Car Craft magazine’s annual street-machine event returned to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds July 16-18, drawing thousands of cars and spectators on a steamy, stormy weekend.

Muscle-era vehicles have long been the mainstay of the Car Craft Summer Nationals and they were not in short supply this year, but the event also featured plenty of newer cars as well as old-school street rods and classics. The event’s always popular burnout competition was back, as was the dyno challenge, the launch-box competition and a longer version of the autocross.

The Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 37th annual Back to the ’50s weekend June 18-20 featured nearly 12,000 registered street rods, customs and classics and drew more 100,000 spectators to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

As if that wasn’t enough, more than 350 vendors and exhibits, live music, loads of fair food, a Mecum-hosted auction and a huge swap meet added to the hoopla.

Here is a tiny sampling of this massive event, which gets bigger and better each year.

Go to msra.com for more information on Back to the ’50s and stay tuned for details on next year’s show!

It’s easy to go broke building an engine, especially if you’re starting from scratch. But with a little patience and a lot of searching, affordable performance is not out of reach.

My first engine build is a testament to that. It’s not as cheap as it possibly could be, but it is a budget-built mill that manages to crank out 417 hp at 6,100 rpm and 386 lb-ft of torque at 4,300 rpm using mostly second-hand parts.

The engine, which I’ve dubbed the Thrifty 350, has been six years in the making. It was finally completed this month and it will soon replace the stock 305 in my ‘84 Monte Carlo SS. Check back for details on the build and the swap and visit the multimedia page to see a video of the 350 roaring on the engine Dyno.

A chat with Car Craft and Hot Rod Publisher Jerry Pitt at this year’s Summer Nationals.

The Car Craft Summer Nationals returned to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds July 17-19, this time with a political agenda.

Car Craft magazine’s annual street machine event, sponsored by GM Performance Division, has drawn thousands of muscle cars, late models and other vehicles to the fairgrounds each year for the past decade. With a dyno challenge, autocross course, launch box competition and burnout contest, the Summer Nationals has become more than a show.

The event continues to grow each year, but with the Big Three’s troubles, the push for ever “greener” auto technology and the launching of government programs that threaten many of the vehicles Car Craft is all about, the mood was more defensive this year than ever before. I heard the concerns from show-goers – and loud and clear from Car Craft and Hot Rod Publisher Jerry Pitt.

“We’ve got this opportunity to take a message to this group here,” Pitt said. “Don’t leave without knowing our community is in jeopardy. There are people out there who don’t want you to drive your car anymore. There are people that think that they have a better answer. They don’t have a better answer.”

Pitt said Car Craft is “deeply vigilant” about protecting car hobbyists’ rights to own and drive their vehicles and lately, that effort has become a top priority.

He said many of the people out there waving a green flag don’t realize that much of what they’re fighting against is actually what they want.

“Turning in an old car doesn’t help the economy or the environment,” Pitt said. “They need to recognize that most of these cars are our hobby cars. We don’t use them all the time.

“A ‘69 Chevelle that’s been restored twice has a much smaller carbon footprint than a brand new Prius, because a Prius has parts that come from all over the world, it’s got to be plugged into the wall [to draw power from a plant somewhere], and where do those batteries go when they go south?”

Pitt, who organizes the Hot Rod Power Tour as well as the Summer Nationals, is pushing hard to grow both events in the face of the hobby’s challenges. The Summer Nationals will continue to be in St. Paul, a site suggested back when Chuck Schifsky (son of drag-race legend Bill Schifsky) was editor of Car Craft.

“He always touted how big the car culture was in Minnesota,” Pitt said. “He got into a position of influence on Car Craft and said what we really need to do is have a summer nationals event at the fairgrounds or do something in Minnesota.”

So the event was born. Schifsky is no longer with the magazine (which is based on the west coast), but Car Craft keeps coming back here.

“Why do we come here? Well, you know, nobody’s from L.A. We all grew up somewhere else,” Pitt said. “And we just know that car culture and the center of the world as it relates to car culture is really back east, it’s in the Midwest, it’s a two-day drive from Columbus, Ohio and you have 80 percent of America’s car enthusiasts.

“Yeah, there’s a great amount of car enthusiasts in California, but they don’t go anywhere and they have soccer games on the weekend. You go to a car show in L.A. and it’s 5:30 to 8:30 in the morning at Donut Derelicts on Huntington Beach and it’s over.”

