Friday started off with a visit to the hotel where most people were staying. Throughout the day I was in constant contact with Will, who was having car trouble. It turns out that he just couldn't make the show. Everyone was a bit disappointed with this fact, but we decided to make the best of it anyway. After meeting up with everyone, we cruised on out to the local A&W restaurant to hang out. The weather apparently affected the overall attendance of the show versus the normal Friday night crowds. But that made it just fine with us---most of the Cougars got to park under the coveted canopy.

ABOVE: The Youngstown A&W still has a covered drive-up canopy, complete with in-car ordering. On Friday nights, the owner lets all but 2 spots get taken up for show cars. Nobody else took them, so we did. And Jorge made sure that nobody else was allowed to park there either!

ABOVE: This gorgeous '88 XR7 was driven up from the Pittsburgh area by Everett. A last-minute addition to the show, Everett had bought this car less than 2 weeks prior to Cat Jam. The only mod that he personally made was adding a set of Mustang springs. He's not happy with the results, though, so he'll be fixing that, and he does have more mods planned. Still, for buying a Cougar that was pretty much loaded and highly modified, Everett is off to a great start. I look for much more from him in the future.

ABOVE: This is Mark and Chris' 1983 LS. Well, it was an LS to start with...now, it's just a freakin' beast! They've done quite a bit of work up in their native London, Ontario. The motor is a 351W stroked to 416 cid, with a custom DFI speed density system that uses GM-style coil packs. The workmanship is outstanding both in the engine bay and underneath the car. It's just so cool to see a Ford 9" rear end under a Cougar. The cowl hood from Andy Cap is really needed to clear the intake.

ABOVE: The interior is in great shape too. Mark has added lots and lots of gauges to keep an eye on the motor. This LS has the relatively uncommon full digital dash, auto delay headlamps, and the cool woodgrain dash panels that were also semi-rare for 1983.

ABOVE: Ed and his friend Ray showed up close to dark. This is Ed's 1987 XR7 which has been modified so much, it's hard to tell what's stock.

ABOVE: Almost as everyone was leaving, Derik pulled up in his custom '85. He's really created something special out of the car, which was originally a light blue metallic. Once the original motor blew up, Derek dropped a new 5.0 in, added a Turbo Coupe hood, and painted the whole thing a custom blue/purple pearl paint. When it's dark outside, and the car's under flourescent lights, and it STILL looks good, you know it's one hell of a paint job! Derik says he's got more work to do on the car.

The evening was going well until my dad called and said that a thunderstorm was coming our way. I hightailed it on out of there around 9pm and didn't put the top up. And I got rained on the whole way home. But at least I got to bed early for the next day's activities.

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