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Posted
Mar 04 2010, 02:27 AM
by
Speedhunters
with 17 comment(s)
Greetings fellow Speedhunters readers, my name is Anthony Crivelli and I hail from Melbourne, Australia. Like most of you, I'm a young gear-head who reads Speedhunters every day with my morning coffee. For around a year or so I've been running a little blog called Build-Threads.com which focuses on the build process of all things automotive, whether it be cars, bikes or even garages. When Rod offered me the opportunity to write some guest blogs on Speedhunters, I jumped at the chance (who...
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Posted
Nov 25 2009, 02:29 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
I figured I'd follow up yesterday's Cadillac post with another find from Billetproof 2009 - a bagged '62 Ford Thunderbird. Just like the Caddy, this a period style '60s kustom, with the exception of the modern suspension that allows it lay frame at the press of a button.
Sooo sexy.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Nov 24 2009, 03:33 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
I thought I'd follow up my Toyota Cressida spotllight with another one, this time on a distinctively American machine - a '61 Cadillac Coupe De Ville owned by a fellow named Hunter Bender of Sacramento, California. Spotted at Billetproof 2009 in Antioch, this low slung beauty stopped me dead in my tracks, and I've been anxiously waiting slammed month to post up a few photos of this car....
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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 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
Jun 30 2009, 06:15 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
As a final bit of luxury material for this month, here's a car that combines the traditional Japanese luxury flagship with some of the kustom style that I showcased yesterday. I never knew the Toyota Century would look so natural in flat black slammed (with hydraulics) on some white walls with sidepipes. Who said VIP cars need wheels poking out from the fenders to be cool?
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Jun 29 2009, 04:35 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
Right now we are hard at work on preparing features for next month, but there's still a few last bits of luxury and exotic material that I'd like to post. As a way if looking back at the roots of luxury customization, I've put together a gallery of vintage kustoms that could be considered luxury cars. Sure they might not have really been considered "luxury" back then, but its not hard to draw comparisons between these classics and today's customized lux cars....
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Posted
Jun 02 2009, 02:28 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 8 comment(s)
Welcome to the next month of your life... is 2009 treating you ok? Or are these tough times bringing the spirit of things down just a little bit? I suppose it's hard to keep your chin up when all you hear about in the news is doom and gloom... oh well... we still can dream about a nice future can't we?... Perhaps this daydream can include some high end supercars too no? Why not!... after any acheivement in life normally starts out with a visualization of some kind. So with this in mind we...
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Posted
Apr 13 2009, 03:01 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
As you've no doubt seen from our constant updates from events all over the world, we Speedhunters stay quite busy. Even then, there are times when there's just too much cool stuff out there. While we were down in Long Beach shooting Formula D this weekend, the annual Viva Las Vegas rod and kustom gathering was happening across the desert in Sin City. I would have loved to have attended this one, but there are only so many weekends in a year....
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Posted
Dec 08 2008, 05:30 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
Yokohama is one of the epicenters of Japan's hot rodding and custom car scene, and there is no event bigger than the Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod and Custom Car Show which has been held annually for 17 years. The 2008 edition of the show was held on Sunday and I headed to Yokohama to have a look. I sort of a Mooneyes fanboy, so I had been anxiously awaiting this one for while. As you can see by the photo, the show is one of the coolest, and most unique car events in Japan. Yes, that guy is pinstriping a girl's thighs......
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Posted
Oct 16 2008, 08:18 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 10 comment(s)
A few days ago, Rod sent me an email about some artwork he saw on display at last weekend's California Hot Reunion at Famoso. I visited the website of the artist and came away quite impressed. His name is James Owens and he refers to his automotive artwork as "car noir". Drawing a lot of inspiration from vintage movie posters, and artists like Norman Rockwell and Dave Stevens, Owens' paintings offer up stylistic scenes that James describes as "one part hot rod, one part film noir, and one part Pulp Fiction". That sounds like a perfect and description to me....
