I grew up reading anything car-related I could get my hands on. That meant National Dragster in the earliest years and then Hot Rod and Car Craft, along with 4-Wheel and Off-Road, Street Rodder, and Popular Hot Rodding, along with whatever else I could get away with reading at the stand or in the library. Pat’s years at Hot Rod Magazine were my first years as a subscriber and I remember tons of the work he did well. In fact, one of his most famous stories “Caddy Hack” was recreated by Freiburger and I, along with Finnegan, when we did the Vette Hack with the C4 that would become their Vette Kart.

I could bring up lots of stories I read, stories I’ve heard, and history that Pat has been a part of but what really matters is that he was a man who garnered huge respect from the people that worked with him. I met him a few times, was lucky enough to have a couple of conversations with him, and am saddened that he is gone. Our own Brian Lohnes has a specific story he remembers of working with Pat, and although it was limited it was impactful. That was Pat. He made an impact, if for no other reason that the fact that he was so tall.

But he was passionate about what he did, was a true champion of the hot rodding and custom car culture, and he loved it. He knew it. He lived it. The same can’t be said for all of those that came before or since.

On behalf of all of us here at BANGshift.com, our thoughts, prayers, compassion, and condolences go out to the entire Ganahl family, friends, and readers. He will be missed for sure.

God Speed Pat

Photo by Stephan Szantai

The post We’ve Lost A Good One: God Speed Pat Ganahl, Hot Rodding Grew And Flourished With Your Help appeared first on BangShift.com.

On this day remember, and celebrate, those that came before us and helped form this great land of ours. The men and women of our past have pushed, sacrificed, and persevered so that this country would continue to grow and prosper. We owe it to them, and those generations to come, to do our best to keep our country safe and prosperous. Celebrate our freedom, celebrate our history, and celebrate your families. As usual we’ll be working on our junk, covering races, and talking hot rods and racing today and we hope you will be too. Enjoy a beverage or three, a hot dog or hamburger or three, and be safe. That is what today is about.

We love you, we love these United States of America, and we want you to think about that as you enjoy the weekend off. Remember the United in United States of America. We may not always agree with each other, but we must stay United in order to fulfill our pledge to this great nation. Many have sacrificed their lives and families to protect that unity, do not tarnish it with hate and divisiveness. Thank you to all our active military, veterans, and first responders for keeping us safe and united. We couldn’t have done it without you.

The post BANGshift.com Wishes You A Happy Independence Day! Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, And Have Some Fun! appeared first on BangShift.com.

The weather this year is weirder than ever, so some of you are really going to need to bundle up to stay nice and warm while others will be outside enjoying shorts and flip-flops weather like Chad does every single day. Regardless of the weather, we encourage you to reach out to friends and loved ones young and old to wish them a Merry Christmas as well.

If you are one of those who work through the holidays, we tip our hats to you…especially the doctors and nurses, along with police, firefighters, and service members around the world, thank you for putting in the hours, especially in a year like this one. We appreciate the work you do to provide not only for your family but to your community as a whole.

We are taking a bit of time with our families for the holidays like we usually do this time of year, so we hope you enjoy some of the year-in-review pieces we’ve chosen. We appreciate you stopping by and hope that Santa left something under the tree that scratches that gearhead itch just so, whether it’s some good parts or some toys that you and the kids both are going to enjoy for some time to come. And please, feel free to share the tales of the loot with us!

On the behalf of myself Chad Reynolds, Brian Lohnes, Bryan McTaggart, our families, and the contributors who help make BangShift the place that it is, we wish you the best for Christmas this year. Thank you for being here, thank you for your support, and we’re looking forward to making 2022 the year we want it to be!

Also, enjoy this classic Christmas Tree Burnout from the Crusty Nova and make sure you email me any of your Christmas shenanigans too! chad@bangshift.com

The post Merry Christmas From The BANGshift Family To Yours. Have A Happy And Safe Holiday With Lots Of Burnouts! appeared first on BangShift.com.

There are several very easily recognized dragstrips in the United States, and Pomona is one of them. It’s also one of the most expensive to rent for something like this. Clearly, Allstate has a big budget, and given the way they shot the commercial maybe it still makes sense to do it where the cost is so high. But there are plenty of other big dragstrips that could have been used that aren’t sponsored, and named for, a competing insurance company. This is the part that immediately made me do a double-take. With that said, maybe the LA County Fairgrounds and NHRA needed the money since they hadn’t been able to have events. Or maybe this thing got shot before COVID. Who knows.

