ABOVE: Conspicuously absent from last year's show, Will finally made it to Cat Jam this year. After a winter that saw his car getting pelted with rocks from a blasting accident, he was able to get the whole car repainted in time for the show. Will's Cat has had quite a following on the message boards, and I'm sure it was a thrill for people to see the car for the first time. The new paint really helped gel the car's direction this year.

ABOVE: Mike and Jenn's daughter Anna was severely attached to Will's car all weekend. They made several attempts to keep her out of the driver's seat but she pretty much refused.

ABOVE: This is Ed's wife's 1997 Sport. Kym is very proud of this car, and with good reason. It's a last-year Sport model with the cool 16" rims, and even has a ground effects kit with spoiler. And yes, it is a 4.6 V8 car.

ABOVE: Robert and Peg made it down from Toledo with this sporty '93 XR7. The absolutely stunning 18" wheels really set the car off. And the custom armrest/subwoofer port idea was brilliant. Very clean car too.

ABOVE: Karl originally hoped to bring his other XR7 along with this '88 beauty, but was only able to get one car to the show from MD. No matter---this 61,000 mile mostly-original beauty was just fine. It has the Smoke leather seat option, and let me tell you, I don't remember seeing seats that nice when these cars were new. They don't even look like they've ever been used! Karl is a huge Cougar fan, and he brought a whole bunch of stuff that I've never seen before to share with everyone.

ABOVE: This is Scott's '88 Cougar. From the outside it looks a little rough, and even Scott will admit that. But he's working on the car from the inside out. The interior is totally custom, with dash work that is truly unique and something I've never seen before. He has started to detail the engine bay as well. He's toying with the idea of painting the car the yellow that's inside the engine bay. One thing's for sure: if he does, people in his native SC will see him coming from several blocks away.

ABOVE: Well, what else can you say about Nick's '87 XR7. A built 302 with a 5-speed conversion is always a good thing. This year the Powerdyne had some bad bearings, so he had the motor reworked heavily. It was just as fast without the blower as it was with it, according to Nick. The empty bracket where the blower was, though, kind of hurt a little....you could tell. Right after he got home to NYC, the Powerdyne was finished and installed.

ABOVE: This is Joe's '88 LS. He's kept very meticulous records on this car, having owned it since new, and it now has well over 200,000 miles without many serious problems. Just the transmission needed rebuilt at about 170,000 miles (which is pretty good for an AOD, actually). Otherwise it's been the most reliable car he's ever owned, serving him well in MD. It was nice to see his car amongst everyone else's.

ABOVE: My friend Kevin brought his mint '92 Mustang LX 5.0 5-speed out for the night. Kevin ordered this car new and it now has a meager 50,000 miles on the odometer. Kevin and our other friend Shawn were both extremely instrumental with the success of CJ03. Without their help I couldn't have done it, plain and simple. It was an honor to have their cars at our shows.

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