Boy, if you didn’t participate in Mopar Connection Magazine’s Scavenger Hunt at this year’s Holley MoParty, you absolutely missed out on a heck of a good time as well as an opportunity to score some serious big dollar prizes provided to us from our good friends at Edelbrock – and $200 cash from MCM Editor-in-Chief Kevin Shaw’s wallet. (No joke! He literally whipped out two crisp $100 bills from his billfold.)

In celebrating four continuous years of presenting in the Manufacturer’s Midway at the Holley MoParty, Mopar Connection Magazine went for bust and doubled the size of its booth space, parking not just two but FIVE project cars for spectators to check out – “Brazen,” our ’69 Dodge Charger R/T; “Marsha,” our ’70 Plymouth Fury convertible; “Orange Crush,” our G3 Hemi-swapped ’72 Dodge Dart Swinger; David Kruk’s Optima Challenge-racing ’70 Dodge Super Bee; and Jim Hannan’s ’67 Plymouth Belvedere II.

Bright and early Saturday morning, participants were given a list of 40 items to find within the grounds of Beech Bend Race Park, snap a picture of each item while holding up a MCM decal next to it, and race back to our booth. The participant with the most items on the list who returns first earned the grand prize – an 750cfm Edelbrock VRS 4150 carburetor, billet fuel rail and an 85th anniversary tin sign (as well as $200 bucks cash). That honor went to Gwen Howard who came in first with 38 items on our list.

Shortly afterward, Scott Bachert came with the same 38 items fetching him second place and taking home a brand new Mopar Connection T-shirt, an Edelbrock foam fender cover and Edelbrock flag. So what were the two missing items that nobody could find at the MoParty? A true Gator Grain vinyl top (we didn’t accept the modern decal wrap) and an intact lean-burn air cleaner assembly (which most folks promptly tossed in the trash during the mid-to-late 1970’s).

Rest assured, Mopar Connection Magazine will be back for next year’s Holley MoParty as will our Scavenger Hunt. We may have started with a dozen entrants but by noon, we counted over 40 people scrambling throughout the show to grab snapshots of some of the coolest, oddest and just plain coolest American muscle cars ever built! We don’t know how to top the prizes we had this year, but we’re certainly gonna try!

While the rain certainly slowed down Saturday’s foot traffic, we’re still very excited that our two new T-shirt designs – which will debut on our soon-to-be-launched in-house Apparel Store here at Mopar Connection Magazine – were huge hits with all of you who came by. We loved chatting with you about our projects, your projects and just cool cars in general! Being able to connect with all of you is a real treat for all of us.