The Summer Nationals drew a little more than 1,000 cars the first year and has grown to roughly 5,000 in more than a decade. That’s still only half the size of the Minnesota Street Rod Association’s annual Back to the ‘50s show, but Pitt expects it to keep growing.

“I want to make this as big as Power Tour is from the standpoint of its veracity and its acceptance and I want more companies and more people to understand how big this show really is,” he said.

This year’s event incorporated Car Craft’s Real Street Eliminator competition – a combination of autocross, dyno and launch box competitions. A braking challenge held last year was scrapped after a Mustang careened off the track and into a cement barricade. Safety is a priority, Pitt said, and magazine staffers worked closely with professionals from the Sports Car Club of America to make sure nothing went wrong at this year’s track events.

The fairgrounds don’t have much to offer these days when it comes to motorsports, but Car Craft makes it work.

“We’d love to have a dragstrip here, we’d love to have a roundy-round track, we’d love to have a demolition derby, we’d love to have a bikini contest every day, but at some point, you’ve got to say there’s just too much,” Pitt said. “People come out, they’re religious about getting here early, they get their spot, they cruise the fairgrounds, they talk to the vendors, they meet friends that they saw last year and it’s a very comfortable car existence.”

He said Car Craft is working hard to keep it that way for years to come.

Go to the multimedia section for videos from the Car Craft Summer Nationals.

Location: Belview, MN

Want to see your ride on Minnesota Motorhead? Send a photo with the make, model and year of your vehicle to jake@mnmotorhead.com. Include your full name, the city you live in and a few details about your car.

In the real world, U.S. automakers were still in trouble June 19-21. Bailouts and bankruptcy were still the buzz words. A big question mark still hung over the future of American automobile production.

But at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, happier times returned in a big way – if only for a weekend.

The Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 36th annual Back to the ’50s event attracted more than 11,500 vehicles from Detroit’s glory days – the days when the U.S. flexed its automotive muscle with authority as the undisputed global leader in personal transportation.

Those days might be gone, but the organizers, participants and spectators of Back to the ’50s have made sure they’re not forgotten. From rusted-out rat rods to squeaky-clean customs and everything between, the diversity of vehicles at the show was incredible. As long as the model year was 1964 or earlier, it was probably at Back to the ’50s.

The show is the largest of its kind in the world, regularly drawing cars from throughout the U.S. and a few other countries and more than 100,000 spectators. This year was no different, economic crisis and all.

For a few days in St. Paul, time was reversed. Chrome, fins and V8s ruled. All was well in Motor City.

Hopefully the glory days aren’t all behind us.

Minnesota’s car culture took a big hit early June 21, when longtime Minnesota Street Rod Association member Gib Sagdalen, better known as Gibby, died in his sleep from what his family believes was a heart attack. He was 64.

Sagdalen, who was paralyzed from the waist down after complications from hip surgery in January 2008, received an outpouring of support from family and friends last July at a car show and fundraiser called the Gibby Gathering (see the story here). Local car club the Gasaholics, of which Sagdalen was a member, organized the event, which drew hundreds of people and raised $13,000.

Known for years as the go-to guy for springs, Sagdalen retired from Kremer Spring, Alignment and Body in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, several years ago. He spent much of his free time working on and driving his bright orange, 427-powered ‘55 Buick, a former MSRA Custom of the Year.

Using hand controls installed with his son a couple weeks ago, Sagdalen drove his car last weekend to the MSRA’s 36th annual Back to the ’50s show at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. His wife, Sandy, said in an e-mail that he died peacefully in his sleep early in the morning June 21.

Visitation for Sagdalen is June 26 from 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 920 Holley Ave., St. Paul Park. The service will immediately follow the visitation.

Attendees are asked to wear Gibby Gathering or Custom of the Year (from the year Sagdalen won) shirts if they have them. A procession to Fort Snelling will take place after the funeral, so those with street rods and customs are encouraged to drive them.

Whew! What a haul. Hot Rod’s 15th annual Power Tour officially came to a close June 13 with the “long hauler” ceremony at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

We spent all day June 13 and part of June 14 making the 17-hour drive back to Minneapolis. Round trip for us was roughly 2,500 miles.

