NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures When you hear the circus is in town your first thought is of the big top, right? Well I asked my two daughters what was the first thing that came to mind when I said, "The circus is coming to town." My youngest who's four said, "Chuck Chuck the Clown" and my oldest who's eleven said, "A big parade of people". This is the funny cause I'm sitting in my backyard writing this story as it's happening... So I ask my girls what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say, The Circus of the Wicked is coming to town? Lets listen in for their response: My youngest says, "The chicken on SNL." OK. My oldest,"Sounds like a cool name for a car show." No, I'm not pulling your leg, that's what she said. There you have it, as I lead into this feature on the Circus of the Wicked car & bike show at Holeshot Choppers in Sacramento,CA. The host car club or should I say "ringleaders" for this event were, none other than, Relentless CC. Upon my...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Midnight Mass #8 This year I thought I would go against what I was hearing about Midnight Mass and experience it for myself. For some reason Midnight Mass was getting a bad wrap for the past couple of years. Yeah, there has been some drama inside the Poor Boys car club but really, what club doesn't have a little drama here and there. Mostly when rumors are spread it just makes it 10x worse by the time it reaches it's final destination. This year marks number 8 for Midnight Mass and it was held at Gibson Ranch out in Sacramento, CA. Generally, this show is held from 5:00pm till midnight, hence Midnight Mass. Calendar-wise it's also held at the end of July. So if you are not familiar with Sacramento, especially at the end of July, I would like to give you a heads up for future summer shows out in this area... bring a ton of sun screen and enough water to fill a 50 gallon drum! Simply... it's hot. Which is pretty smart thinking by the Poor Boys CC...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Nite of the Hot Rods #5 107.7 The Bone Rock Girl Brittany Cervantes 11:05 am on Saturday morning I was in the back yard pulling some unwanted weeds and up in the skies were some wicked black and grey clouds just looming over the city of Concord, CA. As I had 10,000 years by High on Fire running through my head and anticipating the sky to rip open at any second I pondered the thought of, "How cool would it be if the weather stayed like this for the show tonight?" Meaning, the 5th Annual Nite of the Hot Rods at the Riverview Lodge in Antioch, CA. The day went on and the thunderhead started to disappear the closer it got to show time. Reason why I thought it would be cool that the weather stayed that way is because the show, like every year is held on the pier at the lodge, but this year there was something different in the air, something a bit weird. Kind of like that feeling you get when you walk into a room and...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" 2011 Strangers Car Show I would like to start off by saying the Strangers Car show and BBQ is a special show in many ways. One, it's a family show for us here at the N/K residence. The whole family piles in to the wagon and heads down 680 south in route for San Jose's Kelly park. Dave,my bro-in-law and his son roll in for the festivities. It's a family affair gig. We all park it in the same place right behind the raffle booth every year under one of the many shade trees in the park. Throw the blanket down, kick out the chairs and the girls spew out all their toys for the day. Two, it's the headliner of a double dip show weekend. On that Saturday is Gambino's Sit Down custom car show in San Jose which is always a dandy. Then you have the Strangers on Sunday. Which in my opinion is one of the highly anticipated and blockbuster weekends of the summer for shows. Third, it marks my...

Northern California Car Show - Hot Rods and Customs in Vallejo Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" Round 2 was a TKO 2012 NorCal Knockout Coverage Here Just 365 days after the 1st ever Nor Cal Knockout, Korena and Hollywood Hank were at it again with the 2011 Nor Cal Knockout. Simply put it's Nor Cal Knockout Round 2. I will tell you this: Round 2 was just that with local heavy hitters the Swanx CC stepping in to lend a well needed hand to the founders of this amazing show. The morning of the show while sipping on a cup of joe in my front yard waiting on my ride I thought to myself, "It's going to be tough to top last years phenomenal showing." As Scotty of the Villianz CC pulled up in his 51' flamed Chevy (shown above with knockout Sarah Neary) I hopped in and we were off to Vallejo to meet up with the rest of the club. Once everyone was in-check and the coolers where filled with ice, grub and of course bevmo's... We set off to the Solano County Fairgrounds....

