Mopar Nationals pics

[Lucky]

WARNING: SEVERE V8 CONTENT!

This is my report from the Mopar Nationals drag show at the Pod in the summer. There's nothin here but massive agricultural pushrod V8s, so if the utter lack of anything even slightly rotary is going to upset you, please carry on browsing lol. But for me they're undeniably awesomes so anyone who loves cars ought to be able to find something to love in here?
Right then. In no particular order of funkiness...


Let's start with something slightly out of left field shall we? (simply cos it's at the top of the first page I opened on the Photobucket album lol)


'66 (think) Plymouth Barracuda


There are hints of the muscle car it would eventually evolve into but it's a totally different animal (or fish) in many ways


That massive rear screen you may have seen cause such grief on that Desert Car Kings programme...


and of course, like all good American cars, it had to have it's immediately recognisable brand identity and logos


Here's something else a bit radical. Not often you see a Bel Air....


...that needs a parachute!


Lower than a snake's codpiece as well


Funky clock conversions, must be easy to read in a hurry (errrrm, not) and I love the cage work and the chevy-logo box holding the steering column


Proper drag car; purposeful, modified, yet still lovely


At the opposite end of the spectrum, the distressed look...


We went past this Coronet on the M1 and it sounded immense burbling away, plus looked tuff as. Just the right amount of rat attitude to give it proper presence


...and the obligatory Mopar logos set the rust off nicely


Being an American car show, this sort of thing is sadly inevitable...


...I haven't quite made up my mind if it's kitsch, naff or awesome. At least I only saw one General Lee Charger, but I refuse point-blank to take photos of such a thing lol


Speaking of kitsch, naff, etc, here's Ada trying to work out whether it's OK to like the ultimate chest-wig chariot, the Corvette


Of course it is, how can you not love something so completely over-the top?


Whether you love it or loathe it, I think it's safe to say no-one will ever be able to sculpt curves like that again. Elf and Safety wouldn't allow it because it's not a nice place for idiot pedestrians to be run over, and there's nowhere to put the side impact beams and airbags.

[Lucky]

Some modern classics-in-waiting were there as well, like this Shelby Mustang GT500 in the show and shine


Nice how they've carried forward the badging and brand identity of the originals


And even Rods seem welcome, like this nice clean Ford


I suppose "Mopar Nats" has more of a ring than "Anything American You Damn Well Please Show"


Oh, and of course there's plenty of this;




Here... have a couple of Chargers

[Lucky]

In fact it's fair to say there were a lot of Chargers about!


From mild to wild (if there's such a thing as a mild Charger)




Here's one obligingly providing a comparison with its sister Coronet


I always bang on about it... but it really is all in the details


Now this is a rare Charger, the Dodge Daytona. This one is alleged to be genuine, one of only two I believe in the UK. May have been misinformed on that particular stat, but there certainly ain't many of them lol


Not to be confused with the totally unlike and dissimilar Plymouth Superbird (more on that later)


Positively flocks of black Chargers, the place was infested with 'em


This one flicked my switch, period subtle "aero" mods


Modern wheels that aren't too stupid and huge


but combined with the near-perfect clean lines of the '68 body style




Enough with the Chargers? OK, just one more then...

[Lucky]

So, as I was saying... details, details...




The incomparable Taz Racing's Corvette has ghost flames in midnight purple in the black paint. I've tried every year to photograph them, and never get it right!


Drag racing tickets from way back when make a lovely touch along this dude's windscreen. Sorry, windshield


Think my car's too subtle and understated...hmmm, what to do? I know...flames! And skulls! Yeah, flames and skulls, people will notice it then! What? the blower? I hadn't noticed...


Errr, not sure what this horrid vulgar mock-Georgian thing was doing there


Even the autojumble stalls are a work of art. Lovely patination and irreplaceable spares that will still work and fit better than pattern stuff, even in this state.


In the late 60's America were using probably the best quality steel the world's ever seen in car manufacture, which has a lot to do with why these cars last so long. Considering they were never built to be classics, they were built to be cheap speed for blue-collar workers and hence corners were cut all over... such as no paint on the firewalls!


