Category Archives: Car show

Gas Monkey Garage 76 Chevy Truck Sells

January 8, 2015 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Gas Monkey Garage’s 1976 Chevy C-10 truck is selling at next week’s Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s green (of course) and was featured for two episodes of this season’s Fast N’ Loud “reality” TV show on Discovery Channel.

SEMA

We saw the truck in person for the first time at the 2014 SEMA Show where it was parked out front. It got lots of attention and interest from those who recognized it.

Gas Monkey Garage

It’s dropped suspension is courtesy of an Accuair Suspension. The folks at Gas Monkey Garage used a crate LS7 engine, which is the stock engine for a Corvette Z06. The used a 4L85E automatic transmission to get power to the Intro Wheels, plus a Currie 9″ rear end. It slows down with Wilwood brakes all around. Got to admit the boys at Gas Monkey Garage know the good name brand parts to throw on a truck or car.

Since it was built in Dallas, Texas it also has Vintage air conditioning.

Fast N’ Loud Episodes

You’ll remember the episodes this truck was on. They donated the truck for the high society Cattle Baron’s Ball which was held at the world famous Gilley’s bar. Rawlings figures some rich guy would pony up some serious cash for the truck, but forgot that most guys brought their wives which might have stifled the bidding. After bidding slowed down on this truck, Richard Rawlings’ friend Dennis Collins (the guy who has his name embroidered on all his shirts) bought it for $85,000.

Collins is the guy who brought out the repaired Ferrari to Barrett-Jackson last year.

Barrett-Jackson

So now it goes on sale at Barrett-Jackson. Dennis Collins snagged a good spot on Saturday at about 1:30 PM so we’ll see if he does any better on this auction sale. And you can bet that the Gas Monkey Garage name will be mentioned often during the bidding. Remember that most of the Barrett-Jackson cars sold are no reserve meaning somebody is taking it home.

What do you think the truck will sale for?

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Auctions, Car show, Uncategorized

Arizona Concours D’Elegance

January 6, 2015 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Arizona Concours D’Elegance kicks off a busy week of car auctions on Sunday January 11, 2015. This is the second year for the concours judging show and will be held at the famed Arizona Biltmore.

Arizona Auctions

No less than six companies come out to the Scottsdale, Arizona region for car auctions next week and include Barrett-Jackson along with Bonhams ,Gooding and Company, Russo and Steele, Silver and RM Auctions. Last year the inaugural Arizona Concours D’Elegance was held and is a great way to kick off this frantic week of car auctions. Plus the concours benefits a great charity, Make A Wish Arizona.

The Arizona Concours D’Elegance generally does not confirm which cars were accepted for the judging until the day of the event. But beautiful, historic classic cars will cover the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore. The emcee for the awards ceremony is our friend Keith Martin, who publishes Sports Car Market and is always present for the Arizona auctions.

Pierce Arrows

This year the committee selected four extra unique classes for cars to be entered in. They are the Pierce Arrows, the cars of Frank Lloyd Wright who is closely associated with the judging site – the Arizona Biltmore, competition Ferraris and the Carrozzeria Ghias.

We had a chance to check out these two Pierce Arrows at a local show and expect both to be on the judging fields next Sunday. The cars were in great shape and show the historic beginnings of the marquee. I was especially taken by the fuel gauge for the one Pierce Arrow being on the tank itself hidden behind the luggage. Hard for a driver to gauge his fuel economy on the fly!

Briefings

Along with Saturday’s festivities the Arizona Concours D’Elegance host two informative events on the preceding Saturday. There will be an auction preview, hosted by the Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA), with representatives talking about their upcoming cars and trucks that will be auctioned off. Plus an Elegance at Speed panel discussion with Peter Brock, Nigel Bennett and Kip Wasenko is held immediately after the car auction preview.

Arizona Concours D’Elegance Tour

After the rigors of the judging on Sunday there is a tour for the registered cars available on Monday January 12, 2015 so expect to see some serious classic rides on the roads around Phoenix.

Only 2,000 tickets are available for this luxurious event so don’t wait to check out their website and buy your tickets now.

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Car show, Manufacturer news, Uncategorized

Porsche 918 Supercar Hybrid

January 3, 2015 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Porsche 918

During this morning’s Cars and Coffee show in Scottsdale, AZ a new Porsche 918 Spyder rolled in. The Spyder is Porsche’s second hybrid and trust me this is miles different from a Prius! This supercar is a mid engine plug in. The V8 engine produces 608 horses from the gasoline engine with the two electrical motors on the front and rear axles capable of generating another 278 horses, totaling 887 ponies at your command. This one is painted Sapphire Blue Metallic.

