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Seems each day starts off with a song.  The appropriate tune leavin’ Winslow is clearly the Eagles hit about standin’ somewhere…

I broke Posie Protocol and hooked us up with an additional non-Posie planned stop at my buddy Rodney Rucker’s garage before we headed out of town.  Rodney is one of the craziest car guys I know.   He loves Movie cars, in fact he owns the original Great Leslie which was the big white touring car Tony Curtis drove in the 1963 movie The Great Race. Remember every time Tony Curtis smiled big his front tooth would sparkle?  Rodney also has the evil Professor Fate’s (from same movie) black scissor car complete with heat cone and retractable cannon in front.  He has some of the most outrageous big vehicles using WW2 tank motors, and supercharged crazy stuff you have ever seen. One year Rodney drove one of his super dooper super charged Peterbilts on the Great Race.  I think he told me that from coast to coast he spent something like $9600 bucks on fuel and that when it was only $1.50 a gallon!  And all you folks thought I was crazy! (more…)

“Amarillo by mornin” was a great country song by maybe George Strait? I know I am going to be hummin or singin it all day!  Remember it?

Wade and I snored each other awake early Thursday morning in Amarillo and bugged out on the rest of the crew to go find a Waffle House at 530 AM.  It’s our duty.  We have to!  Because… (I stole this from my sweetheart Theresa) we are eatin our way cross the USA! After wishing grandmother waitress “Becky” happy birthday and downin our rooster bullets, bacon, grits  n waffles we slipped back into the parking lot fed, full and unnoticed.  Apparently a couple of cars left early, early at 530 AM or so being correctly concerned about the report of snow in the mountains between Amarillo and Albuquerque. (more…)

Wednesday morning all of us PDDT pilgrims were anxious to head west toward Amarillo,  but because Posie said 930 AM start, we were all standing around outside the hotel like we were waiting for the start flag of the Gumball rally.  There was a speech about things like “plenty of time today” and “we should hang together on the road today” and then we were off like a bat outa H E double toothpicks…and the wrong way at that!  We fell for it because we hadn’t set our GPS.  I expected the little femine voice on the GPS to say “bout time you listened to me and not Posie”! (more…)

We started our PDDT Tuesday morning in Springfield, Missouri with a couple of bananas and a cup of coffee.  It had rained pretty hard all night long and was still coming down when we were called together by our illustrious potentate-Posie for a quick meeting to jump start our day.  After a wonderfully inspirational message, (insert tongue in cheek here) we set our GPS’s, cranked our flatheads and hit the road heading West.  It was funny that although we all set our GPS systems for quickest way, and were all going to the same place, ours took us the scenic route on old Route 66,..and we didn’t mind at all!  We saw some remnants of the coolest neon signs, old gas stations and motels.  Wade and I agree that it would not take too much effort to make any of these cool Route 66 towns into 1950’s Movie sets. (more…)

When you have a bunch of Hotrodders going anywhere in their hot rods the last thing any of them want to do is go slow.  So, keeping all the PDDT cars close together so no one gets lost is sort of funny.  Some one always get left at a redlight.  In order to combat this dilemma, Wade and I decided to get up earlier Monday to scoot to Wallyworld to purchase a GPS.   After bagging our direction doctor, we caught up with the Driven Dirty boys for a bowl of Oatmeal (I really ate 3 eggs, bacon and hashbrowns but tell my wife I ate healthy!).

We of course had to wait on somebody again but this time it was Scott Whitaker.  Since his 41 Packard Clipper crapped out last night, he had to hook up with his office to load up his Dynasport on a trailer to bring it to him and pickup the crapped out Clipper.  We finally got on the road to visit not one, not two, but three collections and shops before we were to head west toward Springfield. (more…)

Day One of the Driven Dirty Tour experience started with rooster bullets and coffee at the hotel.  The Coker guys who brung us North and for the meeting bugged out early and headed back to Corkyville.  Wade and I packed up, loaded up and were ready to go.  Too bad my new son in law forgot to put the side curtains in the truck.  I am absolutely sure he wants me to catch pneumonia or something.  Actually he and his guys in our Shop did a great job prepping the truck.  It sure was really really cold without side curtains.  Do you think I’ve made him feel bad enough yet?

