Ever been rendered speechless? Like when the hottest girl in school says she likes you?   Happened to me back in the 7th grade, no joke, hottest girl in school, an 8th grader, wanted to “go” with me.  What did that consist of?  Nothing, I think I spoke 3 words to her, danced with her at a school dance, was completely overwhelmed with confusing emotions, and then a week later, her friend called my house, and told me it was over.  But the level of stoke that first evening…was immeasurable.   That brings us to yesterday morning.   I’m sitting at my kitchen table, knowing what is about to happen, but I was still giddy like a pre-schooler on Christmas morning.  Then I hear it, the rumble, the power, the confused driver who can’t find my house.  I glance out the window and BAM!  Aston Martin DBS rolling past my window.  No joke, I jumped in the air with a double fist pump.  Sounds retarded, but its true, I had to tell myself audibly to keep it cool.  I had only been in 2 Aston Martins prior to yesterday.  I had a boss a couple years ago who owned a DB9 for while, and then a few weeks back, I got to drive a Vantage Roadster at the MPG track day.  I was about to put a 3rd notch on my Aston Martin score card. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever been given a gift that seems to have a life of its own?  Like one that you are given initially and that alone is great, but it just keeps giving?  Things like BBQ’s, wet bars, hot wifes, surfboards, golf clubs…you get my point.  Well if you frequent motorfanatics, you may remember that earlier this year I bought into the Porsche family…and while that purchase wasn’t a gift per se, it sure has kept on giving.  Beyond the daily drive or even the joy that it gives me to clean it, being in the Porsche family automatically included me in the “club”.   Being in the club has had a couple immediate perks:  the first is that when you valet park a Porsche, you don’t get that silly giggle from the valet that you get in a rough idling 4runner.  Secondly,  as you probably already know, the new Panamara is starting to show up at dealerships and the dealership I bought my car from invited me to take a drive.  Read the rest of this entry »

There were actually three Pacers on the Power Tour in 2009. Ours, a somewhat beat-up 77 station wagon, and a built 76 coupe with a Mopar 440 under the hood.  We had actually met the 440 guys two years ago when we did our first Power Tour, and this year they came back with a fully rebuilt car.  From day one we knew that there was going to have to be a Pacer on Pacer showdown, and on the final day at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, TN it went down.

My dad had run a few passes in the Pacer before hand and after red lighting the first pass and spinning the tires half way down the track on the second, we knew we were in for a challenge.

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Today we set out for Detroit from South Bend.  I was looking forward to being somewhere familiar, but I soon remembered why I moved to Cali.  Crappy roads, horrible drivers (alright, SoCal’s no better there), and humidity.  I do miss all of the American iron, and boy was the meet at Metro Beach chock full of classic iron. Easily the biggest yet, it was nice to have the sun out over acres and acres of cars.

Today, unlike yesterday, was completely uneventful…which is a good thing.  We skipped the driver’s meeting again today as our hotel was on a street under construction and getting to the meeting would have been much more hassle than it was worth.  My dad reconnected with an old friend he hasn’t talked to in years driving solo in his 67 Nova Wagon, so we added one more to our crew.  A motley one at that with a 78 Pacer, 03 Mustang Mach 1, and 67 Nova Wagon.
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Today started out where no Power Tour participant wants to be…the shop.  As I had mentioned yesterday, when we arrived in Racine we noticed that the alignment on the Pacer was WAY off.  Could have been the hammering at the drag strip but somehow a few of the adjustment cams in the front suspension slipped and the front tires looked like they were ready to fold over.  We woke up early and busted out the Yellow Pages and made a call to the guys at Alignment By Klamm in Racine, WI.

The guy mentioned on the phone that they were super busy, but we called at a quarter to 8 and he said that if we got there ASAP, he could squeak us in. Our 3 month-old Kumho’s were ecstatic! When we arrived, they wasted no time and threw the Pacer on a lift and went to town with lasers and computers and as true professionals knew EXACTLY what they were doing. They also even gave us tips on how to keep the suspension from slipping again, which is the first shop to do that. I implore you if you’re in the Racine, WI area or find yourself in Racine, WI and need alignment work done, go to Klamm’s. They had us on the road by nine, too late for the driver’s meeting out of Racine, but still far earlier than we expected.

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We woke up today to even more rain.  Great.  Cold and rainy, we made our way to Alliant Energy Center and as I mentioned yesterday, the weather did not deter ANYONE from making it out.  Once the rain let up, we walked around and checked out some of the other participants including a gorgeous Buick Riviera, a dialed in Cuda, and ANOTHER Pacer.  That makes three friggen Pacer’s on the Power Tour…but ours became the first to drag race!

