Real Chopper: Dogwood Show and shine,

 This will be the second to last post on the dogwood show and shine photo blogs because I have other exciting stuff to get on with as far as content goes. But the last one will not disappoint, at least I hope it won't, well you'll see.

This old roadster was an eye catcher to say the least. I honestly don't know to much about these old rigs and would be giving false information if I tried to spell anything out. Above is the engine, and below is the back of the car.

I never got a chance to talk to the owner but it was easy to see that the build quality of this pump was up there with the best of them especially with the interior and engine in mind. This is the inside of the cars, usually containing a steering wheel, a couple seats and an instrument panel.

This was really an eye opener for me, these type of cars have never been of much interest to me along with old choppers, like the one below. But after taking a few minuets to admire them, all I can see is dollar signs and tireless hours being invested into these, and if you can't appreciate anything else about these pumps than at least appreciate the work and money that went into them. I try to do that now with any build or project that I see. These are some neat leather seats.

Whether that be a riced out Honda civic, a Factory spec all original hand build Aston Martin or a street rod that I never even got the manufacturer year of. these builds took time, and that I can fully appreciate that. This is the front tire.

This chopper I found in the bikes section does indeed still count as an "Air Pump" it has an intake and an exhaust, which is basically an air pump, therefore I could have just about anything on this site that pumps air. I could have an airplane if I felt the need, or I could have a vacuum cleaner, or a human for that case, considering the fact that we are constantly breathing.... air. but I digress this is a Harley and I took photos of it.

Once I saw the bike section, I almost didn't go over there just because I don't have to much interest in in them to begin with, I mainly went over there because this bike looked like a lot of time had been put into it, and boy was I ever glad I checked it out.

After talking to the guy who owned this bike I appreciated it even more. And the more time I spent looking at it the more I found little details I liked. This bike was built by the owner and his brother back in the late 1960' through the seventies. This old geezer was proud to tell me that it was an original Harley, chopped just like they are supposed to be, with only 30 percent of the frame still intact.

Now I personally had no idea that a chopper was called that because it was literally put into a shop and hacked at by a couple of guys. I was very happy to hear this because the owner later said that now a days anyone can buy a prefabbed chopper frame and build one out of a catalog.

The shop that built this bike, is called 8th day cycles. From some place in Idaho... again, details. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be some supernatural symbol for power or something, but they know how to make a bike, and purple used to be my favorite color, back when I was like twelve.

Joshua Sewell.
Instagram:josh_sewell_photo

Lighting Tracks on Fire and Killing Tires: Stateline Open Drift.

 This last Sunday I had the opportunity to shoot another drift event with "Stateline Drift". With these photos I used a different software than I have on previous shoots and I have to say I am very pleased with the results. So here are some of the better photos of the event, potentially having already been seen if you pay attention to the Stateline Drift Facebook page or my photography website, I might make some comments on the photos, but I might not. Enjoy freinds.

 This was the first time I caught up with the villains, they have some pretty rad videos on YouTube linked in the purple text, and after spending a lot of time working on and driving in their cars and an unknown amount of time in Seattle drifting at Evergreen Speedway and at PARC in Canby OR it is easy to see that they know how to drift.

 This was Dave, he drives a pink V8 swapped miata, and tears it up.

 I was very pleased to find that I caught the driver in the rear view mirror of this and one other photo. luck or skill I'm not sure, but it is what it is.

 This RB25 swapped s13 was probably my favorite car at the event, not the fastest or the best, but my favorite for reasons I'm still trying to figure out.

This Silvia was swapped with an RB20 engine and sounded great out on the track. Cant go wrong with a swapped s-chassis.

 This S13 was another of my favorites, the V8's are fun and all for great power on tap and reliability, but a jz swapped S chassis is probably the purest form of modern drifter and "I just can't get enough."

 These three destroyed the track a couple times. Watching the triple tandem was probably the highlight of the event for me, that or my ham and cheese sandwich I had for lunch, kinda a toss up.

Feel free to comment and share what you think of these neat photos, I'd love to hear from you guys! And if your interested in prints leave a comment and we can go from there.

Joshua Sewell
Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Corvair 140: Dogwood Show and Shine

The Chevrolet Corvair is a pump that many mistake for a Camaro. Living under a name like that did no good for the sales of the Corvair. These cars were not only commonly mistaken for their higher up but also they were constantly misunderstood.

Many people looked at the Corvair and saw a smaller more affordable Camaro, but were they ever so wrong with what this car really was. This Corvair, with correct tire pressure and maintenance, was rival only to the Porsche 911 and fiat 500 abarth.

