My second thought/concern tho was whether there’d be enough diversity in the cars to make an interesting episode especially since they all share such similar lines. I decided to give it a go anyway and was pleasantly surprised that there was plenty to pick from.

The Datsun 240Z came to the US in 1970, and it was the beginning of putting Japanese performance on the map. They were slick, sleek, affordable, and lots of fun to drive. For most folks, this was the first Japanese sports car they’d ever seen. If you lived on the west coast, you may have been familiar with their predecessors the Datsun 1600 and 2000 roadsters, but not many of these made it very far east. The 240Z however was marketed coast-to-coast.

The Nissan headquarters made a great backdrop for the show and since Franklin is just outside Nashville, the club had also engaged one of the many great local bands to provide the music for the day rather than going the typical DJ route. The band was The Dirty Curties, an all-female group which struck me as appropriate since the Z-cars and the roadsters before them went by the model name, Fairlady, in Japan. The band was great and Datsun was wise to rename the cars for the US market.

Although it was a Z-car gathering with several hundred of them in attendance, there was actually one 2000 roadster there which really stood out. This car was gorgeous tho and would have even stood out in a sea of other Datsun roadsters.

At first glance, this ’67 2000 was stock appearing except for the paint which was an eye-popping orange metallic. But upon closer examination, it was slightly lowered and under the hood it sported a really unique all-aluminum SR20 DTE engine out of an ’01 Nissan Sylvia; a model we don’t even have in the US. 16-valve with variable valve timing and turbo charged from the factory, this baby develops about 250 hp. I suspect it’s a rocketship to drive.

These roadsters are often dinged for being a bit of a knockoff of the MGB from a styling standpoint, but Datsun owners are quick to point out that the ’63 1600 actually came out three or four months before the launch of the MGB. So have that with your tea and crumpets!

But after all, it was a Z-car gathering so let’s get to some Z’s. The most extreme would have to be a Bob Sharp Racing wide body 280ZX powered by a twin-turbo 700 hp V8 Nissan engine. Paul Newman had raced this car back in the day and although it wasn’t all that competitive, it sounded downright angry when it fired up.

There were also a couple other interesting variations on a theme. One was a ’72 Scarab. These were V8-conversion cars created by a company called Scarab Engineering in Campbell, California which sold a few factory converted cars and a far greater number of conversion kits thru the 70’s and 80’s. In addition to the small block Chevy V8, this particular Scarab had flared fenders and a whale tale giving it a particularly aggressive look.

Another Z-mod car also started life as a ’72 240 but was transformed in the mid 80’s for the showcar circuit and sported a number of BSR body mods including a wide body kit and G nose, and then was finished in a very cool paint scheme. It had been restored to its showcar state by its current owner, who also happens to be a Nissan master tech.

Just so you know, there was also tons of bone stock Z’s at the show too, ranging from the earliest 240’s all the way up to the latest greatest 370’s. One that caught my eye was a really clean 1980 10th Anniversary 280Z. Altho these cars had packed on a few pounds since their 240 youth and now had clunkier US-regulation bumpers, they were still decidedly Z’s and still very cool. Only a couple thousand were made in the gold & black anniversary paint scheme and another 500 in an even-more-rare red & black combo. The t-top and gold leather interior combined with everything else to make this a very sharp car.

Our next stop will be West Yellowstone, MT for the Yellowstone Rod Run, and I’m counting on some cooler weather after these last couple shoots in the heat and humidity of the Midwest. And to all my Nissan friends at this year’s Z-Con; Arigato!

Happy Motoring,

I recall driving my ’56 Lincoln and was just hanging out and chatting with people when this black ’64 Merc Park Lane Marauder pulled in. I think I stopped whatever conversation I was in mid-sentence and made a beeline to that car. I don’t actually recall ever seeing one before, and I just thought it looked incredibly sharp.

It was completely stock; jet black hardtop with a white interior and a factory 4-speed. Being a Park Lane, it was Mercs highest trim level so it was pretty decked out. 1964 was also Merc’s 25th year of existence so it had a few additional 25th Anniversary touches too.

There were very few 4-speed Marauders produced and most of them came with 427’s, but this one had an ultra-rare 390 Super Marauder engine with special large-valve heads and unique cast exhaust manifolds. There were probably fewer than five cars like this one made.

