DAY - MINUS ONE

 

As some of you may know, my adventure with the Hot Rod Power Tour started immediately after the Michigan Widetracker's Dustoff car show was over. Power Tour early registration / credientials pick-up was scheduled from 9-6 pm on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. From Michigan to Hot Lanta is a 12 hour drive, so I decided to split the drive up. I'd drive about 5 hours - to Kentucky, and then drive the rest of the way on Sunday. If things worked out, I'd also pay another visit to Old Car City USA in White Georgia, a classic car and truck junkyard. Good plan - just things didn't go as planned.

It started by trying to leave Michigan. After the Dustoff, I got onto I-75 South that will take me to my hotel and eventually Atlanta. I got on at mile marker 80. So 80 miles to the state line and Toledo Ohio. This should take about an hour to an hour and half depending on traffic and weather. Let's just say that with 3 major construction zones plus to accidents on south 75 caused it take nearly 2.5 hours to get 80 miles! Ugh! The day was already long since I got up a 5 am to get to the Dustoff by 7 am. 

Driving through most of Ohio was uneventful. Some construction in Dayton that didn't really slow things down. More of a slow down on 75 in Cinnicinnati but again, not bad. I finally made it to my hotel in Walton Kentucky by 10 pm. I had left for Kentucky at 3:30 pm. I was exhausted.....

 

Stellantis (formerly Chyrsler) HQ building in Auburn Hills MI

 

American Axle HQ building next to I-75

Detroit Pistons logo on a storage tank near the Rouge Steel plant.

 

Accident #1

Bowling Green State University (BGSU) football staduim in Bowling Green Ohio

Paycor Staduim - home of the Cinnicinnati Bengals football team

 

After close to 7 hours on the road, I made it to my hotel in Walton, KY.

Oof! Not a great way to start the power tour but could be much worse!

DAY - ZERO

I leave Walton, KY and get back on I-75 south bound for Atlanta. I was on the road about an hour when I needed to stop for gas. The breakfast buffet at my Holiday Inn Express hadn't opened yet so I stopped in Richmond KY at Buc'ees! Now if you have never been to a Buc'ees before then think of a gas station and convienence store that has been subjected to human growth hormones and the Hulk's gamma radiation treatment. I am not exagerating when I say there are over 100 gas pumps at this place. Also it is the size of a Wal-Mart with food, bathrooms, beer/wine/pop, souvenirs, a wall of beef jerky, T-shirts, knick knacks, oh yes, Buc'ee Beaver stuffed animals.

AS I got off the expressway, my rear end kicked out and I started sliding. It had started raining about 30 minutes before, lightly. As I approached the turn into Buc'ees, the front end just slide forward while the wheel was completely turned. Very weird. Only thing that makes sense is the lack of rain and now the rain storm loosened up a punch of oil in the fresh asphalt.

I stopped for gas. Gas was cheap! $2.959 a gallon. Most everywhere else was at least 3.29 a gallon. I suspect it's that low because they sell so much gas.  I also got a huge breakfast burritto and 4 flavors of beef jerky - steakhouse, teriyaki, Korean BBQ, and Hot and Spicy. I texted my boss if I should pick up the Ghost Pepper flavored one but he didn't answer right away.

This is about 75% of the gas pumps at this Buc'ees.

Buc'ees from the roadway.

I am cruising along. It's time for a bio-break. I stop at this rest stop in Tennessee. There is this great looking '68 GTO.

It has an LS-1 in it and the dog dish hub caps and wheels are from a '73 GTO. He is also heading for Power Tour with his wife.

By now my boss has finally returned my text and says he wants the Ghost Pepper beef jerky. I figured he was SOL. Guess what sign pops up in southern Tennessee! 

This one is in norther Georgia! Okay I'll stop.....wish I hadn't.

This Buc'ees is literally twice as big in terms of gas pumps - 200 to 250 total pumps, plus 10 Telsa charging stations too. It was a zoo but I got the Ghost Pepper jerky.

I finally was getting close to Atlanta. I stopped at Old Car City USA in White GA, just north of Atlanta. They were closed (on a Sunday - go figure Frosty). In the long run, this was probably a good thing for me. I took pictures from the fence but I left - giving me more time to get to registration before it closes up for the day.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

DAY - ZERO

I leave Walton, KY and get back on I-75 south bound for Atlanta. I was on the road about an hour when I needed to stop for gas. The breakfast buffet at my Holiday Inn Express hadn't opened yet so I stopped in Richmond KY at Buc'ees! Now if you have never been to a Buc'ees before then think of a gas station and convienence store that has been subjected to human growth hormones and the Hulk's gamma radiation treatment. I am not exagerating when I say there are over 100 gas pumps at this place. Also it is the size of a Wal-Mart with food, bathrooms, beer/wine/pop, souvenirs, a wall of beef jerky, T-shirts, knick knacks, oh yes, Buc'ee Beaver stuffed animals.

