This might have been the 14th Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender, but it was the momentous 1st VLV car show for the Gasoline Girls Car Club! It seems like Viva has always been an important landmark for me in my car journeys. Its hard to believe that it was just three years ago that my 1955 Studebaker’s engine swap got finished a mere 12 hours before I drove it across the desert alone to attend VLV 2008. The following year, at VLV 2009, was the fateful meeting between Becky Sue and I where an instant friendship was made. Soon after, we began plotting our plans to create a working-on-cars focused all-girls car club. Two years later, the Gasoline Girls are celebrating their first anniversary! So at Viva Las Vegas 2011 the milestones continued as the Gasoline Girls made their longest journey yet as a club – traveling across the Mojave desert to attend the largest rockabilly weekender party and car show ever! Follow along with us and enjoy the ride! We scooted out of So Cal early Thursday morning – beating the traffic and meeting up with the Throttle Kings Car...

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...

Custom Studebaker Pickup from 2011 Grand National Roadster Show I promised I had a few customized Studebakers up my sleeve that I found at the 2011 Grand National Roadster Show....so here's #2 (Check out this Studebaker Ute if ya missed #1!) Who's ever seen a Studebaker pickup like this one!? Believe it or not, this 1949 Studebaker Pickup has been in the works for about 25 years. When the current owner, John Saltsman, got the truck it had already been chopped about 6" by "Merc John." With a small block Chevy drivetrain (just like my Studebaker coupe,) John used it as his daily driver on long commutes for at least 8 years. As John drove it, his vision for what he wanted it to become grew. He had a "wild and mild" proportioned-custom in his mind. As its been completed, this Custom 1949 Studebaker Pickup has a laundry list of custom items from customizing legends! It started with the 6" chop of course. To that was added a 15 1/2 " channel. And as "one thing led to another," this pickup was transformed with: a 59 Chevy trunk lid, 55...

Custom Car Building Inspiration at Petersen Automotive Museum Recently I found myself at the Petersen Automotive Museum to check out their newest exhibit, Supercars. Every time I'm there, I leave wanting to go home to my garage and become a mad car-scientist! There are so many things there to provide inspiration, you can't help it! From cars with interesting histories, like this 1974 Dale. A 3-wheeled car said to get 70 miles per gallon, it was used by its builder/con-artist Liz Carmichael (a transvestite whose real name was Jerry Dean Michael) to scam nearly $2 million dollars from would-be buyers! The car was a hoax and this is one of 3 prototypes built. More interesting car history is held by the 1948 Tucker. This model was Preston Tucker's personal car and one of only 50 pilot models produced. Nonetheless, the car had some very advanced features for its time as well as an interesting story to go along with - told in the movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream. The Petersen also has plenty of modern cars. Like this 2005 Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR. Who knew that SLR stood...

Exotic Car Exhibit At The Petersen Museum Every time I step into the Petersen Automotive Museum I learn something new and enjoy being amazed by works of art known as automobiles. The newest exhibit at the Petersen, Supercars, is no exception. If any automobile could be called art, the Supercar would be a top contender. What is a "Supercar?" I think the Petersen's curator, Leslie Kendall, explains it well: Like supercomputer, supermarkets, and supermodels, supercars represent an extreme. More than mere transportation, they offer a bold and extroverted means of self expression. Supercars have existed since the first decade of the twentieth century and while their mechanical and design specifications have evolved from era to era, they have always had in common immensely powerful engines, minimal passenger carrying capacity, adventurous mechanical specifications, and a commanding presence. Such attributes guaranteed that supercars always had far more power and performance than would ever be thought necessary for everyday motoring. That they have always been extremely exotic in appearance and impossibly rare makes them even more special. So while just looking at modern Supercars didn't seem very exciting to me at first...

Custom Studebaker Ute at GNRS It isn't every day you see a custom Studebaker coupe. Really, I think what people say to themselves before changing any metal of the Studebaker coupe body is..."The coupe is a perfect car - why change it?" I certainly don't have plans of truly customizing my own '55 Studebaker. Metal flaking the roof, moon discs, and some pinstriping is as far as it'll go I think. But I do love customs - so every time I encounter a custom Studebaker coupe I get pretty excited! This year at Grand National Roadster Show I encountered not just one - but three custom Studebakers! I'll be unveiling each one (and hopefully one or two more) in the coming weeks. To start with... the Studebaker Ute, a.k.a. Kart Hauler. I first encountered this custom Studebaker Ute at the 2009 Grand National Roadster Show - and now once again at GNRS 2011. In 2009 it was in the hall of cars previously shown at GNRS, commemorating the show's 60th anniversary. This 1953 Studebaker coupe was customized in the late fifties into this wagon-style Ute for the 1959 Oakland...