We left the hotel promptly at the crack of nine under the illustrious leadership of Dutch Fenical aka Posie.   Our destination before heading west was the historical shop of master painter and pinstriper Don Boeke, more famously known as THE EGYPTIAN.  Now I am sure you are thinkin’ he is like some dark skinned Arabian-middle-eastern guy who just happens to like custom cars and hot rods,.. But no…you are wrong.  The Egyptian is the Egyptian because he was born in Egypt, Ohio.  But he has a cool place, wonderful cars and bikes and a cool old time hot rodder-esq body shop and pin stripe boutique.  His shop is an old sign and fixture manufacturing plant with close to 60,000 square feet of cars, trucks, ‘n junk.  Sorry, important stuff.   Because I was partly raised by my grandfather Pop Coker who came through the depression, I like the EGYPTIAN save everything.  He had lots of Crosleys, Corvettes, Cadillacs and Cruisers.  He lives at his shop which is really a cool eclectic grouping of a lifetime of collecting life experience, friends and vehicles.  Really cool stop. (more…)

You guys might remember some of my past blogs about the group of us hot rodders getting together at SEMA a number of years ago to discuss how we should really do something to encourage more folks to drive their cars so we planned to DRIVE to the SEMA show in Las Vegas and then proudly show these hot rods at the show with their road dirt still on them.  I didn’t participate last year for one reason or another, probably because of some stupid reason like I was busy or something.  Honest Mike Goodman broke last year so he didn’t get the full PDDT dose either.

This year in 2009, Mike and I decided to drive separate cars and each ask a different buddy to ride with us.  He fixed his original 32 five window and hooked up with Wayne Pugh to navigate for him.   I chose the 32 Roadster Pick up my son in law, Greg Cunningham and his crew at Honest Charley Garage built this past Spring in 60 days.  I asked my buddy Wade Kawasaki from LA to fly out and navigate for me.  He agreed and told me he would meet me over in Dayton Ohio where most of the guys planned to hook up and start our Hot Rod trek to automotive aftermarket mecca,….the SEMA Show! (more…)

As most of you know, I like to drive my cars, and you can bet the really fun ones I enjoy driving always have a manual transmission.   When a collector car like my ’37 Shafer 8 Indy car is driven to it’s maximum capability, it’s a sweet symphony of hand, eye and foot coordination.   Matching the RPM between shifts, working the clutch and steering into a full-on-sideways-slide is a full-body workout, and I’ve come to realize the importance of proper footwear, when it comes to aggressive driving.  The slightest slip, miss-shift, or miscue can result in engine damage, or even a crash, so traction on the pedals is just as important as traction on the driving surface,…and I know something about traction.   Looking good while doing all this driving stuff is pretty important too!
That’s why the line of Piloti shoes grabbed my attention.  Piloti’s have race-ready features combined with everyday comfort, making them a favorite among car enthusiasts on and off the track.  Piloti mixes the best of both worlds by offering its patented Roll Control spherical heel to aid in aggressive driving, while the athletic design provides plenty of cushion, unlike most racing shoes.    Numerous NASCAR, Formula One, and Vintage Racing drivers and just plain old country boy car guys like me wear Piloti shoes.  Real car guys have several pair!   Check out their awesome selection of shoes at  www.piloti.com <http://www.piloti.com> , or you can call Piloti at 805-494-0756 and tell them Corky Coker sent you!

There comes a time when sitting in a camp chair by your shined up old car just isn’t enough anymore. Drag racing and vintage road racing aren’t exactly the cheapest ways to spend your Saturday afternoon either. For a growing number of enthusiasts VCRA rally events are becoming the venue of choice to enjoy their cars. Less show-n-shine and more “drive the wheels off” but somewhere short of 24 hours of Le Mans, these rallies pit driver and navigator against others teams on timed A-to-B stages over the course of a few days, often for prize money. The goal, leave point A and arrive at point B exactly on time while following the cryptic instructions designed to guide you at precise speeds through a predetermined route, and it’s even harder than it sounds. (more…)

Corky Coker got things heated up at the Saturday car show at Coker Tire with a hot lap around the building in one of his vintage fire engines. STREET RODDER Senior Editor Eric Geisert rides shotgun.

Check out the details on The Coker Tire Street Rodder Tour