Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more. Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Ben Branch -
Desert Boot by Deus
The Australian Desert Boot has been an iconic piece of footwear since long before my time, the boots were originally designed for desert use and have soles designed to sink and slide as little as possible on loose sand, they also have minimal laces allowing the wearer to whip them off and empty out sand with as little fuss as possible.
Bugatti Barn Find
The barn find is a dream held by many, some men spend their entire lives driving around the country, visiting old widows and creaking open doors to long forgotten garages in the hope that as their eyes adjust to the darkness, they’ll see something just like this.
Christine – The Nitros Huffing Honda VTR1000F
I love bikes with a back story. And this bike, Christine, has a hell of a story to tell. She started life as a stock 1998 Honda VTR1000F before being involved in a traffic accident so severe that it likely would have been the death-knell for most motorcycles.
Classic Bifold Wallet by Corter Leather
I’ve become enthralled with natural, uncoloured leather goods over the past few months. Wallets are especially interesting as they tend to colour as they age, meaning no two are alike.
Millenium Falcon Cross Section
There aren’t many red blooded men in the world who don’t find this sort of Star Wars based information fascinating. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever met a guy who I couldn’t talk about cars, women or Star Wars with.
Mercedes Pit Stop
I love the argument that the two men on the left side of the picture are having. I assume he was saying something along the lines of “What the hell do you mean we only have 3 spare wheels?”
Honda CB350 Café Racer by Team Scott Racing
The Honda CB350 is a fantastic platform for café racerisation. It’s a lightweight and inexpensive bike to buy, parts are easy to come by and it’s a remarkably forgiving bike to ride at speed.
Mary ‘Hurricane’ Guthrie
Mary Guthrie flew Hurricanes on transport missions during the second world war, although she never saw combat she was widely considered to be a highly capable pilot by all her knew her.
Top Fuel II by DP Customs
DP Customs is one of our favourite American custom motorcycle builders, their no-bullshit approach to engineering and design is uniquely appealing and thankfully they’ve chosen to stay away from
Handbound Leather Journal by Julie Boyles
All the touch screens in the world will never manage to capture the sensation of writing on paper, though in many respects it’s a dying art. These beautiful leather bound journals are each handmade by Julie Boyles in Indiana
CERN by Da Vinci
These phenomenal sketches show the CMS detector elements of the CERN Hadron Collider, in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci. There’s no artist name available, though whoever created them clearly has no dearth of talent.
1970 Oldsmobile 442
The 1970 Oldsmobile 442 was the result of General Motor’s decision at the beginning of the model year to drop engine capacity limitations. The 455cu or 7.5 litre engine was one of the largest V8s used during the decade and even now stands as a sort of loud testament to a time when displacement was king.