How many times have you wondered, How would my car stack up against those cars I see in the magazine? It's the age-old question, and Car Craft answered it by evaluating readers' cars in 1986 with the first Real Street Eliminator competition. Back then, the event encompassed a variety of contests and spanned several tracks. Now, 35 years later, we're still testing street-car mettle, but we've pared it down to three simple contests: a rear-wheel-horsepower chassis dyno blast, three days worth of driving on a challenging and twisting autocross course, and a 150-foot-long speed- stop challenge we call Launch Box.

What a summer it has been: The stock market took a dive, fuel costs fluctuated wildly, and record numbers of people remain unemployed. While Congress can’t seem to agree on how to fix our stagnant economy, if polled, they would all reach across the aisle to issue this decree: The ’11 Car Craft Summer Nationals presented by GM Performance Division was a resounding success. Even a Minnesota state government shutdown couldn’t crush the spirit of our faithful readers and show-goers, though for a few tense moments we worried a potential closure of the fairgrounds would scuttle this year’s show.

Have you turned in your Cruisin’ USA information form? If you haven’t, go download one at CarCraft.com or you’ll miss the chance to get the Car Craft staff to crash your favorite show. We’ve already selected a few venues that you’ll see in the coming months. Until then, enjoy these warm-up pics from the Cruisin’ Grand show in Escondido, California. If you live in the area, don’t forget to check out Fire Truck Night and Nitro Night at CruisinGrandEscondido.com.

Ostensibly, this trip's purpose was to rail against The Man and his coiffed and well-executed road trip. True to its nature, the Anti untied us with self-engineered instruments of salvation and whisked us through the barren stretches of Los Padres and into a fishing town bookended by bourgeois seaside retreats. But first, we stopped for doughnuts at Turbonetics.

If you’re old enough to remember the original bumble-bee Car Craft T-shirts and Camaro chin spoilers from the Mar. ’78 premier of the Cruisin USA series, you might know someone who was escorted out of Indy or Ohio in handcuffs, and it was probably our fault. We incited the riots by showing up at various cruises around the country bringing as many readers as possible. It was just like Tahrir Square, but without the camels.

In the world of drag racing, few promoters are as audacious as Byron Dragway's Ron Leek. Because of him, wheelstand mavens invade the beautiful Rock River, Illinois, area to get a front-row seat at the ultimate drag racing freak show. In the 16 years since the first World Power Wheelstand Championships, it has gone from a cult classic to a major event that brings in fans from the other side of the planet. Ron Leek was booming away on Byron's PA system interviewing John Ross and his family, who traveled all the way from Australia. John was heard to say, "I read about the wheelstand contest in Car Craft magazine and knew I had to go see it for myself." He's right and Byron Dragway packs the stands every year. Studying the photos is good for a thrill, but you'll have to be at the show to really appreciate it. It's our favorite thing to do in Ogle County.

Date: May 6 & 7

The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) has quickly become the preeminent Pro Touring street car competition with barely three years under its belt. As the name suggests, you can qualify to compete in the OUSCI, but ultimately you have to be invited. There are feeder events such as the Optima Ultimate Street Car Faceoff at the Road America road course in Wisconsin and other events throughout the year leading up to the event directly following the performance industry's SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November. For the past year, we've been beating, tuning, and racing our '65 small-block-powered Chevelle in hopes of earning our way to an invitation to compete at the OUSCI. Many acquaintances questioned the intelligence of that desire saying that they didn't think we had a chance. The plan was not to win, since we were up against some very heady competition such as Mark Stielow's Red Devil '69 Camaro powered by a Thomson Automotive-built 427ci LS engine complete with a heavy-breathing Eaton TVS 2300-style supercharger that made a conservative 750 hp. Add to this list competitors such as Kyle and Stacey Tucker's two Detroit Speed Camaros, Brian Finch's second-gen Camaro, and several other notable bad boys of the Pro Touring scene, and we figured if we could squeeze into the top 15 finalists based on just the actual driving events, that would be our version of a major achievement.

Last summer, we flew 2,500 miles to the Great White North to check out a car show with just 33 cars in attendance. While our company's accountants might condemn this trip as a colossal waste of capital, it made perfect sense to us. We wanted to go to what we thought might be the last of the CrownVic.net assembly plant tours, a CVN forum member tour of the St. Thomas Assembly Plant that's been held almost every summer since 2002.

Evildoers, you've been warned. We will happily punt you into the nearest ditch at the slightest provocation, and we can now do it without spilling a drop of our precious morning Americano, thanks to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. We're about to reveal one of the biggest secrets that performance driving school shoppers don't know: Protection driving classes offer the greatest bang for the buck of any driving program currently available. If you are convinced you have the potential to go pro or you have your heart set on driving an open-wheel car, take the five-day Grand Prix class. Otherwise, we strongly recommend the Executive Protection class. In it, you will still be exposed to 90 percent of the technique taught in the Grand Prix class, but you'll gain 100 percent of the instructor-encouraged sliding, spinning, tire-shredding fun the race car guys are encouraged to avoid.

