Shows & Swap Meets

As wintertime creeps in each year, we know that the SEMA Show welcomes us to sunny Las Vegas, Nevada for a week of automotive overload! We spend months planning for the SEMA Show, and it deserves all the attention we give it...this is the largest automotive trade show in the world, with over 200,000 people in attendance. We make it a point to debut new products at the SEMA Show, and of course, touch base with dozens of dealers and distributors while we're at the show. It's also a place to pick up on the latest trends of the automotive aftermarket, so we always come back to Tennessee with a bunch of pictures and notes to refresh our memories, as it can all turn into one big blur by the time the week is over. We spotted lots of great cars, trucks and motorcycles with Coker Tire products, so check out some of our favorites, and stay tuned to our blog as we continue to announce new products for 2020. 

Several months ago, we heard about the Chattanooga MotorCar Festival and all of the big plans that the DeFoor Brothers had in the works. Since we have some experience organizing car events here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, we knew they would face some obstacles, but their passion and level of investment (both time and money) would carry them through to the finish line. The end result was a spectacular display of automotive history on the streets of Chattanooga. The event featured European sports cars and road race cars to vintage Corvettes, hot rods, classics and more. Along with the many styles of cars on display, there were also many ways that participants could enjoy the event. Friday featured time trials racing on Riverfront Parkway and a Cars & Coffee event to get things started. Both days of the event featured the "High Jinks Rallye", which featured a countryside course designed from our Coker Tire Challenge routes. On Saturday, the West Village area of Chattanooga filled with historic

It's hard to believe that five years have already passed and we're celebrating the success of the 5th annual Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals. The American Tri-Five Association puts on a tremendous event that draws nearly 3,000 1955 through 1957 Chevrolets to historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. While some folks might think that 3,000 of the "same car" would be repetitive and boring, the Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals is anything but that. With so many trim variations, and build styles, the event truly shows the diversity of the platform. We're always blown away with the number of cars and trucks on hand with Coker Tire products. The cars range from low-mileage survivors and pure stock restorations to wild customs, gassers and everything in between. Check out our favorites and mark your calendars for August 13-15, 2020 for next year's celebration of all things Tri-Five Chevy!

Every year on Father's Day Weekend, thousands of hot rodders converge on the car-crazy town of Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. The event is held at the historic Beech Bend Raceway Park, and features a huge car show, swap meet, and of course, drag racing. With thousands of cars on the property, we had a hard time narrowing it down to our favorite Coker-equipped hot rods, customs, gassers, muscle cars and more, but check out our gallery and find your favorites. While you're at it, make a mental note for Father's Day weekend 2020, as the Hot Rod Reunion will return back to Bowling Green for another year of fun with hot rods. 

There are many advantages to living near the Smoky Mountains. One is the epic scenery that is a short drive from our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The other is the proximity to Pigeon Forge, a tourist town that is host to nearly a dozen car and truck shows per year. Ranging from small club-style events to giant events that take over the entire town, Pigeon Forge seems to be a popular place for gear heads to assemble. We had the opportunity to check out the Grand National F-100 Reunion this year, and enjoyed every minute of it. The LeConte Center was packed (inside and out) with classic trucks, ranging from restored stockers to wild customs and everything in between. We even saw some nicely restored commerical pickups, 4x4's and more in the show field. With vendors, a big swap meet and hundreds of F-100 pickups, this event had it all for a vintage truck enthusiast. Even if you aren't a diehard Ford guy, you should check out this event. We spotted quite a few trucks rolling

Every year, we make the short drive up to Knoxville, Tennessee to the NSRA Street Rod Nationals South. We typically just sneak away from the office to photograph a few cars for our magazine ads and catalogs, and it certainly beats a day in the office! This event has been going on for more than 40 years, and has been held at Chilhowee Park in Knoxville for 35 of those years...the Nats South was previously held in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The event features a great venue, with shade trees, and lots of awesome parking areas. The event has all that you'd expect from the NSRA--lots of street rods, vendors, a swap meet and now an autocross course, which they call the Streetkhana. Take a look at some of our favorite Coker-equipped vehicles on display and be sure to check out an NSRA event near you!

For the last 13 years, the folks at Paradise Drag Strip have teamed up with BB Brown to create the Paradise Show N Go. This series of events encompasses nostalgia drag racing on the historic eighth-mile drag strip, as well as a car show and a massive swap meet. It's just down the road from us in Calhoun, Georgia so we try to check it out as often as our schedule allows. What we didn't realize is that this would be the final Paradise Show N Go event, as BB Brown retired and sold his event promotion business to fellow hot rodders Sam and Austin Patrick. They will continue to have the same types of events, and what was previously known as the Show N Go will now be called "Thrills on the Hill". The events always have a good mixture of traditional hot rods, gassers and all things nostalgia, but three particular hot rods really got our attention during the March Show N Go event and they just happened to be equipped with Coker Tire products (imagine that!). Let's take a look and see what

The evolution of the Chattanooga Cruise In has shocked everyone on the Coker Tire staff. We designed this event to be a casual hang out for car enthusiasts, and it has turned into quite the spectacle. Its intense growth led us to the decision of moving the event from the streets of downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee to Camp Jordan, a giant park on the East side of town. While hesitant to move the event away from our headquarters, we also knew that a larger venue was necessary to accomodate the big crowds. The good news is that the folks from East Ridge Parks & Rec welcomed us with open arms, and most cruise in participants were glad to hear that we were making more room. We had a great plan for our vendors and sponsors inside the Camp Jordan Arena, and we thought there would be PLENTY of room outisde for a swap meet, participant parking and spectator parking.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, the cars began arriving at around 5:30am to unload, clean up and find a spot. It was apparent

There's nothing we love more than the first sign of spring, and for us, that usually means hopping in an old car and driving to a car show. Here in Tennessee, the first events usually kick off in mid-March, and the Corvette Expo in Pigeon Forge is almost always on our radar. It's a fun event with cars, vendors, a swap meet and lots of fun for all types of Corvette (and Chevy) enthusiats. This year, along with the Corvette extravaganza, Byron Cooper and event organizers put together the Chevelles in the Smokies exhibit as part of the indoor display at the Corvette Expo. This exhibit brought together 18 of the finest Chevelles East of the Mississippi, and many of them were wearing our tires! We were pleased to see that the Best in Show was wearing a set of our Firestone Wide Oval Radial redline tires and Rallye wheels, an excellent combo! Other notable cars in the Chevelles in the Smokies exhibit was a pair of 1966 Chevelles owned by Terry Davis. Both cars were rolling on Firestone 775-14

When the new year rolls around, that means it's time for the O'Reilly Auto Parts World of Wheels indoor auto show to come to town. The event is held just about a block away from our headquarters here in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee so it's a no brainer for us to swing by and check it out. We walked the aisles of cars, trucks and motorcycles, and picked out a few of our favorite Coker-equipped rides to display here. Take a look at the highlights and be sure to check out an indoor car show near you during the winter months.

When we became the Exclusive Tire and Wheel Sponsor of Mecum Auctions last year, we were blown away with the attendance and excitement at Mecum's first event of the year in Kissimmee, Florida. This event draws thousands of cars to the auction block, with tens of thousands of people making their way to join the bidding action. For 2019, we were pumped to be going back to the Sunshine State in January. As soon as our feet hit the ground, it was clear there were LOTS of heavy hitters going up for auction. The Shelby GT500 Super Snake, a GT40 Roadster, and some of the world's finest and rarest Chevrolet muscle cars just to name a few examples. Corvettes are always popular at collector car auctions and this event was no different, with dozens of six-figure examples, including a beautiful white 1963 Corvette Z06. Take a look at some of our favorite Coker-equipped vehicles at the 2019 Mecum Kissimmee auction and be sure to check out a Mecum Auction near you!

The Chattanooga Cruise In is back again for 2019! Mark your calendars for Saturday March 30th, 2019, as we begin a new era of the Chattanooga Cruise In. If you've participated in our event in the past, then you know that part of the cool factor was parking on the streets surrounding our headquarters in downtown Chattanooga. But you probably also experienced some traffic problems, or were even turned away when we reached capacity. This problem is only going to get worse in this part of town, as apartment complexes and new businesses are popping up everywhere. We want the event to continue growing, and we certainly don't want to exclude anyone from participating, so we are moving the event to Camp Jordan!

