional insurance." If you've seen a perfectly restored 350H or any Shelby Mustang, they're obviously valuable and visually, they're cool. You're likely to see one a concours show or more likely at auction. But for me, (and I hope most of you) I look twice when it's driven! I wanna hear it run! Beyond that, there's the rarest of rare: The unrestored racing Shelby. The first unrestored race Shelby I saw was out of pure luck. I was invited to an anniversary celebration for Bob Bondurant at the Bondurant Racing School of High Performance Driving. A treat in itself no doubt.  We drove the Mustangs he had back then (the 'stangs were later replaced by Corvettes) then he gave an interesting talk. After, we all went outside to...

Steve McDonough's  ''67 Camaro Pics by Chuck Vranas Words by Keith Harman Steve McDonough, an electrician from Pembroke, Massachusetts, had the right idea when he contacted his local hot rod shop, Competition Specialties (www.competition-specialties.com) in Walpole, near Boston, about carrying out some work on his Chevy Camaro. Originally, Steve approached C.S. owner Peter Newell, about simply laying some flames on the car once a friend had painted it, but that plan was soon to change however, once he saw just what Competition Specialties were all about. Peter formed the company over ten years ago and since then through quality construction, fabrication and paintwork, it is now regarded as one of the top specialist car builders in the North Eastern USA, with many show winning cars to its name. After a few ideas were discussed between Steve and Peter, it was decided to turn the old Camaro into a total show stopper, nothing was to be too good for this car, and all the stops were definitely going to be pulled out! It's difficult to know where to start when describing this car as so much has gone into it,...

Leave a comment below... Why should you win? That's all there is to it! Want to add a little "Frank Bullitt" style to your late model Mustang?  AmericanMuscle has just the accessory for you!  The slick looking aluminum Bullitt gas cap is the first modification you need before you start jumping your 'stang on the streets of San Fran' a la Steve McQueen. MyRideisMe.com provides the installation guide of a Bullitt gas cap on a 1994 Dark Green Mustang GT (McQueen would dig it!).  The Mustang you see here might look subtle but it packs a punch at the dragstrip, with its horseman banging the gears to a best of 12.85 @ 106mph on 8" slicks and stock motor and cam.  This Bullitt gas cap will let those Camaros know this is no ordinary pony. Follow along as we take you through the installation.  It's very straight forward and can be done by a novice with simple hand tools in about 30-45 minutes. Step 1: Open the box and make sure everything is accounted for and in good shape (nuts, studs, lock nuts, washers, magnets, cap and ring).  AmericanMuscle is pretty good about getting you a good...

1966 Mustang Fastback - Pro-Touring Budget "I bought a 1966 Mustang Fastback out of a junk yard for $400. Thought I would challenge myself to build as exotic a g-machine as possible for $5000. "   It sounds impossible, anti-Pro-Touring even. MyRideisMe.com asked Ron Schwarz, owner/builder of this Grabber Blue beauty, to share his 5 Tips with our readers. He tells it like no one else can. This guy is hilarious! There are some killer classic quotes here. Stick to these 5 Tips below and you too can build your own budget dream ride.   1. Choose The Right Car Your car has to be affordable, but still turn you on. If it doesn’t keep your interest it will be just another project that doesn’t get finished. Choose a car you can get cheap parts for, period.   2. Do your homework The mods on this Mustang were done with factory (Ford and GM) parts from performance models/sports cars. The front suspension is all C5 Corvette parts; great handling, big brakes, relatively cheap, and fairly easy to come by.   3. Choose The Right Drivetrain. Find a drivetrain that...

Pro-Touring Hot Rod Comet   Pro-Touring? Does this sound like grandma cruisin' Route 66 in a Mercury Marquis? Try Again! For those hiding out in your garage working on your own hot rod in the last 5 years, Pro-Touring cars are classic muscle cars modified to be driven hard with modern hot rodding technology.   Call it Pro-Touring or G-Machine, everything on these tricked out rides is upgraded and modern: Late model or aftermarket suspension, big horsepower engine, and body mods to fit those giant wheels with low profile tires and big brakes. New school muscle with old school style. Buckle up.   OK, let's have a look-see at Josh Martin's 1965 Pro-Touring Mercury Comet Caliente then shall we? A few magazines are planning to feature this track day-ready Comet, but the details are not set. In the meantime, MyRideisMe.com delivers the latest and greatest in hot rodding. We say, why wait? Type in your email address over on the left and you'll receive stories like this right to your inbox.   Filling you in on the Comet build then, meet car owner, Josh Martin.   MyRideisMe: All dream...

