Hot Rods, Muscle Cars and More

I visited the Atlantic Nationals car show in Moncton, New Brunswick on Sunday. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with temps in the high 20's C (80's F). It took place at Centennial Park in Moncton and the place was jammed full of antique cars and trucks of all description - hot rods, muscle cars, trucks, tricked-out Japanese cars, speciality vehicles - you name it, they were there.

In all between 1800 and 2000 of these vehicles were spread over hundreds of acres. Fortunately there were plenty of shady spots for respite from the sun, so it was great.

My favourites are the 67-72 muscle cars, especially the Mopars like the Cuda, Road Runner, Charger and Challenger.

My mom used to own a '71 Dodge Challenge with a 340 c.i. engine. This was a small block V8 that was lightweight, had a high output and was at home on the street or at the drag strip. In reality this little engine put out a ton of power, something like 315 to 320 hp. It was a real fun car to run.

Mom used to drive it back and forth to work and get groceries. The poor car! About every 6 months she's take it into the shop so the mechanics could take the heads apart and scrape the carbon out. After awhile they told her to leave it in first gear so it would rev higher and keep things a little cleaner. I was in university and would always look forward to coming home to take that car out and give it an "Italian tune-up", that is drive the s**t out of it. She said she'd never sell to me because she figured I'd kill myself. Maybe she was right.

I've captured some of the ones I liked the best here. If you like to tinker and socialize with people with a similiar addiction, this is a wonderful hobby. Of course it helps to have a bit of cash as restoring and keeping these babies running is not for the faint of heart. It's a labour of love. What a great way to spend a summer day! I'm jealous - I want one. Now if I only had a garage.

Enjoy.