Rum runner? Given the location – Dobson, North Carolina – the black paint and the hop-up parts, that’s certainly a possibility. From the seller’s description:

1940 Ford Standard Real moonshine car. This Black 40 is a rare find can be seen in NC. This car has new paint and new Hot Rod Interior. This car has a FLATHEAD engine with headers along with 3 carbs & aluminum intake. Edelbrock Heads help make this car a real find. Original 1940 NOS Running Boards. Three on the tree just like Henry wanted it.

Seller’s asking $49,500. More pics at Hemmings

The $5.5 million BIN is a bit steep, but there is a lot of cool documentation in the ebay auction, so check it out! Think it would make a good investment? Via Jalopnik

Everybody who’s ran hot laps in a video game has wondered how their skills would translate to reality, and that’s why the latest video from Ford’s Mustang ‘10 Unleashed campaign is so fun to watch. Ford held a competition to find the best Need For Speed gamers, had the top four practice driving a Mustang in the game, then took them to a track to see who could come closest to their times in a real car. From the clips of them practicing virtually—um, and why the hell are they playing with controllers instead of wheels?—I was thinking the poor Ponys selected for this stunt were going to wind up in the crusher, but the Ford folks wisely chose to do this on a course without barriers.

I’ve found it a little funky-looking in some of the renderings and photos that have been circulating, but when I saw it in person in the Ford booth at SEMA, the new Nationwide-Series Mustang just looked plain mean. Plus, this is seriously historic: while Mustang has dominated a ton of other motorsports series, it’s been largely absent from national-level stock car racing, so its entry into NASCAR is a pretty big deal. And moreover, the rear sheetmetal, even though it’s a NASCAR-mandated template, looks better than the factory Mustang’s 2010 back end. The Nationwide Mustang will be running the new Roush Yates FR9, an all-new beast and a complete departure from the 351-based motor that Ford’s been running in NASCAR since ‘91. More pics…

Continue reading "The New NASCAR Mustang at SEMA" »

This little number was residing over at the “Green Car” display area, in which the Ugly Prius, and the Electric Porsche 912 was also on display. So you are wondering, why is a tricked out 1956 Ford Pickup hanging around with electric and hybrid vehicles? Two Words; Liquid Propane. Read more after the jump!

Continue reading "Propane Powered 1956 Ford F-100 Pickup by Steve’s Hot Rod Shop at SEMA!" »

The Blue Oval was a major sponsor of SEMA this year, and while their booth was in the same primo spot that it always has been, it seemed that they pulled out all the stops for their display this time around. There was just so much going on here: there was a double Mustang giveaway, including both a 1967 and 2010 GT500; there was an off-road driving simulator that gave you a chance to take the Raptor for a virtual test drive; there was a temporary tattoo parlor where you could get your Ford branding of choice stamped into your flesh; there were interactive demos of Ford engine internals, and display motors ranging from the venerable flathead V8 to the Roush-Yates NASCAR 358; there was the Galpin Auto Sports live build of a ‘69 Mustang, which took place over the course of the show and included installation of a fuel-injected Ford Racing 392 putting out 550 hp. Mustangs were of course huge this year, with the 2010 redesign and all–but there was also a ton of Fusions, Foci, Fiestas, trucks, Lincolns and concept utility vans–and like a lot of the automakers this year, Ford gave a nod to its performance history, including in its lineup such heavies as the GT-40 and the 427 Fairlane Thunderbolt. The booth was overall very splendidly done, and it was always absolutely swarming to the extent that getting decent footage of the booth in its entirety could only be done after hours. Click below the jump for a ton of pics, along footage of both the booth as a whole and the Galpin Mustang build.

Continue reading "Ford At SEMA" »

I’m one of a number of people who just doesn’t quite get the ‘10 Mustang. It’s not that it’s awful, it’s just that I like the ‘05-’09 better. Well, this year’s SEMA show, with all its awesome ‘10 Mustang builds, has done a lot to help the new car grow on me–and it certainly doesn’t hurt the cause to see one tricked out as a badass drift car. According to the guys at the Falken booth, Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s Mustang is the only 2010 currently in Formula D, and the car is expected to run a full season next year. Under the hood is a Whipple-supercharged 4.6L Aluminator v8 by Ford Racing, putting out 680 hp and 650 lb-ft torque, mated to the same 4-speed gearbox they run in their NASCAR program. I’m thinking that Hankook Camaro had better watch out! See more pics below the jump.