The giant park is across town, and it's large enough to hold all of the participating cars, spectator parking, vendors, and more on site. This is huge news for the event, allowing it to grow to its full potential. The event is from 8am until 4pm, and there will be plenty of action

A few years ago, we decided to host a toy drive for our local Toys for Tots chapter, and it has been a great experience. We have seen car guys and girls bring truck loads of toys, and donate hundreds of dollars to the cause, and it always puts a smile on our face. This event isn't about mass quanitites of cars, because to be honest, it doesn't draw near as big of a crowd as our spring time cruise in. But it does bring out some dedicated car enthusiasts, who are willing to brave some cold weather in order to donate to a good cause. We are so thankful for all of you for participating in this event. You helped us donate $2,400 and TEN giant boxes of toys to the Toys for Tots Foundation. The money and toys go to local families this Christmas and we're so proud to be a part of such a great cause. Take a look at some of the highlights from this event, and be sure to stay tuned for information on our upcoming cruise in events for 2019. 

The SEMA Show is the world's largest automotive trade show, and it's an event that we pour a bunch of time and engery into each year. This is the place to debut new products, showcase new builds and build relationships with future clients and customers. The event itself has grown over the years, and it has turned into a bucket list item for all car and truck enthusiasts, even though it is not open to the public. The exclusivity of the event makes it all the more appealing, so we do our best to cover it each year and show off some of the Coker-equipped rides on display. We have two booths at the event--one in the Central Hall in an area called "Hot Rod Alley" and another outside in the Silver Lot. This allows us to reach thousands of customers during the four-day event. In those booth setups, we display our newest products, as well as some of our best sellers, and we typically display a few vehicles to showcase those great products. This year, we had Rick Dore's Shangri-La 1936 Cadillac

2018 marks the 47th meet for Chief Blackhawk. Whether you’re looking for an old bike, parts or just want to go watch some racing, there is something for everyone in Davenport. Hosted at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, there is plenty of room to putt around the swap meet area on your bike, trike or whatever you brought. Spectators come from all over the world to flock here for 3 days of swap meets and other motorcycle related events. Coker Tire has been traveling to Davenport for many years, selling motorcycle tires, tubes and rims to the diehard folks who attend the show year after year. Let's take a look at some of our favorite Coker-equipped bikes, as documented by one of our sale representatives, Benjamin Battles who is pretty handy with a camera. Check it out.

Gene Harper’s 24 Indian Chief + Sidecar
Gene Harper stopped by the booth with his 1924 Indian Chief. Equipped with a correct Princess side car, he is planning on taking it to the

The Street Rod Nationals is a long standing "must see" event for anyone interested in street rods, custom cars, muscle cars and more. The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) is an organization formed to provide structured events that would eventually take the place of small town "rod runs" which were popular in the 1960's and 1970's. While we still love a small town car show, it's hard to argue with the formula that the NSRA put into place many years ago. Events like "The Nationals" offered plenty of incentive for folks to attend, so it became normal for street rodders to travel thousands of miles. The Street Rod Nationals eventually found a home in Louisville, Kentucky, a central location with a venue capable of handling the massive crowd of cars, vendors and people. This year is the 49th annual Street Rod Nationals, and we noticed a resurgence in attendance. The lots were packed with cars and spectators, and we're sure that the turnout will be even better next year for the big 50th

The Southeast Moparty Picnic is an event that raises money for the Greater Chattanooga Colon Cancer Foundation. It's a massive gathering of all things Mopar, and it includes an indoor car show display, a cruise in, swap meet, and vendors. The event continues to grow each year, and expanded to a two-day event this year with a full night of racing action at Brainerd Motorsports Park. The field of cars is diverse, ranging from '50s classics to modern Challengers, Vipers and more. Of course, we loved seeing the iconic muscle cars, including Chargers, 'Cudas, Road Runners and more. There were tons of Coker-equipped Mopars in the crowd, so take a look at our favorites and mark your calendar for next year. The event is always held on the Friday and Saturday of Mother's Day weekend.

We recently had the opportunity to make the short drive to Chilhowee Park in Knoxville, Tennessee for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals South. The venue is perfect for a rod run, and we always enjoy the variety of cars. This year, we spotted some fresh builds and LOTS of classic trucks mixed in with the traditional street rods. The weather hindered the turnout, but it was a great weekend of street rods, customs, muscle cars and more. Of course, we saw a bunch of cars and trucks rolling on Coker Tire products, so we snapped pictures as we made our way around the show. Check out our favorite Coker-equipped vehicles from the show. [caption id="attachment_9101" align="alignleft" width="780"] It's hard to beat a mid '60s Corvette convertible. This one is rolling on a set of our

For the hot rod and custom world, there are a handful of iconic shows that bring out the best this hobby and lifestyle has to offer. The Grand National Roadster Show is certainly toward the top of that list, as it features hundreds of high end hot rods, customs and more on the grounds of the Pomona Fairplex. The Grand National Roadster Show is home to several highly coveted awards, including the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. This 9-foot trophy is a legendary piece of hot rod history and having your name etched into it is one of the highest achievements any owner or builder can reach. While the AMBR award gets a lot of attention, there are several buildings packed with awesome cars, all with unique features and histories. We always enjoy the Suede Palace, as all of the cars are either historic hot rods or historically accurate to the 1950's and 1960's. This year, the Grand National Roadster Show even had a building full of muscle cars, a new twist for the event. The muscle car

Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive 2017 -- The joy of helping others is something brings a smile to our faces, and it's a pretty common thread in the collector vehicle community. These old cars aren't necessary expenditures, so car people can spare a few bucks to help others. We wanted to give back to the community by hosting an annual toy drive event right here at our facility. Given the success of our Chattanooga Cruise In events, we knew this would be a great opportunity to get folks together and gather up some toys and donations for the local chapter Toys for Tots foundation. As with any November car event, the weather forecast was pretty iffy. In fact, there was a 90 percent chance of rain for Saturday, November 18th, which obviously affected the turnout of cars, but we still had more than 100 cars and trucks participate in the Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive. Thankfully, the rain held off long enough for us to have a great day on the streets of Chattanooga, watching the pile of toys

The SEMA Show is an annual spectacle of all things automotive, as the world's top auto manufacturers (both OEM and aftermarket) overtake the Las Vegas Convention Center for a week. And while the SEMA Show features hundreds of cars, trucks and other performance vehicles, it added another level of excellence by starting the SEMA Battle of the Builders. This competition is available for any display vehicle as the SEMA Show, and all participants are narrowed down to the Top 40, then the Top 12 by a selection of judges. Then, the Top 12 builders vote among themselves to determine the Top 3. The winner of the SEMA Battle of the Builders is crowned during the SEMA Ignited event on Friday evening, after the show closes. The SEMA Ignited event is open to the public, allowing car enthusiasts of all ages to check out the awesome vehicles. This year, the SEMA Battle of the Builders event came down to three awesome hot rods, all of which roll on Coker Tire products. Continue reading to check them out!

Day 2 of SEMA 2017 is in the books and we're already started on day 3! We started the day off with the annual SEMA Prayer Breakfast, which is organized and sponsored by Coker Group President and SEMA Chairman, Wade Kawasaki. After that, we were on our feet to see some of the finest automobiles, parts and people from the aftermarket industry. We spotted a bunch of great cars, rolling on Coker Tire products, including a couple of Chip Foose 1932 Fords, and many more classic cars, hot rods and muscle cars. Take a look at our favorites, and look forward to more highlights as the week rolls on. [caption id="attachment_8935" align="alignleft" width="780"] SEMA 2017 features a bunch of high end hot rods. George Poteet's 1932 Ford Tudor is on display in the Ford booth and it's had a crowd around it all week. The

SEMA 2017 -- It's that time of year again! The SEMA Show is an annual gathering of the automotive world, and it's the biggest automotive trade show on the planet! We're always excited to see the new trends of the automotive aftermarket, and the SEMA Show is the place to find them. We've been in Las Vegas for several days already, as it takes quite an effort to set up our indoor booth (Central Hall, Booth #22775) as well as our outdoor display in the Silver Lot. We're proud to introduce a new product at SEMA 2017, the new Firestone 721 Steel belted radial, sized at LR78-15 for 1970's Cadillac, Lincoln and other full size luxury sedans. We hosted a press conference on Tuesday to talk about the new tire and to kick off the 60th anniversary celebration of our company. The SEMA event is packed with awesome cars, trucks and motorcycles, and many of them have our tires and wheels on them! Take a look at some of our favorites from setup days and Day One of SEMA 2017!

