Green rolling hills, horse farms, soft spoken words, kind manners, and loads of hospitality would lull most folks into letting their guard down. But don't let the calm faade of a sleepy southern town like Bowling Green, Kentucky, fool you. Big mistake, especially if you're there to race at the NMCA's Seventh Annual NOS Nationals at Beech Bend Raceway. Hot cars, fast times, and big-money racing are a large part of the fabric of this small town, which is about an hour's drive north of Nashville, Tennessee.

It's the automotive equivalent to the circus coming to town. Every January, sellers, buyers, and window shoppers descend upon Scottsdale, Arizona, for the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction. Why? It's the biggest event of its type around. This year, 1,163 vehicles went before the gavel and over 280,000 visitors were there to see it happen. It's a car show with a catch: You can have any car for your very own, provided you have a bidder's card, and enough cash.

Building the winning Engine Masters Challenge motor means successfully applying theoretical knowledge. This sounds reasonable, but there are stumbling blocks-two, in fact. First, the theory has to be right, and secondly, it has to be functionally applied. Assuming the smarts for the first part, the second does not seem too difficult until a specific component is found not to function quite as well as hoped. At this point, things can get complex real fast. It's here that the difference between a totally theoretical engineer and a practical engineer really shines. If you've followed the EMC through the years, it's clear that whoever wins has to be well versed in both theory and practice. What we're going to do is start with applied theory and see how far it will take us before we run into a problem that might derail a winning combination and force us to make a hardware compromise to get better results.

If drag racing is like wine and cheese, then bracket racing is beer and pretzels. It's racing for your average Joe who doesn't have the long green for a full race team or the patience for the rules that the big racers have to deal with. It's a run-what-ya-brung deal, where you show up with a car and make your best guess at e.t. Cut a good light, beat the other guy to the end of the track, and you win. Just don't go faster than your dial-in.

Heads-up street car racing has seen many twists and turns over the last decade and a half. Organizations have come and gone, street cars have morphed into purpose-built machines for specific classes, and costs have grown nearly as quickly as the performances themselves.

The 2007 Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge was the forum for the recent shootout of factory-based musclecar engines, where the country's top builders duked it out for $192,000 in contingency prize money. With that kind of cash on the line, guys were going to put their best foot forward and employ every legal trick in the book.

No one knew just how this would play out. The Engine Masters Challenge was now into its sixth year, and it seemed like we've never had so many unknown variables. Gone was the simple formula of setting down an engine size for our builders to build to. Cubic inches were open to any factory combination over a 300-cid minimum. But we knew what we wanted-factory muscle duking it out against factory muscle, just as it was back in the day. I can remember lining up my 440-equipped Charger against 350 Camaros or 396 Chevelles. It's universal to anyone who has been immersed in the performance culture, and it always came down to what's under the hood. Sometimes even back then, there were surprises when engine-building skill put an edge on an underdog, and sometimes that skill was enough to bag the glory from established rivals.

Ask that punk Darwin for a refund. Come early October in Texas, it's still hot as hell. As an incessant stream of sweat dribbles down your forehead, your eyebrows struggle to keep the stingy fluid off of your eyeballs. Shouldn't our species have adapted to this sort of thing by now? Not a problem for us, though. You don't need any more compelling reason to voluntarily subject yourself to that sort of suffering than the Super Chevy Show. Despite what might seem like bad seasonal timing, hoards of Texans flocked to San Antonio Raceway to witness some of the baddest street/strip Chevys in the state throw down.

January generally means that most of the country is buried in snow, but out in Southern California, it just means that it's time for that annual pilgrimage of shiny cars to the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS). This year it was once again held at the Pomona Fairgrounds, and since it's held indoors, even some unseasonable rain didn't slow things down. About 600 cars were on display in and around the buildings of the fairgrounds and PHR was there with our cameras to capture some of the glittering rides.

Going to MATS requires cruising over to The Cannery for some evening entertainment, and it also means chilling with old friends (and some new ones) at the Golden Skillet Restaurant just across from the track. As we ransacked the buffet, we kept getting stares. (Did I have a string of cheese on my chin?) We'd been found out for the mag guys we were, and settled into some great conversation. We'd seen Jim LaRoy's Duster on the trailer in the parking lot, and he was now in our face with the December 1982 issue of PHR. His dad, Bill "Pop" LaRoy, had built a 630hp 440 Wedge for us back then, and Jim wanted to do some catching up. We found out that "Pop" has left us, but Jim is still wrenching, and he's the spitting image of his dad.

Indianapolis, Indiana, is best known for the Brickyard and its famous races like the Indy 500 and, for a short time, the recent Formula One race, but there's another track in the area that deserves attention. That place is O'Reilly Raceway Park (ORP), and gearheads have been drag racing there for nearly 50 years. It does not get the press that the Brickyard enjoys, and it'll never host a quarter million fans, but it has something the other track lost a long time ago: grassroots real-deal racing. While the Brickyard is for spectators, ORP is for drivers who live for the smell of burning race gas and melted rubber.

People love to quote chapter and verse about how fast their street cars are. You know 'em-and you may even be one of them. These Internet jockeys whip out handy dyno numbers and e.t.'s at the slightest provocation, clogging up message boards with enough virtual hot air to launch a Saturn V rocket. This story isn't about those people, it's about a class of racer-the street fighter-who practices what he preaches. He does it on the street, at the track, and with just one machine. This is NMCATrue Street.

Very few events offer the range of activity that the Year One Experience offers. Probably the thing that comes closest to The Experience is the Hot Rod Power Tour, but it still lacks the drag racing and road racing elements. Truly, the Year One Experience, held every spring at venues surrounding Year One's Braselton, Georgia, facility, is a one-of-a-kind deal.

