The 2011 AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour is nearing kick-off in Springfield, Missouri. The '55 Chevy, just finished by Woody's Hot Rodz is gassed up and eager to go. Road Tour leader Jerry Dixey is still on the telephone, adding more sights and stops to all 8 Road Tour legs and taking registrations from participants. We've added Jerry's updates to the Tour descriptions below and will continue to do so every month.

What: As part of the 2011 AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tour, the Fleetwood Country Cruize-In Tour -- dozens of historic and pristine street rods -- will assemble at the historic Henry Ford Museum, in the museum's main parking lot.

from Kalamazoo to Burlington

Last year on the AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tour, one of the most popular legs was the Sherm’s Custom Plating Tour in California. Located in Sacramento, Sherm’s headquarters makes a perfect starting point for a tour headed anywhere in California. The folks at Sherm’s have many contacts and connections in the Golden State and always manage to get the Road Tourians into some of the greatest private car collections in the country. Gary Matranga from Sherm’s takes an active part in planning the tour and traveled with us on the entire route last year. He had a great time along with all the other participants and was excited to join us again on the road this year.

The Dynamat Tour kicked off a week on the road with a get-together at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus in Louisville, Kentucky. The participants on the tour gathered at the STREET RODDER display in the exhibit building on Saturday at noon to pose for a group picture with all of the Road Tourians who were in attendance. This Road Tour reunion has become an anticipated annual event at Louisville. After the large group shot, the Dynamat participants posed for a picture together. The itineraries, goodie bags, and T-shirts were distributed to the anxious participants. Dynamat President Scott Whitaker greeted the group and spoke briefly about our upcoming trip to Speed Week at the Salt Flats. We were then all given a goodie bag that contained a Dynamat baseball cap and sunglasses, which both came in handy at the Salt Flats.

The NSRA Street Rod Nationals Plus is the premiere event on the NSRA schedule each summer. Held in Louisville, Kentucky, at the huge Kentucky State Fairgrounds, the Nats draws street rod fans from across the country. Some folks come from as far as Southern California, which happens to be the exact place we decided to start the Intercity Lines Road Tour to the Nats.

By now you’ve read the stories of most, if not all, of the eight legs that comprised the 2010 AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tour. For many, the Road Tour is an annual traditionfor others, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The 2010 Dynamat Tour from Louisville to Bonneville was my first time traveling with Jerry Dixey and his Road Tourians, and I was eager to meet the people who make these trips so great. I got to know dozens of participants and hear their stories. What follows is a handful of those stories. You’ll find more on the streetrodder.com website. The only way to hear them all is to become a Road Tourian yourself, like these people did. Then you’ll have stories of your own to tell.

2011 PRODUCT SPONSORS	OFFICIAL PRODUCT
Aeromotive Fuel System	Fuel System
Alumicraft	Grille
AMSOIL INC	Lubricants & Filtration / Title Sponsor
Art Morrison Enterprises	Front Suspension, Chassis & Frame
COMP Cams	Valve Train
Dakota Digital	Gauges
Danchuk Manufacturing	Sheet Metal & Trim
Dynamat (Dynamic Control)	Insulation & Noise Control
Eddie Motorsports	Engine Dress-Up and Billet Accessories
F.A.S.T. (COMP Group)	Fuel Injection
Flaming River Industries, Inc.	Steering Components
Gear Star Performance	Transmission
Golden Shine (California Car Cover)	Car Care
Intercity Lines	Transport
Lokar, Inc.	Shifter & Accessories
Miller Electric	Welding & Cutting Products
Painless Performance	Wiring & Electrical System
Pertronix	Headers, exhaust & ignition
PPG Industries	Paint & Coatings
Shaver Racing	Engine
Sherm's Custom Chrome Plating	Chrome Plating
Spade Kreations	Stereo and Electronics
Specialty Power Windows	Power Windows & Wipers
Steele Rubber Products	Weatherstrip
Strange Engineering	Complete Rear End & Shocks
Tanks Inc.	Gas Tank
Totally Stainless	Stainless Steel Fasteners & Components
US Radiator	Radiator - Cooling
Vintage Air, Inc.	Air Conditioning
Wheel Vintiques	Wheel / Presenting
Wilwood Engineering	Brakes
Wise Guys, Inc.	Seating
Woody's Hot Rodz	Official Builder
YOGI'S	Retail Store

