When the first-ever GM Performance Parts LSX Shootout was announced last year, the internet-savvy LS-powered community took notice, and LSX specialty shops immediately began planning on how best to strut their stuff at this event-within-an-event. Memphis had been the location of the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) Hot Rod and Muscle Car Nationals for years, but this was the first time that the LSX-specific race, car show, and dyno competitions would take place in conjunction with the NMCA finals. The event kicked off on October 11, and ran with the full NMCA program until well after dark on Sunday, October 14, when the LSX Shootout victors were crowned alongside the NMCA Championship series winners.

Each year, many of POCI's chapters put a great deal of thought into their display at the convention. This year was no exception. We saw everything from dioramas to interactive road race games; tributes to lost members; and even digital slideshows.

The 2nd Annual Trail of Tears Rendezvous brought participants to Sikeston, Missouri, on August 31-September 2, 2007, for an all-Pontiac car show and drag racing. Friday evening featured test-and-tune, Saturday offered bracket racing to all makes and models, and Sunday featured Pontiac-only strip action.

Pontiac aficionados are certainly a diverse group. Some prefer to restore their rides to factory original perfection, right down to date-coded parts and assembly marks. Others choose a less stringent approach to their project. They opt for the flexibility to make some modifications and put part of themselves into their Pontiacs. Many crave the look of glistening chrome surrounding stacked headlights. Still others embrace the power and technology afforded by modern LS-powered beasts.

What a difference a year makes. Our coverage of the '06 Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals contained the line, "The weather was great, the preparation was first-rate and, of course, the venue was really as good as it gets." All of the above still held true for 2007, though this year was even better.

The annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas is more than simply a venue for aftermarket companies to introduce new products, it's also a world stage for the major auto manufacturers to present wild concept cars like the SD-290 Solstice and the more production-viable G8 GT SEMA Edition featured herein.

This past June 26 through June 30, the GTO Association of Central Ohio (GTOACO) played host to 62 Concours and 182 Popular Vote Pontiacs at the 2007 GTOAA Nationals at the DoubleTree/Hilton in Worthington, Ohio. The 2007 event marked the sixth time since 1986 that the GTOACO has hosted the GTOAA annual shindig. This year's Nats was loaded with activities for the whole family, not to mention some of the finest GTOs in the country, plus a few rarities that probably weren't seen anywhere else during the show season.

The success of an event as large as a national car convention is rooted in preparation. If you've built in contingency plans to cover every possible situation that could pop up, your staff will be calm and confident on opening day, and for the duration of the event. If not, you'll see them running frantically from problem to problem and the "solutions" are usually not satisfactory. The problem at hand really should have been anticipated and solved six months before, not in a panic before a crowd of angry guests.

Through the combined efforts of YearOne and HPP, you'll have the opportunity to spank Corvettes and Mopars on the dragstrip for bragging rights and prizes at the YearOne Street/Strip Challenge on May 16, 2008.

Motorsports has grown into one of the largest industries in the world. Because of this popularity, it's not too uncommon to find large events being held for charity. However, it is uncommon to see a small, private event being held with charitable donations in mind.

Despite skyrocketing gas prices, escalating insurance costs, and a declining Firebird population, the 5th Annual All-Firebird Lawn Show at the SPA State Park in Saratoga Springs, New York, once again showed double-digit growth. Official start time of the event was 9:00 a.m., but at 7:45 a.m. the rumble of Pontiac power could be heard in the SPA State Park like a stampede of thoroughbreds leaving the starting gate at the Saratoga Racetrack.

Chief Pontiac Productions and Virginia Motorsports Park celebrated their fourth year together with another fantastic three-day-long weekend of drag racing, car shows, and Pontiac camaraderie. Competitors came from all across the United States to show off their prized Ponchos and/or to engage in the excitement of competing on the dragstrip.

