The 2006 Mopar Nationals
A large exhibit of all things Mopar, held at National Trail Raceway, Columbus Ohio.
I have been attending this event every year for the past five years. Since I live in South Florida, this is a major trip. I usually drive with my wife to her mothers house in West Virginia, where I stay for a week or two. Each day of the show, I drive over to National Trail. This is a 115 mile (each way) trip. This has been uneventful each time, until this year. I got to the event without incident, but the fun ended there.
The young girl that was parking cars in this field instructed me to park in the spot where the Chevy SUV is now. That would have been fine, except that the line of cars was turning a bit further down the field. I drove across the darker area in the grass (as instructed by the parking attendant). It was not apparent from inside my car (or where she was standing) that this is a drainage ditch. My car fell into the ditch, which was was filled with several feet of soft mud. Both rear wheels were off the ground and I had to climb out of the window (neither door would open). The grey area was the mud left behind after my car was pulled out by a large RAM truck. Also not obvious in this picture is the concrete drain pipe which broke the cast aluminum oil pan on the car and busted up some of the plastic.
This is the view from the other side of the ditch. Needless to say, this ruined the fun, and the rest of my day was spent finding a tow truck that would tow the broken car the 115 miles back to West Virginia.
I borrowed my mother in law's car to come back to the show on Sunday for a few hours. Due to my limited time at the show, I don't have my usual 5 to 10 gigabytes of pictures and video, only 2 gigs this time. I missed the burnout contest, the exhibition racing, and the time trials. I would like to have seen some of the new tech cars run.
The highlight of this years show was of course the 2008 Challenger concept car, and I followed it around every time it moved, with video rolling. I took so many pictures that I gave them their own page! I posted the pictures with higher than normal resolution, so they may take longer to load. The "official announcement" of an April 2008 production date for the new Challenger was made.
Last year there were a lot of cars with Viper engines. You could buy a Viper crate motor from Mopar Performance (along with an installation manual and all electronics) at the time. They are no longer available. This year there were plenty of cars with new Hemi power. There was also a good bit of power parts available for the new motor, along with stroker crate motors from Mopar and Indy Cylinder Heads. I spent a lot of time investigating these parts, and some of the cars. I have also given them their own page.
"Old School" cars and parts:
Hemi Cudas are always cool, and this one was really nice.
Brand new Hemis are available from Mopar Performance. The new 392 crate motor is visible in the background with a big single plane manifold and a carburetor.
Hemi heads and other parts are available too. Just be prepared to spend some serious money whenever you say the "H" word!
Really FAST really FURIOUS, and really NICE!
A pair of the cars that owned the dragstrip during the late 60's and early 70's
Just an old Fury with a Max Wedge. Fords hid and Chevys cried when these were in the other lane.
It just looked cool. A home made long ram on a first generation Hemi.
Tire Fire!
I have seen this "Dragn Wagn" leave the line with the front wheels in the air every year that I have been here. That is pretty impressive for something that weighs over 4000 pounds!
This was taken as I was leaving on Sunday afternoon. The staging lanes are still full for as far back as you can see.
I am compiling these pages on Tuesday afternoon (2 days after the show) for uploading when I get home. I have patched up the cast aluminum oil pan with a large amount of JB Weld, and will set out for Florida on Thursday morning (1200 miles).
Be sure to visit all of the 2006 Mopar Nationals pages:
2008 Challenger concept car page
The main 2006 Mopar Nationals page
Be sure to visit our other automotive pages for more cool pictures