The owner, Tom Lantz, had found the car in Montana and although it needed paint and interior, it was a solid car. He took care of the cosmetics but hadn’t touched the engine which was still running strong at about 78k miles.

I fell in love with the car and enjoyed talking to Tom. I could tell he was a pretty serious performance Ford guy, and his attendance at this cruise-in had definitely made my day.

I pretty much lost track of Tom and that car till I got an email from him earlier this year alerting me to the fact that he had just completed another monster Merc that he thought I might get a kick out of. He was right.

Tom had just finished building a ’64 Comet Cyclone lightweight drag car powered by a 427 SOHC engine. And not just any 427 SOHC engine; this was actually an aluminum block CanAm engine cranking out somewhere around 800 HP. This car was true to the factory lightweights from back in the day in every respect, and he had finished it in Ford’s “Peacock” turquoise paint color. Needless to say, I was sold!

I just need to figure out where to fit it into the production schedule, and fortunately a window opened up a week or so ago. We had tentatively set up the shoot for Tuesday but as we got close, the weather forecast was calling for rain both Monday and Tuesday. I got nervous and asked Tom if he’d be OK with Wednesday since the forecast looked better then.

Luckily Tom was flexible with his own schedule, and he was OK with the change. Of course it never did rain on Monday or Tuesday and by then the forecast for Wednesday had started to look iffy. Naturally, Thursday was going to be a beautiful day. Yeah, sure it was.

I just didn’t feel I could play “Casey at the bat” and let another day go by because we had to leave on Friday for another shoot, and if Thursday’s forecast turned out to be wrong (I know, what are the odds?!?) then we’d be completely screwed. So we decided to roll the dice and go for it on Wednesday.

Tom and his daughters drove both cars up from town that morning to the shoot location which was near my place. It was really something to see those cars roll up together. We set them up in front of a lake as a backdrop and got right to work.

The temperature was in the low 90’s as was the humidity, and it wasn’t getting any nicer as the morning went on. Things were going pretty well tho, and we completed the walk-around’s on both cars by lunch time. Ben still needed to get about a half hour’s worth of b-roll of the cars before we went out to do the driving shots, so Tom & I blasted out to Subway to pick up lunch for everybody and got back just as Ben was finishing up.

We scarfed down lunch, but the weather was clearly changing on us. Dark clouds were rolling in from the south, and you could hear thunder in the distance. The thunder got progressively closer and when I started to see the lightning that preceded it, I knew we weren’t going to finish the shoot this day, and it was time to get these cars under roof.

We were only a couple miles from my place so we fired ‘em up and hot-footed it over there. I pulled one of my cars out of the garage and another out of my shed to make room for Tom’s Mercs and just as we pulled them in, the sky opened up. That was definitely a wrap for that day.

Fortunately the following morning was clear, Tom came back up to my place, and we spent the morning getting the driving footage with the Mercs to finish the shoot. (And by the way, they were both a blast to drive!) We wouldn’t normally get away with this because we’d be locked into flights and wouldn’t have had the luxury of a second day, but we really lucked out this time.

The cars were awesome, Tom was a great sport, and it’s going to be a killer episode.
I think the coolest thing for me was that both those cars were at my place overnight, and that’s something I could definitely get used to. When Tom showed up in the morning to finish the shoot, I was considering saying, “Mercs? What Mercs?”, but I didn’t think he’d buy it. Oh well, at least I had ‘em for a sleepover.

Happy Motoring,

Last weekend the state was also the setting for the Northwest Motorfest; Idaho’s largest car show. It’s held on the grounds of the Idaho Expo in Boise, and you don’t have to be there long before you learn that it’s pronounced, Boic-e, not Boyz-e; thank you very much!

In addition to the typical car show stuff, this event also had numerous side attractions; things like holeshot and burnout contests.

I’m not sure, but I think the meteorological term for the cloud that is rising from behind this Chev is cumulorubberus.

It also had things more specific to the Northwest, like V8 chainsaw demonstrations. Now, that’s just crazy!

Throw in the Wall of Death and rock crawling demos, and this was a veritable three-ring circus.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Idaho since I lived at the other end of the state up in Moscow for nearly 5 years and went to grad school at the University of Idaho. Go Vandals! And I’m always looking for an excuse to get back out there.

