Hot Rod Power Tour 2024
- Thread starter J-c-c
- Start date
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When I went in 2005 there weren't many Mopars, and only one or two other 1970 Darts. A few e bodies and b bodies, but the majority of the cars were GM products, lots of Chevelles and Camaros.
what is a Caravelle? Can you post a picture?
Last time I went in 2019, there were a bunch of Mopars, several E and B bodies, quite a few darts, tons of late model challengers. Still out numbered by brand x but we always will be
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
I'm expecting that there will be a bunch of less than 10 year old Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers, and Chargers there that not many people really look at like many other events.
MoparMan71
A work in Progression
Dubbed "The Brown Car"
The last Chrysler Carlisle we commented that it looked like a new car Dodge Dealership.
RGAZ
Diehard
I am registered and I got hotel reservations all along the route. I'll be solo this year so I hope to meet some guys. Feel free to PM me so we can meet up.
I'll be driving my 73 Duster, hopefully will be painted by then and look better than above. LOL
RGAZ
I'll be driving my 73 Duster, hopefully will be painted by then and look better than above. LOL
RGAZ
We will be there in our 66 Sublime Dart these are our hotels
6/9 6/11
518 Corvette drive bowling green kentucky
6/11 6/12
1300 plaza suite drive Smyma TN.
6/12 6/13
311 E Gaulbert AVE. Louisville KY
6/13 6/14
122 Arrowhead blvd Hebron ohio
6/14 6/15
8229 E us hwy 36 Avon ind.
6/15 6/16
2820 Merchants mile columbus ind.
If anyone wants to get together...
6/9 6/11
518 Corvette drive bowling green kentucky
6/11 6/12
1300 plaza suite drive Smyma TN.
6/12 6/13
311 E Gaulbert AVE. Louisville KY
6/13 6/14
122 Arrowhead blvd Hebron ohio
6/14 6/15
8229 E us hwy 36 Avon ind.
6/15 6/16
2820 Merchants mile columbus ind.
If anyone wants to get together...
RGAZ
Diehard
Official Tour Route released. They kept day one very short which is nice.
Sorry for the image files, but I could not get the PDF to directly import. Probably user error. LOL
RGAZ
Sorry for the image files, but I could not get the PDF to directly import. Probably user error. LOL
RGAZ
DionR
Well-Known Member
Makes me miss my Diplomat ex-patrol car. Very cool!
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DionR
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, those cars make really good cruisers. And it is much easier to buy a newer car that is also faster than most old cars and drive it than to try and modernized the old one. And if you want to keep the old one stock, it makes the newer cars even more enticing.
Not saying it is right, or that I would do that, but it's hard to argue with AC, OD, CC, quiet interiors, comfortable seats, 400+ HP and 25+ mph.
Your car is there, and I bet most of the old cars on the tour will also be modernized at least to a degree. I wonder how many you will see that are not modernized, and of those, how many will make the Long Haul.
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
I wish everything wasn't about what was "easier". The whole point of this was to tour modified classic cars even from day 1. The reality is very few people ever look at the new cars, even though there's nothing really wrong with most of them I never bought one because I didn't want to be one of those people bringing one to any event or be bothered by the splitter guard crowd. I just have a normie car for my DD activites. I think part of the fun is the challenge. So what if most of the cars might get 11 mpg hwy...
Really the only thing for me is having A/C because the heat is just not something I do that great with certain summer days.
Need some more Vice Grip Garage or Junkyard Digs types that will just run whatever the entire time as long as it makes it.
Since this will be my first time going we'll see.
DionR
Well-Known Member
No argument.
I had a '15 Challenger R/T and loved it, drove it all the time and took it on a couple of road trips even. But I would never think to take it to a show, for sure. Even if I had done the 14.5" cop brakes, 6.4 cam/intake/headers and added other features. I like to look at the new cars, but I feel weird taking one to a show.
But I don't own a Challenger anymore, and I have a '73 that will get a 5.7/T56 combo instead. The current idea is that it won't go to shows either, I will keep the LA/Magnum hybrid I have in '74 and take that to shows. But time will tell.
