One of my favorite movies of all time is the western Pale Rider. After Clint Eastwood’s character mangles a group of bad guys in a street fight with a simple axe handle, he quietly says, “There’s nothing like a good piece of hickory.” During the 250 mile Challenge Cup event at Daytona Speed Weeks 1963, [...]

Well if this isn’t the coolest Chevy 4×4 of all time, I’m not quite sure what is. This 1969 Chevy truck was the first ever factory built Baja competition truck that the company built. According to the listing, a half ton truck frame was used and coupled with a C30 cab (which we don’t really [...]

(Words and Photos by Steve Magnante) – It all started innocently enough with a Friday afternoon bench racing session in my office at Hot Rod magazine. It was summertime in L.A., July 6, 2001 to be precise, and I was excited at the prospect of doing a little clandestine street racing in the Bad Seed [...]

(Photos by Dave Nutting) – When the 2013 Hot Wheels Special Edition Camaro SS made the left hand turn into our driveway, my six year old son had eyes the size of pie plates and then literally wept tears of joy upon learning that we’d be rolling around in the car for the better part [...]

(Words and Photos by Steve Magnante) - 11 Seconds For $2,000 Fast & Cheap! Editors Go Insane! This is the continued story of the Bad Seed Caddy 500 powered Chevy Chevette, one of the more controversial Hot Rod magazine project cars of all time. Is that good or bad? You decide. To briefly re-cap the first [...]

(Words and photos by Greg Rourke) - We sometimes see a guy at car shows with a 1957 International Harvester pickup. He tells us his grandfather bought the truck brand new, and converted it for his job as a pipeline welder. The welder/generator is belt driven off the driveshaft, there is a gearbox  that allows either [...]

(Words and photos by Steve Magnante) – It has been over a decade since the April 2000 issue of Hot Rod magazine appeared on newsstands across the nation. The main image depicted an austere white Chevy Chevette Scooter riding on skinny front tires and plain steel rims – emerging from a dense cloud of tire [...]

One of the toughest things to do when building a car is to combine old school elements and current technology/styling together. This  Mustang that’s going together at Tube Chassis Designz seems to be doing a damned good job at it. The motor is a classic FE with stack injection but a closer look reveals that [...]

We get as wrapped up in stuff as anyone else. Following all these big builds all over the place with guys shoving massive turbos into tube chassis cars capable of running harder and faster than full tilt racers can skew your vision on simple, pure, awesome cars. That may have been the case with us [...]

(Photos by Dave Nutting) This is the kind of car that can get you both into and out of trouble very quickly. With sedate styling that blends seamlessly with its surroundings and power enough to run deep into the 13-second bracket at the strip, the 2013 Ford Taurus is America’s best sleeper. Over the span [...]

(Photos by Charles Wickam and David Reese) – When Charles called and asked if we would be interested in doing a feature on a totally kick ass 1966 Mustang fastback done in the gasser style that gets street driven, wins car shows, and also is drag raced, we told him HELL YES without having seen [...]

Very few classes in drag racing have had the kind of incredible groundswell of development and performance gains as Pro Mod has had over the last 10 years. From the technology in the suspension and engine bay with turbocharged, nitrous, and blown alcohol engines making 3,000hp to the use of advanced lightweight metals and composites [...]

(Photos by Scott Liggett) – The public loved it, the magazine company lawyers hated it, Steve Magnante built it, and gearheads still are obsessed with it to this day. The infamous “Bad Seed” Chevette, powered by a 500ci Cadillac engine was on hand at the Hot Rod Magazine Homecoming show in Pomona last weekend and [...]

(Words and photos by Tommy Lee Byrd) – Okay, so if you haven’t noticed, we really dig trucks. We like bigger-than-normal trucks and the weird ones too, but sometimes it takes a simple classic truck to sweep us off our feet. That’s where Terry Davis’ vintage car hauler comes into the picture. We spotted this [...]