Year One has sponsored a caravan to the Mopar Nationals for the past several years. The caravan started at Year One’s Stone Drive warehouse, where they had graciously erected a tent and supplied breakfast for the drivers. As the time for departure neared, the collection of cars grew steadily. License plates from around the southeast marked each car. Several cars came from Florida, while the strongest showing was from Year One’s home state of Georgia. Along with the gathering of the more popular muscle cars, there were a few standouts among the group.

We drove on to Sevierville, Tennessee and stopped in at Hensley Racing. If there ever was a shrine to Mopar performance, this was it. The wall was lined with engine blocks, the floor was stacked with cylinder heads and the air was filled with the smell of raw power in the making. Located behind the showroom was a complete machine shop that I drooled over for an hour. These guys know their stuff. Our time at Hensley’s went by too fast, before we knew it we were on the move again.

Trouble was brewing. Kevin Bucheger’s 1971 Charger had begun to burn oil. The engine was fresh and Kevin had just barely broken it in. That night at the hotel parking lot Kevin and Mopar Muscle’s Steve Dulich yanked the intake manifold. The intake gasket was leaking and allowing oil to enter the heads. Pat Staton and I went on a quest for a new valley pan gasket. It was past 9 p.m., so most parts stores were closed, so we headed for the nearest all-night Walmart. With a tube of instant-gasket in hand, we returned to the hotel. Kevin cleaned up the old gasket and slathered on the instant-gasket. Hopefully that would be the last of his problems...