Rides and Cruises
Celebrating 60 Years! I really dig this show. Well, it really isn’t a show as much as it is an event. For decades the Early Times car club has been hosting a picnic at the Compton Hunting and Fishing Club right off the 710 at Atlantic.This year they are celebrating 60 Years. I am not […]
With a History of the Tail Fin Design On this Sunday Drive with the Mercifuls we land at a private collection of American Classics. If hooded headlights and finned tail lights are your thing, then this gallery is for you! In a request for anonymity I will respect the owners right to remain private. This […]
The 2024 Grand National Roadster Show was one of the best in years! Each year Building 9 at the Fairplex is filled with a themed exhibition. Last year it was Keep on Truckin’ and of course that was an amazing display of mini-trucks, vans, and custom trucks of from the 70’s on up to today. […]
Boss and Chev take a lap at Wrangler’s Junction on Christmas Day.
The show that was supposed to be rained out. We heard it all week long. The first storm of the 2023/24 El Niño of Southern California. Friday into Saturday rain. From 1-3 inches. Might not sound like much for some folks, but 3″ is a third of the annual rainfall in parts of Southern California. […]
Today we catch up with Kevin Studer with his bitchen ’37 Ford Coupe at the Historic Main Street Car Show in Garden Grove. Really nice polished lacquer blue paint, dropped with bags, rolls on Wheelsmith wheels, and powered by a 454, 700R and 9 inch rear. She gets up and scoots, like Kevin a contractor […]
In Memoriam: Sadly Randy passed away a few months after our visit to his Museum and the Hot Rod Shop. Earlier we shared an article from Blacktop Magazine issue #27: Randy’s Drag Racing Museum. It showcased Randy Haapala’s NHRA Collection. After we toured the museum, he took us down a path on his property to […]
A Blacktop Archive from Issue #27 of Blacktop Magazine In Memoriam: Sadly Randy passed away a few months after our visit to his Museum and the Hot Rod Shop. Mark Soltan asked me to ride out to Randy Haapala’s place with Cool Running Camaro’s. They were meeting in San Juan Capistrano to ride over Ortega […]
An ArtMartyr Short Story While most of Southern California was in a drunken, coke-infested nightclub haze in the 70’s and 80’s there was one family that escaped that scene and took off on the weekends to hit the sand at Rosarita Beach two hours south on Hwy 5 and into Baja California. A small beach […]
When you spend your days in the field watching the lemons and avocados grow, you get to wondering. For Jerry Friedrich, that wondering got him into racing and now deep in hot rodding. We took a jaunt off the Ventura Highway and into the foothills of Santa Paula to see an incredible workshop barn and […]
Pat Tobin’s 1965 GTP 434 After his 1963 graduation from High School a ’64 Tempest caught the eye of Pat Tobin. He knew someday he would have one. Four years later he was drafted. Upon leaving the military in 1970 he started goofing around with cars. A ‘64 Chevy SS, a ‘70 Challenger 340, yet […]
I am working on a couple of different articles; History of Sidewall Tire Design and How Hot Wheels Taught Me About Stance. The two separate ideas land in one solid place in time. The 1970’s. Jacked up cars with raised white lettered tires. The Seventies Street Freaks. Cruisin Whittier Blvd in East Los Angeles or […]
