61st Annual Grand National Roadster Show

Saturday, January 30, 2010 - Pomona, CA

Scarab MK I sports car formerly driven by Chuck Daigh

We found our way to the Fairplex in Pomona by late morning and spent the rest of the day looking at hundreds of hot rods and kustoms. The Grand National Roadster Show is the longest running indoor car show in the world. Funny thing is, there were way more cars outside; from Deuce coupes, '40 Fords, and '50 Mercs, to land speed cars, road racers, and "The Bug". Tom McIntyre, who's shop we visited last September, had four cars from his collection there. There was also the last car to come out of Boyd Coddington's shop: a 100% hand formed metal body roadster called "The French Connection". It features an Italian-made V-12 BPM boat engine that Boyd bought from Chuck Daigh. Chuck also left his mark on this year's show with the Scarab MK I sports car and Scarab Formula 1 car that were showcased next to a giant transport truck that was looping his staring role in "The Sound of Speed" on a widescreen TV. The Hot Rod Museum at the Fairplex hosts numerous cars from the covers of magazines, including Chip Foose's "P-23" Lincoln roadster and the original "California Kid" (from the movie of the same name). There was a beautiful 1963 Falcon Country Squire wagon, a lifted International Harvester woody wagon, a couple Willys drag cars, a Lincoln V-12 lakes roadster, and many, many, many more. Oh yeah, and Mark's '32 Ford hot rod, the "Kaos Special II". There are really so many cars that you have to see it for yourself. There is a reason they call it "The Grand Daddy of Them All".

7th Annual Tour d'Orange

Friday, January 1, 2010 - Costa Mesa, CA

Bob's new CSX7000 Cobra & a Cobra Daytona Coupe

We started out the new year with what is becoming an old tradition: the Tour d'Orange. The Tour is a free cruise where you show up with your classic or hi-performance car, and drive a pre-determined route around Orange County, finishing at another California original: In-N-Out Burger. Car clubs such as COCOA, the SoCal Mini Maniacs, the Corvette Club, and others make it a group event. Costa Mesa is the starting point each year. Our route took us down Pacific Coast Highway, up Laguna Canyon Road, past the El Toro Air Marine Base, through Lake Forest to Trabuco Canyon, alongside O'Neill Park, past Cook's Corner and up-and-down Santiago Canyon, back though part of Irvine, finally ending at The District shopping center next to the Tustin Air Marine Base. It was a beautiful sunny New Year's Day for a cruise and made for a much more fun starting than the heavy morning fog of 2009. There were some great cars this year (as there always are), and too many to list. I didn't even get to see them all. Another perfect start to a new year complete. Happy New Year!

VARA Big Bore Bash

Sunday, November 8, 2009 - Rosamond, CA

Les & Bob on the pre-grid for the Sunday morning session

This weekend marked the first VARA event of the year for Les; his annual trip to Willow Springs Raceway for the Big Bore Bash featuring the Ford/Chevy Challenge. This year's entry continues his claim of being the only person to enter all the Ford/Chevy Challenges (now, he did have one weekend where he broke the car before the Challenge, but he did enter, just didn't race, so it still counts). It was a beautiful weekend at the track, where the typical gusting high-desert winds were present but not as strong as usual. We also used the trailer and the back wall of the tire shop to block any minor gales that arose. It was also an unusual weekend in that nothing went wrong with the car. Ol' #45 made it through the whole weekend without anything having to be repaired or replaced. Les would pull in to the pit after a session and just park it. No wrenches, screwdrivers, or pliers were needed. Just fill it up with gas and wait for the next race. About the biggest thing that happened in our pit was that Bob and Hank changed tires on the Shelby; and that didn't even take that long because they were able to test out an EZ Car Lift, so it went pretty quick. Both Les and Bob felt the track was a little slippery, but they couldn't figure out whether it was the track itself or their tires. It didn't stop them from doing well and having fun. Les finished 15th and Bob was right behind him in 18th for the Group 3 flag race; and Les finished 5th and Bob came in at 12th for the Ford/Chevy Challenge. The next trip to Willow Springs should be in May for the national SAAC event.

