Heather Rende of Crystal, Minn., bought her ‘74 Volkswagen Super Beetle on a whim in 2008 for the sole purpose of turning it into a show car. 

The champagne colored bug was Rende’s first project car. She had no background or experience in cars, but she found all of that and more in the Frankensteiners Car Club, which she joined shortly after buying the Beetle. The club was always on the lookout for projects, Rende said, and offered to help her give the VW a makeover.

The project began in the spring of 2008 and in less than a month of work in the club’s garage, the car was turned into a head-turning hot rod. The mods:

Satin black paint with bright pink flames and green pin striping, nerf bars in place of the bumpers, shaved and relocated front blinkers, modified taillights including a maltese cross taillight, a stinger pipe, headlight eyebrows, new rocker panels and running boards, a two-inch front drop and painted wheels. The black and pink vinyl interior took longer to complete; it was fully installed after about a year. The transmission and carb have also been replaced since the build.

“I chose how it would look,” Rende said. “However, the work was a team effort. Whoever had the talent worked on it. I did not work on it. Just helped where I could.”

Rende said the Beetle sees plenty of action during show season. She said it’s a blast to drive and draws attention everywhere.

“Lot’s of smiles,” she said. “As you can imagine, girls love it!’

The Car Craft Summer Nationals came to a close July 24 after three days of roaring engines, smoking tires, polished paint and deep-fried eats.

Car Craft magazine’s annual street machine event, which draws about 5,000 cars and 45,000 spectators, continues to be the Minnesota State Fairgrounds’ second biggest car show behind Back to the ’50s. But more than a show, the event features an autocross course, a chassis dyno, a launch box that tests acceleration and braking, a burnout competition, a Miss Car Craft contest and more.

Basically, if you enjoy cars–particularly domestic vehicles from the muscle era through today–there’s something for you at the Car Craft Nats. And the event appeals just as much to lawn-chair show goers as it does to adrenaline junkies. The show’s Real Street Eliminator competition pitted participants against each other on the dyno, the autocross course and in the launch box. New this year was a Pro Builder’s Shoot Out, a Royal Purple Do-It-Yourself Garage and a Revell Make ‘N’ Take model building area.

Severe weather whipped through the Fairgrounds on Saturday, but it didn’t dampen spirits much. Nor did the construction on University Avenue, or the absence of Porky’s, a popular destination after the show in years past. Cars cruised Snelling Avenue instead.

Hopefully the show continues to grow, as it’s pretty cool to host a national car mag’s main event year after year. If you’ve never experienced it, make sure to get there next year. Check out the photos for some of this year’s action and go to carcraft.com for more details.

The Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 38th annual Back to the Fifties show, on pace for record registration through its first day June 17, topped out about 60 cars shy of last year following a wet Saturday. By the end of the three-day event, more than 11,700 pre-1964 vehicles had rolled through the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, drawing throngs of spectators despite the uncooperative weather.

The vehicle turnout for this event year after year has been almost too much to take in, even for a three-day show. From bone-stock classics to wild customs and rods to the ever-popular rat rod, the show features vehicles for a wide range of interests.

More than 350 vendors and exhibits were at this year’s show, as well as kids activities and other offerings, such as live music, a Mecum auction and a gigantic swap meet. If you missed the show, check out the photo gallery for a tiny bit of the action and be sure to get out to this must-see event next year.

If you make it out to Elko Speedway this summer, keep an eye out for Jason Novak’s number 88 Thunder Car, which is sporting the Minnesota Motorhead logo.

Novak, from Farmington, is a good friend who pasted this website’s moniker on the side of his car for next to nothing. It’s a sponsorship that pays in moral support, while his other sponsor, the Farmington NAPA store, does the real work of keeping him and other local racers on the track with parts specials. Still, it’s pretty cool to see Minnesota Motorhead lapping the 3/8-mile oval, so here’s a little background on the guy behind the wheel. 

Novak has been racing in the Power Stock and Thunder Car divisions since 2002. His current car started out as a run-of-the-mill ‘85 Oldsmobile Cutlass destined for the scrap heap. He and some friends gutted it and turned it into a race car for the 2004 season and Novak raced it again in 2005. After that, the car was gradually disassembled and completely rebuilt. This year is its first appearance since the rebuild.