The 3rd annual Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive is coming up on Saturday, November 18th from 8am until Noon. We've once again partnered with Toys for Tots Chattanooga chapter to gather toys and monetary donations for needy kids in our area. This is a charity event, and we anticipate more than 200 hundred cars, trucks and motorcycles in attendance--we hope that you'll be one of them! There is no entry fee, but we do ask that everyone bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the cause, or drop a few bucks in the donation box. The fine folks at Custom Werks Graphics have donated our event shirts, so every dime we make from the special $10 event T-shirts goes directly to Toys for Tots. Please spread the word, and come out to 1317 Chestnut Street in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee to join us for a special day of giving, and one final chance to drive your hot rod, classic truck or muscle car before winter time.

Winding roads, cool cars and a full day of fun. That's what the Somernites Power Cruise is all about, and we're proud to be a sponsor of the Chattanooga, Tennessee leg of the annual event. We've participated in the Somernites Power Cruise since 2012, and we rely on the Somernites Cruise staff to help us park cars during our own Chattanooga Cruise In events. We have an awesome relationship with the guys from the small town of Somerset, Kentucky, which turns into Car Town USA once a month. And while the Somernites Cruise occurs on the fourth Saturday of the month from April to October...it's the September event that always gets our attention, as it features the "Power Cruise" and a leg that starts right here at Coker Tire. We kicked things off with a cookout and cruise in here at Coker on Friday night, and then hit the road on Saturday morning. This year, we had awesome weather, although it was a little warm at times, and the result was a great turnout on our Chattanooga leg. We traveled

The Shades of the Past Hot Rod Roundup is one of the longest running car shows in the Southeast, and it's also one of the most popular. It's held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which is tourist town at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains. Given the proximity of the show to our office here in Chattanooga, we decided to make the trip to Pigeon Forge for this year's 35th annual Shades of the Past show. As we expected, the streets were absolutely PACKED with hot rods, and then we cruised over to the showfield, where a couple thousand cars and tens of thousands of people invaded Dollywood Splash Country. The event has a highly acclaimed Top 25 Award, along with a number of specialty awards. We were pleased to see a bunch of awesome hot rods, customs and muscle cars sporting our tires and wheels at the show. We spotted several in the winner's circle, including a beautifully restored Plymouth Road Runner, rolling on a set of our new Firestone Wide Oval Radial tires! After going through the swap

It could be said that national car events are declining in popularity, but that's only the case if you're looking at stale event formats that have done the same thing at the same place for dozens of years. A fresh outlook on the national car event subject is the Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals, held at historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This event just finished its third year in operation, and it is without a doubt the fastest growing car event in our market. When the idea was first brought up by Chris Sondles, he had high hopes and a great team behind him. Since that first event, the Tri-Five Nationals has continued to grow, with participants from every state in our great country, as well as participants from 14 other countries! This year's total number of cars was 2,717, which is remarkable when you consider that we're talking about Chevrolet passenger cars built in 1955, 1956 and 1957. This three-year run is undoubtedly a popular platform to build upon, and anyone

It was another great year at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. We always go into this show, knowing that it kicks off our busy late summer and fall season, and what a great way to do it! The Kentucky Exposition Center is HUGE and it offers plenty of room for more than 10,000 hot rods, classic trucks and muscle cars to invade the property, and it also provides plenty of space for companies to display their latest and greatest products inside the vendor building. We had our new Firestone Wide Oval Radial tire on display, along with all of our regular favorites for the street rod market. And since we had so much room in our booth, we included a couple of killer hot rods. One is a light green 1932 Ford roadster, built by Johnson's Hot Rod Shop in Gadsden, Alabama and the other is a Washington Blue 1932 Ford roadster, built by Adams Hot Rod Shop in Calhoun, Georgia. These southern hot rods have distinct styling similarities and differences, but drew a lot of attention over

Chattanooga, Tennessee is a hot spot for all sorts of events, and we feel like we've encouraged a bunch of car folks to visit the city with our annual Chattanooga Cruise In event. This year, the Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty is paying a visit to the Scenic City, and the racers are stopping right here in the Southside! This isn't the first time that the Great Race has visited Chattanooga, but we're going to pull out all the stops to make it the best evening stop on the event! The streets around Coker Tire and Honest Charley Speed Shop will be closed, and we're hoping to PACK the streets with hot rods, muscle cars, restored classics and more to welcome the 120 Great Race teams as they enter the Chattanooga evening stop. It all happens Sunday, June 25th from 4 to 8pm Eastern time, and the first Great Race cars should begin arriving at 5:30pm. We plan to have an open house, just like our regular cruise in events, so

Mopar followers are a dedicated bunch, and there have been many shows across the country to pay tribute to these iconic cars. Local Mopar guy, Ken Meredith decided to give it a whirl, here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he calls the event the "Southeast Moparty Picnic". For the most part, these Mopar-specific events allow any Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth or Desoto to participate. The Southeast Moparty Picnic entered its second year with big plans to make the event bigger and better. And though Mother Nature made it a challenge, the event was a great success. It moved to a larger venue, offering more room to grow at the massive Camp Jordan facility. Ken also planned a Friday night Super Stock Shootout at our local drag strip, but it was rained out. Luckily, the rain didn't hinder folks from joining us here at Coker Tire on Friday for a free tour of the museum and a cookout to kick things off. Check out our photos from the event and be sure to mark your calendars for Mother's Day weekend in

If you didn't attend the 2017 Chattanooga Cruise In then you missed out on one of the largest one-day cruise in gatherings in the country! The event has grown tremendously over the years, and we simply can't believe how many people invaded the streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee on a sunny Saturday in April. We have struggled for years to contain all of the folks who want to attend this event, and this year was no different. We secured hundreds of additional parking spaces by occupying the Finley Stadium and First Tennessee Pavilion, but it still filled to capacity by 10:30am. Chattanooga Police Department's Special Event Coordinator, Sgt. Austin Garrett estimated that 2,500 cars and 25,000 people were are a part of the 2017 Chattanooga Cruise In, and we find it hard to argue...the place was packed and it covered a much larger footprint than years past.

The success of the Chattanooga Cruise In has been overwhelming and we're so happy to announce that it's almost that time of year again! Our annual event is scheduled for Saturday, April 1, 2017, and we're confident that it's going to be bigger and better than ever. We have secured even more space to hold all of the participants, and we're expecting upward of 2,000 cars and more than 10,000 spectators throughout the course of the day. The event starts at 8am Eastern Time and the streets of Chattanooga fill to the brim within a few hours. We are now occupying the entire Finley Stadium property, as well as the First Tennessee Pavilion, offering hundreds more parking spaces and an awesome vendor area. The event is free to the public, and we will have lots of added attractions and offers in addition to the massive amount of hot rods, muscle cars, custom trucks and high performance cars on the premises. We will have special event T-shirts on sale for only $10 each, and our Coker Tire showroom

The words "Lowrider" and "subdued" rarely go together in the same sentence. Normally, this type of build is over the top with wild custom paint schemes and show car qualities (ex. chrome brake rotors) that truly hinder the functionality of the car. However, the 1965 Chevy Impala that we're featuring here is a functional and very tasteful Lowrider that was on display in The Enthusiast Network's booth at the 2016 SEMA Show. The Enthusiast Network owns Lowrider magazine, as well as titles, such as Hot Rod, Car Craft, Street Rodder and more. The company knows cars, and the guys at Lowrider are experts when it comes to the culture and the right appearance that goes along with the Lowrider scene. You won't see any wild stripes and paint on this one--just a super slick candy apple red finish, that was painted many years ago with old school lacquer materials. And though it has custom details throughout, you'll see that the Blueprint Engines small block is ready to rock, and the beautiful leather

Every year at the SEMA Show, we have a long list of companies to meet and greet. Some have a small presence at the show, while others bring a fleet of vehicles, multiple booths and dozens of employees. Our friends at Omix-ADA pull out all the stops and we're always excited to see what they bring out for the SEMA Show. Their display in the upper level of the South Hall is always impressive, and they typically include a few vintage Jeeps in the mix. This year, we stopped by and talked with Dave Logan, and he gave us the rundown on the awesome Jeeps in the Omix-ADA booth.

