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Not only did the Ford C-cab Fire Truck seen here win the coveted Ridler award at the 1968 Detroit Autorama, it remains one of the best known "show rods" built the late 60s and early 70s. More »
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During the set-up for this weekend's Autorama in Detroit, a Pro-Stock Chevy S10 sped out of control and broadsided a General Lee replica from "Dukes of Hazzard." More »
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Want to make your friends gag with jealousy and hate you for your backyard engineering skills? Emulate what Kent Hausauer has done with this Chevy 350 — run two turbos to a supercharger intake and get drunk on stupid power. More »
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At this weekend's 2010 Detroit Autorama,Tammy Ray's 1933 Ford Phaeton dubbed Gold Digger took home the prestigious Ridler Award — the first ever female-owned vehicle to take the prize. The stunning long-runner intakes might have won the prize alone. More »
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Michigan-based Exodus Films unveiled the hero-ride for their upcoming sci-fi flick, Jinn. It's "The Firebreather," a stylized take on what a new Pontiac Firebird might've been. Look familiar? It should. Better news? They're building 50 of them for public purchase. More »
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If you've played with Hot Wheels cars in the last forty years, you've seen the Dodge Deora concept. It was a one-off custom A100 Cabover concept loaded with far-out style. Now it's going to auction in real life. More »
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A little secret about the Detroit Autorama is to go on the last day. You still see cars and the winners, but stay till the show closes and everybody fires up for the drive-out. More »
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The Roadchamp Coupe defies categorization. It's a little bit of everything, and it adds up to a very clean, very cool hot rod we wish we could take home. More »
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We know absolutely nothing about this 1924 Dodge Modified owned by Clark Bates, but we're definitely going on record as wanting one. It's the coolest-ever field car. More »
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Mainly because we like rusty old rods with the propensity to kill you, we haven't paid much attention to the Great Eight Ridler contenders. But Chris Conly's 1933 Ford Cabriolet is clean and darn cool. More »
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Lord Humongous' armored killer buggy is a solid contender for the title of "Most Jalopnik Vehicle Ever Made." It's built the exact way it should've been: In an all-out garage thrash. More evil inside. More »
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Let's say you're interested in tearing a hole in the space-time continuum, the 2009 Detroit Autorama weapon of choice? Undoubtedly, it'd be this Pro Comp 1930 Ford Coupe. More »
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This may be the first time we've seen the old n' trusted Trans Am-based KITT and the new n' busted Mustang GT500KR-based KITT together at the same time. Seems like it's PSA time. More »
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Troy Trepanier took a Chevy Nova, added a 572 cubic inch V8, a Procharger supercharger, blacked out everything and called it Notorious. This car will happily beat you up and take your lunch money. More »
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E.J. Potter was known as "The Michigan Madman" for a good reason, he liked putting engines in places they had no business being. Case in point — this Chevy 350 in a very tiny motorcycle. More »
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Ed Tillrock is a plain-spoken guy. You'd never know he was mad enough to slap a 70mm Garrett T3 turbo onto a 230 cubic inch Chevy inline-six and called it the "Voodoo Curse." More »
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Just as we suspected Friday, the 2009 Detroit Autorama Ridler Award was given to the builders and owner of the super-slick maroon hot rod called "Duecenberg." More »
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We've followed progress on Dan Webb's unfaithful recreation of Barney Oldfield's Golden Submarine the past three Autoramas, and it's paid off as his hand-formed mastery machine is now physically complete. More »
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Woody Smith likes to build cars that are slightly different. Instead of going with an old nailhead for his classic-style hot rod, he decided on a mighty Lincoln V12. More »
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GM Performance parts and Race Car Replicas have created a 400 HP V-Series-inspired hot rod concept called the Cadillac VSR. A Prowler-destroying menace built for SEMA but still terrorizing other auto shows. More »
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They don't announce the nominees for the 2009 Detroit Autorama Ridler Award until tomorrow, but judging by the attention to detail and gorgeous custom work from Johnson's Hot Rod Shop, the "Deucenberg" is a contender. More »
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Tired of relentless Geneva Motor Show coverage? Us too! That's why we're here at the 2009 Detroit Autorama soaking up rad rods and cool customs. In an effort to be radically contrarian, it's custom vans! More »
