2011
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September 16, 2011We hit the road this morning at 8am and headed toward Alabama with intentions of going to Huntsville for lunch. Lots of beautiful farm land provided some cool pictures and video opportunities for the media crew, and the media crew also stopped in at the Third Base Grill for lunch....WAY better than McD's....just sayin. After lunch, we headed back East through lots of mountainous terrain, and over a few bodies of water along the way. It was a good ride with great weather, but the racers were still happy to crawl out of their cars when they arrived at Mountain Valley Farm...aka Corky's place. General talk about scores and such was common, but when the dinner bell rang, everyone hopped on the bus and headed up the hill.
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September 08, 2011If you think all police officers hate drag racing, think AGAIN! An organization called Beat the Heat is composed of active and retired police officers who reach out to the public through a very popular hobby.....drag racing. They race in all sorts of cars, all of which have police department-style paint jobs and working lights, just like regular patrol cars. The goal is to teach children and young adults the dangers of street racing, and the fun and excitement that comes from racing at a legal drag strip. It's an awesome way to reach out! Beat the Heat has a World Finals event once a year, and for 2011 it is held right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We were proud to have them cruise into Corkyville Thursday evening, so we opened the doors, so the racers could see everything we have to offer, including Honest Charley Speed Shop! Local police officer and drag racing enthusiast, Marty Dunn organized the event, with racers coming from all over the
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August 06, 2011Well, it's that time of the year again. It's August, it's hot and it's time for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. We're on a cool little road trip this weekend, and decided to stop at the Nats for the day. As usual, the Kentucky Expo Center was packed with hot rods of all shapes and sizes, from low slung coupes to nose-high gassers. The day started with a six hour drive, and ended with about 3 more hours of driving....with lots of hot rods thrown in the midst. Tomorrow we're headed to the Funny Car Nationals at Marion County International Raceway in LaRue, Ohio...it should be a great time as over 30 funny cars do battle, along with a great deal of Nostalgia Pro Stock and Nostalgia Super Stock. We're always wanting to figure out new ways to cater to our nostalgia drag racing people, so this is a great way to do it. We'll post pictures from that event too, so stay tuned! For now, here are some of our favorite shots from Louisville. [caption id="attachment_1926" align="alignleft" width="493" caption="Our booth at the 2011 NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus"][/caption]
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July 06, 2011Here at Coker Tire, we don't focus on any particular style of car...we like 'em all! And that includes little bitty cars! Today, we had a group of cars visit the Coker Tire facility and we were able to fit over 30 of them in our 15 car parking lot. They call it the Mini Meet, and little cars come from all over the country to meet up. This year, the Mini Meet was held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, just a couple of blocks over from us, so they migrated over here this afternoon! We walked them through the showroom and back into the Coker Tire Museum, where they got to see all sorts of cool stuff and get the rundown from our Tour Guide extraordinaire Raime J. Brown. Check out some of our pictures from the Mini Meet 2011...
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June 27, 2011We kept you guys up to date, with daily updates from the Hemmings Motor News Great Race, but if you want to see what the racers experienced, check out the blogs at www.greatrace.com! The site had several folks blogging on a regular basis, so take a look. We also had a few participants who blogged on their own sites, including Greg Duckloe's blog about piloting a '66 Corvette roadster on the amazing journey. See his commentary here: http://joanscorvettegreatrace2011.blogspot.com/.
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June 17, 2011After a few days of cool temperatures, we were reminded that it's summer time, even in New York. We had temperatures creeping up into the 90's throughout the day, but no where near as hot as when we started in Chattanooga. More back roads with lots of cool scenery gave us plenty of opportunities to snap some pictures, and we even had a maze in today's course, which had drivers doing a big loop and ending up at the same intersection! We even saw two cars at the intersection at the same time, which is always awesome for pictures. Our lunch stop was absolutely incredible as the folks in Cooperstown, New York did a great job of supporting the Great Race. We had lots of on-lookers, and we enjoyed a hot dog before walking through the Baseball Hall of Fame. Big thanks to the HoF for giving the Great Racers free admission!!! After lunch we kept on truckin' and ended up in Saratoga Springs, New York...more specifically the Saratoga Automobile Museum. LOTS of awesome sports cars in there, as well as some very very cool vintage racecars on the second floor. If you're ever in the area, check it out! We had a wonderful turnout at the Museum, with lots of spectators greeting the racers as they rolled into town. Tomorrow is the final day of the Great Race, so we're excited to see who ends up winning this deal! Remember, there is $90,000 on the line, so these guys and gals will be on edge until the final results are revealed. We can't wait! For now, take a look at our pictures from today's route, and check out www.greatrace.com for all of the scores, as well as additional photos. See you in Bennington!
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June 16, 2011We're winding down from another big day of the Great Race in Binghamton, New York. We snaked through the back roads of Pennsylvania for the majority of the day, and crossed into New York in the afternoon. Our route started in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and as soon as the clocks started for the racers, they had to negotiate a slow speed covered, one lane bridge, which was perfect for some cool pictures and video. It was a tricky route with lots of tough turns and maneuvers along the way. We stopped by Hazelton, PA for lunch, and were greeted by a huge crowd. We were also treated to a wonderful lunch, consisting of fried chicken and all sorts of other goodies. We even found a new favorite side dish....fried green beans! Back on the road, we saw thousands of acres of farmland, with rolling hills and more cool bridges. You really don't get a grasp of how amazingly beautiful this country is until you view these back roads! Today the roads led to Binghamton, New York were LOTS and LOTS of folks turned out to see the Great Race come through town. We had yet another awesome dinner, so it's time to loosen the belt a little. We have a super tight race for the lead right now, so take a look at www.greatrace.com for all of the up to date scores, as well as photos from today's route! Here are a few of our favorite photos from the day!
