| It's the sound, man! It ripples off the big gray concrete barriers as sparkling old musclecars express themselves with the deep grunt of fat pistons working inside cylinders measured in cubic inches; with spinnin', smokin' tires, crisp shifts and undeniable quarter-mile times flashing in the distance. It's the serious side of an event designed and run for those muscular cars from the '60s and '70s. We caught up with it at just about the mid-point of the 5-day event that moved rapidly from Goleta, California, north to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma and on to a date with yet another vineyard later that same day . . . and then made a run back south along lovely roads in a high-speed, 1,000-mile long parade called the Muscle Car 1000. In this measure of man and machine, talk is cheap. Launching a car down a track thick with black rubber, countering the pull to the left or right, keeping it off the walls . . . and lookin' good in the process is a no-bull exercise. You bet the adrenaline was pumping! But the real thrust of this event is not so much competition as it is cruising a thunder car for 1,000 miles. Amid a collection of Pontiac GTOs, AMC Javelins, Shelby GT500s and GT350s, '69 Camaros, Charger R/T Coupes and a '70 Buick Skylark GS Stage 1 beauty-there was something as curvaceous as a Snake: Mike Hammer's half-million-dollar 427 Cobra with Carroll Shelby's scrawl on the glove box. Mike, who admitted driving this low-mileage Cobra like it was a replica up the Pacific Coast Highway, didn't push it down the drag strip. But he wasn't alone. Each car, in a way, is priceless. Would you take the chance of throwing it all away at Infineon Raceway? And, if you did, how were you getting home . . . or at least to the next Five-Star restaurant and another superb glass of wine? But, let's start at the beginning, where Roger Rohrdanz picks up the story: The half-mile long, tree-line private road leading into the beautiful Bacara Resort & Spa, plus the lush golf course grounds, should be a clue that this place is something special. It was also the starting point of this year's Muscle Car 1000-and there were unmistakable musclecars parked around the resort's fountain entry plaza. Participants had the afternoon to explore the resort, and then it was time for the private dinner in the Grand Rotunda. At the dinner, founder Chris Hoskins introduced everyone. The Tuesday driver's meeting produced an information binder with emergency numbers and-among other things-driving instructions for those who don't usually drive in the USA! Like every one of the five days of the schedule, there was an itinerary: On Tuesday it included Avila Pier (lunch), Hearst Castle (a private tour after closing), Eberle Winery (private dinner in the cave cellar), and that evening's accommodations at The Carlton Hotel. Then, only four more days to go! The lunch stop was at the Olde Port Inn at the end of the Avila Pier. A very cool location with only 15 parking places out at the end, so it was first-come, first-parked. The sign said "Inn", but we didn't see any rooms. The only residents were the seals and sea lions that lived under the pier. Up top, the bar & restaurant, was nice, though. We found the people at this event to be "real". They were warm, easy to talk to. They love their cars, and they like having a good time-our kind of people! In all, 21 musclecars were involved in this year's event, triple the number of the inaugural running. In addition, there were five additional support vehicles that joined the fray, all bearing the official Muscle Car 1000 shield. Peter Klutt of Dream Car Garage was the official starter at the Bacara Resort & Spa. From there, participants enjoyed lodging at five different elite hotels (besides the Bacara Resort & Spa, there was the Carlton (Atascadero), Mandarin Oriental (San Francisco), Vintage Inn (Yountville) and the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa (Monterey), various restaurants, a wealth of catered mid-day meals each day, a private tour of Hearst Castle, and they sipped their way through several wineries in Santa Barbara and Napa Valley, consuming cases of vino in the process. Beer came into play at the end of the day, while participants buffed their cars or tinkered with their engines. |   At the lively dinner, held in the third floor Grand Rotunda of the Bacara Resort & Spa, event founder Chris Hoskins introduced all the participants.
 Yee-Haw! Here you see Mark Bachman and his '69 Camaro hauling tail down the dragstrip at Infineon Raceway. The car, painted Sunset Orange Metallic, has a 383 stroker engine with over 400 horsepower on tap.
 Taking second-place in the People's Choice voting (behind a '66 Cobra) was this lovely '58 Corvette convertible owned by Neil Campbell and Juli Vander Mey. They didn't race it, but they didn't have to!
 Drew and Josephine Alcazar leave Bacara Resort & Spa in their '74 AMC Javelin AMX. It boasted a 401 cubic inch V-8 with a 4-speed transmission. Drew owns the Russo & Steele auction house that's based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
 Tom Rhein may have surprised some with the fastest time of the day, but with a 502 cubic inch V-8 rated at 502 horsepower, it made perfect sense. It cost over $85,000 to restore this no-rust car from Arizona. This old dog could fly, doing the quarter in 13.456 seconds.
 Before anyone could go racing at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, everyone had to attend the driver's meeting and listen to the rules.
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