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In a sad follow-up to a story we brought you during our 2008 Woodward Dream Cruise coverage, the Ford GT-powered Ford Five Hundred built by Washtenaw Community College students was involved in an accident returning home from the Saturday event. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but newspaper reports of the incident state that the trailer containing the Five Hundred and a motorcycle swerved out of control and flipped, requiring both vehicles to be "cut from the trailer." To WCC and the entire automotive community, we mourn your loss today. Perhaps a GT500KR-powered Focus project would make you feel better. [MLive; Thanks, Mike the Dog] More »
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His work has been seen on TV series such as Bewitched, Star Trek, and Get Smart, as well as on the big screen in Blade Runner, Robocop, Back to the Future II, and Sleeper. So it really comes as no surprise that the 2008 Motorama Builder Of The Year is Gene Winfield. He's one of the greats, right up there with Ed Roth and George Barris. He was one of the first to make a "Lead Sled" Mercury, but it's obvious that he wasn't tied down to just that particular sort of Kustom. Even if you're not into "blended" paint jobs or the low stances, you really can't ignore the talent and creativity this gentleman still has. There's so much we could say, but we'll just let you enjoy the gallery below of his display at the 2008 Detroit Autorama. More »
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Well, the 2008 Detroit Autorama was a swell show this year, chock full of goodness for any hot rod persuasion. We saw all of the entrants for the Ridler award, a smattering of kit car action, and some very cool traditional hot rods. Hell, we even saw a Citroen 2CV stuffed with a small block Chevy mill. This show does nothing if not inspire its attendants to take on their own projects, push their own envelope, or build their personal dream car. Every year we go we see some new style take root, or a once dead branch sprout new growth - there's just so much good stuff here to see that we can't cover it all. And with that, we conclude this years coverage with a gallery of the things that got left on the cutting room floor. Full wrap up below the fold. More »
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A 1934 Plymouth sedan isn't a typical starting point for a hot rod, but that's just the beginning of the uniqueness of this car. It's a hodgepodge in the best sense of the term; '79 GM A-body rear suspension, 400 cubic-inches of '73 Plymouth V8 power, a custom intake manifold, and 3 Rochester 2bbl carbs. The wood headliner is actually made from a tree that was growing in the owner's yard. That machine gun styled air cleaner even utilizes the leftover portion of the shortened driveshaft. And would you take a look at that homemade hood ornament; its a "screw" flying though a "U." The best part? The owner bought the car just to get one part for another car, but ended up deciding to build this up just for fun. It's stuff like this that make us love Autorama. More »
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What do you call a handmade car built by a 20 something name Bob Larson and old enough to have been in the original Detroit Autorama? You call it the Larson Engineering special and it is a treasure trove of clever ideas and hellish ergonomics. We're not implying anything, but if this is the car responsible for the whole scissor doors thing, we're way less excited by it. Still the way they operate is pretty clever, sort of a pivot on a carrier mounted to a parallelogram hinge and secured with a shot pin latch, not bad for 1953, but not even the tip of the iceberg for this car. More »
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David Coker is an easy talking fellow from Tennessee with a passion for blending the old and the new. His company, Newstalgia Wheel, deals in all those classic style wheels you just gotta have for your hot rod. As a means of showing off those new old stock wheels, he's brought a just finished custom chopper up to the Autorama and it has a delicious steampunk style to it. More »
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We don't have much info on this crazy purple bubble top called Vampyre. The owner wasn't around and the placard didn't offer much in the way of details, but it's probably one of the more sleek cars of the genre we can recall. It seems to steal a little style from the extreme low riders with the exposed upper tire and the engine dragging on the ground. It's that low body work and exposed tire style that lead us to believe this car is the work of Jerry and Eldon Titus, who busted out a similar design in the "Voodoo Spyder" back in 2005. More »
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Freakshow has our noodle in a bind. There's not much left of the original '64 Chevy C-10, but it definitely says "1964 Chevy Pickup" on the placard. By all rights it should be the absolute baddest truck/car in the show hands down with a blown 354 cubic inch hemi, six Stromberg 97 carbs, the sickest custom headers we've ever seen all running through a four speed Muncie to a 9 inch Ford rear with 4:11 gears. It has a beer keg and an in-cabin tap coming out a skull mounted under a gun rack. And yet here we are torn - the car is pink, with white fur everywhere, and has a pink telephone on the dash. What. The. Hell? More »
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It's been a long, long time since bubble tops were popular in the hot rodding circles, but it seems as though they're beginning to make a comeback of sorts. With cars like Dave Shuten's "Astrosled" and Gary "Chopit" Fioto's "Beatnik", the genre is steadily gaining steam again, and the incredible creativity of the style is a welcomed respite from the sameness of the last decade. This car was built and is owned by Aaron Grote, who has dubbed it "Atomic Punk" and dragged it into the Detroit Autorama. The all new, all steel hot rod is based very loosely on 1959 Plymouth bits and really is a treat to see. More »