AS I got off the expressway, my rear end kicked out and I started sliding. It had started raining about 30 minutes before, lightly. As I approached the turn into Buc'ees, the front end just slide forward while the wheel was completely turned. Very weird. Only thing that makes sense is the lack of rain and now the rain storm loosened up a punch of oil in the fresh asphalt.

I stopped for gas. Gas was cheap! $2.959 a gallon. Most everywhere else was at least 3.29 a gallon. I suspect it's that low because they sell so much gas.  I also got a huge breakfast burritto and 4 flavors of beef jerky - steakhouse, teriyaki, Korean BBQ, and Hot and Spicy. I texted my boss if I should pick up the Ghost Pepper flavored one but he didn't answer right away.

This is about 75% of the gas pumps at this Buc'ees.

Buc'ees from the roadway.

I am cruising along. It's time for a bio-break. I stop at this rest stop in Tennessee. There is this great looking '68 GTO.

It has an LS-1 in it and the dog dish hub caps and wheels are from a '73 GTO. He is also heading for Power Tour with his wife.

By now my boss has finally returned my text and says he wants the Ghost Pepper beef jerky. I figured he was SOL. Guess what sign pops up in southern Tennessee! 

This one is in norther Georgia! Okay I'll stop.....wish I hadn't.

This Buc'ees is literally twice as big in terms of gas pumps - 200 to 250 total pumps, plus 10 Telsa charging stations too. It was a zoo but I got the Ghost Pepper jerky.

I finally was getting close to Atlanta. I stopped at Old Car City USA in White GA, just north of Atlanta. They were closed (on a Sunday - go figure Frosty). In the long run, this was probably a good thing for me. I took pictures from the fence but I left - giving me more time to get to registration before it closes up for the day.

Wait WHAT?? your boss is a HE?   OHHH you must mean your boss boss.  Nice pic's for over the fence.

Job boss not boss boss.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

not boss boss.

“Life boss”

5 hours ago, Ringo64 said:

“Life boss”

There is only one boss in life guys !!!!! 

I would want to save this ghost busters wagon !!!!

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

I stopped for gas. Gas was cheap! $2.959 a gallon

That’s justA over $1 per litre nz dollars !!!

wtf !!!

I am buying a tanker 

and coming to see you frosty !!!

I will drag it home and become a millionaire !!! 

6 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

That’s justA over $1 per litre nz dollars !!!

wtf !!!

I am buying a tanker 

and coming to see you frosty !!!

I will drag it home and become a millionaire !!! 

Oh for the Trump days.... Remember, Gas was $2.09 when he left and before Biden started screwin us?

Old Car City USA...

Great Pics...I'm surprised that I have never seen/heard of the place before...Very possibly... Future road trip...

Two Lane - I posted about this place last year. I visited it at the end of last year’s Power Tour. Way cool place to visit and walk through.

Hi Frosty - great pics and great story. I am always saddened to see old cars abandoned and turning to dust but they are definitely photogenic. Some bona fide classics in that lot.

DAY - ZERO (Continued)

Did I mention what a nightmare getting thru Hot Lanta was? I especially appreciate the GA DOT person who thought that bringing I-75/i-85 down from 5 lanes to 2 lanes was a good idea. NOT!

I made it to Atlanta Motor Speedway around 3:30 in the afternoon.

I picked up my credentials and met up with my buddy from Martinsville VA, Ken. We sat around and watched cars come and go for awhile.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Did I mention what a nightmare getting thru Hot Lanta was?

On a good day, driving through Hot Lanta is a nightmare. Heard horror stories from one of best friends who went to Georgia Tech.

Looks like an amazing time though once you got there! Where to now?

DAY ONE - ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Opening day of Power Tour opened with a bang. Motortrend and Hot Rod started the day by celebrating Hot Rod Magazine's 75th anniversary. Things included:

1. For Motortrend+ subscribers you get a special commerative hat

2. Lucky Costa and Alex Taylor, hosts of Hot Rod Garage, unveiled the latest incarnation of the famous Projecy X '57 Chevy

3. They filmed the opening of a future HRG episode with Alex saying "On this episode of Hot Rod Garage!? and the audience says "We bring the power!". So I am part of the crowd.

