Skid Plate racing rules are straightforward. Any 1980 or newer four or six-banger front wheel drive car with a 90-inch or longer wheelbase is OK. No secret reinforcements or buttressing allowed. No added weight. Hitting the buffet a few times to add weight to the driver before the race is OK. A Skid Plate Race car must be stock at its core. If you are going to run a V6, two of … [Read more...]
Mickey Thompson: First American to 400 MPH
Mickey Thompson is a legend in American motorsport and hot rodding. The NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum is currently exhibiting a collection of Thompson's lifelong achievement through photographs, memorabilia, and the very machines that broke the records. To get an idea of who Mickey Thompson the man was, consider that while holding down a full-time job as a Pressman at the … [Read more...]
A Shrunken Corvair Named Kumquat
From the West coast division of the Corvair shortening department comes this 1963 convertible dune buggy variant of the American air-cooled rear engine sports car. The car originally rolled off the assembly line as a factory turbocharged Spyder in 1963. An accident that buckled and creased both doors landed what was left the Spyder languishing engineless behind a gas station … [Read more...]
JDM Astro Van and Resurrected Corolla
The resurrection of old Corollas and return of a Chevrolet Astro to the United States from Japan is proof that the end of 2009 is at hand, or that the last Santa Clara gathering of this year is now in the past. The Datsun crew by way of Ratsun Forum showed up with an eclectic mix of rear-drive classics with modern horsepower underhood. The Chevrolet Astro van featured above was … [Read more...]
Forgotten Chevy Truck
There is no finer automobile for around the ranch work than a solid full size pickup truck. This 1963 Chevrolet C20 truck had evidently finished the job. What job? The old Chevy is the sort of truck that Hoss Cartwright would drive into town for some dynamite to blow those stumps out in the west field, if he didn't ride a horse on TV. The patina on this Chevy could only result … [Read more...]