Drag Daytona

You're going to be seeing a lot more of this car, not only on the pages of Kit Car Builder, but at drag events around the country. We're following along on the complete build of this special Shell Valley Daytona Coupe and chronicling its progress in a series of stories in KCB. Eric Andreen is the sparkplug on this project along with driving it. Andreen is a successful Colorado drag racer and engine builder and has done a stunning job on the car that some folks have tabbed, "Tic Tac," for it's eye-searing orange paint job. So far the Drag Daytona is running a back-up/test engine, a 481-ci big block Chevy churning out something like 700 hp before

nitrous bursts. At a recent event, Eric managed 10.23 seconds in the quarter on the freshly-built car/engine and without using nitrous. The primary engine is still being assembled and will produce 900 hp!

The first story on this project appears in the October issue.

Snake worship

Seems like snakephiles can't get enough cool stuff to display on their Cobra replicas these days. KCB contributor, John Carollo, found the stuffed cobra peering over the winshield of a four-wheel snake at the recent London Cobra Show. That crystal snake shift knob is in the cockpit of Time & Debbie Booth's purple Shell Valley replica. Photo by Jim Youngs.

Rocky Mountain Replica Roundup

Aside from the great venue -- Heritage Square amusement park in golden, Colorado -- the friendly folks and the laid-back atmosphere, one of the coolest things about the Rocky Mountain Replica Roundup is the wide variety of cars that show up. The show is not dominated by one single marque, except perhaps this year, with an abundance of dune buggies, most from Renagade. The Replica Roundup is the annual event hosted by the Rocky Mountain Handcrafted Automobile club, and specifically its tireless organizer, Chris Guenther and his family. (That's his venerable Aztec 7, that won the People's Choice award this year). We have to brag a little too as QueenBee Youngs' Regal Roadsters T-Bird replica took home the Best of Show honors. You'll be seeing more coverage of this fun event in an upcoming issue of KCB.

Honey, don't touch that car

This is a classic and I'm sure you've seen it with your own kids, maybe. This couple couldn't see their little tyke just after they told him for the third time not to touch the cars. He just couldn't resist and had to lightly touch the door handle. My son would have done the same thing at that age, and maybe even today at 30 years old!

More sneak peeks

Even though the October issue is still about a week away from being delivered and a couple weeks before it reaches the newsstand (August 29), I thought you might like to see one of the cars featured. This Thunder Ranch Phantom 356 is the collaboration of TR owner, Tom McBurnie, and customer Ron Padua. A standard 356 Speedster replica was widened considerably and outfitted with lots of special touches that make it so unique. Among the special features are suicide doors, carbon fiber belly pan, dash, door panel caps; lowered windshield and a host of other cool stuff. You can read all the details in the October issue of KCB on how this car came together and what an awesome piece it really is. In a previous post you can see that the liquid-black Phantom is the main image on the October cover. That issue features even more VW-based cars along with some other nice machinery. Plenty of eye candy and information for every taste.

Factory Five Racing open house

We made a quick trip to Massachusetts to attend Factory Five's annual Open House and the turnout was great with nearly 150 cars on hand and lots of carless visitors. One of the highlights of the event was a preview of FFR's new product, their version of a 1933 Ford roadster, code named "Larry," for Boston Celtics great Larry Bird who apparently wore number 33 on his jersey. These are just a few shots from the event and you'll see many more in an upcoming issue of KCB. That t-shirt sorta says it all for this dedicated bunch. And that grimacing redhead is none other than company prez, Dave Smith summoning his strength and getting ready to hand out some trophies to the gathered snakephiles. FFR's parking lot was nearly overflowing with a crowd that enjoyed BBQ, factory tours, scooter giveaway, entertainment, dyno runs, and in general seeing every conceivable color scheme and engine choice there is. 

Sneak peek at the October issue

Here's a little sneak preview of the Sept/Oct '08 issue which will be shipped to subscribers beginning August 12 and on the newsstand August 29. This issue includes an extensive Hot VW-Based cars section that not only includes stories on some cool cars, but a How-to story, event coverage and a buyer's guide to a dozen more VW-based kits. In addition there is an interesting story on a kit car that took 3rd at this year's One Lap of America against some formidable souped-up production cars plus stories on some hot new kit cars including a Cobra replica and a monster exo-skeletal roadster.