Page 2 - Shows & Swap Meets

[caption id="attachment_6365" align="alignleft" width="720"] The classic hot rod profile of a '32 Ford three-window coupe is accentuated by a big-n-little whitewall tire combination with steelies painted to match the red accents.[/caption] The '32 Ford is an iconic hot rod platform, and boy did we see some good ones at the 2015 NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky! Folks have often said that it's tough to make a '32 Ford stand out because there are so many out there, but we picked out 11 (because we just couldn't narrow it down to 10) of our favorites. Of course, all 11 Deuces are rolling on Coker Tire products, and we'll give you some more details in each photo caption. Continue reading to see 11 awesome '32 Ford hot rods, and find out why they're cool.

We've been attending the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky for many years. A lot of things have changed during all those years, but it's still a must-go for all street rodders. This year, the event saw 10,000-plus street rods, muscle cars, gassers and more. We saw lots of Coker Tire products on the grounds, and enjoyed the variety of applications. From rough and rowdy rat rods to high end customs, we spotted a bunch of great cars wearing our products. Keep reading to take a look at some of our favorites, and also look forward to a couple more posts with special cars that caught our eye.

While we are not newcomers to the vintage motorcycle world, we are somewhat new to the custom motorcycle scene, in the sense that we have not previously offered purpose built tires for custom motorcycles. With the overwhelming popularity of our Firestone Deluxe Champion motorcycle tires, it is only fitting for us to be involved with the industry, and support great events such as the Born-Free Motorcycle Show at the Oak Canyon Ranch in Southern California. 2015 is only the seventh year for Born-Free, but it's easily one of the biggest (and certainly the fastest-growing) custom motorcycle shows in the world. Builders from many countries brought out their creations with a total of 25 build-off entries, hand selected by the show organizers. Many motorcycles, including bobbers, choppers, cafe racers, brat bikes and more, rolled on our Firestone tires, but there were also a number of bikes using our Coker motorcycle tires, and a few of our other product offerings.

The Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty is an annual vintage car rally that puts driver, navigator and car to the test through nine days and 2,400 miles of intense competition. The route changes every year, and this year, it featured a Route 66 theme, starting in Kirkwood, Missouri and ending on the Santa Monica Pier in Southern California. It was the ultimate road trip for a car enthusiast, and the field of 120 cars filled quickly when the route was announced. We covered the entire trip with daily blog entries with cool pictures from each day's adventures, but we'd like to sum it up here with a collection of our favorite photos, and to let you know that more than half of the 120-car field was running on bias ply or radial tires from Coker Tire! Even the winner, Howard and Doug Sharp's 1916 Hudson, was running our tires--more specifically a set of Excelsior Stahl Sport Radial tires. The Great Race is the adventure of a lifetime that you can do every year, and we certainly enjoyed our involvement with the event this year. Next year is gearing up to be even better, as the race starts in San Rafael, California and ends in Moline, Illinois, using the Lincoln Highway as the theme. Be sure to check out www.greatrace.com for more information on how you can participate!

When SEMA created National Collector Car Appreciation Day, car guys (and gals) rejoiced. We love having an excuse to drive an old car to work and an excuse to hang out with like-minded folks who also want to celebrate. Friday, July 10th, 2015 was the day, and the place was our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We invited our local friends for a free hot dog lunch, and encouraged everyone to get out and drive their collector car. Many Coker Tire and Honest Charley employees drove their collector cars, and we had numerous guests stop by in old cars during lunch time. We even had a special visitor from Texas with an wildly customized Cadillac, which rolls on a set of our new American Classic bias look radial whitewalls and Cadillac wire wheels. Corky and Theresa Coker also stopped by to join the fun and welcome the participants and on-lookers to Coker Tire. A big thank you goes out to Jason White and Aaron Wolfe for cooking the hot dogs, and the rest of the Coker Tire Marketing staff and Facilities staff for helping put it together. It was a great time and we hope everyone enjoyed our celebration of National Collector Car Appreciation Day!

Our tires go on some of the coolest hot rods on the planet and we were overwhelmed when we found out ALL FIVE of the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year finalists are wearing our tires! The Hot Rod of the Year is a highly sought after award given by Goodguys at the Indy Nationals. This year, the field of entries was a tough one, but the judging staff narrowed it down to five deserving finalists with bad-to-the-bone traditional hot rods. The best part of the Hot Rod of the Year program is that the cars must be driven on a street cruise, and run down the drag strip to prove that it's not just a show car. The five finalists did not disappoint, so keep reading to check 'em out!

We get around to a lot of car shows here in the Southeast, and just because we're not set up as a vendor doesn't mean we're not interested in the event. The Goodguys Nashville Nationals is a great example, as it's just a couple hours away from our office, and it offers up a couple thousand cars and trucks. The venue for the event is LP Field, which is right across the river from downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It's an excellent show, and we're always glad to sneak away from the office to check it out and snap a few pictures of cars with our tires and wheels! And though the weather may have hindered the overall turnout, the event was still huge and gave us a lot of cool stuff to look at. Oh, you like cool stuff, too? Well, you're in luck, as we've compiled a bunch of our favorite hot rods, muscle cars and classic trucks that feature our tires and wheels.

We've worked pretty hard to encourage our customers to get out and drive their collector cars, and events like the Coker Tire Tour to the Mitty provide even more inspiration. There might be an ulterior motive hidden in there (to sell more tires, or in this case Sports Car Tires). The Mitty is a road race for vintage cars, and it's held at Road Atlanta, which is a couple hours away from our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This year, we partnered with Classic Motorsports Magazine to create a driving experience like no other--a trip through some of the most beautiful scenery and twisty back roads with a final destination of the Mitty. With more than 50 cars participating, it was a big hit, and we're hoping to do more of these driving events in the future.