We set out single file after the driver’s meeting and it was a parade as we left.  Police blocked off intersections for us and locals parked and waved as we drove by.  Our first stop was at NASCAR’s number 17 Matt Kenseth’s fan showroom just outside of Madison.  Here’s a little view of the traffic:

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Today was day 1 on the 2009 Hot Rod Power Tour.  A wet, cold, rainy day 1.  Yesterday, I putted through an hour and a half of warm beautiful LA traffic to make it to LAX on time to make my flight to Chicago where my dad was picking me up in the Pacer.  Upon waking up this morning, it was a complete 180 from LA, rainy and cold, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.  Check out all my pictures here and my top 10 from today below.

We stayed in Rockford last night and made the quick drive up to Madison this morning.  The drive was smooth and easy, and we found the Pacer cruises best around 85.  Autobahn much?  Unfortunately not.  We arrived in Madison, and soon started to see muscle cars and hot rods and followed the pack to Alliant Energy Center where we registered and started checking out the power shenanigans.
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Every year during the first couple weeks of June, Hot Rod magazine organizes a 2,500 or so mile rolling car show through the Midwest.  Hot rods, muscle cars, street rods, motorcycles, tricycles (man, I hope this one comes out!), Pacers (two years ago, there were three on the tour!), you name it show up for a week of celebrating what makes these cars great:  driving the doors off them on the Hot Rod Power Tour.  I was able to accompany my dad in the Pacer two years ago, but due to life changes, I missed it last year when he got incurably hooked on the tour.  This year though, I’m a little more planted and finally able to get the time off.

The best part about the tour is that it’s not just a week of a bunch of car shows, it’s about people that love their machines…fanatical if you will.  I’m going to be sure to have my laptop and camera in toe, so wherever my little MacBook can grab WiFi, I’ll update our twitter with happenings and every night I’ll post a Fanatics top ten to the site when I get back to rest at the hotel.  Not to mention, we’ll get some formal ¼ mile times out of the Pacer and depending on how she’s feeling after that, I might try for some autocross action.  It’s going to be a blast and I’m going to bring you all along for the ride.

Check back this Saturday as I set out on the 2009 Power Tour and watch our twitter for updates.

We all have stories.  Stories that you keep in your back pocket in case you find yourself at a party or social gathering where you need something a bit crazy to bust into the social stratosphere.  Dan has tons of stories, and it’s always fun to hear him bust one out every now and then (alright, it’s more often than that).  My stories tend to be a little more subdued and revolve around something with a motor.  Regardless, yesterday, Dan and I experienced a new story that spans both of our typical genres to add to our social arsenal and boy was it a dusey. Dan’s a better storyteller than I am, but he’s involved in his usual shenanigans so I’ll do what I can.

We’re in the works of planning a new video. As always, I’ll keep you in suspense about the details, but I can say it’s going to involve rally cars in their natural habitat. That being said, yesterday we decided to head out to the desert and scout some potential shooting locations.  Some 60 miles or so out of Irvine (Dan’s stomping ground) is a little town out east of the Inland Empire before Palm Springs called Beaumont.  According to Google Maps, It’s got some really gnarly off road stuff that seemed more than worth checking out.  So after a morning of Cars and Coffee, we jumped in Dan’s 2wd (key for later) ‘99 Toyota 4Runner and headed to the desert.

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A few weeks ago, I introduced MotorFanatics to my first project car in a post comparing it to a Porsche 928. At the time, I’m sure it elicited a mixed bag of emotions among you faithful fanatic readers: excitement, confusion, anger (though I hope not) but I hope you found it intriguing none the less. In the same post, I promised specs and pictures to come and well, I do live up to my word.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, my first project car was being discussed days after exiting the womb. My dad’s a car nut, and I had no choice in the matter. It’s always been a part of me, and unlike many men, I’m proud to say it’s an AMC Pacer. Of course, it didn’t start as that. I always envisioned a boss Mustang, rad Camaro or sick Challenger. However, the thing about me is that I don’t really go for convention (yea, that and those three cars cost more than triple what the Pacer did). Having gotten the idea from Wayne’s World and finding a V8 coupe just days after it was almost fate that brought us together.

Beginning with a full rotisserie resto, we stripped our ugly grey Pacer into all of its unique AMC parts. From the beginning, my dad and I were building a car that would be a safe reliable driver for a first timer. I rebuilt my first engine (304, later to be replaced with my second built engine, a 401), and learned the ins and outs of body work, paint, suspension, wiring, you name it. It was a valuable experience, and what you see in this post and the accompanying gallery is the result. This is a fanatic job through and through considering that 99% of the work on the car was performed by us or friends in or their garages. This isn’t a 1800 hotrod. No sir, a lot of home-built blood sweat and tears are manifested in one of the most unique hot rods on the road. Read the rest of this entry »