2016
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December 16, 2016Every year at the SEMA Show, we have a long list of companies to meet and greet. Some have a small presence at the show, while others bring a fleet of vehicles, multiple booths and dozens of employees. Our friends at Omix-ADA pull out all the stops and we're always excited to see what they bring out for the SEMA Show. Their display in the upper level of the South Hall is always impressive, and they typically include a few vintage Jeeps in the mix. This year, we stopped by and talked with Dave Logan, and he gave us the rundown on the awesome Jeeps in the Omix-ADA booth.
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November 21, 2016Our local car community here in Chattanooga, Tennessee is one of the best in the nation. The Chattanooga Cruise In Toy Drive is proof that we have a bunch of hardcore car guys and gals in this area, and we're so proud to have raised a bunch of money and collected hundreds of toys, so that local kids can have a better Christmas. The weather always plays a part in the overall attendance for car events, and we were shocked with the excellent turnout, considering the rain overnight and the cold and windy conditions that followed. It certainly wasn't ideal car show weather, but we enjoyed it nonetheless, because we were giving back to the community. We ended up with approximately 150 cars, which resulted in a total of 232 brand new toys and $1,782 in cash. We'd like to thank the staff at Coker Tire and Honest Charley Speed Shop for volunteering to help, as well as the folks at Custom Werks Graphics for donating the event T-shirts. Every dollar from our event T-shirts went straight into the Toys
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November 05, 2016With about 40 miles of walking under our belts, we started the final day of the 2016 SEMA Show with a trip to the upper level of the South Hall to meet with our friends at Omix-ADA. We'll do a full post on their awesome collection of Jeeps...for now, we're going to do a quick recap of favorites rides of the day, and then jump right into the SEMA Cruise and of course, the SEMA Ignited event. This is the third year of SEMA Ignited, and it just keeps getting better and better. The event is held across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, and wow...what a show! The SEMA Cruise offered an awesome parade, which resulted in one of the coolest car shows you could ever see. Hot rods, muscle cars, crazy imports, off road vehicles, and more swarmed the SEMA Ignited event, as we enjoyed the nitro dragster "cacklefest", wild action on the drifting course, and plenty of action in the show area. Take a look at our highlights from the final day of the SEMA Show, and keep checking back to see
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November 03, 2016Bryan Fuller is a well known hot rodder and motorcycle builder. He's been on TV, he's built a lot of killer vehicles and he always has a presence at the SEMA Show. This year, he has a few vehicles on display, and one of them struck a chord with us. It's a 1934 Ford sedan delivery, and it's in the OTC Tools booth in the North Hall. Right around the mid 1930's OTC (originally known as Owatonna Tool Company) sold direct to customers, using sedan delivery vehicles with custom display boards to showcase their products. The company grew, and eventually grew out of this grass roots sales approach, but it never forgot the humble beginnings, even after being added into the Bosch brands fold in 2012. To commemorate the company's history, OTC commissioned Bryan Fuller to build a 1934 Ford sedan delivery to replicate some of those early delivery vehicles.
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November 03, 2016SEMA 2016 Highlights are in high demand and we are cranking them out as quickly as possible. We're blowing up our Facebook page and YouTube Channel, so keep an eye on those and then, of course, you can keep checking out our blog page to see the updates, car features and highlights from the biggest automotive trade show on earth. SEMA 2016 is in full swing, as the crowds continue to fill the aisles and we continue to reach out to our industry friends, distributors, media partners and more to spread awareness about our company and our new products. We explored the South Hall this morning, and then checked out some of the cool creations in the Silver Lot just outside of the Central Hall. Check out our SEMA 2016 Highlights from day three and enjoy the ride!
