Tag Archives: Rod and Custom

Chevy Cranks Up for SEMA

At the world’s largest convention of automotive aftermarket parts and accessories, the SEMA Show –Specialty Equipment Market Association – one of the highlights is the Chevrolet display; and the chance for a sneak preview at the Media Party held on Monday night before SEMA opens.

Besides catching up with various executives and seeing some great cars, Chevrolet brings in a few celebrities to spice up the night.  Fortunately these celebrities have straight connections to the cars featured at this press event.

This year NASCAR racers Ricky Carmichael (and AMA racer and X Games champ) and Jeff Gordon were there to delight the crowds. Some of the featured cars were:

Ricky Carmichael’s Chevy All-Activity Sonic concept

The All-Activity Sonic concept was introduced by Carmichael and had a cold air induction, a lowered suspension and enhanced braking.Spark EV Tech Performance concept

Sonic Chevy
Ricky Carmichael’s Sonic

Chevy Spark EV Tech Performance concept

Chevy “powered up” this all-electric tire smoking mini-car, the Spark, with an instant on 400 lb-ft of torque –http://route66pubco.com/wp-admin/post-new.php more than the classic 1969 Camaro SS muscle car with a 350 V-8 – for exhilarating acceleration. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in only 7.5 seconds.

Electric car
Amped up Chevy Spark

2014 Chevy COPO

It seems that Chevrolet always has a new version of the legendary COPO drag cars for SEMA, and they didn’t disappoint this year with a light blue version.  Very well designed and ready for the drag strip as is.  This year will feature new front and rear fascia and be limited to the fabled 69 cars.

Light Blue drag car
2014 COPO Camaro

Gran Turismo C7 Corvette Stingray

A flat blue Corvette that will be featured in the latest version of Playstation’s Gran Turismo was promoted.  All week at the Chevy display show goers will be able to play an advanced version of the game.

blue Corvette
Corvette Stingray from Gran Turismo

Restored 1978 pick up

This truck was a restored beauty and featured a new crate engine package from Chevy.  The E ROD 5.3 L package is a plug and play emissions compliant powertrain.

Black truck
Restored Chevy Pickup with E ROD power

Jeff Gordon’s SS

His SS came with a red satin (flat) finish was an awesome car with subtle power touches.  A LS3 engine and a 6 speed automatic transmission were the power plant for the SS.

Red SS
Red Satin SS from Jeff Gordon

2014 Camaro Z28

The road worthy Z/28 in all black was released at this event.  Featuring Brembo brakes, less weight and a LS7 engine helps make this track car a worthy competitor and lives up to its namesake.

Black camaro
Black Z/28

Transformers 4

Three cars from the 2014 Transformer movie were on hand to be admired; a new Bumble Bee Camaro, a Sonic and bright Green Corvette Stingray

 

Green Corvette
Green Transformer Staingray
Yellow Camaro
Transformer 4 Bumble Bee Camaro
white Sonic
Chevy Sonic from Transformer 4

Good times, good cars, good people.  SEMA cranks up in full power mode in a few hour son Tuesday November 5th.  More details at Chevy Performance.

 

 

Predictions for SEMA Show 2013

SEMA Signage
SEMA

SEMA – the Specialty Equipment Market Association – show starts officially on Tuesday November 5, 2013 in Las Vegas.  Car Nirvana is spread over 2 million square feet of interior space and even more cars are positioned outside.  I figured if Hot Rod Magazine can prediction what the SEMA 2013 will highlight, I can predict too.

Predictions for SEMA

I’ll be more modest and only give you five trends to be spotted at SEMA this year.

Prediction #1

Car of the Year – Has to be the Corvette Stingray.  This is the after-market convention after all and there has been no more pent-up demand, than seeing the Corvette C7 hit the streets.

prediction corvette is SEMA's car of the year
Corvette Stingray

Prediction #2

Flat is back.  We’ve seen variations of flat paint jobs in the past, and that trend is going to explode.  Both from the mainstream manufacturers but also the specialty shops.  And contrary to some opinions, it takes as much prep work on a car body to spray it flat as it does for the shiny clear coats.

Prediction #3

Step up the transmissions.  Used to be standard to row through four speeds, but not that Detroit is issuing out sheet metal with 7 speed transmissions to help up the EPA gas mileage, so will the aftermarket.

