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 -
The Beautiful Baby Bootlegger
The Baby Bootlegger is not, as the name may suggest, a bootlegger who imports babies. It is a boat that went on to revolutionise boats and it’s effect is still felt in the world of marine architecture to this day. Built in 1924 by George Crouch for wealthy Wall-Street bachelor Caleb Bragg, Bragg raced her in the 1924 and 1925 APBA Gold Cup and won on both outings (by over a minute and 16 seconds in 1925).
Rambler Motorcycle Boots by Ariat
Ariat have been making riding boots since 1993, their footwear is well known for having a retro look with much more modern performance characteristics. They’re an established world leader in equestrian boots but their motorcycle boots are extremely good as well, this model is called the Rambler and features a distressed leather upper and a Duratread outsole.
Aviat Eagle II Kit Plane
Kit planes have always held a certain fascination for me, the idea that a person can order a flat-pack kit on the internet, assemble it in their garage and then take to the skies like a modern day Howard Hughes is so cool it should probably be illegal.
Matt Chambers on the American Way
Matt Chambers is the Founder and CEO of Confederate Motors, an American-as-apple-pie motorcycle builder famous for producing incredibly well engineered and designed bikes. This clip features Matt talking about Confederate Motorcycles, his ethos and a little about the Hellcat (pictured below).
Vinyl Motorcycle Wall Decal
This vinyl wall decal measures 47 inches wide x 22.5 inches tall and can be ordered in custom sizes from the store, it’s also available in a stack of colours as well as easy to follow instructions for installation. The Mrs may get a little antsy if you put it on the living room wall, so you’ll probably need to get rid of her.
’69 Chrysler Newport
The ’69 Chrysler Newport has always been a favourite of mine amongst American muscle cars, it came with either a standard 383 cubic inch V8 or the optional 440 cubic inch V8 and had one of the coolest sets of flip-into-the-grill-headlights ever seen on a production car.
Chronograph Modern XL by Maurice de Mauriac
The Chronograph Modern XL watch by Maurice de Mauriac is a Le Mans inspired timepiece featuring a titanium case, a sapphire crystal face and…
Monkee #11 by The Wrenchmonkees
Nicknamed “Gorilla Punch” this bike started life as a Honda CB750, the Wrenchmonkees stripped it back to nothing and built their own custom café racer from its bones.
Erik Carlsson aka “Carlsson på taket”
“Carlsson på taket” is Swedish for “Carlsson on the roof”, Erik was so famous for flipping his Saab rally cars that the moniker became permanent in his home country.
eBay Find: Martin Café Racer
In the 1970s and 1980s a man called George Martin was the number 1 custom motorcycle and motorcycle frame builder in Europe. The frame on this bike is one of Martin’s original 70s frames (although it looks like pure Ducati) and the engine is an air-cooled Kawasaki Z1000.
Bugatti Royale
The Bugatti Royale was designed and built by Ettore Bugatti with the sole purpose of being sold exclusively to royalty, unfortunately it was produced at the time of the onset of The Great Depression and as a result only 6 of the planned 25 cars were made, none of which were sold to royals.
HBTV: Depth of Speed – Pangea Speed
Depth of Speed is a 10 episode web-series that focusses on small-scale motorcycle and car builders across the USA, it’s been produced in conjunction with HypeBeast. This is episode 1 and it features the team from the Pangea Speed garage in Salt Lake City, Utah. The film itself is a well put together 5 minute sojourn into the lives of some very cool and very talented people.