Southern Idaho is more arid than the northern part of the state and when you look at the smoothly rolling hills that make up much of the terrain around Boise, you can tell that it was once the floor of a massive lake 15,000 or so years ago.

And did I mention it was hot? We shot the show on Saturday, and it was 98 degrees with a bright blue sky. Yeah, I know it’s a “dry heat”, but that’s still really hot! Fortunately there were more than enough cool cars around to keep the whole thing manageable.

This was the 8th year for the Northwest Motorfest, and it’s a really great event. As I mentioned, there’s a lot going on over the course of the weekend, but at the core of it all is a car show that drew nearly 900 cars.

There was everything at this show from the most refined, like this ’54 Buick Skylark, to the most extreme, like this blown ’29 Nash rat rod.

Honestly, I had always felt the ’54 Skylark was a bit clunkier looking than the ’53 Skylark. They had added stuff in ’54 that “heavied” the car up, and it never worked for me. But then I ran across this killer ’54 convertible in Lido green with the white inner fender wells that just blew me away. This rare stock color combo softened everything and really worked on this car.

The rat rod looked like something out of an Ed Roth nightmare; and I’ll bet Ed’s “normal” dreams were already pretty weird. It started out as a ’29 Nash (I think?). There was some pretty interesting frame and drivetrain engineering, and the absurdly-blown big block Ford truck engine was a nice touch. I think it was the “Super Single” rear tires that got me tho. I had never heard of these, but they are apparently the equivalent of semi truck duals in a single tire; and that’s big.

There was a great ’61 Plymouth Fury mild custom that the owner had found stuffed away in a garage two doors down from his house and bought for a couple grand. All it needed was some minor body work and a repaint. He went with a lime green metal flake with a silver large metal flake top. This really set off the wild lines on this car. Still sporting the original interior and 318 engine, this baby is driven everywhere.

A car that I hadn’t seen for a long time was this ’66 Merc Monterey. I had forgotten how long and straight these cars were. This thing is the size of a Suburban. Really cool integration of the taillights and signal lights in the styling, and a stately yet aggressive stance. Ah, Merc; I miss you already! Altho it had been de-badged, the door handles shaved, and a functional Boss 429 hood scoop added, I would say this car was more “personalized” than “customized”. It still had a lot of its already-cool-from-the-factory original design DNA. I really liked this car.

It was hard to miss this ‘37 street-legal drag Topolino. Think about it tho; none of those words seem like they should go together. The Fiat Topolino is a tiny little car, and its name means “little mouse” in Italian, but this baby was more like Mighty Mouse. A custom frame and a crate 350 with zoomie exhaust made it look like it would be a blast to drive. But you better like your passenger, because you are going to be really close to them!

It takes every minute we have at a show to get enough footage to make an episode, but we still have to eat. I usually live on beef jerky during a shoot because it’s quick, packed with protein, and can withstand the elements. Ben, the producer/shooter, on the other hand needs real food to survive. Wuss. Something about lugging around a 20 pound camera all day in near 100 degree heat. Yada yada.

One of the challenges on the road in general, and particularly at a car show, tho is finding something at least marginally healthy to eat. And as we strolled Food Row in the early afternoon in search of sustenance, it wasn’t looking nutritionally pretty, but then suddenly, right at the intersection of Corndog and Funnel Cake, there he was; Chris “Saladman” Olson.

Saladman has been a fixture at events in the area for ten years, and he whipped us up a couple huge crab Louis’ that were to die for. Trust me, the beef jerky will keep till the next shoot; in fact, probably till the next season.

The day was capped off with the Capitol City Cruise. The city had dedicated several blocks of downtown Boise to cruisers only, and several hundred cars took the opportunity to roll past the state capitol building for a couple hours in the early evening under beautiful skies. Life is good.

The show went on again Sunday, but Ben & I blew out of town at 6:30 in the morning bound for E’ville. This week we’ve been in the office finishing the remaining new episodes for the 2010 season and also working on a new project. Next week I’m off to Pasadena for my final SEMA Board of Directors meeting. I’m finally terming out after 7 years on the SEMA Board. I’ll also be attending the SEMA Cares car show while I’m out there on Saturday, July 25. This is a fundraiser for SEMA’s two charities; Childhelp and Victory Junction Gang.