Every car different, and every model year different makes for an anorak's dream spotting just the right bit in amongst all this


This is art, I tell thee


Reckon this fella likes the Gumball? Or maybe he prints stickers for a living...


Excellent bit of artistry, and a far better promo tool than some skanky old tango-tanned gurlie...


...of which there were a few. If the contents of Playboy had really looked like this I'm not sure they'd have become a global brand tbh. Beer goggles required!

[Lucky]

Another iteration of 'Vette. After all, it's had like a 70 year life or something, plenty of styles to choose from. Quite like the guy's sense of humour on the stickers


Some drag racing... mad Nova (no, not the Vauxhall sort)


Versus mad(der) pickup


We all like a nice smoky burnout, don't we


And speaking of drag racing... there were a few proper tools around. Couple of funny cars and one or two of these;


Unfortunately we had to leave early for another engagement lol, so missed the Top Fueller setting a 4.4sec pass


Here's the pit crew tuning up one of the funny cars prior to it running. Hillarious. Any car you have to wear a gasmask to work on has to be proper!


Funniest bit was the guy just out of shot wearing his gasmask dutifully...while holding a lit fag


Got a vid to upload of that Funny Car doing a test launch. Loud! Meanwhile, here's some of the anatomy of a proper dragster


Lovely sculpture in carbon fibre, I could happily have it on my mantleshelf and forget that it's supposed to be a blower hood
#

Some heavy engineering going on in here. Pipes are as loud as they look


Rockers that are a rhapsody in billet and coils that could set fire to a bucket of piss


Hmmm, need to calm down after that. How about a nice Torino in claming yellow? Hahaha, any other sort of car this colour would look awful, but somehow giant muscle cars just get away with it


Couple of Roadrunners. Meep meep. Tough in matt


Probably get this the wrong way round, but; when this is a Plymouth colour it's Sub-lime. When it's a Dodge one it's Lime-Light. Can you see what they done there? Arf! (or the other way round, of course)

[Lucky]

Speaking of Roadrunners, the long-awaited Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird;


Unfortunately one of the heads was weeping oil so it was barred fromt he track when I was there


This was as far as it got


Patrons of classic and awesome cinema will of course recgonise this as Mr The King from the original Cars movie. It's a replica built by a local fella with lots of money and plenty of taste, based minutely on Richard Petty's winningest Nascar 'Bird


In fact, Plymouth pretty much built the Superbirds specifically to lure Petty back


This is a genuine Hemi crate motor Don imported specifically for this build. Not the sort of thing you want leaking oil, even though it gives us a chance to see how gorgeously engineered it is


There was another Superbird there, too, resplendant in white. Also a replica (originals are ridiculously rare and expensive now) as identified by my extremely knowledgeable mate Rich/Phil by deciphering the VIN number (!)


This one's great because it has the wonderful factory decals on it still


See? Nothing whasoever like the Dodge Daytona hahaha

[Lucky]

How about a nice 'Stang? We've had the modern GT500 so here's a proper GT350


Nice colour too.


The "right" wheels, the right badging, just right




Errrm. Some of the cars were more Mopar than others, as noted a few Fords and that snuck in. Some weren't even very American Fords. Shush, Penfold. I think we've got away with it...


Nice to see a few old Consuls surviving too, though pretty far from factory spec


Old skool cartoons FTW


The world's coolest ever pit bike


Another random Ford. Might well be the only one left that hasn't burst into flames spontaneously lol


Always look like a Marina fastback on steroids to me


..and since we're chatting about random old Fords, here's a Pop surprising a supercharged el Camino off the line. Bear in mind that's an eleven second pickup it's up against!


As I said earlier, there's a smattering of Rods throughout the pits. Although they're not exactly my thing I love the look and the engineering achievement, if not the utter impracticality


Pretty much in love with the colour on this one, too

[Lucky]

Oldskool mid-engined dragster. Lots of fun trying to peer round that gurt big lump and see where you're going


Bit of last-minute valve clearance fettling going on


Carbon fibre meets pram wheels


More details... Mopar logos everywhere you look


And every car has it's livery, numbers and letters that add up to kudos in the traffic light GP. Such as on this Chevy Laguna...


...with its wonderful "opera window" rear glass...