4. Meet and greet and autographs with Lucky and Alex.

5. Meet and greet and autographs with David Frieburger and Steve Dulchich, from Roadkill Garage.

6. Steve Dulchich's "Bang Shift" Cougar was on display next to Project X

7. Alex Taylor's '68 Camaro "Badmaro" was on display

8. Lucky's '68 C-10 pickup was on display

There was the usual host of sponsors - Painless Wiring, Continental Tires, Pilot Transport, Mahle Pistons, Tremec Transmissions, American Powertrain, Lingenfelter Engineering to name a few.

The young man in the red hat is Wiley, who has appeared in a few episodes of RKG. He has also appeared a couple of Steve Dulchich's YouTube video. I understand he is a drone camera operator on Roadkill.

The freshly unveiled Project X '57 Chevy sporting it's latest incarnation - a GM Performance 632 c.i. crate motor. Prior to this, Project X was turned into an EV! I guess that reader backlash was palpable.

Here is my photo with Lucky and Alex. She is as nice as she appears on screen. 

 

Dulchich's Bang Shift Cougar. 

It is as clapped out in person as it appears on the show (more on that later). This is the same car you see them pushing in the opening credits and appeared in the first episode of Roadkill Garage.

A sticker on the back of Lucky's C-10 pickup.

Freiburger and Dulchich signing autographs. After standing in line for Alex and Lucky, I didn't fee like waiting for another hour. My feet and knee were getting tired and sore from standing around.

The offical HRPT merchandise trailer had long lines in front of it every day. Here is a nice visual of our destinations for the week. 

I finally got a chance to go back to my car, sit down, grab a cold soda, and look who pulls up about 30 feet away from me......a crew cab Chevy Silverado and a Buick Regal done up as a Mountain Dew NASCAR racer.`1

It's Derek Bieri, from Roadworthy Rescues, and his own YouTube Channel, Vice Grip Garage.

 

This has certainly turned into a Celeb-Fest on the first day!!!!

Here are some other car photos from the day.

This Hellcat powered cop car I have seen before on Woodward. The young "lady cop" was nice. They ended up staying at the same hotel I did in Concord NC. By then, she was starting to get a tad sunburn. I told her I had some aloe if she wanted it. She turned me down, it was not that bad (yet - in my opinion).

I could be all wet with this one, but I suspect this might be the car from the two episodes of Hot Rod Garage where Tony and Lucky put the LS engine in the Cadillac after blowing the motor on the test drive and then later added air ride. I suspect this is that car because the show director that bought the car was there filming. The reason it might not be is because of the Michigan (and not presumably California) license plates.

Totally awesome pics, Frosty.

I think your 'lady cop' probably thought you were offering to rub the aloe into her. I also would have politely refused you.

I am nothing but a gentleman Mr. Fitzy. I merely offered her the bottle of aloe.

Now if she ASKED me to rub it on her too, well then, what the Hell? Oh Hell Yeah!

Edited June 22, 20232 yr by Frosty

I just stumbled across Derek Bieri's episodes from his Vice Grip Garage YouTube channel on his adventures on Power Tour. Here are all five days....

Day 1

 

At the 35:48 mark of this video, while the white Challenger is backing up, the camera pans, and you will see my Roadmaster with it's hood up and my buddy's blue El Camino with its hood up, our tent and the Buick and Pontiac banners. I think that is me sitting in the chair too.

Day 2

It appears that Derek followed the planned route, which (in my opinion) was a cluster around Atlanta. Ken and I spent 2.5 hours on the route and we hadn't even gone 60 miles yet (too many stop lights, roundabouts, and too much traffic for these side roads). We bailed off the course and cannonballed our way down I-20 to Columbia SC. Even doing this, we still didn't get there until 3:30 pm. So it doesn't surprise me that Derek didn't even make it to the State Fairgrounds.

Day 3

After the disaster on Tuesday, Ken and I ditched the official route completely and made our own. So we took I-20 to Compton NC (US 521 exit) and then picked up scenic US 1 just outside Compton. This takes you all the way into Rockingham. At the 21:50 mark, I can clearly see that Derek and crew are on US 1. The other thing I will note is that Ken and I left early in the morning to beat the HRPT traffic. Derek is obviously mid-to-late day.

