Check this rod out.

Take a look at this car at Rod & Custom magazine.
Just click on the sentence.

The Glen

I watched the entire NASCAR race today, how could I not, it was at The Glen! This has brought back a lot of memories! I first went to Watkins Glen in 1975 for the U.S. Grand Prix and kept coming back for until the last GP in 1980. I made it through the gates on Wednesday one year and enjoyed hours in the main garage looking at the F1 cars up close and personal. There were very few other spectators there, I bet that doesn't happen anymore.

I was there during the years it took to kill off The Bog and I was there when we campaigned Mario for Pope!

If you don't know about The Bog take a look at this. This article says The Bog was bulldozed after 1974 but that isn't true at all, it took years for it to be put to rest. The year I got there early the organizers had erected a ten foot tall chain link fence all around The Bog. You should have seen it the morning after the The Bog people got there, it was pushed down flat all the way around!

We always camped out and had a great time. I was young and thin then and we would hit about five different corners during the race. I still feel this is the best way to watch a road race but most people don't seem to agree with me. Everyone today likes to get a good seat and stay there.

Well that's enough for the memories! I think I will have to go back to The Glen, but only when they are using the long course.

Eagles Cruise In

Camaros in the corn.

Must be a car show all the hoods are open.

Heath Cruise

The Mopar Nationals were at National Trails this weekend, looked like a great turnout but it was just too hot for me to be walking around in the sun.
Instead I went to the Heath Cruise and watched the action there. Got in a few test photos on my digital and here they are. Lots of opprtunity for some great film shots, I'll try again next time.
The sky opened up and everyone went home all at once.

2005 Buckeye Lake Classic Boat Show

Four Century Coranados in the first photo. A Lyman (made in Ohio) ready to serve lunch. Some of the Chris Craft speed boats below. That looks like a lot of wood to take care of!

Car Craft & Hot Rod Sept. 2005

I'm reviewing some magazines for this article, Hot Rod and Car Craft are my subjects. These magazines have always been drag strip and do it yourself oriented as opposed to something like Road & Track. R&T has always leaned towards road racing and when they want to modify a car they take it to somebody for the work. The cover story for the September Car Craft is on blueprinting any engine at home. Blueprinting is the act of maintaining precise tolerances during assembly. In manufacturing tolerances are specified but there is plenty of room to move around in. When your building an engine for added horsepower you want to maintain tight tolerances.

Dave Freiburger is the editor-in-chief of both magazines and I really liked his column in Car Craft this month. It's a back to basics piece on rat rods and the building of not-super-expensive street machines. After all we are in this for the fun of it, aren't we?

CC sprinkles the front of the issue with a variety of things, a lot of reader rides, photos from the drags, personalities, new stuff and some other cool stuff that we all wish we had. After the cover story there is an engine build up story and another engine story on the right amount of oil that should be in an engine. This is all real gearhead stuff!

Besides the tech stuff sprinkled through the back pages there is a cruising article and an article on a first generation Camaro that does the quarter in 8.62 at 162!

That's it, 106 pages, now let's look at CC's sister publication, the 154 page Hot Rod.

I'll start out with what I didn't like about this issue, the guys at Hot Rod seem to think there is a need to mention Car Craft, usually in a negative manner. C'mon! Since when do magazines need to trash talk? You either put out better product or you don't so get on with it. I think they are just kidding since they all work for the same people but it doesn't really come off like that.

That said let me tell you about the neat things in Hot Rod this month. First of all they run a couple of events that I think are uber cool, the Pump Gas Drags and the Top Speed Challenge.

The Drags feature cars from around the country that are supposed to be street legal and among the quickest down the quarter mile. This event produced 8 cars that ran under 9 seconds at the track. The variety of cars really gives you an idea of what it takes to build a super quick car.

The Challenge is a return to the origins of hot rodding when the idea was to have the fastest car.
It's a smaller article because they really just joined in with some folks who already do this kind of thing but I think it shows some great potential.

There are four more feature stories, a good one on engine builder Ed Pink and three technical ones. The editor, Rob Kinnan, writes about the quality of the work being done in the magazine, that is pretty important. Lots of other pieces are peppered through this issue and it all adds up to a pretty good read.

You can find Car Craft on line here and Hot Rod on line here.

Rex and Corvette.

He's thinking,

"While I've been into

baseball all these

years, look at what

I've been missing."

Dragbike

ZX-R

Extended swingarm
Nitrous
Rear brake looked never used

Hanna and Geoff

Thanks Blogger!

Blogger has made it really easy to post pictures and I appreciate it.

I think I'll be able to post more often here with this new feature. Things have settled down somewhat at work and there are still lots of events and happenings left this year.

Cool flame job on a V8 powered Volvo P1800 at Goodguys Columbus 2005.

Think the Mercedes would look good with something like this?

This is a straight eight powered hot rod at Goodguys Columbus 2005. Lots of great details on this car.

Really different! I have long thought of building a car just like this.

Lotus Europas at Mid Ohio.
Neat little cars.

Triumph Spitfires at Mid Ohio vintage races. My friend Tony wonders where the chicks are.

My friend Teresa and her recently purchased Ford Ferguson tractor.