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2001 Car Craft Summer Nationals

Here’s The Real Deal

By Ed Zinke
photographer: Ed Zinke

Enthusiastic owners arrived early to the 2001 CAR CRAFT Summer Nationals Saturday morning with hundreds of cars lined up to get in...
…There were so many cars in fact that the CAR CRAFT Events Staff was blown away and had to jump into warp speed to move vehicles through the grounds as fast as possible. Adjustments were made for Sunday morning and things went a much smoother—hey we’re honest!
Gary Nelson from North Branett, MN owns this beautiful black and flamed ’67 Ford Mustang. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that besides a recent tire and wheel update, this car was completed over 20 years ago. Any yes boys and girls, this is not a trailer queen and that’s a non-chipped lacquer flamed paint finish. Amazing!
Gary’s brother Jim Nelson from North Branch, MN has one bitchin’ ’57 Chevy 210 two-door wagon. Mild body mods (look at the hood) and 16 wheels, this car sits and looks right. But wait, there is more! Under the hood lives a 265 with two four-barrels. Jim says, "Just grab the three on the tree and yank the overdrive and you can cruise all day." Bet so, Jim.
Ray and Lori Fritz own this sharp gray ’69 Chevelle SS. Ray took and gave his car the "reserved" (read that sleeper) approach, but those 396 fender markings tell the real story. Nice work Ray!
Everybody likes old Fords and Dusty Brown owns this super-clean version from Sioux City, IA. With tons of body mods and a ghost Mystic Flame job, pictures just don’t do this car justice.
The family that Fords together, stays together—Dick and Connie Brown from Sioux City, IA (Dusty’s got the ’49 shown above) brought their ’57 Ford Fairlane for some Summer Nationals fun. Two-tone paint with flames and chrome reverses with caps creates a period-perfect mild custom.
Mr. Lererdo did not put us his first name on his entry sheet, but he sure caught our attention with his nicely done ’68 GTO. The all red paint looked 6 inches deep. There is nothing like a great looking goat–grrrrrrrrr….
Fred Williams cruised over for a day of CAR CRAFT fun from nearby Minneapolis in his super-straight black ’68 Dodge Super Bee. By the looks of the slicks on the back, we bet a few people have been stung by this bee!
Green with Silver Stripes is a great color combination found on Jon Thibault’s ’70 Olds Cutlass S. The car hails from St. Anthony Village and just looks and sits right.
Now here is a story in itself. This authentic Liberty Motors funny car, found some years ago sitting on its springs, with no engine or suspension, was resurrected to its 1967 race campaign set up. Details include original fiberglass panels in correct paint scheme, injected Hemi, and spindle mount "kidney beans." Way cool!
Pete and Michael Murlowski are the snake-bit pair from New Brighton, MN that own this beautiful ’69 Ford Shelby Mustang. The workmanship was outstanding.
Harold Rustand from St. Paul owns this ’65 Ford Mustang Coupe. Clean white paint with blue stripes and hood scoop makes it a real standout.
Bob and Carol Bowen of Eden Praire, MN are the proud owners of this super clean '63 Chevy Impala SS. With body panels so straight you could shoot with them and torque thruster wheels, it is one fine ride.
Like ’69 Mustang Mach Is? If so, fall in love with Brian and Danielle Dodds’ that hails from Topeka. KS. This car looked better than the day it left Henry’s plant.
The owner of this sharp Camaro must have been shy, as there were no details on his entry sheet, but we liked it so much that we just had to include a photo anyway.
An original ’57 Corvette that has served time on the dragstrip was converted over to street use by Scott Brisbois from Egan, MN. This bellybutton-high car just plain takes your breath away. Scott is still working on the final street power plant, but for now is using a small block to motivate the car.
1969 was one of the greatest muscle car years and supporting that claim is Chris Rahmeyer and his ’69 Olds 442. Black and Silver combination with a "just right" stance makes this car from Roseville, MN a knockout.
This ’40 Chevy twice-door sedan with chopped top and black on black was for sale and looking good. Classic styling and smoothed body had us digging deep for cash.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a ’67 Hurst SC/ Rambler. This great looking example was part of a club display and unfortunately the owners didn’t leave their names, so to whoever, nice ride!
Rick Gunderson from Grandview, MO was in the house Saturday with his ’69 AMX Super Stock. The car is complete down to the factory Special Order build sheet and dual-carbed 390. We wish we could have gotten two days to fully check this one out and bring it to you, but it is an awesome car.
Want to try something a little different with your Mustang, how about setting it up for SCCA racing? The owner of this car added a bolt-in roll cage, tons of suspension mods, and a set of Hoosier tires to go do battle on the roadcourse circuit. We like the idea a lot!
This ’69 Torino Cobra was loaded with trick modifications that made it a standout. Headlight ducts that feed cold air to the big block Ford and the owner’s overall attention to detail made up a nice, clean package.
Take one VW Bug, get out the sawsall, work real hard and you too could end up with a super-neat street cruiser like this one. A big-block Chevy motivates this smoothed-over, roadsterized body, complete with ’38 Olds taillights. It looks like tons of fun.
Lots of tri-five Chevys, from Nomads to Bel Airs, turned out to this year’s CAR CRAFT Summer Nationals like this beautiful 210 Post model. Contrasting black and gunmetal gray two-tone was looking good and drawing crowds all day.
Matt King and the entire CAR CRAFT staff were plenty busy all weekend long checking out cars and conversing with their owners. With so many great looking vehicles on hand, there simply wasn't enough time to cover them all. Every participant is to be commended for the fine workmanship on display. Thanks for coming!
A personal favorite of CAR CRAFT Associate Editor Henry De Los Santos was this beautiful ’71 Chevelle convertible. Sorry Henry, it’s not for sale.
Not quite sure if this was a crossbreeding experiment or what, this ’57 Forsel was found lurking on the grounds Sunday. Any help?
An absolute knockout ride was this all steel ’41 Willys. Motivated by a single-carbed Hemi and 4-speed, this former drag star made the conversion to street in candy apple red that was a foot deep. It was the deserving recipient of the Editor’s Choice award on Sunday.
Camaros, Camaros, Camaros! There were hundreds on hand to see. Like these two great examples that were packing some serious horsepower to back up their looks!
If either of these two Camaros shows up in your rear view mirror, best get out of the way.
On Saturday at 1:00 p.m., the Open Headers cruise was a symphony of horsepower, with hundreds of cars thumping their way through the park in the parade.
One of the parading cars in the Open Headers Cruise was this clean pro-street ’57 Chevy. With wheelwell headers and lumpy cam, it was a real earful.
No matter which direction you looked on Saturday, it was a sea of cars and car enthusiasts of every age and description...
With a great Midwest summer’s day, everyone was taking the great times of the CAR CRAFT Summer Nationals.
The Ravin’ booth was the place to check out the new Z-Wave technology performance exhaust systems. The Ravin’ Girls were on hand to help answer questions about the product and also helped out during Sunday’s award presentations. Thanks!
A picture of a picture, the CAR CRAFT staff set up this cool photo shoot with multi-angle shooters. A smoky burnout was caught from three different angles. Watch for this shoot in an upcoming issue of CAR CRAFT.

