"The Gasser Tribute Car was built as a tribute to all the drivers, owners and fans that loved these kinds of cars. It is probably one of the last A Gas Supercharged Olds powered Willys coupes left in the country." Del Wiesner The Dean Seevers, Del Wiesner and Harold Owens '33 Willy's Olds-powered A-Gas Supercharged Gasser original reigned from Loveland, Colorado and ran at dragstrips across the country from 1962-1966. These 3 Loveland High School grads and car nuts started the first car club in town, the "Loveland Zephyrs" and soon after began racing the Willys. One highlight for the 3 friends was holding the American Hot Rod Association National Record in 1964 with a 10.00 seconds at 146.86 mph run. The crew raced some of the top names of the day and were very competitive. Del says after working 40 years with his businesses, he never forgot the impact that car had on him. "Once you get that in your blood, it's hard to let it go. It was the most exciting time of my life, so I decided to rebuild a part of history." Do yourself a...
“Internet Barn Finds” #1: Miniature Hot Rod Engines
posted by Hechtspeed
Before I dive in, let me introduce myself real quick. I go by Hechtspeed on all the car forums I join. I'm a certified car nut. It doesn't matter what type of car, if its modified and customized, I can dig it. I'm really excited to be blogging for MyRideisMe. Hopefully I can bring cool content that you readers will enjoy. So, let's get to it shall we? The internet is home to thousands, even millions of websites. That means there has to be cool websites out there displaying hidden hot rod treasures. This "Internet Barn Finds" series of blogs will venture into the world wide interweb to see what we can find. Part 1 takes a look at a couple cool Scale Miniature Hot Rod engines. These are not your typical scale plastic model kits you put together during Christmas vacation, these are billet aluminum, high precision, CNC machined engines that actually run, some even powering 1/4 scale radio controlled hot rods. The first Barn Find is from weberprecision.com. Searching through Weber's website you'll find detailed pictures of both the end product and the tools/machines used to build...
Cool Nights in Phoenix – Cruise on Central
posted by pikesan
Info about the October 2009 Cruise and the $5 Charge Carbon footprint size 12 triple E, but that was fun! For those of us living in Arizona, April's not necessarily the START of the cruising season, but it the sure is nice! After some ill timed rain canceled the cruise on April 11th, we got treated to some especially nice weather for April 18th. Wow, enough BS about the weather! So how was it? PACKED! I showed up late after a busy day of honey-do's and sports with my boys to find a packed house! At 8PM, about when I got there, some of Arizona's finest hot rods, customs and lowriders were found cruising to the delight of the packed sidewalks along Central in front of the Park Central Mall just south of Osborn. I didn't get a chance to cruise into the parking lot, but from the street it looked packed with cars and people and even the mandatory kettle corn vendor. For about 2 miles, it was a rare treat to actually enjoy "stop and go" traffic cause you were surrounded by cool cars and folks having...
Hot Rod Interior Guy Finishes Own Car!
posted by pikesan
Hot Rod Model A Shop Truck The post man doesn't go for a walk on his day off and hot rod builders, painters and upholstery guys never get a chance to finish their own cars. That's almost a rule! That's why it's my pleasure to show you the finished product when they do. This is th 1932 Hot Rod "Shop Truck" is owned by Glenn Kramer of Hot Rod Interiors, located in Glendale Arizona. Glenn says, "I've been doing upholstery since 1980, and decided the best ride for me would be an all around hot rod shop truck that I could use for work & play." If you can't reach Glenn at his website, or cruising his cool new shop truck at the Mesa Cruise or downtown on Central, then head over to his website at hotrodinteriorsbyglenn.com or give him a call at 623-872-2242. Glenn will be the guy grinning ear to ear when you see him and his wife cruising all over in the shop truck. Way to go Glenn! [gallery =...
John Force Racing’s Charity Cruise Night Schedule
posted by pikesan
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...
2009 Viva Las Vegas Car Show – See for Yourself
posted by pikesan
As a Viva LasVegas car show virgin, I drove blindly into a sea of horseshit opinions about what the Rockabilly Weekender is... without first hand experience, I checked and heard varying opinions about the show, especially about what I'm most interested in, the strolling pinups... no, scratch that, the hot rods! Just like the saying goes, everyone's got an opinion and I have to say, most of what I heard STANK! Living in Arizona, and only about 5 hours from Las Vegas, I decided to roll up and check for myself. (so here's my opinion... keep the air-freshener handy) First off, what had I heard about the Viva Las Vegas Car Show or "Rockabilly Weekender" as it's called? I heard the quality of cars sucked. NOT true. I heard it wasn't a fun crowd. Also not true. Then, even though I'm not a big rockabilly fan, I did enjoy the music... and I only got to hear what was played outside at the car show. About the rides... The cars I found were almost all right up my alley. Nobody goes to a car show and only finds what...
