Project Cars Garage

The family that runs the Hot Rod Ranch would make for a lousy reality television show. Producers seeking the next Osbournes are sure to reject a cast that’s more Ozzie Nelson than Ozzy Osbourne. How boring would it be to watch three grown brothers drive back from their rod shop to their childhood home to have lunch with their parents, day after day? My Three Sons had nothing on these three sons.

Photo Gallery: Hot Rod Ranch – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Hot Rod Ranch – Hot Rod Magazine

When you get to Roland Leong’s house on the west side of Los Angeles, a sign in the front yard politely requests that the visitor “enter with the aloha spirit.” Roland lives off of the marina and is “never far from the beach.” With that in mind, we make our way to a seaside mini-mall in search of sushi, where he can tell us about the arc of his career in drag racing. En route, somewhere around Pacific Coast Highway, Roland tells us that a very prominent multicar team owner recently asked him to oversee his drag racing operation in Indianapolis, but the deal breaker was that Roland would have to relocate to Indy, so far from the placid calm of the Pacific Ocean.inline_mediumwraptextright00Roland, still in the game at the March Meet in 2009.27253628/thehistoryof/hrdp_1005_getting_to_know_roland_leonghrdp_1005_01_+roland_leong_closeup+roland_leong_now.jpgtrue

Photo Gallery: Getting To Know Roland Leong – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Getting To Know Roland Leong – Hot Rod Magazine

The HOT ROD staff gets asked a lot of questions over and over, so here we’ll address the most common ones.inline_mediumwraptextright0033009237/thehistoryof/hrdp_0410w_hot_rod_faqshdrp_hotrod_faqs_logo.jpgtrue

Fads come and go. Other blips in the culture of hot rodding have lasting impact. This story is loaded with both of those as seen in the actions, words, and products of many hero builders and manufacturers. HOT ROD is in the unique position of knowing those guys and therefore getting hooked in to a number of facets of the marketplace. We are always considering what the next big thing may be, or even the cool little things, and we take note of what’s hot. When we report on those trends, as we have done here, some readers think we are trying to cram styles and products down their throats. Back off that notion and take this for what it is-an industry overview of what’s going on right now. The story is an implement of entertainment and edification loaded with concepts to accept or reject at your personal whim. HOT ROD is the flagpole, these ideas are the flags, and you get to decide if you’re saluting or not. Simple as that.

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

On September 16, 1947, Great Britain’s John Cobb established a 394.196-mph land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in his Railton Mobil Special. He overshadowed that achievement the very same day with an astounding 403.135-mph one-way blast that marked the first-ever penetration of the 400-mph mark by a wheel-driven vehicle.inline_mediumwraptextright25705340/thehistoryof/hrdp_0503_burkland_family_race_teamhrdp_0503_01+burkland_family_land_speed_racing_team+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Burkland Family Race Team – Piston Land Speed Record-Breaking Family – Hot Rod Magazine

You know you dig it. For nearly three years we’ve been hearing from fortysomethings about secret cravings for blowers, tunnel-rams, raised-white letters, Cragars, and even (gasp!) graphics. It’s the predictable, “back when I was in high school” scenario. But then the rebel twentysomethings started to catch on to it, spellbound by the concept of wheels as small in diameter as, say, 15s and awestruck by the power-hungry carbon footprint of dual quads atop an 8-71. So call us harbingers of ghastly retrogaudiness, but we’ll go ahead and say it: ’70s and ’80s street machine style is back.inline_mediumwraptextrightThis is the one photo of the bunch that we hijacked from Car Craft, since that mag really had its finger on the pulse in the street machine heyday. We love all three of these cars from the ‘78 Car Craft Street Machine Nationals, and the engine in the foreground is the inspiration for our Crusher Camaro makeover. Also note the cable-drive Moroso tach. The red car sports the then-hip, now-unthinkable velour interior. The graphics on the Challenger are great and almost justify the hood-mounted gauges.26729908/thehistoryof/hrdp_0912_70s_80s_musclecarshrdp_0912_03+70s_and_80s_musclecars.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: ’70s And ’80s Musclecars – Cars Of The Street Machine Era – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: ’70s And ’80s Musclecars – Cars Of The Street Machine Era – Hot Rod Magazine

Big-time drag racing is still hot rodding. Yeah, the NHRA seems obsessed with marketing: Every driver sucks up to Full Throttle energy drinks after every run, and the cars are so specialized they couldn’t make it up your driveway without burning through a couple of pistons. But winning and losing still comes down to some guys with wrenches doing a better job preparing their machine than everyone else. Being good with a wrench has always really meant being good with your brain. And Top Fuel crew chief Alan Johnson is really good with his brain.inline_mediumwraptextrightThe Alan Johnson Performance Engineering (AJPE) shop is located on the Johnson family farm in Santa Maria, California, where they grow strawberries. AJPE builds much of the world’s supply of Fuel engine blocks and cylinder heads.31705164/thehistoryof/hrdp_1002_alan_johnsonhrdp_1002_01+alan_johnson+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Alan Johnson – Profiling The Best Drag Race Crew Chief Of Our Time – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Alan Johnson – Profiling The Best Drag Race Crew Chief Of Our Time – Hot Rod Magazine

