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Posted
Nov 12 2009, 03:30 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 24 comment(s)
This giant scaled up Hot Rod is the latest creation from the Southern Oregon based Blastolene shop. These are the same crazy minds responsible for Jay Leno's tank car.... It's a connection which immediately makes a lot of sense! Designed by Randy Grubb, the Blastolene design philosophy is based around finding unusual large displacement engines and building up drivable "sculptures" around them. The 12v71 Detroit Diesel with twin 671 superchargers is an industrial application engine...
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Posted
Nov 11 2009, 04:12 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
The spirit of the scene that some people are calling "Rat Rodding" is a counter culture against the smoothster style million dollar "cheque book" Rods which are still dominating the big Hot Rod awards. A true Rat Rod normally looks like it's been built with period specific components, which give the impression of being found in the open desert, river beds, swap meets and junkyards. This style of car started out with machines that were inspired by the original jalopy street...
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Posted
Nov 10 2009, 06:58 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
Man I'm tired... I just feel asleep while sitting here working on these photographs. It appears I'm still recovering from a wild week in Las Vegas last week. Oh well... best to crack on and get this story written up before I fall asleep again! It was a pleasant surprise to see Pagani brought over one of the Zonda R chassis from Italy. This was probably one of the most striking cars at SEMA and was the centerpiece of the Pirelli booth. The Zonda was set up right beside the Falken booth where...
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Posted
Oct 21 2009, 01:21 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Over the past couple days we've been hard at work prepping our special driver blogs from Irwindale, but for a moment let's jump back into some coverage of the 18th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion held last weekend at Famoso Raceway. In this opening shot you can see two more examples of altered drag cars, including the blown AA/FA class "Outcast 1" - complete with period correct (and mega pricey) mag wheels....
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Posted
Oct 19 2009, 03:36 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
No less than 12 hours after the tire smoke had cleared at Irwindale Speedway, I was on my way over the Grapevine to Famoso Raceway, located just north of Bakersfield. The reason? To check out the 18th Annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Rod and David Lister shot this event last year, and after seeing their photos I was excited to witness the nostalgic action for myself, even after the exhaustion of shooting for three-straight days at Irwindale....
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Posted
Sep 25 2009, 01:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
Now that I'm up and running in my new place I figured I should wrap up my Billetproof coverage with a final selection of photographs from Antioch. Billetproof is really one of those events where nearly every car is "post-worthy", but space and time constraints mean I can only show a portion of them. If you want the full Billetproof experience, you should look into visiting one of these fantastic events in person. ...
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 01:22 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
It's time for more coverage from the weekend's Billetproof gathering at the Contra Costa County fairgrounds in Antioch, California. It always pleases me to see the positive responses to the hot rod and custom material we feature. Out of all the events I've covered, these are some of the most fun of to shoot. Even if you don't think you're the "hot rod type", a trip to a show like Billetproof might change you.
Anyways, let's get on with more Billetproof coverage....
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Posted
Sep 20 2009, 03:16 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 16 comment(s)
The first time I heard about Billetproof was in a Hot Rod Magazine article about eight years ago. At that time the traditional rod and custom movement was just starting to gain momentum, and shows like Billetproof were at the forefront of the revolution. There are now Billetproof events held across the United States, but the first was the California edition - held annually in the SF Bay Area . Even though I didn't live terribly far from Antioch (the current site of the show), it wasn't until this year that I was finally able to head up there and take in Billetproof in person....
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Posted
Aug 27 2009, 12:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
When it comes to high speed events in North America, the hallowed salt at Bonneville is what comes to most people's minds, or maybe the Silver State Classic held on an empty stretch of highway in Nevada. Besides those storied events, there's another top speed gathering which has been gaining popularity this decade - the Texas Mile. Held on a runway in the town of Goliad, TX, the Texas Mile started in 2003 and has become a meeting point for some of the fastest cars and motorcycles on the continent. Unfortunately a search around the net didn't yield a whole lot of photographic coverage of the Texas Mile, but I did mange to find a few interesting shots....
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Posted
Aug 21 2009, 09:46 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 2 comment(s)
For those Hot Rod fans out there.... We bring you this high rez image for your computer desktops. Enjoy! :Rod
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Posted
Aug 21 2009, 10:16 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 20 comment(s)
I'm not really sure what to say here, but this '48 Pontiac has got to be one of the most unique cars I've ever seen take part in this twisted motorsport.
Just watch the clip.
