Okay, the 2007 Muscle Car 1000 is nearly officially over. (I think the only “official” activity is for the rest of the participants to check out of the Beverly Hills Hotel tomorrow morning.)

But … there will still be Day 4 pictures posted, and a Day 5 summary plus photos. That will happen on Friday. Then, over the weekend I will post (1) a link to my photos (a highlights link and full set link), and (2) a link to a site where we can all post our photos for everyone to share.

So please keep your eyes posted here for a week or so until all the final updates are posted and available.

Yet another jam-packed day of driving, friends, laughing and luxury began this morning with the local television station interviewing Chris and a number of the drivers. As we left the Desert Marriott, a few of our “less restrained” drivers peeled out as they passed your humble camera crew, leaving not only the skid marks… but some good footage as well.

After the obligatory stop for fuel, the caravan worked it’s way through the hills, through the windmill farm, and over the same railroad tracks about 8 times to the California Speedway in Fontana. Racing began almost immediately, although some drivers actually had their lunch, and some had their cars cleaned.

We had a few mechanical failures (i.e., a broken driveshaft) for the first time in the MC1000’s history, but everyone was safe — the most important thing. We made the curvy drive up to Arrowhead along the Rim of the World highway, and had a fantastic winemaker’s dinner at the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.

Starting from the wonderful St. Regis, we headed up Orange County’s favorite twisty route: Ortega Highway. From there, we proceeded on up Highway 74, through fantastic canyons, pine forests, and out into the desert. Eventually we ended up at the Palm Springs Air Museum, to a most incredible catered lunch under the wing of a B-52.

The cars were parked around an older Mustang aircraft … perfect in that we have a number of Mustang automobiles in the rally. Lots of pictures were taken, and then we made the short trip over to the Desert Springs Marriott. Here (where I write this), we took a boat to our restaurant. Somehow tonight devolved into a wonderful party of sake, beer, dancing and karaoke … one of the most fun, wild parties I’ve seen in a long time.

Here again are a few somewhat random photos from today. (After the rally is over, stay tuned to the blog … links to ALL the final photos will be posted here for you to see.) Again in chronological order, some photos from Day 3:

For a dozen participants, the first full day of the Muscle Car 1000 started at 5:30 am. They arose early, and drove in the dark over to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier docked in San Diego, California’s harbor.

In an amazing experience in itself, the cars were craned up on the deck of the carrier. From there, they were driven through the middle, and over to an “elevator” larger than most houses. The elevator raised all the cars on deck, where later they were drag-raced down the end of the carrier!

The group was also treated to a catered lunch on the deck, and an amazing talk by one of America’s true heros, Medal of Honor winner Tibor Rubin — wow. Fox Television did 4 live feeds (at least) covering the event, and there were many interesting discussions with the producer Lindsey and reporter William William La Jeunesse.

From San Diego, the rally headed about 50 miles north to The St. Regis, where I have personally experienced some of the best service I can ever remember. Our cocktail reception was again surrounded by classic Muscle, and all the teams seem to be having a great time.

Following are a few photos, in chronological order.

I just noticed that I need to update all of the headers and blog information … that may/may not be forthcoming, as the trip is off to a fast and furious start … but I am aware, and we’ll do our best to get it updated for you. Thanks!)

Today, the 2007 MuscleCar 1000 kicked off at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego! After a cocktail reception around the guady-yet-loveable Superbird, a dinner reception introduced all of this year’s participants. Here are a couple of photos from today…

The pictures are now fully posted for your viewing (and obtaining prints) at:

www.printroom.com

… just click on the Muscle Car 1000 category. Printroom is a great lab, and produces top-quality photos … so that 8×10 of your beautiful muscle car will look great.

Oh … and one more thing: If you need to contact me (Jason) about anything my email is jason@thecalendarfactory.com … and my phone number is (714) 575-0000. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you again next year!

Leaving Monterey in two separate caravans, we headed down to Morro Bay for lunch, then down to The Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara for the grand finale dinner.

As the official videographer as well, I was a bit behind on video editing and bypassed lunch … and also didn’t photograph nor video the dinner. So there’s no footage of Saturday to upload. However, I can tell you that the Awards dinner was hilarious fun. Drew and Stephanie were again the hosts of the unofficial awards portion of the night, showering praise and fun “roasting” down upon everyone present, and some who weren’t. We watched 16 minutes of the video, and gave awards for the fastest car that drag raced (in an upset … an Impala!), and the people’s choice award (Michael’s Cobra). Chris and Michelle were honored in surprise announcements by several of the MC1000 attendees, and wore their new pink robes for part of the ceremony.

It was clear (to me, at least) by the end of the night that this was an historic moment in the path of muscle car history. The first rally could’ve been a dismal failure, never to be repeated. But it -was- repeated, and the second annual event featured more fun, more cars, and even more friendships. Was it perfect? No, of course not… but was it everything I expected and more? Yes. And I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I’ll miss hanging out with such a great group of people, and that I’ll always remember the amazing cars, drives and venues of our trip.

Special thanks to Chris and Michelle for their vision in making this happen … to Jan for her execution of the vision … and to Mark Ontiveros for his major — and important — support of the photography/videography aspect of the trip.

We had an incredible room at the Monterey Plaza Hotel. It overlooked Monterey Bay, and — since I was up late at night and early in the morning, I was able to capture 2 views: night and morning. It’s a large file (1.3 Mb), so only click-below if you don’t mind a few seconds download time. What follows is an animation I’ve put together that shows the difference from night to morning:

Read the rest of this entry »

Although in “real life” we’ve returned from an incredible second annual Muscle Car 1000, I’m going to finish off the highlights on the blog over the next day or so. So keep your eye out for a few more posts.

On Friday we had the morning free to wander from the Vintage Inn and see surrounding Napa. Our small caravan happened to head over to Opus One, although everyone did what they wanted:

After that, we caravanned (is that a word?) down to Monterey, to the beautiful Monterey Plaza Hotel and dinner at The Aquarium… which was unbelievable:

Oh … and one of the major highlights of the trip — our Day 4 Merryvale Cask Room Dinner — well, its photo didn’t make it onto yesterday’s entry. So here’s a picture from Thursday night’s dinner (and yes, by the way, this is a real, unedited picture of our dinner!):