2006 Street Machine Summer Series

Car crafting is just as much about being sociable as it is about cars. Think about it. How much fun would the whole car scene be if it were just you and a couple of friends? Add a few thousand people who share your interest in high-performance musclecars, and now you have a party. That's exactly what the Car Craft Summer Nationals is all about. It's a celebration of horsepower!

St. Paul may not sound like the car capital of the Midwest, but don't let those Viking ancestors fool you. They know how to put on a car show. Find your way to the state fairgrounds in St. Paul, and those hundreds of acres will be full of Camaros, Mustangs, 'Cudas, and an eclectic collection of iron that only Car Craft can attract.

Over the years, we've run across hundreds of excellent examples of musclecar mania, so we thought we'd look back at some of the more memorable machines and people we've met along the way. Besides the cars, we guarantee that if you spend a couple of minutes talking with a few car owners, you will not only learn a bunch about their machines, but you'll also discover that car people are some of the friendliest and most interesting people you'll ever meet. Sprinkle in a few technical tidbits on auto wrenching, and the hard part will be finding time to take it all in.

Consider that the St. Paul event this year will probably attract nearly 4,000 cars. If you're only interested in 10 percent of them, that's still 400 cars to look at and 400 owners to meet. Blend in the burnout contest on both Saturday and Sunday, a Miss Car Craft Contest on the main stage that your socially inept buddies will insist on witnessing up close, and the DynoMax Dyno Challenge, and there's precious little time left for food and perhaps a cold drink or two. And if you're a participant, you get to park right in the middle of all the action, where the spectators pay to see your car!

You can't afford not to be there. So blow off that rent payment this month, and make plans today to make the trek to St. Paul. We'll know if you don't show.