Words by Cliff Gromer
Photos by Cliff Gromer and Bill Erdman
7/18/05

Chapter 1

The ads for the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals proclaim: "I found it at Carlisle!" Found what at Carlisle? That question stumped our all-Mensa team who sat around for two days scratching their heads trying to come up with the answer.

"Maybe they mean the meaning of life," offered our tech mentor, Ricardo E-Booger, tech headitor of Mopar Action magazine.

"Maybe they mean a green card," suggested Niklaus (Nick) Bruntczynowski, through his Polish interpreter. Nick and his brother Wilhelm (Bill), better known as TheBruntBros., are a couple of non-English speaking, illegal aliens who work really cheap.

"Beats me," I volunteered.

"Hey," said Nick, using his Polish-to-English dictionary. "Why don't we tunnel there and find out for ourselves?" That was the first idea Brunt had in 10 years that didn't get us sued or cause at least $10,000 worth of damage.

Chapter 2

The next step in our quest to find out what "it" was at Carlisle, was to find Carlisle. And there it was, smack in the middle of Pennsylvania, also known as the Keystone State. TheBruntBros wanted to bring home some souvenir keystones, but we never did find any--even at Carlisle.

Chapter 3

"Wow, wouldja look at all them Mopar cars," exclaimed Nick through the interpreter.

"Yeah," replied E-Booger. "Must be an accident up ahead on 1-81."

Chapter 4

Carlisle was right where the map said it would be--in Pennsylvania. First stop was Building T, easy enough to find at Carlisle between Buildings S and U. Highlights of the display included the road show of Chrysler concept vehicles, and a lineup of every year (1955-’66) Chrysler 300 Letter car. There were plenty of other cool cars in Building T, such as two of Butch Leal’s original “California Flash” Super Stockers.

Chapter 5

We were still trying to find "it" at Carlisle, and we still had a lot of ground to cover. We found Greg Rager, editor of Cars & Parts, wearing his signature straw western hat, and working as a judge in the judged-cars section. We found Mopar numbers guru Galen Govier reeling off endless streams of random numbers. We found drag racing legend Buth Leal, and Trans Am legend Sam Posey busy signing autographs. We found 6-time national drag record holder Ted Struse. We found the Carlisle intergalactic invitational beauty pageant featuring specimens from star systems near and far. We even found the 1983 Dodge Mirada CMX giveaway car that was won by Tom Doyle of Williamstown, PA. But, we still hadn't found "it."