blown flattie

Barnstormin’: The Combustion Anti-Discrimination League

Posted in Barnstormin' May 14, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > >  7 comments

So I have entered a stretch where I’ll be announcing events virtually every weekend from now all the way into July in various locations across the country. In truth, this started a couple weeks back with the ECTA Wilmington Mile event I did. The following weekend I hit the autocross with Buford (as you read [...]

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wilmington

Barnstormin’: Old Airports Are A Hot Rodders Best Friend And A Largely Untapped Resource

Posted in Barnstormin' May 7, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > >  9 comments

I have recently caught an affliction that lots of gearheads seem to suffer from. I have become obsessed with old airports and airfields now being used by hot rodders as racing facilities. It started a few weeks ago when I found the absolutely tiny Cranland Airport located just two towns over from me in Massachsuetts. [...]

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SHO

Barnstormin’: Confessions Of An Automotive Schizophrenic

Posted in Barnstormin' April 3, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > >  9 comments

So yesterday I drove a 2013 Ford Taurus SHO and my Buford T Justice Caprice, loving them both. I have a severe problem called automotive schizophrenia and there is no known cure. That’s a fact for which I am pretty thankful because I find it to be a damned enjoyable affliction. The Taurus was a [...]

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Barnstormin’: Dreaming Big, Scheming Bigger, and Why I Am Hell Bent On Trying To Race A ChumpTruck In 2014

Posted in Barnstormin' March 26, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > >  5 comments

So this is going to come as a shock to no one, but I am completely and utterly consumed with the idea of racing a truck in the 2014 ChumpTruck series. I am not looking for more than one race and my target is Virginia International Raceway because that is the closest track to me [...]

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pan1

Barnstormin’: These Guys OWN Low-Buck

Posted in Barnstormin' February 25, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > >  0 comments

Dave Nutting was full of questions on the way to the Vermonster 4×4 Snow Bog last weekend and I was full of hypothetical answers. As many of you loyal readers out there know, I love trucks. Dave’s into lots of stuff and I keep dragging him to places like Vermont to see new things and [...]

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audi1

Barnstormin’: Creativity For The Sheeple And The Lost Art Of Making Something From Scratch

Posted in Barnstormin' February 6, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

Yesterday, Chad went into full berserker mode over the Paul Harvey voiced Ram “farmer” commercial during the Super Bowl. I think I shared the same reaction as many other people by being emotionally moved by the two minute spot. I was first enthralled with Harvey’s iconic tones and imagery the ad presented. After it was [...]

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ice and beer

Barnstormin’: Hookers In The Hallway, Lacquer Thinner In The Nitro, A Clearing Of The Notebook From A Wild Trip On Two Coasts

Posted in Barnstormin' January 31, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

It has become somewhat of a yearly ritual for Chad and I to get together down in West Palm Beach, Florida for the live broadcast of the PRO Winter Warm Up. Then, we both head back to his place outside of LA to attend a media conference put on by SEMA. While Chad and I [...]

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tom blocks

Barnstormin’: Wooden Blocks and A Diecast Camaro

Posted in Barnstormin' January 9, 2013  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

Those were the two major items that my son Tom asked “Santa” for this Christmas. We…I mean he, happily filled that request and he’s been building garages, bridges, workshops, and other structures ever since. Sometimes he calls us in to inspect his work and other times he’s just so wrapped up in it that he [...]

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Barnstormin’: How The Word “Value” Turned Into A Swear At My House

Posted in Barnstormin' December 4, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

It happened innocently enough. My six year old son Tom loves to watch the show Overhaulin’ so we were tuned in to one of the new episodes of the recently revived series. I like the show in general and have an incredible amount of respect and admiration for Chip Foose who is one of the [...]

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favorite9

SEMA Top 10: Brian’s Favorite Cars and Trucks From SEMA 2012

Posted in Barnstormin' November 5, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

Picking my 10 favorite cars from the 2012 SEMA show was literally harder than deciding which of my kids I liked the best. It took me about 45-minutes to get that sorted out and this took hours! (Cue emotional scarring when they read this in a few years. Guys, I am KIDDING…or am I?) It [...]

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corvette

Barnstormin’: Drag Week Scrambled My Brain and Other Memories From A Great Week On The Road

Posted in Barnstormin' October 3, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

Oh what a difference eight years makes. Drag Week has certainly come a long way from the quaint little get together it was in 2005 when less than 40 cars pulled out of the now dead Kansas City International Raceway and rumbled off on what seemed like a suicide mission to most anyone who had [...]

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The Sound and the Fury: A Day With Corvette Racing at the American LeMans Series

Posted in Barnstormin' July 9, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

(Photos by Dave Nutting) – It was all too fitting to be at Connecticut’s beautiful Lime Rock Park road racing facility on Friday July 6th to see the factory Corvette Racing team practice and qualify for the 2012 American LeMans Series New England Grand Prix. After all, the ‘Vettes are the lone American car competing [...]

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Milestone: We Published Our 6,000th Blog Item This Morning – Who’d a Thunk?!

Posted in Barnstormin' June 27, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

BangShift passed kind of a neat milestone this morning. It came quietly enough and like when the odometer of your car rolls past 100,000 miles no balloons fell from the ceiling, no indoor pyrotechnics went off, and there was no one there with a big sign of congratulations. Despite those things, this is a big [...]

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buddy pinto

Barnstormin’ – Why Bowling Green Serves As My Nitro Fueled Tent Revival Every Year

Posted in Barnstormin' June 21, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

The 2012 Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky was another interesting endevour for Chad and I. The event itself was bad ass to levels previously unknown. I think our coverage was damned good. We had major issues with internet connectivity for our live feed which sucked and plagued [...]

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new england dragway

Barnstormin’:The Little Drag Strip That Could, Did…After Almost 50 Years

Posted in Barnstormin' June 4, 2012  by  Brian Lohnes > > 

It will go down as the coolest gearhead non sequitur I have ever seen. Walking up to the old Boston city hall building, deep in the heart of downtown and seeing Bob Tasca III’s nitro funny car sitting there, swarmed with kids, sure made me smile. The flopper was there because the NHRA’s press conference [...]

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