Featured Vehicles

The Un-Pro Streeter: Rick Schubert’s 1970 Z-28

In our humble opinion, the second generation Camaro is one of the cleanest American car designs ever. At least it was before GM disco-fied the poor thing with fake scoops, spoilers, and tape stripes, anyway. Still, it’s hard to believe it was designed in 1960s Detroit.

Merit Badge Special: Mike Ericksen’s 1983 Malibu

The Boy Scouts sure have changed a lot since we were lads.

Project 342: Keven Kyser’s 1986 Mustang GT

Keven Kyser earns his living shooting aircraft as an aerial photographer/cinematographer for Lockheed-Martin. Pretty exciting job, right? Apparently it isn't nearly exciting enough for Keven, ’cause he spends his weekends hustling this 1986 Mustang GT down the racetrack.

Sport ConsTRUCKtion, Part Two: Extreme Makeover

In our last exciting episode, we began the transformation of our lifted 2003 Ford F-150 into a hip, with-it sport truck by installing a Ridetech airbag suspension setup. Now we have the ability to put the Ford on the pavement for shows and bring it up to ride height for cruising—about 8 inches of height adjustment at the touch of a button.

Q-Deuce Redux: Still the World’s Coolest All-Wheel Drive ’32 Roadster

Back in the mists of time—1995 to be exact—Summit Racing Equipment unveiled the QuadraDeuce, the world’s first all-wheel drive ’32 roadster. Based on a Larry Erikson rendering, the car set the street rod world on its collective ear.

Snake Charmer: Rick Saccone’s 1966 427 Cobra

Rick Saccone lives the gearhead dream. As owner of Flashback Unlimited, Inc., an antique and classic car restoration shop in Akron, Ohio, he gets to build and restore vintage automobiles using other people’s money. And makes a darn good living at it, too.

Sport ConsTRUCKtion, Part One: Layin’ Frame with Air Ride Technologies

As we transformed our 2003 Ford F-150 from a rugged outdoorsy vehicle into a hip, happenin’ sport truck, the starting point was pretty much a given. We had to drop the extended cab pickup out of the sky and back down to Mother Earth.

Kitchen Goat: Rick Bogoff's 1966 Pontiac GTO

Kitchen tables are marvelously adaptable pieces of furniture. In addition to serving as the family feeding trough, kitchen tables can be used as craft centers, debating forums, and poker dens. You can even build cars on ’em—just ask Rick Bogoff.

Big Clean Monster: Rod Vore's 1955 Chevy Stepside

We first saw Rod’s Stepside at the 2003 Summit TruckStyle 4-Wheel Jamboree in Canfield, Ohio. Even at a show devoted to big trucks, the old Chevy stood out as a clean hauler that would be quite at home at a rod or custom show. Tallest in the class maybe, but not out of place.

We invited Rod to show the ’55 at TruckFest 2003 here at Summit Racing, where we shot the pix for this story. He also won a Top 20 award at the show, so it was well worth the trip from Indiana.

Obviously, the stock Chevy frame wasn’t gonna cut it for what Rod had in mind, so he had Jerry Prosser fabricate a custom square tube frame. Jerry also built the 12 inch lift suspension with Superlift pieces. Twin Dana 60 axles are hung by leaf springs and dual shocks front and rear, and four-wheel disc brakes slow the tall beastie down. Rod’s steering wheel is connected to a GM power box with custom-made linkage.

Square Peg: Reggie Triggs' 1968 Mustang GT

It’s not hard to pigeonhole an early Mustang guy. Restorers keep their Mustangs just like the factory made them—hose clamps, chalk marks and all. Rodders don’t give a hoot about how the factory did things. They build their Mustangs how they want ‘em, chalk marks be damned.

But then there are guys who don’t quite fit in—guys like Reggie Triggs. He built this 1968 GT fastback like a concurs restoration, right down to the hardware and inspection codes. But he also jazzed things up with an 8-71-huffed, 514 cubic inch big block, a Tremec five-speed, and big honkin’ Mickey Thompsons.

Reggie built the GT as a more radical version of the ’68 fastback he had when he was a teenager. “I wanted to recreate that (earlier) car, but to the extreme,” Reggie explained. “Back then I could not afford to build one like I always dreamed about.”