I found myself with a spare Sunday morning, a desire to see some cool cars and consume some doughnuts.  Luckily for me the Krispy Kreme diner in New Malden had just what I wanted going on, hot rods, custom, doughtnuts and other modified cars.  So down I went armed with my camera and enough money for some sugary bakery items.  I came away with a bigger gut and some cool pictures, which you can see on our Flickr photostream.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroscenemag/sets/72157624095395782/

I also managed to find the record video button on my spangly camera, so now we shall be inflicting videos on you for most of the shows we go to.  Be gentle this is our first ever attempt, it is hardly up to the standards of some of the other folk producing car show videos, but it gives you a flavour for th atmosphere.

Posted on: May 19, 2010 23:02

I love cars, modified or unmodified, I just happen to prefer modified cars, but if someone wishes to keep theirs stock and preserve the heritage of their chosen make, then that is all good by me.  Sometimes though there are those that would like to tell us we can't do something because it isn't right, even in modified circles there are certains ways to do things that you must do.  We don't really agree with that mind set, so here are five cars that are known to up set the purists, both stock purists and modified purists!
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Ford/Holden hyrbid : The Folden

This has been floating around the internet for the last week or so, the Folden is a build from New Zealand that combines Ford and Holden parts.  The front comes from a 1969 Ford Mustang, mated to a HQ Holden rear section, power comes from a Ford 302ci engine, with wheels from Foose, all coated in a grey and orange paint job.  In New Zealand the whole Ford vs. Holden thing is a bit of religious war so seeing the two sides bought together is a pretty big deal.  The way these two sides were bought together is also worthy of note, Robert and Jono's Drive show on The Rock radio station in New Zealand put various parts of the car to the vote before building it and then auctioning it off for the charity.

The full details can be found here : http://www.therock.net.nz/folden

Or you can buy it here : http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Other/Folden/auction-285860934.htm


Ferrambo

This managed to raise shackles of a few people at either end of the modified/not modified spectrum.  Some hot rod and custom guys didn't like it because it was built on Ferrari running gear, and some Ferrari guys didn't like it because it was built on Ferrari running gear.  I like mainly because it is built on Ferrari running gear.  Take one crashed Ferrari 360 Modena and throw it through a Nash Rambler, apply some lovely smoothing and custom touches, a deep rosso red paint job, some custom wheels and then walk away with the 2008 Ridler award.  Without a doubt a wild build that has produced stunning results and ruffled feathers.

You can see build up and a load of photos on the Divers Street Rods site : http://www.diversstreetrods.com/ferrambo/


Any Modified Hebmuller

Hebmullers are rare, really rare.  One of the best looking coach built VW models they were produced between 1949 and 1952 in limited numbers, a reasonable amount survive today and they remain one of the most sought after VW Beetles both for their rarity and their good looks.  Being rare they also command a high price tag, we're talking full on rare classic car money here, not just "scene tax".  So it would be foolish to modify one surely ... Of course nothing stops the VW guys and girls in their pursuit of cool cars and more than one slammed and wheel'd Hebmuller has turned up over the years and they always turn heads and get tongues wagging.  I once saw a photo of a 70's drag racer that had been built out of a Hebmuller, from a time when they weren't really worth very much, no sadly it is long gone.


Steyr 55 drag car

It takes a lot to cause me to wonder if someone should really be doing something to a car.  This is one of those few builds.  A Steyr 55 is a cool small car, an updated version of the Steyr 50, the 55 went on sale in 1940, between the 50 and the 55 Steyr sold 13,000 of these cars in total.  As you can imagine these aren't the most common cars to find, so it takes some brave people to cut one about to build a drag cars and those people can be found on the Steyr 55 Blog.  Bought as a neglected project the car is being built up on a VW floor pan and eventually will be running a serious VW engine and looking slick, right now we can just dream by watching the build up.

 

Posted on: May 5, 2010 06:40

One Sunday in late July I’m usually found walking around a field to the west of London for the annual Uxbridge Autoshow. While it is a great “traditional” classic car show I was somehow relieved to have something else to do that weekend this year. A member of the hot rod club I’m in had organised a small run around abouts Bedfordshire, where he lives and looks after a successful traditional rod building business. About a dozen cars and perhaps twice that number of people were involved, a fraction of the numbers at Uxbridge yet more enjoyable for it.

Having gathered at base camp a line of rods and customs rolled the few miles to his shop Buckland Automotive to check out the current projects and repair a cracked exhaust on one members old bike.

From there a scenic route was plotted along some narrow twisty lanes, final destination being Twinwood Airfield, a World War II air strip that had strong links with the musician Glenn Miller. Some of the buildings have been restored to period correct condition and there is also a museum (and annual festival) celebrating Miller’s music on site.

WWII garage. The sidevalve block on the bench had been extensively stitch welded and was probably Willys in origin.

Crash damaged aero engines are chilling reminders of past heroes.

All in all a more inspiring day out than looking at lines of cars stationary in a field.

Posted on: July 27, 2009 07:19

Belgium... Now I could make a quip about chocolate here, or the EU, or Bruge.. but I'm not.  Instead I'm going to remind everyone that the good people of Belgium know how to build some very cool cars, they are well know in the more modern European scene for turning out some very clean cars.  In fact we covered that aspect of their car lifestyle once before.



It was with great interest that we discovered another side to their modified car culture, the hot rod.  I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, where there are cars, there are hot rods, but it is is a nice alternative side of the Belgium scene to see.  SINS 2009, or SINS 3 to give its proper name, is run by the Scrapers car club and takes the form of a weekend indoor show, being Belgium there is of course an afterparty to enjoy too!  The show has cars, bikes and other hot rod ephemera to enjoy.  Being in Belgium means it attracts enthusiasts from the surrounding countries as well as from this side of the channel.  The main style of the show seems to be traditional rods, rather than street rods, but that is perhaps more a reflection of the nature of European hot rodding at the moment more than some kind of hard and fast rules for the show.



We've done a bit of leg work for you so you can jump in with both feet and get some photos for your viewing pleasure.  First stop is Flickr which has come up with a great selection of photographs, there are 284 photos in this set from Carlito421, a further 48 shots from madfrankiefoto and finally chevyrodders brings us 56 photos from the event, three of which we've used here.



A little further afield we have some photos courtesy of VW Shows.com and Oldskoolchoppers in the Netherlands.

I think it will be worth keeping an eye on the Scrapers website and saving for a ferry trip to Belgium for next year.  Like these guys on the NSRA forum did this year.



Posted on: April 28, 2009 04:27

When someone says 'hot rod' the obvious thing to think is of fenderless 32' Fords or maybe T-buckets.  The thing is hot rodding didn't only happen in America, while our US based friends were hacking around their pre-war cars we were doing the same on this side of the Atlantic.  Some people were lucky enough to have American cars to play with, others took to modifying what they had at hand.

The Austin 7 has been the basis for many cars and many specials, but right now I'd like to look at some of the rodding people have done with it.  The first is this fantastic picture from the Time Travel DVD archive, taken in 1962, of a chap standing very proudly next to his Austin 7 Hot Rod :

This image originally got me to searching for more, the potential was there in 1962 to take the car further, after a bit of browsing and searching I found that whilst a lot of modifiers had gone off in the sports special direction with the 750 Motorclub, there were people that decided hot rodding was the way forwards.  It is interesting to note that I had to go back across the Atlantic to find some more small Austin action.

On the legendary H.A.M.B I found pictures of Austin Bantams, the early cars from American Bantam are Austin 7s built under license in the USA.  Of those pictures one really stuck out for me:

It shows the full potential for a street rodding style on the little Austin.  The UK isn't without its stand out Austin based hot rods, Pip Biddlecombe's Rubellion is a very well known car on the UK Hot Rodding scene and has been around for many years, in many different guises.  To get a better idea of how much it has changed over time have a look at this thread on the NSRA forums.

Here it is now :

Whilst it clearly has a lot of potential and many Sevens were built it seems odd that we aren't swimming in a sea of modified Austins.  It certainly got my creative juices going for a cost effective bit of rodding in my life.

Posted on: February 23, 2009 05:17

Whilst we would very much have liked to be in Japan this past weekend for the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show, we sadly had to be at home doing Christmas shopping.  We have to use the power of the internet to transport ourselves there.



Straight up Mike has some great coverage over at Speedhunters : Part 1 here, Part 2 here.  However we're going to go a bit off piste and head over to the Japanese side of the web for some more alternative coverage.

Firstly Mooneyes itself has a great blog that is regularly updated in both Japanese and English, here it has the last few days run up to the show as well as a handful for images from the actual event.  If you are a fan of Japanese cars, hot rods, customs or even just Mooneyes, this is a must read and should be straight in your bookmarks for future reference.



Getting full galleries of the event has so far been slow, with this one on Flickr being the main one we've found, it is predominantly motorcycle focussed though.  We have used a couple of the photographs from the gallery to illustrate this entry.

The guys from KustomKulture.jp have a range of posts about the event, usually with one or two photographs, a lot of them aren't of the cars, but people hanging out, which gives you and idea of the social side of this event for the builders and traders: Nash, Satoshi, Jetwrench, Wish.

Beyond those guys we found this gallery from Hullingbird, which had a nice overview of the whole event.  Also The Flat Head, had a nice traders eye view of the event here.



Our link is from the point of view of VW guys at the show; being such a widely regarded show Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show tends to being out some great cars, this includes the aircooled scene as well, Flat4 has some cool photos here.

Let’s hope that next year we can give you some live photographs from the event!


Posted on: December 9, 2008 23:53

So its time for another link log and we've got a diverse one for you today.

Let’s start off with some home grown hot rodding with the Nervous Surgeons. There is lots to see here, with their current builds and a lot of their history on the site, it is a great insight into hot rod and custom building in the UK as it is lived as well as some great back story with the 'draggin up our past' sections.

Now we head east for Gacyan Racing for some models.  Not only are there great model kits on display but also some fantastic paper craft.  Some, but not all, of the links below the craft cars also take you to images that you can print up and make your own cars with some glue and a pair of scissors, we're going to get our craft on and report back as soon as we can.

If you remember the days of Rallycross on TV in the UK then you'll probably enjoy Rallysson, I'm a bit torn on the sport, it looks half way between the awesomeness of rallycross and the destruction of banger racing.  It does however look like a barrel of laughs, maybe a new look also for your winter build, daylight MOT only.

Finally for the links today we've got a bonkers Datsun B210 Sunny, what’s more it’s for sale, so if you fancy a Small Block V8 powered little Datsun called 'Black Death' head over here : http://www.networkconcepts.org/b210/

We mentioned this in a previous post, but now found a Youtube link, it is ace!

 

 

See you next time! 

Posted on: November 24, 2008 05:35

Some photos for you today, from an event bought to our attention by the My Ride Is Me website.  Having checked out this post I headed straight to their gallery to see what was what, and boy was I impressed with the cars.



However here at Retro Scene Mag we're not happy with one set of photographs, so we went on the hunt for more from the same event.  Flickr came up with this set from Via Boy which is where the photos for this post came from.

A bit more digging and we found a huge selection of pictures here : http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6565263_2yYZp#418199786_5H5Ci 243 in all.



All in there are some very fine street rods, customs and hot rods in that lot, if you have any kind of soul there will be something somewhere in there to get you fired up.  Anyone found any more galleries from this event?


Posted on: November 19, 2008 02:45

Found this via http://oldstyle-vw.blogspot.com/

For those not into street rods and such like the name will probably be unfamiliar, however if you know the scene you'll know the name.  Roy Brizio is one of the most respected rod builders in the US of A.  The shop is the stuff of legends and the cars it produces are the stuff that prize winning dreams are made from.

So having been put on to it by Oldstyle VW, it was time to do some digging.  Here for your reading pleasure is the result :

A great interview here : http://www.drcreview.com/news.asp?art=203

If you are feeling spendy and want to get something built (or you just want to browse around like we did) the website is here : http://www.roybriziostreetrods.com/home.htm 

And finally Car Guy Channel have done a profile of the rod shop and the man himself which is well worth 10 minutes of your time. 

 

Here is a great photo of Troy Trepannier showing Roy Brizio around "First Love" one of the finest custom cars ever built in my opinion.

 

 

From this Flickr set

Posted on: October 27, 2008 07:03

Continuing on the path of catching up on a couple of shows there were a couple more biggies taking place over the past few weeks.

First up is the 4th Japanese Classic Car Show in California, this has become the premier Japanese classic car show for retro car fans outside of Japan.  The quality of cars on show rivals that of the Japanese Domestic scene, and it has the backing of manufacturers now days, if only our UK branches of these companies could be so forward thinking as to show the quality and history of their brand.

 

 

A couple of Flickr links to start us off :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhop73/sets/72157608079732283/with/2957697484/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toyotageek/sets/72157607975596012/

Then Japanese Nostalgic Car really have the event sewn up :
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/article.cgi?section=events&article=jccs2008

Check the shows sites for updates on next years event

Swinging back to the UK we find the legendary Doncaster Custom and Sports Car show.  Once upon a time it was the place that gathered the premier hot rod and custom cars together, later it got over run with more modern modified cars, now it is back to its former glory.  Ideally here I'd be able to give you a long list of galleries and flickr addresses for your perusal, sadly I only have a couple of links:

Firstly from my very own forum (Retro Rides), long term member AlistairK shares his photographs and his thoughts in an entertaining manner (this was still being added to as I was writing this) :
http://retrorides.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=48551&page=1

Akku also makes an appearance in this thread, along with some other peoples contributions :
http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/showthread.php?t=16405

Does anyone else have any more galleries of this event?  I'd love to see some more, RSM will have to make sure we get in gear and get to the show next year.

Thats our catching up done, I'll try and slip in a bonus post of new material tomorrow.

On that subject, if anyone fancies giving writing for RSM a go hit the contact link in the menu over there >> and send me an email.  We'd love to be able to have more updates each week.

Posted on: October 23, 2008 03:09