Hot Rods and Cool Classics at 2011 VLV Car Show Who knew Viva Las Vegas began as a music festival? Heck...we're only interested in the cars! What I love about rockabilly car shows - is you get a little bit of everything. VLV14 in 2011 is no exception. From barely running to nearly show quality and everything in between... it'll be at Viva! This slammed three-window was a-glow in glitter. Heavy green metal flake covering nearly everything...  what wasn't covered in green flake was covered in silver flake. So mean... but so cute! This larger sedan looks clean laying on the pavement! From sunrise to sundown, the VLV car show at The Orleans was hoppin'! This chopped Ford Pickup had just the right style. Great tire choice. A clean chop job. And time-worn Ford Blue was a terrific color choice! My car club, the Gasoline Girls, were there for our 1st time as a club too! Lori's 1948 Ford F1 "Bondorella" got tons of attention! Onlookers went crazy for Bondorella's bare metal with hidden ice-pearl flake cleared over it. (See more Gasoline Girl's Adventures!) This five-window coupe got it...

Viva Las Vegas 2011 Car Show - Best of Show   Sonny Vasquez and his 1949 Buick custom have both been around for awhile. But when a car looks this good and has the amount of hours in it that a custom such as this requires... I'm happy to see it named Best of Show at Viva Las Vegas.     Because there was SO much going on at VLV 14, (see it here) I didn't make it to the award ceremony. Honestly... I didn't even know they were officially awarding a "Best of Show" car. At past VLV car shows, I've seen various clubs give out awards but don't remember there being an official "Viva Award."     So when I walked up to this Buick to check out this stunningly original dash, I was surprised to see the "Best of Show" plaque sitting inside. I was even more surprised that the car's owner, Sonny, was standing nearby!     Being the modest guy that he is - he said he was just as surprised when they called him up for the award. When he realized the only...

2011 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show At any car show, you'll always have your favorites. Of course this is true with Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender where the car show, "officially" only runs for Saturday, but there's tons of smooth kustoms and nostalgic hot rods to see starting from Thursday. While you're there, grab a beer, say hi to just about anyone you see cause chances are they're there to have a good time and most car people like to talk about their rides. Or bring beer with you and you'll suddenly have tons of new friends! So here's an overview of the cars I like best. If you agree or not, let me know. If you're the owner and I didn't get a chance to say hi, please leave a comment and more info about your ride. If you can, say why, "My Ride is Me". Let's start with the unusual! (or you could say the coolest 1961 Plymouth Fury I've ever seen!) Through my near legendary Google'n skillz, I found out this is a 1961 Plymouth Fury hardtop coupe. The bright orange paint looked stunning in...

2011 Viva Las Vegas Car Show Pinstriping Designs If you've never been to Viva Las Vegas Car Show, you're missing out on some of the best pinstriping designs. The suede paint of the custom cars and the vintage hot rod style both fit perfectly with a few carefully placed pinstriping lines. To give you some ideas for your ride, here's a collection of pinstriping from the car show. [nggallery id=50] See all of the MyRideisMe.com coverage of Viva Las Vegas here:  Viva Las Vegas Car Show or you can go straight to more pinstriping here: Pinstriping Features and...

2011 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show To late for any more info... here's the customs I liked from Friday at Viva Las Vegas Car Show. Which one's your favorite so far? All the way from Australia. Wagons Rule! Maybe the coolest custom at the show. Suede paint Ford Thunderbird with some cool pinstriping. Was orange the theme this year? This Fury had some kick'n flake on the roof. To see what you might have missed from years gone by, here's the Viva Las Vegas Car Show pictures from the last 3 years....

2011 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show It's time! Don't wait for months for magazine coverage, you got it right now! Las Vegas, Nevada greeted visitors from all over the world with near perfect weather and some great traditional styled hot rods. Here's pictures from Friday April, 22 in one small part of the greater Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender event, but of course our favorite at MyRideisMe.com... the car show. Let's kick it off with the hot rods. Viva's car show might have been known for "rat rods" in the past, but I see fewer and fewer rides that most would label as rat rods. They're more accurately called traditional style hot rods. If you think this is a rat rod, it's time for a lesson. Traditional hot rods choose vintage engines like flatheads instead of more common, later motors like small block Chevy's.  They're also alot more likely to run wire wheels and bias ply tires. The one thing they may have in common is a total lack of paint or a rusty or patina look. Why? It could be the owner just hasn't got to paint...

Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show Pre-view First pictures from the 2011 Viva Las Vegas Car Show - Hot Rods! 2nd set of pictures: 2011 Viva Las Vegas Car Show Customs Hit'n 3rd Gear! Pinstriping this time...  2011 Viva Car Show Pinstriping Pictures Yea, the best! SEMA brings in maybe twice the crowd, but SEMA's got no pinups and none of the best Rockabilly bands! Take a look at past Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender car show pictures and then review the schedule for this year's show, then decide for yourself... go or wait for more coverage from MyRideisMe.com... and you won't have to wait months for it to come out in print! The first look at VLV14 will be published on April 22, in just a few days... Until then, here's the car show schedule and the bands playing at the car show and a little history of the show at MyRideisMe.com. Schedule: There's bands playing from Thursday to Sunday... Headlining the Car Show bands is Rock and Roll "Hall of Fame" member Jerry Lee Lewis! 12:00PM - Lustre Kings 2:00PM - Dynotones 4:00PM - Blasters 6:00PM -...