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June 15, 2011Another day on the road, and we've landed in Hershey, Pennsylvania! We started the morning in Cumberland, Maryland with cool temperatures, and drove through a bunch of cool farmland. Narrow bridges, rolling hills and amazing barns gave us lots of opportunities to grab awesome pictures and video. Lunch was in Chambersburg, PA and they shut down the town to let all the Great Racers show off their cars and trucks. Talk about an awesome down town! We had a great lunch and hopped back in the car on our way to Hershey, PA. Dinner was held at the AACA Museum, so we made a pass through the Museum, grabbed a bite to eat and took more pictures...do you see a pattern here with the pictures? Take a look at what we captured, and go to www.greatrace.com to see a bunch more!!! See y'all tomorrow...
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June 14, 2011That's right, we're up here in beautiful Cumberland, Maryland, having an awesome time. We went through a long, and very difficult route today with lots of stops, turns and speed changes, so all of the racers felt the pressure. From Salem, Virginia we headed north on a bunch of wonderful back roads through lots of farm land, and a mountain here and there. Our lunch stop was in Harrisonburg, Virginia where the town gathered at the Turner Pavilion to watch the racers file in from their hard morning of rallying. We scarfed down a couple of hot dogs and hit the road again, headed to our final destination of Cumberland, Maryland. We had a surprise at the end of the days route, just as the racers went off the clock, as we passed over on America's only remaining privately-owned toll bridges. It was AMAZING to see these old cars cross over a bridge built in the same era! Dinner stop was in downtown Cumberland, which is one of the coolest downtowns we've ever seen! So much fun, and the people were great...right now, we are loading pictures and getting ready for tomorrow. Check back for updates, but for now take a look at some of our favorite pictures!
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June 12, 2011We're sitting in our hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, checking out all of our photos and videos from Day One at the 2011 Hemmings Great Race. Our route took us from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Maggie Valley, North Carolina, which means we spent a great deal of time in the mountains. It was an awesome ride with lots of opportunities for cool pictures, so take a look at our favorites and check out www.greatrace.com for even more photos, along with scores and breaking news. It's time to get ready for today's route, so we're making this one short and sweet, but we want to thank all of the Great Race staff and volunteers for an amazing job on day one. Also a huge thanks goes out to the city of Athens, Tennessee, which hosted the lunch stop, and all the fine folks at the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley. [caption id="attachment_1598" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Let\'s get this thing started! Chestnut Street in Chattanooga was packed with cars and on lookers before the start of the race!"][/caption]
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June 10, 2011We followed along with the gang today during the Hagerty Trophy run, which is basically a warm up rally to get the racers, check point crews (and photographers) prepared for the big event. It was a nice drive over to Jasper, then to Raccoon Mountain and back to the Coker Tire headquarters in Chattanooga. Check out some of the pictures...we're headed to the Kickoff Dinner in the Coker Tire Museum...see ya tomorrow!
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June 10, 2011Alright, things are getting hectic here at the Coker Tire headquarters. We have folks all over the place, getting Great Race participants signed in and ready for competition. Honest Charley Garage is handling decal application on all 60 entrants, so those guys are staying busy. Tomorrow will be a crazy day with the warm-up rally, continued registration and rally school. Let's roll!
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June 08, 2011Just like anything else, pronunciations are different around here. Some people say Chevrolet, some people say Chevy, but around here, it's pronounced "Chev-uh-lay". On that note we had four awesome "Chevuhlay's" in the parking lot today at lunch time...they were on their way back from the Hot Rod Power Tour so they made a quick stop here at Coker Tire to take a look around. It was pretty good timing on their part because we're getting set up for the Great Race, so there are a few old cars already rumbling about in Corkyville.
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May 28, 2011Around here, there's no better way to celebrate the Indianapolis 500 than to show off some of our tires, built specifically for vintage Indy cars. In fact, we're up here in Indy right now, showing off our Marmon Wasp replica, along with our Firestone Indy tire selection, which are all built from either original Firestone molds or new molds built from the original drawings. We'll post up some pictures from the event later, but for now, check out a finished photo of the Marmon Wasp, and our line of Firestone Indy tires in the spirit of the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500! [caption id="attachment_1522" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Group shot of the Honest Charley Garage crew with the finished Marmon Wasp!"][/caption]
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May 17, 2011Although we spend most of our time talking about antique cars and motorcycles, Coker Tire is also heavily involved with professional drag racing by offering a wide variety of drag racing tires, available at www.dragracetires.com. With our Phoenix Race Tires brand, which are born from Firestone heritage, we have a great number of supporters on the track. One such supporter is Mike Crutchfield--he campaigns a Pontiac G5 in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, running in the Super Stock class. Oh, and we should probably mention that Mike is our Vice President of Performance Brands! [caption id="attachment_1409" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="Photo by www.dragracecentral.com"][/caption]
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January 13, 2011We always try to make each new catalog better than the previous version, and the 2011 edition is no different. We went all out on the 2011 catalog, including all new cars, and lots of cool, new imagery. It's packed full of our best sellers, as well as several new products. Also, you'll see on the cover that we're now a distributor for Rocket Racing Wheels, meaning you can order a custom wheel and tire combination from us, just like you can with our line of Specialty Wheel muscle car wheels and Roadster Wire Wheels. These catalogs are hot off the press, so pick up your copy today! Oh and don't forget to stop by our headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee or give us a call at 1-800-242-0009.