The following weekend tho I’ll be back in the production saddle when we shoot the Z-Car Convention at the Nissan Headquarters in Franklin, TN. I’ve been brushing up on handy Japanese phrases and believe it or not, “dou itashimashite” (which is pronounced an awful lot like “Don’t touch the mustache”) means, “You’re welcome”. I think that phrase is going to come in handy for me in both Japanese and English.

Happy Motoring,

It was commissioned in 1949 by the city’s Merchant’s Association to kick off the Christmas shopping season and shortly thereafter Roanoke was nicknamed “The Star City of the South”. It’s a really nice town and the view of it from Mill Mountain is pretty cool.

This was the 9th year for the event, and it is held right downtown on Jefferson Street which is one of the main streets. It was originally created as a fundraiser to build a permanent automotive exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, and to date they have raised over a quarter of a million dollars. Currently the stars of this museum are a pair of massive steam locomotives, the Norfolk and Western Class A-1218 and the streamlined Class J-611; the most modern steam locomotives ever built.

Both of these babies were actually designed and built right in Roanoke in N & W’s own shops, so it’s appropriate to have them back where they came from.

Motor Madness kicked off with a cruise Friday night on Williamson Road which was basically Roanoke’s Woodward Avenue back in the day. Ironically, the city outlawed cruising on Williamson Road in the late 70’s as a way to try to control car-crazed young hoodlums. Now that we’re all car-crazed old hoodlums tho, the city has had a change of heart and once again embraces the tradition.

Probably close to a thousand cars hit the streets that night to the delight of the tens of thousands of spectators that lined both sides of the three-mile cruise strip. A good time was had by all.

The weather was perfect for the day of the show, albeit a bit toasty. The event had its best turnout ever with about 500 cars in attendance. The downtown setting was great, and there were some really interesting vehicles.

One of my favs was an extremely radical Salt Flats Bug.

This baby had an 8 inch chop, Indy car inspired front suspension, and a 2.8 liter V6 and drivetrain out of a Cavalier. The Cavalier is a front wheel drive car, but the whole set up was installed in back to drive the rear wheels of this bad-to-the-bone bug.

A ’52 Nash with its funky roll-back top and a killer ’63 M37 B1 military version of the Dodge Powerwagon also caught my eye.

I came across a rat rod that was made from (among other things) a ’59 Pontiac. Probably the coolest thing was that this car was built by an 18 year old, and mostly from found parts. I think this kid’s got a future in this hobby!

Rounding out the list was a car that belonged to Robert Bennett, one of the co-founders of the show. Robert collects movie cars, and he had brought the ’59 Caddy Ambulance that was from the first Ghostbusters, complete with all the ECE (Ectoplasma Containment Equipment). This thing was hilarious.

Star City Motor Madness is an event worth going to, and I think it’s going to make a great episode. Tomorrow, we’re off to Boise, Idaho for the 8th annual Northwest Motorfest. This is Idaho’s largest car show, and it should be good time. I thought it was pretty hot in Roanoke, but Boise’s forecast for the weekend is calling for highs of 98 degrees. It’s a dry heat out there tho. Right?

Happy Motoring,

It was three airplanes and about 16 hours total travel time before we finally got to the Bear Lodge; our base of operations for the next few days.

I had built an extra day into the schedule for a change to recover from the inevitable jet lag. The car show itself wasn’t till Saturday, and although there was an organized cruise to a salmon bake Friday evening, we basically had Friday to kill. Since this event was being hosted by the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, I figured walk-thru would be a good way to spend the morning.

Fairbanks really isn’t a very big town, about 40,000 people, and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the museum, but I could not have been more wrong. This place absolutely blew me away. The museum was the vision of owner Tim Cerny and his wife Barb. The collection has several one-of-one and only-one-left cars as well as several Alaska-specific vehicles (which were extremely weird).

It is also probably the best lit and laid-out museum I have ever seen. I wasn’t there long before I started thinking that there might be an episode here too.

The weather on Friday was a bit iffy, but it cleared off by late afternoon in time for the cruise over to a salmon bake across town. It was held in Fairbank’s Pioneer Park and although somewhat touristy, it was extremely tasty. I got to lead the group of about 20 rods and classics in a 1910 Stanley Steamer. All that time I’ve spent with Leno and his steamers paid off, and I was able to get us there without incident.