If you've followed Coker Tire for very long, then you know we are HUGE advocates for getting out and putting plenty of miles on your collector vehicle. We're proud to announce a new excuse to get in and go for a drive--the Coker Tire Tour to the Classic Motorsports Mitty. If you've never heard of "the Mitty", it's a road racing event held at Road Atlanta and it's geared toward vintage cars. We're planning an awesome ride from our facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee to the awesome Braselton, Georgia-based race track. The trip will include twisty back roads, delicious food and a finish destination that will offer lots of fun. It all starts with a "Cars and Coffee" type event here at Coker on Friday, April 24th. Then, we travel to beautiful Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and finally navigate the back roads to Road Atlanta, where a BBQ dinner will be waiting for us at the Mitty. Your ticket includes all meals, as well as a one-day ticket to the Mitty event. Click this link to learn

Steve Coonan, owner and editor of The Rodder's Journal magazine is a tried and true hot rodder. His magazine is the premier publication for hot rodders, and his photography is top-notch. Every issue (it comes out quarterly) is a keeper, and every issue is packed with excellent hot rods that roll on Coker Tire products. With that said, Steve Coonan's personal car, a black '32 Ford roadster, has our tires on it. Steve is a stickler for small details, as evidenced by his photography skills, but he admits that something as simple as a tire and wheel swap can provide a whole new look for a hot rod. He proved it by swapping tires and wheels multiple times at The Rodder's Journal booth at the Grand National Roadster Show this year. We loved the idea, because we offer such a broad scope of tires and wheels. He called us up and ordered three sets of tires to go along with the tires that were already on the car. Keep reading to see all of the combinations in use on his beautiful highboy roadster!

Every year, we make our way out to the Grand National Roadster Show, held at the Pomona Fairplex in sunny Southern California. It's the place where the America's Most Beautiful Roadster is crowned, and it's also an awesome place to see hot rods, customs, gassers, low riders and more. Although there are some exceptions, nearly everything on the grounds is sitting on tires and/or wheels from Coker Tire, so it's a great place for us to take a bunch of pictures and show off some of our product. Take a look at our 40 favorite photos from the 2015 Grand National Roadster Show and also, watch our Instagram feed and Facebook page for up-to-the-minute posts from the show!

We spent another day on our feet at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. We walked the aisles, spoke with customers, and enjoyed the networking opportunities that only the SEMA Show can provide. We continue to find vehicles with Coker Tire products in use, so we snapped a few pictures to share with you here. Tonight was the annual SEMA Awards Banquet, which is the highlight of the event, where the best of the best come together for a great dinner and a great ceremony. Check out our photo highlights from today!

And this isn't just any old coupe...it's actually a brand new coupe. It's a new all steel 1932 Ford five window coupe body, manufactured by United Pacific, who is actually a supplier for many other items, such as hubcaps, trim rings and many other accessories for hot rods and customs. Earlier this year, we were contacted by the folks at United Pacific and they let us know about a very cool project car that they were having built at Roy Brizio Street Rods. The car was unveiled at the SEMA Show on Tuesday morning, and it was VERY well received by a crowd of street rod icons, such as Vic Edelbrock, Brian Brennan and more!

Rutledge Wood is one of the most popular personalities in the car world. His career on TV started with NASCAR, and while he continues to work in that field, he also has a gig on the History Channel with a show called Top Gear. One of three hosts, Rutledge offers a distinct level of excitement and comedy to the show, and he's a real deal car guy. Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to be a part of his 1953 Plymouth Suburban station wagon build, which was scheduled to debut at the 2014 Hot Rod Power Tour. And now, it's on the car show circuit, including the SEMA Show.

It's been said that car guys and girls who work in the automotive aftermarket have the best jobs in the world. And it's true! We surround ourselves with awesome people each and every day, but the SEMA Show is like sensory overload. We're shaking hands, talking business, drooling over cool cars, and having a good time doing it. Today, we had a great time covering the event, and hung out with a lot of cool people...like Rutledge Wood. Stay tuned for a full blog feature and video feature on his Plymouth station wagon, which rolls on whitewalls from Coker Tire! For now, check out today's highlights, and be sure to watch our Facebook and Instagram feed for up-to-the-minute posts!

It's always cool when the younger generation gets involved in the automotive world. Wyotech plays a huge role in getting kids into old cars, and it educates young folks to prepare them for real world jobs in the automotive industry. One particular project that was built at Wyotech is a beautiful Ford F-100 pickup that was featured on the "Chop, Cut, Rebuild" TV show. Built by students, the truck is detailed nicely and features lots of custom touches that make it a real show stopper. Our favorite part??? Of course, the tires....and wheels! The Wyotech F-100 rolls on a set of our 17x8-inch Artillery chrome-plated wheels, and American Classic 235/55R17 whitewall radials. This thing is awesome, so check out a few photos of it, and look forward to a video feature to hit our YouTube Channel soon!