Stats on Porsche

Ironically the range under all electric is a meager 12 miles! But hey it tops out at 210 mph. It gets rated at 67 mpg equivalent when in electric mode and 22 mpg when powered by the gasoline engine. The added electrical torque makes for some jaw breaking acceleration. Those pipes on the rear deck are not for show. They are the true exhaust points and the short distance from the mid-engine allows for much lower exhaust back pressure.

Porsche is planning on producing only 918 units (get it 918 units for the 918 model?) all listed as the 2014 model year. Too late to orders yours, they sold out with a base price of $845,000. But hey you do get a federal energy tax credit for it.

Porsche Driving Modes

The 918 Spyder offers five different running modes: all electric or E-Drive, Three combination or hybrid and gasoline engine are also allowed Hybrid, Sport and Race. Hot Lap gives out the full power available from the Porsche.

What do you think of this hybrid, supercar?

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Car show, Uncategorized

Lace Paint on a 27 Ford Track T

December 30, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Here at Route 66 PubCo we love lace paint jobs. Any car show that has a car with some lace paint is worth the trip! We’ll see some at a Goodguys Rod and Custom Show and once in a while at a local event, but this year at SEMA we saw an awesome full on example with an interesting twist.

Lace Paint

Lace paint is a dying art form but there are still some old schoolers laying down some lace and painting the cars. Traditionally a lacey fabric would be stretched tight across a body panel, frequently the roof, and the paint sprayed down through the lace. When the paint dried and the lace pulled off, the intricate lace design would remain on the panel. Wicked cool we say.

At this year’s SEMA Show we saw this venerable 1927 Track T from John Gilbert. The track T was sitting outside the North Hall and plenty of people rushed by in a hurry to see the indoor exhibits and keep their appointments. But they missed a chance to pour over a true legendary car, just taking a break outside. John probably has forgotten more stuff about cool cars than we’ll ever know and he showed his licks on the roadster. Using spray cans from Eastwood he put down this rubberized elastic wrap that was just a temporary paint job on the Track T.

ElastiWrap™ from Eastwood

ElastiWrap™ is a unique strippable rubberized coating that can be easily applied over most surfaces and can remain in place indefinitely or be removed by simply peeling off. It comes in spray cans or in large cans as needed. ElastiWrap is durable and holds up well in the scorching sun. And because it is treated like a paint, it can be any color or tint you desire.

The roadster measures just over 12 feet and has a GM crate 350 engine with a TH350 automatic. The car just looks cool.

Gilbert writes for a variety of magazines and the 27 Ford has been featured in several. Here is a short video from Eastwood where John explains the process of painting this wicked lace paint job. What do you think?

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Car show, Uncategorized

Rod Authority’s SEMA Top Six -Our View

December 29, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Our friends at Rod Authority picked six cars as their favorite from the recent SEMA Show. That’s the nice thing about car shows, big or small; everybody sees things their way and pick different favorites. We’d be hard pressed to limit ourselves to just five vehicles (or six with a bonus selection).

But if you are going to pick some, we couldn’t argue with some of their selections. Here’s our view of some of their picks.

1935 Ford

This sedan was sitting outside and drew lots of glances. From the straight body work to the 306 Ford engine mated to a Tremec six speed, this car was just downright neat. The owner incorporated Inglese electronic fuel injection and it rode on Kugel front and rear suspensions components with coilovers.

Two special items to note about this car. On Friday night’s Cruise it drove out under its own power, which always earns bonus points in our view. Plus that color! While you might label it olive green it actually shows what happens when you change up the base undercoats. This color is actually the result of laying down a House of Kolor Deep BLUE Pearl over black! Nice job guys.

1932 Ford Roadster – Double Trouble

This red beauty was at the Barrett-Jackson booth and came from Ron Pratte’s Collection which sells in Scottsdale next month. It has a 296 ci V8, with a Tremec five speed transmission and a quick change rear end. Pratte’s cars are rarely seen in public so you have to see them when you can.

1942 Willys Coupe – Gasser

This brown beauty named “Single Barrel Jack” and featured a 392 Hemi. It had a 411 posi from a 57 Oldsmobile and a blower matched to a Hilborn injection unit. It is styled like a gasser but without an exaggerated lifted front end. So it is a very subtle ride with an awesome paint job. No wonder it was at the PPG Paint booth.

