Mike Tootle is the owner of this uber-clean '68 coupe. It takes a lot of work to make a dark-colored paint job look this good. We love the Shelby scoop-style hood, too. The main static car display is held at Road Atlanta.
As is the norm during the heavy show season, there's a lot of calendar shuffling to figure out just what events we can fit in without getting a divorce or forgetting what the kids look like. Not to mention this magazine doesn't run itself, so there's got to be time in the office between jaunts across the country in germ-infested airplanes. It's tough, because we really do want to stop in and see all the shows we get invited to, but we simply don't have the time, personnel, or budget to do so.
We've been big fans of Year One's events for some time. The company of car fanatics really enjoys playing amongst the rest of us. After all, how often do you get to see custom-built cars from magazines, TV shows, music videos, major motion pictures and more, let alone maybe even get a ride in one? That's just how Year One does things, with the hobby and the people who support it in mind. Sure, the staff sells parts to put food on their tables, but the Year One Experience (not to mention its monthly cruise nights and other events) is all about supporting the hobby.
What helps put the Year One show on our must-attend event list every year is the same reason for you to check it out yourself, and that's the company's mentality of family togetherness. The annual Year One Experience is a family event with something for everyone to enjoy, including static car displays, drag racing, parade laps, auto crossing, vendor displays, kids' play areas, and so much more. For the past several years, the folks at Year One have presented its event on the grounds of Road Atlanta and Atlanta Dragway, and the event just keeps getting more and more popular.
While Year One's Ford product line is one of its newer offerings, there are always several sweet rides that catch our attention when we come for a visit. Maybe we'll see you out there next year with your own classic Ford. Bring your family for the fun, too-that's what we do.
Another Mustang that caught our eye right away was this way-out fastback ready to kick asphalt on the dragstrip. Patrick Murphy of Villa Rica, Georgia, brought this bad boy for everyone to enjoy. | 
From the 514 stroker under the hood to the polished drag brakes and Weld Racing wheels, Patrick had his fastback looking ready to rock. | 
The fine folks at Air Ride Technologies have been working with Year One for a while now, and this year they pulled out all the stops by helping with the autocross, sponsoring awards, and even offering rides in its shop cars. ART's well-recognized '69 SportsRoof project, with a supercharged Cleveland, ran into some engine problems over the weekend, but its '05 Mustang, which recently walked away with the Forza Motorsport Showdown, tackled the event weekend without a hiccup. |
It certainly wasn't all Mustangs at the Year One Experience. Spotting this neat-as-a-pin '61 Starliner owned by Steve Marshall from Adairsville, Georgia, was one of the highlights of the weekend. Wearing a new Viper Red topcoat, the drop-top sports the original 352 two-barrel engine. We were lucky enough to get this one in front of our cameras for a future feature. | 
Flowery Branch, Georgia's Virginia Gay's '66 fastback was a looker from any direction with custom paint, wheels, and a nicely modified interior, including Year One's dash insert. | 
But what really stopped us for the closer look was the simulated carbon-fiber design in the striping. The trick uses a rubberized drawer liner as a paint mask to simulate the weave pattern of carbon fiber. Done right, it can be quite realistic and is just plain different. Kudos! |
The autocross layout is actually two different courses. The dry course is run in a remote area of the Road Atlanta facility, and show participants can take their own ride through the cones, which is a great way to learn your car's braking and handling limits. The wet autocross is held at Road Atlanta's skidpad area and uses the Audi TT from the track's Audi Driving Experience program. Instructors from the program ride shotgun and induce oversteer conditions, encouraging you to drive to the point of understeer so you can feel what each one does to the car and how to correct it. Year One tells us more than 1,600 autocross laps were made over the course of the three-day weekend event. | 
The line may have been long, but all these patient helmet holders will soon be riding in the passenger seat of one of the half-dozen or so Panoz Racing School cars while an instructor takes them for spirited laps around the famed Road Atlanta 2.54-mile track. | 
Ignore that thumping you hear-it's probably just their right foot looking for the imaginary brake pedal. Held all three days, the Panoz ride-along sessions were sold out in advance of the show. |
Pace laps were available to those who wanted to drive Road Atlanta themselves. Instructors would take to the track with several cars following, allowing the drivers to see the instructors' exact line around the course. Even at these lower speeds, some cars swapped ends or got sideways. Both the Friday and Sunday sessions were completely sold out. | 
Once again, Mustang & Fords sponsored an Editor's Choice award at the Year One Experience, and we absolutely fell in love with Len Ramsey's '67 GT350 clone. Having just finished it recently, this was Len's first outing with the car. The hour-plus ride from his home in Eatonton, Georgia, made him a little nervous, but his fastback came through with flying colors. The British Racing Green with white Le Mans stripes is eye catching, and the Fatman Fabrications front suspension with four-wheel-discs certainly helped on the ride to the event. The drivetrain consists of a 351 backed by a late-model five-speed. | 
Len spruced up the interior with custom-upholstered late-model Mustang seats, aftermarket gauges, and much more. We were lucky enough to spend a few hours behind the camera capturing this fastback for a future issue. |
While there were no vendors per se, Year One does invite a bunch of its marketing partners and product suppliers to the show to promote their products, hold seminars, and mingle with the crowds. The folks from Unique Performance displayed nothing but Mustangs this year, including a GT350SR, GT500-E, and two Foose Stallions. Others on hand included Air Ride Technologies, BFGoodrich Tires, NAPA, Eaton Detroit Spring, and many more. Stainless Steel Brakes had a product display setup and also ran its 0-60-0 Challenge again this year, which is always fun to watch. | 
Remember what we said earlier about Year One spreading the love? Having recently wrapped the taping of the TV show Forza Motorsport Showdown, Year One had a Camaro and Challenger that were built for the show track available for rides. I talked the missus into a ride in the Challenger, and when Mike King of Year One rolled back into the pits with smoke curling off the front brakes, I knew she got one heck of a ride. | 
Sunday's awards, presented by Year One's Pat Staton, were marred by the announcement that several cars-including Air Ride Technologies' '67 Camaro project-had been stolen from neighboring hotels the previous night. We felt Air Ride's Bret Voelkelit said it best when, giving out the Air Ride autocross awards, he proclaimed, "We should show these car thieves we won't be deterred, and we'll just build another car." To that end, Year One announced it will help all those affected by the thefts by helping the owners build their next project. Now that's a positive spin on a bad weekend if we ever heard one. |