I understand that, but even more I want AC so my wife can go with me and not melt. She doesn't take to the summer heat well and it would be hard on her to tag along. Even worse to road trip something in the summer.
I understand what you are saying, but sometimes it is like saying you survived an avalanche. Sure, it is cool to claim that, but I guarantee that most people that are dug out of one and survived wouldn't say it was fun nor want to do it on purpose. Certainly there are some crazies, but it's not like in 1984 when the norm was no AC and 3 speeds.
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
Having seen the route of the actual tour this year, its maybe 35% on the freeway. I'm driving 560 miles on Sunday to get to my folks house in the Nashville Metro (3 nights there and 3 on the road), but as you mention, it doesn't matter for me, I can pretty easily cruise at 80 and 2200 rpm so it's no issue. I think people who are patient could do it pretty easily w/o overdrive. Some people wouldn't mind being inside of a car where its 100 for days, not really for me but its possible.
I have been working on a lot of detail items for the car, butyl taped the holes shut in the firewall, rebuilt the windshield washer system, worked on a fuel economy tune, probably going to implement fuel table switching this weekend. Haven't decided if I'm going to buy a helmet to Autocross or not.
Anyone who's going, I did put the Duster 340 stickers on the car. Got you a nice picture of the flaws on the car too
I have been working on a lot of detail items for the car, butyl taped the holes shut in the firewall, rebuilt the windshield washer system, worked on a fuel economy tune, probably going to implement fuel table switching this weekend. Haven't decided if I'm going to buy a helmet to Autocross or not.
Anyone who's going, I did put the Duster 340 stickers on the car. Got you a nice picture of the flaws on the car too
DionR
Well-Known Member
Having seen the route of the actual tour this year, its maybe 35% on the freeway. I'm driving 560 miles on Sunday to get to my folks house in the Nashville Metro (3 nights there and 3 on the road), but as you mention, it doesn't matter for me, I can pretty easily cruise at 80 and 2200 rpm so it's no issue. I think people who are patient could do it pretty easily w/o overdrive. Some people wouldn't mind being inside of a car where its 100 for days, not really for me but its possible.
I have been working on a lot of detail items for the car, butyl taped the holes shut in the firewall, rebuilt the windshield washer system, worked on a fuel economy tune, probably going to implement fuel table switching this weekend. Haven't decided if I'm going to buy a helmet to Autocross or not.
Anyone who's going, I did put the Duster 340 stickers on the car. Got you a nice picture of the flaws on the car too
View attachment 1716253201View attachment 1716253202
Just so you know, your car is one of the benchmark cars for me. One to attain to. Very cool build all the way around.
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
Thanks! It's easier to build one like mine now than ever. I had to do a bunch of stuff a harder way. Now they sell EFI gas tanks vs my Aeromotive Phantom, easier to use Holley ECUs that are reasonable vs megasquirt, brake kits, steering boxes, wheels, closer "kits" for T56, I have a lot of info about the T56/EFI/A/C installs.
Amen to that. I remember removing A/C from a 71 340 4 speed Demon because I was 17.
50 years later the first thing I look for in a muscle car is A/C.Really any car or truck.
The one thing that I would like to have had in my 70 Dart when I went on the tour in 2005 was a/c. Having cloth seats definitely helped, plus the wing windows and vents. My buddy and his wife were in his 66 GTO with black vinyl seats, black roof, and a 421 big block under the hood. So not fun in the heat and humidity of the south.Amen to that. I remember removing A/C from a 71 340 4 speed Demon because I was 17.
50 years later the first thing I look for in a muscle car is A/C.Really any car or truck.
DionR
Well-Known Member
To be fair, there is broad range of skill levels and as hot rodding has advanced into the electronic age there are some that aren't comfortable or just plain don't want to move forward. It has gotten easier with some of the self tuning options available now, but before that people were stuck with systems that might have sucked either because of lack of skill or attention to detail during the install or issues with tuning.
