The Year One Experience - One Size Fits All

Every year, the musclecar parts giant, Year One, puts on an epic event near their Braselton, Georgia, headquarters, which is located about half an hour north of Atlanta on Interstate 85. We don't know if it's a coincidence, but that's also in the same neck of the woods as Road Atlanta-one of the country's premier road courses-and Atlanta Dragway, ditto as one of America's top dragstrips. Put these three giants together, and you have the ingredients for a very exciting event that encompasses every niche of the hobby you can imagine. As a point of reference, the Hot Rod Power Tour needs thousands of miles and venues in several states to create something resembling the same experience, only with the Year One Experience, you don't have to take two weeks off to enjoy it, and that's exactly what several thousand fans chose to do the weekend of May 16-18.

To say that there were only three ingredients to create the Experience isn't quite true. It actually takes the cooperation of dozens of key vendors, all of whom are major suppliers to the Year One product line. And while these vendors are discouraged from selling wares at the Experience (other than for dire circumstances, it's bad form), it allows them to focus on every fan's true love: the cars. For example, Stainless Steel Brake Corporation makes and sells a huge assortment of brake systems for musclecars, which are in turn sold by Year One. At the Experience, SSBC set up a 0-60-0 timed course in the paddock area of Road America. This provided musclecar fans the perfect opportunity to test the acceleration and braking performance of their classics under precise test conditions, and against competing makes and models.

Detroit Speed & Engineering is another example of a company that has merged a strong engineering ethic with face-to-face customer interaction; they also use the Year One Experience to bring that to the next level. Project cars you've seen in magazines and on the Internet are on hand for customer demonstrations-as well as actual product tests-on the high-speed 2.54-mile road course at Road Atlanta, and on the autocross.

While we run the risk of flogging a dead horse here, Air Ride Technologies can always be counted on to use and abuse their equipment (actually, a substantial brace of project cars) at any event that will let them, and they were in fine form at the Experience, with a full-tilt autocross course. This is a great way for all enthusiasts-with and without Air Ride systems-to get their feet wet in hardcore handling situations, with little risk of damage (other than perhaps to pride).

No Year One event would be complete without a car show, and the one at the Experience is always a fun and diverse group of cars. From the 1950s on up to late-model fuel-injected rides, there's everything you want, and it's conveniently located next to the manufacturers' midway. Park your wheels in the show, then loop through the vendor booths to discuss your next big purchase with the folks who build it. There's even a shuttle bus to the Mall Of Georgia for those family members who get bored with the high-octane environment.

Those of the drag racing bent may already know that Year One is the primary sponsor for the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA), which runs a solid, 10-event schedule that's largely restricted to the southeast part of the country. ORSCA's focus is heads-up, eighth-mile drag racing, where the first one to the finish line wins. It's a good fit with Year One, who rolled out a hardcore Speed Shop parts catalog earlier this year. Yes, Margaret, Year One does horsepower, and you need look no further than ORSCA to see that. In support of Year One, ORSCA runs its second event in their yearly schedule in conjunction with the Experience, and all participants are granted free entry for the entire weekend.

We ran ourselves ragged checking out every corner of the Year One Experience. In our experience, the only thing that could make it any better is adding a few days to it so we can enjoy it to the fullest extent. Want to know more about the 2009 Year One Experience? Log onto www.yearone.com!

Domesticated Goddess
We leave you this month with 30-year-old Lisa Rosendahl, a homemaker from Monroe, GA, and her soon-to-be '69 Chevy Nova. The car currently belongs to her husband, Kris, who races it in ORSCA (see inset photo). The GM X-body relies on a 427-inch small-block with 13:1 compression, and a handy 150hp NOS plate. A set of Dart Pro 1 heads, Herbert solid roller cam, and Holley 1000 HP carb was assembled by Rob Fincher of Walnut Grove, GA, and has been good for a best quarter-mile e.t. of 10.53/125 on motor. A ladder-bar rear suspension with QA1 coilovers helps plant the Moser 12-bolt rear with a spool and 4.11 gears. Power gets funneled through a built Turbo 400 with a JW 'brake. When Kris, a building contractor by trade, started talking about building another hot rod, Lisa gave it the OK, on one condition: "You've got to give me the Nova as part of the deal!" Way to go, Lisa! We hope to see you racing it at next year's Year One Experience.