I made a trek to east TN last week and found a lot of rare cars that appeal to us all. I was invited to attend the Forge Muscle Car Show in Sevierville by Larry Reyes as he made an appearance with the recently restored Hawaiian funny car. The show was focused on factory muscle cars of the 60's & 70's and entry was by invitation, so there was lots of top notch hardware on hand that should be of interest to most any gearhead even if you don't have an old funny car in the garage.



Just up the road was the Floyd Garrett Muscle Car Museum. Show participants were treated to private showing and a buffet dinner on Thursday evening. Plenty of neat stuff to see in the museum as well. I was particularly surprised to see the cut-away engines and transmissions shoved into a corner of the crowded museum that were actually restored displays from the 1955 GM Motorama exhibitions. Rare stuff indeed.



The show seemed heavy with Mopars, but there was something for everyone on hand. I didn't mind the Mopar majority when it became obvious that I was looking at the most radical performance packages ever offered by Chrysler in one room. Dual quad Hemi cars were everywhere, as were 6-pack cars. Ford was represented with numerous hi-po Mustangs,Thunderbolts, and NASCAR specials. GM variety was on hand from Buick, Olds, & Pontiac. Rare Chevys included Dana COPO Camaros, Yenko Camaros, & Camaro INDY 500 pace cars. There was even a Dana Corvair on hand.



Numerous vintage race cars were displayed with the classic muscle. Besides the Hawaiian, there was also a variety of Dick Harrell's old drag cars shown by his daughter Valerie and other collectors. Dick Landy, Sox & Martin, Richard Petty, Bill Flynn, the Rod Shop, and others were represented among the competition cars. Drivers of the era, such as Larry Reyes, and Dale Pulde were on hand, as was Don Hardy, a noted race car builder of the 60's & 70's.



All in all, a very nice journey into the TN hills. I would recommend the show to anyone with an appreciation of horsepower so long as you don't mind driving across the state. There's lots of other things to occupy your time in the area if you grow tired of looking at old muscle cars, so give it some consideration. More photos from the show can be seen here in the photo gallery.

LK