Then there is the guy that doesn't want to hack up his floor pans to install an OD trans. And he hates wheels bigger than 15" and doesn't want to wear out his BFG's because they are stupid expensive. And no way will he clutter up his engine bay with an AC compressor.
That same guy will then buy a late model muscle car because it is comfortable and fun to drive and then have no problem taking it on Power Tour. It's a slippery slope.
And while it certainly has gotten easier, I'm not sure it is cheaper than just buying a late model car. Once you factor in the amount of labor to modernize an old car, it gets even more tempting to just buy something.
As an example, I have $12.4K in parts for my G3/T56 swap. This includes the purchase price of a '73 Duster to do the swap into, and a T56 Magnum kit. And that is with a really cheap 5.7 and most of the parts to swap it in. A rough guess puts me at $14,200 to build a G3/T56 car, and that is still without AC and doesn't include the work I need to do to bolt it all together. And no paint/body work and still a worn out interior.
Contrast that with the 2010 Challenger SRT8 6M for $20K that was a couple of hours away from me a month ago.
Now factor in an upgraded suspension, bigger front brakes and rear disks and new 17" or 18" wheels and tires. Pretty quickly, the above SRT8 is starting to look much cheaper, even if you ignore the labor to bolt the '73 together.
Shoot, I forgot about the rear axle with 3.55 or 3.73 gears.
Note that I don't own the SRT8 I saw, and I still have the '73 and am actively working towards the swap.
I'm not saying this is the cheapest way to do this, nor the smartest. Just where I decided to go and one example of how easy it might be to end up in the sea of late model cars on Power Tour.
That's Me !! Tuning your car with a computer, I guess is the thing to do for the last 15 or so years.I'm sure even longer.
That's ok for those that want to.I still like carbs and even points. It's not for everybody.
I'm old school and tune with the seat of my pants. I enjoy watching the South East Gassers with stickshift cars and nothing newer than 1967. Again that's just me. My days now are just watching the others do their thing while I drive my old beater around town.
Well I was gonna take the w200, all 4 mpg of it on the tour but unfortunately, supply chain issues and backlogs slowed that progress to a crawl. So now, it’s the 15 mpg Jeep gonna attempt the trek
goldduster318
Overzealous Car Modifier
If a 15" BFG is too much money to drive 1500 miles the car never gets driven at all...like most of them including my neighbor that has 2 GTOs. These are like the "go get ice cream" cars.
The Challenger, especially the older ones are basically full size luxury cars with V8s anyway which somehow are incredibly small inside. I wouldn't want to own any LX car made before 2015 at this point anyway, the ones after that are much better so I'm suprised its $20k for a 2010 SRT-8 to begin with. Its kind of like the C5 Corvette of Modern Mopars, I didn't think it was too wanted anymore. I don't get the allure of them outside of anything 392/Hellcat/Demon honestly. The Mustang and Camaro are much better performing all around cars if you're going to have something everyone else has anyway.
I own this, if my car broke at the last second this would be on Power Tour, but this is way more rare to see than a Camaro/Challenger/Mustang from the last 15 years...
You put suspension on the Duster and it handles better than those. If it hooks it would be signifigantly faster with the same engine. And you can be proud of it because its built differently than everyone else's and you weren't just writing checks.
I still have a 1965 unrebuilt 3.23 sure-grip 742 center section. 2.97:1 1st gear transmission so its like having a 3.6:1 axle with an A-833. Totally fine.
I started working on this car when I was 14, I think a lot of the talent thing is actually people being afraid of pushing themselves. Wiring isn't that hard and most of the rest is something others help with on forums, you can learn on Youtube, etc.
I don't have a total but I probably have 30k in the car. I'm sure I spent thousands more on tools and whatnot. The thing is the total could be a lot less because I sold a lot of the mid-level parts I had for an alright return. Still not that expensive in todays world. I like the imperfection of the car.
For everyone staying in a hotel for this its likely $900 for hotels, $150 for food, $350 for gas, and $200 for registration to do the long haul at minimum. Gotta pay to play.
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