COCOA McIntyre Collection Cruise & Tour

Saturday, September 12, 2009 - Burbank, CA

This morning we piled into the Falcon and joined the Cobra Owners Club on a cruise to Burbank for a tour of Tom McIntyre's car collection (and if driving up the freeway at 80 mph in the fast lane is cruising, I don't want to see what these guys drive like normally). Tom has some great stories, and some great cars to go with them. Although he's a self-proclaimed "Ford guy", two of the most historic cars in his collection are Chevys: a Penske/Donohue 1968 Sunoco Trans-Am Camaro, and Mickey Thompson's 1963 427 MKII "Mystery Motor" Corvette Stingray Z-06 that was driven by Junior Johnson at Dayton in the 200-mile NASCAR American Challenge Cup race. Whew... that's a lot of GM for one sentence.

A replica of the '57 T-Bird Chuck Daigh drove 205 mph

We'll start the Fords off with a 1957 supercharged Thunderbird race car. It is a replica of the one Chuck Daigh drove on Daytona Beach to record-setting speeds. It was built in the spirit of the originals, by some of the same guys that built the originals. The originals have come to be known as the "Battlebirds", but Chuck used to say that they never called them that and he hated the term, so you won't see it again here.

Next is a 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G. At the time this car was built, Tom's company, ACSCO Products, was making all the badges for these suped-up cats, so he decided to order one. The guys at Ford asked if he wanted anything special, so Tom told them he'd really like a black one. The model didn't regularly come in that color, thus Tom's is the only one to come from the factory painted black.

One of his newest additions is a 1929 Ford Model A Roadster that used to be owned by the Williams Brothers. In 1954, the brothers replaced the Flathead V8 with a new Dodge "Red Ram" Hemi V8 and went on to break the record in the B/Roadster class at Bonneville with a run of 159 mph. The hot rod had accumulated 50 years worth of dust when Tom bought it in 2006. Soon afterward, the car won the prestigious Bruce Meyer Hot Rod Preservation Award at the 2007 Grand National Roadster Show.

Some of his other Fords include Steve Saleen's first Mustang race car (that started life as a Capri) and the first 1985 Saleen Mustang production car (that was also the first 1986 production car), a 1966 AC Cobra 427 that he has owned since the early '70s, a 1956 Lincoln Continental that he bought from the Petersen Automotive Museum in honor of his dad, and a 1964 Galaxie 427.

Other notable vehicles were Mickey Thompson's Salton City 500 race boat christened "Babe" after his sister, the "Goldenrod" streamliner built and raced by the engineer at Coors Brewing that designed the aluminum can, a front-engine dragster raced by "Little" Tommy Larkin and Al Weiss (that one lucky club member got to sit in as they fired it up), a 1959 Porsche 356A Roadster given to him as a gift by the Porsche IMSA team for all his years of service before they went big time, and a stock 1951 Volkswagon Beetle with original mohair upholstery. There were more cars I'm not even mentioning, and a few that weren't even at the garage, plus plenty of vintage posters, models, toys, and records that accented the whole building. The day was topped off with some 24" pizza from Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzaria and some wildly popular molasses cookies. To hear the stories of how many of these vehicles came to be in Tom's possession just makes you shake your head; no one can be that serendipitous, can they?

COCOA Concours de Nice

Sunday, June 14, 2009 - Costa Mesa, CA

2009 Concours de Nice winner: Best of Show

Earlier today Les and Chad showed off Dr. Miller's Thunderbird racecar and the Falcon at the Cobra Club's annual Concours de Nice car show at Park Mall in front of the Westin Hotel across the street from South Coast Plaza. The Thunderbird was up against some stiff competition in the Competition class which included a '67 Cougar, and a couple of late model Mustangs. I thought the T-Bird had a good chance, but Stockwell's '65 Shelby Mustang Replica took home the trophy. The Falcon on the other hand has a tradition of receiving second place to a Thunderbird in the Special Interest class. This year one of those Thunderbirds was entered again along with a '65 Galaxie, but none of us gathered enough votes. Instead second place went to Tom's green '66 Fairlane GT, and a beautiful red '40 Ford with ghost flames and shiney flathead in the engine compartment. It was another tough loss for the ol' Bird of Prey which pulled out all the stops this year: clay bar treatment, waxed all the way around, and longboard prop (of which it did receive an Honorable Mention for best use of a surfboard).

