To see Matt’s latest update, click here and we’ll take you right to it.

This year’s Power Tour coverage promises to be some of our most fun yet. You see we conned our own Mad Matt Graves into running the whole deal with the Memphis Mob, and Detroit’s resident hipster John Clark, in a conglomeration of vehicles that will look killer running down the road and harassing barbecue joints across the country. Matt will be wheeling the 48 Hour Camaro, which hasn’t seen a single weekend off since we built it a few weeks ago IN 46 HOURS AND 42 MINUTES!!! He’ll be chronicling the adventure, and each and every morning you’ll have an update from the day before including photos. In addition, we’ll be doing short adventure updates as Matt and the gang send us photos and messages throughout the day from each cruise. Do you want to be a part of the fun? Then email us your photos and adventures and we’ll post them. Email them to us at [email protected].

Throughout the week you will be able to see the 48 Hour Camaro cruising the highways of America on Hot Rod’s Power Tour, but you’ll also be able to check it out close up at each tour stop. Daily it will be parked with some of the great vendors that supported the project including Lingenfelter, Holley, Cherry Bomb, Comp Cams, Vintage Air, and more. Trust us, you need to check it out. This car was built in less than 48 hours, but it sure doesnt’ look like it. 

Which brings us to our story from Matt. We were there when, after a couple cocktails, Bret Voelkel from Ridetech agreed to let Matt drive it on Power Tour. We’re still not sure how that actually happened, but it did and now the 48 Hour Camaro adventure continues on Power Tour. Below is Matt’s first installment and photos. Don’t miss the rest. We’ll bring them to you all week.

PowerTour Day 1 Cocoa Beach, FL

When Bret Voelkel at RideTech handed me the keys to the 48HourCamaro this week, I was a little shocked. Not because he was insane to be giving me the keys to any vehicle, but because this vehicle is special.  Let’s rewind a few weeks back. This car was built in 46 hours, streaming live over the internet. If you tuned in, you saw the RideTech team skillfully taking a Plain Jane Camaro and turn it into a serious Pro-Touring machine.  The very next day after completion, the team took the Camaro to the Nashville GoodGuys show and beat the thing to death on the autocross track without incident. The next weekend Bret and his crew took it right back to Nashville for the Run to Music City event and finished 4th overall with the 3rd highest speed at the event.  Bret also placed 5th in the autocross with a broken front sway bar.  A true testament to Bret’s driving skills and the car’s suspension set up.  BUT…. this story is not about the awesomeness that is RideTech, or about Bret Voelkel’s skills.  We already know about all that.  Really, this is about how awesome I am for convincing Bret to let me take his pride and joy on the 2011 Hot Rod Power Tour. There were tons of people involved in making this car happen.  Route 2 Media’s Scott Payton and Michael Julian, along with  our own Chad Reynolds and Dustin Gould from Boondoggle,  put their hearts and souls into promoting and producing the build and doing it live over the net.  A great team of sponsors donated parts and dudes worked 16 hour days to build it. 

But really, did they not see what happened last year to me and Jon Clark in the Cherry Bomb D-100 truck??  Plus, I just lost my job, so I got nothing to lose there.  Bret just hands the keys to ME…he might as well have asked Chad to go with me and just let us beat on it like a red headed rental car. That just shows Bret’s confidence level with this car.  He knows it will survive the Power Tour and the sweltering heat.  So…. stay with me on Bangshift.com to follow my progress on the Tour. 

I’ll be rolling with Jon Clark in his D-100 and A-100.  And as always, the Memphis Mob will be in the house. Believe me, this is gonna be good! Check out a few pictures from the scene at Port Canaveral.  Holley let us park in their booth yesterday to show off the Avenger EFI set up on the Lingenfelter prepped LS3.  Today we set out for sweltering peanut fields of South Georgia. Temps are supposed be in 100’s. Thank goodness for the Vintage Air A/C.  Power Tour participants; if you are reading this, I’ve got a few RideTech shirts left.  Find me in the 48HourCamaro tomorrow and I’ll give you a shirt while supplies last. 

Power Tour 2011 Day 2

Valdosta, GA

This has to be the hottest Power Tour I have ever been on.  This is also the first time I have had A/C on the Tour.  Now I am spoiled. The Vintage Air A/C system in the 48HourCamaro is a total life saver. Temps climbed into the three digits in South GA. I even drag raced the car with the A/C on! We’ll get to that in a minute. The other incredible thing was the U.S. Radiator cooling system never skipped a beat. Water temp never climbed over  190 all day. This car is a tank.  Nothing can stop it, but I was going to see how far we could take it.