To the surprise of to many, the engine of this car was located in the trunk. When Camaro drivers would place their smuggled goods in the trunk of their rig, easily assumed as the stashing place for recreational goods by the local PD.

These Corvair drivers, took the next step in penitentiary avoidance and put their "golf clubs" up front where everyone assumed the engine was.

Knowing that Chevrolet had this in mind and kept the American public in check with their own built in anti-pen specific features, this gives a better understanding of what the company was really shooting for with this car, they left the high class Corvette and Camaro driving citizens hanging while giving the little guy a break. interesting more Chevy, interesting

This type of thing is what makes or breaks a company. Chevrolet took the common problem of getting caught with goods in the trunk and kept their loyal costumers loyal by watching their back and loving them, when they needed it most.

And while digging deeper it seems they were not only looking out for their costumer but they were looking out for themselves because in reality how much of the economy back in the sixties was boosted by the import, export, and transportation of recreationals. Not that I'm trying to relate Chevrolet to the drug problems of north America, but its hard to think they weren't thinking about this at least a little bit when designing this car.

so here is it, the one thing that this car has that took costumers from state pen parties to penthouse parties, from the slums, to still-houses, and from orange soda to Orange-Cardamom Madeleines, the rear mounted engine of the Chevrolet Corvair.

Joshua Sewell
Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Porsche 924: Dogwood Show and Shine

The Porsche 924 was the first car with a Porsche badge to have a front water cooled engine. While this may not have been the prettiest or best way to start off the front engine Porsche. It began the trend which produced some of the world’s fastest and most expensive pumps at the time.

This Porsche 924 was a little gem I found at the Dogwood Show and Shine in the Lewiston Clarkson valley in north Idaho. This car was in the process of a restoration but for the exterior at least, it looked like it had already been done. I talked to the owner and he said he’s been in the restoration process for a while and started to list some of the mods he had done on it, including how he stashed the tire grease rag under the rear tire, very tasteful in my opinion, I mean if your going to use a tire grease rag you might as well show it off too. This one looked really clean and I think speaks of the cleanliness of the tire before it was greased, all I can say is Wow.

He first pointed out the closely matched new paint job the Porsche was sporting. With only a slight color variation between the engine bay being the original color and the fender being the respray color. He also mentioned that he did a five lug swap to fit the bigger phone dial wheels which I think are a great contrast to the hard edges found throughout the car.

 Additionally he did a rear disk break swap to provide a bit more consistent stopping power and finally mentioned the duck-tail spoiler he added from the Carrera variant of the car.

After talking to him a bit I popped open the door and peaked inside, disappointingly it wasn’t much to look at. Once I saw it though, he was quick to spell out how he planned to get the seats reupholstered in the same pattern with some fresh leather as he would also do with the worn and cracked dash. Black leather with pea green thread to match the paint sounds like the perfect combo to me!

Knowing that this little 924 was in the middle of a restoration,  I found it refreshing at a classic car show full of American muscle. I see the draw to these cars and have dreamed about owning one myself, and after watching this old top gear episode, I feel even better about the first water cooled Porsche. Whether the engine really did come out of a Volkswagen van or not.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Dogwood Show & Shine: Camaro Super Sport

Here is the first more involved look into a variety of the beautiful pumps I found at the Dogwood Festival Show and Shine, of which I promised to follow up this post with. This Camaro was one of the cleanest at the show. 

I started shooting it once I finished my initial look around the show to avoid any bias I might have after going a while without seeing any real show cars. I came back to it and found out just how pristine of condition it was in.

 As I started shooting I began to notice the level of finish this car had, the engine bay, the paint, the interior, everything. After I took a snap of the engine, I moved to the front and started looking for a front quarter shot.

While taking a few shots the owner caught on and offered to shut the hood, to which I kindly agreed. I kept shooting, now with closed hood, and continued to take in the cleanliness of this iconic pumper of air.

 I approached the interior and noticed the clean and clear vinyl, dash, shift knob, and so on. I then stepped back and was about to move on when I saw this sticker on the quarter window. "Look all you want, but please don't touch"

Once I saw this, my level of appreciation for this car at this show rose even more. The sticker showed how much attention had been given to this car. Even the size of the sticker.. not to big, but enough to get your attention. Even the reflection of the photographer looks good.

The shot of the sticker was my last of the car, and after it, I took a minuet to simply take in the presence of what I was looking at.

I've always enjoyed a good looking classic muscle car, but after seeing this one I feel like I know even more, what a great example looks like..

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo