Eastern Hot Rodder

Sam brought out his show stopping 1968 Chevy Camaro. This Chevrolet has the Rally Sport package with the hide-away headlights and a white nose stripe. Under the faux vented hood is a numbers matching 375hp 396 big block of yore. That highly detailed porcupine is connected to a Muncie row-your-own 4 speed that sends the power to a 12 bolt posi rear. The small cap rally wheels look great on a Camaro, especially when they sit this nice. Inside the car you'll find black and white hounds tooth buckets and a Hurst stick extending out of the console. What a fine example of Chevy's answer to the Mustang and the ignitor of the pony car wars.

John B got his track up and running tonight. The rest of the gang came out to make some test passes on the 1:24 scale 1/8 mile track. This wasn't the first pass, but it was the first videoed pass. This little track will be opening soon in the Peachtree area of Murphy, NC. This run was between John B's '40 Willys and Mick's dragster.

I built a clone of my dad's '64 Vette hot rod gasser. His car has a blown big block. The Supercharged 468ci rat connects to a TH400 and sends it back to a 9" and 3.70 gears. The slot car has little plastic versions of the same. The model is a '67 427 roadster, so the gills don't match, but with a little kit bashing I was able to make a pretty darn close replica of my dad's car. I even flared the rear wheel wells to match his car. It gives him a good reason to go slot car racing with the rest of us.

Alex from www.VikingBags.com sent one of their large Trident Sissy Bar Backpacks for me to review. It is awesome! There are so many compartments to keep your stuff separated out, but it all fits together without being too bulky. It is designed to strap to the sissy bar of a bike, but this pack would be great for a hot rod weekender. Tough, water repellant construction, strong zippers, and heavy duty velcro just about guarantee your stuff stays safe and sound while rolling down the bumpiest roads. Remember to subscribe and comment below to get entered into the give away drawing of this great piece. Here is a link to the Viking Bags site for this exact pack: https://www.vikingbags.com/viking-trident-large-motorcycle-backpack

Is this '57 Chevy Truck a rat rod, or a hot rod with the right patina? Either way it is way cool. Nice LS swap, nice seat and nice stance.

Man, oh, man! The rock solid body and arrow straight original panels are a dream come true. The LS Swap is perfectly executed and well detailed. A fresh interior, proper stance and a well fitted set of wheels tell on lookers this is as done as it needs to be. The car bridges the gap between rat rod and hot rod.

My mom has been searching for a cute cruiser that she and my dad can take out for ice cream. Something easy to drive, decent on gas and, most importantly, a classic car. While my dad wanted a big block 4 speed hot rod, my mom didn't. She wanted automatic, hoping for a convertible and that was about it. So what did she find? A Belair, Impala, Nova, Chevelle, or Camaro? Nope, she stuck to a budget friendly, don't see 'em too often pick. She looked all over and ended up finding this '65 Chevy Corvair Monza convertible just 30 minutes from home. While this Nader Hater needs a little wiring attention, it runs like a top, rides good and checks all the boxes for my mom. This was the first time she checked out a car by herself and she done did good.

Got the rat rod '46 Chevy pickup out today to take it for a spin between the rain drops. I parked in off to the side to shuffle the cars around and when I turned around the truck just looked so cool parked under Ol' Glory. The dual quads sitting hi on the Tunnel Ram, lakes pipes proudly hanging out of the engine bay and the hot rod red paint tying in t=with the nation's colors. I just had to shoot a short video.

We took a trip to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville, GA and saw some neat cars from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Electric trim cars aren't anything new. Neither are the big inch wheels. As the sayings go: 'everything old is new again' and 'History repeats itself.' The museum had some interesting pieces from Ford's first car to space transportation. The early Indian motorcycle and outboard motors were cool too. I liked the mini steam train.

While trying to get the Jimmy blown 454 Big Block Chevy in his Vette Gasser to idle and not backfire and fowl plugs we noticed the timing jumping 10-20 degrees. Before tearing down the Weiand 6-71 Supercharged BBC we decided to try the distributor from my Lil' Red Shop Truck rat rod. The '64 Corvette fired up and ran nice and crisp. Now he just needs to get his own distributor, so I can fire my truck back up and he can start driving the blown bowtie again.

My friend John is selling his 1940 Ford Panel Truck hot rod project. It is mounted on a 2002 Ford Explorer 4WD chassis. As much of the loaded Explorer that could be saved was, the 4.6l V8, overdrive transmission, frame, suspension, brakes... It runs and drives, has had a ton of work done. He only wants $15,000 for it.

Here is some extra footage we shot while at Don Z's Streetcar Shootout at LVD. These cars were running test and tune or the gambler's race and not in the shootout. As I sit in the cold house in early February I started thinking that I can't be the only one wanting to see some summertime car action with green leaves and sunshine. Hope you like it enough to subscribe to the channel.

