Tire smoke and breathtaking horsepower hit the desert at the recent Super Chevy Show at Southwestern International Raceway. The Tucson, Arizona, site was host to yet another successful exhibition of some of the finest Bow Ties on the planet-both in the car show and on the strip.

Under sunny skies and perfect Midwest weather, Project American Heroes II was unveiled to the public for the first time. The enthusiastic crowd at the Joliet/Chicago Super Chevy Show got to be the first to see the awesome results of Route 66 Motorsports, Super Chevy, and the project's multitude of sponsors hard work to build another charitable automotive work of art to benefit the Armed Forces Foundation. Patricia Driscoll, head of the Armed Forces Foundation, was on hand along with a group of special veterans to witness the unveiling. Check out the pics below, and watch for more coverage and videos on the new Project American Heroes '69 Camaro!

As a teaser for the upcoming coverage of the Joliet Super Chevy Show, I thought I'd share some pics and words about some of the cool stuff I saw over my weekend at the show. Aside from a little rain on Saturday, the weather was beautiful for the show, with the locals surprised at the sudden relief from the sweltering August heat.

Recently, editors at the giant mega corp. magazine company we all work for received an e-mail. In that e-mail, Spectre invited all the editors from various magazines to bring their American musclecars out to the track. For that matter, any American musclecar was invited to run the road course, whether they were owned by an editor or a local resident. The only problem was they had a pre-1975 cutoff. Damn, there goes my hope and dreams of running my '88 IROC-Z.

Cook me in Crisco and color me Cajun. Undoubtedly this Super Chevy show held at the Capitol Raceway just outside Baton Rouge was one of the largest show's we have seen in a long time. Maybe it was cabin fever or the need for speed, what ever the reason the first hints of spring woke masses of people to the sounds and smells of high octane burning engines. The lines to get into the raceway were literally a mile and a half in both directions. The state police showed up and even threatened to shut the show down due to the amount of people lined up down the highway trying to get in. Once inside the show, they were stacking them on top of each other trying to accommodate all who came.

The LA Roadster Show was gearing up this June weekend and So-Cal Speed Shops held its annual open house. Hot Rodders of all types, makes, models, engines and displacements clogged the local Pomona city streets on their way to So-Cal. Free In-N-Out Burgers and tons of American iron to gawk at. What's not to love about that?

The classic car season is just starting its engine this spring in the Northeast and as the summer drawers closer, things will really start to heat up!

The benchracing stops here. The Pure Stock Drags, the two-day drag race for stock musclecars only, separates fact from fiction, truth from myth, winners from losers. It happens each year two weeks after Labor Day at the Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan. This year, a record-breaking 152 cars rolled through tech and were cleared to race.

There was a time in America when drag strips were dedicated to not onlyproviding competitive racing programs for locals but a way of drawing high school kids to a proper and safe race location rather than street racing. Over the years, many tracks have successfully created and promoted such programs. Flowmaster Mufflers had decided to engage with that cause by creating their first ever High School Safe Streets Track Program, which launched in 2008.

Granted, I was not around in the Age of Horsepower, also referred to as the late '60s, but I have to imagine gearheads then felt something like this. Walking around the "American" parcels of the New York Auto Show, I felt as if I were shot back to that wonderful time when gas was cheap and compression was high. The Ford Mustang was first to hit the block with many variations of its "modular" motor, whatever the hell that is, and it had a Mustang race car, the Shelby GT500KR, and the new Bullitt on display. Dodge unveiled its complete line of '08 Challengers at the show, including a 300-horse V-6 base model and an R/T Hemi model.

The 1st Annual B&M / McLeod / Hurst / Classic Motorsports Group CharityCar Show was held at the B&M Facility in Chatsworth, CA on April 26th,2008. With an early jump start to the day, registration opened before7:00 AM as attendees began to lineup. One beautiful car after anotherpassed through registration and lined up in the street, behind the B&Mbuildings, inside the warehouse and in the neighboring businesses. Thebroad range of vehicles on display was incredible. Street Rods, MuscleCars, Classic Trucks, Late model Camaro's, Mustangs of all body styles,Mopar's, Corvettes, a Pro Gas Car and a Studebaker just to mention afew. With over 200 cars in attendance there was quite a bit ofhardware to view. Fuel Injected, Nitrous equipped, Supercharged andnormally aspirated big blocks, small blocks, inline 6 cylinders and 12cylinder engines were displayed. The paint and finish on the vehiclesranges from black to white and every color in the rainbow includingmany flame jobs.

PROJECT AMERICAN HEROES ONLINE ARCHIVE

Here they are, the links to all the stories about Project American Heroes, live on the Super Chevy website. Just click on the links below to see the story you're interested in!

