The Best Car Movies

All of us love movies, no matter how old or how new or what type all of us love movies. Why? Because movies are entertaining they give us a good story. Now there have been many car movies made, but which one is the best car movie? We will judge car movies based on the cars in the movie, the car scenes, and the racing.

10. Hot Rod Girl (1956) - I am not sure whether this movie was meant to be an anti-hot rodding movie or not. The plot isn’t much guys brother dies, the city wants to stop hot rodding and the kids still want to race. Since this is 1956 there has to be a chicken game right (it was a law in 50’s Hollywood). In the movie there are a few 32 Fords (actually a lot of 32 Fords), a 56 Chevy, a 56 Ford, 55 T-bird, and an Olds 88.

9. Death Proof (2007)- The first half of this movie maybe seem a bit boring, its mostly talking and just a bunch of girls drinking in a bar (not even a wild bar party, just a group of 3 girls drinking) but then it gets good, with a 71 Chevy Nova used as a weapon and later a car chase with a 69 Charger and a 70 Vanishing Point Challenger. The movie is meant to feel like a 70’s Slasher movie crossed with Vanishing Point. If you’re a Mopar guy check this one out!

8. Road Racers (1994)- This movie is called Road Racers however they is only one short race in the movie, and 2 Car Chases. The movie opens with a Car chase between a 56 Chevy being chased by the cops 56 Buick all to a badass Rockabilly song! There is greaser violence (not Grease greaser violence but like the Outsiders with a 90’s humor twist), there is great Rockabilly music from Glen Glenn, Hasil Adkins and Johnny Reno!

7. Thunder Road (1958) - Let me tell the story, I can tell it all... Actually let’s let Robert Mitchum tell you the story he can do it better. This movie starring Mitchum is about Running Moonshine in Tennessee in the 50’s and trying not to get caught be the revenuers. It has a number of crazy car chases featuring a 50 Ford Coupe, 57 Ford Fairlane, a 56 Chevy undercover car that can rip off cars bumpers and a song about the movie performed by Mitchum himself!

6. Dazed and Confused (1993) - I’ve been Dazed and Confused for so long its not true! Which sadly that song is not in this movie (it was suppose to be and Jimmy Paige was for it but Plant wasn’t). This movie is kind of like the 70’s version of American Graffiti except it’s the first night of summer not the last and the main character is entering High School. Anyway they is a car chase between a 64 Buick and 72 Chevy Truck, there is a 70 Chevelle SS 454, 70 GTO Judge, Ford Maverick, 37 Oldsmobile and a 74 Trans Am!

5. Tales of the Crypt: King of the Road (1992) - Ok I lied this one is not a movie; it is an episode from HBOs horror series Tales of the Crypt. Why is this movie on the list? WHY ISN’T ON THE LIST? As soon as the episode opens we are greeted with a 69 yellow Chevelle SS street racing a 69 Red Dodge Charger to a rocking song by Warren Zevon. Later we get a car chase with the Chevelle SS and a police car and at the end a Street race with the Chevelle SS vs. a 57 Chevy Gasser! There is a great soundtrack by Warren Zevon, however only one of the songs “Roll with the Punches” has been released the other “Bad Road, Wretched Road” is only found as a cover by a band called Rebel Son.

4. Hot Rod (1979) - This movie is hard to find, it was a made for TV made from 1979. It probably has the most Drag Racing scenes out of any movie I have seen! The movie has a Street race between a 65 Hemi Plymouth and a 69 Olds Cutlass in the beginning, later a hemi powered 41 Willys Coupe Gasser, a few funny cars, and rocket powered Funny Car and tons of Drag Racing scenes in this movie!

3. Vanishing Point (1971) - Kowalski is a delivery driver who is delivering a 1970 White Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco. He does it by speeding the whole time and creates the world’s largest car chase! Being pursued by the police the whole time!

2. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) - Who needs plots? This movie doesn’t! All we need is a Driver, a Mechanic, a Girl, a guy with a GTO, a 55 Chevy gasser and a few random hitch hikers to make a great car movie! This movie is all about cars and nothing else! You get to see and hear a nice 55 Chevy almost every scene as well as a GTO. The movie opens with a Drag Race and ends with one!

1. American Graffiti (1973) – Was this really a surprise to any of you? Nothing but classic cars, cruising, great music, humor, a few races and lots of fun! We get a nice but piss yellow 32 Ford powered by a 327, a 58 Chevy Bel Air also powered by a 327, a girl in a 56 T-bird and a Black 55 Chevy (actually the same one from Two Lane Blacktop). This movie really is all about cars, not coming of age. The movie ends with a great showdown between the 32 Ford and the 55 Chevy!