Mild to Wild Car Show , Puyallup,WA. We don't have the weather like California , so when we have a custom car show this early in the year is kinda of a bonus! The Mild to Wild Car Show has been around for 20 years and recently return to the Puyallup Fair and Events Center after many years at the Tacoma Dome. The was actually the car show's original starting location back in 1989. This year it was inside three of the buildings at the Fair grounds, unlike the Gooduys Show that takes over the inside and outside of the complex. Not a real big show, but had some really cool customs from the northwest. Check out this Gold 1932 Hot Rod coupe wtih a Chevrolet 572, From Ravensdale, Washington. Here is some real history "The Orange Crate" 1932 Ford Sedan all steel, Built by Bob Tindle from Portland,Oregon. It made the cover of Hot Rod two times 1960 and again in 1962. In 1963 the Revell Company created a 1/25th scale model of the sedan. Which you can still buy, they released it. It would turn 10.60 in the quarter...

The Chill Car Show in Wichita, Kansas It’s rare that a 2nd year car show has a big turnout in this area, lots of shows go years and years before building up a following. Not so with The Chill car show in the Wichita, KS area. In it’s second year The Chill has gone from a very bike heavy show with some cars here and there to a really great car/bike show. Held at the Kansas Pavillion in the Wichita suburb of Park City, KS this show had something for everyone. The first building you enter was all about bikes; from new Indians to stretched out rockets to old board track racers, every type of bike build you can imagine... They were all on display. Two other buildings on site were filled with cars with some nice surprises thrown in that I hadn’t seen at other shows in the area. There was even a new to me vendor selling custom coffins with one that was scaled down version of a kustom Merc. Going through the enclosed corridor from building #1 to #2, one of the first cars I saw...

Tammy Ray wins the Northeast Cup with "Gold Digger" custom hot rod. The inaugural Northeast Rod and Custom Car Show, held at the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA, was an awesome show by any standard. There was so much to see and do, including hot rods, historic customs, a Pro Mod Alley, a kid's zone, air brush artists, and local celebrities, that you would have had a hard time not finding something to peek your interest. The Expo center is large enough that we didn’t feel crowded as we gawked at the more than 300 cars on display. The major competition at this show is known as the “Elite 6”. From the organizer’s website, “This award package was created to recognize the creativity, engineering, workmanship, and also the “appeal” that each car has within our Show Class. Each car within the Show Class will be judged using traditional judging guidelines instituted by the ISCA, but will also judged using the above mentioned criteria.” Winners of the Elite 6 are awarded $2000. Out of those 6, one vehicle is selected to receive the Northeast Cup. “The NorthEast Cup is...

Roundup of Best Engines of the 2010 SEMA Car Show in Las Vegas: SEMA Engine: Twin Turbo Viper: The most outrageous racing Viper in the K&N booth at SEMA 2010 SEMA Engine: Fuel Injected LS Chevelle: Unique Stand-up Hilborn Injection on an LS Motor at SEMA 2010 SEMA Engine: Ford DOHC 4.6L in a beautiful custom Fastback Mustang: Every Detail NAILED Perfectly on this Mustang at SEMA 2010 SEMA Engine:  SEMAPure Vision built Boss 502 Fastback Mustang: The cleanest execution of a Boss Mustang Fastback ever at SEMA 2010 SEMA Engine: Blown and Fuel Injected Front Engine Dragster: Time for some nostaglia drag racing at SEMA 2010 Not a SEMA Engine, but hot enough to show off in this roundup: Best Hot Rod engines at the LA Roadster Show: Hot Rod Roadsters all polished up: Here's the...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show in Maryland The 2010 East Coast Indoor Nationals brought together many fine hot rods, customs, classics, and nostalgia dragsters. Almost 300 rides gathered at the Cow Palace show building in Timonium, Maryland over the weekend to compete for $7000 in awards. This invitation only, Pre-1973, All American car show boasts being the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi and it just might be!  David Cohen, the event promoter, always assembles a great collection of vehicles to gawk at while helping to raise money for Toys for Tots. The show sponsor, Condon & Skelly, was also on hand to answer questions about insurance and to provide quotes. Over in the nostalgia drag section, Butch and Linda Szollosy’s 1957 Chevy 210 Sedan instantly caught my eye. The car runs in the Nostalgia Stock Eliminator class with a 283 and a 4 speed followed up by a 5.38 rear. How about something a little different? I think Pat McNeal’s 12 cylinder powered 1942 Chevy COE rat rod fits the bill. It might have been cold outside but the action inside was hot.  In fact, Jeff Gray’s 1939...