Collector Car Appreciation Day came and went and while many venues, like SEMA Headquarters in Diamond Bar, California, hosted shows at their location. There were literally hundreds of other locations across the country where enthusiasts gathered to enjoy our cars, share a story or two, and check out some very cool rides.

This street rod was cool, but I had to pick three; this would have been my 4th choice.

We were able to join SEMA for a couple of tours of their facility, seeing the SEMA Garage and their offices during the day, but the real attraction was the collection of custom rides spread out in the parking lot – from the early 1900s to some modern muscle. I went around the lot and took lots of pictures of the cars, and then was tasked with picking my top three vehicles. It wasn’t easy since I basically liked just about all of them.

If the title of this article wasn’t enough of a clue, a few vehicles impressed me the most and all of them were supercharged. Being a musclecar owner, it would be easy to pick three musclecars as my top three, but I wanted to go with a little variety. Of the three I chose, one had a half-an-eight-cylinder with a 4-71 supercharger, another was a small block V-8 with a 6-71 supercharger, and the third, but not least favorite, had a modern V-8 with a factory supercharger under the hood. One was a street rod, the second was a pickup, and my final pick was a musclecar.

Getting Sideways – Literally

The first car that got my attention was Rich Ralston’s classic 1931 Ford highboy that simply looked like a clean, custom built roadster. When you walked past the right side of the car, it simply looked like an old Pontiac mill sitting in between the frame rails. Wait, a Pontiac mill, you ask? Yes, it was a Pontiac engine, but that’s not the part that made this a unique approach to a classic rod.

When I walked around to the other side, then I was literally blown away, because another close look at the engine compartment, and what I thought would be the other half of the Pontiac mill, was a 4-71 blower rotated and mounted on its side. What looked like a V-8 from one side, had a completely different look on the other, and this fuel injected, blown Pontiac puts out about 400 horsepower, according to Ralston.

For those who are familiar with the four-cylinder, half-an-engine, Pontiac mill, it’s half of their 389 cubic inch V-8 that found it’s way in bigger cars, like the Catalina or Bonneville. It was marketed as the Trophy 4, and was comprised of the right bank of the 389, and was available in three configurations – neither of which included a 4-71 blower. When the day was done and the key was turned, the most interesting street rod in the lot drove off, sounding very much like half of a V-8 engine – with a bit of a blower whine to it. For a blown hi-boy, it was definitely unique.

Boxes And Blowers

Another vehicle that impressed me was this 1964 Chevrolet pickup, and it immediately got my attention. It’s hard to ignore the sound of a blown V-8, and visually it’s just as appealing as the sound is.

Vic Woods drove up in this satin black beast, sporting about 650 horsepower from the Dart Machinery 400 small-block, and he proved that bad ass trucks don’t need to have bad ass paint jobs that are a mile deep. Not that there’s anything wrong with the paint on this Chevy, but I really liked the “yeah, I drive it all the time” look to it.

Woods might be more partial to Hedman Hedders since he’s their National Sales Manager, but there is a plethora of name dropping under the hood of this cool, blown pickup. Starting with the Dart 400 block, the engine is topped off with Edelbrock Performer heads, and a BDS supercharger to push the air through the intake. The Comp Cams roller valvetrain and MSD ignition are well represented, while a B&M T400 trans and 3,000 stall converter help get all those ponies to the Eaton Truetrac differential and 20-inch American Racing wheels with Falken tires.

Woods would tell you himself that “it ain’t pretty” but who really cares when you have a blower and a pair of carbs sticking through a hole in the hood? If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: I love musclecars (and trucks) that get driven. Whether it’s to a show, on a cruise, or just for the hell of it, seeing it on the road has to be the coolest part of this truck. I’m pretty sure I heard a Prius crying when Woods drove past in his Chevy.

Seat Time In Project Swinger

My last, and certainly not least, entry of my three faves was our very own Project Swinger. Why did I choose this one? It’s simple: because I got to drive this bad ass Nova to the show and back home. It’s probably not the fastest, or the most expensive car that I’ve ever driven, but it’s probably one of the coolest. I got plenty of thumbs-up gestures from those who saw it, and despite the fact that a car like this is usually difficult to drive in traffic, it was very simple to drive and not at all what I expected.

For many of you, calling it Swinger doesn’t make sense, so I’m going to explain it briefly. When we first bought this car, the license plate said “SWNGER” and it had the 1970s era shag carpeting to match. It was so stupid it was funny, and it grew on us and it became Project Swinger.

This car was fit to be tied when we got it, too. The front floorboards were on their way to be like Flintstone’s ride… the rust holes were plenty. But we tackled it and made a plan, and Swinger didn’t suffer long after it was in our hands, and went under the knife for a complete makeover including Ridetech air suspension, some body mods, and to get it down the road in a hurry the GMPP LSA crate engine was hooked up to a Tremec TKO 5-speed trans and Currie rearend. The rolling stock is a set of Forgeline S03P 18-inch wheels shod with BFG hydes.

Classic Industries and Dynamat make up our interior with Dakota Digital gauges keeping track of it’s vital stats. While this car did get just about the best of everything when it comes to attention, it provided me the same love and attention when driving it around on these busy, Southern California freeways. Bumper to bumper traffic on the way back from SEMA HQ had me seeing about 20 mph part of the way, but the McLeod clutch never let me down as I had to inch along. I was a little nervous at first, but this build was done so well that driving it was a piece of cake. Now wait until my boss finds out that I want a supercharger on my own car, he might just tell me to get a box instead.

So there’s my three choices for favorite cars at SEMA’s Collector Car Appreciation Day show. You can check out our other article for the rest of the cars at the show, and what SEMA has going on at their Diamond Bar facility here. And enjoy more pics of my “Blown Away” favorites below.