LS Fest East Celebrates ‘Decade of Mayhem’ in Bowling Green, Kentucky
Missed the big LS-powered party deep in Corvette country? We’ve got you covered with a recap on all the insanity of LS Fest East!
As Mr. Regular has said now and again, “On a long enough timeline, everything gets an LS.” And why not? The LS is the perfect engine for anything, from Corvettes and Camaros, to Ford trucks and Porsches. There’s tons of aftermarket support, it’s relatively easy to work on, and even the cheapest, junkiest LS block can be made into the heart of a hero with a little effort.
Thus, it’s only fitting there’s a big celebration of all things LS, dubbed LS Fest. The biannual, bicoastal festival welcomes any and all vehicles equipped with an LS to spend a couple of days partying with a few thousands friends, and has done so for a decade. And if you missed out on the big shindig in Bowling Green, Kentucky this past weekend, we’ve got you covered with a recap of LS Fest East.
The center of the ‘Decade of Mayhem’ of LS Fest East was Beech Bend Raceway, which was where Hot Rod Magazine happened to be to get plenty of photos of some of the fine rides parked in the show-and-shine area, like this big red 1970 Chevelle. The black wheels with chrome rings on low-profile tires give the Chevelle plenty of attitude, all backed up by a modern LS instead of the 454 V8 it may have had at one time.
Over on the track itself, Hot Rod witnessed a lot of wild LS-powered creations stomped all over the quarter-mile, including one of the fastest mail trucks the U.S. Postal Service never dreamed of. Just imagine seeing this deliver your neighborhood’s mail in the same time the driver finishes a handful of houses on their route.
Not too far from the quarter-mile action was an autocross course set up in the parking lot of NCM Motorsports Park, where Hot Rod caught more than a few Corvettes winding through the cones; Bowling Green is Corvette Country, after all. This C3 wears its desert-inspired camo well, and knows how to smoke the meats along the way.
And you just know that where there’s an LS party, there’s a few YouTubers ready to get down. YouTube channel Drag Racing and Car Stuff captured YouTube star Cleetus McFarland in his ‘Leroy’ twin-turbo, manual-transmission C5 Corvette go-kart, causing tons of mayhem on the quarter-mile at Beech Bend Raceway. When he wasn’t doing that, he was signing autographs, posing for photos, and selling his own merch near the action.
The quarter-mile wasn’t the only place where burnouts were happening at LS Fest East. According to Chevy Hardcore, Holley issued a Burnout Challenge to one and all willing to shred their rears to LS-injected oblivion. The winner was a Ford Fairmont driven by Holley’s own engineering boss, Tim Grillot, whose LS was topped by a big 14-71 supercharger forcing enough air into the block to utterly annihilate every trace of rubber out back.
All in all, LS Fest East was everything an LS fan could ever want in a celebration of Chevrolet’s best V8. May there be another ‘Decade of Mayhem’ for us all.
Photos and video: Hot Rod Magazine, Chevy Hardcore, and Holley Performance/YouTube
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