STAR CARS: A Family and Its Speedstar
April 16, 2026
THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
LED BRAKE LIGHTS
Regular maintenance is rarely stressed enough, and trailer safety is often a direct result of a good preventative-maintenance schedule. Just like changing the oil in your tow rig, it’s easy to suffer from the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome.
MORE THAN A CAMEO
Gil Palmer just loves cars, trucks, and motorcycles. He’s owned more than 100 miscellaneous cars, ranging from ’40 Fords to ’55 Chevys to a ’70 Monte Carlo. He’s owned a few pickups, too, and this one originally came to him as the bonus gift, so to speak, in a trade of his ’32 Ford Cobo Hall winner for a motorcycle at the Detroit Autorama. The ’57 Cameo that he received in the trade had an entire ’55 front end on it, and because of that, everyone thinks it’s a ’55. But this truck was in pretty sad shape when it arrived at Palmer’s Southern California home. Just picture this one item in your mind for a minute, and you’ll get the gist of the kind of shape the truck was in: There was a hand-painted (we’re talking 4-inch-wide brush, here) Chevy Bow Tie on the tailgate. The 10:1 compression supercharged engine would overheat in a matter of a few blocks.
Spotlighter
Winter WOW
World of Wheels Chattanooga Kicks Off the Show Season
Just after New Year’s, when the cold really starts settling in, one of the first major indoor car shows of the year rolls into town. The O'Reilly Auto Parts World of Wheels Custom Auto Show has become a yearly tradition—mixing hot rods, customs, and classics with a dose of pop culture to create a winter event that gives the whole family a reason to get out of the house.
Author
Jamie Dent
Photography by Scott Killeen
58th Annual Chattanooga World of Wheels
The 58th annual Chattanooga edition took place January 9–11, 2026, inside the spacious Chattanooga Convention Center. Held every year during the second weekend of January, the event transforms more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space into one of the South’s premier indoor showcases of custom automotive craftsmanship.
A Stop on the Legendary World of Wheels Circuit
Part of the legendary World of Wheels circuit, the Chattanooga stop brings together an impressive mix of hot rods, customs, classics, motorcycles, and radical builds—all polished and displayed under bright convention hall lights. For builders and enthusiasts across the Southeast, it’s a chance to debut winter projects, connect with fellow gearheads, and kick off another year of car show season.
A Winter Tradition for Car Enthusiasts
Blending serious automotive creativity with entertainment and family-friendly attractions, World of Wheels continues to deliver the kind of high-energy indoor show that has kept it a winter tradition for nearly six decades.
