POSIES Driven Dirty Tour 2007
A Success!!! That’s a good word to describe the 2007 POSIES Driven Dirty Tour. As last year, the tour started in Hamilton, OH and ended in Las Vegas. POSIES started the
Again the tour had a great line-up of visits including Coker Tires, Powermaster, Alloway’s Hot Rod Shop, Walker Radiator Works, Rt. 66 Museum and the Riordan Mansion. The crew ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday, October 28th for one of the biggest automotive events in the world, The SEMA Show, where the biggest names in the automotive industry get together.
Wednesday Oct 17, 2007: Finishing up detail work to the the truck and chasing the loose ends.
Thursday Oct 18, 2007: After a short drive to shake out the Speed Queen, POSIES loaded the bed with his bags and left the shop headed for Dynamic Control in Hamilton OH. POSIES will spend a few days hanging out with Scott Whitaker getting ready to start the tour. More Photos – Click Here
Friday Oct 19, 2007: POSIES stopped by Ohio Flames, owned by Wade Hughes where Josh Shaw laid down the Speed Queen badge on the sides of the Roadster Pick Up.
Sunday Oct 21, 2007: Today marked the start of the POSIES Driven Dirty Tour in Cincinnati, Ohio at the home of Dynamat. As POSIES experienced last year getting the Fleetliner prepared for the Driven Dirty Tour, Scott Whitaker’s new roadster had seen three or four all nighters the week before and was just getting finished. Scott’s new DynaSport is pretty impressive and an awesome follow up to last year’s Dynaliner. Reworked 32 Roadster Body, Beautifully crafted frame featuring a unique front spring layout and powered by a 450hp Small Block Ford with a drysump oil system. Cool, Cool and Cool!!! If you are at SEMA drop by the Dynamat Booth and check it out.
After the guys from Brookville Roadster and Dayton Wire Wheel drove down to Dynamat, the group headed south towards Tennessee for a few hours drive. The PDDT group cruised down to Chattanooga stopping to take in a tour at Powermaster who supplied POSIES Speed Queen with a starter and alternator. Around 5pm the group pulled into Coker Tire. Corky and Coker Tire hosted the crew to a tour of the Coker facilities and treated them to a dinner with the stars. And you know that the cars are the stars so the crew was treated to dinner in the car museum.
 POSIES Speed Queen |
 Coker Shafer 8 |
 Dynamat DynaSport |
 Brookville 3win |
 Painless Panel Truck |
 Honest Charley 32′ |
 Dayton Wire Wheel 37′ |
 California Roadster 29′ |
Monday Oct 22, 2007: Monday morning we were up and at em at 7:30. The POSIES Driven Dirty Crew left Chattanooga in a steady rain. There’s something about hiboys and rooster tails coming of the tires at 60 mph. It was apparent to us that the farmers who had been praying for rain clearly got their prayers answered. We drove all day in a constant downpour.
 Casey Coker ready to go!! |
 Hangin at Honest Charley |
The group added three cars while in Chattanooga. Corky Coker and his daughter Casey are driving his Shafer 8 race car. Dennis Overholser of Painless Performance with the Painless panel truck. Priscilla and Ken from California Roadster driving their 29′ Ford Roadster. They joined POSIES and the Speed Queen Roadster Pickup, Scott Whitaker and the Dynasport, Honest Mike Goodman of Honest Charley Speed Shop and Honest Wayne Pugh driving the Double Exposure Roadster that was built for last years PDDT, Charlie Schroeder and Gary Buckles of Dayton Wire Wheel, driving a purpose built 37′ Ford phaeton that was hotrodded 40 years ago that has been brought up by the Dayton team to a cool ride with just the right pateena and Kenny and Ray Gollahan of Brookville Roadster who are driving the Brookville 3 Window Coupe.
You would think that it is a short day to drive to Memphis from Chattanooga but in a torrential downpour it took us all day. We stopped for lunch at Casey Jones Village in Jackson and cruised on in for a tour of Walker Radiator Works in downtown Memphis. Vernon Walker Jr gave us a great tour of the radiator production facility that dates back to the 20’s when Vernon Jr’s grand dad started the business. The famous Sun Records was next door and some of the ladies checked out where Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins recorded some of their first music!
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We left Walker at 4:30 PM for a 40 minute ride south to visit car legend George Poteet. Funny thing happened on the way to Holly Springs, MS…Corky and the Shafer 8 ran out of gas! The only thing worse for Corky is having a flat tire! Mike and Wayne came to the rescue and brought the Shafer 8 a drink of petrol.
