Anyway it started out by getting over the biggest hurdle (11 hour flight to LA with 3 year old twins maiden flight : ) better than expected, we drove to San Diego and rented a house for a week. While there we took in Cruisin Grand in Escondido, a semi-organised cruise night which we visited about 6 years ago too. They shut down a few streets in the historic part of Escondido, set up a PA with music etc, and then have cars parked up in some areas and cruising up and down on the main street (Grand). Loads of great cars, including some good Mopars that I didn't get to track down (couple of 71 cudas) and a couple that I did. I spoke to a guy with a 5.7 Gen 3 Hemi in an early model Dart, nice installation.
After a week in SD we drove to Vegas where I got a pass out to attend the NHRA race on the Sunday. I've been to quite a few NHRA races in the States but not for many many years now, and contrary to my fears of finding it all too commercialised now I did really enjoy the experience, they certainly know how to pack it in and I had a great time. I was hoping for Allen Johnson to do well in Pro Stock, unfortunately he went out in Round 2, but there was a Mopar in the final, Vince Nobile (who has now gone on to win an event in spectacular style!) he uses an AJ engine. He lost to Mike Edwards, who if you had to lose to anyone is probably the one as he is such a nice guy (apart from running a Chevy). Weather was unseasonably hot nudging 30 deg C. but there was decent cloud cover much of the day to keep me from frying.
Vince Nobile pit – since then he won a race…19 years old and driving a Mopar Pro Stock. Beat an 0.009 reaction time on a holeshot!!!
Allen Johnson Pit area, and him packing chutes…..not a great race for him though
Force signing autographs….OK so I got one while I was there….
Nice display from NHRA Motorsports museum with a few nice Mopars…including Sox Cuda
Oh yeah I made a full pass in a Top Fueller with no firesuit or helmet….no really!!
It’s the 60th year of NHRA and each race honours a legend of the sport…..Vegas was Roland Leong …here is one of his old cars
Two nice Mopar Pro Mods in the pits…that I didn’t see run
Luckily this year the following weekend was Mopars at the Strip at the same venue so I went there on Friday for half a day with wife and kids, then went back on Sat for a whole day by myself. Now the weather was closer to 7 deg C!! I even saw a few snowflakes! Anyway, some really nice cars there, and I also managed to get most of the parts I'd planned to (mostly by prearranging but also picked up a few on the spot). I met about three French Connection guys, two of whom noticed the ex-Laurent Challenger on my T-Shirt and the next day the owner of a great 71 Cuda vert that I been looking for turned out to be a French ex-pat!
One for Blue...???
Genuine survivor TA!
Really liked the look of this Cuda
Attracting quite a lot of attention were these two rat rods. Modern diesel engines with twin turbo…..actually really full of interesting ideas and details. Not sure how they would run and had some questionmarks over certain design features (copper steering linkage??) but anyway, lots of detail
This is Ron Silvas Valiant – I believe this is the largest smallblock in existence – 500ci, and the best of everything! When it is sorted out it should be a low 9 second car with docile street manners. I heard he hurt the engine and was running a spare for this event, he even had a go in the AutoCross – with the front skinnies!
Plenty of racing going on with SS Hemi cars and down
Love this car......I recognised it as it is owned by a Moparts member, just looks right
Also has Autocross area with a few nice cars. You could get a passenger ride in the Challenger but I didn’t really have time
This Challenger vert was pretty radical. Not everyones cup of tea (not exactly mine) but the workmanship was good and some good ideas. Also has the widest dish wheels I’ve ever seen!
Next morning we drove to Disney (in LA of course!) and spent 2 and a half days there before flying home. Got ripped off by Thrifty rental cars who I strongly advise you to avoid like the plague – they added $300 of options which we had specifically declined and they had confirmed there was no more to pay, face-to-face, direct question, looking me in the eye, more than once! Seems like they have a reputation, manager did not seem to give a toss ….AVOID …..grrr.
Got all my parts back safely, no thanks to the US TSS Customs monkeys. Firstly it appears that their X-Ray machines aren't able to distinguish between a solid metal steering box and dangerous bomb making materials, meaning they felt the need to open up the package I'd shipped (OK, I can live with that even though it should be pretty easy to see this was not a harmful part). But secondly they decided that rather then just unwrap the package, which had no locks or anything, just a packing strap (like a tie-down strap) and duct tape, they'd just cut the packing strap clean through in four places, damage the plastic box I had it in, pull off all the protective covering I had carefully put in to stop the part moving around inside the container (important since it weighs a lot), and rip open one end of the plastic I'd put the oily part in and the paper to absorb any leaks in transit, then throw it back in with a standard note saying how it had been necessary to open it and while they regret any damage they could not be held responsible. In other words "we don't give a f***, and there's nothing you can do about it". Last time they just cut off the locks on our suitcase and ruined it. I don't mind some sensible security but they seem to act like retarded blind apes, and show absolutely no respect for property.
That said I got away with it and got the parts off at this end without major damage AFAIK.
The main part in question was a Stage 2 Firm Feel Power Steering box. To counter the crazy reduction in luggage allowance since we last went (used to be two 32kg cases per adult, now one 23kg case!!!!) it seems at least the customs allowances have risen considerably, so even though I had to pay for an extra 'bag', there was no issue at all with value.
Also picked up my 1.5" leaf relocation kit from Dr Diff - very nice part - and convertible top hoses (which I finally decided was a quicker option than DIY over here, though a bit more expensive. (BTW - a very belated thanks to responses to a prior post I made which helped immensely to give me the info to decide the best route).
I picked up a number of smaller parts as well, a few T-Shirts, and a book I had been hoping to find "We were the Ramchargers" which about 20 pages in is proving to be as enjoyable as I had anticipated.
Anyway, that’s the high (and low) points, fantastic time though a few health issues during the trip. Not likely to be doing this again anytime soon
Hope you enjoy the pics
love the Maulin Rouge T/A and the Panther Pink 71 Cuda's 
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