Traditional hot rods are timeless, and that's exactly what drew us to the Pertronix booth to check out this vibrant 1932 Ford roadster pickup. The pickup features an excellent hot rod stance, a cool color combination and a very distinct Boss 351 power plant. The Cleveland based Ford engine features 8-Stack fuel injection that looks like vintage Weber carburetors, and it's backed by a Ford top-loader 4-speed manual transmission and a Winters quick-change rear end. Don built this truck in his head back in the '70s, as a college student, who made a living playing drums. The colors, the engine, and even wheel combination were items that he'd dreamed up in the '70s, and it's amazing how well they blend into the modern day hot rod world, more than 45 years later. Don built this recreation of his youthful day dreams by using a Brookville steel body, Brookville frame rails and a bunch of goodies to tie it all together. Most importantly, he called

Alright, this one is a little bit out of the ordinary, but it stopped us in our tracks at the 2016 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. In a sea of highly customized cars, trucks, boats and motorcycles, this utilitarian pickup truck stood out like no other. It is a 1966 Toyota Stout 1900, and it offered great horsepower and a rugged design, which allowed it to serve as the ultimate work horse for many years, especially in Japan and Thailand. This particular truck was in the Toyota USA booth, and its home is in the Toyota museum in Torrance, California. The Toyota Stout pickup offers 85 horsepower, and came from the factory with bias ply tires. The folks at Toyota USA equipped the truck with a set of our BFGoodrich 7.50-14 blackwall tires, which are a perfect fit for the original steel wheels. Take a look at our quick video

Giveaway cars are always cool, and we love being a part of these promotional builds. The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) offers a giveaway car every year, and 2017's NSRA Giveaway car is a very cool 1933 Ford three window coupe, built by Reisinger Custom Rebuilding. These guys are no stranger to building awesome hot rods, and this is actually the second NSRA Giveaway car that they've built. This one is a top notch build, with a LONG list of parts provided by the best automotive aftermarket companies around. The '33 Ford coupe rolls on a set of Firestone Dirt Track tires, and has a killer hot rod stance. The car is powered by a hopped up small block Chevy, features a beautiful PPG Vibrance color, and a hand-crafted interior that offers a warm welcome to one lucky winner. The car will be given away on Saturday, August 6, 2017 at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. Ty Hauer

Our local car community here in Chattanooga, Tennessee is one of the best in the nation. The Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive is proof that we have a bunch of hardcore car guys and gals in this area, and we're so proud to have raised a bunch of money and collected hundreds of toys, so that local kids can have a better Christmas. The weather always plays a part in the overall attendance for car events, and we were shocked with the excellent turnout, considering the rain overnight and the cold and windy conditions that followed. It certainly wasn't ideal car show weather, but we enjoyed it nonetheless, because we were giving back to the community. We ended up with approximately 150 cars, which resulted in a total of 232 brand new toys and $1,782 in cash. We'd like to thank the staff at Coker Tire and Honest Charley Speed Shop for volunteering to help, as well as the folks at Custom Werks Graphics for donating the event T-shirts. Every dollar from our event T-shirts went straight into the Toys

With about 40 miles of walking under our belts, we started the final day of the 2016 SEMA Show with a trip to the upper level of the South Hall to meet with our friends at Omix-ADA. We'll do a full post on their awesome collection of Jeeps...for now, we're going to do a quick recap of favorites rides of the day, and then jump right into the SEMA Cruise and of course, the SEMA Ignited event. This is the third year of SEMA Ignited, and it just keeps getting better and better. The event is held across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, and wow...what a show! The SEMA Cruise offered an awesome parade, which resulted in one of the coolest car shows you could ever see. Hot rods, muscle cars, crazy imports, off road vehicles, and more swarmed the SEMA Ignited event, as we enjoyed the nitro dragster "cacklefest", wild action on the drifting course, and plenty of action in the show area. Take a look at our highlights from the final day of the SEMA Show, and keep checking back to see

The Chevelle SS has always been a desireable muscle car, dating back to its debut in 1964. The car represented mid-size coupes and sedans, available for regular transportation, or big time fun, depending on the engine and power train options. By 1966, Chevrolet offered a big block version of the Chevelle SS, and then changed the body style a few more times before landing on the iconic design that ran from 1970 to 1972. As with any drastic body style change, the new for 1970 look was in the works long before the cars hit the streets. We happened to run across a very nicely restored pre-production 1970 Chevelle SS, owned by David Harter while making our way around the 2016 SEMA Show. The car had signage to reveal its special features, but it wasn't until we spoke with David that we truly understood how many

Bryan Fuller is a well known hot rodder and motorcycle builder. He's been on TV, he's built a lot of killer vehicles and he always has a presence at the SEMA Show. This year, he has a few vehicles on display, and one of them struck a chord with us. It's a 1934 Ford sedan delivery, and it's in the OTC Tools booth in the North Hall. Right around the mid 1930's OTC (originally known as Owatonna Tool Company) sold direct to customers, using sedan delivery vehicles with custom display boards to showcase their products. The company grew, and eventually grew out of this grass roots sales approach, but it never forgot the humble beginnings, even after being added into the Bosch brands fold in 2012. To commemorate the company's history, OTC commissioned Bryan Fuller to build a 1934 Ford sedan delivery to replicate some of those early delivery vehicles.

SEMA 2016 Highlights are in high demand and we are cranking them out as quickly as possible. We're blowing up our Facebook page and YouTube Channel, so keep an eye on those and then, of course, you can keep checking out our blog page to see the updates, car features and highlights from the biggest automotive trade show on earth. SEMA 2016 is in full swing, as the crowds continue to fill the aisles and we continue to reach out to our industry friends, distributors, media partners and more to spread awareness about our company and our new products. We explored the South Hall this morning, and then checked out some of the cool creations in the Silver Lot just outside of the Central Hall. Check out our SEMA 2016 Highlights from day three and enjoy the ride!

The SEMA Show is full of highly customized, highly polished and highly publicized cars and trucks. But when you find a unrestored Ford Model A on the property, it stands out! The guys and gals at Hagerty Insurance started a cool program last year called the "Swap to Street Challenge", which involves Hagerty employees finding and building a car on the grounds at the massive AACA Fall Meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Last year, it was a very cool '46 Ford pickup and this year, they tackled the challenge with a Ford Model A. They started with a 1930 Model A chassis, and found a 1931 Murray-bodied slant window Model A sedan body to go with it. From there, they sourced a Flathead four-cylinder engine, and all of the parts to piece this car together. Davin Reckow and Matt Lewis were key players in the build, and they decided to

Our walking shoes are getting wore in now that we're finished with Wednesday at SEMA 2016. We continue finding cool cars and trucks sporting our tires and wheels, but we started the day by attending the SEMA Prayer Breakfast, where Chattanooga, Tennessee residents, Jim and Amy Jo Osborn spoke to a great crowd of automotive industry professionals. It was an action packed day of fun and we found ourselves drooling over hundreds (no, wait, thousands) of beautifully built hot rods, crazy trucks, and everything in between. Of course, we had our eyes glued to the tires beneath this custom creations, and we're here to show you some of our favorite rides equipped with Coker Tire products. At the end of the day, we attended the ETTN reception, the International Happy Hour (where we received three Global Media Awards) and the HRIA reception. It was a busy evening, but it's all part of the greatest automotive trade show on the planet. Check out our highlights from today's action and keep checking

Walking the aisles at SEMA 2016 is overwhelming to say the least. You'll see hot rods, customs, muscle cars and just about everything in between, so it's easy to glaze over some of the cool stuff. On that same token, you really have to dig deep to see the entire show and scope out all the cool stuff. One of the cool spots is the "Art Walk" a special area that features automotive artists, including this year's featured artist, Ed Tillrock from . His pencil sketches are out of this world, and as it turns out, his son is quite the hot rodder. Ed Tillrock III has built a number of hot rods, but recently put the finishing touches on a 1929 Dodge Brothers Senior Six Sport Coupe, named "Sinister 8". This distinct hot rod has a bunch of period correct modifications, making it an excellent traditional hot rod. The car rides on

