he picturesque town of Pleasanton looks like most small suburbs surrounding the California Bay Area: clean city streets, well-kept houses and lots of white picket fences. It also happens to be home court for the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, and on May 30 and 31st the tiny town was overrun with the hordes of brightly hued hot rods and muscle cars for the club’s 16th annual Summer Get-Together.
The show was packed with over 2,000 cars and it was the first time Goodguys setup a Street Challenge Autocross competition, which are normally reserved for larger “national series” Goodguys events. According to Goodguys, over 70 cars signed up to run the fun yet challenging autocross course, which drew hundreds of onlookers loudly cheering throughout the weekend.
Our in-house Mopar R&D project, a 1970 Challenger R/T we like to call E-Max, made its autocross debut at the event with Hotchkis chief engineer Aaron Ogawa behind the wheel. E-Max was the only Chrysler product in the field and when the smoke cleared, Aaron secured a second place victory in the vendor class with a blistering 38.136 second run.
E-Max is a rolling showcase of new Hotchkis Mopar suspension hardware, including Geometry Corrected Tubular A-Arms, front and rear Sport Sway Bars, Sport Leaf Springs, Sport Shocks, Steering and Strut rods and Subframe Connectors. It also features big Stoptech brakes with six piston front calipers and four-pot rear calipers, as well as Forgeline wheels and Yokohama Advan Neova tires. Recent additions include a custom Moroso oil pan, Red Line synthetic oil, a Classic 5-Speed Tremec TKO and MSD ignition.
On the customer front, autocross guru Mary Pozzi from Salinas, California, piloted her incredible Hotchkis-equipped ’73 Camaro RS to the fastest run of the event – 36.621 seconds – locking in her second Street Machine Class victory in as many events. Mary recently did a little fine-tuning to her Camaro Performers Magazine cover car, adding a new ram-air system and swapping on new fender braces. She and husband/crew chief David are both extremely active on both Pro-Touring.com and Camaros.net, where they dole out tech advice and driving tips on a regular basis. We’re constantly floored by Mary’s incredible driving and are proud to have them as customers.
The car show as also packed with incredible cars, ranging from low-slung lead sleds and open top roadsters to a huge assortment of Detroit muscle. Street Machines are becoming a major presence at Goodguys events and we always enjoy talking with their proud, enthusiastic owners. Overall it was a fantastic weekend and we’re looking forward to the next Goodguys event on the Hotchkis calendar, the 2009 Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Hopefully we’ll see you there!