Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Hot Rod

Figuring out what’s cool enough to put in HOT ROD can be somewhat of an art form. Over time, experienced editors will pick up on cues like newsstand sales, reader comments, and in more recent years, social media engagement and Web traffic. In this day of instant feedback, you’d think magazines would have the ideal barometer for picking the right stories for print—which comes out months later—but it doesn’t work that way in practice. Some topics always do well on the cover: barn finds, body and paint, winged Mopars, or the newest 700hp muscle car from Detroit. Then there are times when an editor just scratches his beard and wonders why the latest issue went over like a fart in church. When it gets really bad, management wants numbers; numbers…

Prestone’s 90th anniversary was in 2017. To celebrate, the company wanted a vehicle that represented its history that could travel to events across the U.S. Prestone could have chosen any number of car builders from across the country to construct a vehicle worthy of the honor, but it turned out they didn’t have to look far. The Ringbrothers are known for their builds that reimagine classic American muscle cars with modern drivetrains and suspensions and tremendous attention to detail. The shop is only about 150 miles from Prestone’s corporate HQ north of Chicago, and Randy Fisher, Prestone’s vice president of marketing, has worked with Ringbrothers for years. The build was on. As soon as they were approached with the project in 2016, Mike and Jim Ring knew the perfect canvas…

Mopar’s designers and engineers never seem to be afraid of taking risks. It’s true now, and it was definitely the case in the 1960s and 1970s. Dodge and Plymouth showrooms in the muscle-car heyday were filled with cars sporting loud paint, cartoon emblems, and cartoonishly large Hemi engines. They were perfect. It was with that spirit of building something unique that Schwartz Performance tackled this one-off 1970 ’Cuda. A customer from India tapped Schwartz Performance to bring Plymouth’s brash ponycar into the modern era. That meant it should have eye-catching paint, a comfortable cabin, road-hugging suspension, a raucous Hemi V8, and right-hand drive. Schwartz Performance has plenty of experience in delivering on all but one of those requests, and that was the fabrication and engineering know-how to deliver on that…

The Traditional Muscle class at the 2017 AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge was designed for pushrod, carbureted engines using a flat-tappet cam and off-the-shelf headers, intakes, and heads. The goal was to eliminate exotic parts, intake manifolds that were filled with epoxy, and combinations that were impossible to duplicate to show what can be done with careful part selection and judicious engine building. To keep the valvetrain more in line with a street-going engine, valve lift was limited at 0.600 inch at the valve. Given those restrictions, we were eager to see what kind of power could be coaxed from an old-school V8. When it came time to select parts for its entry, Creason Racing team leader Rick Ferbert—along with Joe Creason, Randy Ferbert, Rick Haynes, and Chad Gladney—already had a…

“How far away is the Roadkill shoot? 250 miles? Why don’t you take the Cummins, then you don’t have to stop for gas.” So said Tom before I headed out the other day. The suggestion made sense. After all, the 1993 Cummins W250 is the newest car in our household, definitely the sensible choice for a long drive. The most reliable. Yeah, well, mice, men, plans—what’s the saying? I’ve got a new one, “Your most reliable truck is gonna shear all the teeth off the transmission and leave you in the dark on a hill next to the Mexican/American border, where there is one bar of cell service.” I know, it’s not super catchy, but it is what happened. One minute I’m driving along and the next the truck is…

The red numbers below refer to detailed art on the following pages. A] Water pump (01–03) B] Radiator, electric fans (04–12, 22) C] Coolant recovery tank (13–14) D] Fan controller, relays (15–17) E] Aircraft hardware (17) F] Starter relay (power take-off) G] Disconnect external regulator H] One-wire alternator (18–20) I] Shorter oil filter (21) THE COMBO Robert Foley always wanted to put together an early big-block Mopar muscle car. “I liked the history and tradition, how these awesome cars put Chrysler into the forefront! I lucked out and found a 1963 Dodge Polara with the awesome 426 Max Wedge already in it!” The clone-conversion is about as close as an average hot rodder can get to the real McCoy outside of a museum. Its rotisserie restoration included a real 13.5:1…

I’m a swap-meet guy—have been since birth. There’s something about ’em that’s so much better than the average car show because the cars are both metaphorically and literally attainable, and the fantasy of potentially owning one of the cars on display is unreasonably compelling to me. Less so lately, however, as asking prices have become ludicrous. I guess everyone watches TV and thinks flipping is the key to riches, whether they’re selling a 1975 Delta 88 four-door or not. Delusional pricing has turned me off quite a bit. Nevertheless, selling parts at the swap meets maintains quite the allure. To me, selling at a swap meet is like a social event with friends and also with parts-scrounging acquaintances who’ve bought junk from me for a decade-plus. I used to sell…