Leading up to the SEMA Show, we always get the inside scoop on killer project cars. We had the opportunity to be a part of a very cool build that is on display in the Ford booth in Hot Rod Alley. The Ford booth is always a destination booth, and this year, there are a bunch of new-for-2015 Mustangs on hand with many custom treatments. The Watson Racing prepared Mustang has a drag racing theme, making north of 700 horsepower, thanks to a supercharged 5.0-liter engine. Our involvement with the project car was a set of M&H Racemaster DOT-approved drag radials, sized at 185/55R17 and 325/45R17. These tires will stick to the drag strip, and they're legal for the street, so it was the perfect combination for the new Mustang. Also, the huge brakes on these cars require at least a 17-inch wheel, so our M&H product line had 'em covered with radial tires for 17-inch front runner wheels, and sticky drag radials out back. Check it out!

The SEMA Show is the biggest automotive event of the year. It's a trade show with thousands of vendors, and thousands of awesome cars, trucks and motorcycles on display. Folks from around the world attend the event to show off new products, and increase sales for their businesses. It's a huge opportunity for everyone involved, and we're glad to have a big presence at the show. We have an indoor booth in Hot Rod Alley (booth number 22775), and we have a tractor trailer rig in the Silver Lot outside. This year, we debuted a brand new booth design, which has a vintage gas station theme.

Every year, we attend about 50 events across the country, but one stands out as "the big one" for us. The AACA Hershey Region Fall Meet is its official name, but we just refer to it as Hershey. Every year, we send thousands of tires and a van load of employees to serve our Northeastern customers. It's one of our biggest shows of the year, because there are so many people there to buy parts for their project car, truck motorcycle, etc. Oh, and there is also a great selection of cars on display. This year was no different, and we had a blast during our entire two week stretch of Carlisle and Hershey. Take a look at some of our favorite photos from Hershey and be sure to join us next year! Wherever you live, it's worth the trip!

We love events that involved DRIVING your collector vehicle, and that's why we support events such as the Somernites Power Cruise. It's an annual event that is the crown jewel of the monthly Somernites Cruise events that span from April to October. The Power Cruise is always the fourth Saturday of September, and it brings in hot rodders from all over the place! Our involvement in the Somernites Power Cruise includes being one of the starting points was Chattanooga, Tennessee, as well as a Friday night kickoff party and cruise in. For Friday night's event, we offered FREE food, compliments of Coker video guy Jason White, and then Saturday, we joined the fun and headed north on Highway 27 with a destination of downtown Somerset, Kentucky. Keep reading to check out our favorite photos from a fun day on the road!

The Coker Tire Challenge is laid back, compared to its big brother, the Great Race, but it still offers quite a challenge, even for skilled veterans of the rallying world. Today's route sent us to Huntsville, Alabama for a lunch stop, and then back to our starting point of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The route features lots of elevation changes, mountain roads, tricky turns and great scenery along the way. Unfortunately, Friday afternoon traffic gave us some issues getting back to Coker Tire for the evening's hosted dinner in the Coker Tire Museum. At this point, Howard and Douglas Sharp are in the lead, but there are still two more days of rallying to see how things shake out! Check out today's photo highlights and stay tuned for more as the Coker Tire Challenge continues!

Groups of gear heads visit our place on a regular basis, and do so by the hundreds during our Chattanooga Cruise In events. But we also cater to smaller groups and car clubs for special tours of our facility. We love opening the doors to our place and showing off our collection of cool stuff. In this case, the Rat Rod Tour, a group of rodders assembled by the folks at Rat Rod Magazine, visited our place on their way to the Redneck Rumble in Lebanon, Tennessee. Part of the tour involved the Rat Hard Build-Off, which involves a $3,000 budget and 30 days to build it--otherwise, there are no rules. There is no doubt that this was the most diverse group of cars, trucks and motorcycles to visit Coker Tire in quite some time, so we shot a bunch of pictures and video to cover the visit. Check it out here and enjoy lots of photos of some of the wildest rat rods on the planet!

When we started the Chattanooga Cruise In, it was a simple get together of local car guys but it quickly blossomed into a well known event that brings folks from many states to the Scenic City of Chattanooga. We have put a lot of effort into the Chattanooga Cruise In to make it bigger and better, but we realize that the cool factor of this event isn't always related to what WE do. It's about you. It's about your car. It's about your friends. Word of mouth has caused this event to grow in popularity, and we're proud to say that the fall 2014 event was a great one.

Wow, what a day! We started early and walked the fairgrounds for most of the day. This event is huge, and tried our best to cover all of it. From the indoor displays, and Builder's Showcase areas, to the regular car show area, to the Pro's Pick area...we saw it all today. Check out our favorite shots from today, and if you're planning to attend the show, please take a few minutes to stop by our booth!

Since the NSRA Street Rod Nationals is so huge, we figured it would be best to split it up into a few recaps of our favorite cars and trucks on hand. "The Nats" has been held at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville for quite some time and it's an excellent venue for such a huge event. We walked the aisles of one portion of the car show today, and picked a few of our favorites to share with you guys. It's an awesome show, and you can look forward to more good stuff tomorrow. Be sure to watch our Instagram and Facebook feeds, as we'll be blasting photos on there as well.

Last year, the Hot Rod Power Tour came through Chattanooga, Tennessee and we played a huge part in orchestrating a killer stop, as well as an after party here at our headquarters downtown. For 2014, the Power Tour kicked off in Charlotte, North Carolina and traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee on Day 2. Since it was so close, we drove up to Chilhowee Park to check out the action. We LOVE the Power Tour because it promotes getting out and driving collector vehicles and you know what that means--wearing out tires!!! Thousands of hot rods, classic trucks and modern muscle cars filled the fairgrounds, and we spotted lots of Coker products. Check out a few of our favorites, including Rutledge Wood's very cool 1953 Plymouth station wagon, which rolls on BFGoodrich Silvertown 215/65R16 whitewalls and Smoothie wheels.

