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.