Grease Girl Talks: Air Filters 101
posted by GreaseGirl
Now - I know that this is totally basic - but I wanted to take the opportunity to show you the air filter that came off my car today. Generally when I think of basic, routine car maintenance, I think "oil, tire pressure, transmission fluid, and is anything leaking." As I was at the shop today (P.S. I got the headliner completely finished and the new tranny in!...check back soon for those articles) I popped the hood to show off my engine (which is horribly dirty still from when the radiator blew...it was pointed out to me that a guy wouldn't stand for the dirty-looking engine.) Sitting there shootin' the breeze, someone noticed my air filter, so we unscrewed the top and took it out. Evidently, the way to check if you need a new air filter is by holding it up to the light and seeing if any of the light shines through. Not counting the spots where there were holes in mine, there was absolutely no sunlight shining through this sucker. Handy to be offered not one, but two air filters (I love my shop guys!)...we exchanged...
Hot Rod Photographer Jean-Marie Michalski
posted by pikesan
I met Jean Marie at the Grand National Roadster Show in January 2009. His card had a stunning photo on it and it said he does pinup photography, so we started chatting. See all the photos he shared with MyRideisMe.com in his Hot Rod Photo Gallery 43 year old Jean-Marie Michalski grew up in a town called Perwez in Belgium, as the single child of Jean Michalski, a now famous artist & painter. His father Jean Michalski was born in Belgium in 1936. At 12 years old, Jean and his friends attempted to climb up an electricity pole to better see a soccer game. Jean lost his balance, fell off the pole and was electrocuted with 12,000 volts. The injury and subsequent complications led to the amputation of both arms. After the accident, Jean was placed in a rehabilitative institution for three years, where he learned to write with his mouth. When Jean was 16 years old, the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (AMFPA) contacted his mother, and Founder Erich Stegmann visited the family’s home to recruit Jean as a student artist. The Association assisted with tuition...
Problem Child’s Latest – Let Them Eat Cheese
posted by Brian
Hot Rod Art - Custom AMC Hornet Art from ProblemChildKustoms.com Let them eat cheese... ...or at least the dust left behind this monster. When the AMC Hornets were new, the ads read with slogans like "If you think it looks good, wait'll you feel it perform!", "It's not our strong guarantee that makes our Hornet a tough little car", and "It's beautiful when you fill it up"... Taking those sales pitches waaaaayyyy out of context bred the bright yellow beast above. For this AMC Hornet, right out of the box, I wanted to play up the automaker's legacy, by using some references to Wisconsin, naturally, and then just say "screw convention", and mess around with a largely forgotten car... Thus, we have an AMC, some Green Bay colors, and, uh, well... that's about it, aside from the crappy "cheese" line at the start. Moving along, I've had this sick road racing-inspired Hornet "buzzing" in my head for about two years, and have played with the drawing on and off over that time span. I had watched "The Man With the Golden Gun" some time back, and it re-kindled a...
4th Saturday Cruise in Mesa is Catching on
posted by pikesan
Just a reminder! The regular Mesa Cruise is the 4th Saturday of every month including this Saturday, March 28th. This is one of the cool shots my man Swanee took at the cruise that followed the Home Runs and Hot Rods show. I left out the "Hot Dogs" part cause Lance didn't save me one. More of Swanee's pics of the Saturday Mesa Cruise here. MyRideisMe.com members get free entry and free parking at the cruise. Such a...
Rocket Axle Galaxie? (Yea, rocket)
posted by pikesan
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ebbzZUa40[/youtube] Here's another video of this car - It's not very good, but at least you can hear it run. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HwrJ23ZK-A[/youtube] Also known as the "Tobacco King Rocket Car" this thing is pure indulgence. The rest of the story is found at Hoopty Rides. He wrote about this car almost 1 year ago to the day. I'm right on top of things! 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Rocket Car Anyone ever heard of the "Black Widow" Volkswagen Beetle? The Mecum auctions story says that this rocket powered bug beat TV Tommy Ivo's four engine dragster called "Showboat". WOW! Photos courtesy of Mecum...
JennaBears Foundation Charity Car Show 4/4/09
posted by pikesan
Nicole and Chris Eades from the Jennabears Foundation sent the nicest email asking if it would be OK to promote their Jennabear Car Show at MyRideisMe.com. YES!! I heard of their show last year but didn't get a chance to attend. I asked a few questions and here's what I found out: Who was Jenna and why a car show? Jenna was my beautiful daughter whose life was taken by a reckless driver. She was only 6 month and 21 days old. She had beautiful blue eyes and personality that everyone parent dreams of. She was and always will be my bestfriend. Jenna was always around mustangs. I had a '89 fox body that I restored and really enjoyed. We also had a '95 mustang gt for more than 8 years at the time that slowly went from stock to our family street-legal drag car. Jenna rode in it the last week of her life. Jenna was born on 9/11 and our new goal with this car is to run a 9/11. The car was dedicated to her memory and is our official foundation race car. So needless to...