Part 1 - Project American Heroes Part 1 - Aug. '07 Issue

Part 2 - Project American Heroes - Brake'em Up, Line'em Up - Sept. '07 Issue

Part 3 - Project American Heroes - Bringing Up The Rear - Sept. '07 Issue

Part 4 - Project American Heroes Chassis Build - Chevy Classics 2007

Part 5a - Project American Heroes - Shock & Awe - Oct. '07 Issue

Part 5b - Project American Heroes Part 5 - Dec. '07 Issue

Part 6 - Project American Heroes Part 6 - Jan. '08 Issue

Click here to see Project American Heroes in Washington D.C.

Click here to see Project American Heroes on the auction block at Barrett-Jackson West Palm Beach

On Wednesday March 5, our very own Project American Heroes '57 Chevy wasone of the 700 guests who attended the $150 a plate Armed ForcesFoundation Congressional Gala fundraiser. Stationed in the foyer of theMandarin Oriental hotel in Washington, DC, the '57 was the center ofattention as the room full of political aficionados oohed and ahhed atour Majik blue beauty.

Images courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, provided the backdrop for our first ever Super Chevy Magazine Reader Appreciation Day. After spending a good portion of the show-and-go season traveling across the country, the Super Chevy crew finally had its first home game. The closest thing we've had on our home turf is the Super Chevy Show at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, more than two hours away, so this was a real treat.

Bow Tie Ironclads Massed In
Thunder Valley in September, shaking the very foundation of the ancient Blue Ridge Mountains. Iron and aluminum blocks struggled to contain the apocalyptic fire-breathing horses packed within their metal cylinders. The fuse was lit, and, once ignited, these American ironclads battled their way down the freshly cured blacktop of Thunder Valley Raceway. One pilot stated his vehicle has never experienced better launching conditions.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time before a major LS-themed event hit the radar in the world of drag racing. With the breadth of racers out there that have the newest Bow Tie powerplants in their cars, the NMCA and GM Performance Parts saw an opportunity to have an LS-themed event, the inaugural LSX Shootout held at Memphis Motorsports Park last October. Held during the NMCA World Finals, GM Performance Parts and other major sponsors came through with a slew of prizes for the competition, including a purse valued at over $60,000. "The Professor," Warren Johnson, was on hand as Grand Marshal of the event. Our sister magazine, GM High-Tech Performance, was also present, as it was the presenting publication.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Memorial Scholarship Fund was founded in 1984 to foster leadership opportunities in the specialty equipment marketplace and support educational goals for students. Over the past two decades, SEMA Scholarships have supported over 500 students with more than $1,000,000 in scholarship awards.

What can you say about the 1957 chevy that hasn't already been said? With iconic styling and undeniable popularity, it's quite possibly the most restored, modified and raced car ever produced. No need to wonder why. Just look at it. This amazing piece of American automotive heritage is as timeless as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.

Let's Skip All The Usual Mumbo jumbo and get to the skinny of it. No weather reports (ok, it was in the 80s and sunny), and no horror stories about the flight in (that's because we drove in). The Super Chevy Show at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania was a big one. Starting on a Thursday, the event's attendance grew as the weekend wore on.

Good news! The Super Chevy True Street Challenge will run at all 16 Super Chevy Shows in 2008. If you have a street-legal Chevrolet, you are eligible to enter. As long as you have a valid driver's license, proof of auto insurance and a valid registration (no dealer tags), you can compete. If you've never seen it run, Super Chevy True Street takes all entrants on a 30-mile street cruise. After you return to the track, you are allowed 30 minutes to cool down, open your nitrous bottles or check your tire pressures. Then it is off to the staging lanes where you make three back-to-back passes. The car with the quickest 3-run average is declared the overall winner. But you don't need an 8-second street car to win. Awards are given to those with the lowest average e.t. in each time category, i.e. 10-second average, 11-second, 12-, 13-, even 14-second average.

Hot parts, hot cars, hot models, and Vegas. Follow the recipe usingthese ingredients and you get the 2007 SEMA show. If you've been readingSC for a while, then you know about SEMA. For those who are new to thebook, SEMA (www.sema.org) is the Specialty Equipment ManufacturersAssociation. It's basically the UN for the automotive industry. SEMAbrings together all elements that are involved with cars and helps toensure that our industry continues to grow and prosper, helping newbusinesses find their way to success, and older business continue tosucceed. Every year they host the biggest automotive aftermarkettradeshow in the world in Las Vegas, where everyone shows off their newand current products, show cars, and the rest of the performance buffet.

This year marks the birth of a very important model in Chevrolet performance- the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Camaro! Super Chevy Magazine and Super Chevy Shows is celebrating this pivotal introduction in way you can participate and pick your favorite.

THE '57 BEST OF THE BEST CONTEST IS OVER FOR 2007, BUT WATCH FOR OUR 2008 BEST OF THE BEST CONTEST!

It's tough knowing where to start when reporting on the Indianapolis Super Chevy show of 2007. Last year's event pulled in a decent amount of show attendees. This year's event was a bit different. Just three hours away in Columbus, Ohio, there was another major car show in full swing that same weekend. Undoubtedly many of the local area vehicle owners couldn't be at two shows at once, so they had to make a choice, which split show attendance.