Hot Rod Power Tour 2016

[Garry Bopp]

Many thanks to Factory Five for inviting me to join them for the “triple play” option … FFR Open House, followed by the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour and finishing with the London Cobra Show and Mid Ohio track days.

This is long overdue, but this retirement business is keeping me very busy! I know, it’s a tough life. I recently completed the Hot Rod Power Tour with Factory Five. My very good friend, John Tongish, foolishly accepted my invitation to be copilot/navigator/relief driver. John and I met up in Baton Rouge and joined the Factory Five group on day one of the Tour, which was a huge car show in Gonzales, LA. What normally happens in the afternoon in southern Louisiana? Thunderstorms, of course, and lots of rain. We put car covers on the cars to keep them dry, removed the covers after the storm passed, then put them on again when the next wave of showers passed through. At one point, there were several inches of standing water in the show area. Beautiful cars everywhere in the show area … hot rods, rat rods, muscle cars, unique cars of all brands, new and old. Great fun hanging out with John, Tony, Fred, Erik, Ron, David, Scott and Bill & his son, on the Power Tour.







Day two of the Tour was the first driving day and started off cruising on the Interstate Highways. As soon as the route left the freeway, we drove into a massive traffic jam. John and I took the first opportunity to get back on the freeway. We dodged most of the rain but did hit a steady light rain the last 20 minutes of the drive. I found several areas that need to be sealed up better to keep the cockpit dry. We arrived at the Royal Purple Raceway, near Houston, TX, early afternoon and helped “Honey Badger” with the steady flow of folks that had questions about the Factory Five products. The rest of the FFR gang arrived a little later. The heat and humidity combined to deliver afternoon thunderstorms again, raining for several hours. John and I elected to wait out the rain while the rest of the FFR group headed out for the 45 minute drive in light rain to the hotel. When the rain finally quit about 7:30, John and I found a nearby hotel and spent the night there.









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[Garry Bopp]

Day three of the tour had John and I playing “catch up” with the rest of the FFR group. We departed the hotel in 99% humidity and entered into Houston’s rush hour traffic. We had a little excitement when a tractor trailer ahead of us began shedding cardboard packing material. We dodged most of it, but a chunk of it got stuck under the driver side exhaust pipe … several cars that passed us pointed to that area of the car so we found an exit and stopped to remove the cardboard. Glad it didn’t catch on fire from the hot exhaust pipe! After clearing Houston, the ride became more enjoyable, especially as we approached the hill country near Austin. We arrived at the Circuit of the Americas, again at mid-afternoon. The extreme rainy conditions we experienced the first two days were now replaced by extreme heat! The highlight of the day for me was meeting up with John and Trina Braun. John and I were in the same Air Force pilot training class and had not seen each other since graduation, 44 years ago! Great to reconnect!









Day four was a very pleasant drive as we got an early start and the skies were cloudy, keeping the temperatures down. We arrived at Grand Prairie, TX early afternoon, and of course the Honey Badger was all set up and greeted us with his perpetual smile. What a pleasure to work with Scott Bell (his real name)! A local Factory Five builder/owner spent some time talking with us. His car was parked nearby so I walked over to check it out. His screen name is 2BKing and he built a “flip top” Mk4, with a Coyote motor. Great workmanship and fabrication skills to make this work. King has shared his detailed build plans with others wanting to do the same modification to their build. Tony and the rest of the FFR gang were very late to arrive, as the Mk4 he was driving had transmission problems. The issue was fixed on the side of the road but took a good bit of time and inventiveness, as tools were very limited. A hammer and screwdriver were used to do surgery on the tranny cover!

