Hemmings Musclepalooza is exactly what it sounds like, a classic car event that celebrates America’s muscle cars with a judged concours and drag racing action. And this year didn’t disappoint, with more than 300 cars turning out for a day filled with classics and racing excitement. This year there were some excellent cars in the field, not only concours-grade classics but also modified classics, as well as a generous selection of late-model muscle cars.

The 17th annual Musclepalooza actually ran on the Monday rain date, as Sunday was absolutely deluged. Despite this, the Monday show enjoyed a very high turnout, and the weather was just spectacular as if to make up for the previous day. Musclepalooza is an event that takes place two times a year, Memorial Day Sunday and Labor Day Sunday in the Fall, and is of course organized and sponsored by Hemmings Motor News. After the jump, let’s take a look at some highlights from this Spring’s Hemmings Musclepalooza, including the winning Buick.

Up top is a ridiculously photogenic 1972 Ford Gran Torino owned by Glenn Holderbach of New Milford, CT, and one of my personal favorites from the show. It’s kind of amazing how quickly the Gran Torino became something else entirely in the 1970s, and then disappeared altogether, and I don’t think anyone will dispute that the 1972 Gran Torino as well as the Starsky and Hutch version were the high watermark for this nameplate.

A sharp Buick GSX owned by David Cleveland of Massachusetts. A nearly identical car belonging to David Johnson ended up taking the Best in Show award.

A detail of David Cleveland’s GSX.

Another great muscle car was this Ford Mustang Mach 1. This was one of several Mach 1s at the show, and one of my personal favorites from Musclepalooza.

A wonderful example of a Oldsmobile 442 was this 1967 brought to Musclepalooza by Dave Goldfarb. This example had 124,000 miles on it, but looked great inside and out. Always nice to see one of these, and certainly something that you’re just not going to see at your local cruise-in. Unless you live, uhh, somewhere on the Monterey Peninsula.

Yes, this GTO looked as mean in person as it does in the photo. And a great example of this classic muscle machine, inside and out.

This was a sharp example of a Ford Torino GT, and was in excellent condition throughout. I was especially impressed with the paint on this example.

One of several Dodge Challenger R/Ts that appeared at this spring’s Musclepalooza. I think everyone will agree that this is the best color for these cars, and it was nice to see multiple examples in this color at the show.

Now here’s a nice Impala, and just look at those tires! These look killer with those dog dish wheelcovers, instead of, ahem, the obligatory cragar mag repros.

The front license plate pretty much sums up my thoughts about this Buick Grand National, one of two black examples at the show this year. These certainly meant business, and you’ve just gotta love that turbo whoosh. I later saw one of these at the dragway, and it was amazing to see it’s no-fuss sprint down the track.

An impressive Pontiac GTO, even more so given just how rare it is to see one of these in such well preserved condition. Anyone remember what happened to these, by the way? It’s been a while since I have really seen one up close at a major classic car show.

This Plymouth Duster from 1972 was a wonderful surprise, and frankly I wanted to take this one home. No, it wasn’t for sale. And yes, this is the Gold Duster trim level, one of several different trims that were offered on the first generation Dusters made from 1970 till 1976.

Another extremely photogenic car was this wonderful Chevrolet Camaro. Basically, this car proved to me that red and orange are overrated and overrepresented when it comes to vintage muscle. Even though these same Camaros look fantastic in orange as well. Or just about any bright color for that matter.

And speaking of modern muscle cars, Musclepalooza wasn’t just about classics, as a healthy number of modern cars, modified and otherwise, made an appearance this year.

A thouroughly awesome Buick LeSabre, another car you won’t see at your weekend cruise-in. The chrome on this example was just as great in person as it looks in the photos. This one was ready for the track with fatter tires in the back.

That’s it for Hemmings Musclepalooza this spring. As this is event takes place twice a year, you can go to the next one on Labor Day weekend this year, on Sunday.

Dont forget to take a look at the full gallery below: