One of the premiere builders in the hot rod scene today is Troy Trepanier. From his shop in Manteno, Illinois, Rad Rides by Troy delivers some of the most unique automotive creations on the road today.
I got to check out their 1956 Buick “Nailed” on display at the 2013 SEMA Show and based on the crowd of admirers, I could tell this car was something special. At the risk of sounding cliche, this ain’t your granddaddy’s Buick!
I’ve been following this project for quite some time over at a forum I frequent called Hotrodders.com. Just recently the creator of this machine, Randy, fired up it’s big block Chevy engine for the first time. If you like to spend hours going through an entire build thread, this one is worth your time. The video below goes through it’s creation in a picture slideshow step by step if that’s more your style. Do not miss this!
When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Thunderbird in 1955, they created a market for a brand new type of vehicle: the personal luxury car. From the very beginning, the Thunderbird was a big hit that broke sales records and earned high praise from customers.
Over at General Motors, VP of Styling Bill Mitchell wasn’t about to let Ford hog the spotlight. He decided that General Motors needed a personal luxury car of their own. Mitchell asked designer Ned Nickles to come up with a rival to Ford’s 2-door, 4-seater Thunderbird. Continue reading
As an automotive journalist, I am constantly on the lookout for cool cars to write about. Most of the time I have to work hard to seek them out, but every once in a while the cars seem to find me. This particular car and I keep running into each other, so I knew it was time to write about it.
I first ran into this heavily customized 1951 Kaiser Manhattan at Cars and Coffee in Scottsdale. I saw it again at SEMA 2012 in Las Vegas. Then it popped up on my YouTube subscriptions for Jay Leno’s Garage and the Eastwood YouTube channel. It was just begging to be written about!
Let’s get this straight: As much as I love the old steel, I’m no hot rod historian. I stopped to snap some pictures of the 69’er because of the blown Oldsmobile drivetrain sitting between the frame rails.The front end looked familiar, but little did I know, I was looking at a piece of history.
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As you already know, your editors at Generation: High Output are headed to SEMA to give you a look at all the new and awesome (or horribly tasteless) things that will be taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center this year.
I’d like to take a moment to let you in on a little secret that everyone might know as well. Continue reading
