Carlisle Fairgrounds, Carlisle, Pa

The annual spring-time right of passage, Spring Carlisle! Packed house this year for Friday of the multi-day swap, lots of folks looking for that gem amongst the millions of parts being offered up for sale. The car corral was particularly busy this year with everything from Muscle Cars, Vans, Hot Rods, Classics Trucks and Vintage Tractors all vying for your attention. We even ran into our old buddy Rod Saboury trying to send his legit 6 second, Mike Moran powered twin turbo Vette down the road with a new owner. Lots of cool vintage Toys, Model Kits and Signs caught my camera's eye as usual.

I found it at Carlisle!

Beaver Springs Dragway, Beaver Springs, Pa

Amazing! Who would ever have thought? An entire event centered around the venerable Ford FE engine!?!?
Perfect weather, an excellent car show, good racing and a great gathering of Ford folks and friends made the inaugral FE Race & Reunion a huge success. Doug Bender, Jody Aberts and Beaver Bob McCarble join forces and pulled of a fantastic celebration of the Legendary FE! Check this stuff out, well over 100 Galaxies, Fairlanes, Mustangs, Trucks and more (even an Edsel) rolled into the Beaver and commenced with tire smoking and wheels up Drag Strip action entertaining the big crowd all day while the the car show folks shined up their stuff for eveyone to drool over. Street Machines, Nostalgia Super Stockers and a few Legal NHRA S/SS'ers filled up three class of FE race cars. In the end it was racers Brian Merrick - '64 Fairlane(Pro FE - Quick 8) , Jim Remsnyder - '66 Fairlane (Hot FE -12.99 & quicker) and Bill Johnson - '70 Mustang (Cool FE - 13.00 & up) taking the wins in their respective classes and receiving neat trophies plus a nice chunk of cash. NHRA SS/B record holder Paul Adams made the trek to the Beaver from West Virginia and pounded on his 64 T-bolt all day to the delight of the crowd with a best of 9.12 for the day. Killer Car!

Show winners were 1st pace John Morris's incredible '69 Mustang, 2nd place Zach Straits's perfect '61 Starliner and 3rd Merv Moyer's super rare '68 Cougar GT/E. I didn't envy the show judges trying to pick winners out of thi show, everything was just top notch. Total chrome daze!

Doug, Jody and Beaver Bob worked hard on this deal and it was a huge success, I can't remember seeing so many smiing faces at a drag strip in a long time. Thanks guys! See you back at the Beaver in 2014 for the second annual!

Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, Oaks, Pa,

3DOG Garage, Boyertown, Pa

Greenfield Center and Saratoga Springs, New York

Long Beach Veterans Stadium, Long Beach, Ca & Huntington Beach, Ca

So on Sunday of our 5 day odyssey through Southern California, we started off the day at the legendary Long Beach Swap Meet. While the persistent rain that followed us around all week finally abated, attendance at Long Beach was a little light. Some speculated the Roadster Show going on didn’t help either but regardless we saw some cool rust free iron and killer vintage stuff. Despite some healthy offering prices, we saw some stuff changing hands. On the way out we checked out some good pieces in the car corral. We will be back.

After the swap meet we headed south to Huntington Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean and have some lunch. We stopped in the International Surf Museum while in town. They had a History of Surf Wax Exhibit going on along with a ton of old Boards, memorabilia and artifacts. Cool stuff. We ended the day out on the Pier watching the waves and the setting sun. Exactly one week later I was shoveling snow.

Justice Bros., Duarte, CA & 911 Designs, Montclair, Ca

On Thursday, after our short and sweet wedding ceremony at our hotel, we hit the road in the afternoon to check out the Justice Brothers Museum and Car Collection. JB has an extensive collection of vintage Midgets and Sprint Cars, a few race Bikes and cool petrolina lining the walls of the office/lobby/museum. Across the parking lot is more coolness in the bigger car collection area. Restored Fords from the 30’s & ‘40’s, more Dirt Racers, crazy custom creations, some micro-cars and my favorite….Drag Cars...including the Larry Minor owned Gary Beck driven Top Fuel car. Toss in a killer Ed Roth Trike, a sweet Deuce Roadster and a few Porsches and being free to get in, it is a must visit if your in the area. We were lucky enough to run into Ed Justice, Jr while there and got the guided tour. Thanks Ed, great stuff!

On Friday on our way to the GNRS, we spied some old Porsches in a showroom from the 10 Freeway so we jumped of the Montclair exit and doubled back to find 911 Designs, a shop specializing in restoring, race prepping and servicing Ferdinand’s finest. What a facility and such hospitality, Loren Beggs the owner personally gave us the dime tour. From full race fabrications, high end body and paint work to tuning on their in house dyno 911 Designs has your Porsche needs covered. Check out the Race Hauler and Junior AP108 tractor….Cool Stuff.

http://justicebrothers.com/index.html
http://nine11design.com/

NHRA Museum & Grand National Roadster Show, Pomona Fairplex, Pomona, Ca

So before heading into the Grand National Roadster Show, we hit up the amazing NHRA Museum on the grounds of the Fairplex. This is one of my favorite places on the planet. We caught the Mooneyes Exhibit which included a bunch of awesome stuff chronicling the history of Dean Moon’s legacy. Photos, part molds, parts, killer promotional items and more filled one of the huge showcases along the wall. Surrounding the case were Dean’s personal ’34 Roadster, Moon Bonneville racers including a sweet 5 window Deuce coupe, The Cummins and Larsen Streamliner and the Jocko Johnson built, Allison Powered, Moonliner! It was also mind-blowing to see the Moon Beam and the untouched Moon Trike known as the Rickshaw! A comprehensive Lions history, all the Mickey Thompson stuff and the Danny Ongais wheeled, unrestored, Vel’s Parnelli Jones Mustang Funny Car had me in overload.
Then we staggered into the Big Show….

