Articles that Ben Branch 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 -
Board Track Tricycle Racers
Board Track Tricycle Racing is something we were unaware of until very recently, it appears to be a French photograph and the background doesn’t give a whole lot away. If you know more about this than we do, which isn’t hard at this point…
Rene Arnoux vs Gilles Villeneuve
This classic Formula 1 battle is considered by many to be the best 3 laps in open-wheeled racing history, it features Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve in a no holds barred street fight for the win at the 1979 French Grand Prix.
The Shocker by Deus Bali
Deus Ex Machina’s Bali garage is rolling some genuinely innovative bikes out onto the road with this new custom, dubbed “The Shocker”, being a worthy addition to the garage’s back catalogue.
Holden Torana GTR-X Concept
* Update: One of two surviving examples of the GTR-X has come up for sale in Australia. You can read about it here. The Holden…
eBay Find: Rare ’59 Bocar XP-5
In 1959 a man named Bob Carnes (Bo-Car) started building utterly insane American racing cars, called the Bocar XP-5 they were built between 1959 and 1961. Bob used modified Corvette 283 engines with the motor in this car producing a staggering 450hp.
Update: Mac Motorcycles
After many months we have signs of life from Mac Motorcycles in the form of 2 updates regarding the progress that the boutique motorcycle manufacturer has made building its prototype.
Vintage Motorcycle Hill Climbing
Motorcycle hill climbing events are always a white-knuckle endeavour, attempting such an activity on brutally simple suspension must have required an iron will and a pair of titanium balls.
CB550-FZR600 Hybrid By Steel Bent Customs
Steel Bent Customs is turning out some of my favourite custom motorcycles at the moment, bikes like this Honda CB550 are a great testament to the garage, believe it or not this café racer is part Honda CB550 and part Yamaha FZR600.
Heroes of Speed Tee by Dime City Cycles
The T-Shirt is a wardrobe staple, no buttons, collars, sleeves or cufflinks. In fact they’re damn near the perfect item of clothing for anyone who thinks mirrors are for women and perhaps signalling aircraft should you happen get lost in the woods.
Deus Grievous Angel
The Yamaha SR400 is world-famous as a custom motorcycle platform, Japanese bike builders like Brat Style and Gravel Crew kicked off the trend with Australian motorcycle custom garage Deus Ex Machina arguably perfecting the art form.
eBay Find: 1962 Lotus Super 7
To say the the Lotus 7 is an icon would be like saying Saturn V rockets are a little bit fiery. The Super 7 was designed by Lotus founder and motorsport engineering-god Colin Chapman in 1957 and is widely considered to be the essence of Lotus’ design philosophy.
First Ever NHRA National Event in 1955
The NHRA or National Hot Rod Association was founded by Wally Parks in 1951, he wanted to get drag racing off the streets and onto safer, professional level tracks and in doing so he doubtless saved a lot of young men’s lives throughout the 50’s and 60’s.