Silver truck
Sweet Trucker

Prediction #4

Truck of the year?  Got to be the Chevrolet Silverado.  Demand is back up for trucks, that’s where the money is and that’s where General Motors has hit a home run.  It might be apolitical to have two winners from the same manufacturer, but the Silverado deserves it!

Prediction #5

Retro is back with a passion.  Clothing, accessories, and cars will all be showing an old fashioned look.  Woodies, rat rods, salt wagons will all be highly visible.???????????????????????????????

Stayed tuned and we’ll see how many of these predictions you might agree with after Friday and the show wraps up.

 

 

Gasser 57 Galpin Ford Period Authentic Look

58 Ford Gasser
Front End View of 58 Ford Gasser

Gasser’s are easily spotted from a mile away.  The body’s are lifted up with a straight axle highly visible in the front.  In the early 60’s that is what everybody brought to the local drag strips.  Back then you didn’t care about pro-touring handling, you just wanted something to go lickity split for a quarter of a mile.

Hot Rod Magazine

The latest issue of Hot Rod magazine (December, 2013) has an article on a 58 Ford Gasser that the folks at Galpin Ford did for a sales manager, Steve Carpenter.  The article is a nice write-up on a nice car.

Galpin Gasser

The 331 cubic inch Ford engine produces 500 horsepower and matches up to a Borg Warner 4 speed, using a Hurst 4 speed.    A Currie 9 inch rear end with a 4.11 posi helps hold everything together.   Lots of chrome, which probably wasn’t in use as much back at the old airstrip dragways, is evident.  That’s a nice gold pearl paint job with real gold and silver leaf lettering.

Barrett-Jackson

We first saw it at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in January 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona and thought we could share some extra views of this gasser for our readers.

Galpin Ford has a solid reputation for doing cars right, and just previewed a supercar at Pebble Beach.  Here’s hoping that both cars will be at their booth in Las Vegas next month at the SEMA Show.

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Lambrecht Auction of Chevrolet’s Analysis of 1956 Year

The VanDerBrink Auction of the Lambrecht Collection of classic Chevrolet’s is nearly a week old and the buying fever has subsided.  The crowds have departed Pierce, Nebraska and we can now look more analytically at the cars and prices paid.

Crowd at Lambrecht Auction
Aerial view of Lambrecht Auction site

1956 Chevrolet

Let’s look at the 1956 Chevrolet’s in detail this time.  The 1956 was in the middle of the three years of the oft referred “tri-five” series from 1955-1957. There were seven Chevrolet cars sold during the two days of the auctions for this model year.  The cars come in three variations, the bare bones 150, a slightly sexier 210 and the fully duded out Bel Air.  The VIN’s shown by VanDerBrink helped decipher which model was which and with what engine.  One unit was a 210 station wagon.  All these cars were high mileage and presumably trade-ins to Lambrecht Chevrolet.  All seven cars are in rough condition and will need some extensive body and mechanical work, or kept in a survivor mode.  Remember they can only be original once!

1956 Chevy 4 door sedan
Lambrecht Chevrolet 1956 2 door sedan

All prices will have a buyer’s premium of 5-10% added to the listed price based on whether the bidder was on site or not.

Lambrecht Sales

For the 1956 model year, five were four doors, with the above mentioned station wagon and a 2 door sedan also selling.  While perhaps more practical if you are planning on using the rear seat often, the reality is the 2 doors are presently more in demand in the collector market and generally higher priced when restored.  The 2 door sedan (post) went for $14,500.  On Saturday, when more of the high value cars sold from the Lambrecht Collection a 4 door hardtop went for $30,000.

1956 Chevy 4 door sedan
$30,000 selling price for 4 door 1956 hard top

The fact that the auction didn’t have any of the more popular versions of the 1956 model year, suggests that if Lambrecht had accepted those models as trade in they were sold long ago.  Plus none of these were the low or no  mileage; sold on MSO (Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin) instead of state title; which indicates that Lambrecht Chevrolet didn’t have any trouble selling those models when new!  The average price for the seven cars was just over $7,900 and only three cars went for over $5,000.

Interior view of 1956 station wagon
Lambrecht’s 1956 station wagon interior

 

At least at these prices, the cars are going to loving homes and not being chopped up for their body parts.  Or are they…check out a future blog article.

