To think, it was only last year one of our staff members was cuffed and stuffed in North Carolina on the North leg of the Tour. How time flies when you're mocking somebody. Fortunately, this year saw no arrests we're aware of (but there were a few traffic tickets), and the hurricane that threatened to decimate the South and West legs instead opted to shower the North leg with wind and rain.
So what is the Tour? Well, it's a drive we organize every year that starts in three different locations on the same day and converges on Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, the day before the NOPI Nationals (www.nopinationals.com). Each leg has a party on Wednesday night, drives Thursday, parties Thursday night and finally reaches the speedway toward the end of the day on Friday, where Tour participants are rewarded with a couple of victory laps around the tri-oval speedway. On Saturday evening we then party 'til the cows come home, this year at the Cotton Club in downtown Atlanta (the cows came home around 3am apparently, and most were a little drunk).
The Tour started eight years ago when Super Street magazine organized a drive to the NOPI Nationals. A couple of years later, eurotuner joined the fun, and before we knew it, we were driving to the show from three separate points, with some legs bringing over 1,000 modified cars with them. Along the way we'd stop, party, eat at Hooters and check out local clubs that may or may not involve poles.
To cover the Tour, we placed one eurotuner staffer on each leg. This year the largest leg was covered by Jason, while Philip had the cushy South leg and Greg covered the West leg.
The NOPI Nationals itself is a massive car show that usually sees over 90,000 people attending the two-day event, which fills the center of the speedway. The car show is comprised of nearly any automobile you can imagine -- from Civics to Escalades to Rabbits and monster trucks. If it has wheels, it's probably there.
For more details, check out the January issue of eurotuner