Table of contents for Winter 2026 in Custom Car

The start of the 2026 drag racing season may still be a few months away yet – but as always at this time of the year, anticipation is beginning to build. With four tracks having already announced dates, it’s clearly going to be a full-on season. We will bring you the dates at Manston Raceway Park in a future issue, as they hadn’t been announced at the time of writing, but for now here are a few dates to be putting in your diary as the coming year’s calendar starts to fill up: Santa Pod Raceway, Northants Full details of the extensive list can be viewed in our Events section starting on page 60, as well of course as Santa Pod’s own website. But those events likely to be of…

Phil Whear has been around hot rods, customs, classics and VWs for years. We’ve featured a number of his previous rides in CC, but it was still a slight surprise to hear him say “I’ve had over 100 cars in my time.” Even for someone approaching the end of their seventh decade on earth, that’s an impressive number of rides, which suggests the inventory of his garage regularly changes. That said, he seems quite attached to what shares space with this rare Hanomag on his farm in Cornwall at present: a steel ’34 Ford 3-window, an American-built Grumman with an LS3 and a 1950 Buick wagon with an LSA and Tremec ’box sitting on an Art Morrison chassis. Oh, and a gnarly, but all the better for it, Aston Martin…

Event: North East Rod and Custom gathering Date: 19-21 September 2025 Venue: Wham Cottage Farm, Durham North East Rod and Custom ran its first gathering back in 1977. After a pause, the events were resurrected in 2023 by Chris and Andrew Waller; this year’s was their third – and it was a brilliant weekend. Held at Wham Cottage Farm, near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, the gathering was blessed by rather mixed weather. It was a bit damp at times, to say the least, but that didn’t stop it from being a great success with £1113 raised for Parkinsons UK – including a generous donation of £140 from by Martin Howe, who travelled up to Durham to sell some memorabilia from the NASC Nationals. That brings the total amount raised…

NB: We advise you to double check with organisers that the event or show as listed is still going ahead, to avoid any wasted journeys. To submit an event, email editorial@pistonpublications.co.uk NOVEMBER 29 All American Cruise In Ace Café, London. www.acecafe.com DECEMBER 2025 3 Hot Rod Night Ace Café, London. www.acecafe.com 16 VW Air-Cooled Night Ace Café, London. www.acecafe.com 21 Krispy Kreme Cruise Krispy Kreme, Shannon Corner, New Malden. Facebook: Krispy Kreme Cruise Surrey 27 All American Cruise In Ace Café, London. www.acecafe.com 27 Cold Turkey Run Cromer, Norfolk, Facebook: Bod Here JANUARY 2026 4 New Year Autojumble. White-webbs Museum of Transport, Enfield. www.whitewebbsmuseum.co.uk 7 Hot Rod Night Ace Café, London. www.acecafe.com 10 Blacktop Kings Traditional Indoor Kustom Show South of England Showground, West Sussex blacktopkingscarshow@gmail.com CANCELLED 18 Huddersfield Auto/Retro Jumble Brook…

The fourth staging of Deuce Day once again took place at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The outlook was promising, with the owners of more than 60 Deuces having confirmed their intended attendance – which would make for a record turnout. However, a few days before the gathering, things took a turn for the worse with the sunny skies changing to dark clouds and heavy rain. Despite that, on the day 34 hardcore Deucers made it to the event. Amazingly, there were quite a number of roadsters in attendance, some of them without hoods. A group of 6 open hi-boy Deuces drove up from the South West, making for quite a sight when they all arrived together. Deuce Day isn’t just about ’32 Fords, though. The museum is…

The summer of 2025 will forever be remembered for the long series of heatwaves Britain experienced. And one of the hottest of the lot was just coming to an end as the nation’s muscle cars were heading to Santa Pod for the 31st Mopar Euro Nationals. Unfortunately, coming to an end is exactly what it did, in the early hours of Saturday morning. After a fantastic day’s RWYB on the Friday had culminated in an early round of qualifying sessions, brought forward in a bid to beat the incoming weather, the teams were given an early wake-up call as the rain started coming down around dawn. And unlike Magnus Magnusson, once it had started it didn’t finish. All morning. There is, however, only so much moisture that the planet’s atmosphere…

When it comes to popular cars and drivers, one only has to say Al’s Gasser to elicit a smile - and plenty of memories of Al O’Connor’s time on and off track. Al lives locally, and he knew the Podington airfield facility before Santa Pod even existed, as he used to ride over the site on his way to school. He also got into American cars at an early age, which led him down the path of becoming a mechanic. Al managed to lose his licence after some enthusiastic racing around the streets, wisely moving it to the track after that. He first raced in the Street Altered class in a tweaked Ford Zephyr called Rocky 2, completed with a flame paint job. Although Al’s Gasser was not his first…

If there’s one thing Dave Rothwell is well known for, it’s doing things his way and not following the crowd. That said, he does have a penchant for certain cars. The Hillman Husky (or Commer Cob, as the factory-built panel vans were called) is one of them. However, trying to trace the lineage of some of the better known ones on the UK custom scene is a task that would give Miss Marple a headache. It’s safe to say that Dave’s had a hand in several of them. And so has Chris Hay. A quick spin through my magazine archive tells me the infamous Rapid Plumbing Husky first appeared in Str**t M*ch*n* in October 1983, then again in ’88 before transferring allegiance to CC in January 1995 and again in…

Thanks to the landowners for the use of the area around Lake Wazzapamani for the photoshoot Pick-ups have become almost the norm in the custom world. Once utilitarian workhorses worked into the ground, these day’s they’re highly sought after. Even in the classic world, owners will spend thousands on restoring them to their former glory – while in the custom scene, they’ve long since become part of the rodding mainstream. In the main, there are a couple of dominant trends in the game when it comes to pick-up trucks. So when you see one which has been built a bit differently, the spidey senses spring into action. It also helps in this industry when you have friends with benefits (not that sort, regrettably). So when a good contact of mine…

It started as an insane plan to race The Lil’ Shitter, my barn-find hot rod, at the 2026 Rømø Motor Festival in Denmark and the VHRA Pendine Sands Hot Rod Races. It may have been insane but it did turn out to be possible – though only when Clive Prew at Stromberg said I could borrow Poncho, his Pontiac wagon, to use as a tow barge. Clive’s offer came with a caveat, though. “It needs a tow hitch.” How hard could it be? First, though, I had to get said Shitter to England. That was easily accomplished, though, by Brit John Reid who slipped it into California Shipping’s last container before they closed shop. The paperwork was handled by Kingstown Shipping, which did a bang-up job as always. The car…