Thanks Rod Authority for your view. So now you have our view and pictures of some neat SEMA cars. What’s your opinion?

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Car show, Uncategorized

69 Camaro with a Potent Power Plant

December 24, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

At the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada you get to see all sorts of ingenuity in action. Sometimes you scratch your head and say why, and other times you say why not! Not all the action occurs behind the red velvet ropes at this trade only event. Many great rides are viewed by the public on the sidewalks surrounding the Las Vegas Convention Center. This white 69 Camaro was found on the sidewalk outside the arena and the first time with the hood down it looked nice but…

Camaro withTwo LSX Engines

Once the hood went up, so did the horsepower on this monster! That is not a mirror behind the engine, that’s two LSX engines mated together. That friends, is one fine engineering feat. We’ve seen it done before, but this setup is over the top. Done well and nicely planned out.

1500 Horses for this Camaro

This humble ride was produced by Gary Higginbotham of American V8 Classics and Customs from Alpharetta, Georgia. He mated two 427 cubic inch engines to produce a combined 1200 horsepower. But that wasn’t enough; he added a shot of NOS to each engine for an extra 150 horses on each engine, so totaling 1500 horsepower from this power plant.

Keeping it altogether required forged JE pistons, a Comp Cam, a Collies crankshaft and ARP bolts. The smooth white body rests on an Art Morrison frame and the interior pictures show how far into the cabin the second engine rests. A automatic transmission, 4L60E, hooks up to a Corvette differential – and for kicks you might as well have a view of that from the trunk, right?

So with the hood down you see a great 69 Chevy Camaro, in bright white paint. A nice car but with no indication of what rests under that hood. Pop the hood up and you are darn sure guaranteed some parking lot on-lookers!

What do you think?

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Car show, Manufacturer news, Uncategorized

Chevrolet SEMA-Corvettes+COPO Camaro

November 23, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Chevrolet always has a strong presence at the yearly SEMA show held in Las Vegas. Besides the factory presence on the SEMA floor, many enthusiasts bring out their personal designs based on Chevy products and have them at various vendor’s booths and displays.

But before the SEMA show even opens to the public, Chevrolet holds a media event the night before and gives the press sneak peeks at various models. Here we’ll present our four favorite performance Chevy cars

COPO Camaro

We have been HUGE fans of the COPO Camaro and love Chevrolet’s commitment to the drag strip by providing these cars in limited production, with only 69 being handmade each year. Past versions were mentioned here.

This year’s version was enthusiastically received and has lots to applaud. The 2015 version of the COPO Camaro on display at the SEMA Show featured a white exterior with gray and orange accents including an all-new style of COPO graphics – and was fitted with a 350 “LSX” V-8 engine topped with a 2.9L Whipple supercharger.

These production race cars are fitted with a pre-approved NHRA roll and a full on racing chassis and suspension components – including a solid rear axle system in place of the standard independent rear axle.

Racers can select from a variety of supercharged and naturally aspirated LS-family engines based on their racing NHRA Stock and Super Stock classes, including the 350, 396 and 427 naturally aspirated engines and a supercharged 350.

But you can’t just waltz into a showroom for these beauties, you have to enter into a lottery and hope you are one of 69 selected.

Jimmie Johnson’s 1971 Corvette

NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson resto-modded a vintage 1971 Corvette with both exterior and interior updates, plus an all-new Gen V LT1 crate engine. The crate engine is rated for 460 horses. Jimmie came out in person to tout this powerhorse.

Johnson chose a Super Magnum six-speed manual transmission also offered by Chevrolet Performance. Johnson’s resto-mod Corvette also has an updated chassis, with adjustable coil-overs replacing the original front and rear suspension components, for more precise handling. A set of C6 Corvette Z06 brakes were bolted to this Corvette to help slow it down in record time. The 18 inch wheels help to emulate the rally wheels of the day.

Kiss’ Paul Stanley 2015 Corvette Stingray

Frankly the exterior treatment of the Corvette left me wanting more, but I can’t deny that during the show plenty of folks were checking it out. This red beauty had the Z51 package added to it; so it came rolling in with a dry-sump oiling system, electronic limited-slip differential, monster front brakes and a cooling package for both the differential and transmission. The transmission is an eight speed paddle shifter bolted to a 6.2L Gen V LT1 engine, rated at 460 horsepower and 465 pounds of torque.