The cruise-in the following day was held on the grounds of the Wedgewood Resort and the day was perfect. I should also mention that there was a lot of it. This time of year the sun really doesn’t set up there. The closest thing you get to night is a sort of twilight period that lasts for about an hour between 2:00 and 3:00 am and otherwise, it’s just day. I was pretty disoriented (even more so than usual) the whole time I was up there.

All totaled, about 180 cars made it to the cruise-in on Saturday. Most were from Fairbanks and the surrounding area, but several had come up from Anchorage. There was also a couple that happened by the show who had driven their Argentine-built 1965 Kaiser Estanceria (basically a Willys Jeep) all the way from Argentina over a period of three years and were just beginning their trip back home. And here I thought I was going to get the “long haul” award.

The cruise-in officially wrapped about 3:00 pm at which time about 40 cars queued up to head out on a 35 mile cruise around the area with stops to view the pipeline and at the University of Alaska. I was out front on most of this one too driving a ’27 boat-tail Stutz Blackhawk from the museum. Man, what a car!

The evening culminated with a dinner at the museum for the show participants. There was a surprise visit from the governor of Alaska, Sean Parnell (not the one that quit), who warmly welcomed me to the state. I presented the show’s awards, but the real entertainment for the evening was provided by Alaska legend, Mr. Whitekeys. This guy is absolutely hilarious and he put on a manic, hour-long one-man show. Now that James Brown is gone, I think Mr. Whitekeys has gotta be the hardest workin’ man in show business.

The next day was Sunday and it poured rain most of the day so we figured we may as well shoot the museum. As it turns out, we shot all day and came back for a good part of the following day to get it all done. It had stopped raining so we also got a chance to take a few more of the museum cars out and get some driving footage on Monday. What a blast!

Monday was also the summer solstice and at 11:00 pm we went up in the 1953 Cessna 180 float plane pictured above to get some aerial shots of the area and to fly over the Midnight Sun baseball game. This was the 105th annual game and it is touted as being the only baseball game played at midnight without lights. It was a strange feeling when I realized that it was 1:00 am and I was still wearing shades!

We weren’t scheduled to fly out till 5:15 pm on Tuesday so Ben & I took off on a road trip headed in the direction of Denali. We only got about halfway there before we ran short on time and had to turn back toward Fairbanks, but the scenery alone was worth the price of admission. We also had time to stop in for a regional brew at an Alaskan institution, Skinny Dick’s Half Way Inn. I mean really, with a name like that, how could you pass it up?

Another three planes and about 17 hours this time and we were back in E’ville. For all of 36 hours, that is. We leave on Friday morning for Roanoke, VA to shoot the Star City Motor Madness. I look forward to it being dark at night.

Happy Motoring,

This sleek streamliner was created by mechanical engineer, Norman E. Timbs, back in 1948. The aluminum body was hand-formed by legendary metal man, Emil Diedt, and it was powered by a mid-engine Buick straight eight. The car actually graced the cover of the second issue of the newly-launched magazine, Motor Trend, back in October 1949.

Gary and Diane Cerveny are the proud owners of this baby. They have a number of cars in their collection and their tastes run the gambit from Rolls Royce Silver Ghosts to vintage drag and Indy cars, but they really made a commitment when they took on the restoration of the Timbs Special.

After its glory days in the late 40’s and 50’s, the car had some less auspicious decades including a stint as an attraction out in front of a SoCal restaurant with kids running up the back and sliding down the fenders. It was largely forgotten until what was left of it was auctioned at the Peterson Museum back in 2002 and was bought (almost accidentally) by Gary for about $17,000.

Gary, his son, and his father embarked on the restoration. Altho they had done numerous award-winning restorations in the past, after four years they decided to call in the cavalry and engaged the services of Dave Crouse and Custom Auto in Loveland, CO. Dave and his merry band spent another three years to recreate the masterpiece that is the Timbs Special. All told, over 5,500 hours went in the restoration of this car. It is absolutely stunning.

But wait, there’s more! We paired the TImbs Special up with another fav of mine from Gary & Diane’s collection, a ’55 Hudson Italia.