So we blew through the Spanish moss laden roads of North Florida and South GA to arrive at South Georgia Motorsports Park. It was the most unbearable, sweat drenching heat I have ever experienced in my life.  Perfect to see what kind of abuse this car can take. We have auto-crossed, road raced, brake and top speed tested this car over the last three weeks with no rest at all and then we headed out on Power Tour.  What was left?  Drag racing in South GA during the one of the hottest summers on record, that’s what.  We got to the event late today but we set up in the Spectre Performance booth.

Then Jon Clark threw down the gauntlet.  He wanted to run the Cherry Bomb D-100 against the 48HourCamaro on the strip.

Jon is packing a full tilt 526 old style HEMI sucking air thru a set of big dual Holleys on a real cross ram intake.  I knew Jon had some experience drag racing this truck while I have only been driving the Camaro for a few days.  I was still getting use to the Auto Gear 4-speed and Gear Vendors OD.  The American PowerTrain clutch was working great and I didn’t want to blow the whole thing out without practicing. Little did I know that all of those parts are far better at drag racing than I am.  I got lucky because Jon’s truck came down with a case of the vapors.  So I went on to give it try with my wife riding shotgun and the air on because it was damn hot.  I rolled up to the line, put the transmission in second gear, dropped the clutch in the burn out box and WOW. I did a full blown Wild Willy burn out in this thing! Easy as pie. So now I feel like a super hero and rip out of the hole on the light with a .210 reaction time.  Not bad for my first time, but as I get up to speed on the track I miss second gear and then I missed it again, running a 14.90. Well, of course I go back again. The track is about to close at this point. Another Wild Willy and cut the light with a .117. My 60ft time is 1.88, but this time the track is slippery and I spin almost the entire length of the track. I get a 13 second run that time. This car has potential, but it’s not bad for a car set up for auto-cross.  At this point I figure I better go help Jon fix his truck, because there’s always the drag strip in Montgomery.

Now I’m ready for him.  So did the drag racing hurt the car? Nope. I had the air on and the windows up the entire time I was on the drag strip. I even did a photo shoot with Hot Rod Magazine and just stayed in the car with the A/C on…..In fact, I decided that I’m not getting out of the car anymore except for BBQ.  More fun today as we run through the wild outback of Southern Alabama. Oh check out the random concrete road side chicken stand. Pro-Touring at its finest.  Stay tuned. 

Power Tour 2011 Day 3 

Before we get to Matt’s update, note that Day 3 started with a 6am call to yours truly asking how to fix the Camaro.  We got photos from him and the Memphis Mob all day, and they are having way too much fun. Now we’re getting really jealous since we aren’t there. Even the 100 degree temps are starting to sound pretty good. Damn the unemployed. They have all the fun! Now, onto Matt’s play by play, mixed in with a bunch of their days photos.

Montgomery, AL

I finally broke the Camaro, sorta.  We got up early and after accidentally not paying for breakfast (I found another can of Waffle Off, you know when your having those Waffle attacks?), we headed out through the wilds of the Georgia pecan fields toward Alabama. 

I hit the interstate and shifted the Auto Gear 4-speed then hit the Gear Vendors Overdrive. Nothing happened. Then I noticed the speed odometer was reading erratically.  I assumed there was a problem so we pulled off the interstate and made a call to Rick at GV for some technical help. 

We discovered that we put the exhaust too close to the speed sensor and fried it. Sitting in the staging lanes the night before at the strip was just too much to bear for the sensor. Rick is sending us a plug in play harness to overcome the speed sensor so we can shift it up and down manually. No major issue there, we will just use more fuel until then. 

So really we are not totally broken down, just more uncomfortable and lighter in the wallet. But dammit the A/C still works GREAT.  Back on the road we head out to Plains, GA.  Do you know what is significant about this place? It’s the home of Jimmy Carter. Total photo op time here! This is the stuff we love on the Power Tour.

This is Americana at its finest. We had fried peanuts, peanut butter ice cream, and peaches. 

Life in South GA is delicious, nutty, and blazing hot.