We made a quick stop at the F-100 Supernationals in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this past weekend to check out the show and scope out all the Coker Tire products on the grounds. Our first impression is that this show is much larger than we anticipated, with rows of vintage Ford cars and trucks throughout the new LeConte Center parking lot, as well as inside the center. A beautiful setting, and hundreds of cool vehicles made for a great day at the show, and we also combed through the swap meet to make sure we didn't miss out on any deals for our F-100 shop truck. Check out the highlights and mark this one down for your calendar next year--it's a great event!

Every year, when the Goodguys show invades Nashville, Tennessee, we can't resist the urge to sneak over to LP Field to check out all the action. We generally do not send our sales rig to the show, but we like to check out the event and see who is using our products! This year, we spotted lots of cool stuff, so we'd like to pass them along here...check it out!

The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) has been around since 1970 and it legitimized rod runs in the United States. Coker Tire is the "Official Tire of the NSRA" so we're proud to support its events, and encourage folks to attend the regional events, as well as the BIG ONE...the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. Since our headquarters is in Chattanooga, Tennessee, our regional event is the Street Rod Nationals South, held at Chilhowee Park in Knoxville, Tennessee.

With car show and cruise in season in full swing, we're on the road every weekend to events across the country. We set up our tractor trailer rigs at many national events throughout the year, but sometimes we go to local events for the fun of it. Sliding behind the wheel of an old car and mingling with like-minded folks is always a relaxing way to spend a sunny Saturday, and we did just that a couple weeks ago at the Main Street Cruise In, just up the road, in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Racing a vintage car is a gamble--it's putting a priceless piece of racing history in harm's way around every corner. Parts can fail and drivers can make mistakes, so to say vintage road racing is dangerous and exciting is an understatement. We love racing, especially if it involves vintage cars, so it was no-brainer for us to be a part of the Speedfest at the Classic Motorsports Mitty. The race is held at Road Atlanta, which is just down the road from us in Braselton, Georgia.

When we started the Chattanooga Cruise In a few years ago, we had no idea it would grow into one of the biggest Cruise In events in the Southeast. On Saturday, April 5th, 2014, we expected a great turnout, but when our blocked off streets were full by 11am (and the event didn't technically begin until noon), we knew this event would be huge. It was impossible to get an actual car count, but our estimations are 1,200. All of the surrounding streets and parking lots were packed with overflow hot rods, muscle cars and motorcycles. To say we are running out of room would be a major understatement...but that's a good problem to have!

We soaked up all of the So-cal goodness we could in the week we spent out there. Our main objectives were to attend the MPMC conference and to meet and greet at our Grand Opening party for the new West Coast facility. However, a bonus for this trip included the Grand National Roadster Show. We set up as a vendor at the show, and it's one of our favorite events of the year, so we made our way around the event to photograph all the cool stuff. Here's what we found!

This year's SEMA Show was huge for us. We're still on cloud nine, but we've been busy getting ready for other events, such as the Daytona Turkey Run, PRI and more, so we haven't let off the throttle just yet! At SEMA, we had lots of big news, and made lots of great connections within the industry. Our staff worked hard to make it happen, and we're proud to announce that a few members of our staff received major awards at the SEMA Show. In addition to this, our company won the SEMA Best New Product award in the Tires and Related category with our new American Classic bias profile radial tire! Check it out!

We love a good ol' car guy adventure. We do stuff like the Great Race, the Driven Dirty Tour and other road trip adventures on a regular basis, but we encountered a slightly different approach to the standard old car road trip this week. Apparently, a group of guys from California flew to Hershey, Pennsylvania for the AACA Fall Meet with a pocket full of cash, in search of a classic car. The goal was to buy a car at Hershey and drive it back home to California, with Coker Tire being a pit stop along the way. Ok, you have our attention!

As if the 1911 Marmon Wasp (winner of the inaugural Indianapolis 500) doesn't have a rich enough pedigree to be considered a rockstar, this sealed the deal! Our Marmon Wasp replica, built by Honest Charley Garage, was actually featured in a rock concert in Scottsdale, Arizona this week. The concert was held in conjunction with a Bridgestone/Firestone Dealer Meeting. Coker Tire was represented at the meeting, due to our involvement with Firestone tires for the vintage market, and we put our Marmon Wasp replica on display in the concert hall, where Foreigner rocked the house! How cool is that???

As if we didn't have enough going on in the month of September, we finished out the month with a very cool event, known as the Somernites Power Cruise. The regular Somernites Cruise is a monthly event (4th Saturday of the month) that draws in more than a thousand cars and trucks into downtown Somerset, Kentucky for a day of car guy fun. The "Power Cruise" is held in September, and we participated as one of the starting points for the Cruise.

The Glidden Tour is an event that relives the early years of the automobile, when American Automobile Association (AAA) decided to hold a touring event in the 1900's to prove the reliability of the automobile, which was in its infancy. The original Glidden Tours were held from 1903 to 1911 and they were named after Charles Glidden. Then, in 1946, the Glidden Tour was revived by the Veteran Motor Car Club of America (VMCCA) and continues to this day, visiting a different city each year. For 2013, we were lucky enough to have the 68th Revival Glidden Tour visit Chattanooga, Tennessee to see what the Scenic City has to offer!

