california
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February 16, 2018For the hot rod and custom world, there are a handful of iconic shows that bring out the best this hobby and lifestyle has to offer. The Grand National Roadster Show is certainly toward the top of that list, as it features hundreds of high end hot rods, customs and more on the grounds of the Pomona Fairplex. The Grand National Roadster Show is home to several highly coveted awards, including the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. This 9-foot trophy is a legendary piece of hot rod history and having your name etched into it is one of the highest achievements any owner or builder can reach. While the AMBR award gets a lot of attention, there are several buildings packed with awesome cars, all with unique features and histories. We always enjoy the Suede Palace, as all of the cars are either historic hot rods or historically accurate to the 1950's and 1960's. This year, the Grand National Roadster Show even had a building full of muscle cars, a new twist for the event. The muscle car
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September 10, 2015Unlike many of the revered Concours dElegance events, Pebble Beach seems to reach deeper into mainstream media and pop culture. Regular people on the streets have heard of it. No doubt, its one of he very finest events of this kind in the world, but it more than that. The events of Monterey and Pebble Beach are household names for a reason. While the top shelf multi-million dollar restored cars get most of the attention, its the diversity of the weeks events that truly separate it from most other events. Perhaps only the famed Goodwood Festival of Speed in UK compares to the size and scope of Monterey Week. The event is elegantly capped with the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours dElegance, but what else goes on there? Were glad you asked. An endless stream of tasteful parties take place throughout the week. Even if you could manage tickets to all of them, the sheer volume of them would make it tough to attend
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July 17, 2015While we are not newcomers to the vintage motorcycle world, we are somewhat new to the custom motorcycle scene, in the sense that we have not previously offered purpose built tires for custom motorcycles. With the overwhelming popularity of our Firestone Deluxe Champion motorcycle tires, it is only fitting for us to be involved with the industry, and support great events such as the Born-Free Motorcycle Show at the Oak Canyon Ranch in Southern California. 2015 is only the seventh year for Born-Free, but it's easily one of the biggest (and certainly the fastest-growing) custom motorcycle shows in the world. Builders from many countries brought out their creations with a total of 25 build-off entries, hand selected by the show organizers. Many motorcycles, including bobbers, choppers, cafe racers, brat bikes and more, rolled on our Firestone tires, but there were also a number of bikes using our Coker motorcycle tires, and a few of our other product offerings.
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June 28, 2015It's been a long run, and we're getting close to the end of the 2015 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty. Today was another hot one, but we saw a 20-degree drop when we rolled into our overnight hosted city of San Bernardino, California. An awesome crowd of spectators came out to view the Great Race, and we enjoyed a challenging route throughout the day. A lunch stop in Twentynine Palms, California was packed out, and we enjoyed a few pieces of fried chicken before we hit the road toward San Bernardino. We passed by a crazy Wind Farm with hundreds of windmills visible from our route. It was another big day, and we're in Championship mode, so tomorrow is obviously a day that cannot have any mistakes. Take a look at the day's highlights and stay tuned to find out the winner tomorrow, as we finish on the Santa Monica Pier at 2pm.
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January 27, 2015If you're a hot rodder, then you have probably heard of the "Deuce of Spades" movie. If you haven't heard of it, do yourself a favor and order it now! We're huge fans of the movie, and we're even bigger fans of the black '32 Ford roadster that stars in it. This thing is a stripped down highboy and it gets around Southern California to many promotional events, film festivals and more. The car had a set of our Firestone Deluxe Champion blackwall tires on it but they were worn out, so we brought her into our City of Industry, California location and installed a new set of Firestone 5.60-15 and 7.50-16 tires. Faith Granger is responsible for the movie production, and she's fully involved in the hot rod community. Check out her roadster with the new rubber, and be sure to check out her movie!
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January 25, 2015Every year, we make our way out to the Grand National Roadster Show, held at the Pomona Fairplex in sunny Southern California. It's the place where the America's Most Beautiful Roadster is crowned, and it's also an awesome place to see hot rods, customs, gassers, low riders and more. Although there are some exceptions, nearly everything on the grounds is sitting on tires and/or wheels from Coker Tire, so it's a great place for us to take a bunch of pictures and show off some of our product. Take a look at our 40 favorite photos from the 2015 Grand National Roadster Show and also, watch our Instagram feed and Facebook page for up-to-the-minute posts from the show!