I took my daughter Sage and the '63 Pontiac Tempest A/FX altered wheelbase slot car model I just built to the Raceway Slot Car hobby track in Cleveland, TN to see if I could get Sage hood on drag racing and if the Poncho would make a pass. It did and she's now hooked. After getting used to the lights she won her 2 first round races. She claimed the car as hers and is already talking about building others. Cool. All the guys there were great, encouraging her, laughing and having fun. Some other new cars debuted there, like Mickey's flamed '66 Chevelle. The owner of the Raceway is Bill, he's awesome. Helping us out and giving advice on the Nova I have in the works.

A cool 11:24th scale gasser pair up at The Raceway in Cleveland, TN.

After building a hard body '63 Pontiac Tempest altered wheelbase body for the Mid America Boss Chassis I talked my 13 year old into going to the track. This was her first not red light pass during test and tune. The car ran a 1.12, but Mickey's '66 Chevelle was too much and beater in the heads up race. She would get revenge and knock him out in the first round of eliminations when she cut a decent light and ran a 1.41 on a 1.40 dial in.

In one of our live Sunday shows we were talking with Copperhead Kustoms about how good Marvel Mystery Oil works to free up stuck valves and other engine internals on engines that have sat for a very long time. We were all surprised when Copperhead never heard of it in the Land Down Under, so I decided to do a quick walk through my local O'Reilly's Auto Parts to pick out a few things I use here in the US that other countries might not have.

I got bit by the slot car drag racing bug. I bought a used Mid America Boss RTR car with a thin, clear plastic body from a friend of mine. I rooted through my 1:24th scale model kits and decided to build the "Funny Farmer" Altered Wheelbase '63 Tempest body to work on the Boss chassis. The car is based on Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick's old 'Tameless Tiger' Funnycar. The goal was to make the body work, with interior and engine, on the unmodified chassis. I did have to stretch the back wheel wells a little to match the chassis' shortest setting, but the big mods had to be done to the interior, engine and trans. It weighs a bunch more than it did, so I expect it to run 1.2-1.3 seconds in the scale quarter rather than the .84, but it should be stable and consistent. I'm really happy with the way the 'Wild One' came out. I always thought the old Max Bash AWB Funnies were so cool and have wanted to build a real one since I read Steve Magnante's book and watched his video on building one. While this isn't a real one it did temporarily scratched that itch, cost far less and if you squint, dim the lights just right, and use your imagination it looks real.

We took a trip down to Cartersville, GA to check out the Savoy Auto Museum. It had a big collection of early 1900s runabouts and speedsters. On display was a collection of mini cars, like an Issetta and a Gogomobile. They also had a display of gas crunch '70s cars like Vegas, a Pinto, a Gremlin, a Chevette and a Pacer. But, the coolest was the Fabulous Fin collection that had 1 of the 5 'Raindrop" Harley Earl designed Motorama Cadillac Eldorados. That was really cool to see in person.

There are large trucks, there are big trucks, then there are huge trucks. Check out this massive dump truck.

A pair of custom built slot cars run the scaled 1320 at The Raceway Hobby in Cleveland, TN..

Chris pairs off against Mike's rat rod Camaro with a rear engine dragster at the slot car drags at The Raceway Hobby in Cleveland, TN.

Rob dials a 1.48 to DJ's .93, with have a good reaction time, but DJ breaks out trying to run Rob down at The Raceway Hobby in Cleveland, TN.

Slot car Drags! A 1.08 vs. a 1.06 dial in. Close drag race won my a reaction time. We were at the Raceway in Cleveland, TN.

I got invited to go to the Raceway Slot Car Drags in Cleveland, TN by my buddy John Bonnet. He let me run his Vette and Fox body Mustang while Ray Cote Jr. let me run his dually pickup, AKA: Hooptie. Once I got a hang of the lights I did pretty good. Nabbed low reaction time (.0007) in round 1. I burned the motor in the Vette, then crashed the Mustang. The Hooptie proved consistent and reliable. There were a bunch of really cool cars there and the most feared was a little girl, about 7. She was killer on the tree. She made it to the semi-finals before getting knocked out. In the end DJ won with his dragster and Ray Jr. runner-upped with his 1957 Chevy Cameo pickup. The variation of cars running and detail put into each one made the event as entertaining as any car show. There were cop cars, ramp trucks, corvettes, Mustangs, Chargers, hot rods, dragsters, pickups and Camaros running the scale quarter mile from anywhere from 2 seconds to as low as 0.8 seconds at near 50mph. We had a ton of fun for a little amount of money. I can see how this can get to be an addicting hobby.

My first time at the electric car slot car drags. It was fun to watch. I caught Ray's Pantera as it jumped out of the groove and missed the slow down area and smacked the stop box.