Once again, we blocked off all of the streets in Corkyville, and invited a bunch of our friends to join us for a great day of car guy fun. We had blue skies and LOTS of sun, so folks arrived early in the morning to claim their parking spot. We knew going into the day's event that our overall turnout may be smaller than the April event, due to the schedule conflict with Shades of the Past in Pigeon Forge. We did have a few less cars, but we still had approximately 600 vehicles on hand for the fall Chattanooga Cruise In!

[caption id="attachment_3876" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Known simply as "the Quail"[/caption] After two days strolling through the dream-scape that is Monterey weekend. Corky Coker and Wade Kawasaki know two things already, wear good shoes and stay prepared to be amazed. This is the world renowned week of priceless classic vehicles, historic races and stacks of top-shelf car auctions that culminates with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

We were thrilled when we heard that the Hot Rod Power Tour would be coming back to Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2013. We geared up for a huge event, and that's exactly what it was...HUGE! Thousands of cars came out to Chattanooga State Community College for the official day's stop, while we prepared for an After Party Cruise In at our place! By 5pm, rush hour traffic was jam-packed with hot rods and everyone was headed to Coker!

Nashville is about two hours away from our office, so we snuck out to attend the Goodguys Nashville Nationals on May 17-19. We do not set up as a vendor at this event because of scheduling conflicts, but it's just too close for us to miss a chance of photographing some cool stuff for our advertisements and catalogs. So, we won't bore you with the details: LP Field, Nashville, TN, 2,000 cars and LOTS of Coker Tire products on the ground. Check it out!

We promoted the Chattanooga Cruise In to be the coolest Cruise In in the Southeast and by the looks of the turnout this past Saturday, we were right! It was HUGE! The crew had its hands full with trying to get everyone parked, and keep everyone entertained, but it was a great event for Chattanooga, and a great event for Coker Tire. We plan to host many more of these events right here at Coker Tire, including a big block party after the Power Tour stop in Chattanooga on Thursday, June 6th, as well as another one on Saturday, September 7th. The Chattanooga Cruise In brought out nearly 1,000 cars, trucks and motorcycles to Corkyville. It was hard to get an official count of spectators, but we estimate that more than 5,000 people were in attendance. It was incredibly packed all day, and we all had a great time. Take a look at some of our favorite pictures here, but visit our Facebook page and Instagram feed for many more shots! Also, keep an eye on the Chattanooga Cruise In website for updates regarding our future events!!!

Alright guys and gals, we're super excited about our event, the Chattanooga Cruise In, coming up this Saturday, April 6th from 2-8pm Eastern time. If you're anywhere near Chattanooga, you need to check it out! Several hundred cars will be on display on the streets surrounding the Coker Tire headquarters here in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. We'll also have an open house for our facility, as well as an open house at Honest Charley Speed Shop and Honest Charley Garage. Please join us!

The America's Most Beautiful Roadster award is one of the most prestigious awards in the hot rod world, and it's given away every year at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California. We were on hand for the Roadster Show, and speculated that John Mumford's 1927 Ford Track-T roadster would take home the 8-foot tall trophy, and we were right! John's roadster is top notch in every way, and it fully deserves the AMBR title. Since it wears a set of Firestone Deluxe Champion tires, we figured you might want to see more of it!

Winter time for us southerners is quite tough! We struggle to make it through the winter without getting cabin fever, but Southern California hot rodders can get out all year long! In fact, one of the best hot rod and customs shows in the world happens in January, so it gave us a nice break from the cold. It's called the Grand National Roadster Show, and it's a hotbed for the coolest customs, wildest hot rods and baddest gassers in the country. The best part about it? A huge percentage of the cars roll on Coker Tire products! This year, we attended the event with a camera in hand and grabbed a bunch of great photos for you guys to enjoy!

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[caption id="attachment_3168" align="aligncenter" width="639"] We are not in Chattanooga, TN anymore...[/caption] Most businesses have at least one trade show to hang their hats on. The automotive aftermarket is no different, with several awesome shows throughout the year, but the grand daddy of them all is the SEMA Show. The Specialty Equipment Marketing Association's annual gathering is a monster of a trade show bringing thousands of buyers and sellers in the automotive aftermarket to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada every year the First week of November. The 2012 SEMA Show will feature more than 2,000 exhibitors and more than 1,500 brand new products to browse. With over 60,000 qualified buyers on hand around 125,000 industry professionals connecting, you start to get the picture. This sucker is big big big like gigantic!

For the past few decades, we've made the long trek to Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual SEMA Show and this year is no different. We just finished loading a couple of tractor trailers with our SEMA booth as well as a bunch of our toys and new product that we want to show off. We're very excited about the event, because there are thousands of great cars and a bunch of our good friends and business partners from around the world! The best part of the event is that we'll be covering it LIVE via the Coker Tire Facebook page!

The passing of a year of the calendar for kids seems to have very important points during the year like the end of school, Christmas, and birthdays. My calendar year seems to have important dates that focus around car events. As a died-in-the-wool car guy, I know it is Fall for sure when the AACA National Fall Meet, better simply known as Hershey rolls around. If you have never been to Hershey, Pennsylvania for this huge collector car extravaganza, you MUST put this event on your list.

If you've been keeping track of our Cruise In events here at Coker Tire, then you'll quickly realize that we have officially given it a name: the Chattanooga Cruise In. This event has taken off with great success, and we plan to hold more of them in 2013. We will soon be creating a website specifically for the Cruise In, so that we can efficiently handle requests for clubs, parking, etc. All of that aside, we prepared for a big crowd this past Saturday, and boy did we ever get one! With 700 cars on hand and more than 2,000 spectators, we had our hands full all day!