The home-built car is heavily fabricated, from the intense network of roll cage bars to the aluminum interior, which features custom bead-rolled flames on the dash. Even the shifter, a steel rod topped with a rocker arm that a pushrod blew through during a race last year, is home made. After leading much of that race, Novak finished second on seven cylinders.

“I call it my cruel reminder to, no matter where you are on the track, to shut the engine down when there is a wicked noise and you’re all of a sudden running on seven cylinders,” he said. “I was lucky to not have a complete engine failure out of that one.”

Novak is a mechanic by day, and said he learned metal fabrication on his own over time. His tool arsenal includes tin snips, a bead roller, a welder and other simple tools.

“Nothing fancy in my garage–no sheet metal brakes, tubing notchers or anything else that makes that stuff easy,” Novak said.

He also sprayed the car’s silver paint himself and gave it a clearcoat to boot.

Under the hood is a 350 making close to 400 hp on 110 octane, despite the use of stock exhaust manifolds and a two-barrel carb. Compression is a healthy 10.8:1 and the engine features a .500 lift cam. It sends power to the wheels through a Powerglide transmission, run in low, and 3:42:1 gears.

Novak’s first race of the season, in late May, was cut short by overheating issues, but he finished sixth out of 16 in the feature race the next weekend and said with a few more suspension and chassis tweaks, the car “should be pretty damn fast.”

Since Elko’s track is NASCAR sanctioned, a NASCAR license is required and drivers do get paid depending on where they finish. But Novak said it’s not nearly enough to cover the time and expense of building and racing a car and that’s not why he does it.

“Racing, much like the car show scene, is full of people with passion for what they do,” he said. “I have met a lot of people, made a lot of friends doing it, and always enjoy going to the race tracks in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I would rather go to any short track in the country over a big NASCAR race any day.”

More participants than ever before turned out for the 29th annual GMCCA Car Show and Swap Meet June 5 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

The weekend’s perfect weather, a first for this car show season, probably had a lot to do with it. Event official Hal Rogers said the show usually draws about 500 cars. This year 550 people registered, but total participation was between 600 and 700, he said.

Back when the fairgrounds still had a full racetrack, this show was held in the infield, with swappers lined up around the oval. That shows how much the event has grown; this year’s group wouldn’t have come close to fitting in that space.

Twelve local car clubs sponsored the show, which featured participant voting for 23 classes split up by make and year. Only the event’s most prominent models, Corvettes and Corvairs, had their own classes.

Check out the photo gallery for highlights from the sunny day, which was hopefully one of many more to come.

Rain and severe weather are becoming the norm this car-show season.

One week after a string of thunderstorms doused the Frankensteiners Spring Meltdown Car Show in Elk River, storm clouds rolled into Hastings and threatened to ruin the first Saturday Night Cruise-In of the year. It rained, it hailed; strong winds whipped down Main Street.

Once again, participants scattered. The show area, nearly full around 4 p.m., cleared out during the worst of it. But the bad weather didn’t stick around long and when the sun came out, so did the towels and spray bottles. Cars started trickling back in and by the end of the night, the main drag was again lined with rods, customs, muscle cars, and other pre-1976 vehicles (the cut-off for participants).

Hastings will host this show on nine other Saturdays through Oct. 1. The historic town makes for a perfect setting and features some great spots to eat as well as plenty of street food. The next Saturday Night Cruise-In is June 11. Hopefully the skies are clear that day.

For more information on the event, click here.

Video: Severe weather May 22 didn’t keep Rryan Orvis of Braham, Minn., from smoking the hides off his ‘64 Ford F100 at the Frankensteiners Spring Meltdown Car Show at Broadway Pizza in in Elk River.

It was a rough day for anything outdoors, but enthusiasts from across the automotive hobby and the state drove their cars through the rain May 22 to take part in the Frankensteiners Spring Meltdown Car Show at Broadway Pizza in Elk River.

From traditional rods and rat rods to muscle cars, late models and tuners, there was something for everyone at this show.