Check out the Best Car Movies

Engine Displacement

This one is for all of you younger Hot Rodders out there who have been looking for a simple article explaining Displacement, Bore and Stroke but only found Wikipedia and a bunch of forum threads. Some of these forum threads may actually be helpful but you’re not sure if you should trust these forums, so you want a real article and not a wiki. So I decided to write this and help people like you out.

            First thing is first lets, go over what engine displacement is, if you are into hot rodding you already know the names of several engines such as the Chevy 350, Ford 302, Chrysler 440, etc. Well the numbers are the cubic inches of engine displacement. What engine displacement is, it is the measure of how much fuel and air you can fit in your cylinders.

            Now how you figure out engine displacement is by a simple calculation (oh no, not math!) Now how you figure out displacement is

∏(3.14)/4  X  bore (squared) X stroke X number of cylinders

An example the Chrysler 3.18 LA

3.14/4 X 3.91^2 X 3.31X 8= 317.79ci (aka 318ci)

Now some of you maybe be wondering why use PI? Well because Cylinders are round and we are figuring out a volume, PI is used in volume so it is used to figure out engine displacement which is volume. As for those wondering why the 318 LA in the example, well because the SBC 350 is to common.

Now for those of you who are too lazy to use paper, there are plenty of online displacement calculators for your convince. The best one I have found is here at the csgnetwork, not only does it calculate displacement it shows you all of the bore, and stroke for all of the stock hot rod engines. That way when you bore it out, or do a custom stroker job, you can calculate it right there.

Now getting on to bore (yes you’re calculator will come in handy for this), watching or attending drag races you may have heard people say they something like this “I’ve got a 350 SBC, 30 over…” which is the most common. What the 30 over means (its actually written out .030) is that he bored out his cylinders by thirty thousands of an inch increasing his displacement which if he didn’t stroke the engine it would bring it too 355.

Now you have probably heard of stroker motors, such as the 383, the 331, the 496, etc. What is a Stroker motor you may ask? Well first lets go over stroke.

What Stroke is the measurement of how far down a piston is from the Top Dead Center of the Cylinder to the bottom dead center of the Cylinder. As mentioned early the 3.18 has 3.31ci of stroke, that is 3.31 cubic inches from the Top Dead Center of the Cylinder to the Bottom dead Center of the Cylinder.

A Stroker motor is when you increase the engines stroke so the piston distance can increase and more fuel and air can get in the cylinder. To do this you will need to bigger crankshaft and longer connecting rods for your pistons.

Now I hope that helps you guys out. If you are planning one doing a bore or a stroke job please research it before you do it! Most engines have kits available for both so look into that as well. If there is any engine that you want me to do a tech article on I will do that.

Mopar Muscle for Cheap

Now after my last Article “Mopar or No Car” a few of you emailed me that you love Mopar but you can’t get one for cheap! All of them are $15,000 and over! Well sure you probably can’t get find a 68-70 Charger for Cheap, you probably can’t find a Challenger for cheap or a Super Bee and definitely not a Daytona or a Super Bird but there are classic afford able Mopars out there that you can find for an afford able price and a few of them you can buy on a teens budget.

C- Body Mopars Expect to Pay: $2500-$8000

            If you want something that is still from the 60s and 70s but can’t afford a Charger, Challenger or Roadrunner look into the C-Body Chryslers. They are full size cars and most will be Automatic (can be good or bad for some of you). Cars to look for are the Plymouth Fury’s, Dodge Polara’s, maybe the Chrysler 300s (they will be closer to the $8000 range). Also all of the cars will have the same engines as the other Moaprs the 440, the 383, the 318, a few of them may have the lesser known 413 B engine.

Mopar Wagons Expect to Pay: $1500-$7500

            Now by all of you 2 Door, and Coupe/Sedan only elitists just read ahead because this probably won’t interest you (though you are now going to read this anyway). Good classic Mopars to look for are the Coronet Wagons, the Dodge Polara Wagon, Plymouth GTX Wagon and Plymouth Belvedere Wagon. All of these Wagons will have the same Engines as the there more known Muscle Counter parts and some of them will have the 440! These Wagons will be cheap, and can be built up just like their muscle cousins. For a few grand you can have yourself a Draggin’ Wagon!

