Car Craft Anti-Tour 2007

It's been a week since we returned from Las Vegas, but the sound of the CC/Rambler's 360 still rings in my ears. And that's a good thing. To some, five hours in a non-A/C car running at 3,200 rpm might be considered cruel and unusual, but I can think of few better sounds in the world. But we're always deaf after the Anti-Tour. When we planned the first Anti-Tour in 1998, the annual trip was a way to get a little greasy and get something back from the cars we've slaved to build. Each year the plan is different. This time we picked a weekend in April and decided to drive to Vegas. We figured if the racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was bad, the cocktails would make up for it.

Lady Luck was on our side. We made it safely to Vegas with time to spare in spite of rising coolant temperatures, dodgy transmission cooler fan relays, leaky Oldsmobile intake manifold gaskets, and, at one point, a dangerously low gas tank (we coasted to the pump).

Anti-Tour has never drawn as large a crowd. A rough count figured that about 80 people met up at Global West. Good thing the building is on a cul-de-sac.

Road trips transcend explanation, so there's no need to insult you by rehashing tired clichs about the open road beckoning, wind in your hair, man and machine . . . You get it already or you wouldn't be reading this. We build cars that are meant to be driven, and that's what Anti-Tour is all about.

This year's Anti-Tour was bigger than ever. The meeting place was Global West Suspension in San Bernardino, California, well away from the majority of Los Angeles Friday afternoon freeway traffic. Global West shut down its operation on Friday and catered a lunch for all who attended. "We're expecting about 60 people," we told Doug Nordin, owner of Global West. But there were probably 60 people already present when we arrived one hour before the announced gathering time. Cars continued to fill parking lots of the adjacent buildings, circled the cul-de-sac, and spilled out into the main road.

While we stuffed ourselves with surprisingly good burgers and fries, the Global West staff gave tours of the plant. We saw suspension pieces in all phases of construction, beginning with a model on a computer screen, then bent tube steel waiting to be welded, and finally the assembled, powdercoated pieces ready to be shipped. They even allowed us a sneak peek at some new, ultracool parts about to hit the market. We couldn't take photographs, but we can offer an advanced warning to early Mustang owners: Clear some space on your credit cards. You'll definitely want what we saw.

Stomachs full, we hit the road just before 2 p.m., blasting up I-15 North, bound for Midnight Mayhem drag racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that evening, the PSCA races on Saturday, then our return to Los Angeles early Sunday morning. In between drag racing we did, well, whatever people do when they go to Vegas.

For those who didn't attend, here are some of the highlights.

Jason Lewallen, a Global West employee of five years, was one of the guys giving tours of the shop. Doug Nordin said they spent the previous two days cleaning up for us.	They said they would have some snacks for us, so we weren't expecting the catered lunch Global West provided.	We wanted the digits but only got fries with the burger.
The CC/Rambler gets an audience as Glad makes a couple of last-minute checks.	We were expecting to see Smith in his F85 Cutlass, but a massive oil leak forced him to dust off his '65 El Camino instead.	The road was not so kind to everyone. The guys from Icon Engineering had to improvise when their battery gave up the ghost. A jumper box worked long enough for them to make it to a parts store for a new battery.