Friday, July 9th, Pudge & Shannon were headed to the camera shop in Carlisle to check out what new toys they needed when they made a last minute decision to stop in at the 14th Annual Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals. The year's record show attendance (over 46,000 attendees and more than 9,000 show vehicles) proves that the Mopar world is growing just as much as any other custom sport that we cover!

The most memorable thing that Pudge took away from this show were the half-dozen General Lee's that were present...however, NONE of them were exactly right! If you would like to e-mail him, being the insane Dukes of Hazzard fan that he is, he would be happy to let you know the tiny differences that the owners did not get quite right. And, as an interesting side note, I just recently found out from the Old Man that when Pudge was about four years old, he went through a phase where he refused to use the door of their car - he insisted on sliding through the window to get in and out.

Throughout the weekend, attendees were able to test drive new DaimlerChrylser products, the most popular being the Dodge Magnum and the Chrysler Crossfire. Attendees were able to get an autograph and have their picture taken by the guys from the 'That thing got a Hemi?' commercials.

Famous NASCAR racer and commentator Buddy 'Leadfoot' Baker met fans and signed autographs with his original NASCAR No. 6 Dodge, on display from the Darlington Raceway Museum.

Elsewhere on the Fairgrounds was Carl Cameron, who worked for the Chrysler Corporation in exterior & interior design and assisted in the design of the '66-'67 Charger, '70 Challenger and the '67 Dart line.

For a peek into the future, DaimlerChrylser brought some concept vehicles to the event - the 2003 Dodge Tomahawk concept motorcycle is powered by the Viper V-10 engine with 500 hp and has a potential theoretical top speed of more than 400 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds, and the Dodge M80 pickup truck sports a 3.7 liter, 210 hp V-6 engine with four-wheel drive.

And, not to forget about the contests of the weekend - loyal attendee Mary Burch of Maryland won the 1964 Dodge 440 giveaway car that only has 10,103 original miles on it. Her family attends the show every year, so that her husband can find parts for the cars that he is always working on, and always stays for the giveaways on Sunday afternoon, and this year it paid off! Tony Puig from Mountainview, CA won the Most Miles Traveled award for driving 3,250 miles in his '05 Dodge Magnum. And, the Northeast Hemi Owners Association brought 136 club members to the show to with the Club Challenge.

Pudge will be at next year's All-Chrysler Nationals looking for the exact replica of the original General Lee during the show's 15th anniversary the weekend of July 8-10. You can help him out and make plans to attend by visiting Carlisle Events website at www.carsatcarlisle.com.