THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
40 Years Later
Carl Casper’s name has been synonymous with the custom car movement for a long time. As a teenager, Casper created his famous ’51 Chevrolet custom, the Exotic Empress. The car went on to win the 1961 NHRA National Custom Car Championship. (You know it was a long time ago if NHRA was promoting car shows!) Carl Casper is a talented guy who can perform virtually every task required to build a world-class custom car, from metal fabrication to paint and upholstery, and while many of his creations took the form of wild custom cars, they were all driveable.
Top 10 Camshaft Tips
The camshaft is often called an engine’s “brain,” and that’s an apt comparison. The cam controls all the major timing events in the valvetrain, which means it is responsible for how efficiently the engine can ingest and combust the air/fuel mixture. Choosing the right cam profile for your engine
combination is the key to making the most possible power.
CHECKING AND CONTAINING FLUIDS
Fluids are the lifeblood of the vehicle. We need to contain those fluids yet still be able to monitor the fluid levels. Our older readers can remember the days before aftermarket flexible dipsticks or silicone caulk were available. The only option in those days was to use an OEM dipstick and dipstick tube. If you needed to shorten the tube, a hacksaw was the tool of choice. If you cut 4 inches off the tube, you then cut 4 inches off the dipstick and ground a couple of notches in the side of the dipstick to note “full” and “add.” Gaskets could be sealed with Permatex, but they had to be used as there was no such option of placing a bead of silicone caulk on the mating surface and assembling the parts.
Spotlighter
2026 Pigeon Forge Spring Rod Run
Part car show, part traffic jam—an all-out automotive takeover.
Author
Jamie Dent
Photography by Scott Killeen
When Pigeon Forge Spring Rod Run rolls into Pigeon Forge, it doesn’t just put on a show—it takes over the entire town.
From April 16–18, the LeConte Center at Pigeon Forge became ground zero for some of the cleanest, hardest-hitting builds in the country. Inside, it’s all business—high-end restorations, pro-touring muscle, custom cars, and serious contenders chasing Top 25, Ultimate 5, and King of the Hill. This is the polished side of the Rod Run, where the bar is high and the details matter.
The Parkway Is the Show
But that’s only half the story.
If you were stuck in traffic trying to get to the LeConte Center, you didn’t miss the event—you were in it. The Pigeon Forge Parkway turns into a rolling car meet that stretches for miles. Cars stacked bumper-to-bumper, lined up along every shoulder, spilling into lots and side streets.
This is where things get raw. Driver-quality classics, street machines, project cars, and off-the-wall builds that don’t care about trophies—all mixed in with the occasional jaw-dropper. No ropes. No judges. Just engines idling, people talking, and a constant flow of metal.
In Case You Missed It
Our galleries focus on what we could reach—in and around the LeConte Center at Pigeon Forge. That’s where the heavy hitters show up. The builds that came to compete, to be seen, and to push the standard.
But make no mistake—the Pigeon Forge Rod Run doesn’t stay contained. It spreads across Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, turning the entire town into one massive, unfiltered car culture experience.
Bottom Line
This isn’t just a car show—it’s slightly controlled chaos with horsepower.
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