From their website:
It all started back in 1995, when the HOT ROD staff came up with the idea to take a cross-country road trip with our project cars, and we invited all of our car buddies and anyone else that wanted to go along. The first route stretched from Los Angeles all the way to Norwalk, Ohio, and while there were thousands of participants along the way, only seven were die-hard enough to get inducted into the original Long Haul Gang (not counting the staff’s and specially invited cars). Boy, we’ve come a long way since then!
As the Power Tour grew in age, it grew exponentially in size, and the 2004 Long Haul Gang was comprised of approximately 2,000 hot rodders.