...and that in a nutshell is what I love about muscle cars. This '75 S3 was a race car, a Laguna won the first two Winston Cup championships in Nascar, yet they still did something as bonkers as put opera window louvres on it. Just because they could. And there's nowhere near enough of that lunacy left in car design...


...OK, maybe it's not a race car as we'd undestand it today, but y'know wha' mean


This, however, is most definitely a race car;


LSx-engined splitscreen Moggy Minor must scare the hell out of a few people when the bonnet's on!


Certain bloodlines still exist to this day of course. Some have continued without hiatus like the Camaro (despite some years in the wilderness and some truly hideous cars that kinda desecrate the name). Some vanished and come back renewed, like the Challenger


...which despite a rather questionable hue, at least looks like a Challenger


Stumbled across this thing in the show and shine and couldn't help but wonder what a Jag saloon is doing at the Mopar show.


...but one look under the bonnet at the manic twin-supercharged big block v8 answers that one


Rich from RS Autos had his evil black Nova back together after it dropped a conrod bolt in a rather ugly and terminal way at the Street Nationals. All that work building up a new motor, only for the gearbox to eat itself. That's progress in drag racing


Forced induction, barn-door engineering style. Blower hood with induction flap and sealed filter leading to a six-barrel carb setup. If it works, it works. Of course, the 440 cu i big block underneath helps


Of course, there are less subtle methods. Massive supercharger, twin Holleys, job done

[Lucky]

This 1959 Chevy el Camino is a delightfully insane thing


Basically an Imapla (like Ramone from Cars) with the bootlid and rear bench cut off


This one seems to have a modern GTO Lsx engine in it, so probably goes at an alarming pace for something that takes a week to walk around!


Slammed too. Righteous!


Speaking of Goats, how about a nice '66 (ish)?


Although one of my favourite cars of the day has to be this second-gen '68 (ish)




Looked much more betterer once they'd laid the stacked headlights down horizontally


Here's something a bit different. There were a few bikes there, but my fave by a mile is this old-skool style hardtail with a modern twist


Yep, that's a proper hairy-chested oil-boiling GSXR lump in there. Must be hilarious trying to manhandle that thing on a hardtail frame with just that skinny rear to put the power down!


Nice to see metalflake and spray-through lacework hasn't died out, too


likewise this spectraflare decal. Yeah, it's on a Nova, see? See what they did there?


May only be vinyl but it's spangly and sparkly and trippy and it makes me feel happy


Dunno what this is. It's a bit outside my time period comfort zone and it's all primer with no badging so offers gratefully recieved lol.


Looks excellent in contrast to the backdrop though, I feel. Whatever it is


I like the way the interior was untouched and reeked of patina-ed charm


in much the same way this rat Chrysler did. Last owned by Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs (this isn't true, btw)


Antique dash meets modern satnav oddness

[Lucky]

A few Firebirds around, including decalled-up 70s Smokey and the Bandit type silliness


Beware the flaming chicken!


I much prefer the earlier models myself. This yellow beastie was...


...well, it was a beast, to be fair!


Think you got poke? You ain't got nuthin!


Who mentioned fire?


Annoyingly, the Elf and Safety nazism that profanes this country seems to sadly be permeating even the last bastion of hillbilly laisser-faire that is Santa Pod. You now have to sit in the grandstand (allegedly so people behind can see. Errrr... why hasn't this been a problem in the last umpteen years then?). I've even heard tell the noise restriction Nazis are trying to muzzle the Pod as well as all the normal racetracks. Pretty soon they'll drag us all down into the mire of grey, featurless mediocrity and conformity that stifles the entire rest of "Great" Britain [/Rant].

Anyway, this is what you have to put up with when FireForce launches and you haven't had time to finish your ice cream! Enjoy the extreme noise terror while you can. Before they ban it


Random alarming pickup shot


Oooh, found one of a proper Challenger, too. Where's that pic of the 40th anniversary one gone? See? Bloodline kept intact, I thangkyoup


More fettling between runs...


Like the idea of lightweight race bodywork on a two-ton car. Appeals to my sense of the absurd


This top fuel bike did what was presumably a test run, since it seemed to be the only one there. As you can see, he didn't find much in the way of traction off the line!


Another El Camino, lovely. Beautiful colour, immaculate.