The SEMA Show is the largest automotive spectacle in the world, and we're so happy to be a part of SEMA 2016. It's the 50th anniversary of the show, and it's also the 50th anniversary of the Firestone Wide Oval tire. We celebrated the awesome anniversary by introducing our brand new Firestone Wide Oval Radial tire. The day kicked off at the New Products Breakfast, where we placed 2nd in the New Products Display in the Tires and Related Category. We were up against the big dogs, and our new Firestone Wide Oval radial stood tall in a room full of winners. Shortly after the New Products Breakfast, we had a Press Conference regarding the new tire, showcasing it front and center in our indoor booth. Muscle car expert, Steve Magnante hosted the event, while our President, Wade Kawasaki and CEO, Corky Coker spoke about the new tire and how it is a game changer for the muscle car market. We also installed a

We visit more than 50 car and motorcycle events a year, so we see lots of cool stuff all over the country. Some events, like the AACA Hershey Fall Meet are huge, and require multiple trucks and trailers full of tires. Others events, such as the Euro Auto Festival, held annually in Greenville, South Carolina, are smaller and a little more intimate. We don't attend these shows with intentions of selling thousands of tires--it's more about brand awareness and marketing. This type of event is fun and productive, as it allows us to answer questions and get feedback from customers and potential customers. For 2016, the Euro Auto Festival certainly lived up to the hype as the East Coast's premier European auto show. Check out a few of our highlights and remember that our product offering spans a wide range, including vintage sports car tires, like the ones that roll beneath some of the world's finest sports cars.

For motorcycle guys, there are a handful of events that are considered "must-see"...you have Sturgis, Daytona Beach Bike Week, Davenport and so on. We're adding another one to the list and it's not too far away from our headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's the Barber Vintage Festival, held at the magnificent Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama (near Birmingham). The 12th annual event was just a couple weeks ago, and we went down to check out the action, and of course, represent our company. We're constantly trying to broaden our product lines, and the motorcycle market is growing quickly, so setting up at the Barber Vintage Festival was an excellent opportunity for us to reach some new customers. It is certainly a fertile market for our product offering, so we're excited to attend more motorcycle events in the future, and we will definitely be back to the Barber Vintage Festival.

The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association is a popular car show series, that spans the United States with high end hot rod events. As if the 2016 show schedule wasn't busy enough, the Goodguys staff and a group of hot rodders departed on the Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour. The event is in memory of Goodguys founder, Gary Meadors, and it consists of 7 days and 1,800 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Fort Worth, Texas. The tour not only features scenic drives, but also includes shop tours of some of the coolest automotive aftermarket facilities in the country, and they put Coker Tire on their list of venues to visit. The Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour kicked off in the Chicago area, and has visited the Roadster

The Somernites Power Cruise is an annual event, held on the fourth weekend of September. It's part of a great series of monthly cruise in events, held in Somerset, Kentucky. The regular cruise in events are huge and offer lots of great cars and trucks, but the Somernites Power Cruise is a little different! It consists of six starting points, all of which feature approximately 150 miles of driving to culminate at the Somernites Cruise event held in the historic downtown of Somerset! Coker Tire jumped on board with the Somernites gang in 2012, and started the Chattanooga leg of the event. Four years later and we're still enjoying the scenic drive up Highway 27 through at least a dozen small towns along the way. Twists, turns and lots of country living makes the three hour drive very interesting. This

There is no doubt that September is a busy month for us here at Coker Tire. We have several events of our own, and it always seems to be a popular time for other touring events and groups to visit our place. This year, we had a special treat, as the Geico Motorcycle Hot Bike Tour made its first ever stop in Chattanooga, Tennessee. You may remember our involvement with the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2010 and 2013...the Hot Bike Tour is a similar deal, but it's geared toward motorcycle enthusiasts. Our motorcycle tire product line is growing in popularity, so hosting an event like this is awesome for us, and we were excited to see the bikes start pouring into the Southside of Chattanooga on Sunday, September 11th. Bikes continued to roll in as the day went on, and we enjoyed the awesome turnout, live music and of course, the invited builders who had some killer custom motorcycles on display.

10 Great Events to Attend Before Christmas

Youd think we get bored around here once summer is over. Youd be wrong. Theres still plenty of great events to attend before the old man winter chases us indoors. Check out this awesome lineup of things to do and see this fall.

Charlotte Autofair | Charlotte, NC | September 22-25

This big spring show at Charlotte Motor Speedway is well known in the southeast, but theres another chance to experience this awesome swap meet in late September. The AACA Hornets Nest bunch puts on an awesome event with plenty of parts available to keep you busy over the winter.

Somernites Power Cruise | Somerset, KY | September 24-25

Folks in the south know that it doesnt get much better than

Our facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee serves as an awesome destination for car guys and gals, and we love it when groups, like the Street Rodder Road Tour pay us a visit. The group rolled in at lunch time on Tuesday, September 6th, and we parked them all just outside the museum door on Fort Street. We greeted the Road Tour participants with hamburgers and hot dogs, cooked by one of our marketing guys, Jason White. He didn't let anyone leave hungry! The Street Rodder Road Tour didn't stick around too long, as they planned to make it to Pigeon Forge this afternoon for a special preview of the Shades of the Past rod run. We enjoyed the couple of hours we got to spend with the participants, and we snapped a few pictures while they were here. One of the highlights of the stop was getting to see the Street Rodder

After last year's incredible turnout, we didn't think it could get any bigger, but the 2016 Tri-Five Nationals was absolutely the biggest and greatest Tri-Five event ever! A total of 2,200 Tri-Fives flooded Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and we noticed a tremendous amount of cars and trucks rolling on our products. Restored original cars, updated drivers, gassers, customs and more were spotted rolling around the property with a great mix of original style bias ply tires and modern whitewall radial tires. Tri-Five guys are definitely one of our most loyal group of customers, and we confirmed it this past weekend. In addition to our booth display, we participated in the "Donuts & Drive" portion of the event, where Tri-Five enthusiasts gathered at various starting points and made

The NSRA Street Rod Nationals is one of those events that is on every hot rodder's bucket list, but you'll have a hard time finding a hot rodder who has never been to the event. With more than 10,000 cars in attendance, this is one of the largest car shows in the world, and we had a huge presence in the vendor building this year. We expanded our footprint, and had a total of three cars on display, in addition to our tires, wheels and accessories. We want to say a huge thank you to Johnson's Hot Rod Shop for providing a killer '32 Ford roadster pickup, Barillaro Speed Emporium for providing their incredible Belly Tanker race car, and finally, Gary Martin for providing his 1964 Chevy II, which was the Coker-sponsored entry in the Great Race, finishing third overall! Despite a little bit of wet weather, the event went off without a hitch, and we served hundreds of customers throughout the course of the weekend. Tires and wheels are one of the most important aspect of an eye-catching street

By now, you know that we appreciate collector cars. In fact we appreciate just about anything with tires, especially when those tires are rolling down the road on a regular basis. SEMA took an idea and ran with it a few years ago, creating Collector Car Appreciation Day, an annual holiday dedicated to getting your old vehicle out on the road. This year, Collector Car Appreciation Day happened on Friday, July 8th, and we had a special lunchtime cookout to welcome anyone who wanted to drive their old car to our facility here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Considering that most people have to work on Fridays, the event had a great turnout, and we provided free lunch for the folks who came out to join us. Jason White grilled the 'dogs, while Corky supplied the watermelon, and we all had an awesome time. This is most certainly an annual tradition for our company, so if you missed out, there's always next year!

Chattanooga, Tennessee is a hotspot for tourists these days, and that includes car clubs who seek out interesting towns in which to host its national meets. We've seen Desotos, Kaisers, Chevy Nomads and many more groups come through town, and this week was time for the Hudson Essex Terraplane National Meet to spend some time in the Scenic City. They set up camp at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel just a few blocks away from our headquarters, so we couldn't help but sneak over there and snap a few pictures. In addition to the car show and swap meet, held at the Choo Choo, the Hudson enthusiasts toured the town, and eventually made their way to our place on Thursday. Without a doubt, the Hudson folks are loyal Coker Tire customers--we saw a BUNCH of our wide whitewalls, in both bias ply and radial form. Check out a few of our favorites, and be sure to support your local car club to keep these types of national club meets alive and well!