I’ve always liked these cars, and I’ve only seen one other in my life. However, that represents 33% of all of them known to exist since only six were built, and this particular car is the only one to have had its anemic six cylinder Hudson Jet engine replaced by a 265 cui Corvette crate engine by the dealership back in 1955 prior to it being sold to its first owner.

This car was a last gasp effort, like the Kaiser Darrin and the Nash Healey, to try to spruce up the stodgy image of a struggling car manufacturer. Hudson Jets were shipped to Turin, Italy and the steel bodies and pedestrian interiors were replaced with hand-formed aluminum, rich leather, and a lot of Italian flare.

I got a chance to take both these babies out on the road on a beautiful SoCal day, and I savored every minute. The styling on both of them was just spectacular, and there was so much detail to shoot on each one of them that I finally had to drag Ben away or we’d still be there.

The following day, we shot with Jay Leno again but that’s a whole other story. Next week we’re off to Fairbanks, Alaska for the Midnight Sun Cruise-In. The weather might be a little different up there, but we sure shouldn’t run out of light.

Happy Motoring,

After three planes, five hours of cumulative layovers, and a two and a half hour drive, Ben (the producer, and now shooter too!) and I arrived in Moab about 1:00 am last Friday. We weren’t shooting till Saturday, but I knew this was going to be a brutal trip so I built in a day to recover.

I had never been to this part of Utah, and we had come in under the cover of darkness so I really didn’t have a feel for what the area looked like. When I got up Friday morning tho, I was blown away by the strange and striking landscape. With all the red rock and bizarre topography, it could have been Mars (except for all the healthy looking people on mountain bikes, that is).

We had Friday to kill so we headed to Canyonlands National Park about 30 miles southwest of Moab. This is Utah’s largest national park and it probably covers close to 300 square miles. There is no way to see it in one day (or even one week) so we decided to just hit one of the more accessible areas known as Island in the Sky.

It was pretty chilly, windy, and overcast but the views were spectacular. We drove the 20 miles of paved road in this area, stopping frequently to hike to particularly scenic vistas and shoot some photos.

If I look cold in this picture that’s because I was!

Fortunately, the weather straightened out, and we had a perfect day for the car show on Saturday. The show is called April Action, and it was in its 18th year. It’s held in the city park right in the center of town, and they managed to pack over 600 cars into a fairly cozy grassy area surrounded by red cliffs.

There was some really interesting iron there, and the spectator turnout was pretty impressive too. At times, it was so packed that it made shooting a challenge.

This was also the maiden voyage for our new Sony XDCAM which added a whole other level of complexity to this shoot, but everything went well and this event is going to make a great episode.

Sunday we had to travel to Grand Junction, CO to shoot a feature on Monday, but not before about a five hour side trip thru Arches National Park which is literally just outside Moab.

This park is possibly even more spectacular than Canyonlands. The drill was pretty much the same here; drive, stop, hike, photograph, repeat. This is really a remarkable part of the country and southeastern Utah should be on everyone’s bucket list.

We finally got on the road to Grand Junction and rolled in late afternoon Sunday. We met up with our interviewee, Tammy Allen, to check out her collection and scout locations for Monday’s shoot. I don’t think I was fully prepared for either her or her collection.

Tammy owns a limousine company in Grand Junction and she just flat out loves cars. I didn’t see all of her cars because they are stored in various locations, but let’s just say she has a lot of them. And while many collectors will focus on a particular marque or a particular era, Tammy goes after cars that just happen to strike her fancy for whatever reason. (I can relate to that!) To call her collection eclectic would be an understatement. She’s also quite attractive and a genuinely nice person. I could tell I was going to enjoy this shoot.

We settled on a pair of ’66 Mustangs that were built for Sonny & Cher by George Barris which were completely over the top in a 60’s sort of way, and a pair of really sweet Caddys; a ’38 V16 limo and a ’47 custom woody wagon. The limo was completely period correct. The woody wagon actually started life as a hearse. It had been shortened 29 inches, the roofline lowered 3 inches, and sported a 429 engine and drivetrain from a ’67 Caddy.

This shoot went off without a hitch also, and we were on a plane back to E’ville at 6:00 am Tuesday morning.

We leave tomorrow morning for Vintage Torquefest in Farley, IA. This is a traditional hot rod show held at a dirt track speedway, and it’s modeled after the Japlopy Showdown in PA. In addition to the typical car show festivities, participants will have the opportunity to do a few laps on the dirt with their rods. Should be pretty cool. I’ll let you know when I get back. And then it’ll be three down, twenty three to go!