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November 03, 2016Our walking shoes are getting wore in now that we're finished with Wednesday at SEMA 2016. We continue finding cool cars and trucks sporting our tires and wheels, but we started the day by attending the SEMA Prayer Breakfast, where Chattanooga, Tennessee residents, Jim and Amy Jo Osborn spoke to a great crowd of automotive industry professionals. It was an action packed day of fun and we found ourselves drooling over hundreds (no, wait, thousands) of beautifully built hot rods, crazy trucks, and everything in between. Of course, we had our eyes glued to the tires beneath this custom creations, and we're here to show you some of our favorite rides equipped with Coker Tire products. At the end of the day, we attended the ETTN reception, the International Happy Hour (where we received three Global Media Awards) and the HRIA reception. It was a busy evening, but it's all part of the greatest automotive trade show on the planet. Check out our highlights from today's action and keep checking
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November 01, 2016The Firestone Wide Oval Radial tire is something we've been dreaming about for years. We're muscle car guys and we're tire guys, so we've always wanted to mix authentic looks with the ride, safety and tread life of a modern radial. Coker Tire is proud to announce the brand new Firestone Wide Oval Radial, a product that uses Firestone heritage and radial construction to create the ultimate muscle car tire! These tires are now available and shipping from our Chattanooga, Tennessee and City of Industry, California locations, as well as our worldwide distributors. This is an exciting new product for us and we think you'll agree that it's time to put a new set of Firestone Wide Oval Radials on your muscle car! Along with the new product launch, we're also celebrating 50 years of the Firestone Wide Oval. As the muscle car era exploded in the mid-to-late '60s, the horsepower levels went sky high and that meant the
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May 31, 2016The Indy 500--no other automobile racing event has been more prestigious, or more treacherous. The evolution of automobile racing, and the automobile itself can be credited to the buzz that surrounds the Indy 500 and the drive to win the biggest race of them all. And to think, 40 teams entered the race in 1911, all driving cars that you may have never heard of--National, Knox, Westcott and many others. The Marmon Wasp and its driver, Ray Harroun claimed the first Indy 500 victory, and this car still resides in Speedway, Indiana. Several years ago, Corky Coker and his crew at Honest Charley built a replica of the famed Indy racer, so it has been quite a popular display piece since it was finished and debuted at the 2011 Indy 500. And though the 2011 event was technically the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500, we had to wait until 2016 to see the 100th running, due to the pause in racing caused by the World Wars (two year pause for
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May 16, 2016The Goodguys Nashville Nationals is gaining a lot of notoriety in the hot rod and custom world. It's in a central location, and it's hard to beat Nashville, Tennessee as a host city--tons of cool stuff to see, and there is plenty of room at Nissan Stadium. We jumped at the chance to get an inside look at the event, even though we were not set up as a vendor. Coker Tire sponsors the "Best Wide Whites" award, and we've been involved with Goodguys as sponsors for many years, so it's always good to see the event first hand and see how many folks are using our products. We certainly got our answer, regarding the amount of Coker Tire users, and we're going to share a small sampling of them here. There were high end show cars wearing our tires, including the winner of the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year award. [products] By the way, the association changed its Hot Rod of the Year competition to the Goodguys
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May 03, 2016On May 1, 2016, Corky Coker visited Anderson, Indiana to pay tribute to a racing legend, Ray Harroun. The town of Anderson debuted a memorial marker for Ray Harroun, and Corky Coker was invited to the event to be a part of the festivities. Corky has a great love for vintage racing, and owns the most authentic Marmon Wasp replica in the world. The Marmon Wasp is typically on display in our showroom here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but it made a special trip to honor Mr. Ray Harroun for his achievements. Corky dressed in period correct attire, and drove the Marmon Wasp replica around the area, spreading smiles all around. Enjoy some of our pictures, and continue reading to learn more about the man who took Indy by storm in 1911. [products] Although Ray Harroun was born in Pennsylvania, his legacy is in Indiana, where he later lived, and made history as the first winner of the Indy 500, way back in 1911. Ray Harroun was a pioneer, and there is no doubt he left his mark as a champion racecar
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April 05, 2016Every year, we hope that our annual cruise in and open house, known as the Chattanooga Cruise In, continues to grow. Last year, it was huge, and for 2016, we wanted it to be bigger and better! We secured additional parking areas for our participants, and even those efforts were blown away with the record turnout. We had an estimated 2,000 cars, trucks and motorcycles on hand, and upward of 15,000 spectators throughout the day. It was an absolute blast, as we saw every type of car imaginable, and saw plenty of vehicles sporting our tires and wheels! In addition to the tremendous amount of vehicles on display, Chattanooga Cruise In participants could watch the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow engine build teams do battle in a National Qualifying event for its year-long series. Back by popular demand was the "blemished tire sale", which offered discounted prices on blemished tires. We just love seeing folks carrying tires down the street, and we saw a lot of that on Saturday, April 2nd. The crowd was
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February 01, 2016AMBR--it's one of those special type of acronyms that hot rodders know and love. It stands for America's Most Beautiful Roadster. It's an award given out at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California, and it's only given to one car per year. The workmanship and talent displayed in the contenders is always impressive and this year was no different--and you can stay tuned for more updates on the AMBR contenders later this week. For now, we want to announce the AMBR 2016 winner, Darryl and Terri Hollenbeck's 1932 Ford roadster. This car was built by Dan Webb, Cory Taulbert and Darryl himself, with final assembly by Bill Ganahl, South City Rod and Custom, and Jack Stratton. Bodywork and paint is by Darryl Hollenbeck's Vintage Color Studio, while the upholstery is stitched by Sid Chavers. A truly traditional hot rod, the roadster has the perfect stance, which is accompanied by none other than Firestone Deluxe Champion bias ply tires. The fronts are