After having our Friday night kickoff party and cookout, we prepared ourselves for a hot rod convoy to Somerset, Kentucky. We had a dozen cars from around the area leave with us from Coker Tire, including a few Coker Tire employees. Leaving from Chattanooga at 8am, fellow enthusiasts joined the line as we motored up Highway 27 toward Kentucky. We'd continue to pick up cars as we made our way to Somerset, with the final count nearing 50 by the time we reached our destination. Upon arrival we were blown away with the size and organization of the Somernites Power Cruise event!

A few months ago, we were given the opportunity to sponsor the Somernites Cruise In, which is one of the largest Cruise In events in the country. It's held in Somerset, Kentucky, which is just a few hours north of our headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Somernites has an event called the Power Cruise, which consists of big groups of cars traveling from a particular starting point and ended up in Somerset. The Somernites event already has starting points in Nashville, Bowling Green, Cincinnati and more. Somernites board member, Keith Floyd came to us with the idea to add a new Power Cruise starting point in Chattanooga and we didn't hesitate to agree to it. Part of the fun would be a Friday night kickoff party at our place, where we could welcome our guests, and show them a good time!

If you guys follow our blog and/or our the Coker Tire Facebook Page, then you know that we're having a BIG Cruise In on Saturday, September 29th. It's going to be a great event with hundreds of cars, so we're very excited about it. Our special Cruise In shirts were a big hit last time and we sold out quickly, so we're doing it again this time around. We just got our shipment in so we wanted to show it off! We order 200 of these shirts in various sizes and they're going to only be available at the event. It has an awesome design and the best part is the price.....10 bucks! For that kind of investment, you gotta get one!

The adventure starts when Margaret buys a used car to drive it (only that one car) a few years...okay maybe a passel of years and all of a sudden, post-passel of years, she (Margaret Dunning) gets invited to a big huge vintage car event with important people, she gets interviewed on television and radio, celebrities croon over her and want to meet her. What's the recipe for this you ask? It's very simple actually. In order to have a Most Excellent Adventure like Margaret Dunning you should buy a used car (new but only a couple of years old), say like a 1930 Packard Roadster then drive the snot out of it for decades. Then, after you are over a hundred (yes dang it I mean 100 years old!), you can have a Margaret Dunning Most Excellent adventure! Margaret Dunning, with her petite frame and obvious stout biceps is still driving her same 1930 Packard Roadster in 2012 at 102 years young! Margaret proves that old cars have to be good for your health! Well, at least longevity?!?! While in Pebble

Last year, we decided to hold a Cruise In event right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We held it in conjunction with the Coker Tire Challenge, which is our annual rally event. For a first-time effort, we did pretty good and had about 250 cars surrounding the Coker Tire complex that we affectionately call "Corkyville". Then we decided to have two Cruise In events per year, so we planned an event for April and 500 cars came out to join us! For the next Cruise In, we're hoping for even more, so come check it out on Saturday, September 29th, 2012! That's right, we're just a little over a month away, so go ahead and make plans to join us! We close off all of the streets surrounding Coker Tire and we also reserve many of the nearby parking lots, so we have plenty of room for this event to grow! In addition to hundreds of cars, trucks and motorcycles, we'll have live music by "The Other Guys"! There are restaurants positioned very close to our Cruise In area, but we also bring in a few food vendors

Now that the 2012 Hot Rod Power Tour is in the books, we wanted to do a quick recap and show off a few pictures that we snapped along the way. Coker Tire was a proud sponsor of the Day 2 stop in Muskegon, Michigan, which included a spectacular day of action. The weather was just right and we had a blast. Thousands of cars, and thousands of spectators came by for the day, and many of them stopped by the Coker Tire booth to check out what we had to offer. In addition to tire displays, we had Corky's brand new '54 Buick on display, as well as an 1908 American Simplex Indy racer and the Honest Charley rat rod pickup. [caption id="attachment_2560" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Corky's '54 Buick is awesome...just looks mean with those wide whites and black steelies!"][/caption] Corky invited his buddy Audie Blaylock, and his band, "Redline" to play at the after party that evening, and boy did they put on a show! Corky even got up on stage with them and sang a tune. During our time

The Honest Charley Garage guys are getting my Honest '54 Buick ready for the Hot Rod Power Tour. Coker Tire Company is the official host and Cruise Night sponsor for the stop in Muskegon, Michigan. The folks at Coker are really looking forward to it! And...I have a big treat for those who come to Muskegon. You see, I love Bluegrass Music. So...I have secured my buddy Audie Blaylock and Redline to come to Muskegon to put on a show. Check his music out on youtube! They are awesome! They are car guys too! --Corky

Last summer we decided to hold a Cruise In event, in conjunction with the Coker Tire Challenge. It was a test to see if this sort of event could be manageable and fun on a small budget. It turned out to be a great event, so we planned for two in 2012, one of which occurred last Saturday, April 21st. It was an incredible turnout of nearly 500 car, with thousands of people roaming the streets of Corkyville! Early in the week prior to the event, we noticed a huge chance for rain on Saturday, and that threat continued throughout the week, even on the day of the event, as the weather man called for a 50 percent chance of showers in the afternoon, which was prime time for our Cruise In. So, obviously we worried about that, as did many others. Overall, the rain threat may have kept a few people at home, but it definitely didn't hinder 500 of the finest cars in the South to join us for a great big party! The Cruise In officially started at 4pm, but people were here as early as noon to get a good

