Nostalgia drag racing all weekend in Beaver Springs, PA Located about an hour's drive north of Harrisburg, PA, Beaver Springs Dragway is a dragstrip with lots of heart. The crew running the show goes out of their way to make you feel like part of the family. Their advertising slogan is "Nobody does it better!" and I would have to say that's definitely not false advertising! The "Beav" is the perfect location for Gasser Magazine's Gasser Reunion that was held June 10-12. We hit the road early to make the 3 hour drive from our home base in WV and it rained the entire trip! When we arrived, the spectators' parking field had an inch of standing water. Do you ever get the feeling that maybe you are wasting your time making a long trip for nothing? Well, luckily that feeling for us was wrong and the sun was shining by 8:30am. Everyone was able to enjoy a full day of racing. Randy Campbell's 1950 "Full Metal Jacket" Studebaker sits in the pits drying after the early morning rain. The track crew did an excellent job getting the dragstrip prepared...

Cool Hot Rods from 2011 York NSRA Nationals Car Show More than 3500 hot rods and customs registered for the 38th Street Rod Nationals East. You must be doing something right to be able to say this is the 38th time you have hosted an event and the 2011 event wasn’t any different. The city of York, PA has been lucky enough to be the location of this massive gathering for 31 of those 38 years. It has only been a few years since the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) relaxed the age restriction for vehicles entering the show grounds. Now, you can find more vehicles than just street rods, as long as they are 20 years old or older, driving around the event fields. Some of the best rides the East Coast has to offer attend this show annually. Right when we walked through the spectators’ gate I was greeted with one of my favorite paint schemes. There is just something about gloss flames on a flat black finish that appeals to me. Paul Kain’s 1948 Ford was done exactly the way I like it. Would you believe...

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...

Tunerwars, Hot Rods and Classic Cars at Motorama If it has wheels and a motor you could probably have found it at the 2011 Motorama Events last weekend at the PA Farm Expo Complex in Harrisburg, PA. The 2011 Motorama isn’t a single show but many shows to entertain you. Three car shows (Tunerwars, Hot Rods and Classics, and the Speed Show) were going on at the same time. Over in the 7000 seat Autocross area there was four wheel and two wheel action all weekend. There was also a large gathering of go-karters and quarter midget racers competing for top prizes on different tracks. If you like remote control racing then you should have been here. Multiple HUGE tracks allowed for RC Nitro, 1/8th scale Electrics, RC Electrics, RC Rock Crawling, and even remote control Drifting! Maybe you like to watch things beat the snot out of each other? Then you should have been over in the Robot Conflict area. There were also less violent activities including the Miss Motorama Pageant, Bands, and carnival games. The Hostetter Family and crew does a great job producing this show. This is seriously...

Who doesn’t love dune buggies? You could have gotten a good healthy dose of buggy envy at the Carlisle Import and Kit Car Nationals which was held last weekend in Carlisle, PA. Dig that metallic green finish!  Wow!  There were two seaters, four seaters, white ones, blue ones, green ones, and just about every color imaginable. If you strolled over to Building T you could have chatted with Bruce Meyers, the designer of the first fiberglass dune buggy known as the Meyers Manx. Bruce Meyers was present all weekend to sign autographs and pose for pictures if you asked nicely enough. The good news is that you can once again buy new Meyers buggies like the Manxter 2+2, which is capable of doing 0-60 times of just over 4 seconds. Want something with a little more displacement? How about a Cobra replica? The Cobras dominated the kit manufacturer area and there were plenty of them on the show field as well. Throw a 4.6L motor in a Factory Five Racing 1965 Cobra replica like Anthony and Robin DiMemmo did and I bet you would have a smile plastered on...

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...

The Antique Automobile Club of America or AACA museum is a perfect place to spend a couple of hours while avoiding the chill of an East Coast winter. So, on a recent trip to Hershey, PA the wife and I thought we would try and do just that. The museum is an awesome facility with a great variety of vehicles. For just $10 you can relive the great history of transportation in the 20th century. A very knowledgeable staff is always available to answer your questions as well as entertain you. You can even hold a wedding here with the museum offering many different choices of locations for your reception. How cool would that be!? The Antique Automobile Club of America’s Museum opened its doors to the public back on June 26, 2003. Since then, it has been the home to many rare and historic cars. The museum is constantly rotating its inventory to keep things interesting so you never know what you might see. Currently on exhibit, through the beginning of April, are the Camaros and Firebirds presented by Freysinger Pontiac GMC Buick. Over 20 vehicles are on display in this...

Getting your Hot Rod Fix at the Pittsburgh World of Wheels Another World of Wheels has come and gone in Pittsburgh, PA, AKA The Steel City, and it did not disappoint. Once again the wife and I hit the road to take in a car show, shoot some photos, and just enjoy being out of the house. After scraping off the ice from the previous day’s storm we were on our way for the 4 hour trip to the David Lawrence Convention Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. I actually find driving fairly relaxing so the trek went pretty quick. There was something for everyone. If you like high end customs there were over-the-top rods like John Mai’s beautiful 1933 Willys Coupe. Into race cars? Drag City USA was on hand displaying several vintage dragsters like the 1967 Bounty Hunter that was driven by Connie Kalitta. Want to learn something? A number of airbrush artists were on hand demonstrating their craft. Feeling charitable? You could have bid on some of the art that the pinstripers were creating all weekend. Were there rat rods? Yup. There were many rats and kustoms including...

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...