With the Art Morrison chassis for the 2011 AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour's '55 Chevy completed, Chris Sondles and the crew at Woody's Hot Rodz turned their attention to the body. As true authorities on Tri-Fives, they knew where to look for trouble on our two-door-and believe us, they found it. Over the years our Tri-Five had been subjected to corrosion, general wear and tear, and repair work, ranging from miserable to passable. But at Woody's there's only one way to do things, which meant if there was any part of the body that wasn't perfect it wasn't going to be that way for long.

The Factory Five Racing Tour got off to a great start with a weekend kickoff that included shop tours of the Factory Five Racing headquarters and manufacturing facility in Wareham, Massachusetts; Perewitz Cycle Fabrication in Bridgewater, Massachusetts; a history lesson at Plymouth Rock; and a Texas Road House cruise for charity in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. With almost 20 vehicles participating, the group was a good size to keep everyone together and folks quickly became acquainted with each other. We had participants from Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and even two couples from Canada.

Since its inception, the stated purpose of the Amsoil/Street Rodder Road Tour has been to prove that a street rod built from aftermarket parts can be a safe, fun, reliable car to drive anywhere you care to take it and, since the tour's beginning in 1996, that point has been made repeatedly. But while the original focus hasn't changed, another element of this yearly event has emerged, which shows the direction and scope of the hobby-a point we're sure will be made with this year's car: a '55 Chevy.

It is said, "Things are bigger in Texas." This appears to be the case each year on the Vintage Air Road Tour. For the last five years, Rick Love and Jack Chisenhall of Vintage Air have put together a Road Tour that attracts the most participants of any of the eight tours in the AMSOIL/STREET RODDER summer-long schedule.

Click here to Download the 2011 Road Tour Registration Form - Updated 2/15/2011

The Woody's Hot Rodz Tour kicked off with a weekend of fun at the NSRA Mid-America Nationals Plus in Springfield, Missouri. This was the first season for the extended year format and by the looks of the turnout by both participants and spectators, it was a success. Mixed in with the traditional pre-'48 cars were plenty of street machines, muscle cars, and special interest vehicles. Big-block Tri-Five Chevys were right at home rumbling around the grounds next to the '32 and '34 Fords.

The 2010 AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour kicked off at Southern Rods and Parts in Greer, South Carolina, with owner Tom Joseph and his crew throwing a party for a parking lot filled with 30 Cruise to Ocean City Tour participants and about 50 local hot rodders who turned out to join in the fun. Great weather and great barbecue helped the turnout, but the real reason most folks stopped by was to get the very first look at the '10 Road Tour Shadow Rods XL27 roadster pickup.

Approaching 375,000 miles would be an impressive milestone for any car but what about 15 cars? To say you built 15 cars and their cumulative miles are in excess of 300,000 says a great deal for the cars along with the products and builders. The STREET RODDER Road Tour project began 15 cars ago with the intent to prove that you can build a street rod using industry products and then drive it anywhere at any time.

Our hobby attracts participants for a variety of reasons, and while collecting trophies appeals to some the real enjoyment is hitting the open road in something as unique as a street rod and heading to an event to hang out with a bunch of like-minded folks. When STREET RODDER's Road Tour program began, the idea behind it was to reinforce the fact that a well-built car made from today's readily available aftermarket parts could be safe, reliable, and fun to drive. It's a point we've been making since 1996 when Jerry Dixey racked up 27,000 miles in the first Road Tour car.

We had a great Wednesday evening in Monterey and by Thursday morning it was time to get to Bakersfield and our destination of the California Hot Rod Reunion. My wife Mary Ann had flown into San Francisco and it was fun to have her along for the rest of the Tour. We did have one more visit and it turned out to be a fantastic one. Don Orosco has been a hot rodder his entire life. He has raced exotic sports cars and continues to do so around the world. About twenty years ago he began to actively seek out and purchase hot rods that had a significant history in our hobby. His goal was to restore these vehicles to their original hot rod beginnings and to preserve their place in our hot rodding history. As with most of the things that Don has set out to do in his life, he has been very successful in his quest to find and restore these iconic cars.

Monday morning it was rise and shine for the participants on the Sherm's Custom Plating Tour. It was scheduled to be a very full day of Road Tour excitement. After our daily morning get together at our hotel in Rohnert Park, just south of Santa Rosa, we headed north. It was a short drive to Heraldsburg and the beautiful home of Steve Castelli. Located in the middle of a vineyard, Steve's home and surrounding buildings are filled with fantastic automobiles, automobilia and collectibles. Steve has spent a lifetime gathering pedal cars, bicycles, gas pumps, neon signs and anything and everything relating to our hot rod heritage. The displays that Steve has put together are mind boggling in their size. The cars in Steve's collection include muscle cars, vintage drag cars, and a very special Willy's that Steve campaigns on the vintage drag racing circuit. One of Steve's most recent acquisitions is a mid 70's Camaro that Gary Matranga, president of Sherm's Custom Plating, raced very successfully in the late 70's. It was great to see Gary reunited with the car for the first time in over 30 years. It was an amazing morning at Steve Castelli home and collection and a great start to our day.

The Sherm's Custom Plating Tour kicked off with the first driver’s meeting of the week at 4 PM on Saturday at our hotel in Sacramento. With over 30 vehicles registered for the Road Tour to the California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway near Bakersfield, the lobby was filled with excited participants. The itinerary for the week was thick as a number of stops and visits were planned each day during the five days that we would be spending on the road traveling to Bakersfield.

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On Thursday the time had come to get to Burlington and the NSRA Northeast Nationals plus. At the morning driver's meeting I was presented with a framed picture of myself at the very first driver's meeting of the Canadian Classic Cars.ca Tour the previous Monday morning. Everyone on the Tour had signed the picture and it will go in a special spot on my office wall. Thanks folks!

The Canadian Classic Cars.ca Tour continued on Tuesday in Oshawa, Ontario. Members of the Motor City Car Club again joined us at the hotel in the morning. After our driver's meeting we made the short drive to downtown Oshawa to visit the Canadian Automotive Museum. Privately owned and funded this museum contains a huge and varied collection of autos and motorcycles dating from the earliest examples up through the modern era. The second floor of the museum is filled with autos that were manufactured specifically in Canada. With almost 100 vehicles on display the hour that we spent at the Canadian Automotive Museum went by very quickly.

The NSRA Nationals North plus, held every September in Kalamazoo, Michigan is one of the most popular events on the entire NSRA schedule. Rodders from across the Midwest gather for the fall weekend that has become a wrap up to the long summer of rod runs in the central United States. The following weekend near Burlington, Vermont the NSRA Northeast Nationals plus is held and rodders in the New England area wrap up their season. With just about 1,200 miles and one week separating the two events it is the perfect time to organize an AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tour between them. Canadian Classic Cars is one of the premier Canadian dealers for special interest in the country. They are located in Rockland, near Ottawa and right on the way to Burlington from Kalamazoo. They were the perfect choice to sponsor the run across Canada.

The Dynamat Tour rolled out of Pierre, South Dakota on Friday. It was a 90 minute drive that took us across the flatlands of South Dakota to the Black Hills. After topping off with gas at Wall, home of the famous Wall Drug Store, we soon saw that the party had already started in the entire area. It was Bike Week in Sturgis and that meant that there were over a half million motorcycles in the general area. Earlier in the week we had seen many motorcycles heading home across I-90 but there were still lots of riders in town.