TARA DAKIDES, Snowboarder
Tara Dakides cares about looks. Her 2003 Chevy Silverado, a white 757 on wheels (22-inch KMC Backseat wheels, to be exact, with 35-inch Toyo all-terrain tires and Fox sixinch Shox shocks), is a stunner. "You can see it coming pretty far down the freeway," she says. It's just that her pickup isn't always picked up. And that's a problem for the former X Games snowboard champ, who's constantly shuttling between Mammoth Lakes and LA. "I live in it," Dakides says. So does her dog, Buddy, an Aussie shepherd mix with a serious collection of chew toys. Dakides has toys too: a Honda 125 motocross bike, a 1969 Husqvarna, a Honda 50, a PTK 125 shifter kart and a Ski-Doo Summit 800 snowmobile. (Off-roading is a hobby for the Baja 1000 veteran.) To tow all that, she had the Chevy's gears overhauled and added a K&N intake with an Edge chip system to get the max out of its diesel engine. It goes anywhere, and gets noticed wherever it goes. "I guess it's intimidating," Dakides says. "But I didn't get it so I could go through LA and have people go like, Whoa. My truck hates LA. I'd much rather drive on dirt."
JASON ISRINGHAUSEN, Closer
Like the kids he grew up with in rural Illinois, Isringhausen dreamed of muscle cars. "Any kid who could afford one was getting a Corvette or a Mustang," he says. "I wanted a good job so I could spend money on cars." But parenthood has made Izzy practical, forcing him to ditch his 1965 Cobra: "My wife said no way the baby's riding around in a two-seater." Some eBay work uncovered a suitable speedster: a car seat-friendly '68 Camaro. Looked great, but that wasn't enough: "I wanted to go fast ." He put in a 383 Crate engine with 425 hp and a 200-hp nitrous system. "It's all fuel-injected, with overdrive transmission so I can drive it without the RPMs going too high." The closer hasn't closed out his collection: he's having a '49 Mercury built, like James Dean's in Rebel Without a Cause . While a guy with a car seat isn't exactly a rebel, his passenger just might be. When 2-year-old Madolyn rides in the Camaro, she has one request: "Go fast , Daddy."
IAN CROCKER, Swimmer
They met in a parking lot. Spring of 2000. Small-town Maine. Crocker was a high school butterfly star en route to Sydney. Berta was a 1971 Buick Riviera going nowhere. He saw her and had to have her. She played hard to get. After Crocker won gold in the 400 relay, he vacationed in New Hampshire, where-somehow-they found each other. "Exact same car," he says in wonderment. Sure, she had some rust, some torn upholstery. Don't we all? He named her Alberta, after the old blues tune, and spent $80 a yard to fix rips in the seats, $150 for new lenses on her dome lights. There were rough patches. Two years ago, Berta threw two pistons; a 455 engine with a TA 310 cam made it all better. Now Crocker is having the rest of her restored. Why? She's pretty ("Like nothing I'd ever seen"), cozy ("Like sitting on a couch and cruising") and she performs ("It's great to pull up next to a Mustang and blow its doors off"). At 22, Crocker's eye wanders to other models. "But I'm attached," he vows. "I don't think I'll ever get rid of Berta."
VICTOR ESPINOZA, Jockey
In his days as a bus driver in Mexico City, Espinoza wanted two things: "A chance to work hard, and to have enough money for what I want, not just what I need." Like Lamborghinis: he's bought four since 2000. Espinoza's work ethic has put him at the top of his profession. His mounts have earned more than $63 million, and he rode War Emblem to victories in the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. His purses and real-estate investments have made him a regular at Beverly Hills Lamborghini. His latest? This 2005 Gallardo, a tad more practical than the 2003 Murcielago it shares a garage with. "A little more room," says the 5'2'', 112-pound jock. "Still has a lotta power, though." Little wonder that Espinoza values horsepower (the Gallardo has 490) and speed (he says he's hit 180). Maybe it's his familiarity with thundering hooves or history with honking horns, but he likes noise when he rides. He had a chip put in the engine to make sure it roars. "When a sports car is quiet," Espinoza says, "I don't like it."
CARNELL "CADILLAC" WILLIAMS, Running Back
Even as he drove around the Auburn campus in a Camaro last year, the fifth pick in the NFL draft knew his automotive destiny was set. "With my nickname," says the Bucs rookie, "I pretty much knew what kind of car I had to get." Brand and handle (bestowed by a PA announcer during a high school game in Birmingham) found common ground in a 2005 Escalade. Williams always wanted an SUV, and bought it after an impressive showing at the NFL scouting combine in February. At first he sweated the gas mileage, but that was then: "After the draft, I'm not that worried about it anymore." Insurance is another matter. "With me being so young," he says, "it kinda knocks you across the head." Still, he's loving long drives through the South, riding in first-round style: 24-inch rims outside, suede roofing inside, four TVs and a sound system with three 310 speakers. "I call it my baby," he says. "It's the first thing I bought on my own."