Bonneville Salt Flats: Car Show or Race Car? I've been wanting to share this car with you guys for a couple months now.  I originally showed some early pics I took during a tour of Salt Flats Speed Shop (that story link here). Chris Davenport, shop owner and metal craftsman, and now louver expert, is building a '32 Sedan in the traditional style from the 40's and 50's.  He has put together a pretty detailed build thread on the H.A.M.B. He has been updating it pretty regularly the last couple months as he's been making some big progress.  Ok, enough of my words, let's see this work of hot rod art.  Photos by Salt Flats Speed Shop. Check out them louvers.  I think the top has 420 something louvers.  Wow!  It looks tough and right out of Bonneville 1946! Here's the view Chris will have when trekking out to the Salt Flats on I-15.  I wanna grab some rolling shots of this ride when you drive out to Bonneville, k Chris? This might be my favorite shot.  Add some black and white to this photo and it would appear...

The Best of PA Car shows at the Motorama 2010 Mike Smyth’s highly detailed 1930 Ford Streetrod Truck at Motorama 2010 We knew this wasn’t going to be your normal indoor car show when a cloud of exhaust greeted us as we strolled down the main hall at last weekend’s Motorama event. Actually, Motorama isn’t just a car show. It is more like a celebration of all things on wheels. While the wife and I were at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the cars, there was plenty of indoor racing and other activities to keep the large crowds entertained. Racing was everywhere; there was go-kart, quarter midget, and arenacross racing with quads and dirt bikes. While the R/C racers and the Robot Conflict participants may have been driving smaller vehicles, they were just as competitive. Bands and DJs were scheduled throughout the day on various stages to entertain your ears and of course the Miss Motorama contestants made their rounds to entertain your eyes. (Sorry, out of respect for my assistant and wife I refrained from snapping any photos of the ladies. Besides, they were way...

Story and Pictures by Andy's Pinstriping "I have a friend in Seattle that was doing some pre-Spring cleaning and needed to make some room for a new project so he called me. The offer was too good to pass up.  I was told that if I could find a way to pick up an old 1963 Chevy truck that i could have it. I had to fork out $350.00 to have it delivered from Seattle to my door step and after looking at the truck, I realized that was a great deal!   This is what I started with. A good original truck with a bad 90's Teal paint job...but I saw potential. I did some research as well and found out that this truck started life as a Forest Service truck, so sentimentality kicked in as I had a beloved uncle that was a Ranger all his life. All of a sudden, an idea was born... Obviously, it had a height issue that needed to be addressed ASAP!  This is after the front went down about six inches. This is what it looked like after the back went down...

Car Art and Hot Rod Art Become Fine Art Have you ever met Tom Fritz? Chances are, you'd remember if you had. You probably noticed the dark display at one of your favorite car shows, then you were drawn in by the vivid paintings filling almost every bit of dark.  I last ran into the flip-flop wearing, ultra soft-spoken Fritz at Barrett Jackson 2010. I don't know crap about art, especially fine art except for what I like, and I like what Tom's throwing down. Tom's art is all the more sweet when he takes the time to talk with you about each piece and fill you in on some of the catchy titles like: "Feeling the Belts", "Raising Merry Hell II", "Ancient Barbaric Amusements" and one of my favorites, "Quick Sombish".  (link to Fritzart Gallery) Tom wrote about the making of "Quick Sombish" from the concept sketches to the in-process work and of course, the finished piece (shown here). To date, it's one of my favorite stories at MyRideisMe.com and a recommended read for any artist. Read about this Wheels up front engine dragster by clicking here. To pass...

  1948 Hot Rod Show display with Jack Andrews, Charlie Nordon and Ed Iskenderian...Pic Courtesy of Ed Iskenderian.  Click to Enlarge. I know hot rods and customs is what brings us car guys and gals together but, its the people that make this hobby what it is.  Everyone has their own story.  My passion for the automobile started with my dad and uncle.  They have hot rodded off and on since they were teenagers.  It was their hobby, their passion.  It's what kept them out of trouble when their dad passed away at the age of 15 and 12.  My dad has tons of stories of his '64 Mercury Comet Cyclone on the streets of Azusa, Calif and the original Irwindale Dragstrip.  My uncle has stories of tearing up GMR (Glendora Mountain Road) in his Nova and Datsun 510.  Most of my close friends are there because of our common interestes in cars.  My brother and I and my cousin have our own stories of cars (and motorcycles) that we have customized that we can share with our kids.  It's the Hecht pasttime.   Gardena Speedway, September 15, 1946 photo...

Well if I could paint like Tom Fritz, I would. If I could draw like my friends Brian and Dwayne, I'd probably do that too.  Since my creativity's pretty much limited to taking pictures, I'm doing my best to catch up to the great shots taken by Swanee, my main man shooting for MyRideisMe.com. Swanee's yet to lay down his shots from GNRS, so here's mine, FISHEYE style. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. A side effect of this super wide shot is the distortion.  I'm shooting with a 10.5mm fisheye lens. Sometimes that distortion looks kinda cool with the swoopy angles of a custom or in tight on the details of an engine like the Stromberg powered flathead in Blackie Gejeian's "Blackie" Roadster. Sometimes, the look is just sinister!  This is the grille from "Camel Toe Racing" 1932 Ford.  The closer you get, the more distortion. I'm just a couple inches off this grill and I probably cropped the shot some. Too bad I have to give the lens back to my boss! Shooting in the Suede Palace...