Although we didn't win any trophys or raffle prizes, it was a good day: it didn't mist on the morning drive over like it usually does, it wasn't too hot or too chilly, there were lots of beautiful and unique Fords, as well as great people to hang out with. Then, to put an exclamation point on the day, the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2009 NBA Championship! The Purple Reign is back!

Team Jerome Sets Record Time at TTC

Thursday, June 11, 2009 - Hollister, CA

Travelling halfway across the country from his home in Blue Springs, Missouri, Les' nephew Brett Jerome is currently in Hollister - a town known more for motorcycles than rock-crawlers. Brett was selected as a finalist in the Four Wheeler Magazine 2009 Top Truck Challenge taking place June 8-12. His 2008 Jeep TJ buggy was the #2 vote-getter. On Monday, Brett and his team won the Frame Twister event, and today they set a new course record of 6:08 minutes in the Tank Trap event. Congratulations Team Jerome. Keep up the good work.
Click here for more details and updates on the Top Truck Challenge.

A Racecar-Themed Birthday

Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Costa Mesa, CA

Party guests pose with a real racecar

Les spent part of the afternoon today at Heller Park in Costa Mesa adding some "vroom" to a racecar-themed birthday party. Jett, the young birthday boy, celebrated his fourth year with a racecar bounce house, a Lego car building station with mini ramp to race them down, face painting, and cupcakes each with their own plastic racecar topper. Rounding out the theme was a real racecar! That's right, the Nimmo Machine Mustang was the hit of party... well, after the bounce house at least. All the party guests got to take the checkered flag while sitting in the racecar to have their picture taken, and some even wore Les' helmet. Jett's mom celebrated her "labor" day by jumping in the car for a picture too. We hope all the kids had a fun time (especially our neighbor Blake), and wish Jett a happy birthday.

Fabulous Fords Forever

Sunday, April 19, 2009 - Buena Park, CA

This particular Mustang really stood out amongst the others

Today we walked around an overflow parking lot for Knott's Berry Farm and looked at nothing but Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, and other Ford-powered cars at the 24th Annual Fabulous Fords Forever. Although it seems to always be extremely warm at this car show, it was un-seasonly hot this year, reaching 100° in neighboring Anaheim. As always, the Mustang and Bronco sections grew the most. With so many Mustangs, it's easy to get sick of looking at them, but there are always some that standout more than others, and those are the ones that keep you looking. There were some great individuals cars in the class, but what really caught my eye this year was the eight or so real '80s CHP Mustang Interceptors parked together. Let me tell you... that is a bad ass vehicle there. Not too many get away from them. The Ford Racing booth was showing off their modular crate motors, and had a hotrod sporting an aluminum Cammer engine. I was also able to grab a poster of their 2002 concept car FR100. We found a Saleen Focus ZX5. I didn't even know they made a Saleen Focus. At the end of our walk, the Ford booth was showing a new Focus coupe wearing a 3dCarbon Euro-styling kit. They may be on to something here.

Overall, the show seemed smaller than previous years. Some groups of cars were set up in the main lot instead of the side areas they usually are. And even though there were more Mustangs than ever (it was an anniversary year), some cars were way under represented. I saw only one Cortina, and do not recall seeing any Merkurs, Edsels, or even '50s-era Rancheros. It was odd, but maybe I just missed them. There were a lot of cars.

Cal Poly to Compete in Eco-marathon Americas

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - San Luis Obispo, CA

A team of students from Cal Poly SLO, Chad's college alma mater, will be competing in the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on April 16-18. This year the Cal Poly entry, known as Black Widow, will attempt to top its 2008 second place finish of 2,752.3 miles per gallon. Wait… that was second place?! The "Supermileage" team is up against 51 other high school and college teams from North and South America. Go Mustangs!
Click here for more details on the team and the event.

That Guy Can Go; That Cat Called Domino

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - Costa Mesa, CA

This past October, the Falcon was used as a prop for a film student's class project. His project was making a music video for the Roy Orbison song "Cat Called Domino". The Falcon worked two days of principle shooting; one in the parking lot of the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, and one driving around Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. I recently found the finished video on YouTube.
Watch the '64 Bird of Prey in action here.

