The first Road Tour Express of 2011 is underway and BangShift has fielded a team of crack operatives to kick some ass, win some prizes, and drive the hell out of their junk. The Road Tour Express is kind of a team relay with some fun daily challenges. Participants are given a “package” of stuff necessary to document their adventure and throughout each leg of the trip, the teams post multiple blogs, photos, and even video of the stuff they are seeing and doing. 

Co-chief Bangshifter Chad was the team captain and designed the route that each participant would follow. Every day the package gets handed off to a different member of the team and they complete and document their leg of the trip.

In the lead off spot for us on Monday, carrying the flag for team BangShift was Loren and Gail in their mostly stock, and all awesome, 1959 Chevy Impala convertible. Their first order of business was to meet Rick Johnson, the leader of proud BangShift sponsor Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive. Rick gave Loren and Gail a tour of their facility and handed them the package. From there the pair covered a bunch of miles stopping and documenting visits to an ancient mission, a winery, a neat bunch of Corvettes, and on and on. We’re freezing our asses of here at east coast HQ and team BangShift is living large in So-Cal, running around in awesome iron! We’re jealous as hell!

Hit the link below to see Loren and Gail’s GREAT entires from day one, and pick up on Bill Fowler and his co-pilot’s fun on day two. This adventure lasts until Thursday, so stay tuned! Oh, and we’re going from mild to wild with respect to cruise iron. Fowler’s nearly two ton Mustang convertible runs 10.0s at the strip, and and you’ll see, is a capable cruiser too! 

RoadTourExpress.com — Loren and Gail Day One Adventure Photos and Blogs! 

UPDATE – Wednesday:

Bill Fowler and his pal Karl picked up the package from Loren and Gail on Monday night and left the house before the sun came up on Tuesday morning. Bill’s 900 hp Mustang convertible ran without a hiccup. It was another day of kick ass fun as Bill and Karl visited an awesome collection of Ford projects, stopped by the Mustang and Fas Fords shop to see what they were wrenching on, harassed the guys at Rosen Entertainment, barged into the Tustin Marine base, at at Richie’s Diner, visited John Mehovitz and the crew at Accufab, saw a massive train at the Pomona Fairplex, and hit the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. They did this all in ONE DAY and documented ALL of it over at the Road Tour Express site. Man, Chad picked the PERFECT team for this challenge. Our members are kicking ass and another pair will hit the road tomorrow. Hit the link below to see a truly killer day of cruising and big block fun!

RoadTourExpress.com — Bill and Karl’s Day Two Adventure Photos and Blogs 

UPDATE – Thursday: 

The starting point for the team BangShift’s next pair of intrepid Road Tour Challengers was the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. Scott Liggett and Doug Rich were paired up for the day, rolling in Doug’s ultra bitchin’ Bandit Trans Am. Cruising the streets of greater LA with the T-tops out and determined to carry the torch for the team, the guys got rolling early. The challenge for the day was to find a bell. The dudes handled that, no sweat. From there it was on to hot rodding landmark Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake, Ca, a trip to the Hollywood sign, and then battling traffic to get the package to Nick who will lead the final day of the charge for team BangShift! Hit the link below to see Scott and Doug’s day of rolling Eastbound and down!

RoadTourExpress.com — Scott and Doug’s day of cruising greater LA in a Bandit Trans-Am! 

UPDATE – Friday

The final day of Road Tour Express action began early on Thursday morning with Nick Ozanne and his bitchin’ wagon setting out to complete the last set of challenges before meeting up with our own Chad Reynolds to deliver the package to it’s final destination. Thursday would be the last day of the tour, but the first day where mechanical thrashin’ was necessary. Nick went all Fall Guy with his wagon by hitting a railroad crossing too fast. The unexpected impact caused the well seasoned radiator in his Mopar wagon to spring a leak. A stop at the parts store and a tube of Alumaseal got his act back together and the rest of the day was mechanically uneventful. Nick and his co-pilot cruised a bunch of cool spots in So Cal like the former Terminal Island strip (Brotherhood Raceway), the Palos Verdes lighthouse, and the original home of Isky cams. All in a day’s cruising work!

Chad and I want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who participated in this first Road Tour Express of 2011. We’ll keep you updated when the video is uploaded in the next week or so. That’ll be really cool, as the still photos rocked so the video should be truly killer! 

RoadTourExpress.com — Nick’s Bitchin So-Cal Cruise to wrap up the Road Tour Express