I also got a Jon a new bumper sticker for his truck.  So after spending entirely too much time in Plains, GA we blast on to appropriately named Phoenix City, AL.  I discover a BBQ shack in town and we bust down the door. 

After stuffing our faces with pork, banana pudding, and buttermilk pie we attempt to leave Phoenix City until the D-100 decides it’s had enough heat and vapor locks AGAIN.

We ice down the fuel pump and finally get going, making a bee line for Montgomery Motorsports Park.  Jon gets to within about 100 yards of the park and the fuel pump finally packs its bags and goes south.  Meanwhile, I make another attempt at drag racing the Camaro and run almost the exact same times I did yesterday.  So, as any good drag racer would do, I blame it on the heat and not my driving skills. We head to NashVegas today and we have an auto-cross track set up at the show. Bret from RideTech will be there wheeling the Camaro around. Come by and see us so you can pick Bret’s brain on suspension set up. Meanwhile, please enjoy the pictures.
 

V is for VENT.  Pull the knob to release pine needles, which is somehow appropriate, leaves, and dead wasps. Ask us how we know…

When stopping to repair a comfort item, you are permitted to acquire (1) one regionally-sourced snack item. In this case, a Stucky’s Pecon Log Roll. Yummmmyyyyyyy…..

Mere moments away from being totally consumed by the Camaro dash, Matt summons up enough strength to bid his "supportive" friends on last gesture.

PowerTour Day 4 and 5

Nashville and Indy

We wake up the next morning in Montgomery to realize we have to send the D-100 home. The primitive fuel system just cannot bear the heat anymore. Jon decides to get her sent home. So he makes the call to a friend to come pick it up. Jon still has the A-100 Van so he and Willy team up in the van for the duration of the trip. I’ll get to their story in a minute.  Still without overdrive we continue onward to Nashville in the 48HourCamaro. I decided to take the interstate because we wanted to have it there in time to run the auto-cross course outside LP Field. We get about 100 miles away and the car is vibrating so bad I pull off. I start to think the tires are vibrating and realize the left rear is almost flat. Now mind you we didn’t have a spare tire, just a can of fix a flat. The rear tires are 335 series on 12” wide wheels. That my friend will not fit in a trunk. So I air up the tire and it holds for us until Nashville.

Then we discover it has a nail in it. Realizing its holding the air in, we leave it and hand the keys to Bret from RideTech for the auto-cross course. What does he do? He comes in 2nd for the day. Yes 2nd overall in a car that was build in 46 hours, raced two consecutive weekends then taken on PowerTour the next weekend, drag raced two straight days and then almost wins the auto-cross on the PT. (Video attached)Unbelievable. All in all the Camaro was an amazing machine to drive and compete in. Kellie and me were smiling all the way from Knoxville to Cocoa Beach to Nashville. We do appreciate Bret letting us take the journey of a life time in such a car.  At this point we have to part ways with the car and the PowerTour. Kellie and I have to get home to our little girls who are missing us really bad. But the fun is not over. Oh no.  Because the two Van Jockeys Jon and Willy are still going strong in the 64 Dodge A-100 Van.

In fact this is going to get really good. I am going to keep you guys posted for the remainder of the tour with reports from the Jockeys.  In fact the first report from the road takes place from the night before in Nashville. Read below.
First a little back story. If you don’t know by now the name Jon Clark (BS Screen name – Jack Pine), then you’ve lived under a rock here at Bangshift. Jon the past big wheel at MOPAR and resident Detroit hipster owns one of the most famous dirt bag vehicles of all time, the Cherry Bomb D-100 HEMI. Jon and I became friends years ago when we collaborated on joint vehicle builds for the companies we worked for, such as the D-100, A-100, and the Cherry Bomb Charger.  We have done the PowerTour together a few times in the past. The most famous was last year when we decided for the first time to drive the D-100. You can look it up here on Bangshift. Yes it was tough but epic. After the emotional high from that journey, Jon gets all delusional for this year’s tour and says “Hey I’ll take two cars this year!”  So if you have followed along now you are realizing the D-100 is on a trailer and now Jon is rolling the A-100 van which ironically last year this was reversed.  The A-100 gave up the D-100 rolled on. Anyway on to the report (I told you so Jon…ahem). So our boys Jon Clark from Detroit and Willy Ray (BS screen name- Willstoy) from Seattle finally get into Nashville almost at dark because they spent most of their day eating at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ in Decatur, AL (I did not get to go there and yes I am pissed).  The van is suffering from only one issue-no overdrive. This is causing it to suck down fuel as fast as Jon and Willy can suck down Alabama sweet tea.