The Goodguys Nashville Nationals is gaining a lot of notoriety in the hot rod and custom world. It's in a central location, and it's hard to beat Nashville, Tennessee as a host city--tons of cool stuff to see, and there is plenty of room at Nissan Stadium. We jumped at the chance to get an inside look at the event, even though we were not set up as a vendor. Coker Tire sponsors the "Best Wide Whites" award, and we've been involved with Goodguys as sponsors for many years, so it's always good to see the event first hand and see how many folks are using our products. We certainly got our answer, regarding the amount of Coker Tire users, and we're going to share a small sampling of them here. There were high end show cars wearing our tires, including the winner of the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year award. [products] By the way, the association changed its Hot Rod of the Year competition to the Goodguys

You won't find a more dedicated group of car guys (and gals) than the Mopar crowd. A good friend, Ken Meredith is one of those guys, and his whole family is fired up about Mopars. That's what led them to create the Southeast Moparty Picnic, an event for Mopar nuts, by Mopar nuts. Unfortunately, the Meredith family suffered two huge losses in the months leading up to the event--first was Rick Meredith in January, and then Kenneth (Ken's father) in April. Despite the tough times, the rest of the Meredith clan and a bunch of friends pulled together to make the event happen. The result? A HUGE gathering of Mopars, from early '60s classics to modern muscle cars and everything in between. We saw Hemi after Hemi, and a whole lineup of drag cars that would make any Mopar guy drool. Local collector, Kayo Erwin brought out a few of his outstanding vintage drag cars, while other Mopar guys put their prized possessions on display as well. We spotted a bunch of rare muscle cars, and even had the chance

Spring time in Tennessee is a good time to own a street rod. We have our big cruise in April, and then when May rolls around, it's always time for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals South in Knoxville, Tennessee. We make it up to Knoxville to check out the event every year, and bring you some coverage because it's a nearby event with tons of cool stuff on the grounds of Chilhowee Park. This year, the weather was excellent, which always brings out a great crowd. We spotted a bunch of cars at the Street Rod Nationals South with Coker Tire products rolling beneath them, so check out some of our favorites and support your local NSRA event! [products] [caption id="attachment_7493" align="alignleft" width="780"]

You may not realize it, but there is a surprising number of automotive aftermarket companies based in the great state of Tennessee. We're holding down the Southeast corner, while other companies, like Lokar, Comp Cams, American Powertrain and more are scattered throughout the state. For nearly 30 years, Lokar Performance Products has been manufacturing shifters for street rods, customs, muscle cars and more. Now, the company builds more than just shifters, offering all sorts of accessories, including billet aluminum pedals, dipstick tubes, mirrors and much more. The company, led by Skip and Debbie Walls, recently moved into an awesome, new facility and opened its doors to help kick off the 2016 NSRA Street Rod Nationals South in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Lokar Open House featured a few hundred cool cars, and a tour of the new facility, including Skip's playhouse, which is a giant shop, packed with drag cars, hot rods and awesome equipment.

On May 1, 2016, Corky Coker visited Anderson, Indiana to pay tribute to a racing legend, Ray Harroun. The town of Anderson debuted a memorial marker for Ray Harroun, and Corky Coker was invited to the event to be a part of the festivities. Corky has a great love for vintage racing, and owns the most authentic Marmon Wasp replica in the world. The Marmon Wasp is typically on display in our showroom here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but it made a special trip to honor Mr. Ray Harroun for his achievements. Corky dressed in period correct attire, and drove the Marmon Wasp replica around the area, spreading smiles all around. Enjoy some of our pictures, and continue reading to learn more about the man who took Indy by storm in 1911. [products] Although Ray Harroun was born in Pennsylvania, his legacy is in Indiana, where he later lived, and made history as the first winner of the Indy 500, way back in 1911. Ray Harroun was a pioneer, and there is no doubt he left his mark as a champion racecar

Every year, we hope that our annual cruise in and open house, known as the Chattanooga Cruise In, continues to grow. Last year, it was huge, and for 2016, we wanted it to be bigger and better! We secured additional parking areas for our participants, and even those efforts were blown away with the record turnout. We had an estimated 2,000 cars, trucks and motorcycles on hand, and upward of 15,000 spectators throughout the day. It was an absolute blast, as we saw every type of car imaginable, and saw plenty of vehicles sporting our tires and wheels! In addition to the tremendous amount of vehicles on display, Chattanooga Cruise In participants could watch the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow engine build teams do battle in a National Qualifying event for its year-long series. Back by popular demand was the "blemished tire sale", which offered discounted prices on blemished tires. We just love seeing folks carrying tires down the street, and we saw a lot of that on Saturday, April 2nd. The crowd was

You won't find a larger source for Corvette tires and wheels than Coker Tire Company. We offer many styles and sizes to fit the earliest 1953 Corvette all the way through the end of the C3 generation in 1982. We recently visited a local event called the Corvette Expo, which is held in Sevierville, Tennessee. It's an excellent event, with an indoor car show, swap meet, parts vendors, outdoor car show and even a classic car auction. The event occurs twice a year (spring and fall), and we snuck out of the office on a Friday morning to go check it out. We were thrilled to see the majority of classic Corvettes were rolling on authentic tires from Coker. It is truly important to the owners of these cars to have the authentic Corvette tires and wheels installed on the car. Just like having a "matching numbers" engine and transmission, having the appropriate

AMBR--it's one of those special type of acronyms that hot rodders know and love. It stands for America's Most Beautiful Roadster. It's an award given out at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California, and it's only given to one car per year. The workmanship and talent displayed in the contenders is always impressive and this year was no different--and you can stay tuned for more updates on the AMBR contenders later this week. For now, we want to announce the AMBR 2016 winner, Darryl and Terri Hollenbeck's 1932 Ford roadster. This car was built by Dan Webb, Cory Taulbert and Darryl himself, with final assembly by Bill Ganahl, South City Rod and Custom, and Jack Stratton. Bodywork and paint is by Darryl Hollenbeck's Vintage Color Studio, while the upholstery is stitched by Sid Chavers. A truly traditional hot rod, the roadster has the perfect stance, which is accompanied by none other than Firestone Deluxe Champion bias ply tires. The fronts are

After being in New Zealand for a few days, it's abundantly clear, New Zealand knows how to put on a rally! It's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with a Kiwi spin. Days two and three included a "Wings and Wheels" at the Taieri Airport, an "Evening with Corky Coker," a ride along the coast in a vintage Train to Oamaru, and plenty of smiling faces. The "Wings and Wheels" was a great success with over 12,000 locals out to experience the vintage show of 600+ cars and over 40 airplanes. It was a rare sight to see so many well restored and maintained vehicles ranging almost a century! Activities included views of the vehicles as well as rides in some of the airplanes as well as some miniature pedal cars, live music, and a number of local vendors.

Corky was recently invited to participate in the Vero International Festival of Historic Motoring in Dunedin, New Zealand as the Grand Marshall. The rally this year has over 600 cars separated into three groups, Veterans (1919 and before), Vintage (1919 to WWII), and then all post war vehicles. This is truly an outstanding opportunity, and Corky took advantage of it with his son Cameron Coker, who shared these great photos from their New Zealand trip. [products] [caption id="attachment_7192" align="alignleft" width="780"] Arriving at the airport by the esteemed leadership of the VCC. Mark and Nikola Wilkenson, John Coomber (Immediate past president), Diane Quarrie (Current president), Corky, Cameron[/caption] [caption id="attachment_7194" align="alignleft" width="780"]

Slammed is a relative hot rod term, and it usually means when something has been lowered A LOT. But this chopped and channeled Model A sedan brings a whole new meaning to "slammed". It is down in the dirt, thanks to air suspension and a spectacular chassis setup. Dave Tucci of Tucci Hot Rods in Marcy, New York built this slammed hot rod, and used satin brown as the primary color for an interesting look. The finishes, textures and colors of this slammed sedan offer a lot of visual appeal, while the wild tire and wheel combination go with the car's killer stance. Dave's sedan is rolling on a set of one-off wheels, wrapped in Excelsior Stahl Sport radial tires, sized at 550R17 up front and 650/700R20 out back. The radical big and little tire combination is just one of many features that made us take notice and catch up with Dave for a video feature. Thanks for watching!

