SOHR Guest Preview 1/12 Broadcast: Bob Tasca III

School of HOT ROD Radio will be joined this weekend by Bob Tasca III. We will talk about the rich history of the Tasca dealership as well as the new MOD SHOP. After a little shop talk will will dive into whats in store for 2013 NHRA season and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang GT500. If you have questions for Bob make sure to call into the show 1.800.510.8255 or email me at dennis@ernlive.com - Show starts at 1pm PST go to ernlive.com or radioamerica.org for station and live streaming information. 

SOHR Guest Preview 1/12 Broadcast: John Fitzpatrick

School of HOT ROD Radio will be joined this weekend by Chevrolets own John Fitzpatrick to give everyone the inside scoop on what to look for this weekend and the launch of the C7 Corvette. If you have questions for John make sure to call into the show 1.800.510.8255 or email me at dennis@ernlive.com - Show starts at 1pm PST go to ernlive.com or radioamerica.org for station and live streaming information.

PRUETT NAMED DOTE RACING’S TOP FUEL DRIVER FOR 2013

NHRA Top Fuel team Dote Racing has announced that former NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series champion and multiple NHRA Pro Mod national event winner Leah Pruett will drive the family-owned dragster in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team’s partial schedule will begin in Pomona in February. Pruett, 24, who began obtaining her Top Fuel crossover license in late 2012 with Dote Racing, will complete her licensing requirements later this month. Based in Monroe, Ohio, the Dote Racing team is led by veteran crew chief Doug Kuch, who tuned the team to two semifinal finishes in 2012, in addition to qualifying the car in the ultracompetitive field at all 11 events that Dote Racing entered. The team is actively seeking sponsorship for 2013 and beyond, with eyes on expanding its limited schedule to full-season competition. The opportunity for Pruett comes on the heels of her highly successful two-year stretch as a Pro Mod pilot for R2B2 Racing. While at R2B2 for nearly two seasons, Pruett kept her Funny Car license active by driving the team’s Funny Car, tuned by Aaron Brooks and John Medlen, at multiple test sessions throughout 2011 and competed in Funny Car at the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading. Most recently, Pruett scored three national event titles in the challenging NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. She also earned the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series championship in Nostalgia Funny Car after wins at the famed March Meet and Hot Rod Reunion while driving for legendary tuner and chassis builder Steve Plueger. The 2013 season will mark Pruett’s 17th consecutive year competing in the NHRA, and she will be eligible for the rookie of the year honors in the NHRA Mello Yello Series. Please visit www.nhra.com for more on this story.

JFR EXPANDS EFFORT WITH CASTROL EDGE TOP FUEL DRAGSTER

Rookie Brittany Force Gets Historic Opportunity in NHRA 

John Force Racing, Inc., NHRA drag racing’s most successful Funny Car team, announced Thursday an historic expansion that for the first time will give it a presence in a professional racing category other than the one in which it has been dominant for almost a quarter century.

 

While the team again will campaign four fuel cars, one will be noticeably different from the others.  After winning a record 217 NHRA Funny Car races and 17 Winston, Powerade and Full Throttle Funny Car championships, JFR this year for the first time in its 35-year NHRA history will field a Top Fuel dragster sponsored by Castrol EDGE and driven by 26-year-old rookie Brittany Force.

 

Meanwhile, Force confirmed that he will be re-united this season in his pursuit of the Mello Yello Funny Car championship with crew chief Mike Neff.  He will be joined by daughter Courtney who, after earning Rookie-of-the-Year honors, will be back in the Traxxas Ford for crew chiefs Ron Douglas and Dan Hood, and son-in-law Robert Hight, who will start his ninth season in the Auto Club Ford for Jimmy Prock and new assistant crew chief Danny DeGennaro.

 

Get Your Heart Racing With a One-of-One 2013 Ford Shelby GT500

A designer’s labor of love, a "one-of-one" 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 will be offered on Friday, Jan. 18, at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.  The auction will be televised on Speed TV.

The car has been signed by Edsel B. Ford II, William C. Ford, Jr., and Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Company.

The Mustang is the creation of Ford designer Melvin Betancourt, a former cardiac patient who feels that he owes his life to a dedicated team of heart surgeons at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. To show his appreciation for the care he received many years ago, Betancourt focused his talents on creating the special edition Shelby GT500 to benefit the Edith and Benson Ford Heart & Vascular Institute at the hospital.

Betancourt’s Shelby stays true to the spirit of the original, but with a modern, sophisticated level of performance and appearance. It is finished in a special white exterior paint scheme, with contrasting white graphics and 20” white wheels.

The racing-inspired cockpit features white leather Recaro seats with black stitching.

The Mustang has 662 horsepower, and a top speed of more than 200 mph. 

It is estimated that the car will sell between $150,000 and $250,000.

For more information on the auction, registering to bid, or program details on Speed TV, visit www.barrett-jackson.com.

CADILLAC CONCEPT CARS STAR TO APPEAR AT THE AMELIA CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE

There are limited production cars, there are rare cars and there are concept cars that never find their way to the showroom.  A fleet of Cadillac’s rare and mythic Motorama and Detroit Auto Show Concept Cars will take to the field at the 18^th Annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on Sunday March 10, 2013.

