| September
2003: Been doin' a lot of cruisin' this month. I made it to the
last few Friday night cruises in North St. Paul. On the final
night the place was totally packed. On Saturday nights we made a
few trips to Anoka and hit Porky's once or twice.
On Saturday Sept. 20th, the
"Mermaid Supper Club" Hosted a first time show
with help from the "Good Old Boys Car Club". It was a
perfect day for a show and 300 cars showed up.
Here's a shot my friend Tim
took down the side of the GTX. Good thing I polished the
car before heading out for the show...
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| Before
too long it will be time to put my car away for the winter. I
sure hope the Winter passes as quickly as the Summer did. Since
getting the GTX back on the road 2 years ago it's logged over
4000 trouble free miles. There's still a few things that need to
be done but I'm having way too much fun driving it....
On Friday August
2003: On August 1st I went to the Metro Mopars / White
Bear Dodge annual evening car show. It was open to all makes
of classic cars and turnout as always was very good. About 160
cars of all types were in attendance. Somehow I managed to win a
plaque for "Participant's choice Top 25"
We like to stay
and watch people leave because it's tradition to do a burnout on
Highway 61 on the way out. It's always fun to watch old
Musclecars "light 'em up"! It was all fun and games
until a gorgeous '70 442 W-30 lost it and made a detour through
the grassy median. Luckily nobody was hurt but I heard
later that there was some damage to the car.
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Another fun event was the Minnesota
Street Machine Association "Back to the Sixties"
show. I've been to it as a spectator a few times when they had
it at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood, Minnesota. The
show was held at the Treasure Island Casino just south of
Hastings, Minnesota.
It was fun to see some old
friends and meet a few new ones. We spent the day checking out
some fine looking cars and developing a nice case of sunburn.
=0)
That's about it for car shows
this summer.
The remainder of the summer will be spent cruising North St.
Paul, Anoka and Porky's just for fun.
Maybe we'll see you there...
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July 2003:The Car Craft Magazine
Summer Nationals was held on July 18th to the 20th. Rumor has it
that over 4000 cars were entered. The weather was perfect and
the fairgrounds were packed. Over the weekend I got to meet a
few Moparts.com and ScatPack.com board members.
While at the show,
I stopped and chatted with investors who hope to build a new
dragstrip in the Twin Cities metro area. If everything goes as
planned, it will be a first class facility. For more
information, their website is MinnesotaDragways.com.
.
|
 June
2003: The annual "Mopars in the Park" car show was
held on May 31st and June 1st at Raceway Park in Shakopee,
Minnesota. My goal last year was to have my GTX ready for the
show but delays made it impossible. This year I was ready! The
weather was perfect on both days and over 500 Mopars
participated in the show. I had a great time and got to meet a
handful of fellow ScatPack.com
and Moparts.com
board members. We hung out during the show and hit the Saturday
Night Cruise in Anoka, MN. A few of us stayed to watch the
awards presentation on Sunday afternoon. (winners were
determined by participant voting) I wasn't expecting to win
anything because the 68-69 Plymouth B-Body class had 30+ cars in
it, most of them were very nice. Much to my surprise, when they
announced the winners of my class the GTX got 2nd Place. I was
so shocked that I don't even remember making my way down the
grandstand stairs to accept the plaque. Even if I hadn't won
anything I would've considered it to be a fantastic weekend.
Getting "Outstanding in Class" was just icing on the
cake... |
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| April
& May 2003:The snow's finally gone and the weather has been
warming up. It was great to finally get my GTX out of storage
and start driving it again. For some reason I always end up at
Porky's Drive In on Saturday nights. On the afternoon of May
17th, Porky's held their 50th Anniversary celebration.
Naturally, cars were a major part of the program. Here's my GTX
parked among AMX's, Goats, Chevelles, Street Rods and Customs.
There was a nice variety of cars in attendance.
A small sample of the Mopars that
showed
up in Anoka for the Saturday Night Cruise
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| Late
in the afternoon a half dozen of us decided to cruise North to
Anoka, Minnesota for their inaugural Saturday evening cruise.
Judging from the waves and "thumbs up" we got on the
way, other motorists enjoyed seeing classic iron rolling down
the highway. We got there an hour before the official start time
but Main Street was already packed with cars. I don't think the
organizers expected such a huge turnout. The Anoka cruise will
be every Saturday starting at 5pm, running through the Summer. |
March,
2003: My GTX has been hibernating in the garage all Winter but
Spring is just around the corner. I've been planning some
upgrades to improve performance and to make cruising more
enjoyable. All I need is a couple days of warmer weather so I
can install the parts I've accumulated over the winter.
Stop
and go traffic and 90° + temperatures made the water temp gauge
climb. Here's a Milodon high volume waterpump, thermostat and
repro fanshroud from Year One that's going on the GTX. They
should help keep the coolant temps in a more comfortable range.
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|
 I
haven't been too impressed by the shift improver kit installed
in my trans so I thought I'd try one of Turbo Action's new
"Pro Street" manual / automatic valve bodies. It
retains the stock shift pattern, and unlike many manual
valvebodies, it features "low gear anytime".
|
 Even
when "power braking" it's no problem lighting up the
massive M/T tires. Adding a Hurst "Roll Control" line
lock will make burnouts a little easier on the u-joints |