[Garry Bopp]

Day five again dawned with cloudy skies, which made the morning drive much more comfortable. We arrived in Oklahoma City in the early afternoon, joining Scott at the Factory Five truck. I had two visitors on this day, both friends from my days in the Air Force. Retired AF Lt.Col. Jim Watts was the first visitor. We were both on the same KC-135 crew from 1975-1977. Later, retired AF Lt.Col. Walter West arrived for a visit. Walter and I were on the same crew when we trained on the KC-135 and then were on the same crew when we arrived at Altus AFB, OK, our assigned base after training. We had a nice time telling stories about our time as AF crewmembers. Extreme heat was the order of the day, once again. I left the show early, as I wanted to take my car to a car wash and clean off the accumulated grime. As luck would have it, there was a car wash across the street from our hotel. It was nice to have a clean car again!








Day six was a beautiful drive on the 2 lane country roads, north of Oklahoma City. The scenery was beautiful ranch and farm country, which reminded me so much of my heritage, having grown up on a family farm in North Dakota. John and I got slightly off course for a few miles (ok, about 25 miles) but eventually rejoined the route. We arrived in Wichita early afternoon and were greeted by the smiling Scott Bell. We had an international visitor to our display, “Hannah from Holland”, accompanied by her friend “Ava from America”! This was quite a coincidence for me as my son-in-law, Stefan, is from Holland!

[Garry Bopp]

Day seven was a pleasant drive from Wichita to Kansas City, arriving at the Kansas Speedway early afternoon. Once again, the heat was extreme. Nothing like standing on asphalt parking lots in high heat! As always, there was a constant flow of folks at the Factory Five display. The 818 coupe drew the most attention at most of our stops, but the rolling chassis was a close second. The ’33 Hot Rod was also a very popular display car. By the end of this tour, I knew a lot more about all the products that Factory Five offers. It seems that I spent a lot of time saying, “Tony, I need some help here with a technical question”. Between Tony and Ron, all questions were answered … usually with a smile!

Looking back, the Power Tour was rather challenging due to the extreme weather conditions. Days were long and hot and there was very little down time. By day 7, I was ready to head back home to air conditioned comfort! I considered John Tongish to be a real hero on this trip. He never complained about anything, not even about having to crawl in and out of my challenge car! John is a “road warrior” without equal. We logged a little over 1,500 miles of driving the car in six days. Sore butts from driving, sore feet from standing on hot asphalt at the FFR display every day … but an incredible “bucket list” experience! Saturday morning, John and I shared a taxi to Kansas City International Airport and parted ways … until the next chapter in our ongoing “Excellent Adventure”.















I forgot to mention that when John was driving ... he likes to go really fast!

[wallace18]

Very cool pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Warden]

Very nice narrative Garry! Now I have the fever like never before! My wife will not be happy with you!

[erlihemi]

Thanks for sharing your adventure. Very motivational!

[John Tongish]

Thank you Factory Five for letting me play in your sandbox and experience the Power Tour. Though Garry and I may have complained about the heat and weather, it will not be an issue when we do the Power Tour in the future. Of course we will be driving Garry's newly constructed Coupe with AIR CONDITIONING!!

I must apologize to Tony Zullo. Though I enjoyed being pressed into service helping man the FFR tent and attempting to answer questions about the cars, I am sure I misled many folks who will call up Tony or Sally and ask why they can't have this or that when one of the company reps said it was possible. The bottom line is everyone (with no exceptions) were impressed with all the cars. The interest in Factory Five and the technical knowledge of those attending was incredible. Having to ask others the answer too many of the questions made me wonder how I ever built my car. The Power Tour was great fun and my thanks to all at Factory Five for letting me participate.

I must extend a special thanks to Scott ("Honey Badger") who does a lot more than just drive the truck. He, along with Garry and the others, made it a great experience. I hope to do it again sometime.

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[2bking]

Garry, I enjoyed visiting with you and seeing your car while the power tour was in Grand Prairie (Dallas Area). I also spent some time talking with Honey Badger which gave me an inside look at the work behind the scenes required to make the tour happen. While waiting for the cars to show up from the road trip from Austin, I browsed the other vendor exhibits. There are some very interesting innovations in the hot rod industry and technology is on display everywhere. I'm glad I made the local trip to the Grand Prairie stop and thanks for posting the pictures.