The Grand National Roadster Show’s Building 1 was new to me as it was not in use when I was there last in 2007. I was not prepared for what I saw…The first room was AA/A paradise, to the right Pure Heaven and on the left, a car I have lusted over since childhood, the Phil Lukens’s Blair’s Speed Shop Topolino! More altereds filled the room, El Chili Pepper, GroundShaker. Turning the corner into the next space I was punched in the gut by Lynn Park’s El Cid DragonSnake Cobra. I had to catch my breath. Continuing on we were suddenly surrounded by Straight Axles! A bunch of Blair’s Speed Shop cars, Gassers and Street Freaks. Prefect’s, 55 Chevys, Willy’s…I am shaking just recounting it...

Pomona Fairplex Bldgs. 5, 6, 7 & 8, Pomona, CA

The sprawling Pomona Fairplex is home to the Grand National Roadster Show and is comprised of several buildings of varying sizes that house different aspect of the show. This album features all the awesome stuff from 4 of the smaller buildings (5, 6, 7 & 8). These rooms hosted some killer Customs, Muscle Cars, Trucks, Low Riders and Motorcycles. We saw Gene Winfield’s custom Econoline Pick-up “The Pacifica”, a great collective of Mopars from the Inland Empire, a killer C-Cab Show Rod, The Lifestyle Low Rider Club and Customs from D’Agostino and Zocchi probably the two premier custom dudes of today. The bike section was jaw dropping as well, with a reunion of sorts as a dozen or more of Denver’s Choppers made the scene. Restos, Barn Finds and some of the best Bobbers I have ever seen made this one of the best bike displays in recent years. Vendors lined the walls and tons more Hot Rods, Woodies, Pro Touring and customs filled the buildings to the brim.
Great Stuff…..

So the “theme” building this year was Woodies & Surf Wagons. WOW. It was a termite delight for sure as this was the largest collection of Woodies this east coaster has ever seen. From Stockers to Street Rods to Survivors and One-Offs all aspects of the Woody were represented. Owners of the cars were encourage to decorate their displays with cool stuff like Surf Boards, Skate Boards, Vintage Beach Accessories and related memorabilia. Check out the huge by large International Harvester and Surk Legend Dewey Weber’s personal ’54 Dodge! Station Wagons had a strong presence as well with perfect examples of Nomads, Sedan Deliveries, early Suburbans filling in between the Wood. Norm Ricardo’s outrageous ’57 Ford was a sight to behold…

Across the way from the "Aloha" room is the always popular Suede Palace, which is where all the cool kids hang out. Live Music, DJ’s, Vendors, Pin-Ups took up the walls surrounding some really fine Traditionally Styled Hot Rods and Kustoms. The Cavalier Coupe, The Waco Kid and others were resplendent in their original patina while some Lead Sled Mercs and Chevys profiled all shined up along side some Straight Axle Willys and Tri-5 Chevys. I felt a little out of place without a sleeve of tattoos or a bushey beard or pork-pie hat and cuffed jeans but whatever…Repeat after me…we are all individuals! The cars were the stars….

Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, Oaks, Pa

Sprinters, IMCA, Carts, Modifieds, Drag Cars, Outlaws, Power Boats, Street Stocks, Sportsman, Custom, Rods and Street Machines!
Plus KILLER Vintage Dirt Stuff!

The unofficial start of the '13 race season is the annual Motorsports Expo at the huge Oaks Convention center.
Tracks, Trailer Vendors, Memorabilia hawkers, Race Teams and Hardcore Parts Manufacturers set up to
display their wares for the frozen Northeast Racing Faithful.....Good Stuff!

Hummelstown & Grantville, Pa

It's winter time so it's also Open House season! Here we check out Posies Rod and Custom in Hummelstown, Pa. Posie always draws a crowd for his shops open house and this year despite some questionable weather was no exception. Lots of the northeast's hardcore rodders drove in some cool iron. Corvettes, Woodies, Porsches, Coupes and Roadsters! After choking down some free doughnuts and milk.....

We headed over down the road to Worm, Inc to see waht he had on the Jig. A bunch of the same faces showed at Worm' joint that were at Posie's plus a few more. Bruce Larson's new '68 USA-1 Camaro is coming together nicely along side a few very cool and perfectly proportioned new LEGAL FEDs! Thanks for having us over John!

Welcome to my collection of Drag Racing and Hot Rod Stuff. These are things that I have accumulated over my 42 years of fun livin’ in this automotive sport/hobby/lifestyle/addiction.....You will see lots of cool car-related stuff like toys, magazines, used-up parts, photos, trophys, art, stickers, posters, record albums, model kits, jackets, helmets, Ed Roth/Rat Fink items and a plethora of other trinkets. Some of my stuff may have some value, most of it doesn’t, except that it makes me smile. Just about everything has a story or memory attached to it and in that lies the value to me. Some of these things I’ve held onto since I was a child, some I’ve just recently acquired; the collection is always slowly expanding. So have look around and thanks for checking out my stuff…..
Comments and Questions are welcomed…..