200 Photos From the First Driving Leg Of HOT ROD Power Tour 2017

The first driving leg of HOT ROD Power Tour 2017 ran roughly 230 miles from Kansas City, Missouri to Iowa Speedway in Newton, the opening day of a seven-city route ending in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Photographers followed the convoy and came back with 200 images of cars, drivers, and heartland roads. Power Tour is about driving, and the Long Haulers who complete every leg in vintage machines earn a badge no static show can offer. Read on to find out what it takes.

Anyone can drive to a local car show, unfold a lawn chair, and spend the afternoon with a cooler. HOT ROD Power Tour asks for something harder: point a decades-old machine at a route that would make some people nervous in a new car, and drive it, day after day, for a week. The first driving leg of the 2017 tour ran from Kansas City, Missouri to the speedway in Newton, Iowa, and the photographers who followed the convoy came back with 200 pictures of cars, drivers, and the heartland rolling by. What does it actually take, in machine and in nerve, to earn the Long Hauler badge, and why do so many owners keep coming back to try?

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Seven Days, Seven Cities

The 2017 route covered a full week, starting in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday, June 10 and threading through Newton, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Champaign, Illinois; Madison, Illinois; and Indianapolis, Indiana before finishing in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Each overnight stop doubled as a show for local spectators, who got to see cars that had actually driven in rather than arrived on flatbeds. The field ran from unrestored survivor trucks to fully built pro-touring machines, all sharing the same highway for the same reason.

The First Real Test

The Kansas City to Newton leg was the first true driving day, roughly 230 miles of Missouri and Iowa two-lanes and interstate that was long enough to find any weak hose, tired wiring, or marginal cooling system in the fleet. First legs are where the optimism of the launch party meets reality. A car that idled happily in the stadium lot in Kansas City has to hold highway speed for hours in June heat, and the shoulder of the road on that first afternoon is where a lot of Power Tour stories begin.

What a Long Hauler Is

Long Haulers are the participants who drive every leg of the tour from start to finish, and the tour recognizes them for it. The designation is the whole point of the event for many owners. Anyone can attend a single stop, but completing the entire route in a vintage car is a badge that separates the drivers from the spectators. The rule is simple and unforgiving: miss a leg, trailer the car, or bail out early, and you are not a Long Hauler that year, no matter how nice the car is.

Toughness of Man and Machine

The tour’s own description of the challenge is that it takes toughness of both man and machine. The machine side is obvious: brakes, cooling, charging systems, tires, and fuel delivery that can survive several hundred miles a day in summer heat. The human side is less discussed. A week of early starts, long stints behind the wheel of a car with no air conditioning and marginal seats, roadside repairs, and unpredictable weather wears people down as surely as it wears down cars. The people who finish are the ones who prepared for both.

A Rolling Roadside Assistance Network

Breakdowns are expected, and the tour’s culture has evolved around them. Support crews follow the route, but the more important safety net is the other participants. A Power Tour regular who sees a hood up on the shoulder pulls over, and between a few cars there is usually a spare belt, a set of tools, and someone who has fixed that exact problem before. That tradition is nearly as old as the tour itself, and it is part of why owners are willing to attempt the trip in cars most people would never drive across a state.

Why the Heartland Route Works

The 2017 route through Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky is classic Power Tour territory: long stretches of open road, small towns that turn out to watch the convoy, and stops at venues built for cars. Iowa Speedway in Newton is a purpose-built race track, which meant the first overnight was at a place where the field could spread out and the locals could walk among the cars. The heartland also provides the scenery the photographers chase, grain elevators and county roads framing a 1960s coupe in a way no convention center can.

What the 200 Photos Show

The gallery from the first leg was not a car show gallery. It was cars in motion: a black muscle car on an open road, drivers with elbows out the window, a line of taillights stretching toward the horizon. That distinction is what makes Power Tour photography different from every other event. The cars are doing what they were built to do, and the images capture the tour’s argument that a classic is at its best on a highway, not on a mirror-floored display stand.

Preparing a Car for the Tour

Veterans have a checklist. Fresh coolant and a radiator that can handle idling in a parade line. Belts, hoses, and a spare of each. A charging system that keeps up with an electric fan and modern lights. Tires with real tread rather than decades-old bias-plies. A fuel system that will not vapor lock in traffic on a 95-degree afternoon. None of it is glamorous, and none of it shows in a photo, but it is the difference between a Long Hauler and a passenger in a chase truck by day three.

Bowling Green as the Finish Line

Ending in Bowling Green, Kentucky gave the 2017 tour a fitting finale. The city is home to the Corvette assembly plant and the National Corvette Museum, and the surrounding region is deep in car culture. Arriving there after a week on the road, with the miles showing in bug-spattered grilles and dusty fenders, is a very different feeling from unloading a trailer. The cars that make it have proven something, and their owners know it.

The Point of Driving

Static shows have their place, but Power Tour exists to make a different argument: that the best way to honor a muscle car is to use it. The first leg from Kansas City to Newton set the tone for the week, sorting the prepared from the hopeful and giving the photographers 200 frames of proof that these cars still belong on the road. For the owners who finished the full route a week later, the Long Hauler recognition was less an award than a confirmation of what they already believed.

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