We arrived at George Poteet’s farm to be received by the Memphis Street Rodders and a bunch of “Memphis dry barbeque ribs‿! Boy were they fantastic! George’s grounds, car collection and hospitality were first class! We had a blast and met a bunch of new friends! George put us up at a local country club. Man what a guy!
After driving in the rain all day, the PDDT crew were for ready for hot showers and sleep! Tomorrow …more cool stuff to see!
We would like to thank Corky Coker for giving us updates during the tour as he is an expert in using a BlackBerry’s email capability. You can view Corky’s blog on the Coker Tire website.
Tuesday Oct 23, 2007: George Poteet’s hospitality was not finished yet. He loaded us up and took us to the Holly Springs RR station and “Paul’s Grocery‿ next door. We had rooster bullets, grits and country ham and boy was it good. We left Holly Springs with full bellies and a complete dose of southern hospitality George Poteet style. We stopped in to see the Scooter Brothers and Ron Coleman at Comp Cams. They gave us a personal tour of their facility and what a business Comp Cams has!!! They do it right!
We left Memphis headed to Vernon Walker Sr’s place in West Memphis, Arkansas. POSIES friend Scott Newkam flew into Memphis to ride with him the rest of the trip. We caravaned out Interstate 40 to see Vernon’s place. We car guys like seeing stuff n things. Out west they’re ranches and back east they’re called farms but Vernon has a place. Boy does he have a place and he has stuff! You have never seen so many wonderful neon porcelain signs. Vernon Walker is a true hotrodder and good guy. One of the most interesting things Vernon has is an original New Old Stock 1960 Texaco station set up on his “place‿. We got out of town after 3ish and made about 150 miles.
Wednesday Oct 24, 2007: The PDDT Group left Wednesday AM from the Holiday Inn Express in Lonoke, Oklahoma. Sunshine for the first day since they left Chattanooga. About the time everyone needed a bathroom break, POSIES pulled off the freeway and led the crew to the thriving metropolis of Checotah, Oklahoma… Mayor Marvin Nichols and local car guys all came out to see us. Checotah is the home of Carrie Underwood of American Idol fame. They ate at Katy’s diner.
You’d swear they were eating thier way across America!
Along the way the group managed to stop at a restored Conoco Gas Station in Shamrock, TX and the Rt. 66 Museum in Clinton, OK. The stop at the Museum was cool. The local paper from Clinton came out and took photos. They finished up in Weatherford, Oklahoma about dark. Dinner was at Lucille’s Roadhouse and it was good!
Thursday Oct 25, 2007: The PDDT stopped at POSIES friend Mike Friemel’s farm in Groom, Texas where he farms over 12,000 acres and it is over 40 miles from end to end of corn & cotton. POSIES met Mike about 10 years ago when he needed to weld a broken fender bracket that happened to let go right next to Mike’s place. He’s been comin back through to visit every year. Talk about good ol’ folks. The PDDT cars were weighed on the farm’s scales. Casey Coker had the idea to see how much all the guys and gals weighed together- They took some bets, turned out they weighed 4,000 pounds combined!!! Eating all those ribs at George’s must have had something to do with that.
 Corky Messing Around |
 Group Picture!!! |
After leaving Groom the group continued to Amarillo, TX. They stopped by Soncy Road Speed and Custom to say hello to Mark and Bill Warrick. Mark has created some pretty impressive customs and motorcycles. They even had a pretty cool personal collection and garage that the Driven Dirty Tourers were able to scout around. Dinner was at a true Texan restaurant called Lonestar Bar & Grill (not the chain restaurant) where the steaks were so big that three grown men could have eaten it, eaten it for leftover and still had some for the dog. Guess it’s true that everything is bigger in Texas.
Friday Oct 26, 2007: So far POSIES has racked up 2300 Miles on the Speed Queen. Today the PDDT will be spending the day in Albuquerque, NM. First stop is Stone Brother’s open air weld shop. Eddie and Mela Barela, friends of POSIES, are providing lunch for The Driven Dirty Crew. I heard that the PDDT crew is having dinner at the El Pinto in Albuquerque for some great southwestern food. The restaurant opened in 1962 and is a very popular place to eat. By the way, POSIES made reservations for 28 people, so seating may be limited tonight….
Saturday Oct 27, 2007: POSIES odometer rolled over 2700 miles this morning while getting over 17 mpg at 80 mph. Today the PDDT was cruising from Albuquerque, NM through Flagstaff, AZ with a stop at the Riordan Mansion. Then on into Vegas where POSIES Speed Queen will be on display in the Dayton Wire Wheel SEMA Booth. Stop by and check it out!!