How much do you love your job? No, they are not directly in front of the car, but it sure looks it.
The Burnout contest was fantastic as all type of cars and light trucks competed to see who would be crowned "Top Tread Eliminator." Contestants lit ‘em up to the crowd’s approval in the packed grandstands.


Now you see it, now you don’t! This small-block motivated Toyota pickup had the rear hides really cooking until….boom!
The rear tire took out the quarter panel in a big way and shot an empty soda can in the bed 20 feet in the air. The proud owner wore the damage like a badge of honor for the remainder of the event.
Another causality of the Burnout Contest was this super nice big-block AMX.
The AMC product had some good tire smoke buildup when THE 390 bucked and went dead. Upon further inspection, something launched in the pan (note pan edge in photo).
Saturday’s Burnout Contest winner was David Boeke in his green ’71 Challenger T/A...
...The 383 dyno’d out at only 248 hp, but it certainly was enough to get the job done...
...With only the inner liner of the rear tire still holding air, the tread and steel belts were cooked completely off the tire in his effort to win!
Sunday’s Bikini Contest was a real crowd-pleaser. And why not, with this competing group of lovely ladies.
The Main Stage area was packed for the Awards Ceremony as more than 50 trophies and awards were given out to deserving vehicle owners for the efforts.
Like the ’57 Chevy in this parting shot, make plans to head to the 2002 CAR CRAFT Summer Nationals. It truly is The Real Deal. We look forward to seeing you there!

The 2001 CAR CRAFT Summer Nationals was The Real Deal the weekend of July 15-16 as over 2,500 performance vehicles and thousands of automotive performance enthusiasts invaded the Minnesota State Fair Grounds in St. Paul. Vehicles of every type and description, from brutally powered muscle cars to wild customs to high-performance pickups were on hand to enjoy two days of fun in the Midwest sun. Although you will not be able to hear the power or smell the tire smoke, take a trip with us to one of this season's biggest events.

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