[MRaburn]

CarDomain Blog


By Rich Truesdell
Automotive Traveler



Over the weekend, the folks at the Happiest Place on Earth—also known as Disneyland—assembled a spectacular set of 19 muscle cars for their third annual car-themed Summer Celebration in Downtown Disney. The show was billed as "Muscle Cars and More," and the vehicles on display represented one of the greatest eras in the history of the American car, and provided visitors with an all-day Sunday visual stroll down memory lane. It was a huge success with both the Disneyland Resort organizers and all the participants.

While the emphasis was on big-block cars from AMC, Ford, GM, and Mopar, organizers started with small-block terrors such as a Boss 302 and a 340 cubic inch AAR 'Cuda, working their way up through a classic Tri-Power 389 GTO and a 390 SC/Rambler then on to 7-liter terrors such as a Super Duty 421 Catalina and four different 426 Hemi elephants, a Road Runner, 'Cuda, Dart, and the Challenger R/T that just ran from Denver to LA for the current Musclecar Enthusiast July Vanishing Point cover story.

This was a display-only event, with no judging, which gave the show a low-pressure feeling that was appreciated by all the participants. In years past, Downtown Disney has displayed cars from other categories, such as woodies, but it seemed to be the hope of both owners and visitors that muscle cars will become an annual fixture. The enthusiasm for the cars was apparent and genuine, and seeing the crowd's reactions brought back many fond memories. Even though there were no awards, if any one car stood out to me, it was Tom Schlauch's 1963 Pontiac Catalina 421 dual quad Super Duty.



In addition to the photos below, there's a second set of high-resolution, screensaver-sized images posted over at Automotive Traveler.


































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