Welcome to Mopowered Tour 6/6.....The day from Hell....
note; we know the dates are goofy, just read on.......

As we did not get to the Hotel until after 3AM, we cut last night short with a quick post and tease of what was really going down. Today we'll fill you in on the real deal.

Looks like the rain was behind us and the whole gang was up early and ready for a an exciting day on the road …how much excitement we were all in for no one knew........

No sooner did we get on the road, the big 300 popped a rear axle bearing. Limping to the nearest exit we found ourselves in an abandoned Pizza Hut parking lot surrounded by corn fields as far as the eye could see. Somehow in a way that is beyond us, Skidzie still retained his Mr. Clean appearance and winning smile. Even with the smell of skunk juice, (Gear Oil) in the air!

Timmy Mike and the newest addition to the MCG/ Totally Auto MoPowered tour group, Newt, would soon earn spots in folklore for ever more. Attacking the rear like ravenous dawgs! Get this; using tools Dave gathered from the parking lot! Yes, a railroad tie, a piece of rusty re-bar, a hunk of telephone pole and some obscure tools from Newts trunk, they quickly ripped it apart and found the problem, a fried rear axle bearing.

With axles in hand Dave screamed off in the supercharged Magnum in search of parts. Charlie went for support and Cara tagged along to keep the notorious pair out of trouble! See 1st photo above. They trekked back to a race shop that Charlie made friends with the previous night and before we could get hungry, they were back with new bearings, gear lube, grease and anything else one could think of including a pile of lunch and ice to keep Newts beverages cool.

It wasn't long before nature called and Timmy and a ten pound rat made friends. As we waited for our speedy parts delivery we strayed just a bit. They say idle time is the devils workshop and our lil' experience was proof of that. As boredom set in, civilized human behavior degraded. Timmy and his dad found an abandoned telephone wire spool and played amusement park ride-or-die as an unexpected swarm of red ants began eating them alive. Skids excreted his artistic ability by using rocks to draw elaborate murals on the concrete. Before facing public defacing charges, he slyly slid the rocks to Kelsey. Soon after, we discovered Timmy crawled into a well. If they didn’t get back soon Rob feared there would be nothing left of the building. The crew arrived just in time to save the day! Timmy, Mike and Newt jumped on the project and four hours after our problem arose we were back on the road again!

Making up for lost time we pushed hard through the afternoon. We even sped through all those speed traps we were warned about! Sadly though, Charlies Runner was slowly dying. Smoke as now billowing out and into the car, filling it like something from a Cheech and Chong movie! Sent to the back of the pack, not even 90 weight gear oil in the crankcase would stop the rapid evacuation of oil. A call went out to Evansville Chrysler and a decision had to be made. We were expected at the Mopar movie night and our party plate was full but Charlie was hurtin for certain.

Once we got to the party we realized just how cool it was going to be, the girls went to work giving out all the goodie bags and free issues of MCG. Cara was found autographing copies with her in them and all were enjoying the show. Still, Charlie and his Smokey the B-Body were in the back of everyone's mind. Would it make it to the end?

We joked about a 13,000 dollar stroker from Indy, who was at the party but we thought that was out of the question well, almost. Reality was that the price was more than Charlie's checkbook could handle. What to do? A quick call to John Clark of Mopar Performance that's what. Dave and Rob devised a plan to kick some MP product back to Indy to help on the price. Still, even if we got Charlie a motor within budget how could we get all the work done by morning?

Easy, pull 'ol Smokey into the dealerships bays and pull an all-nighter!

And the thrash was on! and on and on..............