-Mike Garrett
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Posted
Aug 20 2009, 05:02 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 13 comment(s)
Speedhunters as a website has been designed for people like myself who have exceptionally short attention spans... I get bored very easily and constantly need to switch up what I'm focused on in order to feel excited and inspired... So I just can't look at Japanese cars and drift photos all the time. It just becomes too repetitive for my cross firing brain and I lose interest.... so for those of you who are with me on this, let's look in real detail at the main meat of the car culture...
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Posted
May 29 2009, 04:48 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
I just realized I haven't posted too many desktops for you guys this month, so here's some high res hot rod goodness from last weekend's Cruisin' Nationals in Santa Maria. I experimented a bit with black and white for this shot, and think it came out pretty cool. What do you think? Head over to the Desktops section to find out. As always, you'll find standard and widescreen versions available there. -Mike Garrett
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Posted
May 29 2009, 01:01 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Well, our VW-Audi month has pretty much come to an end, but there's one last Volkswagen that I want to share - and I think you'll agree that it's worth the wait. Last month at a local VW event here in Central California, there was one particular car that had a constant crowd of people around it. It wasn't a tedious restoration, a traditional Cal-Looker, or a fully built race car. Nope, it was this homebuilt "Hood Ride" oval window Beetle that was drawing all the attention. The owner had driven the car up from SoCal and was super excited to show off all the crazy stuff he has done to his car....
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Posted
May 28 2009, 08:33 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 16 comment(s)
I still have a bit more to post from the 2009 Cruisin' Nationals in Santa Maria, so let's get right to it. Up above we have a windshield-less roadster parked alongside a flamed lead sled - two machines that nicely represent the mixture of cars that packed the Santa Maria fairgrounds last weekend....
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Posted
May 26 2009, 01:02 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Alright, here's some more photos from last weekend's Cruisin' Nationals in Santa Maria. I've been finding it hard to choose which pictures I want to post here, because there was frankly too much cool stuff at this event. Typically, I'll have a pretty good idea of what I want to post as I'm walking around an event, but the Cruisin' Nationals was full of hundreds of vehicles and nearly every one of them was worthy of the spotlight....
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Posted
May 25 2009, 09:34 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 10 comment(s)
For 27 years, the West Coast Kustoms Cruisin' Nationals has been the place to to go to see vintage hot rod and custom cars in California. The event started off in Paso Robles, but a couple years ago the venue was moved down the road a bit to Santa Maria, a coastal town known for it's signature tri-tip steaks. Since coming back to the United States, I've been counting the days to this show, and I can say now that it was well worth the wait. The pleasant central coast setting promises not only great weather, but because of it's central location, car nuts from all over the west coast come out to this show for a weekend full of good times and nostalgic rides....
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Posted
May 24 2009, 11:52 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 8 comment(s)
What a great weekend this has been.
For starters we have the Indy 500, Formula One in Monaco,and even NASCAR under the lights in Charlotte (if that's your thing), and that doesn't even include the events we are covering here on Speedhunters. You've already seen some of John's material from the Nurburgring 24hr, DIno's stuff from D1 in Odaiba, and me? I spent yesterday down on the lovely Central California coast for the 28th annual Cruisin' Nationals in Santa Maria, taking in west coast hot rod and kustom culture at it's very finest. I don't want to spoil anything, but there were some incredible cars that made it out for this show.
No matter what type of automotive mayhem strikes your fancy, you can expect some cool stuff in the coming days!
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
May 22 2009, 04:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
Over the past few days I've been a bit more excited than normal. The reason? I'm heading down to Santa Maria tomorrow for the 28th annual West Coast Kustoms Cruisin' Nationals, a world famous hot rod and custom car gathering that's become a California tradition. In anticipation for this event, I thought I'd post a bit about a magazine I picked up at the bookstore yesterday - Hot Rod Deluxe. The magazine is a spin off from the legendary Hot Rod Magazine, and instead of focusing on the latest trends like Hot Rod, Hot Rod Deluxe is all about hot rodding in the traditional sense....
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Posted
May 21 2009, 07:49 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 16 comment(s)
Do I spot a new trend? Hot rods mixing it up with contemporary, functional wheels? This 1932 Ford Coupe has been build by Tomas Svenningson who lives in Sweden (you know those guys with the crazy engine transplants?). Well let me tell you it's no different with this car, it's powered by 5 cylinder 2.3 liter turbo engine sourced from a Volvo 850 T5R. The engine has been mated to a Ford AWD system, giving it more than enough traction to blast around the bends. The wheels are a set of knock...
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