What’s up everyone! This month has been absolutely crazy. The Gauge staff and I are gearing up to attend the largest automotive gathering in the world. The SEMA Show November 4-7, 2003 at the Las Vegas, NV convention center. Stay tuned to next months issue as we bring you all the exciting details of our adventure.

Along with all the hype that the SEMA show brings, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is here, the debut of “The Big Wood Project”. The Big Wood Project will be representing the Air Lift Company on the front sidewalk of the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’d like to thank all of the sponsors and everyone that made this project possible. Make sure to check out the BigWood Project section this month and visit all the sponsor sites.

Appearing on the cover this month is John Phillips, representing Diverse Distractions with his 1997 Corvette Yellow Mitsubishi Eclipse. For the past 5 years John has supported this hobby by turning out some of his hottest creations in the euro scene. Check in with John to see what he has accomplished with this one-of-a-kind Eclipse.

To enhance John’s Eclipse we added the gorgeous November Gauge Girl Kelly Bako. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Kelly last year at the Hot Rod Super Nationals in Canfield, OH. Kelly also enjoys the art of photography, but was able to pull herself from behind the camera to bring you this hot Gauge girl layout. You can catch up with Kelly and her dad at some of the events around the Ohio area showing off their own collection of custom creations and muscle cars.

Part II of one of the hottest events in the Midwest is back - that’s right: ITB Indy. I’ve had hundreds of e-mails concerning the release of the long awaited Part II of the 10th Annual event that goes on every year in Indianapolis, IN at the Indianapolis Raceway Park. For more info or to register your vehicle for next year, visit www.importandtruckbash.com.

Freelance Photographers Smalls, Khris Morrison, and I cruised on down to the NOPI Nationals to hook up with Michael Meyers and crew. As always they packed in a record number of vehicles and spectators at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on the weekend of September 19-21. You can check out extended coverage of this event at www.nopinationals.com.

Next we head over to the East Coast to run with Freelance Photographer John Jackson as he heads up the event coverage for the East Coast Nationals. The event resided in Richmond, VA and was held at the Richmond International Raceway on the weekend of July 24-26. For more information on this event, check out www.eastcoastnationals.com.

Freelance Photographer Matt Willoughby headed down to the best cruising spot in the world, Pigeon Forge, TN for the 14th Annual Mini Truckin’ Nationals. The event was held on the weekend of June 27-29 at the Shular Inn. Check out www.classycreations.net for more information on next year’s event.

We have another stunning collection of custom vehicle features for you this month. We started it off with Jeff Volker from Greensburg, PA with his clean 1984 Chevy Blazer. I caught up with him at the ITB show in Canfield, OH this past year.

Marcus Johnson, representing the Down South Rollers, made it over to Scrapin’ the Coast this past summer in Gulfport, MS. A beach side feature was the perfect setting to highlight his mind splitting 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse.

This past June at the Carlisle All Truck Nationals, I photographed one of the hottest 4-Runners on the East Coast. Vehicle owner Jeff Zalfino is representing Down and Dirty car club out of New Jersey. Jeff is turning heads and dropping jaws throughout the east coast show scene.

Along with Jeff, I caught up with Chris Panucci at the Carlisle All Truck Nationals. Throughout the past 5 years Chris has worked his way through the automotive scene with several projects striving for that ground scraping look. He has definitely accomplished this with his Tangelo orange 1994 Ford Ranger.

This month we have made a major improvement on how our readers can communicate with each other. Gauge Forums are now available! http://forums.gaugemagazine.com. With this improvement members will be able to talk about almost anything. Don’t wait, join today!

As usual, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me at bigwood@gaugemagazine.com. Until next month keep your heads up and at least one frame rail on the ground! Peace!

BIG WOOD
bigwood@gaugemagazine.com