There are few places on earth that are finer than Phoenix in March. Throw in a bunch of quick, rare, and pristine Pontiacs and you have the makings of auto-motive Nirvana. Well that's just what Steve Barcak and his Pontiac Heaven crew have been doing for the last nine years. On March 31, 2007, the latest edition of Pontiac Heaven Drags & More was held at Speedworld Motorplex just outside of Phoenix, where anything Pontiac powered up to 1981 was invited to share in the festivities.

Snow in early April! Who'd a thunk it? Well in the Northeast, it's not a very rare occurrence. Case in point: Snow was actually in the forecast for the 27th Annual Pontiac Show & Go ('07 HPP Day) at Englishtown Raceway Park in New Jersey on April 7.

The Sixth Annual Southern Trans Am Regional Show (STARS) proved to be spectacular this year for the 95 Firebirds and Trans Ams that attended. Approximately 200 people came from as far away as Arizona and North Dakota to enjoy Florida's largest single display of stock to wildly modified Trans Ams, Formulas, Firebirds and Firehawks.

No one was prepared for a temperature of 74 degrees on Saturday, November 11, 2006, but none who attended the Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Fall (B-O-P) Regional Meet were complaining, either. You may remember this event as the Pontiac Fall Nationals of previous years, but in 2006, the show and race that usually marks the last hurrah of the Northeast show season decided to share the day with Buicks and Oldsmobiles as well. Hosted by the Delaware Valley Old Goat Club at Atco Raceway in Atco, New Jersey, the event was renamed the B-O-P Fall Regional Meet, and GM's Flint and Lansing-born musclecars and luxoliners were welcomed.

The '06 New England GTO meet took place on May 21, at Brenton State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. This event was conceived by Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Kleiner (aka TprGTO) on the Web site LS1/LS2GTO.com, of which all the attending GTO owners are members.

By the end of the show season, many of us are either completely exhausted from attending as many national Pontiac events as our finances, constitutions, and families will allow, or we feel like we missed out because we didn't make it to any of them. Don't feel too bad because many chapters of POCI and GTOAA have a cure-regional meets. Go to POCI.org or GTOAA.org, and you're bound to find a club-chapter regional meet in your area sometime during the show season.

For the past 24 years, the Midwest has hosted one of the country's largest, non-national Pontiac gatherings. Centrally located around Omaha, Nebraska, this show has seen great success due in part to its strong participant base and the hardworking members of the co-hosting clubs-the local area Pontiac Owners Association and Nebraskaland chapter of POCI. The two-day event had previously been held solely at the Nebraska Crossing Outlet Mall, located roughly 10 miles west of Omaha on Interstate 80 in Gretna, Nebraska, but the 24th Annual Pontiac, GMC, and Oakland Show held on August 26-27, 2006 incorporated a new twist to draw in even greater participation.

The 4th Annual All-Firebird Lawn Show, held on the grounds of Saratoga Auto Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York, achieved all goals set for the July 8, 2006, event. Clear blue skies brought out 109 F-Body Pontiacs from nine U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, and all body styles and generations were represented.

For most of us, as the summer months wind down toward fall and the daylight hours become increasingly short, activities involving our beloved Pontiacs begin to dwindle. Here in the Northeast, the change in climate is inevitable, but there is one difference. The last weekend in August is special for us, as it plays host to the annual GTOAA Northeast Regional Meet.

Like most any food product made with corn or wheat, Firebirds, Formulas, and T/As have also become part of a balanced mid-westerner's diet thanks to the T/A Nationals-the largest Firebird event in the world.

All of the key ingredients for a great Pontiac celebration came together at the same time in Norwalk, Ohio. The weather was great, the preparation was first rate, and the venue, of course, was really as good as it gets.

While good weather is always a concern at most car events, Mark and Belva Parrett's request for perfect conditions for the 5th annual Southern Trans Am Regional Show, or STARS, was answered with an exclamation point. For someone who has to endure a snowy and cold winter, escaping to the warm climate is a welcome change.

The rain chant didn't work for the original April 8 date of this event, but for the most part, it did for the reschedule date, May 27, 2006. We were pleased at the turnout considering this was a rain-date makeup race and show held on Memorial Day Weekend.