For those of you who don't know what the SEMA show is then you've been missing out on one of the largest automotive aftermarket shows in the industry. Most of the new products that will come out in the New Year make their grand entrance at this show. Aside from the many new products this year the amount of show cars was spectacular. Supercharged and turbocharged 2010 Camaro's were everywhere this year as well as many fully restored Gen 1 Camaro's, Nova, Bel Air's and Chevelle's. Look forward to all the new parts and accessories later in November 2009.

Going fast on 10.5-inch wide tires has been a phenomenon that swept the drag racing community off its big tires since the early '90s. The concept was made famous during the early days of Fastest Street Car racing in a popular category called Super Street. The class was the little brother of the ultra-quick and prestigious Pro Street eliminator. Pro Street catered to the big-money guys and several ex-Pro Stock and Pro Mod racers with tube chassis cars and giant slicks. Super Street, on the other hand, was the heads-up racing class where street racers found a home with their real cars and true 10.5-inch tires. As time evolved, so did Super Street and it turned into a class that caters to back-half rides with unlimited power under the hood and 10.5W (measuring 11.5-inches wide and 33-inches tall) rear tires. Today, the Super Street cars hardly resemble the late-night, grudge-racing machines from those early years.inline_mediumwraptextright26861935/eventcoverage/1001chp_nmca_xtreme_street_event_coverage1001chp_01_z+nmca_xtreme_street_event_coverage+front_drag_race.jpgTrue

"I can relate to this class more than anything else," said one fan to another as the Vortech Xtreme Street category rolled into action at Route 66 Raceway (Joliet, Illinois). The category is one of the most exciting in the NMCA series thanks to the lack of wheelie bars and true 10.5-inch tires. The racing is also tight thanks to a formula of rules that lets racers get wild but not out of control like some of the Outlaw-style categories out there. The rules allow for limited nitrous-injected or centrifugal supercharged small-block or big-block combos. Chevy High Performance joined Vortech Superchargers as one of the major sponsors of Xtreme Street in 2009 and we dropped into Joliet to check on the happenings of our favorite category.inline_mediumwraptextrightThe ambassador of the class, Bob Curran, smokes the hides of his '96 Corvette Grand Sport. It boasts a 399ci small-block Chevy from famed engine shop Fast Time Motorworks. Curran runs a single Edelbrock direct-port nitrous system. Curran has chosen to run a FAST XFI fuel injection system, which he was still sorting out at the event.30700806/eventcoverage/0912chp_nmca_vortech_xtreme_street_highlights0912chp_01_z+nmca_vortech_xtreme_street_highlights+1996_chevrolet_corvette_grand_sport.jpgTrue

With the introduction of GM's LS engine family, the Gen II LT1 and LT4 small-blocks have been all but forgotten. It's a shame, because they offer easy retrofitting into older cars originally equipped with a standard small-block (the mounts literally bolt right up), come stock with great-flowing aluminum heads, and offer lots of performance for the dollar.

Maple Grove 2009 Recap
This time out, the other guys won. Two Mustangs made it to the finals, but all is not lost. The Chevy combatants are ready to make a 7-second assault at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl race, the next stop on the tour.

In times of economic struggle, there is no getting around the concern that hovers around high-performance automotive industry, but a new and enthusiastic crop of kids is excited about hi-po machinery. The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge (HRTEC), at the Second Annual Race and Performance Expo (rpexpo.com), was a thrilling reminder of how hard work and achievement are still highly valued commodities among the young guns. Eight high school teams and five community college teams competed, and the atmosphere was charged, as a large crowd of friends and family had gathered to cheer on their teams.

Imagine a street car class that has 50 contestants and competes in races all over the country, and the season championship comes down to a highly charged final round at the last race of the season. That's what NMCA's Vortech Xtreme Street gave the fans last year--and it looks to be even better in 2009.