Dodge Monaco Expect to Pay: $1000-$9000- A great Car to look for, for your Mopar Project are the Dodge Monaco’s. The Sedans will be cheaper and its one of the few cars where the 60s ones are more common and cheaper. If you do find a 1974 make sure it has a 440 Cop Motor, Cop Tires, and Cop Suspension.

Dodge D100 Trucks Expect to Pay: $500-$6000

By far the Cheapest Classic Mopars you can Hot Rod. If you live out in or near the Country side, you can find a lot of them for sale lying around old Farms and other large properties. Ones that have the Slant 6 cycl can be found for as low as $500. Most of these trucks will the 318, which can still be built into a great mill. The Most expensive D100s will be the “Little Red Express” trucks from the late 70s.

70s Plymouth Dusters Expect to Pay: $2000-$8000

            Some of the Most overlooked Mopars are the Plymouth Dusters. Surprisingly they are overlooked because in the early 70s they were common Super Stock Cars and Don Prudhome, and Tom McEwen had Duster Funny Cars. If the Duster has a Slant 6 Cycl you can find them for around $2000 in good condition. You still can find 340 or 360 powered ones for that price but expect some body work or new paint. For a good Condition ready to go Duster with a 340 expect around $6000-$8000.

Dodge Demon Expect to Pay: $2500-$10,000

            The Second most expensive car on our list, the Dodge Demon original started out as a Fastback option for the Dart but it ended up becoming the performance option. Most Demons will come with a 340 in them, the later 75-76 models will have 360s and some will have 318s. These cars are a little tougher to find then our other Mopars we mentioned, however when you do find one it will most likely be in the $3000-$6000 range with minor body and paint work needed.

73-74 Dodge Charger Expect to Pay: $5000-$10000:

            I’ve got some Good news and Bad news for you Charger Fans. The Good News is, it’s a Dodge Charger! The Bad news is, it’s not the 68-69 Charger. The Good News is, it’s cheaper the the other Charger! The Bad news, still expect to pay around $5000- $10000. Some of you may not like this Charger as much as its 68-70 cousin since its not General Lee or was in Bullit. However this Charge has made a small name for its self being the star of USA’s Show Burn Notice (Yes the Charger is the star) where it can be seen tearing up the Streets of Miami. Since Burn Notice is on its 5^th Season, maybe these Chargers will be come collectors items one day?

Late 40’s Dodge or Plymouth’s Expect to Pay: $2500-$10,000

            These cars will be harder to find but they are still good to look for. If you find one, they could make a great Gasser, Hot Rod or a Street and Strip Car. These will probably need some more work than the other cars on the list. If you find a cheap $2500 one, expect to find a new mill and transmission. They are good cars though and make a great classic.

There are more Mopars that are affordable, that you can make into a great Hot Rod. Some other ones are the Dodge Dakota Trucks, the Dodge Durango’s (no seriously), the Ramchargers and the Aspen’s. There are affordable Mopars out there, you just gotta look! Who knowns maybe there is a nice Plymouth Duster sitting in some garage somewhere that the owner has to get rid of. 

Mopar Muscle 

Aircraft Hot Rods of the Sky

Now some of you may be thinking “this is a Kustom Magazine why is there an article about Aircraft?” Well the other night I was watching Stacey David’s Gearz and the episode was about an Aircraft that could be considered a Hot Rod. Which was the Stearman Model 75, and as for me being into Aviation and Hot Rodding I really enjoyed this episode. As I was watching it though I felt that there are a few more Aircraft that could be considered Hot Rods:

Curtis JN-4 aka the Jenny – The Jenny was the 32 Ford of the Skies, originally used as the US Trainer in WW1 to train pilots. However after the War there was a surplus of Jenny’s (why doesn’t that happen today?)  and the US Military had no use for them. So the US sold them off too pilots for a very low price. In the 20s these Jenny’s became the Aircraft of Choice for Barnstormers and Barnstorming! Barnstorming is where pilots flew from town to town usually landing on Farms to put on airshows which involved everything from Loops to rolls, to dives, and other Air Combat maneuvers. Sometimes it would even involve Ariel Stunts such as wing walking, and even playing tennis on the wing. These planes were affordable, easily modified and everyone wanted one making them the 32 Ford of the skies.