Model A Club Pancake Breakfast

Sunday, March 29, 2009 - Orange, CA

Today instead of our traditional Sunday morning waffles, we headed over to Hart Park in the City of Orange for the 48th Annual OC Model A Ford Club Pancake Breakfast. It was pretty crowded with approximately 240 Model A's, about 20 Model T's, and around 60 or so other classic Fords. There were coupes, sedans, panels, trucks, hot rods, stocks, flatheads, OHV 4s, and everything in between (check out the "car shows" photo album to see a few of 'em). And you couldn't beat the price; the car show was free and breakfast was only $5. It wasn't the best breakfast ever, but hey, you're paying five bucks to a car club, what do you expect... Eggs Benedict and Momosas? Some of the other classics that were there included a few Thunderbirds, some '50 Fords, '40 Fords, '34 Fords, and '30s-era Lincolns. It could have been a touch warmer, but regardless it was a pretty good start to the day.

COCOA Driver Training at Willow Springs

Thursday, March 26, 2009 - Rosamond, CA

This past Tuesday, Les participated as an instructor at the COCOA Open Track and Driver Training Day. It was a beautiful day at the "Fastest Track in the West" with clear skies and no wind (which is rare at Willow Springs). After a morning classroom session where the drivers were giving safety information and shown the apex of each turn, it was time to put the new-found knowledge to work out on the track. Les did ride-arounds with Don in his Mustang, and Jeff and Delvin in their respective Cobras. Overall, it was a fun day with lots of track time, a few spins, some engines problems, and everybody eventually clipping the dirt in the turns. No late braking in Turn 1 though; the teacher doesn't reveal all his secrets.

COCOA New Member Cruise

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - Costa Mesa, CA

The Thunderbird and the Falcon participated in the Cobra Owners Club 2nd Annual New Member Cruise this past Saturday. The cruise was established to celebrate and introduce any recently joined members to the guys that have been around for awhile. The Club met in the morning at the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana, and after the route maps were handed out to everyone, we headed up the 55 Fwy to catch the 91 Fwy over to the 15 Fwy.

Filling up the Parking Lot at Tom's Farms

Off the 15 South we made our first pit stop at Tom's Farms on Temescal Canyon Road in Corona. After a quick walk through the candy shoppe, produce market, and wine & cheese store, the club filed out of the parking lot and back onto the freeway making our way to the Ortega Highway. Winding up the Eastside of the Santa Ana Mountains, past the famous Lookout Roadhouse and through the Cleveland National Forest, we eventually arrived back at the ocean and our second pit stop at Mariner's Village near Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. We were running a little behind schedule, so once everyone regrouped we were off again for a short stint up Pacific Coast Highway, eventually turning East and making our way to the 5 Fwy.

The San Diego Freeway North to the 405 Fwy completed the cruise with the final stop at club member Paul Westberg's "clubhouse" in Costa Mesa. All the cruise cars were on show along with some others that were already there including a racing Cougar, pristine Candy Apple Red T-bird, a custom-built Cobra Daytona Coupe, and an overhauled original Mini Cooper. The hosts were serving up hamburgers and hotdogs, salad and soda. There were awards for the "Black Glove" car show, and competitions around Willow Springs in the two state-of-the-art racing simulators (I wish they'd had a post-mortem Riverside Int'l program; that would have been cool). And of course there was plenty of car discussion. As the afternoon wore on, the shop was set back to normal and the cars in the parking lot slowly dissipated back their garages. Some louder than others.

Website Gets a New Paint Job

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - Costa Mesa, CA

Original layout of nimmo-machine.com

The official website for Nimmo Machine Vintage Racing (or as I like to call it: dad's race car), has been overhauled! A new design, new layout, and new features (with more to come). As you can see by the picture to the right, the previous design was a little old and stale. I've used my recent "time-off" work to learn new techniques for improving the site. This is a soft launch as I work on adding archive and videos pages, as well as RSS and comments features. Right now you can check out the updated 2009 schedule, an all-new photo gallery with pictures hosted on Flickr, and a tribute to Chuck Daigh (an underappreciated fabricator and racer of his era, and a friend of Les' for over 20 years). Oh, and as you may have noticed, the site is in a blog format now, so check back to read about what's been going on with the race car and the family's other classic Fords. Thanks for your support.