Heading out to Memphis has always proven to be a good time, and for this trip we were on our way to check out the 2nd Annual GM Performance Parts LSX Shootout! Hosted by the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA), these guys have started a new annual ritual to be put into action at the NMCA World Finals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Hurtling down Nevada Highway 318 at 160 mph, wrapped in safety gear from head to toe--not to mention 3,570 pounds of fully caged '66 Chevelle--almost everything becomes a blur. It's like being encased in a huge, manned bullet, the full metal jacket express, slicing the bordering landscape into at smear of brown and green. The pavement ahead might as well be a gray haze with a yellow streak right down the middle. And reading mile markers, like a good navigator is supposed to? Good luck. Those little road side signs disappear almost as quickly as the hordes of bugs that spatter their innards across the windshield; unlike the bugs, the signs leave no trace.

Check all fluids, wash the car, polish the rims, check tire pressures, vacuum the interior, and make any last adjustments to ensure that your trip will be successful. What am I talking about? The car show, of course! When one comes to town, you best be prepared to make it there, come hell or high water.

Web exclusive pictures from the 2008 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Come check out new photos of the 2010 Chevy Camaro as well as many other Chevrolet muscle car.

Some things are so big they only need one name. Baseball fans know all too well who The Babe is. Rockers have no doubt who is being referenced when they hear about The Boss. And so it is with the Goodguys PPG Nationals-all you have to do is mention its more common moniker, Columbus, and gearheads across the nation know that the subject has turned to one of the biggest, varied, and most influential happenings in the classic car hobby. This year's edition, the 11th annual, stayed true to form, summoning street rods, customs, classic trucks, and pre-'72 musclecars of every ilk, topped by a stunning array of Chevy musclecars contending for the coveted Goodguys/Air Ride Street Machine of the Year award.

It's The Most Fun You Can Have On Asphalt Without Getting A Ticket.To be honest, the CHP team couldn't have been more excited when we were invited to attend the annual Year One Experience at Road Atlanta. It was a no-brainer and took us all of about three nanoseconds to accept the request. We seized the chance and made our way to Braselton, Georgia, which is only a short, two-hour drive outside Atlanta. Our pilgrimage across the state landed us in the beautiful facility at Road Atlanta, which any right-minded motorhead would certainly call home.

Everyone with a passion for cars knows about it, and most will do anything to attend it, but unfortunately for the general pubic, the Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show is a private industry affair. Of course, there's always the exception to that rule and someone will still find a way to get in. However, for those of you who play legit or just flat-out missed the opportunity to walk within the huge halls of new products and multitudes of cool cars, we'll do you right by ignoring the little knickknack gadgets and get straight into what we consider to be the coolest products of the entire show. For what it's worth, we do have a bonus list featuring five additional products, but you'll have to drop by our Web site at www.chevyhiperformance.com to see what they are.

Back in the Jan. '06 issue, there was mention of building a big-inch big-block with then-cover-car man Artis Houston and his bottom-8-second '71 Nova. Since then, we've been burning the wick trying to piece this bullet together with C&O Automotive in Gardena, California.

Take a car show and add in a few vendors, celebrities, and magazine hacks, and you've got an event. But take an event and mix in autocross (dry and wet), drag racing, and laps through the twisties at Road Atlanta, and you've got the makings of more than a "just" an event. You've got something that needs to be experienced...thus the name of Year One's springtime-in-Georgia party, The Year One Experience.

Chevell-abration
Last summer we had the opportunity to attend the ninth annual Chevell-abration held at Moss-Wright Park in Goodlettsville, Tennessee (just outside of Nashville). Tell you what, if you own a Chevelle, are planning on buying one, or just love admiring these cool musclecars, this was the place to be.

“You’re all the way from where? And you drove that thing?”

Crowded streets, glistening paint jobs, and the sound of eight powerful cylinders are what today’s car shows are all about. Children follow alongside their parents, unable to grasp the event they are taking part in, but the memories of mirror-like paint and earth-moving sounds will be left in their heads for years to come. It’s these memories that are responsible for the resurrection of so many cars that continually add to the show scenes across the world.