Happy Motoring,

Guy only lives three hours from me but we rarely see each other. It seems our schedules never coincide and we both have a lot going on. Life tends to be that way. However, this was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time so we decided to just pick a weekend, commit to it, and do this thing; rain or shine. That was the only way it was ever going to happen.

I’ve got two big, fairly modern touring bikes in my collection; the ’98 Trophy and a ’93 BMW R1100RS, and it looked like we were going to get lucky with the weather because the forecast was for a cool (highs in the 60’s) but clear weekend. So Guy drove down to E’ville Saturday morning and we suited up and were on the road about noon.

The plan was to ride over to Sainte Genevieve, MO, a really cool little town situated on the Mississippi River that dates back to 1735. The trip over was to be primarily via Interstate (about 200 miles) so as to give Guy a chance to get used to a bike he’d never ridden before. This would also prepare him for the return trip on Sunday which was more like 300 miles on two-lane back roads (with lots of twisties) thru southern Illinois.

Saturday’s ride was fast and fun. I love vintage machines, but there’s a lot to be said for full fairings and lots of horsepower. We got to Ste. Gen in late afternoon, parked the bikes, and strolled the streets in search of a beer and a place to eat dinner later. We found both in the Anvil Restaurant and Saloon.

Sunday was a crisp, cool morning and we began our journey home by taking the Sainte Genevieve ferry across the Mississippi River. This saved about 40 miles travel to the nearest bridge, plus I just think ferries are cool.

We rolled for about 200 miles, stopping only once for gas, on beautiful roads with almost no traffic. We were getting a bit hungry tho and dining options along this route didn’t abound. As luck would have it, we cruised into Elizabethtown, IL (population 348) right about noon and came upon Ma & Pa Reed’s Family Restaurant. There were a number of cars parked out front which is usually a good sign, so we put down the stands on the bikes and went inside. What we found there was one of the best buffets I have ever experienced.

There was everything imaginable (all home cooked of course), but the highlight was fresh catfish pulled right from the Ohio River which was within sight of the restaurant. The warm blackberry cobbler was pretty tasty too. Needless to say, we stayed way too long and ate way too much.

We finally left and rode on a little ways to Garden of the Gods; a 3,300 acre wilderness area consisting of old growth forest and some of the strangest rock formations you’ll see anywhere. It sure doesn’t look like Illinois. We took a brief hike around Observation Trail to shoot some pics and walk off some of that cobbler.

Soon tho, it was back on the bikes and we rode to Cave In Rock were we took another ferry, this time across the Ohio River, over to Kentucky. We still had a lot of ground to cover so we were on the throttle all the way back to Evansville since Guy still had to drive back up to Indy that evening.

It really couldn’t have been a better weekend and probably the last one that I won’t be working for several months. I got to spend time with my brother, ride motorcycles, see cool things, and eat great food. And none of this would have happened if we both hadn’t put other things aside and just made it a priority. If there’s a moral to this story it’s, don’t let life get in the way of the things that are really important. Ride on!

Happy Motoring,

I did a similar thing a little over a year ago when I turned my wife’s ’63 Falcon Futura convertible into a kitchen.

This was a beautiful little car but it had a three-on-the-tree, and after Ellen’s double knee replacement about two years ago, driving a clutch wasn’t all that much fun anymore. So she decided that she wanted a new kitchen more than she wanted the Falcon. She’d had it for 10 years and she’d had her fun with it.

Drew Alcazar, the owner of Russo & Steele auction house in Scottsdale, AZ is a friend of mine so I decided to give that a shot. I had never sold a car at auction (or bought one at auction, for that matter) so I didn’t really even know how to go about it.

I had to get it Scottsdale and my first thought was to drive it there. On the surface that seemed like a great idea! One last road trip in the car; just me and the Falcon. Fairly quickly tho, reality set in and I concluded that a 1,700 mile trip in January in a 45 year old car probably wouldn’t be the smartest thing I’ve ever attempted.

Fortunately, I have another friend in the Scottsdale area, Scott Cawley, who owns a classic car dealership, and he offered to help me out by being my shipping destination for the Falcon. I called a transport company and two days later they showed up at my place and within about a half hour the Falcon was loaded up and headed west.

