Innehållsförteckning för September 2025 från Custom Car

Inductive As is the norm, the latest inductees to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame were announced over the Dragstalgia weekend. A full profile of each inductee is available on the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame website at www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk The new members listed below will be formally inducted at the Hall of Fame’s 2025 Awards Gala on Saturday 15 November at the Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey. Also to be honoured will be John Spuffard; selected for membership last year, John was unable to attend the Gala. Formally inducted in his absence, he will be accorded his due recognition on this forthcoming occasion. Kenny Coleman first encountered drag racing in the 1970s and has since been a respected figure on the scene, owning and racing cars and achieving…

Mid-June saw the third staging of Street Weekend, a drag racing event with a strong hint of a reliability run in the mix. The event has grown in popularity in a very short time and this time round, 176 vehicles had entered – although not all made it to the start and a few more failed to make it to the end. The mix of vehicles taking part was as varied as you can get, which made it all the more interesting. Support vehicles were allowed, as were trailers – with the strict exception of those capable of transporting cars. Rules as to what vehicles could enter were few and far between, with the main criteria being that they were street legal and fit for purpose. Any tyres were permitted,…

It took a long time from when Bob Hawkins first experienced drag racing to when he first took a trip down the quarter himself. But once he had taken the plunge, he was well and truly hooked! Back in 1973, the 16-year-old Bob was asked by a friend at work if he wanted to go along to Blackbushe – and he was well impressed by the sight and sound of Clive Skilton and Dennis Priddle smoking their fuel dragsters down the airfield track. While you could imagine a scenario of inspiring the young man to build a car to race, he actually had designs on Formula Ford – which is what he did for the next ten years, until a bad crash left him with smashed ankles. During this period,…

Rich Voyce’s Dad, Roy, always had cars about the place. He’d been a mechanic in the Army and wanted his son to have a steady, dependable job. Roy had a point and it’s been proven right, as Rich has always had work – as well as some cool cars. Some of them were a bit on the Max Power side of things, but in his defence it was the style of the time. He also built a very cool SoCal ’72 Beetle, which was sold to buy an ’82 W123 Mercedes-Benz which Rich fitted with a full set of hydraulics. That got him hooked on the lowrider scene, and it was only moved on to release funds when he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. This wasn’t an offer for…

When someone like Bryan Whitfield – the now ‘retired’ boss of Roberts Motor Bodies in Sheffield – says they plan to “chill out a bit”, you have to wonder who they’re trying to kid. People like Bryan don’t do chilling out, as proven by the fact that in addition to the truck featured here, we’ve already got another of his recent creations, which the majority of you won’t have seen, in stock for a future issue. “I’m retired now, I won’t be doing too many more,” he says, with that Sheffield twinkle in his eye. “I’m starting to feel it, I really am. I get up at 7 and think I’m 25 years old, but then by one o’clock I need an engine crane to get me up off the…

This year’s Main Event got underway properly on a sunny Friday morning with the Sportsman classes beginning their qualifying sessions in earnest. As this event marks the first round of the FIA/FIM European Championship, the biggest guns of all come out to play, making it a hugely popular event for spectators as the racers present knowing it’s all to play for. With close to 300 teams on site, representing all the major car and bike classes, it offers a drag racing fix unlike any other meet at Santa Pod, bar the European Finals in September. Filling the bill alongside Top Fuel Dragster, Top Fuel Bike, Funny Car Cup, Top Methanol, a huge 16-car Pro Mod grid and Pro Stock was a varied field of front and rear-wheel drive Comp Eliminator…

In the early 1980s, a young Paul Wilson was working as an HGV mechanic. In itself that is of no great interest to Custom Car readers, but it did teach him the way round a box of spanners. So much so that aged just 20, he embarked on his first hot rod build, a V8-powered Ford Pop. Running a de rigueur Viva IFS and Jag rear axle, Paul finished the Pop and joined the Steel City Cruisers members at the Donnie show in the late ‘80s. A few years later, Paul’s ride was a ’57 Chevy, a car he sold to one of the UK’s first big lottery winners. Ever the petrol head, Paul then got into split-screen VW camper vans, very heavily, as he ran a business sourcing and…

Event: Plus 44 Show Date: 1 June 2025 Venue: Hartham House Sunday 1 June saw the team behind Plus 44 Automotive stage their annual show. Held in the grounds of Hartham House in Wiltshire, the event once again failed to disappoint with the variety and quality of vehicles on show. Around 750 cars were on display, as usual parked at different angles and in different areas to give us photographers plenty of scope for creativity. A small area was set aside for the food court and licensed bar, and coffee vendors provided refreshments throughout the day. Cars in different areas were asked to be parked up by 9.30am, while the general public entered from 10am. In the classic section, the team of lowriders from Lay ’n’ Play put on displays…

Hi-de-Hi Although participants arrived throughout the week, and even stayed for longer in some cases, Monday was the official meet-and-greet arrival day. Rodders were directed to the NSRA show field, where a warm Cornish welcome awaited them. Following a couple of years in the wilderness, this spring the NSRA decided to put the fun back in the Fun Run. It was a brave move, not least because it was a week-long event. There was also the matter of it being staged in Cornwall, not exactly a central location. At least it meant participants would have to drive their cars – and drive them they did. Although the fun started on Monday and finished on Sunday, participants could arrive and depart on whatever days suited them best. Some attended for just…

Event: Barryfornia Date: 18 May 2025 Venue: Barry Island promenade What’s occurring? Back in May, Nessa may well have been asking exactly that – the answer being that Barry Island became home to the annual Barryfornia show. Held on the promenade along the seafront, the show was open to Volkswagens, American cars and bikes. Vehicles were asked to be parked up by 10am, when the show would officially open, after which the public could venture around and look at the variety of vehicles on show. The absolutely stunning weather brought people in their thousands down to the promenade, making it one of the busiest shows on record. Hosts Rothink, the clothing brand, had a stall selling some merchandise and a few other traders and local craft artisans were pitched up…