Photos – Courtesy of VanDerBrink Auctions

Barrett-Jackson’s Hot August Nights $14.2 M Sales

Barrett-Jackson had total sales of over $14 million during their first event at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center from August 8-10, 2013.  This, combined with 40,000 attendees, proves that Craig Jackson made a great choice being at Reno during Hot August Nights.

Gas Monkey Garage’s custom 2013 Chevrolet Camaro COPO 2 Door Coupe sold for $137,500 and probably will show up on a future episode of their show on the Discovery Channel.  You may recall one of their builds was sold at Barrett-Jackson in January, 2013 at Scottsdale, Arizona.

The top 5 sales at the auction were the scheduled last manufactured 2014 Shelby GT500 Convertible for $500,000.  This was a charity sale where Barrett-Jackson waives their fees and the charity, Brain Injury Association of America took in the proceeds.  Continuing the top five sales were a sweet 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible selling for $192,000, a 1950 Jaguar XK 120 2 Door Roadster went for $178,200, another Shelby, this one a 1968 Shelby GT500 E Continuation Fastback, hammered sold for  $165,000 and a classic 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible came in at $148,500.  Remember, all prices listed here include buyer’s commissions.

The winner of the Barrett-Jackson Cup award went to a 1969 Ford Torino owned by famed collector George Poteet and built by the talented Illinois wrench Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy.  I’ve been a huge fan of Troy’s builds ever since I saw his Sick Fish at SEMA in 2005.  Last year at SEMA there was a Bonneville Salt Flat 34 roadster on display at a vendor booth that was drop dead picture perfect.  Here is Hemming’s take on the winner.

This auction also marked the last coverage from SPEED as the Fox Network transitions to Fox Sports 1.  But Canadian viewers will still have the SPEED channel available under that name.

Barrett-Jackson also partnered with the upcoming movie, Snake & Mongoo$e (that we previously spotlighted) to showcase the legendary Cuda and Duster 1970 Funny Cars raced by famed NHRA racers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen along with their color matching car carriers. The cars are now slated to journey to the Woodward cruise in Michigan and eventually will be sold at the January 2014 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Next up will be Barrett-Jackson’s 6th Annual Las Vegas auction on September 26-28,2013.  It will be covered on three networks that weekend including Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and the National Geographic channels.

Some photos courtesy and copyrighted by Barrett-Jackson and Rad Rides by Troy ©

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Take a classic on a drive on July 12, 2013 – Collector Car Appreciation Day

Logo CCAD Coillector Car
Collector Car Appreciation Day July 12, 2013

 

Our U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 176 (S. Res. 176) at the prodding of the SEMA Action Network (SAN) designating Friday July 12, 2013 as “Collector Car Appreciation Day.”  This is the fourth annual event to help raise awareness of classic collector car owners and industries.

A list of events around the country can be found here.  Besides car shows and cruise ins, many companies are promoting their employees to drive a classic to work.  The folks at SEMA Action Network  are maintaining the event list to commemorate the day and track the number of events..

Even some Canadian provinces joined individual states, cities in  passing similar proclamations and resolutions.  Sounds like a good reason to go out and cruise on the 12th!

Dean Jeffries – car customizer – rest in peace

Car customizer, engineer and stunt driver Dean Jeffries died in his sleep recently at the age of 80.

Die hards will recognize both his name and his cars.  Dean might not have had the greatest publicist,  but he was a renaissance man when it came to cars.

Of course his customs done for Hollywood are instantly recognizable.  The Monkeemobile, the Green Hornet and the Beach Boy’s cover car from their Little Deuce Coupe album were all his handiwork.

He started out as a painter- striper and worked with Von Dutch.  He added the script to James Dean’s Porsche Spyder – Little Bastard.  He moved over to George Barris’s shop and honed his metal working skills.  He painted the first Shelby Cobra for Carroll Shelby.

You can lean more at www.deanjeffries.com

 

Rest in Peace

Goodguys Rod and Custom Celebrates 30th Anniversary in Scottsdale AZ

Goodguys anniversary logo

The Goodguys Rod and Custom folks kicked off their 30th anniversary in Scottsdale, Arizona this weekend.  The first two days were hit with rain but Sunday March 10, 2013 turned out to be a postcard picture perfect day.  While you can leave the event scratching your head at the cars that won an award; there is no denying that there are some awesome cars.  Some of the cars are squirreled away here in the Phoenix region but many come from across the western states.  Nice show, nice cars and nice weather.

Goodguys Chevy

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Chevy Impala