2006 Craft Summer Nationals

Aliens landed in a nearby field and began to take photos, but no one cared. Everyone was too busy burnin' rubber and cruising the fairgrounds at the GM Performance Division Presents the Car Craft Summer Nationals. Why did GM present it? Because the company wanted to show off its meaty GTO, the Gen III-powered Solstice, and the '06 Indy pace-car Corvette. We were there along with a herd of oiled up Miss Car Craft contestants just lookin' at stuff. This year, the Nats bulged with 4,680 cars, 28,952 gapers, and one '78 Caprice that used to be a chicken coop. Feast your eyes!

	Glad checks out the specs on '69 Camaro steel bodies on display in the GM Restoration Parts tent. Could there be another Project Camaro buildup in the future?	It's always cool to see race cars cruising the fairgrounds. Check out the quarter-turn fasteners on the hood AND the front bumper.
Flying rubber shrapnel from Mike Haag's passenger-side tire sent people running for cover during the burnout competition elimination rounds. "The wife's gonna be pissed," he deadpanned after surveying the damage to his '01 S-10 pickup. He seemed more upset that he didn't have an extra tire to frag to finish the competition.	Brad Johnson's '67 Chevelle made big power on the DynoMax Performance Exhaust Dyno Challenge chassis dyno Sunday afternoon, but not as big as he thought it should. Low nitrous-bottle pressure was found to be the culprit, and after a good Samaritan in the crowd offered up his own nitrous bottle for the next pull, the Chevelle pounded out peak numbers of 767 hp and 689 lb-ft.	Randy Atwood bangs gears in his '95 Impala SS. Astute readers know, of course, that these cars never came with a manual trans. Randy's T56 swap was accomplished with the help of a conversion kit from B-Body High Performance. He says he still giggles like a schoolgirl every time he drives his car.
We were dreaming 401 and four-speed, but this '74 AMX actually has a 304 with a three-speed. Deborah Sanders is the original owner, and someone told her to take the Javelin to a car show. So here it is.	GM Performance Division sent an entire fleet of street machines, including a mega-decibel GTO, Corvette pace car, and that Gen III-powered Pontiac Solstice. The company was giving away rides around the fairgrounds all day long.	Look closely at the white Mustang. That's a 211/44-inch chop out of the roof of the '69 fastback. Jim Voorhees of Lake City, Minnesota, performed the surgery. Despite the radical buzz cut, the car is very subtle. The stripe down the side says it all: Chop 1.
This might be either Randy or Mike Fast, but we forgot which. What we do know is that he is from Canada and won't admit that the "driving hats" help get Canadian chicks. We'd use Molson instead, but that's just us.	According to the Car Craft finger, GM is reproducing part number 3841126, the much-too-bitchin' cross-ram intake for the first-gen Z/28. It even has the correct factory stamping so that one you've been hoarding is now worthless. Good job.	This is an English version of a '67 Barracuda driven by Jeff Pallum. Note the amber England-only turn-signal lights, wrong-side drive, and backward wipers. Jeff claims it is one of three or so sent overseas, and this was the only convertible made.