Last weekend, we had a lot going on. Coker Tire was widely represented across the country, as we had a truck and trailer at the Bakersfield, California HCCA meet, as well as a big crew at the Portland, Oregon Swap Meet. Without a doubt, we supplied lots of tires for collector vehicles, but we also had some fun too! While our sales guys were hard at work, our staff photographer went up to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to the Spring Grand Rod Run. He came back with a bunch of cool pictures, so we just wanted to share them here. Check 'em out! [caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="This Model A is super cool! Love those Firestone cheater slicks on the back!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2449" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Here's a closer look at those Firestone Dragster DOT slicks!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2452" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Awesome Chevy gasser rollin' on Coker's!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2443" align="alignleft"

• • Saturday, April 21, 2012
  • 4:00pm until 9:00pm

• Honest Charley Speed Shop, 1309 Chestnut Street

• Join us for a huge gathering of collector vehicles in downtown Chattanooga. Coker Tire and Honest Charley will provide an open house, and access to the Coker Tire Museum. Hundreds of hot rods, muscle cars and other vintage vehicles will cover the surrounding streets of Coker Tire. Live entertainment, great food and lots of fun will make this cruise in a blast!

A few weeks ago, we were approached by a major magazine publishing company to potentially borrow a motorcycle from our huge collection here at the Coker Museum. Source Interlink Media would be attending a major event, known simply as the Dealer Expo. This trade show is the premier global business venue for the powersports industry held in Indianapolis, Indiana, so our friends and Source Interlink wanted to represent a wide variety of motorcycles in its display booth. We kindly obliged and gave them our 1930 Indian Scout 101 for the weekend. A few interesting details about the bike is that it was very popular with racers, hill climbers and stunt riders. It had a couple options for engines, but this one features the 45ci V-twin, which produced 18 horsepower from the factory. With a 75mph top speed, the bike was quite the runner, and we're glad to have it as part of our collection. It even has a set of our Indian script tires on it!

We travel to more than 50 car shows a year with our tractor trailer rigs, and we're upgrading our fleet with fresh new designs! To give our trailers the "rolling billboard" affect, designer Michael Mattheiss gave each side a distinct look, and we couldn't be happier with the way it turned out! Our rigs are seen all over the country, so we want folks to see what we're all about. Check out this design, and look for it at a show near you!

With 2012 right around the corner, we're preparing for a full year of fun events, traveling place to place in one of our tractor trailers. One in particular, which we refer to as the "High Tech Truck" just got a major facelift, with a brand new wrap that covers nearly every square inch of the trailer. It has a cool design with all sorts of photos on it....AND, one side is different than the other! We'll be heading to lots of events this year, so after you check out the pictures of our new trailer wrap, see our event schedule and find out where we're headed! By the way, if you want to save money on shipping, you can take advantage of FREE delivery to shows. That means you can walk into the show empty handed and walk out with a brand new set of tires and wheels that are mounted, balanced and ready to bolt on to your collector vehicle.

If you follow our Facebook fan page, then you know we blasted the page with live photos from the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a great event and we had a blast, as always, so it's time to wrap it up and get ready for the winter season. We met lots of great folks at SEMA, some new to the industry and some old timers like us. We debuted new booth artwork for our indoor booth and a brand new full wrap on our tractor trailer rig, which was positioned outside of the convention center. With new products on display, as well as the completed Marmon Wasp and Honest Charley rat rod truck, our booth(s) were a big hit. Check it out! [caption id="attachment_2277" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Our updated SEMA indoor booth with new counter artwork, and TV\'s!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2278" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="As always it was a packed house at the Las Vegas Convention Center!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2279" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="One

When I was a young man, my mom always worried about me drivin fast. I had some fast cars and I did drive fast,.. You know it! Mustangs and GTOs were the thing though, not Mercers... [caption id="attachment_2211" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Me and momma in a Mercer!"][/caption] At the Hershey AACA National meet, my friend Fred Hoch took a picture of me and my momma in his T Head Mercer Raceabout. I am pretty sure that I was born at the wrong time. I would have been the terror of the dirt roads in a teens era Mercer Raceabout. It is my kind of car. it goes fast and is a man's sports car! Fred Hoch should leave me that Mercer in his will,... I am sure it would be the right thing to do! From the road, Corky

A few weeks ago, we discussed the idea for a cruise in right here in Corkyville. Deciding on a date was a daunting task with so many events going on this time of year, but we knew it needed to be on Chestnut Street, and we knew an event of this nature would bring in a crowd no matter the date. So, our decision was to hold the Cruise In on the Saturday of the Coker Tire Challenge, which happened to be September 17th. We knew going in that this date would be somewhat of an issue, because it's the weekend of the Grand Run in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but we had an awesome turnout, all things considered! [caption id="attachment_2076" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Cars and trucks lined up on Chestnut Street, 14th Street and any vacant parking lot they could find!"][/caption] The event was scheduled for 4-9pm, but we had folks rolling in as early as 2pm, trying to get a good parking spot. We called the guys at Mountain Cove to come in a play a few sets of Bluegrass music for us, and

Oh, yeah... I forgot to add this to the Davenport trip. My buddy Mike Wolfe had this piece of crap belly tank racer on display that he had found out pickin somewhere with his hit tv show "American Pickers". I tried to get him to price it to me. It is powered by an Indian 4 cylinder motor. Rear end is a motorcycle three wheeler. I thought it was cool. Maybe he will come down off his high horse and price it to his old buddy Corky. If you see him or Frank, tell them I want it and to be nice to me on the price... Check out a couple of pictures... [caption id="attachment_1957" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="This thing is just too cool! I gotta have it!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1958" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Mike Wolfe\'s belly tanker....very cool."][/caption] From the road, Corky