Created under the supervision of GM’s legendary styling chief, Harley Earl, the Cadillac Concept cars of the ‘Fifties were created as the stars of GM’s Motorama shows. All are blood ancestors of the contemporary Cadillac Cien and Cadillac Sixteen Concept Cars of the 21^st century. Many were created not to be driven, but only to be shown and crushed. Some early cars were sold to GM executives, celebrities, or people of influence. Happily, orders to destroy these spectacular harbingers of the future were often ignored or outright disobeyed.

Unlike many show cars of the Fifties, Cadillac’s Motorama Concept Cars carried the future in their lines, options, trim and colors. The quad headlights of the 1955 Cadillac El Dorado Brougham Concept Car were GM’s first use of the four headlight format that became standard GM styling practice in 1957.  The 1959 Cadillac Cyclone featured sliding doors, predating the design nexus of all minivans.

Nine of Cadillac’s Concept Cars will be featured in the 18^th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance; the 1949 Cadillac Fleetwood Coupe De Ville prototype, two 1953 Le Mans roadsters, 1953 El Dorado Special,  1956 Eldorado Brougham Town Car, 1959 Cyclone, 1961 El Dorado Chicago Auto Show car once owned by pro golfer Walter Hagen, the 2002 Cien, and the massive, 1000-horsepower 2003 Cadillac Sixteen.

“’Standard of the World’ is not simply a Cadillac slogan or the product of some ad copywriter’s imagination,” said Amelia Concours Founder and Chairman Bill Warner. “It is an honor and a title bestowed upon Cadillac in 1909 by the Royal Automobile Club when a trio of Cadillacs won the RAC’s Dewer Trophy, the Nobel Prize of the automotive world.” 

The Cadillacs were driven from London to the Brooklands race track, disassembled (with their parts scattered and intermingled with other random parts), reassembled and driven 500 trouble free miles. It was an unrivaled international engineering and manufacturing feat that set Cadillac on its course to be an industry leader.

“Cadillac’s dedication to precision and technological leadership has been part of their corporate DNA since the company was founded in 1902. That spirit is personified in Cadillac’s concept cars. They’re not just interesting styling exercises. They’re important for the entire automotive industry,” said Warner.

The 2013 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will be held March 8 -10^th on the 10^th and 18^th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island.  The show’s Foundation has donated over $2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other charities on Florida’s First Coast since its inception in 1996.

SPEED™ to GIVE AWAY ONE-OF-A-KIND, 800+ HORSEPOWER 2013 SHELBY GT500 MUSTANG

LIVE BARRETT-JACKSON COVERAGE FULLY INTERACTIVE LED BY HAGERTY FANTASY BID & SPEED SOCIAL GARAGE

        An all-black, one-of-a-kind, 800+ horsepower 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang HFB Special Edition is this year’s Hagerty Fantasy Bid giveaway grand prize, a part of SPEED’s 39 hours of live coverage from the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. that starts Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

            Game play begins Thursday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT and lasts through Sunday, Jan. 20 with 28 fantasy bid cars selected to cross the block throughout the weekend.

            It’s easy to enter, as any Hagerty Fantasy Bid contestant who places a fantasy bid is automatically eligible for the giveaway Mustang (sign-up information below). A random drawing from all fantasy bid entries throughout the four days of competition determines the winner, which concludes on Sunday, Jan. 20.

            As with each Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and Auction on SPEED, fantasy bidding is only a portion of the interactive and digital opportunities throughout any one of these live auction events. The SPEED Social Garage, live streaming video, live blogging, photo galleries and SPEED.com’s up-to-the-minute coverage of the market and trend lines offer the audience a unique two-screen experience.

            “How phenomenal is it that Ford was able to top last year’s incredible one-of-one Shelby giveaway,” said Rick Miner, SPEED SVP of Production, Network Operations & Executive Producer of Barrett-Jackson. “I’m thinking about quitting my job just so I can enter the contest.”

            Besides its jaw-dropping horsepower numbers, the Shelby GT500 HFB Special Edition is loaded with performance and aesthetic upgrades. A full Ford Racing lowering kit, Hydraulic Hood struts and Shelby Wheel Company’s Nitto 20x9.5 front and 20x11 Drag Radial rear tires gives it one mean profile.

            Interior-wise; the custom-made front and rear seats feature black suede inserts, black carbon fiber stripes and blue stitching all combining for an attractive outward appeal, while still maintaining Ford’s firm, yet comfortable, driver support structure.

            Full-length stainless steel headers with high-flow catalytic converters, a Borla exhaust system, high-flow air filter and an Ice Nine modified air intake (adding 30 bhp) all increases efficiency, power and enhances the sound of this enticing package.

           

            Adding to the overall look is W2 Graphics’ flat black stripe kit, RTR’s rear license plate surround and Ice Nine’s side splitters and smoked lens kit. Also included are a custom billet antenna, 3D carbon fender scoops, custom quarter window scoops, quarter panel scoops, billet aluminum Hagerty Fantasy Bid badging and a laser etched, Hagerty logoed gas cap that signifies a Special Edition Mustang.

            On the interactive side, one can join the Barrett-Jackson conversation through the SPEED Social Garage located athttp://www.speedtv.com/programs/barrett-jackson-automobile-auction/barrett-jackson-social-garage or via Twitter by using the ‘#BJA2013’ hash tag and @BarrettOnSPEED handle.