The result draws a good mix of old car dudes and young rockabilly hipsters, with a random sampling of old-school lowriders, VW freaks, and drag racers thrown in for good measure.

I ran into Hellhammer, captain of the LeMons-winning Mustard Yellow V8olvo, and he took me for a cruise around the fairgrounds in his '49 Cadillac-powered 1927 Model T.

Also present was possibly the world's greatest semi tractor, which now has Oldsmobile 455 power in place of its original gasoline I6.

For the first time, Billetproof Nor-Cal is a two-day event, so you Bay Area readers can still get out to the Antioch Fairgrounds and check it out!

You see, Casadelshawn, of Bunny With A Pancake On Its Head VW Rabbit fame decided he didn't feel like racing in Buttonwillow's 110° heat (actually, it was only about 97°) and took his '76 Audi Fox wagon to Monterey instead. He won the prestigious "Der Self-SatisfiedKrauttenWagen, 1970-current" trpphy, but he took a break from laurel-resting to shoot these photos for us.

Meanwhile, the coveted Worst Of Show trophy went to one of the most horrible-yet-cool motor vehicles ever made, a 1980 KV Mini 1. The owner towed this precision-made, belt-driven machine all the way from Washington… with an MGB! So next time you're shopping for a big ol' truck to tow your bass boat, go with British Leyland instead. Here's the official Cd'L press release:

Mike Harrell from Shoreline, WA stunned the crowd and judges with his 1980KV Mini 1 and took home Worst of Show honors. The KV is a horrible little car powered by a 125cc one cylinder 2 stroke motor that drives the rear wheels through a constantly variable ration belt drive system and friction rollers on the rear tires ensuring that little of the meager power available actually results in forward motion. The features dont stop there, to put the car in reverse, one must shut off the engine and re-start it so that it runs backwards. Combine this with the tin bumpers, solid steering shaft aimed at the drivers chest, the lack of a roof and any other safety features and it was a shoe in for the Worst of Show title. As if to convince the judges that he truly does have a screw loose, Mike towed the little French death trap behind his MGB the 1000 miles from Washington to Monterey. Well done.

Unfortunately we weren't able to make it down to Giddings, Texas for this edition of Billetproof, Jalopnik reader and camera-jockey Eric Nelson did, and passed on these great photographs for everyone to enjoy. It's got everything, cool kustoms, rusty rods, engine pr0n, chopped tops and even an Edsel that's had the letters over its yoke rearranged to spell "SLED," super cool. Thanks again for sending us a little bit of Texas Eric.

The Maserati-powered Model T definitely made an impression at the last Billetproof Nor-Cal, which is totally understandable. After all, the [flawless Model A, B, or T] + [Chevy or Ford OHV V8] formula has been done so often and so well that you need a body machined from pure plutonium to really stand out these days, while the [rusty-ass ancient non-Ford] + [weird yet hypnotically cool engine] formula still offers plenty of fun for each pint of blood you spill in the Hell Garage. Tonight, we're going to look at a total of nine possible vehicle+engine combos, any one of which would draw vast crowds of Bettie Page lookalikes at the next Billetproof. Hear the rusty iron doors of the Hell Garage swinging open for you? Once closed, they'll be welded shut until you're done... or insane!

Every time I see the amazing DOTS '47 Plymouth rumbling through my neighborhood, I realize anew that old suicide-door Plymouth sedans let you roll in the purest Hell Garage style. Affordable examples are quite easy to find in diamond-in-the-rough condition, too. Say f'r'example, this 1937 Plymouth sedan, which has a no-doubt-negotiable $1,000 price tag. The patina is already perfect, and the "toast" interior should be viewed as an opportunity to commission a special burlap-and-studded-pleather extravaganza!

It's tough to argue with the appeal of a 62-year-old sedan, but an elderly pickup made by a farm equipment manufacturer might make you forget all about that Plymouth. This '38 IHC pickup, which has been sitting in an Iowa field since Syngman Rhee was in office, has the perfect paint finish for Billetproof stardom, though we're not sure that "no bullet holes" is really a selling point. No matter, though- you can always make your own bullet holes!

Sedans? Trucks? Don't forget station wagons! Sure, you'd like a two-door wagon, and a Ford Ranch Wagon would be an excellent choice... but even that might veer uncomfortably close to the overchromed aesthetic behind those hyper-sanitary Chevy Nomads we see at mainstream car shows. Don't worry, because LeMons Rabbit racer Casadelshawn has tipped us off about this Opel Olympia Caravan, which is priced right in LeMons territory... which isn't relevant, because you know that mini-Euro-Nomad will be just the car to receive the engine of your deepest fears dreams! And, speaking of engines...

Now that you've picked out your chassis, what would you say to a 317-horse, DOHC/4-valve aluminum V8 that should be making good power until the Sun goes supernova? You can get this Nissan VK56DE out of a Nissan Titan pickup for well under two grand, though you'll need to spend many a few more bucks setting it up with an octet of Weber carbs and some sort of transmission.

A Nissan 5.6 liter V8 would be fun, but imagine all the wild Teutonic Maltese-cross decor you could put on your Opel, Plymouth, or IHC if you were to drop a Mercedes-Benz 5.6 liter V8 into the engine compartment? An M117, freshly torn from the still-twitching corpse of a big ol' Cocaine Dealer Grade 560SEL, would be just the ticket, and here's a 69,000-mile specimen for a mere 710 bucks! You'll need to ditch that irritatingly modern fuel-injection system and replace it with some carburetors, of course, and we recommend a homemade pipe-organ-style intake manifold made from galvanized plumbing fittings and sucking fuel from as many updraft Cessna carburetors as you can obtain. Then you'll start your junkyard quest for a functional junkyard transmission. How hard could it be?

