The Mopar Nationals

The 2008 edition of the three-day all-Mopar fiesta featured a number of new vehicles and fresh faces.

The annual gathering of Mopar® tribes known as the Mopar Nationals — now in its 28th year — rolled into National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio on Aug. 8–10. The 2008 edition of the three-day all-Mopar fiesta featured a number of new vehicles and fresh faces.

As usual, hordes of show goers cruised down Brice Road (1) at night in their classic Mopars. Traffic was especially clogged this year, as all-new Dodge Challengers (2) shared the road with their Mopar muscle car forbears. Onlookers lined both sides of the street (3), heads swiveling back and forth in awed unison as one Mopar gem after another glided by.

The Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak vehicles, recently debuted at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals near Denver in July, also attracted groups of gawkers at the Mopar Nationals, both on the drag strip (4) and on display near the Mopar Direct Connection trailer (5). The unofficial number of times the Mopar DC rig staff was asked about the Drag Pak vehicles: 55,157. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but the cars generated a ton of buzz.

Mopar also named one of the 2008 Mopar Top Eliminator winners at the Mopar Nats. Twenty-four year old Gayle Orr (6), from Hamlet, Ind., took home the award with her 1969 Plymouth Sport Satellite. The young Mopar enthusiast will have her car displayed by Mopar at the 2008 SEMA show in November. Just goes to show that there is no age requirement for Mopar passion.

Year in and year out, one of the most popular events at the Mopar Nationals is the burnout contest. After all, what’s more fun than lighting up the tires as billowing clouds of smoke blot out the sky? One young Mopar fan obviously heeded the Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” (7) as he rode along in the passenger seat with one burnout contestant. Don’t worry, young man—soon enough you’ll be in the driver’s seat yourself!