(Words and photos by Matt Graves) – Well our 5-speed install on the Edsel worked out flawlessly. We drove up to Detroit with about 3 hours of sleep. Other than a crappy suspension and back breaking spring less bench seat the Edsel drives like a dream. It probably drives better than a new one would…We met with our pals at TREMEC and set up our booth. The GM Proving Grounds is awe inspiring. I’s like Area 51. Test tracks, durability dynos, climate simulators it goes on and on. You can spend a month in here and not see all the gizmos and roads they have. Powertour parking area was set up on the wet track skid pad. It’s a large blacktop lake basically. In fact rumor has it that when they spray it down with water birds are confused and dive bomb it thinking it’s a lake. So cool to visit this place since its nearly impossible to access any other time.
We team up with Jon Clark and the Flat Bastard in Muskegon. Jon wanted to autocross the Valiant to dial in the RMS suspension. He brought Bill Reilly from RMS to help him tune the set up. Jon ran several runs but after noticing some smoke he realized there was pretty good leak coming from the rear main seal. So now the Flat Bastard is grounded. I am sad but we have the Edsel wagon and we move on. If you don’t know by now we are having a contest with TREMEC during the tour. We are giving away a TREMEC transmission of your choice along with our installation kit. We have two semi finalists now and we will draw a name every day. On Friday there will be seven finalists to draw from! So if you’re a Long Hauler and have not came to our booth to enter then HURRY!!
Ok Bangshifters we are going to offer you guys a little Easter egg. If you tell me this password at our booth then we will give you a hat. The password is “You guys look shifty”. Also gather up as many Forum Freaks as you can and bring them to the American Powertrain booth for a photo so we can post you up on Bangshift.
More to come! If you see our wagon at a stop come see us!! On to Champaign enjoy the pics.
The Edsel wagon with the 5-speed and 302 keeps on truckin'!
A rear main seal leak sunk the Valiant's battle ship on this Power Tour. Note the graffiti!
The car did get a few good licks in on the autocross though!
Black and white photo of the Edsel wagon sitting on the road is classic. Glad to see that you found a fellow Edsel owner to cruise with.
ATTENTION! to any Bangshifter that came by our booth today and a member of our staff thought you were nuts because THEY didn’t know the password. I apologize. I failed to tell my man Josh about the secret word. He thought a few of you were crazy which you are anyways right?? So sorry for the mix up. Everybody is up to speed now