2007 Hot Rod Power Tour Coverage - Day 1 Cleveland

The 2007 HOT ROD Power Tour (tm) presented by GM Performance Division fired to life today at the massive IX Center in Cleveland, OH. This marks the 13th edition of the Power Tour and it's almost hard to believe how huge it's gotten. Despite its size, however, one thing remains just as true today as it was back in 1995 when we ran that first route from Los Angeles to Norwalk, OH; this has got to be the coolest road trip in country - hands down.

The 2007 HOT ROD Power Tour kicked off at the IX Center in Cleveland, OH.

Parked in front of the GM Performance Division tent are cars you gotta see in person including Jay Leno's EcoJet and the new Camaro Convertible in Hugger Orange.

Four guy's view of what the Power Tour is all about.

Why? Sure it's because of the cars, the vendors, and the people but it's also because there isn't a right or wrong way to do the Power Tour. You can join the Long Haulers and run the whole thing from start to finish, jump in mid-week and run with us for few days, or just stop by when we're close to your hometown and stroll the seemingly endless aisles of muscle cars and vendors.

Case in point are the guys (upper right picture) we saw laid back in folding chairs just relaxin' and taking in the sights. That's (l-r) Eric Staley, Grand Blanc, MI (he owns the silver '06 Cobalt in the background); Les Track, Novi, MI; Matt Gabrielli of Livonia, MI (the blue '05 Mustang GT is his) and Aaron Marx also of Livonia, MI. They're doing Cleveland and Kalamazoo for the weekend then heading home.

Cherry Bomb brought this hip '65 Caddy built by Brian Klock. The original car was teal green inside and out.

The '65 has it's original 362 motor, Air Ride suspension and the side pipes are Cherry Bomb's custom six-foot Glasspacks.

The Caddy was put together in about three weeks.

True, there's a ton to see but there's also a lot to do on the Power Tour. Dynomax is running their Dynomax Power to the Wheels Dyno Tour 2007 during the entire week. Basically the Dyno Tour works like this: entrants sign up each day and their cars do two pulls on the dyno (it's free to those with Dynomax products installed). The car with the most horsepower at the end of the day wins. Scott Stutter, Dynomax National Sales Manager, explained there is also much more at stake.

Andy Wicks owner of Dyno Tune sets up a Camaro convertible for a pull in DynoMax's Power to the Wheels Dyno Tour 2007.

A 2006 GTO owned by Richard Crietz of Lafayette, IN makes a run.

Richard Creitz talks to Andy after the run. The GTO pulled 366hp.

"This is a national competition," Scott said, "for rear wheel horsepower. The rules are very similar to HOT ROD's Pump Gas Drags. We're putting on ten events throughout the country and the top ten cars [with Dynomax products installed] will get to go to Las Vegas for the 2007 SEMA show for the finals."

Pretty cool, eh? Stop by the Power Tour, do a pull or two and you could be on your way to Vegas!

Another very cool part of Power Tour is there are participants and vendors who are always available to lend a hand or give performance advice. While walking the lot today we spied Steve Billing of Whitmore Lake, MI backing his '70 Nova onto a lift in front of the Keisler Engineering tent. We were wondering what was up - so we asked.Grant Rimback with Keisler R&D; explained Steve was suffering from a small speedometer leak.

Steve Billing's '70 Nova SS on the Keisler lift.

Grant Rimback with Keisler quickly fixes the Nova's leaking speedo cable.

Think the vendors aren't car guys? Brett Voelkel's (owner of Air Ride Technologies) '70 Buick GSX should disprove that!

"Steve has a Keisler TKO 5-speed," Grant said, "and we encourage anyone with our products to stop by and talk with us. He mentioned he had a small leak so I told him we could fix it. We bring a lot of extra parts like shifters, clutches, just about anything from rearend to the back of the engine block with us."

It maybe took Grant ten minutes to fix the leak - maybe - and Steve was back rolling.

Air Ride Technologies brought this '71 Camaro that Air Ride's Brad Coomer said, "we're gonna beat driving the whole (Power Tour) and beat on it at the autocross in Evansville."

The '71 has a 383 with an electronic tap shifter. Don't miss it on the autocross in Evansville!

A.C. and Cindy Ward were awarded Painless Performance's LS Camino at the Kickoff Cruise Night Party hosted by Painless. The 3-time tour-of-duty Iraq veteran's moving essay was one of 2,200 submitted. The moving tribute is going to a man who not only has made the sacrifice for all of us to participate on Power Tour, but shows so much thankfulness for those who have served and paid the ultimate price. Thank our armed service personnel for their sacrifice and tell them you care.

So, the 2007 HOT ROD Power Tour has begun. Tomorrow we head for Kalamazoo, MI (click the highlighted links for Driving Directions or Schedule of Events) for the first leg of the cruise and as today came to a close we are reminded that no two people are gonna have the exactly the same Power Tour experience - so what was yours?You can talk about it on the HOT ROD Power Tour forums by clicking here!.