Brutsman and Kerrigan banter about developing a theme to the series called "The Road to Ridler." In the contest’s more than 50 years, only one builder has won more than once. The competition’s judging is so meticulous that a nearly invisible scratch in the paint or a tiny pucker in the upholstery can drop a car from the standings. Kerrigan has supreme confidence in Lopez, whose driveway is lined with his creations: fire-breathing roadsters and sleek coupes with impossibly short tops, huge engines and ultrawide tires. They look as if they’ve been lifted right off the set of American Graffiti.

Dominator’s light-flooded garages are a beguiling blend of design studio and machine shop, so clean that you can eat right off the steel-plate worktables. In fact, we do exactly that as the Rides and Dominator teams break for lunch. Brutsman is calm but intense, a true believer, a hot-rodder to the core, and his enthusiasm for his subject proves infectious. Despite his twentieth straight day of shooting, he still gushes over Lopez’s work, and eagerly discusses the day to come. "This guy is a genius," he says. "But wait ’til you see Brizio’s."

If Dominator is rural and laid-back, Roy Brizio’s Street Rods Inc. is urban and intense. Occupying a significant chunk of real estate in "The Industrial City" of South San Francisco, Brizio’s has dozens of hot rods in various stages of development, and dozens of finished ones in storage—most the property of wealthy businessmen or celebrities like guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.