One of my favorite swap meets is the Iowa Chief Blackhawk Chapter of the Antique Motor Cycle Club of America which happens Labor Day weekend in Davenport Iowa. It is always hot! Was this year too! Usually I fly in but some of the guys drive up earlier in the week to set up our tire display. I really really really like antique motorcycles so I have to be at Davenport. This is about the biggest early bike show in the world. I get to see all my buddies too. Dude (my bike restorer) said he needed a saddle and a pedal crank for a "barn find" Excelsior board track racer project he is doing for me. I was successful picking those pieces up so Dude can finish that bike. Usually I see all the Excelsior stuff on the field or "it finds me!...sort of calls out to me, you know." I found my buddy Vince had just picked up a 1913 Excelsior twin barn find on the way to Davenport from his home in Auburn CA. I had to have it. What do you think? Completely original... and it still has the original all gray

My week of events of Monterey/Pebble Beach include a Friday Foray into everything Italian at Italiano Concorso. I ran across a new friend Eric Sander who asked me to photo up in front of his boss's Ferrari Dino with our Michelin XWX tires on it. Williams owns a company called Kings Electronics (www.4king.com) who makes distributor based ignition system testers. Looks like an interesting product. Thought you guys might like the picture of his Ferrari. The guy with me in the second picture is Eric Sander. I have been thinking about a starting a Concours de Elegance in Chattanooga. Since some smart guy already started the Concours de Lemon which features Gremlins and Pintos and all that sort of stuff, I thought my Concours should focus on my kind of folks..... I think I should call it Concourso Redneckio. Whaddayathink? [caption id="attachment_1948" align="aligncenter" width="500"] 1974 Ferrari Dino | Michelin XWX[/caption]

"This car's beautiful shape and Michelin XWX tires are a not-so-subtle

Maybe you have heard me say that I have the absolute best job in the world. Not only do I get to be around car guys (who just happen to be the best people in the world) every day, but I get to "play in my work and work in my play". I am a consummate car guy, gear head, barn finder etc....you get the picture. I also get to go to really cool events all over the world. Every year mid August, the collector car world converges on the Monterey Peninsula for the Pebble Beach Concours de Elegance held at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course near 17 mile drive in Monterey. It is really, really cool to see all the phenomenal cars from all over the world. If you want to see cars that are clearly "over restored"....this is the crme de la crme place to go. The whole week is a day by day overload of auctions, car shows, receptions, and elbow rubbins... [caption id="attachment_1942" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Alan Taylor, Barry Meguiar, and myself chatting on set at Pebble Beach."][/caption]

Well, it's that time of the year again. It's August, it's hot and it's time for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. We're on a cool little road trip this weekend, and decided to stop at the Nats for the day. As usual, the Kentucky Expo Center was packed with hot rods of all shapes and sizes, from low slung coupes to nose-high gassers. The day started with a six hour drive, and ended with about 3 more hours of driving....with lots of hot rods thrown in the midst. Tomorrow we're headed to the Funny Car Nationals at Marion County International Raceway in LaRue, Ohio...it should be a great time as over 30 funny cars do battle, along with a great deal of Nostalgia Pro Stock and Nostalgia Super Stock. We're always wanting to figure out new ways to cater to our nostalgia drag racing people, so this is a great way to do it. We'll post pictures from that event too, so stay tuned! For now, here are some of our favorite shots from Louisville. [caption id="attachment_1926" align="alignleft" width="493" caption="Our booth at the 2011 NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus"][/caption]

Around here, there's no better way to celebrate the Indianapolis 500 than to show off some of our tires, built specifically for vintage Indy cars. In fact, we're up here in Indy right now, showing off our Marmon Wasp replica, along with our Firestone Indy tire selection, which are all built from either original Firestone molds or new molds built from the original drawings. We'll post up some pictures from the event later, but for now, check out a finished photo of the Marmon Wasp, and our line of Firestone Indy tires in the spirit of the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500! [caption id="attachment_1522" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Group shot of the Honest Charley Garage crew with the finished Marmon Wasp!"][/caption]

Great events dont happen by accident and they certainly dont happen in the blink of an eye. It takes a lot of work to develop, organize and run an intricate event such as The Great Race, and it took a lot of work behind the scenes to get it off the ground. Tom McRae and Norman Miller did just that in 1983. The two individuals were partners in the deal, and bought out an ailing race promoter who planned to race pre-World War II automobiles across the United States for a massive purse. There were plenty of folks who doubted the feasibility of an event of this magnitude, but with help from a crew of like-minded car nuts, McRae and Miller made it work. From the inaugural event in 83 to the return of The Great Race in 2011, there have been lots of memorable moments, and with the events new ownership and new direction, there will be plenty more in the years to come.

Car guys are particularly good at finding a way to surround themselves around like-minded folks, and it's been that way for years. Car shows are a great way to do it, and we're lucky to be in a region where you could easily attend a car show every weekend if you don't mind traveling 100 miles or so. And while we attend many shows with our booth setup, we also visit several shows throughout the year in a more casual manner. This past weekend, we made the drive up to LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee for the 6th annual Goodguys Nashville Nationals. [caption id="attachment_1475" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Firestone whitewalls and custom wire wheels...what a beautiful combination, built by Jason Graham Hot Rods!"][/caption]