Studebaker and Suburban Featured in Hot Rod Magazine

Studebaker rearHot Rod magazine’s August 2014 highlighted two cars that we first saw at the SEMA Show.  Funny how some cars just stand out and end up being touted by all?  Out of the thousands of cars at SEMA, some just naturally are just dang drop dead perfect and deserve detailed views and attention.

66 Suburban

Our friends at Hot Rod Magazine For August, 2014 devoted three pages (page 108-110) on Mr. Gasket’s Lime Crush – a 66 Suburban.  We gave you our view of this awesome build here.  Great attention to detail and just about every body panel was massaged to some degree.Lime Crush Low Shot

51 Studebaker

In the same issue, they take a look at a 51 Studebaker owned by Dennis Varni.  It too was at the SEMA show and drew plenty of admiring glances in its prime aisle spot.  Eight pages don’t do it justice, so we had to add our pictures too.

The Studebaker actually passed through three sets of hands before completion.  It sits on an Art Morrison frame.  A Ford 427 engine has fuel injection and uses a GM 700R4 transmission.  The wood work is spot on beautiful.  Lots of onlookers took double takes trying to figure out if Studebaker ever made a woodie!

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Escondido’s Cruisin Grand Car Show

Cruisin’ Grand

 

Many cities and towns seem to have found the correct formula for holding local car cruises. Find a location that doesn’t normally have a lot of activity at dusk (like many downtown’s), ensure plenty of visible street parking, bring in a DJ to spin some tunes and have a few restaurants stay open to serve the crowds and you have all the ingredients for a successful car cruise. Mix in some cool California weather, plus a shack that sells kettle corn and that describes Crusin’ Grand along Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido, California.

While Escondido may be best known for being the home of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park; on Friday night from April through September, it is also home to some other Barracudas, Impalas, and Mustangs. From 5-9 PM the downtown streets come alive with classic cars and trucks of all varieties. They block off some side streets and weekly feature a specific car marquee or local car club. The first week of the 2014 season was April 4th and hosted lots of Willy’s. Typical weeks bring out over 5,000+ people to see the classics and it didn’t hurt that this same weekend, nearby Del Mar was hosting the Goodguys Rod and Custom show.

51 Henry J

At this first week of the season, there were plenty of cars, trucks and motorcycles to ogle. A silver 1951 Henry J was jaw dropping gorgeous. The paint job was done by Charlie Hutton of Lampa, Idaho. You might recall that Charlie painted for Boyd Coddington when they were on the reality TV show, American Hot Rod and is a mainstay at the SEMA show. The red leather interior was done by Gabe’s, another stalwart for Boyd Coddington. This beast is powered by a Chevy 350 cubic inch ZZ4 motor, linked to a 700 R4 automatic transmission and a 9″ Ford rear end. This vehicle also ended up on display for the weekend at the Optima battery booth at the nearby Goodguys show.

55 Chevy Gasser’s

You couldn’t help notice two 55 Chevy’s that were done up as gassers. They showed a substantial amount of patina or surface rust but both looked at home sitting on Grand Avenue. They sported “big and little’s” with small lightweight skinny wheels up front and monstrous tires on the back to grab as much traction on the drag strip as they could. The stance was nose up, with a solid straight front axle.

1960 Chevy Impala

Parked on a side street for all to enjoy was a silver 1960 Chevy Impala. The wide white tires were dead on period authentic. They were matched to reversed steel black rims with a chrome bullet center cap for a sharp look. I’ve always enjoyed this model year as the rear fins were more sedate and not as outrageous as earlier years. The three circular lights on each rear corner of the back end is a classic look, often “borrowed” by customizers.

1959 El Camino

Down the street was a red 59 El Camino with the oversized rear tail fins. The red paint gleamed in the sun and looked ready for cruising the avenues or stopping at the local feed market and picking up some sacks of feed. It was a stock look but with the hood down, who knows what giant sleeps in that engine bay?

Rat Rod Truck

Finally a rat rod truck was a sight to see. The truck sported a custom roll cage for the cab’s interior. Between the exhaust being piped straight up from the engine compartment and the front end being directly connected to the chassis, with no springs or suspension, this would certainly be an interesting ride. But the stance, helped here again by big and little tires, was neat and helped it to look like a cool cat.

Enjoy the balance of the pictures, and remember the show continues every Friday through the end of October.

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McLaren MP4 12C Black Beauty

McLaren MP4 12C

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Had a chance to see two McLaren’s side by side at a recent “Cars and Coffee” in Scottsdale, AZ.  For my taste these cars are tons nicer than many exotics and technologically miles ahead of their competitors.

Here is a link to our article for eBay Motors.

MP4 12C

The nomenclature for the McLaren is an interesting story.

MP4 stand for McLaren Project  4, which is the chassis designation. The “12” is an index number that McLaren uses to designate the performance of all their cars.  The C represents carbon for all the carbon fiber used throughout the chassis and body areas.

After 2012, McLaren dropped the MP4 designation for this car series and just referred to the car as a 12C

McLaren Performance

The car accelerates from 0-60 MPH in around three seconds and tops out officially at 207 MPH.  It is powered by a V8 engine linked to twin turbos.  Seeing the rear mounted engine through the transparent car cover is a treat.

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McLaren Airfoil

The carbon fiber rear air foil is used in severe braking helping to slow down this powerhouse, plus it just looks darn neat.

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McLaren Dihedral Door

Sometimes referred to as a vertical door or a lambo door, these are butterfly doors or dihedral doors.  A neat piece of engineering and allows for easy access against curbs.  Plus it looks neat when you leave a door open at a car show

McLaren Photos

The gallery shows some additional photos that didn’t make it in to the eBay article.

 

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Hot Rod Sells for Under a Buck

Hot Rods for Sale Cheap

hot rod stamps

Would you be interested in buying a 1932 Ford Deuce for only 49¢? Even more incredible, you can buy two different 1932 Ford Deuce’s for under a buck! No, you don’t have to send the money by Western Union; and no the buyer isn’t moving to Nigeria next week. In fact this sale is supported and approved by the United States government.

Unfortunately these hot rods are only on paper and sold by the US Postal Service. Bummer.

USPS

The Postal Service is offering two different hot rod Ford deuces for sale for the “forever” price of 49¢ each. The two choices are a black ’32 Ford roadster with flames on the sides or a red ’32 Ford roadster. The black deuce is a view from the right rear, while the red 32 Ford is coming dead on at yet. Both feature a stylistic black on yellow license plate featuring “USA”.

Hot Rod Artwork

Hot Rods

Both illustrations were created digitally. These rods were originally designed by Derry Noyes and then illustrated digitally by John Mattos. Mattos is an acclaimed illustrator based out of San Francisco, California. You may recall that the USPS has released two previous sets of classic muscle car stamps in their collectible series.

32 Ford Hot Rod

The 32 Ford “deuce” is an iconic vehicle and is a popular vehicle to wrench on both “back in the day” and now. The distinctive grill is an iconic look for the deuce hot rods, and is gracefully highlighted on the red 32 Ford stamp.
The hot rod stamps will be released on June 6, 2014 in conjunction with the 41st “East Plus” National Street Rod Association meet in at York, Pennsylvania

Hot Rod Art Frame
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Illustrations courtesy USPS