| At the end, there was a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara. There, awards for the concours were handed out, with Best of Show going to Larry Mack's 1970 Buick Skylark GS Stage 1; People's Choice went to Michael Hammer's 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra (second went to a white '58 Corvette convertible owned by Neil Campbell and Juli Vander Mey, with third going to Holly Graves' 1969 ShadowFax Charger). Mark and Tina Bachman's 1969 Camaro won Best Paint; Holly Graves' '69 Charger took Best Modified; Neil Campbell and Juli Vander Mey got Best Open Car with that old Corvette; and . . . naturally, Michael Hammer's Cobra was the Car Most People Wanted to Drive. In the drag-racing end of the event, Tom Rhein and his '65 Chevy Impala had fastest time for 60-, 330-, 660- and 1000-foot marks, as well as the quarter-mile at 13.456 seconds; Chris Hoskins was fastest off the line (.025 seconds) with his '68 Shelby GT500 KR. A few of the other times had Bill Scheffler's red, white and blue 1970 AMC Javelin SST (an old Trans-Am racecar) doing the quarter in 13.495 seconds; Holly Graves' Charger did 13.989 and Larry Mack's Buick Skylark managed 14.617. And, if you missed the Muscle Car 1000 in 2006, you can look ahead to 2007, when the tour will take in Southern California. Starting on Sunday, October 7th, over five days 40 American muscle cars (including Shelby Cobras) will visit Dana Point, Coronado, Palm Desert, Arrowhead, Fontana, Burbank, and Beverly Hills. The price? Suck it up and reach for that wallet. It costs $5,950 per team (one car and two drivers), and it includes exceptional dinners, luxury accommodations, special parties and activities like a clambake and exclusive tours of private collections. The official word: "Schedules permitting, all of this year's participants said they'll be back next year for the third chapter in this unique Luxury Collector Car Tour. It's fast becoming every car guy and gal's dream event." |   Before they could start the event, each musclecar in the Bacara parking lot was fitted with vinyl decals so they could be easily identified.
 Alex Dastmalchi roars down the dragstrip in his '71 'Cuda 340 Coupe, complete with billboard graphics. Awesome, dude!
 Mike Hammer and his buddy, John Cummings, find their way to the end of the Avila pier in Mike's amazing, injected, original 7,500-mile 427 Cobra.
 The lunch stop on the first day was at the Olde Port Inn at the end of the Avila Pier. It was a very cool location with only 15 parking places out at the end, so it was first-come, first-parked.
 If you're talking about musclecars, you've gotta talk about this car, owned for years by GTO historian Jim Wangers. It's a '69 1/2 Judge model, born to be wild!
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