They worked on a little leaner tune on the Holley Avenger EFI system so hopefully this will help with their mileage. Now their velocity rate is suffering and it is causing them to get to the next stop much later than everyone else. But this can be a good thing because they can soak up all the small towns and fine eatin establishments this route has to offer, such as Puckett’s Grocery in Nashville known for their mighty fine ham and biscuits.

This is good road food that can be served right on the dog box of mid engine van. Or they can slow down and talk to the local PBR riders in town for bull riding lessons. The world is at their disposal now. Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for more from Jon and Willy this week.

 Note the Hot Rod bus. Jon swears he saw Doug Evans naked thru the window.

Power Tour Day 6

Muskegon

The cool part about Day 6 is that in my Drop Box where these guys have been sending photos and their writeups, I found 19 photos and some random Volkswagen literature that actually looks corporate. Not sure who put that in their, but it is weird. Anyway, there is no description of the days activities or any explanation for any of the photos, so I’m going to try to tell the story myself. Hell, I can only be wrong A LOT. Right? I’m good with that. 

So we are going to start off with peeing. Yes peeing. As in urinating. Apparently our Van Jockeys started off at some establishment that had a strict "No Peeing on the Seat" policy. 

Now don’t get us wrong, we’re all about being thoughtful, or is it thougtful, damn that is such a hard word. Anyway, we are all about being nice, but GREEN highlighter to stress the point! That might be pushing it. It was apparently a fine, albeit very poor, establishment based on their inability to cover the cost of another sheet of paper for their "corrected" sign. 

In the spirit of sign making, apparently someone chose to use a sign to notify our intrepid road warriors of a technical glitch on the A-100. 

Tech Tip: When writing a note for someone, and attaching it to their car, it’s often better to have the writing facing in so they can read it from the driver’s seat. Just saying. I mean I get in the car and see this on their I’m going to be hitting the road and trying to turn on the wipers so I can grab the sheet as it gets close to the side window where I can reach it. Then I might screw it up and it might fly away. What if it was something important like. "I’ve been kidnapped. Please help. The don’t pee on the seat lady has me in the back of the Gas and Shop" Then wouldn’t you feel bad that you didn’t put the sign on right.

It is raining, which is somehow ironic since their is a hula dancer on the dash, although not really because it rains in Hawaii almost every day just like in Florida even though we always think that both of them are sunny and nice every waking moment of the day. Weird. Anyway, besides it raining, the van is running at about 183 degrees water temp and thanks to no working overdrive, they are spinning the poor little 340 at about 4000 which explains why the oil pressure is at 70lbs. The stereo is on though, so you can’t hear the engine hating you. Awesome.

I think my favorite thing about Jon’s photos is the fact that they are all slightly out of focus. In this case it makes for a more sexy mood when staring at the cheeseburger, with pickle spear which I dig, and a basket of onion rings that could only look better if twice as big. Hmmmmm. That’s  a line you would never use when referring to your wife. Anyway, I’m not sure if my mouth is watering because I’m hungry or slightly aroused. Hmm.

The Welcome sign in Vegas started out much the same way. 

Now this is what I’m talking about. Good looking car, flashing lights, everything spelled right. This is a good sign.

it looks real. I hope it’s real. I want it . Van’s rule.

Why is it that I think this Nailhead Buick looks so damn cool and yet I hate it all at the same time. The dude that designed this engine was on CRACKKKKKKK. Dude, what were you thinking. The pushrods angle out all kinds of wrong and push on the wrong side of the rocker arm which then means the valve is on the other wrong side of the rocker arm. Weird. Weird. Weird. Which also describes a huge percentage of the people making parts for these things. Don’t get me started. 

This is a Chevy II wagon with a Diesel engine in it. Weird. Cool. Weird.

Every year on Power Tour the gang over at Year One puts on a killer night of bowling and giveaways. Everyone shows up, fun is had by all, and unless you really screw up you always take home a prize.

FORUM FREAKS IN THE HOUSE!!!!!

Okay gang that is it for the day’s  update. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have text. Maybe not. We’ll do our best to keep you informed and entertained though. And if you want to send in your Power Tour adventures or photos, remember it’s [email protected].