(Words and photos by Kaleb Kelley)A couple of months, I embarked on my first Hot Rod Power Tour with my own car. I had been on two others riding with my dad before I had a car fit for the trip. You’ve seen a few posts as I progressed from a base model slant-6 car to the car that is today. I hope that you guys all like what I’ve done with Project Possum. I seriously enjoyed it on the tour and I want to thank all of my awesome sponsors for helping it happen. It was a little sketchy finishing the car a couple of days before leaving on a trip that would take me over 3,200 miles and through 9 states in a period of 10 days, but I had a great time. The Power Tour is definitely the most interesting way to shakedown a newly finished car with a different motor, trans, rear end, fuel system, tank, suspension, brakes, etc. The Scamp caused 9 unscheduled stops for everything from a new alternator, power steering pump pulley, belts, alignment, and tires. I caught more than enough flak from our group on the Scamp constantly breaking down. In the words of my friend Jeff Enloe, “Everytime I turn around that Scamp makes me miss lunch.” If you want to read more about the specific problems I had on the tour, I’ve written a much longer narrative of my adventures on the Power Tour on my website, ClassicsDaily.net

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It probably would have been smart to not take the Scamp on this trip without some driving time beforehand, but who ever said that I was smart? From Sherman, TX to the start of the tour in Madison was the most interesting part since I broke down 5 or 6 times before we even made it there. The rest of the time it was mostly problems with my alignment not being right and wearing tires, and one incident of the cable from the alternator to the battery shorting because I stripped the bolt into the alternator… A lot of lessons were learned last week and we also had a lot of fun.

I went on the trip with my dad, the Enloe’s, Uncle Benny and my dad’s friend Todd. My dad didn’t get Plan A finished in time, so he had to stoop down to his Plan B ride; a Hellcat Charger. He was planning on bringing his Curious Yellow 1971 ‘Cuda 340, which was an original, matching-numbers car a couple of months ago. Now it has a 340 block stroked and bored to 422 cubes with Holley’s new Terminator High Horsepower EFI, which has bigger injectors to support more power, and a TorqStorm centrifugal supercharger pushing 7 pounds of boost. The new Holley system is made to support more power than the base system and should be released very soon. There were last minute problems with the motor overheating that caused it to not make the tour. It actually got so hot that it shut off the ECU and toasted the Wilwood Master Cylinder. After further investigation, Mopar Madness had put the camshaft in 19 degrees off when building the motor… I’m surprised it even ran decent that way. I don’t have all of specs on the motor, but I know it has all forged internals with dome pistons for 9.8:1 compression, custom ground Comp cam, Eagle rotating assembly and more. It is about finished now thanks to the guys at Gumaer & Son in Denison, TX. They’ve had to do quite a bit of work to make sure that the EFI worked correctly with the boost and MSD box to control timing appropriately. They built a fuel table from scratch to make sure that the power delivery was smooth throughout the powerband. Thankfully Holley’s ECU is super capable and you can program it to retard timing for boost and such so that you don’t need an MSD BTM box. At this point, we are waiting on a special Loctite for the bearing on the supercharger, but I’ll keep you updated once we get it running and see what kind of power it makes!

Jeff Enloe brought his 1972 Suburban which has the sweetest natural patina you’ve ever seen. When he was redoing the seats and carpet before he left, he found an old school floral carpet in the back underneath that was in perfect condition, so he left it as is for the trip. His buddy Ron found an old SurfJet gas-powered surfboard in storage right before the tour and the crazy pair decided to throw it on top of the Suburban. They found some brackets to mount it to and threw that sucker up on the roof without the motor in it just for a conversation piece. Ron has the motor sitting at his shop and he may get it running for fun. The board definitely did its job in getting attention. Every time somebody walked by it they made a comment of some sort. Finnegan even told us how he used to see people ride those on the lake he went to as a kid. I have to thank Jeff for putting up with my breakdowns on the tour. He should also get a purple heart for letting my Uncle Benny ride with him the whole time. The last two years, Benny took his 1956 Ford F100, but he decided he wanted to try out riding. At one point, they both got food poisoning and were feeling sick. While driving, Benny decided to throw chunks out of the open window and the wind blew it over all of them. We were a bit ahead of them and all of the sudden my phone blew up with texts from Jeff telling us what happened. Jeff was feeling bad and let his son Colten drive while he was lying down in the back seat. Apparently when Benny threw up, Jeff was laying back asleep with his mouth wide open. Benny’s accident covered him and in his words, “I hope he doesn’t have any communicable diseases. It all went in my eyes, ears and mouth.” That pair were free entertainment along the way as they messed with each other.

The trip was absolutely awesome and I’m glad I had this opportunity. There are not many people my age who have the privilege to own a classic car, yet alone take it on a trip like the Power Tour. It was an experience that I will not forget anytime soon. I also got the chance to meet many great friends along the tour like Emily Williams, Ross Tyler, Aaron Reeves, Rod Rutledge, and many others. There is nothing like the Power Tour when it comes to comradery. Everybody is on your team. I had a few moments of frustration and I have to apologize to the person in front of me in line to the Long Haul pics by the Hot Rod Bus. He let in 15+ cars and my car was overheating because we weren’t moving. He kept letting people in so I pulled around him. I shouldn’t have been so rash and regretted it afterwards. So to that guy in the third gen Camaro, MY BAD!

If you think that there is any way for you to go on the tour, try to make it happen. It should be on every car guys bucket list. When planning, stay conscious of your budget because things CAN and WILL come up along the way. Try sharing rooms with a friend or family member to split costs and if somebody is riding along, do not be afraid to ask for gas money. If you really want to make the tour you have to plan ahead. It isn’t something you just decide to do a few days beforehand. The hotels are booked mostly months beforehand even. Hot Rod normally announces the route for next year around late November or early December, so that is the best time to buy to make sure you get the best spot possible.

I also want to say thanks to everybody who was out there wearing the BangShift shirts and supporting us! Chad & Brian do a great job with the site and I loved seeing how much everybody loves it. The first day I tried to pay attention and I counted more BangShift shirts than even Power Tour shirts! You guys rule. I guess I will see you guys next year. I’m already planning on bringing the Scamp back all sorted out to make much smoother attempt at the long haul.
For more photos and details about my trip on the Hot Rod Power Tour 2015, go to my website ClassicsDaily.net

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