2006TurkeyRodRun

The 2006 TURKEY ROD RUN

The Turkey Rod Run is a 5 day long celebration of all things related to wheel based transportation. It is held at the Daytona International Speedway. This is one of the premier tracks on the NASCAR racing circuit. This event has the largest show car field that I have ever seen. The swap meet is also huge. Parts for all forms of motorized transportation were available. Several hundred cars were available for sale. The prices of some cars were very high, but many seemed reasonable.

I only had 5 hours to cover an event where I would have liked to spend two days. For this reason, I spent most of my time looking at, and photographing the show cars. I was processing the pictures while on the way home from Daytona (Sherri was driving). It became obvious that I was heavily biased toward muscle cars, and primarily Mopar muscle cars, since that is what I had the most pictures of.

There were so many nice cars from every niche in the automotive hobby. I took about 700 pictures, and that was only a small fraction of the cars. I have included a few of the best pictures below.

NASCAR

This is a NASCAR track, but there was very little NASCAR stuff on display here.

In the late 60's and very early 70's, the auto manufacturers were into NASCAR racing in a big way. There were a few cars designed specifically for NASCAR racing. Then a small number (500 to 1000) toned down versions of these cars were sold to the public so that the manufacturers could claim that the race car was based on a "stock" vehicle. A few even named the car after a particular track on the NASCAR circuit.

Yes, I am standing on the track where NASCAR (and other) racers will attempt to slow down from 200+ miles per hour to negotiate this turn. You can see the skid marks where a few didn't make it.

Cars for Sale

There were rows and rows of cars for sale. There were booths set up for on the spot financing and insurance. Truly one stop shopping for people with entirely too much money!

Muscle Cars

At least one third (more like half) of the show cars on display were from the muscle car era. Some of these were purpose built drag cars, but most were street driven cars in varying states of tune from totally stock to outrageous.

A 1970 Plymouth Road Runner

A 1974 Plymouth Road Runner, one of the last real muscle cars. The 440 cubic inch (7.2 L) engine had already been discontinued in most car lines.

Same car

"His" and "Hers" 1969 Plymouth Barracudas.

Note the large Hemi in "his" car. Hers was powered by a 340 small block.

Here is a 1971 Dodge Challenger. This one is equipped with a modern 5.7 liter Hemi engine.

No, this isn't my Challenger. It is the same color and year, but the similarity ends there. I can dream, can't I.

A 1970 or 71 Plymouth Duster.

A really nice looking Cuda. There were 2 other cars identical to this one here. Too many people watching the Nash Bridges TV show.

The emblems on the side claim SUPERCHARGED 440. That is obvious. I bet that it is scary fast too.

OK, I have a thing for Challengers.

This is an AMX. It was made by the American Motors Corporation, the same people who created Ramblers, the Gremlin, and the Pacer. This one appears relatively stock.

This one does not.

You can't have muscle cars without Camaros, and there were plenty to see.

Best not seen in the rear view mirror.

A more modified Camaro

A rather nice looking 1969 Camaro with a fairly reasonable price tag.

This was a Clone of a 1969 Yenko SC. It looked nice, the asking price was $32,000 USD.

A close relative of the Camaro is the Firebird. Plenty of those too.

Of course I should give equal time to the Mustang guys. This one was equipped with a modern fuel injected 5.0 Liter engine.

One of the most prized cars from the Muscle car era, a Shelby GT500.

Another Shelby

There were plenty of Corvettes of all vintages.

And a few cars that were not really part of the muscle car genre but were often modified into fast cars. This is a Chevy Monza. It was based on the unpopular Vega, but could be purchased with a V8 engine. During the muscle car era It was not uncommon to see a Pinto, Vega, or Gremlin at the drag strip with a big V8 stuffed into it. I saw NO Pintos, one Gremlin (stock 6 cylinder) and two modified V8 Vegas at the entire show. Ford also made a Pinto based Mustang II for a few years in the late 1970's. They were available with a 302 V8. I did not see any of these either.

Customs and Modifieds

There were plenty of custom cars here too. Some of these started life as a production car, some were created from scratch, and for some, it is hard to tell.

Here a "1953 Corvette" was made from a new Vette.

Just think about how many "one off" parts were needed to build this car.

Another Custom

And another.

How about a custom 6 seater pickup truck. A supercharged big block will get Fred moving.

In case he isn't moving fast enough, there is always Nitrous!

Tag along for Dino

Different, but I have heard this somewhere before.

What can you say about this?

OK, I will admit to building a Shag, Velvet and Naugahyde Chevy van, but that was in 1976. This one was too cool though.

Those of us who are Mopar fans will recognize those tail lights. Think 1970 Road Runner.

Older Cars.

There was plenty of automotive history before the muscle car era. In fact most people will admit that the muscle car era began in the 1950's, although everyone will have a different story depending on their point of view. Some of these cars are well restored stock cars, while others have been modified.

Model T and Model A Fords.

A very nice 1964 Chevy Corvair convertible. This is the car that Ralph Nader tried to ban, and was the subject of the book Unsafe At Any Speed.

An Edsel station wagon.

A 1957 Ford 300.

A nice pair of Fords in front of the lake.

CAR CLUBS

There were a few areas set aside for car clubs to display their cars together. There seemed to be clubs devoted to a single make, or to a single genre, or to a geographic location.