1998 Car Craft Summer Cruise - Bigger Better Faster Louder

Phil Lokken trounced all comers in the Saturday burnout contest using all 460 inches of big-block in his Flamingo Pink '69 Chevelle. His advice to would-be smokers? "Drive it like you don't have a dime in it!" He did, neglecting to remove a sheet of radiator-blocking cardboard (for winter warm-ups) and puking the motor. With a TH400 and 3.73:1 gears, the car normally runs 12.70s on street tires when it's not overheating.

Crowning the elite Mopar Midway was the Mayflower V, a '64 Plymouth Hemi lightweight car that was an NHRA record holder in 1964.

Mike Anderson made Summer Cruise history as the first burnout contestant ever to blow tires on both ends of the car when his nastified '70 Chubelle blammed a rear Goodyear slick, then popped a Frontrunner after running over one of the spikes holding the steel burnout plates in place. He was back for Sunday competition and took runner-up.

Ever seen a huffed 455 Buick in a '73 Riv? We wondered how David Severson of Blaine, Minnesota, kept the crank in place with the blower cramming all that Holley juice at it. And when was the last time you saw R3 air conditioning next to a 6-71? He scored the Engine Award of Excellence plaque for his trouble.

Wagons finally got crowd acceptance at the Cruise, and several took home trophies. This 389-powered '62 Pontiac Safari was recently revived from a 20-year coma in a Minnesota barn.

We had to give a pity-pick award to Dale Hanson of Forest Lake, Minnesota who showed up with his '68 Chevelle SS396 convertible despite the big ol' F-150 print in the side. He was T-boned a few months prior to the show, but wasn't gonna miss the Summer Cruise for anything.

We were crabby because all the Summer Cruise AMCs were dead-stockers, but Ade and Kathy Blachfelner's 40,000-mile original '70 Rebel Machine made us realize there's nothing wrong with gennie AMCs. They claim the car is one of 596 that wasn't factory red, white, and blue. It's a 390 with a T-10 and a 3.54:1 Twin Grip.

Readers have demanded more A- and G-body coverage, but the Cruise wasn't exactly flocked with Montes and such. However, we were stopped cold by Chad Raskovich's '86 SS powered by a Tuned Port and pulchritudified with GM Raspberry, a '96 S-10 color.

Proving that enginuity lives, Bob Bendtsen brought his '60 El Camino that hauls with a 409 with a totally homebuilt multipoint EFI system using parts from both LT1 and TPI engines.

We tried desperately to con the owner of this seafaring Ford XL (extra large?) into selling us his set of mondo-retro-cool 15x7 Motor Wheel Spyders. We offered five bills, but he'd obviously suffered some smoke inhalation and said no gracias.

Of the resto rides primped for the party, Steven Mau's '70 Nova SS 396 was the one that most kept us up at night. The rubber-carpet ride is a numbers-matching large-block with a TH400 and a 12-bolt, and little else except for stand-back-black skin.

Late-models are a tad scarce at the Cruise, but one like Gary and Debbie Ostberg's '93 Cobra "R" demand to be dealt with. There were only 107 "R" model racers in '93, and they had all the factory speed stuff minus all the factory niceties. This one's also been treated to Kenne-Bell ram air, SVO headers, High Flo cats, Borla exhaust, and '95 Cobra "R" wheels. Sweet!

We said all beaters were welcome, and this guy took us up on it. No amount of Oil of Olay was gonna hide the wrinkles in this tongue-in-sheetmetal '63 Pro Street Nova.

The Summer Cruise is the ideal spot for getting your car featured in the magazine, and also prime cruising if you want to see some of the stuff we've already done stories on. We counted about 20 Car Craft alums, including Chris Endres' '87 GN (see "Ten Years After," Dec. '97).