One downside to magazine publishing is that it takes so long to roll out our annual Real Street Eliminator competition story. A couple of years ago, we decided to merge the Car Craft Summer Nationals in St. Paul with the longest-running street car competition in the land of muscle cars. Way back in the May '86 issue, Car Craft created a muscle car shootout called Real Street Eliminator (RSE) intended to test street cars in several varied venues to determine the best overall performance car. The competition has evolved through the years, with the current format trimmed to three simple competitions. Simply stated, we test rear-wheel horsepower for sheer power and then use the autocross to test driver skill and vehicle prowess, followed by a go-whoa contest we call the Launch Box. The Launch Box course may only be 150 feet long, but it's a lot tougher than it looks. Ask the drivers who didn't do well.

The L.A. Auto Show brings a lot to the table when it comes to world debuts and the Detroit three all came with their boxing gloves on to battle the import and European manufactures. Chevy debuted the much anticipated 2011 Chevrolet Camaro convertible. Dodge had six totally redesigned vehicles to display which were the 2011 Challenger, Charger, Avenger, Durango, Journey and last was the Grand Caravan which will also have an available option called the "Man Van". Finally of the Detroit three, Ford debuted the 2012 Ford Focus. Don't worry Mustang fans the new Boss 302 Ford Mustang was also on display.

If variety really is the spice of life, then hold the cayenne pepper. You won't need any added condiments when perusing these pages. If you were at the show last July, you know what we mean-the Car Craft Summer Nationals runs the gamut of tastes and styles. If high-end Pro Touring cars are your thing, we had top builders shooting it out in the Real Street Eliminator competition. If dirtball, chewing-gum-and-bailing-wire builds are more your style, we had those guys in attendance, too. Slow touring? Check. Lowriders? Check. Pro Street? Of course. Bikinis? Only on the girls.

The YouTube videos are downright spooky. The low-resolution moving images reveal an early Mustang standing on the throttle, banging gears, snaking through the first few turns of what used to be called the Virginia City Hill Climb. Early on, there's a sweeping righthander where the camera flashes on a dirt shoulder, no guardrail, and what appears to be a 10,000-foot drop into nothingness. It's intimidating to say the least.

"Car Craft? Does anyone still read that?" That was the greeting we got at the media check-in from a dude named Zombie. After about a minute of busting our chops (all in good fun), he granted us full press access to Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated's Dragfest at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. Hell, they didn't even charge us admission, so we won't take a retaliatory swipe at their greaser mag here. Instead, what we will do is show you some of the '60s-style heat powering the sleds at this year's third annual Dragfest.

Ah, summer. The valves are adjusted, the slicks are properly inflated, and we all want a new project car. Don't we? Girls and dwindling finances may stifle actual ownership of many rusted heaps, but that doesn't stop us from window shopping. Feast your eyes on the fixins we found at the Pomona swap meet in sunny Southern California, where you can still find an original rust-free Camaro-for a price.

Grass Roots, Revered Pavement, World Stage
Did you know that the Woodward Dream Cruise actually started as a small fundraiser to raise money for a soccer field in Ferndale, Michigan?

We rolled into the large parking area at 6 a.m. for the inaugural Run to the Coast (RTTC) Pro Touring shootout, and it was like wading into a sea of Camaros. Of the 50-plus cars competing, the guest list looked like this: multiple Novas, a couple of Pontiacs, Paul Newman's '57 Chevy four-door wagon, a trio of Mopars, and two Chevelles. The rest were Camaros.

Everything about the Engine Swap Drags (ESD) was cool. Take King of the Hill winner Tom Foglesong for example. Driving his grandfather's '68 Camaro with a lightly modified 5.3 swapped in from an '05 Suburban, he beat the entire N/A field, then took out a 10-second nitrous Camaro for the overall win.

Another year, another taste of automotive heaven. The 2010 Car Craft Summer Nationals presented by GM Performance Division came to close Sunday but not before we lit up some rubber, redlined some engines, crowned a new Real Street Eliminator champ and checked out some gals in bikinis. Yes, bikinis.

Day two of the 2010 Car Craft Summer Nationals presented by GM Performance Division began as advertised. The Minnesota State Fairgrounds was absolutely packed with cars, spectators, vendor displays, performance parts and all the sights and sounds of automotive Utopia.

The 2010 Car Craft Summer Nationals presented by GM Performance Division roared to life at the Minnesota State Fairground. Even though this is Day 1 of three days, and technically a workday, hundreds of cars showed up for the start of three days of automotive bliss.

The Byron Dragway World Power Wheelstand Contest is the best show on a dragstrip anywhere. On the first weekend of October, masses of like-minded people invade Byron, Illinois, looking for excitement and carnage. Just like in the 14 previous years, you really never know what you're going to see.