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There's no question that Cobras are cool, even in fiberglass kit form. But you've got to admit that the fiberglass snakes are becoming somewhat common now with all the companies being sued by Carroll Shelby making their own versions of the V8 roadster. So for those seeking an alternative, Ruth Engineering & Racing will be producing kits for streetable Cheetah replicas. The coupes can be fitted with any Chevy powertrain of your choice; this particular one with a 383 stroker. Suspension bits come from a donor C4 Corvette, but the leaf springs have been replaced by independent coil-overs. That means the new Cheetah should be able to tear up a road course, making this not just a cool cruiser, but a tactical trackday toy too. We'll take ours with an LS9. [RER - AmericanCheetahRacing.com] More »
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We saw this mashup at Autorama in Detroit this weekend and immediately imagined a darker, more gory version of 101 Dalmatians. The villainess would beckon her automobile from its murky depths to carry on all manner of misdeed and the car would be known as Cruella's Puppy Crusher. We spent some time talking with the builder, one Mr. Brajkovich of Brajkovich Rods and Customs from Jonestown, PA. and found out some pretty neat stuff. First, even though it isn't quite done yet, what we do see came together in only 3 months of work. Everything in the car is some kind of special, instead of the common 235 straight six, the car has the bigger and nominally more powerful 300. The exhaust is routed 3 per side into the frame rails and is dumped out the back through the open rails More »
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Even though we tire of high dollar '32 Fords, a cleanly done and nicely finished one still catches our eye. This example of traditional hot rodding is way cooler than the megabux toys upstairs. The white and pearlescent satin orange finish really pop and the simple clean lines just beg for a good high speed run through a summer night. The ceramic coated four-into-one headers mount up to an SBC huffing and puffing through a four barrel Holley. More »
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Who doesn't love a little high-speed humor? Especially when it's linked to a post about a car that was born during the first Roosevelt administration and later, much later, modified for unholy speed. We also enjoy a smidgen of classic SoCal pop and just a whiff of the revivalist fervor that has lately gripped Jalopnik. Guessed it yet? Well, then follow the jump. More »
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We saw the beginnings of the recreation of Barney Oldfield's Golden Submarine last year, but at this years' 2008 Detroit Autorama, some very noticeable progress has been made on the car. As you can see, the incredibly detailed, lightweight frame has been worked out and sheetmetal work has begun on the sleek little speeder. We were very impressed with the crazy amount of work evident in the drilled T-cross section body frame, it looks to us as though the T-section was cut as two pieces, then shaped and welded together - incredible. More »
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We're not quite sure how to size this 1995 Peterbuilt up as a hot rod. It was fabricated for something call the "Big-Rig Build-Off" and it certainly lives up to it's name "Rock Bottom". How many of those Crosley Davidsons do you thing could fit on that massive deck? No wonder the world chromium supplies are so expensive, they all went into this truck. What does one ever do with one of these when done? Is it even usable any more? So many enormous questions, not enough enormous answers. More »
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So after all that high end craftsmanship and attention to detail, we're assuming you need the equivalent of a unicorn chaser. We thought what better to rid you of the perfection of the main show floor and the primed and polished perfection of the Great 8 than with the 1986 ViperVette. That's right, it's the guts of a 1986 C4 Corvette with the approximate body of a first gen RT/10 Dodge Viper overlaid. Take a wild guess at how we picked it out. More »
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Amidst the sea of high-dollar muscle cars and carnauba-soaked hot rods, the last car you'd expect to see on the main floor of Autorama is a small French car. Any sort of Citroën 2CV would be distinct, but when it's one sporting safari survival equipment, off-road suspension, and a small block V8 under the hood, it looks fantastically wacky. Drivetrain and suspension bits come from an old Suzuki Samurai, hence this car's name: "Le Sami." No House of Kolor pearl ghost flames here; Le Sami has been painted coated with a thick layer of spray-on bedliner— yes, the stuff for pickup truck beds. That coating not only makes the car scratch-resistant, but also adds a degree of rigidity to the weak Citroën structure. So while most of the other cars on the show floor will only be driven off of trailers and over mirrors, this 2CV will be driven not just on the road, but off the beaten path as well. More »
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Here's a clean 1940 Ford Coupe that was put up for the Ridler Award at the 2008 Detroit Autorama. Owned by David Walsh out of Macon Georgia, this Ford would have probably done better any other year, because it's nearly a dead ringer for the '41 Willys we saw earlier. Deep black with a red leather interior, this one replaces the high rise intake and supercharger with eight single barrel throttle bodies with matching velocity stacks. Very nice effect and we're sure it sounds mean at full snort. More »
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