What I do know, is that the coupe in the commercial is owned by the folks at Chino Hills Transmissions. They are good people, support lots of Southern California drag racing, and build a stout transmission to boot. They are the ones that did the build on the 4L80E that is in Ethyl, so it is cool to see their car on a major tv commercial like this.

Anyway, enjoy the commercial and let us know what you think.

The post Does Anyone Else Things It’s Weird That They Changed The Name Of Auto Club Raceway In Pomona, For An Allstate Commercial? appeared first on BangShift.com.

Seriously, who would want to go to the dealer and have to put this on the dash?

I’m not kidding when I tell you that if I was the service advisor, mechanic, or shop owner who was assisting this customer I would sit him or her down and apologize for whatever wrong some other automotive repair professional did to them and ask how I can help to change their opinion on mechanics, technicians, and service staff. If there wasn’t some real hope of being able to make a positive impact on this person’s attitude and experience then I’d simply tell them that I don’t think it is in their best interest our mine to do business together. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely know horror stories that have come out of dealerships. In fact, I know some I can’t legally speak of, but when you consider the number of cars, trucks, SUVs, etc that are maintained or repaired each month at dealerships, national chains, and local repair shops, the number of unhappy customers with horrible stories has got to be a very very small percentage. To be fair, I grew up in a family where my grandpa owned a service station and auto shop, my uncle owned a very large auto shop, my dad worked in the repair and service side at dealerships for decades, and I worked in auto repair back in the day as well. So I know the business. I know the bad and the good. But I can tell you that most of the time people left with cars that worked better than when they arrived, with smiles on their faces, knowing that we did everything we could to make sure their car was safe and comfortable and would get them where they were going and back.

But at some point in time we have, as a society, gotten so defensive and angry whenever we have to have something done, because we believe that people are going to rip us off. And it goes for any service. Plumbers, electricians, contractors, etc. They are all under the same scrutiny. If you can’t walk in the door and trust someone, then find someone else. And if it is the first time dealing with someone, follow your gut. If your gut says run away, then run away. If not, then shut up and give someone the chance to prove themselves one way or the other.

The post If You Are This Angry With Your Dealership, Find A New One, Or Learn To Work On Your Own Junk! appeared first on BangShift.com.

Email me your carnage! chad@bangshift.com

First up some 23 degree small block Chevrolet piston carnage. This poor bastard has seen much better days. Rick Steinke sent these in and told us that these guys gave it their all at Lights Out 11 in Georgia. Looks like a bit too much nitrous or timing or all of it. But at least Rick went all in, unfortunately this piston, and we’re sure a couple more, were not interested in partying at the level Rick was. It happens sometimes.

Matt Bakas sent us these photos of his fully vented Tremec transmission, along with the mess it made on the road, but with no explanation. Of course we can surmise that Matt was making a “test hit” on the street in his ’55 Chevy Gasser and that the one two shift didn’t go as planned. Clearly the giant piece of the case that fell out was optional because the car still made it down the road far enough to evacuate all the fluid. We’d say he did a great job at making sure there was no oil in it! Good job Matt!

Steve Marolda only sent one photo, but like the saying goes this one is worth 1000 words. When he submitted the photo, he said  “Here ya go Chad…. the rear end from my off road racing Nissan truck. Stock parts are ok for flat desert racing but not so good for jumps.” Well said my friend. Look at how the entire pinion came out of this bad boy. We can only imagine the landing had stuff flexing in ways it wasn’t supposed to and that made the pinion try to stop meshing with the ring gear which forced it out the side, breaking the case, the bearing race, and all the other stuff. Off-road guys know how to tear stuff up, and this is proof.

The post BANGshift Carnage Spotlight: Send Us Yours! This Week, Pistons, Transmissions, And Rearends Oh My appeared first on BangShift.com.

That’s what pisses me off most about the shenanigans online. If sellers put the relevant information into ads, you know stuff like features, condition, price, application, title status, location, etc, then people wouldn’t ask a million questions about the product being sold. Imagine if SummitRacingEquipment had an intake manifold listed as Edelbrock Intake Manifold $129. Who the hell is going to know what that is for? They’d have ten calls, or maybe a hundred and ten calls or emails, per day asking what the application was and all the pertinent information so someone could actually buy it. And if they listed the price as $1 and then you called and said “Take my money!” but they said, “Oh sorry, that’s just what we did on the ad to get your attention. The price is $129.” You would lose your mind and never buy from them again.

