Now that the big gravel parking lot next to the space used to hold the Street Car Nationals has been fully resurfaced, we might as well think of it as the show’s annex, such is the selection of cars that you can run across. About an hour before the show was due to end I [...]
Although it’s something that I’d love to be able to do, there is literally no way you could shoot every single car at the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals before the event closes at 3pm. So this year – like every year – it was all about being selective and concentrating on the cars that exhibited [...]
If you missed a certain American flair in the previous Spotlight-O-Rama from the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals, then this selection I’ve put together should balance things out quite nicely. What better way to get things pointing in the right direction than by taking a look at a couple of traditional hot rods – the rawest [...]
Vintage USA tin and the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals might go hand-in-hand, but you won’t find one single American-made machine in this first Spotlight-O-Rama from the annual Tokyo event. I’m doing this to emphasize just how diversified Mooneyes events are in Japan, and – where you will at times – come across the most curious [...]
No matter how many times I attend the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals, I never quite get over the visual impact the event creates on the streets of Tokyo’s Odaiba neighborhood. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t into customs or hot rods, the sight that these cars collectively create is simply breathtaking. Throw in an ever-expanding [...]
Sweden. What comes to mind when it’s mentioned for you? Are there images of unspoiled nature and virgin forests dancing through your head? Or perhaps a glitzy disco song from Abba is playing? It could be that you think of the furniture mega-retailer IKEA, or the clothing giant H&M. You might have a more edgy [...]
Choosing cars to spotlight is tricky business, and at a show where most of the cars have already been in HOT ROD Magazine the difficulty increases exponentially. There were just so many good cars at the HOT ROD Homecoming that picking out the ones we wanted to show was tough. For that reason I started [...]
It was a surreal scene, to be surrounded by cars that I had ogled in HOT ROD Magazine for much of my youth. You don’t really expect to encounter magazine cars in real life – for some reason they seem quarantined within those pages – so the concept of a car show that consists solely of HOT [...]
In yesterday’s post I gave you guys a broad view of the Goodguys All-American Get Together in Northern California, and today I’d like to narrow in and focus on some of the specific cars that caught my interest at the show. As I mentioned in the first post, there was huge variety of cars that [...]
When it comes to automotive history in the Golden State, you probably think first of Southern California. After all, it’s considered the place where hot rodding, custom car building, and drag racing were born. As you look closer though, you’ll begin to see that Northern California’s contributions to these scenes are equally as important. In [...]
Don’t you just love it when things just work out without much planning? That’s what happened to me the other weekend, when, after covering the Nostalgic 2 Days event at the Pacifico Exhibition Center in Yokohama, I heard the Chop Sticks Car Club would be meeting up for one of their awesome cruises. So, after [...]
What is it that makes car swap meets so great? Is it the chance to find old and rare parts? The chance to discover a new project car? The old fashioned bargaining? Maybe it’s just the simple fact that everything you thing is for sale? Whatever the case, I absolutely love getting the chance to [...]
For all the great stuff I got to experience in Japan this time, one event I wasn’t able to make was the Hot Rod Razzle Dazzle in Yokohama. While I sit here and kick myself for not staying a few extra days and going for myself, my friend Hiroaki Kageyama from The KAGE Blog volunteered [...]
As I mentioned in the Spotlight-O-Rama story, I work in the aftermarket, specifically designing performance intakes and air filters. When brainstorming for a feature on details I figured air induction would be a good topic, since I obsessively look at every engine to see what they are running. Let’s kick this off in style with the [...]
Attending events like the Grand National Roadster Show without your own vehicle is akin to torture. It’s tough to enjoy everyone’s finished rides while yours sits unfinished 400 miles away. But this year the tables would finally turn, and planning began upon being formally accepted to the show. It would be my third GNRS, but the first [...]