Blue Devil

For Corvette aficionados, they can name off all the historic and record breaking cars. so a few tears welled up when the Blue Devil drove out.

The ZR1, nicknamed the “Blue Devil,” is the first of the cars swallowed by the famed Corvette Museum “sinkhole” to be restored. You know, the hold in the ground that ate up eight Corvettes?

Technicians from Chevrolet took it under their wing and fixed some body panels, cracked doors, some broken glass and some bent control arms. The first public viewing for this iconic Corvette was here and then it was going to be whisked away back to Bowling Green, KY to be put back on public display.

So tell us which car makes your heart flutter?

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Car show, Uncategorized

66 Chevy Stepside from SEMA

November 19, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

We had lots of cars and trucks to ogle while at SEMA. Here is a link to our eBay Motors blog on this exceptional 66 Chevy Stepside.

66 Chevy C 10 Stepside

The owner was the second owner of this truck and took his time finding a local shop in Henderson, NV to do the restoration. Hard to believe in stock shape it came from GM like this.

How can you NOT love the stance on this beast?

Here are some additional shots of the truck. Enjoy and let us know your favorite view.

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Car show, Uncategorized

Gas Monkey Garage 1965 Impala

October 21, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Gas Monkey Garage

Last night, viewers of Fast N’ Loud saw Gas Monkey Garage’s Richard Rawlings sell a 1965 2 door Impala that had been “restored” to a Tennessee casino for $75,000. That started a series of commentary on the “interweb” (as Rawlings refers to it) on whether it was fairly priced.

Now I am not a huge fan of “reality TV” car shows, mainly since many are far-fetched and stray quite a bit from the truth. And many of these builds, rushed for dramatic tension to meet unrealistic and unnecessary deadlines, show the outcomes of the haphazard workmanship. As the saying goes; “Fast, Good and Cheap – you can’t have all three”.

Richard Rawlings

Gas Monkey Garage, with Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufmann, has received some great publicity through their show on the Discovery Channel and had an interesting run offering the Chevrolet COPO Camaro. In January they sold a Ferrari at Barrett-Jackson that they had previously repaired on the show. If nothing else, Rawlings and crew have some great publicity working for them.

1965 Impala

We’ve seen Gas Monkey Garage’s work before, and haven’t seen this car in person, but seriously doubt that this car was close to being a $75,000 car. The show documented some rust issues by the window moldings, and the sun visors kept flipping down during the test drive, It didn’t appear during the show that any of the chrome or trim was reworked and the glass wasn’t swapped out. Ironically this car was originally bought from an impound yard after the owner failed to claim it.

Turns out the casino already give it away for a promotion and the new owner first tried to sell it on eBay. The auction started in late August and ending on September 4, 2014. But it only received six bids and stopped at $19,100; way below the reserve price. The owner claimed to be selling it to pay the taxes on the prize, a common issue with prize winners and the IRS.

Craigslist

Now the owner is offering it up on Craigslist for $33,500. The description still has some typos but with the hype from last’s night’s show, wonder if the seller will get his new asking price. Good luck!

What’s your opinion of the car and it’s value? Let us know.

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Car show, Uncategorized

Cruisin’ Grand Car Show in Escondido

October 7, 2014 Route 66 Pub Co Leave a comment

Escondido’s weekly car show, “Cruisin Grand“, wrapped up their summer of events this past Friday with one last show. It started back in April and we covered the start as well. There are just some awesome cars and trucks at this weekly show that you won’t see anywhere else.

Escondido

Escondido, California may be best known for being home to the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park and is a short inland drive from San Diego’s cool tropical climate. But every Friday night, downtown Escondido heats up with a neat car show-cruise.

The main drive is reserved for classic cars and trucks. A few side streets are blocked off as well. bands play on various corners and an emcee/DJ plays some oldies and keeps the crowd entertained. But the real draw has to be the cars.

15 Year Anniversary

This is the 15th anniversary year for the free show that pulls in cars from across the SoCal car scene with their theme nights and club sponsorships. The final week is Nitro Night which is a huge draw and even picks up some national magazine coverage.

Escondido Downtown Merchants

Many restaurants stay open specifically for the Friday night cruise and there is a terrific kettle corn lady along with other food and drink vendors. It takes a large group of volunteers and some cash to keep this event safe and fun and they all do a good job!

It is worth the drive, if you are there on a Friday night next summer!