Quartermile:

Skip to the end and read about the Jason’s if you dont want to read the whole article because those guys are cool! But I’d read the whole thing if you have time (or at least look at the pictures cuz there’s lots of cool stuff on HRPT!)

This was my experience of the 2014 Hot Rod Power Tour.

This article covers the last 2 days, Thursday in Bettendorf, IA and Friday in Wisconsin Dells, WI.

It’s probably the greatest moving car show in the world.

It’s a week long.

You need to do it!

Below are the links to my first 2 articles about days 1-5 and an article on the cost, it’s worth it!

https://mywheellife.com/2014/06/15/8-my-wheel-life-hot-rod-power-tour-part-1/

https://mywheellife.com/2014/06/19/10-my-wheel-life-hot-rod-power-tour-part-2-of-3/

https://mywheellife.com/2014/06/17/9-what-does-hot-rod-power-tour-cost-answer-its-worth-it/



The Final Leg

The last two days of HRPT 2014 were probably the most fun for us. The big thing was our car was fixed! No more clunking or brake pads rubbing. That really makes for a much more relaxing drive when you aren’t thinking your car will shoot you off the side of a mountain.

We woke up Thursday June 12th in Crown Point, IN. The drive this day was to Bettendorf, IA. There was a lunch stop at Heidts at Lake Zurich, IL. http://www.heidts.com/

They design/manufacture suspension/chassis/brake parts for muscle and street cars. They gave a very interesting tour and had a free lunch for HPRT participants. They even pulled a few HPRT participants vehicles, who were having serious suspension issues, up on a lift and fixed ‘em up! Cool guys! Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures there but I did get one of this HUGE Dodge truck (I’m 6’1” for reference).



We continued on to Bettendorf. On the way in we parked a ways away and walked to the Isle Casino because we were told (via the HRPT facebook page) that the line was very long to get in. On that note it’s very useful to get info via the HRPT FB page during the tour! Per usual there were a ton of cool rides at the show. Here’s just a list of a few.

One of my favorite cars that I’d been seeing most of the week was an old (Plymouth I’m assuming) sedan done up like a Richard Petty race car. I was finally able to snap a few pictures of it.

Another interesting car I saw was this (2007 ish) Mustang done up in a Mad Max style. (There’s a new Mad Max Movie coming out) http://bangshift.com/general-news/first-official-pictures-new-mad-max-cars-unveiled-semi-truck-whole-benz-cab-yes-please/

Another car I had seen earlier in the week was this pink Mercury Capri Pro-Street style car. It has a very distinctive late 1980’s/early 1990’s Pro-street style, denoted especially by the roll cage, and tubs to fit the wide tires. A few other clues that this is the older Pro-street style are the body color grill and the early 90’s style graphic on the lower door. Overall a very cool car that has been featured in Hot Rod (and many other) magazines.

One unfortunate thing we saw was this 1969 Chevelle/Malibu that had the top part of his cowl hood come off! In true HRPT fashion though they were making the best of it. They had put a few zip ties on to hold it down and kept driving it! A Roadkill sticker tops it off nicely. Nice looking car! (Easiest way to tell a 1969 from a 1969 is a 1969 has a 1 piece door window while a 1968 has a vent window at the front of the door)



On our walk back to the car we stopped at a shop on the corner where some locals were encouraging burnouts. It was great! They even gave us a drink. We stayed about 15 minutes watching burnouts until the police put a stop to the fun. I was told this had been going on all day though.

This was at the corner station also.

My dad is a big fan of old Mack semi’s and has a few himself. I had to take a picture for him.

The final day (open to the public) was Friday 6-13-2014. We left Bettendorf, IA on our way to Wisconsin Dells, WI. We drove up 61 in Iowa passing through Maquoketa, Iowa. What a great little town! There was a man directing traffic (burnouts!) and a lot of locals watching from the sidewalk. There was even a gentleman from the town sitting in the back of an old pickup commenting (with speakers and a microphone!) on the cars coming by. This was one of the highlights of the trip! We stopped and watched for about 20 minutes, took a few pictures of awesome cars at the gas station, and then it was on our way.





We spotted another Richard Petty tribute car on the way.



Upon arrival to Wisconsin Dells we were aware of a long back up, it was a 2 hour sit in traffic (1-3 pm) for us to get from the highway to the show. Once through, it was worth it! I was told that the resort was told to expect a much lower number of cars than showed up, so I guess thanks to them for letting us park on their golf course! Hopefully we didn’t tear it up too much. The show was very cool again! One cool 4×4 I saw was this 1970’s Ford!



Another cool Ford was this cool GT40 (or replica?)

And there was this also Mad Max style Dodge charger. I especially liked the sickle mower guards in/under the grill for teeth (I grew up on a farm).



One of the coolest stories of Power Tour was the 2 Jason’s from Minnesota. They purchased this 1966 Ford pickup sight unseen from Craigslist, in Tennessee! They flew there, drove to Charlotte and Long Hauled it home! True Roadkill style. They did put new tires on the truck, and lots of duct tape to seal the windshield.

Jason (which one I’m not sure) told me that they had a few problems, a broken push rod, the fan ate the radiator because they were doing burnouts and probably broke a motor mount etc. They were considering selling it when they were done but the fanfare they got from everyone (including David Freiburger (David Freiburger is the editor-in-chief of Hot Rod magazine and Hot Rod Deluxe magazine and host of Roadkill. He’s the former editor of Car Craft, Rod & Custom, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, and Hot Rod Deluxe. Often seen and heard on Hot Rod TV. – Borrowed directly from his Facebook page) for those of you who don’t know who David Freiburger is, made them consider doing some upgrades and keeping the truck. We’ll see what they do next year!



Saturday was for Long Haulers only. We recieved our awesome tin signs showing we were Long Haulers. There was a group picture of all the HRPT Long Haulers, which we missed. Woops. We were able to get our picture in from of the Hot Rod motorhome thingy, so that was cool. That was the end of the HRPT 2014.

Next year HRPT SHOULD start in Wisconsin Dells. If you are anywhere near the start you should at least come for the first day. Do the long haul if you can! Hope you enjoyed reading about it. One thing I found interesting was the lack of general public knowledge of HRPT. Please share with your friends and help continue to make this one of the greatest car destinations ever!

Per usual please share with your friends, follow via email, like the FB page (to get daily links to cool stuff) like this

http://wildsau.ca/2014/06/car-stuff-man-cave/

or this

http://forums.evolutionm.net/loft-evom-car-talk-corner/423729-i-got-beat-geo-prizm-pics.html

Thanks for reading. Keep the rubber side down and please Visit us on Facebook.