What's Next

 If a lot of car guys are anything like me, we are always watching the car world, trying to picture what our next car might be, when it comes time to trade something in. I am always wondering what I might like to own next, and will it be another performance car.

In the past few years, I've had a couple Dodge cars to go along with the Mustangs in my garage. The Chargers were always good road cars, especially for long trips. The performance image was there, they got great gas mileage on the interstate, and they looked a lot like the Highway Patrol cars in several states. It was a win, win, situation for traveling.

Now, I'm almost at the point again, where I'm wondering what I might like to replace our Chrysler 300S with, when it comes time to trade it in.  I keep thinking back on how much I liked the white Charger from a few years ago. Always something to keep a car guy's mind churning. 

Performance car enthusiasts, or anyone who would like to check out my book, and read sample pages, just follow this link; Grab Some Gears  

                                                    Our 2014 Dodge Charger

The Interview

 A few weeks ago, I did a podcast interview with automotive journalist JP Emerson, and it became available to the public last week. It was about how my history with the car culture began, and where the inspiration for my book came from.  The interview was an hour long, and JP knows how to ask the right questions to get us car enthusiasts to really open up about our lives. The memories just came pouring out. His theme is "Tell Your Story", and he does a great job of getting to the real heart of our automotive stories.

Check out his podcasts, and you can find my interview by following this link: Interview

Car Shows

 The time of the year has arrived that we start thinking about attending some car shows. In the last couple years, I haven't been to any, mostly because of the Covid-19 situation. But, with a little luck, this year might be a little better.

We always enjoy the small, local, sometimes monthly, car shows. Those are always fun, and we get to know some of the people we meet. It's a perfect time to get our favorite car cleaned and detailed, and show it off a little, to like minded enthusiasts.

The big car shows are a little fewer, and sometimes more distant to attend. In years past, I even got to some of them on a yearly basis. The ones that come to mind are: The Peach Days car show in Brigham City, Utah,  and the big Mustang show in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  The Steamboat Springs show is the largest, and best I have ever entered my cars in. It's an awesome show, check it out if you get the chance.

The story of a Steamboat Springs Mustang trip is in chapter 14 of my book. You can check out my book, and read sample pages by following this link: Grab Some Gears 

                           Steamboat Springs Mustang Show

Automatic Transmission

 When I think back on the high performance cars I’ve owned over the last 50 some years, most of the top performers have been manual transmission equipped. Only one stands out as a top performer that had an automatic transmission. That would be the yellow 1970 Torino Cobra that I owned over 30 years ago.

The car was equipped with a 429 Cobra-Jet engine and 3-speed automatic transmission, with a column mounted shift lever. The car was in rough shape when I bought it, and needed a lot of cosmetic touch up, and some mechanical work. I got busy, and soon had the awesome machine looking and performing great.

The car was great on the drag strip, and also won most of the street races we found ourselves in. The story of this Torino Cobra, and a picture of it on the drag strip, can be found in chapter 8 in my book. You can check out my book, and read sample pages by following this link; Grab Some Gears

                                                                         (Twitter photo)

Ready For Spring

About this time every year, us "car guys" start looking for signs of spring. Especially if you happen to live in the parts of the world where it snows in the winter. Even in the warmer climates, like where I live here in Southern Utah, we are anxious for the warmer weather. 

We all are in need of the changes the warmer season brings, especially with the chance for some car shows, or some nice day trips in our favorite car. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where I can drive my performance car all year around, but it's still nicer when it warms up a little more.

We're only a few weeks from the first day of spring, and most of us are ready for that. I'm looking forward to some nice days to get in some cleaning and detailing, so the Mustang is ready for the first car shows. I'm sure the rest of you "car guys" are thinking the same thing.

Those who would like to check out my book can follow this link: Grab Some Gears 

Advertising

 If you have something your trying to sell, you have to find the right way to get the message out to the  people. Years ago, when I first completed my book, and started self-publishing, I needed some way to get the word out to other car enthusiasts who might be interested in reading it. That's when I first got on Facebook. I thought it might be a good way to advertise my book to any car enthusiast groups I could find. It worked, to some extent. But I needed more.

I would also take several copies of the book with me to car shows, and display them with my cars. That worked pretty well. You know most of the public who attend are some what car enthusiasts. I sold a few books that way, and I still do that to this day. And now I'm on Twitter too.

But, for a few years, I was doing a lot of traveling, about a thousand miles every couple of weeks, on the freeways in my sharp looking, bright red, Ranger pickup. I got the idea to have a local sign shop put advertising for my book across the rear window on the pickup. That was the best thing I ever did. I was selling a lot of books through Amazon from that advertising. After that truck was sold, and now, many years later, the sales have never been the same.

To check out my book, and read sample pages, follow this link: Grab Some Gears

The Terminator

 When I think of the greatest cars I've ever owned, among the top three is my 2003 Mustang Cobra, "The Terminator".  The 03 Cobra got that nick name from the Ford development team as they were putting the finishing touches on that awesome factory supercharged machine.

Even in pure stock factory trim, the performance was legendary. It was more than equal to any of the classic big-block muscle cars I had owned in the past. During the first few months in my garage, I installed some minor modifications. It got an improved cold air induction, and after-market cat-back exhaust system. These gave improved sound quality, along with some moderate performance gains.

The 03 Cobra had the best seats and interior of any car I've ever owned. The look was beautiful, and seat adjustments were exceptional. This car was also my daily driver to work, when the weather was nice. It was entered in many car shows and won many awards.

When the car was three years old, I installed an after-market supercharger pulley that increased the boost, and upped the horsepower considerably. The Terminator was a real monster. The car, and several of it's performance adventures, are featured in some of the final chapters in my book.

Follow this link to check out my book, and see sample chapters: Grab Some Gears