It was a strange feeling as the transport disappeared in the distance. It was my wife’s car, but I was fairly attached to it. It was the only fully restored car in the stable and that was somewhat by accident.

I had always liked the first gen Falcons and when this one appeared in the local paper a little over a decade ago, I knew that I wanted it but I also knew that if brought home another car, El would kill me. I decided to take her with me to go look at it and when she saw it, she fell in love with it. (Yes!) So of course I bought it for her. What a guy, eh?

The car was a bit of a barn find and it was completely original, but the back window had gone opaque as old convertible back windows tend to do. However, because this limited her rear visibility, El didn’t like driving it with the top up.

I was going to replace the back window (about $75) but the original top was black and I felt that looked a bit clunky with the peacock body color. So I decided to replace the whole top with a white one (about $400). If I was going to put a new top on it though, I probably should paint it first. However, the 260 V8 engine smoked a little so I should probably rebuild that before I painted it.

Once the engine was rebuilt and I was ready to paint it, of course all the trim had to be removed and as long as it was off, I may as well have it rechromed. And when at that had been done, the nice original interior no longer looked all that nice, relatively speaking, so it got a whole new interior too.

At any rate, about $25,000 later, the Falcon had a back window you could see out of. And that’s what I call some pretty expensive hindsight!

The car made it to Scottsdale and with the help of both Drew and Scott, it went across the stage on schedule and actually brought the price I was hoping for. It now resides in Rhode Island and the guy that bought it did so because that was his first car when he was 16. It is also in good company since the new owner also has a couple Shelby Mustangs and an original Cobra. And now a Falcon!

Everybody’s happy. The Falcon has a new home and Ellen has granite countertops and a hardwood floor. Hopefully this next feat of prestidigitation will be equally successful, and I will turn the ’05 Mustang GT into a television camera (or at least part of one).

As for all my other cars and motorcycles, I plan on hanging onto them. But believe me, it’s a bit of a magic trick just keeping them all running.

Happy Motoring,

In January tho, I bought out my business partner, so I am now the sole owner of Bradley David Productions and My Classic Car, LLC. This wasn’t a particularly easy decision to make, but it was the right one for all concerned. It does however quash any thoughts that I might have been entertaining of retirement in the foreseeable future. I guess the good news is that it looks like there’ll definitely be a few more seasons of the show (SPEED willing, that is). And I’m certain that Delta Airlines is also happy about that.

As long as we are changing things, we also invested in a new High Def video camera this week. It’s the new Sony PMW-350K and it’s a pretty cool unit that records to solid state medium rather than tape. We also outfitted it with a killer Fujinon lens.

And let me just say, it’s amazing how much these frickin’ things cost! For reference, there are several cars that I have always wanted, but considered them to be out of price range, that are a lot cheaper than this set up!

However, this will allow us to shoot this season (our 15th!) ourselves instead of having to hire freelance crews wherever we go. The crews aren’t cheap either, and it can be hard coming up with qualified crews in some of the obscure places we have been known to shoot, like Polson, MT or Owl’s Head, ME.

We will certainly be moving around a smaller entourage. It will be just me and the producer (now producer/shooter), Ben Woehler, which should make us more nimble. Of course we will also be the only ones schlepping all this camera gear too, so that whole “more nimble” thing remains to be seen. If we screw up a shoot, now we have nobody to blame but ourselves. I guess since I’m the boss tho, I only have to explain it to me.

This whole thing is actually a pretty big change, but that’s also what keeps it interesting and exciting, albeit in a somewhat twisted sort of way. Now, the camera will be with us all the time and not just when the freelance crew is too. We’ll be able to shoot things that we have missed in the past. We go to some pretty cool places and this approach will allow us to take you along like we never have been able to before. I think you’ll get to see more of the location itself, and there’ll be more “in the moment” and behind the scenes stuff. I’m sure those are mixed blessings.

We go out on our first shoot of the new season in two weeks. We’re shooting the April Action car show in Moab, UT and then a couple days later, we’re shooting a feature on a couple really interesting Caddys in Grand Junction, CO. I would normally say, “Wish us luck.”, but this time I think I’ll go with, “Light a candle.” Please!

Happy Motoring,