For the past 4 years, Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational has been bringing out the best of the best for real road-proving competition. Directly after the SEMA Show in November, chosen vehicles drive out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV. Each year, the competition has gotten hotter. Click here to see a 2-minute teaser on Optima's YouTube Channel! This coming weekend is the first chance for you to see the action of all four catagories up close and personal on SPEED. The special's premier will be this Saturday, February 25th at 2 p.m. ET. In addition to the Saturday, Feb. 25 airing, the 2011 OPTIMA Invitational is scheduled to re-air on SPEED at the following times: ·         Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 at 3 a.m. ET ·         Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. ET ·         Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 11 a.m. ET If you catch the action, let us know what you thought of...

Best of the Best at SEMA 2011 Each year, SEMA brings 1000s to Las Vegas for the most complete aftermarket automotive show on earth. I can give you the numbers, but it's still hard to describe how huge SEMA is. Start by imagining that it fills up all of the 3.2 million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center. SEMA 2012 had over 100,000 attendees and 2,000 exhibitors. With this much going on, SEMA is the place to find the newest cool products and cutting edge cars! Since this event isn’t open to public - MyRideisMe was there to get the inside scoop for you! Best New Products With the abundance of companies exhibiting, you can find about anything you’re looking for at SEMA. Since I’m still a novice mechanic – my “best of” reflects things I would be excited to add to my own car. Edelbrock E-Street Fuel Injection System I know EFI systems have been around for awhile to convert your carbureted engine to fuel injection - but not until I saw the newest offering from Edelbrock had I ever considered one for my own car. This E-Street Fuel...

Best of Custom Cars SEMA 2011 1969 AMC AMX - Project AMXess - OWNER - Jimi Day - Grafton, WI - BUILDER - D&Z Customs - Kewaskum, WI SEMA always brings in the best. From the smallest, trick little nut or bolt you didn't even know you needed to these, full-tilt, no expense spared custom hot rods and pro-touring rockets... SEMA's the place to be for anything automotive. Chances are, if you're reading MyRideisMe.com, you already know that, but this is the 2011 SEMA kickoff to show you just one taste of what will be there and let you know we'll have lots more! For your SEMA-tease, here's AMXess. Our buddies over at Centerforce Clutch leaked this picture and info. You know we're AMC fans since we ran this 1974 AMC Hornet concept drawing. "AMXess" as it's called, is a full on pro-touring AMX designed for the street and the track.  We've meshed the best of both performance and design by maintaining the iconic AMC heritage lines while updating the entire drive train and suspension package with todays state-of-the-art components. AMXess runs parts from Centerforce Clutch, of course, but...

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...

Power Brakes and Steering from SEMA 2010 ABS Power Brake, Inc Due to my recent brake failure adventure, brake companies were the first ones I went looking for at SEMA. I luckily found ABS Power Brake, Inc which provides “American Brake and Steering” component parts and kits. In business since 1979, ABS Power Brake provides kits as well as individual components for everything from classic trucks to custom rods. They have some good possible fixes for my situation – such as a nifty compact dual-reservoir master cylinder – but they also had a couple of really impressive new products. In addition to their fairly extensive line of disc brake kits they’ve added a new ABS 14” Big Brake Disc Kit with 2” Drop Spindles. If you need BIG brakes, these 14.5” rotors with 4-piston calipers could be just what your project demands. Another new product they’re rolling out is an award-winning Best New Product. It’s an Electric High-Power Master Cylinder Kit that can generate up to 1,200 pounds of pressure all in one self-contained source! ABS Power Brake claims it offers the highest pressure and is the smallest system...

Helping Families Out – One Car At A Time I went to SEMA expecting to see all the new products and trends in the auto industry – I did not expect to be introduced to a philanthropic program helping families get back on their feet. But as I was at SEMA, I got to witness five families given the gift of a “Recycled Ride.” Recycled Rides is a community awareness project of the National Auto Body Council (NABC). NABC members donate their time and services to refurbish cars that insurance companies donate. After a vehicle is repaired to like-new condition, Recycled Rides pairs with a local community organization to find a deserving family, then they to give it to them. The Las Vegas partner organization is Family Promise, an interfaith, non-profit organization helping homeless families in transition from a shelter to a home of their own. Individuals who received cars ranged from two-parent families to single-parent Moms and Dads who've graduated from Family Promise’s Family Mentoring Program. Las Vegas’ mayor, Oscar Goodman, was also at SEMA to hand over the family’s new keys. It was good to see the...