With all the talk going on about the AMBR winner at the Grand National Roadster Show, I wanted to take the opportunity to show you some of the other great award-winning cars on display. There must have been well over 100 awards given out during Sunday's award ceremony! This is not including awards given out  in the Suede Palace (those cars don't run in competition with the others, it's more of a  low-shine exhibit if you know what I mean.) To start with, this sweet 1952 Chevrolet Coupe won the George Barris Kustom D'Elegance Award. I dug it for it's cool green paint by Gene Winfield as well as it's cam shaft front grill. There were lots of nice wagon's at the show, as I'm partial to wagons they really drew my eye. This 1963 Falcon Squire stood out to win in it's 1955-1979 Conservative Wagon class. I'd heard about this 1932 Ford roadster, dubbed the Platinum Bomb, as it was progressing. I hoped it would take home first prize, but it only got class recognition (this is, however, the most competitive class in the entire show!) Built by...

We already covered the Grand National Roadster Show's big winner of the coveted America's Most Beautiful Roadster award.  The title now belongs to the 33 Ford named, "Possessed". So now, I want you to feast your smoke filled eyes on the "Contenders".  Usually the GNRS has 12 cars running for the AMBR, but this year, only 10 made it.  Here's 4 of them.  Which one's your favorite? The bright orange 32 roadster shown here first is my friend Todd Stevens from right here in Arizona.  Todd's got a gorgeous late 40's or 50's Mercury convertible he runs to the local Goodguys show, but in stark contrast to that cool cruisers is this nasty injected Hemi Hot Rod! Doug Jerger, the builder and another friend just a flew blocks away, runs Squeeg's Kustoms in Mesa, AZ and is no stranger to America's Most Beautiful Roadster competition. In 2008, Doug built is own AMBR roadster and we showed his shop and 32 Ford in this story. I know that just like Doug's 32, Todd will drive this car and drive it hard. Shouldn't that score points some how with the judges?...

If you're not at the Grand National Roadster Show this weekend, then get your fill of hi-octane goodness by turning your channels to SPEED TV for Optima Batteries' "Ultimate Street Car Invitational" airing Saturday January 30th @ 11am ET and again Sunday January 31st @ 4pm ET. Get a front row seat to world-class vehicles, selected from the SEMA floor to compete against each other Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV.  Next to Speedweek, this race has been one of the coolest events I've attended. No where else can you see street legal cars, representing every decade in car history, stretching their limits to race car levels! Not only did I get to be at the live event in November, but I've also snuck a peek at the tv special at the Los Angeles premier this past week! For all of you who will only get to see it on SPEED, don't worry, it's just as exciting! Even I was surprised by the results! You'll have to watch to find...

It's Saturday night rolling down Main Street in El Segundo, a cute little Maybury-esque town in Los Angeles County. All of the sudden the street is lined with hot rods and some bobber-styled bikes. Cool cats pour out of a store front holding cans of Pabst beer in their hands. Have I landed in heaven?! Not just yet. It just the New Year's Nuisance 2 art show & party at Gasoline Gallery. This gallery has been growing into its own little epicenter of kustom kulture over the past couple years. Specializing in low-brow art and artist-featured t-shirts (and most recently a record label all their own,) Gasoline Gallery throws these great shin-digs every couple months when their gallery-show changes. I've been to a few of these now and am pleased to report this show was just as high quality and fun as the others - with artist, 3 sheets, taking the spotlight. That's enough of my blabbering, let me just show you the pictures! For more info on any of the work or artists shown, contact Gasoline Gallery or look em up on MySpace. I didn't realize at first...

Hot Rods on a Cold Day - Guests' Rides at POSIES Open House So what would make this car guy get up at 5am on a Saturday morning and drive 2 hours in temperatures struggling to make it into the 20s? FREE DOUGHNUTS! Well, that and a chance to hang out with other car enthusiasts at the POSIES annual open house. Posies Rods and Customs, best known for their Super Slide Springs, swung open their shop doors to the general public on the morning of Jan 9 from 8am until noon. Ken “POSIES” Fenical was there to greet everyone and treated us like old friends. This small shop, just a few miles outside of Hershey in Hummelstown, PA, likes to say they build “statements” rather than cars. “Anybody can restore an antique. . . it takes a real man to cut one up,” as one of their t-shirt says. A couple of their statements were out in the snow covered parking lot on display: the ’32 Ford based “Euroliner” and the ’72 Jaguar XKE “FlatCat”. All of POSIES’ statements are built to be driven. In fact, the Euroliner was...

Keep your eyes and ears open for Project 1320 described in the press release below, you'll be glad you did.  The project's goal is simple. Get the facts about the how, why and where drag racing started and how it developed over the years from a first hand perspective of the people who were there. Traci Hrudka is the chairman for this project and comes from a long line of drag racing herself. Traci's uncle Joe and father Tom Hrudka started the great Mr. Gasket empire. (Click on the picture to see them full size) Look closely at these pictures taken from Traci's page at the community she's making for Project 1320. Notice the "Hrudka Bro's" and "Mr. Gasket" proudly displayed on the side? Traci worked at the family business for 20 years and in her words, "Boy do I have some stories!" That's what this project is about. An "oral history" of everyone from the legends like Don Garlits to the no name grassroots fellas (and ladies!) that made drag racing what it is. I can't wait to hear more about this project and keep you posted along...