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Posted
Oct 15 2008, 08:29 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
Through my experiences photographing and writing about cars, I have been introduced to a lot of really interesting people who come from a lot of different backgrounds. One of them is Jae Bueno and his blog www.jaebueno.com. I first remember looking at the photos in his Flickr gallery and being very impressed with the quality and vibrancy with which they portray the Southern California automotive life. With our focus on SoCal this month, we thought it would be a fine time to showcase Jae and a little bit of his photographic work....
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Posted
Oct 14 2008, 11:09 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 16 comment(s)
Way back when Speedhunters launched, I wrote a brief introduction about car culture in Japan and the the diverse automotive styles that can be found here. One of my goals has been to show that there is much more to Japanese car life than just the "JDM" stuff you hear about most often in the auto media. Obviously, a large part of our audience are primarily interested in the traditional sort of Japanese tuning, but I hope showing some of these other "sub-cultures" iwill expand people's appreciation of cars in general and help them grow as enthusiasts. And that brings us to a look at the world of traditional kustom car building and hot rodding in Japan......
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Posted
Oct 13 2008, 05:00 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
It's SoCal month here on Speedhunters, and while there is a wealth awesome car stuff to be seen around LA, it can be a bit hard to access since I am in Japan right now. That's no problem though, because the SoCal influence can be seen on cars all over the world, and especially here in Japan. I have been researching some of the US-inspired custom cars in Japan and I came across a really unique build that I thought was worth a closer look. The majority of the cars that I have featured here are commonly seen models, this one surely is not. Before I get into the details of the build, I should probably give a little background info on the Nissan PAO....
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Posted
Oct 09 2008, 03:24 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 3 comment(s)
In a lot of places the internet is taking over print magazines as the primary form of automotive media, but that's not the case in Japan. The car magazine is still king here and every month bookstore shelves fill with TONS of high quality automotive magazines about everything from Ferraris to Toyota Hi Ace vans. This month I will be looking some of the SoCal/US- focused magazines, and one of the most unique of these publications is a magazine called "Cruisin'". I first came across this magazine when I was on trip to Japan a few years ago, and was very impressed with it. It's all about American-inspired custom cars and the culture that surrounds them. Everything about Cruisin' magazine is ultra high quality, and I would say each issue could almost border on being a book, or "mook" as the Japanese like to call magazine-book hybrids....
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Posted
Oct 02 2008, 05:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Right now I am here sitting in my Japanese apartment about 5,000 miles away from Los Angeles, there are GT-R's and fixed up Chasers cruising around outside, but I am inside thinking about SoCal. I'm not sure if it's a case of being homseick, as I hail not hail from SoCal itself, but from Fresno which is a couple hours to the north. Nonetheless, my parents grew up there and through my numerous trips there, I have seen plenty of the the car-crazed place that is Southern California. The brains of American auto culture may be in Detroit, but the heart of it has to be in LA. I mean, where else can you go to a jam-packed cruise event on a random weeknight in the middle of the winter? We'll be looking at many parts of SoCal automotive life during the next month, and first I'd like to start out with a basic look at SoCal's significance to motoring over the years....
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Posted
Aug 22 2008, 11:14 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
There a few things better than spending a weekend hanging out with fellow enthusiasts, talking about cars, and just enjoying the hobby in general. This is exactly what happened last weekend at the meet that was hosted by our friends at Retro Scene Magazine in the UK. The UK has a thriving classic car scene, and I must say that it looks quite different from anything I have seen in the states. In the US everyone is sort of divided into their own "scenes" and there is little interaction between them. The UK "retro" scene is much different, and at the meet you could find everything from vintage air and water-cooled VW's, to classic Japanese cars, to UK market Fords, and even classic American cars. That is the most impressive thing to me about this meet, people with all sorts of cars coming together to celebrate the love of vintage machinery....
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Posted
Jun 03 2008, 11:38 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 2 comment(s)
While I may be absorbing myself in Japan's car culture right now, my automotive roots lie in classic American automobiles, so when I heard about this book that was just published, my interest was immediately sparked. Michael McCabe's new book, Kustom Japan , profiles kustom and hot rod culture here in the land of the rising sun. The book covers all parts of the culture including the cars, the clothes, the people, and the places. It looks like a great read and I think it's so fascinating...
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