Street Car Racing at OUSCI airs this Friday on SPEED tv The wait is over! This Friday and Saturday you can catch the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational on SPEED tv. What is OUSCI you ask? It's only the coolest kind of "car show" you've ever seen. As soon as the showroom doors close at SEMA, these invited street cars head out onto Las Vegas' streets and on their way to Pahrump. The following day they prove their worth in a combined competition of road course, stopping challenge, autocross, and design. The car with the most total points wins! Street car racing has never been so fun! I've been lucky enough to be out at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch for the past two years of OUSCI - and let me tell you this year is not to be missed. Last years SPEED special was fantastic and this year's is going to be even better! Tune into SPEED this Friday, March 11th at 8pm & 11pm ET or Saturday, March 12th at 11am ET to catch this one-hour special. It's not be missed! Just to whet your appetite, here's a...

America's Most Beautiful Roadster Winner & Contenders Is All About The Details At 2011 GNRS At big-time car shows such as the Grand National Roadster Show I sometimes feel a little "out of my league" as a beginner. Sure...there's always personal opinion when it comes to building a car of your own - and when it comes down to it that's most important. But when you step into the big league such as entering a car into the America's Most Beautiful Roadster competition at the Grand National Roadster Show - its much more than just your personal opinion thats up for being judged. Although I'm only in the beginning stages of learning about cars, I do have an eye for details. So while I can't give more then my own opinion on which of the twelve AMBR contenders was the most beautiful - I can share with you first impression details that I thought made each car special. This 1933 Ford Roadster, Nugget, is fiberglass bodied, which deducts points in my book. But that still doesn't take away from the pretty lines of a full-fendered '33. How sexy is that?!...

Feeling at Home with Custom Cars and Hot Rods at GNRS So many great classic cars appear in every hall of the annual Grand National Roadster Show - from hot rods to lowriders to custom cars, dragsters, and of course the America's Most Beautiful Roadster Contenders. But of all the halls, I have to say I feel most at home in the Suede Palace. Maybe it's because my own Studebaker hot rod would be most at home there. The Suede Palace was created for those cars that, although perhaps fabulous examples of workmanship and ingenuity, might be lacking some of the more traditional "show quality" characteristics. Such as a shiny paint job - thus the "Suede Palace." So if you missed out on the 2011 GNRS, let me take you on a little walk around my favorite building, the Suede Palace.This 1930 Ford Model A Five Window Coupe has a pretty vicious stance. Not only customs, roadsters, and rat rods claim suede. This 1940 Chevrolet Gasser Coupe of the Devil's Car Club is showing off the suede well. This 1950 Oldsmobile is still in it's original paint! It's in great condition but...

Car Interior Restoration One of the first jobs I did on my 1955 Studebaker was restoring the car’s interior. Even though I didn’t know what I was doing – I had a pretty good sewing background and figured I could handle it. As it turned out, it was a terrific first job for me. I had a lot of fun, met some challenges, and learned along the way. I’ve since had the chance to learn a few secrets and have been looking forward to another car interior restoration. Well…the time is here. When I picked out the materials to use in my Stude, I knew they weren’t very sturdy but I didn’t really care. A few years of daily wear later, my driver’s seat-back has been torn to shreds. Before embarking on this next car restoration adventure, I thought I’d ask for your opinion. Car shows are great places to look for what you like and might want to incorporate into your own project. So that’s just what I did. While trying to keep my head on straight while looking at all the amazing customs at the Long Beach...

How-To Fix Engine Overheating Problems on the Roadside What do you do when your car overheats? With temperatures reaching the 80's this past week in LA, the 383 small block Chevy in my 1955 Studebaker got hot in protest. Thursday was my first problem. After 30 minutes of freeway driving and 30 minutes of stoplight-and-street traffic, I lost power and came to a stop. After letting Stude cool down, the only thing I noticed upon inspection was that my fluid was a little low. I filled up the radiator with a coolant/distilled water mix and was back on my way, hoping maybe this was all I needed. I got home fine that evening and through the 25 mile drive to work the next day without a glitch. This made me feel better, but I was very worried... Studebaker had a date as a wedding getaway car for some close friends of mine on Saturday. I didn't want her to miss out on the excitement! As I pondered what was going on with my overheating, I knew the most likely candidates were the radiator, water pump, or thermostat. I’ve dealt with...