Each year, we get tons of entries into our annual photo contest, and there are usually a good number of hot rodding fans of the fairer sex who send in photos too. Our photo contest story ran in the Jan. ’12 issue, but we saved our young ladies for the onset of summertime. Just so you know, the Hot Rodding Hotties serve as the official beginning of summer, so get out there and start driving your street machine today. None of us is getting any younger. Get your street machine out on the road and who knows, you just might find the perfect hottie to pose with your ride for next year’s story!
Mayumi Masuda, 42 • Honolulu, HI
“Lincoln” is an ironic name for someone who’s such a die-hard Camaro guy, but Lincoln Masuda has no problem with it, and neither does his beautiful wife, Mayumi. Lincoln has owned this ’69 Camaro SS/RS since 1983, when he attended Creighton University in Omaha. We were digging his story about his stock but well-optioned daily driver SS/RS, right up to the point where he wrote about driving it from Nebraska to Hawaii in 1994. That’s some kind of special car you’ve got there, Lincoln! We’ve yet to run across a hot rod that could be driven across the Pacific, but who knows? Lincoln’s magical abilities might explain how he came to find the company of his lovely hot rodding Mayumi, who hails all the way from Tokyo. The couple lives on the island of Oahu, where they enjoy lots of fair-weather motoring with three wonderful daughters. Lincoln and Mayumi love doing the cruise-in thing, and regularly support their local drives for the Hawaii Food Bank and Toys For Tots. Lincoln’s other daily driver? A Lincoln maybe? Nah. It’s a ’98 Corvette pace car convertible.
Anastasia Kuzyk • Wilno, ON, Canada
When Anastasia Kuzyk asked her friend Ralph Albano if he was going to make his car all original or into a hot rod, he knew right away that it had to be on the spicy side. Ralph calls the make and model of his car a “Custom Hot Rod,” but we know even in Canada it’s called a ’67 Malibu—which he transformed into a Sunburst Orange Pearl Chevelle SS clone at the behest of his young friend, Anastasia. Although mostly stock underhood (it’s got a Carter four-barrel carb on a stock 327ci small-block), Ralph spared no expense on a coilover conversion kit and 17x8 American Racing billet five-spokes. With mirror flat paint, striking hood graphics, and some serious rolling stock, it’s no surprise the Malibu’s first car show outing in Niagara Falls, Canada, netted the 62-year-old Ralph a huge First Place trophy.
Hannah Britt-Baker Damascus, MD
Cindy Shifflett of Brunswick, Maryland, loves tooling around in her totally restored ’77 Pontiac Trans Am—but that’s not her in the photo, it’s her 19-year-old friend, Hannah Britt-Baker from nearby Damascus. (Another friend, DiAnna Reynolds, took the photos. We wish we could’ve been there for that threesome photo shoot!) Cindy’s 461ci Poncho has stock Butler-ported heads, a COMP .481-inch lift cam, an Edelbrock intake, the stock Turbo 350 trans, and was fittingly shot at Hannah’s horse farm. In case you haven’t figured it out, Hannah is role-playing Sally Field’s “Frog” role from Smokey & The Bandit—and she’s doing it to a T. Like Sally Fields, Hannah has a down-home flare; she’s a good ol’ country girl who likes farm life and barrel racing. As for the Trans Am, Cindy says it’s just one of 743 cars made that year with no T-tops and the Pontiac 400 engine.
’53 Chevy Bel Air
Anne Dahle • Oslo, Norway
When mechanic and hobby photographer Kari Kaldahl found out about the PHR photo contest, she made two calls—one to her friend Dag Sandnes (owner of this fine four-door ’53 Chevy Bel Air), and the other to her best friend and hobby model, Anne Dahle. In Kari’s letter, she describes both Anne (47) and the Bel Air (now 59) as looking young and fresh because they’ve both been well cared for, and share a lot of pride and self esteem. Car owner Dag says that the Bel Air came to Norway in 1958 with his uncle, who left the car with Dag upon his death in 1993. After a lengthy restoration between 1997 and 2000, Dag has driven it every day, in spite of it looking like it never leaves the garage. He even brought the Bel Air to America on vacation in 2006 for a ride down historic Route 66—a leisurely cruise down the streets of Beverly Hills being among the highlights. (Why no drive through Bel Air? We’ll never know.)