The Ford Model A sure does make for a good traditional hot rod, and it was hard to miss Colby Martin's recently-finished highboy sitting just outside the Central Hall at SEMA 2015. He was set up in the SAN (SEMA Action Network) booth, and had folks eyeballing his super slick creation all week long. The car is traditionally styled, with a beautiful color combination, a killer Chevy W-motor (a 348 with three deuces to be exact), and of course, Firestone Deluxe Champion blackwall tires from Coker! He mounted 600-16 tires up front, and 750-16 tires out back for the perfect rubber rake, in combination with the Ford Wide Five wheels. The chopped top is spot on and the car sits just right on '32 Ford frame rails. The beautifully finished hot rod is proof that SEMA guys are car guys, too! This has been a long term project, and Colby was certainly proud to debut it at the biggest automotive trade show in the world! Check it out!

The SEMA Show offers a lot of things to a lot of businesses, and you will find that the four-wheel drive market is huge. Jeep is represented throughout the halls and show areas, with all sorts of custom treatments and radical builds on display. And while there are hundreds of Jeeps at the show, the ones that stand out are often a part of the OMIX-ADA booth. This parts vendor for vintage and modern Jeeps has a special spot in the the upper level of the South Hall, and it always attracts buyers, and Jeep fans. This year was no different, as OMIX-ADA had an interesting collection of vintage Jeeps on display, including the Farm Jeep. A few of them had our military and off road tires on them, so we stopped by for a quick visit. Check out all the cool vintage stuff we found!

We're blown away with the number of cars and motorcycles that are being built for The Race of Gentlemen, which is an exclusive race on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey every fall. The event only allows approved cars into the racing field, so it is inspiring hot rod builders to tackle these early style racer builds, like the Model A roadster seen here. This one is owned by Heath Pinter, a professional BMX rider and hot rodder from Southern California. When he's not ripping up the BMX course (he has one in his backyard!) he's hammering on old cars. His most recent creation is this low slung Model A roadster, which is powered by a Ford Flathead V8 with Sharp aluminum heads, dual Stromberg carbs and Fenton headers. The fenderless roadster rolls on a set of '32 Ford wires, wrapped in our Excelsior Stahl Sport tires, which measure 550R18 up front and 700R18 out back. This thing is lean, mean and ready to race. We love the bare bones appearance, and the stance is spot on. Check it out!

There are certain cars at the SEMA Show that jump out and grab you. It might be a flashy paint job, or it might be more about the owner's popularity. Or maybe you saw it on a TV show and seeing it person just stops you in your tracks. This 1973 Buick Riviera is all of the above. It is an over-the-top custom, and it was built on History Channel's TV Show, "Counting Cars", by Danny Koker and the crew at Count's Kustoms. These guys are obviously very talented, and this boattail Riviera really shows off the skill needed to pull off a paint job of this caliber. When the car was starting to come together, we got a call from Tony at Count's Kustoms regarding a tire and wheel package for the wild Riviera. Luckily, we had the perfect combo to suit the build...we started with a set of BFGoodrich Silvertown whitewall radial tires, which are sized at 225/70R15 and feature a 1-1/2-inch whitewall. We mounted these to a set of chrome Supreme wheels for the perfect custom look.

We love running across long time hot rodders, who have seen just about every stage of our automotive aftermarket industry. Jon Kosmoski is one of those guys, and he founded the "House of Kolor" paint company back in 1956. This guy has formulated custom automotive paint, and he's sprayed an untold amount of cars, trucks and motorcycles over the years. While the House of Kolor brand is now a part of the Valspar company, Jon is still involved, and he still has a passion for building awesome hot rods. His latest creation, a beautiful 1934 Ford Cabriolet, debuted in the House of Kolor booth at this year's SEMA Show. The build came down to the wire, but the finish quality is second to none.

If you've been following the Chattanooga Cruise In over the past few years, then you know that it has grown tremendously. For 2015, we only planned to have one Chattanooga Cruise In (our Spring event), due to scheduling conflicts during the fall months. However, thanks to the overwhelming response from our loyal followers, and a little bit of motivation from the man with a mustache, we created the Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive. We chose a Saturday morning that worked for our schedule and didn't collide with the local car show schedule, and we made it happen. We joined forces with the Chattanooga area Toys for Tots Foundation, and made this event all about helping local kids have a better Christmas. Several hundred people came out to donate toys and money, and we ended up with nearly 400 cars on display, on the streets surrounding Coker Tire and Honest Charley. Everyone had a great time, and our final tally was two full truck loads of toys, and nearly $3,000 in cash for the Toys for Tots!

There are certain cars and builders that create a lot of buzz before, during and after the SEMA Show. Boosted Bela is one of those cars, thanks to the tireless efforts of Andy Williamson, who was heading up the PR for the project. Progress photos, teasers, and lots of hype resulted in a SEMA reveal that blew everyone away. By now, you're reading this and thinking that the ratty looking '56 Chevy in the pictures can't possibly be the car we're referencing, but you'd be wrong. Boosted Bela is a slammed '56 Chevy that is rough on the outside, but super detailed everywhere else. The build was exclusively covered by Chevrolet Performance on The BLOCK, and it absolutely exploded on social media in the days and weeks leading up to the SEMA Show. Once it was on display in the Mobil 1 booth, the car was plastered all over Instagram and Facebook, gaining as much notoriety as cars with $50,000 paint jobs. In fact, Motor Trend Magazine named Boosted Bela one of the Top 15 cars at the SEMA Show. The truth of the matter is that Boosted Bela is just plain cool. It sits right, it has a killer supercharged LS-based engine and of course, it's rolling on a set of wide whitewalls and steelies from Coker Tire. Continue reading to find out more about Boosted Bela and enjoy the photos and video!

A few months ago, we were introduced to Matt Harris, a motorcycle builder from Alcoa, Tennessee. His shop, 40Cal Customs builds custom motorcycles, and often uses Coker Tire products when the rubber meets the road. Leading up to SEMA 2015, Matt clued us in on a cool project that he worked out with Red Kap. The Nashville, Tennessee-based clothing company makes products that are a popular choice for automotive work uniforms, and decided to ramp up its SEMA presence at this year's show. With this increased effort, Red Kap had an awesome booth in the North Hall, and included a live motorcycle build by Matt Harris. We followed along with the progress on this Harley Davidson Shovelhead, from a bare hardtail frame and forks on Monday to a complete, running motorcycle on Friday. We love the nostalgia drag racing look, with narrow tanks, a super cool tire and wheel combination. Keep reading to learn more about the tires wheels on the Red Kap Rocket, and see more photos of this epic SEMA build.

It's tough to cross over from old school to modern technology without losing a classic car's character and style. We often see modern engines in place of stockers, but it's typically in something performance-oriented, like a muscle car. At this year's SEMA Show, we spotted an immaculate 1958 Chevy Impala that features old school looks with a very powerful engine under the hood. Greg Smith's 1958 Chevy Impala breaks the stereotype that Lowriders are built to be "low and slow" by utilizing a twin turbocharged LS1 engine. Greg is from Las Vegas, and owns TKO Kustumz. The Impala is one of his creations, and he built it for his daughter. The bodywork, finish and interior are flawless, and the lowdown Impala rides on a set of custom painted and chrome-plated wire wheels, equipped with a set of our Premium Sport 5.20-13 tires with a thin whitewall. Greg's Impala was one of the most subtle lowriders at the SEMA Show, and we're happy to see that it was rolling on Coker products. Check it out!

The SEMA Show is something that millions car enthusiasts want to attend, but since it is not open to the public. This trade only event gets a lot of attention from the media, allowing enthusiasts to get a taste of what the event is about, but the SEMA organization put together a mixed bag of aweseomeness when they created SEMA Ignited--a public event tacked onto the end of the SEMA Show. Last year was the inaugural SEMA Ignited event, and while it was a success, this year's new location and format was WAY better and offered some exciting attractions.

