They say that things are bigger in Texas and that seems to be the case every year on the Vintage Air Road Tour. For the last five years Rick Love and Jack Chistenhall from Vintage Air have put together a Road Tour that has attracted the most participants of any of the eight Tours in the AMSOIL/Street Rodder summer long schedule. When the destination of the NSRA Rocky Mountain Nationals was announced last winter the registrations poured in. By the time the Tour was ready to roll there were over seventy vehicles registered to participant. That is a new all time high for any Road Tour of any year or destination. The Texas Road Tourians love to travel with Rick.
Festivities kicked off on Saturday evening with the traditional wiener roast and driver's meeting at Vintage Air Headquarters in San Antonio. Many of the participants had traveled on previous Tours and acquaintances were quickly renewed. The detailed maps and directions were passed out along with the Road Tour goodie bags and T-shirts. There were tours given of the Vintage Air manufacturing facilities and as the sun began to set on the Texas plains, everyone headed for the hotel to get some rest for the week ahead.
At 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning it was time to head on down the highway. Fifty of the participating vehicles rolled out of Vintage Air Sunday morning. As planned the other twenty would join us a little further down the highway at one of the many stops we would be making. With Rick in the lead of the hot rod version of a Texas cattle drive we started the weeklong journey under blue Texas skies.
Our first stop was in the nearby town of Boerne, Texas. Adrenaline Rides Garage had just moved to a brand new facility and we were invited to stop, have some breakfast and check out the new shop. General Manager Don Sutherland and the Adrenaline Rides crew were waiting for us with donuts, coffee and some great breakfast burritos. The shop specializes in high performance race and street cars with an emphasis on chassis fabrication and suspension upgrades. They even have in house upholstery facility. It was a great way to start the trip.
The lunch stop was in San Angelo and everyone enjoyed some good Texas barbeque and appreciated a short break from the road. We gassed and headed back out on the highway. Rick always plans routes that take us off the interstates and it was a smooth drive on smaller Texas highways as we made it to our destination of Midland, Texas by about 4 p.m.
Arrangements had been made for us to make a special visit at The Petroleum Museum on Sunday afternoon. The museum traces the history of the oil industry but the real reason for our visit was to see the special Chaparral Gallery. In 1965 race car enthusiast and designer Jim Hall revolutionized the sport of auto racing with his winged Chaparral racing cars. At the museum the Transportation Wing allows visitors to get a very up close look at many examples of the famous racing vehicles that changed the use of aerodynamics on racing vehicles in the 1960's. It was fantastic to be able to get such a close look at the vehicles on display. At the beginning of our visit we were told that we were in store for a special treat. We were actually going to get to see and hear one of these original cars start and run. If that wasn't enough, we were then told that the person taking the car out on for a spin was actually going to be Jim Hall himself. We were ecstatic. What an incredible opportunity to see the man that created these amazing vehicles get back in one and take it for a drive.
Jim Hall arrived about 5 p.m. and was extremely gracious as he greeted us and took the time to answer questions and explain the history of the company and cars that he had developed. He then climbed into a Chevy 427 version, fired it up and proceeded to make some laps around the front driveway of the museum. It was an amazing Road Tour moment to see a legendary man actually behind the wheel of one of his ground breaking vehicles. Thanks to Jim Hall and everyone that helped put this visit together.
It was an incredible day one on the Vintage Air Tour. The fun has just begun. Monday morning we will make a special stop at the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Midland and then on to Amarillo, Durango and our final destination of the NSRA Rocky Mountain Nationals in Pueblo. Follow all of our travels here at www.streetrodderweb.com watch for the entire article in Street Rodder Magazine and call the Road Tour hotline at 1-800-664-1362 for all of the latest details on the remaining five 2010 AMSOIL/ Street Rodder Road Tours.