In the staging lanes during the National Hot Rod Association’s season finale, a gray-eyed, silver-haired, salt-and-pepper-mustachioed race car driver is methodically gathering up his safety garb and preparing himself for an imminent nitro-powered blast down the Pomona, California, raceway in his 8,000hp Top Fuel car. The man is Chris Socrates Karamesines, and he has been going through variations of this dragstrip ritual for almost 60 years.inline_mediumwraptextrightDespite minimal financing, The Greek continues to go quicker and faster in his Strange Engineering Chizler: At Pomona in 2009, he recorded a top end speed of 308 mph.27894832/thehistoryof/hrdp_1003_chris_karamesineshrdp_1003_02+chris_karamesines+top_fuel_car.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Chris Karamesines – The Golden Greek Is Still Going In NHRA Top Fuel- Hot Rod Magazine

California Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, born in South Central Los Angeles, is the second youngest of nine children. As a young man living in a single-parent home, he witnessed firsthand the struggles of working families and the opportunities a good education provides. Passionate about education, he was an elementary school teacher in East Los Angeles for more than 10 years and was involved with the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. In addition to working diligently on education, health care and family issues, he is focused on making the roads a safer place through measures that oppose illegal street racing.inline_mediumwraptextright26875649/thehistoryof/hrdp_1002w_tony_mendoza_street_racing_interviewhrdp_1002w_04+tony_mendoza+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Tony Mendoza – California Legislator Fighting Illegal Street Racing – Hot Rod Magazine

DIAMOND BAR, CA – Full-time students in the United States and Canada pursuing a career in the automotive industry may be eligible for financial assistance through the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund (SMSF).Over the past two decades, SEMA scholarships have supported over 700 students with more than $1,000,000 in scholarship awards. The program rewards the best and brightest students engaged in studies leading to careers in the automotive aftermarket or related fields. The application deadline for the upcoming year is April 1, 2009. SEMA will offer four-year, two-year, graduate, loan forgiveness and member/dependent scholarships.

Photo Gallery: 2009 SEMA Scholarship Information and Application – Hot Rod Magazine

SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, announced that a bill has been enacted into law in California to require the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to develop and administer a vehicle registration amnesty program which would be in effect from January 1, 2010 until December 31, 2010. The program would apply to vehicles that were previously registered or classified incorrectly. Under the new law, the DMV would be required to grant amnesty from prosecution to a vehicle owner if certain conditions are met, including the owner filing a completed application with the department.

Photo Gallery: Bill Passes in California to Resolve Hot Rod Titling – Hot Rod Magazine

This isn’t intended to be a sad story. And if you were looking for a handy metaphor for the current problems facing the Detroit Three, you won’t find one here. The auto plants depicted here ceased production decades ago, some more than half a century ago, long before the most recent troubles. They were shut down and abandoned in the greatest days of the Motor City, when it was the world’s largest producer of automobiles and the keystone of the greatest industrial power the world has ever seen. This is a simple look back, nothing more.

Photo Gallery: Motor City Monuments – Touring The Ruins Of Detroit’s Auto Industry – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Motor City Monuments – Touring The Ruins Of Detroit’s Auto Industry – Hot Rod Magazine

Today’s NHRA National Event-level drag racing scene is a marvel of organization, promotion, and competition, with big money involved and huge shows. But getting to that point took more than 50 years of hard work by dedicated and underfunded people who went racing for the excitement of building a fast car and beating the other guy. One of the names at the top of any conversation revolving around the influencers of the early days of drag racing is Tommy Ivo, known better as TV Tommy.

Photo Gallery: TV Tommy IVO – Hot Rod Magazine

Fads come and go. Other blips in the culture of hot rodding have lasting impact. This story is loaded with both of those as seen in the actions, words, and products of many hero builders and manufacturers. HOT ROD is in the unique position of knowing those guys and therefore getting hooked in to a number of facets of the marketplace. We are always considering what the next big thing may be, or even the cool little things, and we take note of what’s hot. When we report on those trends, as we have done here, some readers think we are trying to cram styles and products down their throats. Back off that notion and take this for what it is-an industry overview of what’s going on right now. The story is an implement of entertainment and edification loaded with concepts to accept or reject at your personal whim. HOT ROD is the flagpole, these ideas are the flags, and you get to decide if you’re saluting or not. Simple as that.

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

California Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, born in South Central Los Angeles, is the second youngest of nine children. As a young man living in a single-parent home, he witnessed firsthand the struggles of working families and the opportunities a good education provides. Passionate about education, he was an elementary school teacher in East Los Angeles for more than 10 years and was involved with the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. In addition to working diligently on education, health care and family issues, he is focused on making the roads a safer place through measures that oppose illegal street racing.inline_mediumwraptextright26875649/thehistoryof/hrdp_1002w_tony_mendoza_street_racing_interviewhrdp_1002w_04+tony_mendoza+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Tony Mendoza – California Legislator Fighting Illegal Street Racing – Hot Rod Magazine