So I think we ALL owe it to each other to train people to do it right. I think we SHOULD in fact blast people for putting misinformation on their ads. Either contact them and tell them to make it right, or report them to Facebook as a misleading ad. If you are too lazy or stupid to do it right, then sell your crap somewhere else.

Ah, I feel a little better.

But not as good as I am going to feel when I spend 5 minutes sitting on shitter blasting this fool on FB!!!!

Got an opinion? Send it to me! Chad@bangshift.com

The post WTF!!!! Why Can’t Anyone Just List The Correct Price On A Marketplace Ad? appeared first on BangShift.com.

So you have to ask yourself, using the two examples here, what the hell were they thinking? But then you also need to ask yourself, just how did they pull that off?

I realize the second question seems to obviously be nodding toward the giant log in the minivan, but it also goes for the dude that thought painting his small wheels and normal tires to look like big wheels and low profiles was a good idea. I say this because the outline of the painted “rim” is perfect! And so are the spokes! How did they get them that accurate? I know it looks like crap, don’t get me wrong, but the effort put forth is real and a bit impressive.

The awesome part about the minivan to me is the small logs used to hold it up in the back, without which the log would have dragged the ground. And I also imagine that there are some ratchet straps that we cannot see in the photos that are holding the front end tightly to the “floor”? I’m not sure, but I want to see it in person and watch it drive down the road. I bet it does really good burnouts!

The post Things You Just Don’t Start The Week Off Expecting To See appeared first on BangShift.com.

So, caption this photo with us, as weirdos try to get killed making tire smoke with a front drive car.

The post Caption This Photo: Cause We Can’t Figure Out Why An Idiot Would Do Burnouts Like This appeared first on BangShift.com.

NOT BITCHIN AT ALL!!! is the answer you should have given. And here is why…

You know how nobody can form a sentence, spell, or behave like an actual human on ANY social media? You know how people think that dumb stuff is cool? You know how everyone on Facebook thinks that two or three words is a statement? Those imbeciles are selling stuff on Facebook and using the same writing style. It’s enough to make you scream at your computer screen. And I thought people listing things on Facebook had a hard time making sure there was good information about the item for sale, but they are practically perfect in every way compared to the lack of sense I’ve found in my Facebook searching. Have the Russians hacked the brains of anyone using Facebook? Hmmmmm

Here’s an example, that I’ll discuss without mentioning any names. This is representative of more than a dozen Facebook exchanges I’ve had via comments or Messages with regards to a particular truck. I’m going to call the seller Bob, for no reason besides it being short and descriptive of what I’d like to tell them to do.

Bob posts a single picture of a crew cab Chevy Truck and adds  “1987, TBI 454, 4 speed, runs, registered, smog equipment missing.”

Several people comment asking how much and he responds $4000.

I respond asking for more photos, information, and location of the truck.

Bob responds. “Chad, why don’t you tell me what particulars you are looking for.”

Really Bob? Really?!!!

WTF do you think I want to know?

I respond… “Bob, I’d like all the information you would want to know if you were looking at buying a truck that is NOT down the street from you where you can just go look at it?  Here’s what I would like to know Bob.  Does the truck have a clean title in your name? Is the registration valid or does it require a smog still? What smog equipment is missing? What city and state is the truck in? Does it run and drive like a normal vehicle or will it require work to drive it 500 miles or more? I would like more photos. Photos of the areas that are typically troubling on a Square Body Chevy. I would also like exterior, interior, underhood, bed, and dually fender photos, along with any damage to the truck.”

“What I’m trying to say Bob, is that I want all the information any normal person would want to know before discussing pricing or negotiating a deal on a car or truck that is halfway across the country from them.”

What I wanted to say was, “Ship the f’ing thing to me, I’ll look at it since you can’t get me the info I want, and if I like it I’ll send you money. If not, I’ll send it back. Or not you stupid ass.”

I feel like Earl Pitts, American  when ready this kind of thing and getting upset. It just makes me want to scream and laugh at the same time. I have almost no doubt that I’ll be buying something from Racing Junk, Craigslist, Ebay, or word of mouth and that Facebook listings will mostly be for my own enjoyment as I mess with people.

Come on people!!! Don’t be dumb!!!

The post Chadmouth: Why Is It That Virtually Everyone Selling Something On Facebook Is An Imbecile? appeared first on BangShift.com.