The Hot Rod Power Tour, now in its 31st year, is the world’s largest traveling car show. With thousands of imports and domestics in attendance in coupe, hatchback, sedan, wagon, and truck form, you’re bound to see something at Power Tour that you’ve never seen in person before. The first day of Power Tour is often the largest, and because this year’s Power Tour kicks off in Indianapolis, right in the heart of the country and a major motorsports hot spot, we knew that we’d be in for a wide variety of vehicles. We spent the better part of the afternoon on day one of Power Tour 2025 taking in all of the creations onhand, and we’ll be sharing more as the tour goes on. Right now, here are some of our favorite bizarre builds and rare finds from day one.
The original Meyers Manx is one of the most duplicated kit cars ever built. The simple, affordable mechanics of the shortened VW floor pan, along with Bruce Meyers’ fluid design, made it an instant hit. They were also a ton of fun off-road. Meyers had other designs, including the whimsical Tow’d and this fun little sportster, the SR2, which was meant for street use. Designer Murray Pfaff brought this SR2 on Power Tour, and we got to see its scissor doors in action. While there are untold thousands of Manx knockoffs, there were only a few hundred of the real thing.
A Chevrolet Suburban seems like a safe choice for Power Tour conveyance. It has a long wheelbase and plenty of suspension travel to soak up anything the highway can throw at it, along with ample covered cargo room to bring the whole family and stow all their gear. The son-father team of Jett and Jeff Falk decided on a more exciting approach to a Power Tour Suburban. It’s now powered by a Blueprint Engines 572 big-block fed by Holley Sniper 4500 throttle body injection. That’s Holley’s Stealth EFI system scaled up to Dominator size. It provides enough fuel to keep the 800-horse big-block happy. The Falks built the Suburban for Power Tour 2023 but had transmission issues. Now they’re hoping to test the big, brown brute on the dragstrip. With a 3,000-rpm converter, the heavy hauler should launch with gusto. That color was a custom mix that Jett picked out. It’s based on a factory Toyota Tundra hue with a whole lot more flake, which was absolutely the right call.
Power Tour 2025 brought out a gaggle of Pro Street cars that lined up near the midway as part of “Pro Street Alley.” The usual suspects were in attendance: Chevelles, ’60s Mopars, GM G-bodies. . . What we didn’t expect to see was a fifth-gen Camaro powered by a blown big-block. We spoke to the owner, who said the car was purchased as a shell. The 2010 Camaro was fitted with a 1970 454, the seats from a 2016 Camaro, and the front clip resembles a 6th-gen ZL1.
This build combines two things we love into one package by grafting a Mercury Capri fascia onto a Fairmont wagon. We’ve seen Mustang front clips on Fairmonts, which is also a great pairing, but “Moby Dick,” the white whale of wagons, might be out new favorite Fox-body.
The son and father team of Dan and Dave Boucher brought out Dan’s freshly-wrapped 1986 Fiero GT after it had spent months collecting dust. The Fiero was small-block swapped in the ’90s using a V-8 Archie kit, but received its current mill, an all-aluminum 6.0-liter LS, in 2013. Dan bolted in the long block from a Trailblazer SS and topped it with a Corvette LS2 intake turned backward. It’s connected to a paddle-shifted 6T70 six-speed automatic transaxle. The engine uses an LS4 front cover and LS7 exhaust manifolds to help make everything fit in the tight confines of the Fiero engine bay. Fieros aren’t rare, and although a lot fewer of them have been V-8-swapped, what makes this one noteworthy in our book is that it was Dan’s first car, and any mid-engine V-8 car that survives nearly 30 years unscathed after being someone’s first car has got to be special.
You might expect a lightweight exoskeleton car to be a kit that uses common parts from a Miata or even a Chevy Cobalt. We certainly didn’t expect to find this minimalist tube chassis wrapped around a mid-mounted Chevy LS V-8.
From unexpected engine swaps to rare performance models, Power Tour 2025 had plenty of surprises on day one. The slideshow below has a sampling of some of our favorite oddballs we haven’t yet mentioned.