Jillian Carlson • Southington, CT
Car owner Matthew Ehmka doesn’t say much about his model, Jillian Carlson, other than she is a friend of a friend who loves the car, and really digs the idea of being in Popular Hot Rodding. (Here’s your big chance, Jillian!) Matthew’s ’05 CTS-V, however, is not your run-of-the-mill LS6-powered Caddy. Having purchased the repossessed CTS-V from a bank in Texas for pennies on the dollar, Matthew had a few dinero leftover for a Magnuson MP112 blower, Kook’s 1⅞-inch headers, a Z06 clutch assembly, MSD coils, starter, and voltage booster, and a bigger in-tank fuel pump. Instant gratification? Uh, not exactly. The combo threw a ton of codes, and only after shelling out another $800 on some custom tuning did the Caddy throw down 450 hp to the wheels. Finally, Matthew’s CTS-V was laying down some serious snot, but alas, the happy automotive situation must come to an end. Supporting his two daughters and paying for a fresh master’s degree forces him to sell it. Oh well, at least this story will allow Matthew to fondly remember the one that got away!
Kimmi Harmon • Damascus, MD
Reader Kregg Reynolds of Knoxville, Maryland, always sends us plenty of cool cars (mostly Pontiacs … ) with hot ladies—let’s just say it looks like he’s leading the life we all dream of! This year, Kregg sent pics of a ’79 Trans Am he pulled out of the woods six years ago. It was covered in leaves, but Kregg still saw a lot of potential in it. After striking a deal with the owner, he stripped the whole car down, inside and out. Then, Kregg added a built 355ci small-block Chevy (Dart 215 heads, Doug Herbert solid-lifter cam, Strip Dominator intake, and 850 HP carb), a 700-R4 overdrive automatic with 3,000-stall converter, and 4.11 gears in back. “My goal with this car was to make it run faster but to have a stock appearance—sorry, no Pontiac motor for me!” So far, Kregg’s ’79 has run a best of 12.19 (quarter-mile) on the motor, and 10.90 on the nitrous. That’s not bad for a $15,000 total investment. And Kregg’s model of choice this year? The lovely 21-year-old Kimmi Harmon!
’71 AMC Gremlin
Emily Kiessling • Waterloo, WI
Nineteen-year-old Emily Kiessling says she wishes her Gremlin had a 401 and ran 11-second quarter-mile e.t.’s, and that it had no body roll on a road course, but it doesn’t. Nevertheless, she says she was the only eighth grader with a car, and that alone makes up for a whole host of performance deficiencies in our book. Emily picked up this particular Gremlin in her freshman year. The Wisconsin car, says Emily, was unusually mint: “Normally a Wisconsin car would be toast, but the guy who inherited it went to prison and the car spent its life in a barn.” Since nicknamed “Fred,” Emily’s Gremmy was voted coolest car in her high school, mostly due to Emily’s hard work disassembling, sanding, painting, and restoring the AMC (of course, with her dad’s help). The green straight-six Gremlin was restored just in time for Emily to go to college, and was, in fact, the subject of her entrance exam essay. Apparently, it made quite an impression, as the dean mentioned it specifically in his annual freshman orientation speech!
BobbiLynn Gutermuth Washington, IL
When car owner Chuck Grice purchased his ’67 Chevy Impala from the original owner in 1979, it was painted black, had huge orange flames, and sported a red velour interior. “I can remember when taking my kids to school in it they wanted to be dropped off at least two blocks away so their friends wouldn’t see them get out,” Chuck writes. “It was strange looking and smoked a lot.” In the 32 years he’s owned it, Chuck (who hails from Canton, Illinois) has done extensive body, paint, and interior work to the fullsize Chevy, and added one of GM Performance Parts’ ZZ4 crate motors to the mix. We wish we knew more about the Impy’s model, 18-year-old BobbiLynn Gutermuth; all we can say is she’s a friend of the photographer, Mark Postin (57) of Plainfield, and you can see more of her at www.Facebook.com/BobbiGutermuth!
Rick Steere’s story on his 400ci ’67 GTO is just plain incredible. Twelve years ago, he got a call from his 65-year-old mother. Like a bolt from the blue, she decided she must have a classic GTO as a daily driver, and he needed to find one for her. (Hey, remember at the top of the story when we said none of us is getting any younger? At least someone is paying attention.) Rick didn’t think she was serious, but mom kept hounding him week after week, month after month. Finally, Rick saw a classified ad asking $10K for a ’67 GTO, and offered to take his mother out to look at it. Rick couldn’t wait to show her how crappy a $10K GTO would be—maybe it would finally dissuade her of the idea. But wouldn’t you know, the old Goat was in great condition (the car, silly), and she got the price down to $8,300! Rick’s mom drove it for the next five years just in the condition she bought it. Then Rick got a call from mom—she wanted to sell. Rick snagged it for $10K, then performed a full restoration—that’s how we see it now as modeled by Rick’s friend, 27-year-old Lily Broders.