For years now, Holley’s LS Fest has been the stuff of legends. So long as it has the latest in GM power under the hood, anything goes…come drag race, autocross, burn the tires to shreds, or just park underneath a shade tree at Beech Bend and enjoy the weekend with some like-minded types. It works very well…so well, in fact, that LS Fest now has two locations at different times of the year just to manage the traffic! Last year, Holley extended the invitation to the Ford fans in the form of the Intergalactic Ford Fest and the first-year numbers were insane…we’re talking on-par with LS Fest, a deal that had been running a decade longer. Cobra Jets on the strip, Cleetus and the “Neighbor” Crown Vic mixing it up with Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and Bigfoot I on the premises made for a hell of a weekend.
Well…what about the Mopar fans? The correct answer isn’t, “Well, what *about* them?”. Crack all the restoration jokes you want, but the truth is that both the old and new school mindsets of Chrysler power don’t have many outlets to go and play. And most can agree that concours restoration shows are something of a freaking bore if you really get down to it. Leave it to the Holley staff to do the right thing and roll out the welcome mat to the Mopar community with the first MoParty event. We had wing cars. We had old school Hemis. We had plenty of late-model stuff because ChallengerFest, which usually takes place earlier in the year, got folded into MoParty instead of being outright cancelled. We had Dan VanHorn and the Modern Street Hemi Shootout series racers on hand. Hell, we had “Mr. Norm” Krause on hand with a fleet of Grand Spaulding-modified late-models on hand, as well as Arrington Performance and Mike Copeland’s “Outrage” Dodge Rampage build that dropped our jaws through the floor at SEMA last year. We had obvious dream machines like Super Bees and ‘Cudas and we had oddballs like a gorgeous 1975 Plymouth Road Runner and the Drag Week infamous Dodge Omni GLH that was teaching Hellcats how to behave on the strip.
I didn’t get to take in the full show due to my commitment to RMRW v2.0 last week, but I did stop in on Sunday to take a look around. Trust me, this is one that needs to be on your calendar next year…especially if you want to see your Mopar favorites do more than just look pretty while parked on the grass.
Click on a photo below to see more from the inaugural Holley MoParty:
Looked pretty empty compared to what we saw Saturday. For this year, and in the face of the “Election Infection” (COVID19), I thought it was a pretty good turnout. I was impressed at how Mopar ran the living piss out of the Hellcat Chargers and Challenger giving passengers drifting rides almost non stop without a hickup. Impressive monster powered factory cars. Exactly the way Mopars should be. The Yellow SRT Charger UTE is exactly what should happen to all of those ugly first year new gen Chargers. Didn’t see Uncle Tony or that hemi powered Conquest…
Do us a favor and don’t ever come again your little last minute b******* article was b*******!