 Gee Bee Model Z/ Model R- The Super Stock aircraft of the skies, they were built for one thing to win air races! They had custom paint jobs, streamline body styling and a large Pratt & Whitney engine to power them and make be able to race at over 200 MPH! Sadly both of the originals were destroyed in crashes however a few replicas still exist.

 Rare Bear- Rare Bear is like a Hemi Powered Willys Gassers of the skies. It was once a massed produced (well sort of) F8F Barecat that started as a wreck (kind of like a Junkyard wreck) that was found by Lyle Shelton in the 60s who restored the Aircraft and turned into a Reno Air Racer. Since then, the Aircraft has become a Reno Air Racing Icon. It has one several races and in 2006 it sold for $2 million dollars! Rare Bear is capable of 528 MPH and can climb to almost 10,000FT in 91 seconds, which is better than a stock F8F! The plane has gone through many changes in both color scheme (paint job) and performance over the years making it the true Willys of the skies!

Dago Red- Dago Red is a P-51 Mustang that is the 55 Chevy of the skies. It started as one of the many produced P-51s in WWII and Just after, then it was found in 1981 restored by racer Frank Taylor and made into a world record Air Racing Aircraft! The plane is has a bright red paint job with Flames (like a Hot Rod) it is capable of 520 MPH can climb at 8000FT per min and has one the National Air Racing Championship 6 times! This is a true Hot Rod of the Skies!

Hughes H-1 Racer- Howard Hughes’ Hot Rod of the Skies, it was like a Custom Bonneville car of the skies. This plane was a custom built aircraft built for one thing to go fast and it was damn good at doing that! The H-1 Racer was capable of a max speed of 352 MPH, and it held a transcontinental flight record of flying of flying from Los Angeles to New York nonstop in just over 7 Hours! The plane is believed to be the inspiration for fighter Aircraft such as the P-47, the FW-190 and the Japanese Zero which is believed to be almost a copy.

            Some of you that are into aviation are probably thinking there are more Aircraft that could be considered Hot Rods and if you know any please leave it as a comment blow. If you don’t know any, just comment below and tell me what you think.

Aircraft Hot Rods of the Sky

Mopar or No Car

Last night online watching at some Mopar Drag Racing videos, and reading a few threads on a Mopar Forum. As I was doing this, I started to notice something. That there is something different about Mopar Guys. To confirm this I had to go to other sources such as Mopar Muscle, Don Garlits website, Mopar Event sites, etc.

            If you are new to Mopar, or just getting into Mopar you will notice at the shows and the drag strips, the Mopar guys will often say “Mopar or no Car” and fist bump each other.  When they say “Mopar or No Car” they mean it! Most Mopar guys only want to own, build, drive and race Mopar’s nothing else! Mopar Guys don’t want to see a Ford, or a Chevy and definitely not any thing foreign ever in there life!

            You really notice that Mopar guys don’t want to see anything else when you go to the Dragstrip or a show. You arrive at the show late, so all of the spots with the Fords and the Chevys are full, so they send you to the back where you see the group of the Mopar guys, usually about 6 to 10 of them depending on the show. As you are parking you give them a little smile and all they do is give you the “Mopar Death stare!”

            You also notice this at the dragstrip as well. When you are staging in your 80s Fox Body Mustang against a 69 Dodge Dart with a 440, you notice that the driver of the Dart keeps giving you looks. Even during the pass when hes ahead o you, you can feel him giving you the death stare. The reason for this is Mopar is the king of the dragstrip. The best of all time Don “Big Daddy” Garlits has been and still is a life long Mopar Fan and has raced his entire career for Mopar. Also Modern Top Fuel dragsters and funny cars all use a hemi engine based off the Mopar 426 Hemi! So its all Mopar at the strip.

            You will notice that Mopar guys seem to have the strongest brand loyalty compare to the other Hot Rodders and Chopper guys with maybe only some Harley guys coming close.  The other main reason for Mopar fans and there strong loyalty is, that Mopar has always been the underrated group in the Hot Rod world. It has always been heavily overshadow by GM and Ford, because of this Mopar guys just like to stick to there brand to give stronger loyalty to try and make its fan base grow.

            As for myself I have said “Mopar or No Car” several times and when I watch Pinks! I always go for the Mopars. However I am a hypocrite on this because after going for them on pinks, I will go back on the computer and start checking out 55 Chevy’s , S10s, Chevelles, 454s, 396s. So I guess you could say I am a Chevy and Mopar guy (now I am going to get the death stare for that)! 

Mopar Or No Car for on Mopars and other Hot Rods!