Local small town car shows and cruise-ins are at the heart of the American Hot Rodding hobby. Layton, Utah is a good example. The cars at this show cover the gamut of usual suspects along with some nice surprises. This show is a monthly event during the summer months and is part of the JC Hackett's Rock-n-Roll Cruisin' Oldies car show tour in northern Utah and surrounding area.  The 2009 Calendar can be found on the site in Excel. I hope you dig these photos. Check out the gallery below. I was toting around my 3 sons (ages 6, 4 and 2), so I didn't get to stop and talk to any car owners and get more info on my favorites. Gotta pass on the hot rod blood, right!? Have you gone to a local cruise in spot or a big national hot rod event yet this year? If so and you took some pics, let us know about it. We'd like to see what the hot rodding scene is doing in your neck of the woods. [gallery =...

YORBA LINDA, CA (April 2, 2009) --- John Force Racing, headquartered in Yorba Linda, Calif., will be expanding its tradition of giving back to the community beginning April 25th when the first of seven John Force Cruise Night Car Shows will be held. Participants and spectators at the John Force Cruise Night Car Shows are being encouraged to bring a can of food that will be donated to the Orange County Food Bank. For each can donated a raffle ticket will be distributed good for a chance to win a 52" Sanyo Flat Screen TV. If participants bring one can of food they get one ticket if they bring twenty cans of food they get twenty tickets or chances to win. The raffle will be held on Halloween at the final John Force Cruise Night Car Show of the season. "In December we have built up a tradition of giving toys to kids in need with the John Force Holiday Car Show that benefits the California Highway Patrol's "CHiP's for Kids" program. During these tough economic times we felt that we needed to do something for our community right...

Don Garlits' Bad Drag Pack Challenger Story Submitted by John C. Hill or MoparMagic Don Garlits to compete in 2009! Don Garlits has planned a comeback to drag racing for 2009, his 60th anniversary competing on the nation's drag strips. Is he going to run a new Top Fuel car? The answer is no. Neither his doctor nor his wife will ever let him run an NHRA competitive Top Fuel car again. After countless thousands of parachute stops at the end of 300mph runs, the retinas in Don's eyes had become detached. Further racing of this type could have caused permanent blindness. So, what is Don going to run this year? Well, as a long time Mopar representative, Mopar stepped up and has allowed Don to purchase the first Dodge Challenger equipped with the Drag Pak. For those of you thinking a factory backed "Drag Pak" was a dream, it ain't! Based on the 6.1L equipped hot rod SRT8, the drag pak Challenger will be eligible to run in NHRA's Super Stock, Stock, and Comp Eliminator. Garlits will run his Drag Pak Challenger in NHRA Division 2, but right...

Brandon over at AmericanTorque.com sent over some info about a fun game that tests your knowledge of American V8 Engines. Here's how the idea got started: One night when I was a kid my Dad and I were at a dirt track watching the Sprint Cars racing, and he pointed out which cars had Chevy engines and which had Fords. How could he tell from the bleachers? He explained that you could tell by the spacing of the header tubes. The Fords were evenly spaced and the Chevys were not (the middle two exhaust ports are right next to each other on the Chevy small-block). Years later, I'm thinking of ideas for an automotive trivia game, and it hits me - make a game where you identify an engine from a photo. Soon after my first engine ID game was born. After hearing feedback from players of that game I made another engine ID game, and more games are on the way. You can check them out at: http://www.americantorque.com/game/ This one pictured's too easy. AmericanTorque.com's get tougher... much tougher! If you can't figure this one out, don't bother! Please...

Written By: Bill Stinson, published with permission. Bill wrote this story in May of 2006, but it wasn't until 2007 when I first saw the Silver 1967 (not 68) Plymouth GTX known as the Silver Bullet. The undisputed "King of Woodward Ave" drew a crowd for days at the legengary Woodward Avenue cruise and stirred up quite a controversy when there were two of them! (that's another story about the Silver Bullet) Please enjoy this story from a man who was there and knew the owner of the Silver Bullet, Jimmy Addison. The Passing of a Legend I first met Jimmy Addison around 1961. The McKay family lived down the street from me, and of the five kids in that family, there were the twins, Gloria and Gerri (Geraldine). They were (and are) about four years older than me. One of them (Gloria) had a suitor who drove a cool ’60 Chevy convertible, black with a white top, red and white interior, packin’ a hopped-up 348 4-speed. That car was named “Restless”. Jimmy and his friend Ted White raced the car on the street and at the strip and...

Drawing of a Car That Looks Like a Photo I've been pleasantly surprised by the European hot rodders that have made their way to MyRideisMe.com. This story is about a new member, Alan Brightmore from Manchester, United Kingdom. His member name is Slammed56 cause he's added an in the weeds 56 Volkswagon Panel Bus. Not long after joining, I found out Alan's quite an artist, or is he a photographer? Look closely at the image to the left. Is that a picture? No. It's an amazingly realistic looking pencil drawing! What follows was written by Alan about his work. Please say hello in Alan's Garage and add him to your crew. Ok, brief history first of all and you could say I got into the artwork 'seriously' kinda by accident. Having always had a natural talent for drawing from an early age (left school at age 16 with a grade A in art/photography) I just drew for fun really and never even entertained the idea that I could actually sell some of my work. Well, years went by and the artwork eventually became secondplace to 'real' jobs and spare...