Day 4

Again Ken and I ditched the official route that would have us zigzag east, then west, and then north from Rockingham to Concord NC, home to zMax Dragway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. We headed west on US 74, hit the US 74 Bypass (a toll road) until we picked up I-485 Outer Loop, and I-85 into Concord. This was a 90 minute drive from my hotel. The planned route was almost 4 hours! At 10:00 Derek shows up at zMax. Ken and I made an early morning departure and had breakfast at a Waffle House 15 minutes before Concord. We didn't have this long line that Derek sees because we were early and near the front.

 

Day 5

Last day of Power Tour, I asked GE (GuitarsExtreme) for the most efficient and scenic route to Bristol. He recommended going I-77 north until we picked up US 421. Stop in Boone NC at the Daniel Boone Inn Restraurant and the follow US 321 all the way to Bristol. I enjoyed Derek's fast motion drives in this video. At the 10:34 mark, he is in a gas station, then he shows US-321 from Boone NC to Bristol. So you get a sense of the scenery we got to enjoy, even crossing the state line from NC to TN.

 

 

Edited June 22, 20232 yr by Frosty

DAY ONE - Continued

Here are some pictures of the cars that were there.....

Ken and I are entering the tunnel to go into the infield at Atlanta.

I figure that this upside down car has to have all of it's fluids drained out of it to keep it from leaking out and making a mess of the display.

Yes - that is a plane car. The fuselage says "Spirit of Lemons".

Getting in line to go out on the track at Atlanta.

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Frosty said:

 

I don't know if anyone told them but... the car is upside down.

28 minutes ago, Ringo64 said:

I don't know if anyone told them but... the car is upside down.

Um.....I think so.

Strong straps though - you gotta admit. Which was the point.

DAY ONE - Finale

So here are the videos from the track. I left home without my dash cam's SD card! Duh! I didn't find out until I got to the track. So I used some blue painter's tape to hold down my Canon DLSR camera to the dash and switched the camera to video mode. At least this year there is audio. You can hear me calling out some speed numbers from time to time.

Going out onto pit road.....

MVI_0076.MOV

Going out onto the track in the Roadmaster....

Well I tried tp upload a near 3 GB .MOV file and it keeps erroring out after a long time. Sorry about that.

 

 

Edited June 25, 20232 yr by Frosty

Great pics and stories Frosty, thanks man.

Lucky Costa, from Hot Rod Garage, posted his 41 minute video of Power Tour. At the 5:22 mark, he is in a golf cart looking at the cars in line to go out onto the track at Atlanta. You will first see Ken's blue El Camino, and then 2 cars later you will see the Roadmaster.

 

The video does a good job of highlighting a lot of the venues on Power Tour, plus some hi-jinx with Alex Taylor in Project X at Rockingham.

 

 

DAY TWO - South Carolina State Fairgrounds - Columbia, SC

Today is the first road trip, from Atlanta Motor Speedway to the Columbia South Carolina State Fairgrounds, about 3.5 hours away. Ken and I jumped into the pre-planned route. Big mistake! Traffic was bad! They were trying to get nearly 6,000 cars down one and two lane roads that had numerous stop lights, turns, roundabouts, and general traffic. This made things aweful. Stop and go - bumper-to-bumper traffic. After 2.5 hours, we had only gone less than 60 miles, 

Crowds line the side streets to watch the car parade. 

At this point Ken and I said "screw the route" and we followed our GPS to I-20 and cannonballed our way all the way to Columbia. Eventually others had the same idea.

Finally, around 3:30 pm, we rolled into Columbia.

This is William Bryce Stadium - home to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks college football team. It is directly across the street from the state fairgrounds. The fairgrounds are used for stadium parking when the state fair is not going on.

Nice! A rare '74 GTO.

I swear this was El Camino convention. Ken even mentioned that he's seen more Elco's this year than ever before.

A Stage 1 Buick GS. Sweet!

A GMC Syclone!

 

More looks at Project X.

 

Here is Lucky's C-10 pickup.

 

Alex Taylor and her '68 Camaro "Badmaro"

Here is some more of Dulchich's Bang Shift Cougar. The car is as clapped out in person as it is on TV.

My buddy Ken next to the Power Tour merchandise truck - which has this year's route on it.

The Power Tour main stage. To the left is where us "Long Haulers" had to much our credentials every day. The punch each day was a different shape.

Lucky walking around the show grounds.

Mike Cotton has a heart to heart chat with the PT emcees and the fans. I got to meet him later on in person. Dave Newburn was also on PT, but I never ran across him. Mike is another person I'd like to get to know.