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Steve & I went today, it was truly incredible to see all the cars from several states, Canada & New Zealand, we probably missed a few. We walked for hours, have quite the sunburns to show for it but had a great time. I’m hoping Madison is being kind to our guests, I know the Alliant Center seemed to have dropped the ball on a couple items – spectator parking was in the dog park off Olin Avenue and the grass was 3-4′ high in some spots, not ideal parking conditions. The food lines were horrendous, we decided we weren’t that hungry and never ate anything – $3.75 for a 20 oz bottle of soda seemed a bit high, but I was thirsty. Again, so many different cars – Madison is lucky to have an event like this. Safe travels to everyone!
I was leaving Madison yesterday, driving towards Milwaukee for the Nite Owl Drive-In Car show, about 11:30 on the Beltline, driving Eastbound, and I noticed that the John Nolan exit for Westbound traffic for the Alliant Energy Center was backed up well past the Stoughton Road exit! I am estimating there were several hundred hot rods, street rods, and spectators trying to get into the Hot Rod Power Tour show. Lots and lots of newer Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers and Chargers.
Drove along with the tour from Janesville to Lake Geneva. Lots if fun with all the people sitting along the route to see the cars pass by.
Day 2 … Spent about 125 miles of 200 in the rain, with times it was so heavy I was thinking of pulling over.
There was no rain in Champaign for the show … not as many cars as there were in madison …
I have not tried to clean my car since Friday, and I probably won’t touch it til I get home…
My group rolled out at 9AM from Springfield, IL and we met up with the route for about 35 miles and then the route went on new route 66 and we went on old 66 … We rolled into the venue at 12:20 and we crawled to our spot for about 25 minutes (parked in pit row)… We spoke to some other folks that got in at 2:00 and the gridlock started 9 miles out from the venue …
After we parked we found a great place in the shade a large canopy to set our chairs under.
The track also had a drag strip and their were plenty of folks beating the hell out of their cars.
Total miles so far ~700 … MPG 19.5 …
Lessons learned …
I traveled with a couple of veteran power tour couples including one, that this was their 10th tour … They knew the back roads like the back of their hand and they made it super stress free to just follow them.
We probably only drove on about 40 miles of the actual route, so we didn’t have to crawl the route (the 40 miles we did do it was fun to see the folks in the small towns with signs and waving at us).
Each evening we would leave the venue and drive to our hotel 60-90 miles ahead of the route and made sure we would pull in by 1PM into the venue so we didn’t have to wait inline for an hour …Horribly long food lines, we we ate a big breakfast and had snacks in our chairs and then had a big dinner.
So would I do it again? Yes … but I would probably wimp out and want to drive a newer muscle car ….
The Dirty Bird:
Thanks for the live-streaming updates, Ryan!
Also note that I posted a Rate The Show for anyone who has attended:
http://www.wiscollectorcar.com/component/content/article/88888962-rate-the-show/car-shows-2015/2017-hot-rod-power-tourHigh points:
Hanging out with my dad for a few days.
3 Days of car shows and thousands of cars I have never seen before.
Interesting small towns to roll on through.
Seeing some of the cars you saw at the show, tearing it up on the track.Low points:
It was hot each day, so you needed to find shade to sit in, and you weren’t by your car
There was real no way to see all the cars; you could, but you would have to walk like 5 miles to do it (in the heat).
You would spend 3-4 hours at the show and then it was on the road to your hotel, so you didn’t have much time to do much site seeing.
If you don’t time it right, you could be sitting for a long time trying to get into a venue.Hot Rod Power Tour by air:
Thanks for sharing Ryan, I’ve been following on Facebook and it looks like a blast. One common theme seems to be mechanical breakdowns of some sort, no matter the make, model or year of the car. I’m also seeing lots of new cars, which some think is wrong, but if its all you have, I don’t have a problem with it. I did notice one guy yesterday that had a Nova that broke down, he went and bought a new truck and hauled the car around with a U-haul trailer – wow…
Last Saturday night was absolutely awesome, and reminded me of my high school and college days cruising East Wash. I finally got to Madison about 8pm, and cruised a lot of the motels and the Isthmus checking out all the cool cars and trucks. EW was pretty hopping too, I saw a lot of cars out that I hadn’t seen in years.
After following Ryan’s escapades on Facebook, I really wish I would’ve done the tour, or at least part of it.
I agree, its nice to see and drive these muscle cars, but I definetly wouldn’t go without a tool kit, a few spare common parts, and a cellphone. With the heat, cars with AC were well appreciated. Comfort may get sacrificed, and a newer vehicle may be more cozy for the trip. I would love to do it in my Buick, but having a vehicle that can only run on 93 octane minimum makes for a real PITA on a long haul. Maybe I’ll have to get a 91 chip and add methanol injection, then I can buy premium fuel anywhere… 👿 👿 👿I do hope that Madison welcomed this event, so that they would come back here in the future.
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