"I just think there is a niche that needs to be filled that may cater to people that actually want to see the cars... and hear them."

John Wells of CoolStuff Video contacted me some time back asked if I'd be interested in reviewing Vintage Torque 3. Ah, let me think about it...hell yeah!

In a nut shell, Vintage Torque is visual tour of the most popular hot rod shows around the U.S. Make no mistake about it, the cars are the stars in Vintage Torque, and there are lots of them. John took 28 hours of raw video and worked it down to four full hours (two DVDs, 120 minutes each) of hot rods, art and cool music.

What you won't see: Hollywood production, in depth builder interviews or "life at the hot rod shop" reality show footage.

What you will see: hundreds of traditional hot rods cruising by, burn outs, art work and even an interview with hot rod artist Max Grundy, who by the way did the artwork on the DVD cover.

As John sees it, "I just think there is a niche that needs to be filled that may cater to people that actually want to see the cars and hear them. Even when we have music on in the background you can always hear the cars going by 100% of the time."

Equally as interesting is John Wells himself. He is a one man show from filming, to editing, to marketing, and sales! I have great admiration for someone, who without training or experience, takes on a project because they just want to. With three DVDs under his belt, and a fourth one coming out soon, John isn't worried about the critics. "I readily admit that I have no clue what I am doing and I have no experience in doing this, but when you look at the progression of each DVD you can see that I am getting better at both the editing and the filming."

When John is not making videos he travels from town to town (on the road 42 weekends last year from Yokohama to Syracuse NY) selling anything that has to do with the kustom kulture scene, such as hot rod DVDs, Rat Fink merchandise, posters and stickers.

As far as shooting video for Vintage Torque, John says "I enjoy this aspect of my business cause I get to learn a lot of info about these cars and the guys that do this themselves." Just like many of the folks that attend hot rod shows, John has a project too; a 1935 Ford 5 window coupe. "Talking to guys out there on the road has helped me quite a bit on getting this thing started."

If you want to see hundreds of hot rods and get a flavor for some of the most popular hot rod shows around the United States then by all means, get Vintage Torque!

More

>> Vintage torque 3 (YouTube) - Watch the promo video.

>> Vintage torque 4 (YouTube) - Coming soon!

>> Vintage torque 5 (YouTube) - And working on VT 5!

>> Vintage Torque - Visit Coolstuff website and buy the DVD!

>> Hub Garage - If you want to read about some of John's adventures on the road then check out his blog on the Hub Garage (Subscription required).