So, we've had the throttle down for the past few days and today, we covered a lot of ground to show you even more cool stuff than yesterday. We explored the South Hall, in addition to another run through the Central Hall, where all of our hot rod, racing and performance buddies hang out. We also spent some time at the Ford Out Front skid pad, where Vaughn Gittin Jr. tore up the track with his wicked Mustang drift car, as well as the "Ultimate Fun Haver" Ford F-150 crew cab. Today offered the Coker Tire media team a full schedule, with video shoots of awesome builders, such as Jon Kosmoski, Danny Koker, Colby Martin and more! After putting a bunch of miles on our shoes, we went to the annual SEMA Industry Awards Banquet, where three folks were inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame. It was Dave McClelland's final time emceeing the awesome event, after 40 years of service--we're going to miss hearing your voice Dave! We also want to say a special congrats to our friend Dennis Gage for his induction into the Hall of Fame. Enjoy some of our highlights from Thursday's action at SEMA 2015, and keep an eye out for additional articles with full features of awesome vehicles that sport Coker Tire products.

So, if you watch our blog, or our social media pages, you may remember us covering the inaugural Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals, in Bowling Green, Kentucky a few months ago. It was a huge hit, with nearly 2,000 Tri-Five Chevys on hand at historic Beech Bend Raceway Park. One of the coolest aspects of the event was the fact that the event promoter, Chris Sondles, who also owns and operates Woody's Hot Rodz, built an awesome Give-Away car. As Woody's put the finishing touches on the car, they came to Coker Tire for a cool tire combination to go with the Cragar S/S wheels. Firestone bias ply tires, including a pair of our Firestone Dragster cheater slicks, made for a cool retro look to go with the nostalgia drag theme. The winner of the 2015 Give-Away car got a free trip to the SEMA Show, and will take ownership after the car returns from its show circuit. The car is a cool piece, and we're proud to have shoed it with traditional Firestones from Coker Tire. We're already marking our calendars for August 12 and 13, 2016 for the second annual Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals, and we can't wait to see the 2016 Give-Away car. If it's anything like this '55 two-door post, you can bet the winner will be pumped!

Wow, what a day! We started early with the annual SEMA Prayer Breakfast, in which our own Corky Coker was the special speaker. He shared a great message of his career path and his walk with God. After breakfast, we high-tailed it to a press conference on Wade Kawasaki's 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, which rolls on a set of our Firestone Wide Oval raised white letter tires. We made our way around the North Hall and Central Hall to meet up with some of our sponsored builders. We checked in with 40Cal Customs at the Red Kap booth to see how the "Red Kap Rocket" build was going, and stopped for a quick chat. It was a super busy day, which culminated at the Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) Awards Reception and a few hours of photo and video editing to condense all this cool stuff into something you can enjoy! We'll be brining you feature articles, as well as feature videos of our sponsored builders, so stay tuned to the blog and our other social media outlets for closer looks at some of the coolest cars, trucks and motorcycles at SEMA 2015!

Day one of SEMA 2015 is in the books. We had a big ol' day and met a lot of great folks. The booth was packed with people all day, but our media guys went out and covered a lot of ground to show you the cool stuff from the show. There are dozens of vehicles riding on Coker Tire products, and we plan to find 'em all and show them to you in one way or another. If you don't see it here, you might see it on our Instagram or Facebook page. For now, take a look at some of today's highlights, and come back tomorrow evening to see what else we can get into!

The SEMA Show is huge and we pour a lot of effort into exposing our brands to potential customers, media and tire dealers. This year, there is a lot of buzz around the show and we're extremely excited to show you some sneak peeks of the coolest cars and trucks from SEMA before the show is officially open. We'll be bringing you updates all week long on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Also check back here for daily updates. Enjoy!

We love it when a big company like Hagerty comes up with a cool idea that utilizes its employees in a way that gets them away from their desk for a few days. The Hagerty Swap to Street Chasllenge is a group of Hagerty employees that have been tasked with restoring a '46 Ford truck in 100 hours, while on display at the AACA Hershey fall meet in Pennsylvania. This event is the ultimate swap meet, and the idea is for the Hagerty crew to source all of the necessary parts from the swap meet. Some parts will be used, while others will come from some of the new parts vendors....such as Coker Tire, of course! We provided a set of Coker Classic 600R16 radial whitewall tires and Hot Rod Steel wheels for the Ford pickup. The goal is to restore the truck and drive it back to the Hagerty headquarters in Traverse City, Michigan after the show is over. The cool part about the whole deal is that it's being filmed, and a LIVE FEED is available to see the progress. You can click here for the live feed, and click here to get more information on the build. [products]

We're big fans of events that require you to DRIVE your collector vehicle. Somernites Cruise puts on a monthly cruise in on the fourth Saturday of the month from April through October, but the September event is extra special as it is the Somernites Power Cruise, presented by Holley. That means that hot rodders from six starting points converge on Somerset for a huge gathering! Back in 2012, Coker Tire got involved and started the Chattanooga leg of the Power Cruise. We had high hopes for being the largest Power Cruise leg this year, but bad weather caught us by surprise and hindered participation, as well as the overall turnout in Somerset. We cruised up Highway 27 to Somerset, and had a blast, as the soggy stuff moved out in the afternoon. Despite the crummy weather, more than 800 cars showed up in Somerset, and we spotted a bunch of them with our tires and wheels. Check out our favorites and be sure to check out www.somernitescruise.org for more information! [products]

Unlike many of the revered Concours dElegance events, Pebble Beach seems to reach deeper into mainstream media and pop culture. Regular people on the streets have heard of it. No doubt, its one of he very finest events of this kind in the world, but it more than that. The events of Monterey and Pebble Beach are household names for a reason. While the top shelf multi-million dollar restored cars get most of the attention, its the diversity of the weeks events that truly separate it from most other events. Perhaps only the famed Goodwood Festival of Speed in UK compares to the size and scope of Monterey Week. The event is elegantly capped with the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours dElegance, but what else goes on there? Were glad you asked. An endless stream of tasteful parties take place throughout the week. Even if you could manage tickets to all of them, the sheer volume of them would make it tough to attend

So what exactly do you get with a ticket to the 2015 SEMA Show? Surprisingly most don't know the answer to that question. What's become ground zero in the world of automotive customization products and trends is still somewhat of a mystery to the average car guy, but why? The SEMA Show started back the sixties as an association for speed parts merchants. As the industry grew, SEMA expanded to include all sorts of automotive specialty equipment beyond speed parts, and the SEMA Show grew with it. This trade show is a showcase for new products and companies to get in front of buyers, driving the industry and specialty equipment trends with it. Today the automotive aftermarket is a 30 billion dollar industry, and last year over 60,000 buyers attended the SEMA Show. Buyers shopped 6,500+ member companies, including the nearly 2,000 brand new products featured. The show is huge, and it's influential. [caption id="attachment_6478" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

While there was an abundance of nicely restored Tri-Five Chevys at the inaugural Tri-Five Nationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, there were hundreds of modified cars. Some were slammed customs and some were sky-high gassers, while others had cool nostalgia vibes with '60s style modifications. We enjoyed the diversity of the show, and the fact that LOTS of cars were rolling on Coker Tire products. We picked out 15 customs and gassers to showcase here, so keep scrolling and check them out...also keep us in mind for your Tri-Five Chevy tire and wheel needs!

Last year, we heard about the Tri-Five Nationals, and instantly wanted to be a part of the inaugural event. It helps matters that it is organized and promoted by our buddy Chris Sondles from Woody's Hot Rodz, which is a shop that specializes in Tri-Five Chevy builds and sells many of our products. As the plans for the event developed, Coker Tire stepped up as one of the leading sponsors, and presented the "Celebration of 60 Years of the 1955 Chevy", a special section with original 1955 Chevrolets of many models and configurations. As we rolled into historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it didn't take long to see that the Tri-Five Nationals was destined to be HUGE. And that's exactly what it was--the official car count was 1,858 registered entrants, all ranging from 1955 to 1957 Chevys, including a few pickup trucks and Corvettes from the famous Tri-Five years. Tens of thousands of spectators took part in the event, which had drag racing, autocross racing, a massive show-n-shine area, a swap meet and a packed vendor area.