Welcome to my first blog post! The inspiration for this is my first trip to Wendover Utah for the Bonneville Salt Flats race. The scheduling planets have aligned this year…we are going to Bonneville August 17-21, the Pleasanton Goodguys show August 22-24, and then to El Toro Ca for the SuperChevy Suspension Challenge after that.[more on that later...]  The hook here is that we are driving our 66 Chevelle the entire trip. Since we are a street/race suspension company I thought it may be appropriate to demonstrate how our suspension will travel 2000 miles across the desert and then see how it stacks up against 9 other manufacturers at the suspension challenge. I will attempt to add to this thread at least every day during the trip with comments and pictures…maybe even video if I can figure it out.

The guys making the trip will be me [Bret Voelkel], Tony Bicknell [one of our first sales/tech guys] Bill Wilder [our Street Rod display guy], Ty Hauer, and Brad Coomer [our hotrod builders/mechanics]. We will be leaving on Aug. 15 and should arrive in Bonneville on Sunday afternoon. We’ll take in the bonneville experience on Monday thru Wednesday and head for Pleasanton on Thursday. After doing the Pleasanton Goodguys show on Friday thru Sunday. After that we’ll head to El Toro to race the Chevelle. For those who will be at Bonneville and/or Pleasanton…make sure to stop by and say hello. Feel free to make sure we haven’t run out of cold refreshments.

We are also taking our motorhome so we don’t have to sleep on the side of the road and smell bad after day 2. I know…real hotrodders would drive the Chevelle “naked” with no support. I have done that [Power Tour '97]…that is why I don’t anymore.

The REAL “reason” we are driving the Chevelle is the Super Chevy Suspension Challenge. Super Chevy Magazine has invited Air Ride Technologies, Art Morrison, Detroit Speed, Fatmans, TCI, Alston Chassisworks, Roadster Shop, Jim Meyer, BMR and Heidt’s to participate in a day of slalom, braking and autocross testing for an upcoming magazine article. I can’t WAIT! I have chased [and been chased by] the Detroit Speed Camaro for the last couple of years at the Goodguys autocrosses…this is the first time that I will be able to go heads up with the other manufacturers. It will be an interesting day, to say the least!

Until tomorrow…

Bret