There were few dry moments and for a while everyone was crammed into the restaurant-which lost power briefly, sending everyone into hoots and hollers-but the rain didn’t dampen the fun. Rockabilly blasted from the speakers, large amounts of burgers, pizza and beer were consumed and cars crowded the parking lot.

The burnout competition was in question for a while, especially after a looming wall cloud prompted a frantic scattering of participants late in the morning. But things cleared up enough to ruin a few sets of tires.

Ryan Orvis of Braham, Minn., claimed the burnout trophy with two long smoke fests in his 302-powered ‘64 F100. He kept on it despite a blown radiator and eventually had to be pushed out of the burnout box.

Another show highlight was Rat Rod Magazine’s Tour Rat, a wild mix of a ‘31 Desoto and a ‘60 Plymouth.

Check out the photo gallery for more from the Meltdown scene.

The Midwest Mopars club is planning a new addition to its increasingly popular Mopars in the Park show this year—an attempt at setting a Guinness world record for the largest parade of LC platform Dodge Challengers.

That means the attempt is only open to the new version of Dodge’s famed muscle car, or Challengers made from 2008 to today. Mopar will lead the parade with a mystery guest driving a special Challenger, according to the Midwest Mopars website. The driver’s name won’t be released before the event, so you’ll have to be there to find out who it is.

All LC Challenger owners are invited to participate in the record attempt, which will take place June 4, the first of the show’s two days. If you want to join the group, use class code 4200 on the registration form.

This year’s show will also feature a display dedicated to 1971 Mopars, a swap meet, a burnout contest, a model contest and more. All Mopar makes and models are welcome to participate in the event, which will again be at the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington. To register, or for more information, click here.

With temperatures hovering in the 30s and the windchill making it feel even colder, spring seemed to be missing from the Spring Extravaganza Car Show and Swap Meet May 1 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, but the cars weren’t.

Hundreds of classics, customs, rods and muscle cars showed up for the 24th annual event, sponsored by the Gopher State Chapter of the Buick Club of America, and hundreds of spectators braved the cold to check out one of the first large shows of the season. The swap meet was also a big draw and folks could be seen throughout the day toting car parts and other finds.

Many show participants huddled in their vehicles, rolling down windows to chat with spectators. Only a few car owners, such as Dave Teskey, toughed out the cold in lawn chairs.

“All the die-hard car guys are here today,” said Teskey, who sat in a winter parka behind his 1960 Plymouth Fury.

If you opted to stay indoors May 1, check out the photo gallery for coverage of the scene.

If you’re a fan of cruising to Porky’s on a nice summer Saturday night for a burger and a little car culture, hopefully you got in a few runs last year, because you won’t get the opportunity again.

Porky’s closed abruptly April 3, days after ownership announced the property’s impending sale to neighboring Episcopal Homes. The Central Corridor light rail project on University Avenue contributed to already slow sales at the restaurant, prompting the sale, according to numerous news reports.

But the construction didn’t stop customers, many of them auto enthusiasts, from lining up throughout the restaurant’s last weekend.

For many in the Twin Cities car community, the closure is a devastating loss. Porky’s, which opened in 1953, was more than a place to get great burgers and onion rings. It was a place that on any given Saturday, if the weather was nice, car buffs of all ages and backgrounds could be found mingling among raised hoods, enjoying their hobby. It was the central hub of the University Avenue cruising circuit; the place to park, chat and gawk for a bit before getting behind the wheel for another lap.

Porky’s was the best place to be at night during Back to the ’50s and the Car Craft Summer Nationals. When the shows let out, Porky’s and the stretch of University Avenue in front of it transformed into another show, often complete with smokey burnouts.

University Avenue without Porky’s is hard to imagine, but it’s now a reality. And so is the massive construction project outside the restaurant’s shuddered doors. In a few years, trains will be sharing the roadway with the cars that have dominated it for decades.

When the dust finally settles on University, it might not be the cruising destination it is today. The owners of Porky’s might have recognized that. But Twin Cities auto enthusiasts are still going to pull out their cars on a warm Saturday night and find a place to cruise. Where will you go?