Custom Cars and Hot Rods in Sacramento Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" The Sacramento Autorama is “The Kustom Capital of the World”. Believe it. After 61 years the Sacramento Autorama is one of the longest running indoor shows and with 450 custom cars, hot rods and specialty rides of all kinds covering Cal Expo's buildings and fairgrounds. The Sacramento Autorama started back in 1950,  when Sacramento businessman Harold "Baggy" Bagdasarian and his car club, the Capitol City Auto Club Thunderbolts, Baggy convinced club members to, "Settle friendly arguments over the outstanding merits of their personal customized cars." This according to the show's current host, Rodshows.com, the same folks who bring you the Grand National Roadster Show. The original show attracted 22 entries and 500 spectators with the first "Best Custom Car" trophy going to Leroy Semas for his 1937 Chevrolet coupe. (photo courtesy of Kustomrama.com) Once again, the 2011 NorCal car show season is under way! Kicking off the car show season is the 2011 Sacramento Autorama. Bay Area car clubs and car clubs from far and wide come to open the car show season at...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" The first thing you think of when you hear Skoty Chops name is insane customs. I recently had the pleasure of meeting the custom creating madman and owner of Skoty Chops Customs at the Concrete Massacre Car Show in Redwood City, CA. The first words out of this humble genius aside from nice to meet you was, "Anytime you want have a shoot or use my shop for a shoot, here's my number." I just met the guy and he is offering his laboratory where some of the sickest pieces of steel are conjured up and fabricated. Honestly rod fanatics... I was speechless. So when I heard that Skoty was putting on his Shootout #2 you knew it was one that this lens junkie was not going to miss. There's a few things that are a lock when Skoty Chops puts on a show and at The Skoty Chops Shootout #2 in Redwood City, Ca they held true. The first thing is, you know you're gonna witness some of the baddest pinstripers from the...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" Sarahlee, a pin-up gal from the Devious Dolls I shoot from time to time, gave me a flier for a show out in Santa Cruz, CA and said, "You gotta shoot this show!" I thought, "This could be cool, the girls could hang out with grandma in Capitola and could run over and shoot the show." As I was driving I just couldn't get the title of the show out of my head... "Concrete Massacre". To me that's a "not so original" name for what I heard is a cool car show put on by the Alley Boys Car Club. I thought, "How many times have I heard a show called this or something involving concrete?" After dropping the girls off at Grandmas house I headed up Soquel Ave towards the show. Soquel Ave's the main drag that connects Capitola to Santa Cruz. I was still stuck on this "Concrete" thing until I made my left on Encinal St.  and drove by Las Animas Concrete plant... Looking inside, I saw nothing but sick steel!...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" It was that time of year again to mosey on down to the wharf and check this years Nite of the Hot Rods car show put on by the bay areas own Dragoons Car Club. You may well know already from my past write up on last year's show, Nite of the Hot Rods is held at the Riverview Lodge in Antioch, CA. Now for those you that are new to MyRideisMe.com let me break it down like this. For the past 4 years the Dragoons CC has been putting on a little shindig entitled "Nite of the Hot Rods". What makes this car show so special is that the lodge is right on the wharf and the show itself is held on a pier. The Riverview Lodge is a bar/seafood restaurant and was built back in 1948. As a staple of Antioch for years, it still carries that beat up Elks Lodge flavor with old wood seating and jacked-up dinning tables... a very cool and comfortable place to hang out or have a...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures As the Doors front man Jim Morrison once put it " People are strange when you're a stranger." Hmmm, lets take a good look at that. "People are strange when you're a stranger." Does that mean you are strange if you like insane pinstriping and you're passionate about hot rods? Is that really a bad thing? Well I know a couple of strangers that would disagree with "people are strange when you're a stranger."  That would be the guys from Strangers Car Club that put on one of the biggest and most anticipated shows in the South Bay every year.  The Strangers CC Car Show & BBQ at History Park in San Jose, Ca. This being the 11th annual show there was some rumors going around that this might be the last one. But no worries that little diddy was squashed quick. This years show seemed to be double in size of last years and always brings out the who's who in the hot rod scene as well as the big names around the bay. Names like builders Alex Gambino and Scotty...

Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Story Contributed by MyRideisMe.com member: Nick Koljian "Hellcity316" More pictures from the NorCal Knockout Car Show I can't let my friend Nick K have all the fun taking pictures and enjoying the 2010 NorCal Knockout. We finally got to meet and I snapped a few pictures myself. I'm aspiring to take pictures as well as Nick and Swanee, so I keep practicing. Sometimes the light and shadows (and stars) align to get something decent. If I grabbed a pic of your car, please let me know, I'll email it to you. Some folks made it easy with show cards. One of those is this 1963 Galaxie race car called the "Moonshine Hauler". Currently owned by Mark Brothers out of Saratoga Springs, UT, the 1964 NHRA record holder now sports a "worked" center oiler 427 with twin 700 Holly carbs, a T-10 4 speed and a 4.11 locker. What else would it have?! The lettering on this car screamed 60's racer. There's another picture in the gallery below. Thanks to another show card from owner Goran Lassell out of Sacramento, CA. From the...

Words and Pictures by Nick K Welcome to the 2010 NorCal Knockout Korena Goldstien and Henrik Forss aka "Hollywood Hank" are no new comers to the hot and custom car scene by any stretch of the imagination. Henrik grew up in Sweden and moved to the US some 10 years ago. Since the early 90's Hank's promoted both music and car events in Sweden as well as here in the US. Hank also contributes at Gasoline Magazine out of Sweden. Here's the link (good luck reading it!) http://www.gasolinemagazine.se/ (looks very well done though, excellent photography!) Hank does a little of everything... here's Hank's Homepage Korena, a local Vallejoan is the founder of MissyLu handbags and accessories and has promoted music events and clubs around the Bay Area in the past. But with that said, Nor Cal Knock Out is Hollywoods & Korena's 1st major Northern California show. The title Nor Cal Knock Out could not have been any more fitting. The show was at the Solano County Fairgrounds. I know, I know, when you hear "fairgrounds" you think the smell of livestock lingering in a dust bowl. This was...