The MSD True Street Challenge must be the most unique racing class in the country. In its 14-year history, the rules haven't changed one bit, and the performance of the cars hasn't slipped inexorably into the realm of absurdity, either, like so many other "street" classes. We've seen it happen every year-a really cool class starts out as a grassroots deal, and ends up as rich-guy racing by the end of the season.

The MSD True Street Challenge must be the most unique racing class in the country. In its 14-year history, the rules haven't changed one bit, and the performance of the cars hasn't slipped inexorably into the realm of absurdity, either, like so many other "street" classes. We've seen it happen every year-a really cool class starts out as a grassroots deal, and ends up as rich-guy racing by the end of the season.

Big-money rides get all the press, but there are real deals to be found at the Barrett-Jackson auction. Maybe it's a car someone dumped $100,000 into, and you can steal it for $50,000. Or it could be something costing less than your average Honda Civic. At this year's Scottsdale, Arizona, auction, 187 cars sold for under $25,000, 28 of which went for less than $10,000. But don't bother looking for these deals on the tube-the producers don't seem to share our opinion that a '74 Duster gaveled-out at $7,000 is "must-see TV."

If you know NASCAR, you know California Speedway in Fontana, California. Twice a year, the roundy-round faithful descend in droves to root for their favorite heavily endorsed logo-emblazoned hero. They don't even realize that there's more than 1,320 feet of freshly paved dragstrip tucked away at the back of the facility-but we do. Apparently, Super Chevy knows this as well, since they've moved their event from the historic Pomona Raceway to these new Fontana digs.

Sema Goes WildIt's that magical time of the year again where industry insiders, and those sly enough to sneak in, attend the automotive event known as SEMA. The Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association's show in Las Vegas has something for everyone-from the really cool, to the truly bizarre. It's a week of booth girls, killer rides, and hanging out with other gearheads. It's like automotive heaven with heaps of neon. Here are just a few random shots from the miles of aisles. Be sure to check out www.popularhotrodding.com for more Sema images.

Hot rodding is a lot like life: you pretty much get out of it what you put into it. Go to any event and check out the car show to see what I mean. In no time flat, you'll be drowning in a sea of highly polished restos with Cabbage Patch Kids Velcro'd to their grilles-none of which could lay down rubber before incurring coronary blockage in its owner. For the rest of us who prefer to enjoy the hobby while awake, drag racing is the preferred venue.

The Chicago bedroom hamlet of Joliet, Illinois, is more than the location from the cult classic, "Blues Brothers," it happens to host one of the country's most state-of-the-art drag racing facilities in the form of Route 66 Raceway. Amid the cornfields and down the road apiece from the state prison made infamous by Jake and Elwood Blues, you'll find this drag racer's oasis.

Dozens of musclecars descended on the rolling hills of Tennessee for the second annual Run Through the Hills event. Unlike a static car show, this deal was geared toward those who actually want to drive their rides, hard. Friday featured a cruise through the Smokey Mountains, followed by some Southern-style BBQ and hanging out. Saturday was spent at the 411 Dragway where street and strip cars battled on the 1/8-mile dragstrip, many for the first time. On Sunday, the cars moved next door to the auto-X course for more motoring madness. The course was actually a modified banked high-speed oval racetrack with an X in the infield. This made for a wild auto-X track that actually incorporated the high-speed banks into the course. Over 75 cars participated in the activities, and the event promises to be even larger next year.

Hot rodding is a lot like life: you pretty much get out of it what you put into it. Go to any event and check out the car show to see what I mean. In no time flat, you'll be drowning in a sea of highly polished restos with Cabbage Patch Kids Velcro'd to their grilles-none of which could lay down rubber before incurring coronary blockage in its owner. For the rest of us who prefer to enjoy the hobby while awake, drag racing is the preferred venue. But drag racing can take its toll in the payment of lost "utility" for its owner. To some of us, it's hardly fun drag racing if it means taking your pride and joy off the street. Building a dedicated race car can have certain rewards, but this by nature excludes such high jinks as toying with fart-pipe Hondas at the stoplight on your way to the Frampton concert; or lighting your plant in a crowded parking lot and hearing car alarms go off; or yanking Third and sucking the weather stripping out of a Porsche turbo.

Not long after the headers had coole from last year's event, the stage was set for this year's 5th Anniversary Engine Masters Challenge. We ran small-blocks in the debut year, followed by big-blocks, and then flip-flopped from small- to big-blocks in the two subsequent years. Popular Hot Rodding Editor Johnny Hunkins and I had been contemplating the basic configuration for the next competition, playing out the potential scenarios in typical gearhead jawboning fashion. The natural question we had been hearing from the competitors was whether it would be big-blocks or small-blocks for 2006. A little contemplation brought us both to the same conclusion: Why not run both?

Not long after the headers had coole from last year's event, the stage was set for this year's 5th Anniversary Engine Masters Challenge. We ran small-blocks in the debut year, followed by big-blocks, and then flip-flopped from small- to big-blocks in the two subsequent years. Popular Hot Rodding Editor Johnny Hunkins and I had been contemplating the basic configuration for the next competition, playing out the potential scenarios in typical gearhead jawboning fashion. The natural question we had been hearing from the competitors was whether it would be big-blocks or small-blocks for 2006. A little contemplation brought us both to the same conclusion: Why not run both?

Bristol Dragway is one of the few tracks that truly make their fans and racers feel at home. A thoroughly modern facility houses multiple concessions, spotless restrooms, acres of paved pits, world-class night lighting, friendly track workers, air-conditioned suites-even showers for the racers and campers, but it's the dragstrip's outstanding starting-line bite that the racers crave, and get, at Bristol.