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January 31, 2014Oh, and you thought we forgot about the Suede Palace at the Grand National Roadster Show? We park our big trailer just outside the door at the Palace, so it's convenient for us to sneak in there and grab pictures from time to time. We got most of our pictures on Friday, because it's tough to get cool pictures of the cars when there is such a big crowd. The Suede Palace is THE place to see the coolest traditional hot rods, customs and gassers, so there is a lot of Coker tires and wheels in there!
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January 31, 2014We soaked up all of the So-cal goodness we could in the week we spent out there. Our main objectives were to attend the MPMC conference and to meet and greet at our Grand Opening party for the new West Coast facility. However, a bonus for this trip included the Grand National Roadster Show. We set up as a vendor at the show, and it's one of our favorite events of the year, so we made our way around the event to photograph all the cool stuff. Here's what we found!
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January 29, 2014We've had a presence on the West Coast for many years, as California has a huge classic car and hot rod following. Our original West Coast Distribution Center was located in Fresno, California, but it made perfect sense for us to move to So-Cal (City of Industry, more specifically), so we could be closer to our steel suppliers, as well as a huge customer base. The new Distribution Center is now fully functional, and the new facility also houses our wheel manufacturing. It's a big move for us, so we threw a Grand Opening party to celebrate!
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November 08, 2013Our Executive Vice President, Mr. Wade Kawasaki wears a lot of hats. He plays a large role in our West Coast distribution, as well as a few of our sister companies, which are also operated on the West Coast. He's also a great ambassador for our company, thanks to his heavy involvement with SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association). He's been SEMA Person of the Year, and has a number of great accomplishments throughout his years in the automotive aftermarket industry. Tonight, he was included among other automotive icons, such as George Barris, Eric Grant and Joe Schubeck, by being inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame. We're glad to have him on our team, and we congratulate him for his great achievement.
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October 18, 2013We love a good ol' car guy adventure. We do stuff like the Great Race, the Driven Dirty Tour and other road trip adventures on a regular basis, but we encountered a slightly different approach to the standard old car road trip this week. Apparently, a group of guys from California flew to Hershey, Pennsylvania for the AACA Fall Meet with a pocket full of cash, in search of a classic car. The goal was to buy a car at Hershey and drive it back home to California, with Coker Tire being a pit stop along the way. Ok, you have our attention!
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August 17, 2013[caption id="attachment_3876" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Known simply as "the Quail"[/caption] After two days strolling through the dream-scape that is Monterey weekend. Corky Coker and Wade Kawasaki know two things already, wear good shoes and stay prepared to be amazed. This is the world renowned week of priceless classic vehicles, historic races and stacks of top-shelf car auctions that culminates with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
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January 31, 2013Winter time for us southerners is quite tough! We struggle to make it through the winter without getting cabin fever, but Southern California hot rodders can get out all year long! In fact, one of the best hot rod and customs shows in the world happens in January, so it gave us a nice break from the cold. It's called the Grand National Roadster Show, and it's a hotbed for the coolest customs, wildest hot rods and baddest gassers in the country. The best part about it? A huge percentage of the cars roll on Coker Tire products! This year, we attended the event with a camera in hand and grabbed a bunch of great photos for you guys to enjoy!
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August 23, 2012The adventure starts when Margaret buys a used car to drive it (only that one car) a few years...okay maybe a passel of years and all of a sudden, post-passel of years, she (Margaret Dunning) gets invited to a big huge vintage car event with important people, she gets interviewed on television and radio, celebrities croon over her and want to meet her. What's the recipe for this you ask? It's very simple actually. In order to have a Most Excellent Adventure like Margaret Dunning you should buy a used car (new but only a couple of years old), say like a 1930 Packard Roadster then drive the snot out of it for decades. Then, after you are over a hundred (yes dang it I mean 100 years old!), you can have a Margaret Dunning Most Excellent adventure!
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January 27, 2012As car guys, we surround ourselves with like-minded folks, and we often find that the car guy bond puts everyone on the same page. From regular Joe's to celebrities, car guys are on a level playing field. Take Jay Leno for example: he's a big-time celebrity, but the moment you start talking cars, he's just one of the guys. Granted, "just one of the guys" probably doesn't have a Duesenberg in his collection, but you get the idea. Corky and Jay have been buds for quite some time, and many of Jay's precious machines roll on a set of Coker Tire, so the guys at Jay's Garage got them together and shot a very cool (and very informative) segment on tires for vintage cars. The video is a comprehensive look at Jay's Duesenberg, which received a set of our new Excelsior Stahl Sport Radial tires, which are sized appropriately for vintage cars and have the looks of an old bias ply tire. The modern performance of radial construction did wonders for Jay's ultra-rare Duesenberg,