Continue reading "Vaughn Gittin Jr’s 2010 Formula Drift Mustang" »

Best of Show, the award for “outstanding achievement in design,” went to this incredible Ring Brothers ‘64 Fairlane in the BASF booth. The car is powered by a Roush 427, rolls on Forgeline 3-piece wheels, and sports a carbon fiber hood, front and rear bumpers, side air intakes and deck lid spoilers. This was one of the hardest cars to photograph cause it was always mobbed. More pics and a quick video after the jump!

Continue reading "SEMA Best of Show: Ring Brothers ‘64 Fairlane" »

…Yeah, they’ve also got a Challenger widebody kit that extends the front fenders 3″  on either side, and parts that’ll dress up your plain-jane C6 Corvette as either a Z06 or a ZR1. And can you name any other booth at SEMA that has a new Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, and Corvette? Talk about covering all your bases. More pics below the jump!

Continue reading "Classic Design Concepts Claims First 2010 Mustang Shaker Hoodscoop" »

I always go crazy for some prime vintage collectible cars, and us much as modification is at a premium here at SEMA, there’s no shortage of restored-to-stock showpieces. Here are three more prime candidates for my garage when I hit the 10-million-dollar jackpot here at Vegas.

Continue reading "Three Different Classics on the SEMA Floor" »

Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt’s ‘32 Three-Window Coupe struck a nice contrast to SEMA’s scads of glittery show cars, looking spare and mean in the Motorbooks booth with its oil-leak-smelling Y-block and highway crud still clinging to the chassis. Incredibly, the guys actually drove the ‘32 here from New York, setting out for SEMA on October 26th and even managing to score a speeding ticket along the way. When you look into this ride’s Mexican-blanket interior and check out the wiperless windshield, minimalist dash, and louvers-and-chicken-wire ceiling treatment, it’s hard not to consider how much we take our modern cars’ creature comforts for granted. Rolling Bones certainly gets the distance award for their burly roadtrip, and extra points for running a SEMA show car in the weather on the open road, just as it should be. More pics below the jump, and check out blogs of Rolling Bones’ cross-country adventure at the Motorbooks RideHub page.

Continue reading "Rolling Bones Drove Here From New York" »

This GT convertible sports a one off body kit by Galpin Auto Sports. Pretty wild, huh? More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Galpin Auto Sports Mustang GT Convertible in the Ford Booth at SEMA" »

Check out Bruce Harvey and Pro Comp Custom’s totally over-the-top 1930 Ford, the “Ratical.” It’s built to the gills, packing a Keith Black 528 Hemi topped with a 1472 blower and two 1050 Holley Dominators. This is one of those rides that’d probably get you some dirty looks at Billetproof, but you can’t ignore the artistry: literally every part, every surface on this car, inside and out, is sculpted, smoothed, polished–a rolling showpiece. But does it go? See more pics below the jump.

Continue reading "Blown Model A" »

So, into to Vegas I’ve come for COOL CAR SMACKDOWN!

Snuck in to see some of the best rides up close without the crowd since the show opens tomorrow. They weren’t gonna let me in until I told them who I was. Then, they DEFINITELY didn’t want me to come in. So, I jumped the fire encrusted SEMA fence and was nearly captured by vicious cockerpoos. Whew… The first non-surprise is that there was 250,000 Camaros everywhere. Lame. I mean, if you’re going to SEMA, and you want to stand out, then get the car that EVERYONE else will have. Make sense? Not.

But here’s a sneek anyway for what’s coming this week. So far, the rides are smolderin.’ From cool SCIONS from 5Axis to a Nasty Chrome Green FORD FOCUS from ma buddy Gary Watson at CNC. Nice job, G.

Old school, new school, and Detention. Yea.

Continue reading "Fireball SEMA Day 1/2…" »

You can’t throw a rock at SEMA without hitting something made out of carbon fiber, but even in this sea of lightweight material, this Mustang stood out. All the bodywork—and even the wheels!—is made out of carbon fiber, and while I didn’t find out exactly how many pounds lighter this Pony is from stock, it looks so trick, I don’t even care. Jen will have a post about all the rides in the Ford area later in the week, but I thought this was so cool I had to post it right away. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Trick Pony: Ford’s Completely Carbon Fiber Mustang!" »