Saturday was a little like Friday--rain off and on, with some breaks in the clouds inbetween. I'd received word around 11am that everyone was leaving for the park. Ed had a little trouble with some wiring on the way, but everyone got it figured out. Eventually everyone made it to the park for the cookout/hangout session. When we were about to leave, we took a moment for a photo op.

ABOVE: This is a closer look at Mark and Chris' 1983 LS, with the hood down. You can barely make out the side exhaust.

ABOVE: Here is Derik's 1985 Cougar with the hood down. Note the cool sunroof deflector, spoiler, and Turbo Coupe hood. The car has a great look and stance...he's doing things the right way: slowly but surely.

ABOVE: A Cleveland native, it wasn't much of a drive down for Ric and his stunning '85. Ric was also a few cars down from me at Carlisle, but he said, "I didn't bring the mirrors this time." Still, it was unbelievable that every single person in attendance drooled over this car and its remarkable shape. It is pretty much all stock, something you don't see very much, and I think everyone appreciated that.

ABOVE: Alex and his brother made the trip down from their native Ontario, Canada to join us. Actually this was just a 4 1/2 hour trip for them, much shorter than most people. He recently bought a used ground effects kit for his '84 and decided to keep them blue. It works well with the blue interior and the blue neon lighting on the car. Alex has more plans for his Cat too. It's shaping up to be a sweet ride.

ABOVE: Bill made the trip from Jersey to be with us. His cool '88 XR7 was just purchased not long ago, and for the money spent, this car was a great deal. The stock leather seats are getting reupholstered soon, but that was about the only flaw I found inside. He had a new dual exhaust system installed, complete with Camaro rectangular exhaust tips that look absolutely killer on this Cat (photos of those are on the next few pages).

ABOVE: Amazingly, Steve and his girlfriend Laura caught up with Jorge, Bill and Nick at 3am Friday morning, at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania on I-80. They all said, "It was the freakiest thing to have someone ask, 'Hey, are you guys going to Ohio to Cat Jam too?'" What impressed them is that Steve had his laptop with him to help with navigation from their native Rhode Island. His '88 is still being worked on but he's got good plans for it.

ABOVE: Ed's infamous '87 XR7, lowered just right too. Ed has adapted a lot of parts to this car, including a T-5 swap, HO engine, Turbo Coupe hood, and the 5-lug swap to fit the Mustang "waffle" rims. It's an awesome car...I can honestly say it's one of the coolest Cougars on the site. The fact that Ed and Ray have so much accumulated knowledge about these cars adds to the impressive presence of the Cat.

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