Vintage AC Parts from SEMA 2010 Growing up in California, the custom cars I knew didn't have air conditioning.  Pop's cars were always fast... that was the focus and it felt good trying to hold my head straight as the G-forces threw my head back as he rowed through the gears. Good times.  Plus, let's face it, California doesn't need air conditioning all the time... Now I live in Arizona. It's a totally different story! You name the ride here in Arizona, hot rods, muscle cars, most vintage cars are running air conditioning. Mid summer, the temps can hit 120+ (over 45C for everyone outside the USA) so AC keep us from melting! Like the Mustang, GTO, 55-56 Chevy and Covette air conditioning we're featuring here, my Ford Falcon Wagon will have some strong, COLD AC! That's where Vintage Air comes in. Cruising SEMA 2010, I wanted to find AC parts that would be easy to install, last forever and come with great support. The guys from Vintage Air fit the bill.  The first thing I asked is: How will I control the AC? My Falcon didn't have AC...

Sata Spray Guns -Best Product Display at SEMA 2010 How funny is that dude in the reflection?! At some point walking SEMA, just before your legs give out and you hear a very nearby bar calling your name, there's always one more thing to draw you back in.  Often that's a booth babe or some amazing custom car, but sometimes it's something so creative you owe that vendor a much closer look! Check this short video from SATA Paint Guns display at SEMA 2010: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoI7pAFw-Ro[/youtube] See what's happening there?  The SATA guys put together a fantastic display that included this table of SATA auto guns all following people as they walked by.  A  discretely mounted camera nearby made it all happen... that and some pretty trick controls! How cool is that?! I think most people, like me, didn't even know they were being followed, but once they saw it agreed. Very cool! Couple the freaky paint guns with the tried and true hot rods and customs in your booth and you see why SATA had one of the best at SEMA 2010.  The Chip Foose influenced 2010 Camaro SS you might recognize, but have you seen...

Custom Car Wheel Review at SEMA Show 2010 In my search with pikesan for the biggest custom rims at SEMA 2010, I was struck with horror by the ugliness of some of these wheels. Did something go wrong in the design department? How did so much money go into making such an awful rim?! In Las Vegas terms, these wheels rolled crap dice! Splatter paint? That fad was SO third grade. If it were only one color it would look like a gaudy daisy... perfect for a decked out VW. But four colors? Enter: guy with large truck taking place for small ego. I like stars too... but they shouldn't be on your rim dude. These may be custom but that doesn't mean they're good looking. We had a general dislike for this uber-ugly Challenger. (At least it didn't have any LED's) PINK! On the right car, these could look pretty cool - the thing is they'll probably be showing up on a crappy Honda Civic near you. I actually really liked these on this cool little VW. But again... coming soon to a Honda Civic near you. Something...

Searching for the Biggest Custom Rims At SEMA Show 2010 Over the past few years the size of rims and wheels has been getting out of hand. Previously, Craig (known here as "pikesan") and I generally try to avoid the ginormous wheel and tire section of SEMA – this year we dove right in and went scouting for SEMA 2010’s biggest wheel. Here’s what we found… Just as we started on our search we ran into this whole wall of rims. Most with a diameter roughly the full length of my arm. Just so ya know - from fingertip to armpit I measure 31 inches. Then in Giovanna Wheel's large display were these big guys. Seeing all these rims sitting around, one forgets how incredibly expensive they are. One online source I found to purchase Giovanna rims at quoted a price of nearly $10,000 for a set of 26 inch rims. Ten Thousand Dollars!!! Ten. Thousand. Dollars. What else could you do with all that money? Maybe you could customize your Rolls Royce? Mini-Me or Mega-Me? Next up we found these classic wire spoke rims. Whether you're sportin tiny...

Best Product Display at SEMA 2010 How many different ways can you show a car battery? At some point, are there new ways to show anything?  I could recommend a SEMA babe or a radical custom car in your booth... or of course both!  Optima chose a different path with their "Wall of Power" display and I dig it. It's a "Best Product Display of SEMA 2010". Assembled inside the glass "Power" display were several red top, yellow top and blue top batteries that were all bought back from users and all tested to be in proper working condition. No small feat given the extreme duty these batteries endured! Shown here is a blue top battery taken straight from the land speed racing effort of the North American Eagle. The North American Eagle is your every day 43,000 horsepower, F104 Jet Chassis and J-79 jet engined rocket ship! The controls, data acquisition and something you might agree is important, the parachutes, are all controlled by a series of deep cell batteries like these blue top Optimas. After the chutes failed at 300mph plus due to the extreme temperatures and...

Best New Tools from SEMA 2010 No matter what you're driving or what your skill level, the right tool always helps get the job done right. Trouble is, you don't have that tool in your box and your buddy's sleeping cause it's 1:30AM and the Goodguys Show is tomorrow! That's where GearWrench comes in. I found their booth at SEMA 2010 where they had a simple, but effective display of how their tools can get you out of a jam. The open end ratchet wrench shown above has the fit-in-tight-spaces of an open end wrench with the convenience and speed of a box end ratchet. In this display (and as you'll often find working on your ride) the box end wouldn't work. Ad a ratchet end box on the other side and you're ready to turn flat-rate time into big money. (Click on image to see full size) The next tool is kinda hard to describe which makes it weird that I want it! The box end features a ratcheting wrench, but the twist is how you can reposition the angle of the box end. There's a push button...