Car shows filled the month of September in Southern California despite the recent attacks on the nation. In the second weekend of the month, the city of San Bernardino held its 12th annual Route 66 Rendezvous cruise and car show. There were plenty of manufacturer tents to check out, cars to see, and food to eat. The participants parked their cars up and down the city streets until it was time to cruise the boulevard. As the sun began to set and the temperature dropped, the city opened up 25 blocks of cruising asphalt. For those who crave power and tire-frying excitement, Firestone presented a burnout and flame-throwing contest. The Route 66 Rendezvous event attracted over a half-million people and 2,000-plus pre-’72 musclecar and street rods. For further information on this event, check out www.route-66.org.

Even this wasn’t enough for die-hard Southern California enthusiasts, so the following weekend another 3,000-plus automobiles gathered to support research for Prostate cancer at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center. The 2nd annual Cruisin’ for a Cure event took place on three abandoned runways at the El Toro Marine base in the city of Irvine. This event had it all, musclecars, motorcycles, customized street rods, and some race cars too. One day simply wasn’t enough for this car show. The event raised $168,000 and grew so large that local authorities nearly shut it down due to enormous lines of hot rods congesting the streets.

Cruising and showing off your car at the local burger joint started out as a pastime. Today, it has grown into an event that draws people from all around the country.

For the first time ever, we're taking consumers inside the walls of the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show, the largest trade-only show for the automotive aftermarket.

Each year, the best new products of tomorrow are unveiled at SEMA. From new vehicle launches and tricked-out project cars and trucks to the hottest high performance parts, they’ll all be there. We'll offer a window to the excitement of this year’s show, October 30-November 2, 2001, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. You’ll have the opportunity to see the products, personalities and behind-the-scenes action of more than a thousand vendors covering a staggering 620,000 square feet of floor space.

Did you make it all the way from Detroit to San Bernardino? Then you deserve to have your name forever enshrined in the Hot Rod Virtual Power Tour. To find your handle, (or that of a friend who went on the Tour), just click on the sidebar below that applies to the first letter of your last name, and scroll to your place in history. Now that you’re a Hot Rod celeb, what’s your plan for next year’s Power Tour?

Bob Rieger’s 2001 NMCA season title hopes were given a huge boost on June 23-24 at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, KY. The California driver "ran the table," combining a Saturday rain-delayed (Memphis, TN.) final round victory over arch-rival Tony Christian with a Sunday final round win over Christian’s teammate Cody McManama in a classic battle of ‘57 Chevys. Rieger, whose performance this season had been filled with frustration, came roaring to life Saturday with a holeshot aided 6.75 to 6.75 to take the Memphis crown, while setting a new NMCA/Turbonetics Outlaw Pro Street speed record at 213.30 mph.

Things didn’t get any better for his competitors on Sunday as the likable driver had his way with the field again, running as quick as 6.67 seconds at a booming 216.38 mph. "Needless to say we were very pleased with this weekend’s result," stated Rieger. "We have struggled mightily these past few months, but the crew didn’t give up and now we think we found the right clutch and chassis setup for this new engine combination."

In Super Street, Florida’s Matt Scranton also doubled-up with a Saturday final round win over Randy Lambert, then continued his winning ways on Sunday with a final round defeat of Mark Enwia in a Ford/GM contest. Like Rieger, Scranton also captured the Turbonetics Top Speed award both days. "We had a heck of an event at Bowling Green," said Event Director Pete Duhart. "The NMCA enjoyed its biggest race car count of the year by a wide margin, and the spectators came out in droves both Saturday and Sunday. The fans were treated to great side-by-side racing, and they also witnessed two complete final rounds in one location. The show/shine portion of the series attracted almost 300 cars, and the event’ s weather provided Chamber of Commerce conditions throughout the weekend. We were very pleased with the entire event."

The next NMCA Series Event will be at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois on July 28-29.

So many of the Long Haul gang liked staying over a second day in San Bernardino, we were beginning to think they didn't want the Power Tour to end. Well, maybe only a few felt that way, but judging from all the folks we interviewed at the finale, (check back for streaming videos to be uploaded in the next couple of weeks), this year's Tour was a standout success. Of course, everybody was hoping to win some big prizes, too (see photos and captions at right for details).