The last couple legs of the tour – to Somerset, Kentucky, and Bristol – were by far the best for scenery. Lots of huge, rolling hills and winding roads. It rained both days, but the skies always cleared up by the time we reached the show venue.

Somerset was nice, but Bristol was incredible. As if being at the speedway and Thunder Valley wasn’t cool enough, the staff opened up the dragway for unlimited fun runs and for $25, you could take five laps around the half-mile oval.

We lacked the cash to get the Monte on the speedway, sadly, but I did make two passes on the strip. They were my first passes ever, so I was pretty psyched to have that experience at Thunder Valley of all places.

With a couple hundred pounds of junk crammed in the trunk, I ran a not-so-fast best of 16.048 at 85 mph. It was a full second faster than my first pass and I’m sure I could have dipped into the 15s if I ran again, but I opted to be easy on the car since we had a long drive home.

All in all, my time didn’t matter that much – I raced at Bristol!

A big group of long haulers attended the closing ceremony the day after our arrival in Bristol. There appeared to be as many or more than the 1,200 who completed the tour last year.

A couple GM crate engines and a 2010 Camaro were given away in a drawing (we were not winners). The Camaro drawing was open to anyone who wanted to fill out an online entry form and the winner did not have to be present. Hot Rod staff said they received thousands of ballots, but miraculously the car went to a long hauler who was actually at the final ceremony.

No word yet on where Power Tour will go next year, but it will probably start in Bristol, since it has a history of beginning at the previous year’s last stop. Hot Rod staff said June 12 will be the start date – mark your calendar.

Be sure to check out the multimedia section for videos from Power Tour.

We drove a roughly 250-mile route from South Bend, Indiana, to Dayton, Ohio, June 10 – the longest leg of the tour so far.

Rain returned for a while today, after I spent an hour the previous night washing and detailing the car! Oh well. I’m just glad I invested in new wiper blades before the trip.

The route was more scenic today. It was a mix of freeway and two-lane roads with lots of hills and trees. Many people in the small towns we passed through sat out in lawn chairs (after the rain subsided) or took a break from work to watch us cruise by. Allison has her parade wave perfected at this point.

Except for a major traffic jam in Toledo, Ohio, the driving today was smooth.

We ended today’s drive at the University of Dayton Arena, which was a great venue with a ton of spectators and local show participants.

Allison and I both signed up today  for a chance to win this year’s Power Tour giveaway - a 2010 Camaro SS. I also spent some time watching the Mobil 1 Dyno Challenge, which has been open to Power Tour participants at each venue.

The Holiday Inn we’re staying at tonight is surprisingly nice and once again it’s dominated by Power Tourers. Burnouts are unlikely tonight, though, since the local police have been patrolling the lot.

Getting up early (roughly 7:15 a.m. each day) is getting harder, but we’re looking forward to the drive to Somerset, Kentucky, tomorrow.

Finding Internet access every day of Power Tour is not as easy as I thought it would be. No luck at our hotel in South Bend, Indiana, June 8.

But our hotel made up for its lack of modernity – and cleanliness – by allowing burnouts in the parking lot. I’m not talking about a couple cars chirping tires, here. Several cars put on long, smoky displays of horsepower, smearing a stretch of asphalt with black rubber.

I have a small chip in my right front fender from a rock flung by a spinning tire to prove I was there. No worries, though. It was the most fun I’ve had in a parking lot in a while.

The drive to South Bend had its ups and downs. Traffic through Chicago was rough and construction in South Bend caused some serious traffic delays. And then there were the tolls.

But it was fun cruising with packs of old cars past the Chicago skyline and roaring out of the toll gates like we were at a dragstrip. The South Bend fairgrounds, where the show was on day three, had plenty of room and were very nice. The weather finally cooperated, too – sunny and 70s.

Day four was even nicer and the drive to St. Clemens was great. The route took us down winding country roads and past Michigan International Speedway. We also stopped at Ididit, Inc., a speed shop specializing in “hot rod stuff.”

This leg of the tour was initially supposed to take us to the GM tech center in Warren, Michigan, but GM’s financial fiasco caused the company to cancel that stop. A bummer, for sure, but the replacement venue, Metro Beach Metropark on Lake St. Clair, worked out fine.

Lots of sun on day four. Hopefully that continues. Next stop is Dayton, Ohio.