Is there some rule that states you've got to have a V8? No? Well, how about one of GM's coolest engines ever, a high-performance inline six that struggled to get attention while in the shadow of big-inch monster V8s during the Muscle Car Golden Age? Yes, we mean the Pontiac OHC six-cylinder, which was a Chevrolet 230 or 250 six equipped with a futuristic (for 1960s Detroit) belt-driven overhead-cam cylinder head. The high-performance Sprint version, installed in regrettably few Firebirds and Tempests, could hold its own against V8s with vastly more displacement... but real Sprints are hard to find. No problem, though, because you can build your own Sprint from this Pontiac OHC 250, which is sitting with a top bid of just 150 bucks.

Ready to decide? Let's vote!

Looking over "Hell Bound" is an exercise in repeated disbelief. You can't help but shake your head and ask the question "Why?" and "How?" over and over again. Let's just lay out the things you need to notice before you fully grasp the masochistic beauty of this beast.

• Metal tractor seats mounted directly to the frame, no springs.
• There are air shocks on the back, but not the front, and the air tank is actually the transmission tunnel. Madness.
• It has lights, just but none of them are actually hooked up.
• That metal box ahead of the radiator? That's the gas tank. Not a road-tripper.
• The velocity stacks on the carbs are brass planters with the bottoms cut out.
• To get it so low, the front leaf spring is cut in a third and mounted directly to the top of the boxed frame, with bolted metal plates, then the shackle is welded under the axle. Wow.
• No front brakes.
• The horn is actually a horn.
• The gear shifter is rotary, with a metal dial indicator, how f*$king COOL IS THAT!

The Ghia coach building company developed this GT body over a Fiat chassis for the 1960 Turin motor show, and eventually went to production with a modest 2.3 liter, 136 HP six cylinder, it also attracted the attention and American entrepreneur Bert Sugarman. Bert liked the car, but the motivation was lacking, so he dropped a Plymouth 273 V8 Barracuda with 235 HP in it and brought it to the US, selling some 52 examples with the "450SS" belying the engine displacement.

This particular example was owned by none other than Wilt "The Stilt" Chamblerlain, who found it to be the only sports car he could actually fit in. While he owned it, he took it in to a young upstart to the hot-rod industry, one "Boyd Coddington" for a full restoration and upgrades to the powerplant. It was part of Chamberlain's estate at the time of his death and still remains titled in his name.

The little details on this car make it an excellent example of custom coachbuilding of the era. Notice the lack of door handles, instead, an indent in the rear fender to pull it open. The handsome curved wood dash with elegant gauges, row of switches on the dash are labeled only by number instead of function (you had to know what they do), the wire wheels, functional vents, and various other Italian design elements. Mr. Chamberlain certainly had some taste.

This sucker is a nasty and awesomely fun as almost any other jalopies that showed up to Billetproof last weekend. We especially like the "guages" behind the steering wheel which consisted of a green piece of sheetmetal with drawn on gauges reading "slow, medium, and fast" on the faux speedo. You know there was a lot of Natty Light and bloody knuckles and cursing involved in bashing this piece together. Where do you see the most ill-advised bits of improvised engineering?

The detailing is magnificent on this car and the customization is both subtle and beautifully done. It's so good you don't even notice all the custom bodywork, the Caddy tail lights look like they were there from the factory, the painted dash and load floor looks like it should be factory equipment, the Frenched antenna going through the fin is spectacularly cool. It's not often the custom world meets the drag racing world so wonderfully, but this baby pulls it off with aplomb.

We briefly spoke with the genius behind this beast, who said his Divco had gotten up to 147 MPH and is more aerodynamic than it looks, like a giant PT. Well, sure, but it's also more muscle car than Divco. We're loving the original flip and fold seats inside, though the notion of high speed runs on a stool without seatbelts makes this guy a special kind of crazy. Well, until you realize a 572 cubic-inch monster mill is on order and should make this even more unhinged.

That's how Alan Galbraith sees it, so he's put together perhaps the coolest Pacer we've ever seen. No, AMC never made a Hurst Edition Pacer, but so what? It just looks right! As Alan says: "It's really not a bad car. Oh sure, it's rusting at the seams right now outside my house in the rain, the 30+ year old emissions system is going fail me at smog check one of these years, the brittle and non-replaceable plastic interior is one bump away from completely crumbling to dust... But it drives, rides and handles pretty well. Personally the design is growing on me... like a fungus I guess."

Click here for all the images in one .zip file.

Its creator had a bare, beat-to-hell shell sitting on one side of the garage… and a $100 '79 Ford Granada sitting on the other side. You can see where this is going, right? For a budget of less than a thousand bucks, he handcrafted most of the bodywork (including a grille made from a household wall-heater grate), dropped in the Granada drivetrain- dead-stock 302 engine, C4 transmission, driveshaft, rear end, with some $3 Honda Accord springs holding the back end up, then installed the Granada interior as well. Tilt steering wheel, green vinyl, speedometer, the works! The attention to detail- and obsession with building the whole project as cheaply as possible- is absolutely amazing. The fuel tank is made from a pair of 5-gallon jerry cans cut and welded together, for example, and the wood trim is made from baseboards salvaged out of an old house. This guy has 20 other cool cars, including the evil-looking machine parked next to this one, a show-quality '62 Corvette, etc., yet the Granada Rod is the one that gets the most miles. No, it doesn't have any skulls or vintage Pabst cans, and the owner isn't completely covered in ink, but we're going to give this Ford the Jalopnik Best Of Show Award, hands down.