Like Harry Hogge said, "There's nothing stock about a stock car."

“They ought to do it like the old days—just weld a roll bar in a stock vehicle and let the best car win!”

You hear that from people all the time. “There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” “Why do they even bother to call them Fords and Chevys?” And on. And on.

Back in the early days of NASCAR, stock cars really were just that—stock. Competitors would often drive their race car to the track, participate in the event, and drive it to work the next day. The biggest modification may have been removing the hubcaps.

But it wasn’t all perfect in stock car land. Drivers regularly suffered serious injuries and death. The cars were difficult to handle at speed. And even at that, they weren’t going as fast as the risks may indicate. Sure, those old news reels of the early days of NASCAR are great to watch now, but let’s consider what America’s number-one motorsport would be like if it followed the same formula today.

Assuming NASCAR could even regulate the technical aspects of a modern computer-controlled, technologically-advanced vehicle, it would be hard to imagine the close, fast racing we have today.

Green hybrids. Cars that run on both corned beef and cabbage

This is the age of green cars. Hybrid, flex-fuel, hydrogen, and electric. Minimum comfort and space for maximum miles-per-gallon. Save the dinosaurs!


Blarney!


Around here, green cars are, well, green. They’re hot rods, lead sleds, muscle cars, and trucks. They’re what you drive when you love what you drive. The old ones really are green, because they haven’t burned through any new resources or energy associated with their construction since they were new.

It's fun to look around the Mecum Spring Collector Car Auction, even if you can't afford anything

An event like the Mecum Spring Auction inside Kansas City's Bartle Hall attracts people for a couple of different reasons.

First and foremost, it is a sale. The goal is to sell vintage cars and trucks. And they were doing a pretty good job of that. Two cars sold for well over $150,000, including a fantastic, original '65 Corvette Roadster with a rare 396-c.i. big block that fetched a healthy final price of $188,000. 

In fact, six of the top ten sellers were Midyear Corvettes. So if you love those cars, and honestly, who doesn't, Downtown Kansas City was the place to be.  And it all took place on live, national television on the Discovery Channel's HD Theatre.
But some people don't have thousands and thousands of dollars to purchase their dream car. I walk among them. And for us, the reason to attend this event is that it is one strong car show.

The cars at the CARB Race On Car Show at the Snake Saturday Festival and Parade were nice. Maybe too nice.

Like clockwork, the CARB Race-On Car Show at the Snake Saturday Parade in North Kansas City is the first glimpse of the new season's race cars, all on display in once place. Rows of shiny, straight, clean, perfect Modifieds and Late Models sit quietly in neat little rows, while families with kids and strollers admire them in their St. Patrick's Day green.

And as someone who parks at the back of the lot to avoid door dings, it always gets me that these guys are willing to take these beautifully constructed and painted machines and tear the hell out of them driving around a mud bowl. How do they do it? It would drive me absolutely crazy. I'd make a horrible racer, and not because I would worry about getting hurt. I just couldn't stand beating up my car!

Weird wonders. Cars that make you go, "hmm"

Sometimes, you’ll look at a car and say to yourself, “what the deuce?!”

Anyone who believes car shows are all ’57 Chevys and ’69 Camaros aren’t really paying attention. Sure, you’re going to see the old stand-bys, but most every gathering of vintage iron is going to have at least one completely off-the-wall, extraordinarily unusual ride. Bizarre? Perhaps. Creative? Definitely.

Today, we celebrate that alternative world. These are cars that you would never think you want, but you just can’t help but be attracted to them. These are the freaks—microcars, radical rats, shorties, home-built haulers—cars that are wonderfully comfortable in their own skins. They are nerdmobiles, but they’re too cool to know it.

Just an old car. All original 1961 Corvette is regularly driven and enjoyed by the same owner for more than 30 years

Editor's note:  This article may seem strange for this blog, because it's written in third-person even though it is obviously about my dad and his Corvette.  That's because I originally wrote it for a magazine.  But before it could get published, the magazine went out of production.  I thought it was a pretty good story anyway, so I didn't want it to go to waste.

Also, the article mentions the connection with this Corvette and the Omaha Tangier Shriner Corvette Patrol.  I am currently working on a new story about that organization, and have some great pictures that I'll share in the neat future, so stay tuned!

For many years, Jim Hover refused to take his '61 Corvette to a car show. “I hated having people tell me I should restore it,” he grouses. “This car will never be restored as long as I'm alive.”

Jim has managed to keep his Corvette original for 32 years now. That's how long ago he bought it from an Omaha, Neb., used car lot for the princely sum of $4,500. And today, the gleaming white beauty sits in pretty much the same condition as it was purchased. Far from perfect, but with a charm and history that's hard to duplicate at any cost.

There's still some good stuff at the 2011 Kansas City International Auto Show, depending on where you look

The slogan for the 2011 Kansas City International Auto Show was "The Car is the Star." That might not be particularly original, but it seemed relatively accurate. Because when we were there Saturday morning, Bartle Hall was crammed with people, all waiting for their chance to sit in or photograph their favorite "stars."

The fact is, the auto industry ain't what it used to be. Compare this year's auto show with one from just a few years ago, and there is a decidedly different dynamic. Several manufacturers are just gone--Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac, and Mercury, to name a few. And the ones that remain don't even bother to send last year's concept car for display. Nobody wants to look like they're spending unnecessarily.

When you visit the auto show in Kansas City this weekend, it'll be good, but there was a time when it would have been spectacular

The Kansas City International Auto Show is in Bartle Hall this weekend, and I plan to go there and take a bunch of pictures for you and post them here. And they'll be OK. Lots of clean, shiny cars. Most of them just like the ones that are already out on the roads right now.

Did you know that there have been some 2012 model-year cars and trucks available for better than a month now?

Did you know that Chevrolet's concept car this year during their 100th anniversary at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the biggest show of the year, was a slightly modified new Aveo?