Racetracks were so much simpler in the 1960s. Every other Sunday morning, San Francisco–area hot rodders transformed waterfront Half Moon Bay Airport into one of the world’s quickest, fastest, and prettiest quarter-miles. Regular starter Andy Brizio (left), who also ran Fremont Drag Strip’s starting line for promoter Jim McLennan on alternate Sundays, turned over the switchbox to NHRA’s Ray Helm (right) during this September 1964 regional record meet. Division Seven director Bernie Partridge (center) watched Joe Davis pull his Chevy-powered gas altered to the line. (This Fiat Topolino body would soon be swapped for a shortened Mustang coupe, producing one of the first “funny” cars with mismatched engine and body brands.) The future “Rodfather” is alive and well at 85. McLennan, Helm, and Partridge are deceased. Since racing stopped in…

There’s very little that hasn’t been attempted in the world of hot rodding when one takes into consideration the sheer amount of design, engineering, and creativity flowing from the minds of builders from coast to coast. Every so often, however, someone comes along with the fortitude to blend specific styles together to form something that’s been percolating in the back of his or her mind. Not that it’s the first time it’s been seen, but from that person’s perspective, it lends to a perfect balance of form following function. Peter and George Bourikas of Quincy, Massachusetts, have spent plenty of time over the last 40-plus years flexing their creativity while building a number of hopped-up muscle cars, as well as spending plenty of time at the dragstrip dialing them in.…

When it comes time to pass off your car to paint, there’s no shame in outsourcing the work if the cost/benefit analysis doesn’t skew in the favor of investing in professional-level tools and equipment to paint it yourself. That said, you can set your body and paint specialists up for success that will not only bring you the best results for your buck but also ensure your project will be kept within budget and timeline. We sat down with Geoff Gates of Alloy Motors in Oakland, California, to grab some of his tips and tricks on making life easier for your paint-and-body crew. NO. 1: A GREASE PENCIL SAVES PAINT One of the most unassuming headaches a painter can deal with is chemical bleed-through from permanent-marker ink. The ink tends…

If there’s one technology that has changed everything we know about how a car works, it’s the advent of CAN-Bus. A Controller Area Network is a series of microcontrollers (modules) that all talk to each other to accomplish a task instead of an input and output (for example, a window switch and the motor that it triggers) being wired in a traditional circuit. It’s no longer a sweeping voltage from a sending unit that changes the position of an oil pressure or coolant gauge, but instead a series of digital messages, in the form of coded bits, broadcast across the CAN-Bus network for the gauges to receive. This is to electrical systems what EFI was to induction systems—the move from analog to digital. Why is this complicated mess of 1s…

HOT ROD Drag Week™, presented by Gear Vendors. Roadkill Zip-Tie Drags, presented by Gear Vendors. Roadkill Nights, with racing presented by Gear Vendors. Who is Gear Vendors anyway, and why is it a major part of all the coolest events we do? Gear Vendors is a transmission company that specializes in over- and underdrive units that can be added to an existing driveline, often with only a change in driveshaft. For racing and street combinations using older transmissions or low gearing intended for racing or dirt use only, adding an overdrive can completely change the usability of the machine, and with super-fast street cars being 1,000 times cooler than trailered track-only machines, Gear Vendors is doing good business. But you knew that already. We wanted to know why GV was…

Q:For street and occasional play, I have a New Old Stock 1970 LT-1 short-block I want to build and put into a loaded, four-speed 1970 Vette that presently runs a tired L46. I’d change to a hydraulic cam, aluminum heads, and so on—plus, get an LT-1 hood.Do you think I can still use the original 11:1 pop-up pistons? I hate to waste good parts, but know combustion chambers have changed a lot. The Edelbrock Performer RPM packages look pretty good, but would appreciate your thoughts and recommendations. A: Kudos for scoring a rare, virgin 1970 LT-1 11:1 short-block, Chip. Assuming there are no “chips” off the old block—as well as no corrosion or rust on the deck surfaces or cylinder walls—I’m guessing the block and rotating assembly won’t be going…

Hot rods and guitars go together like a crazy lady and 27 cats. So what kind of guitar does a hot rodder play? Well, a car-guitar, of course! Enter McSwain Guitars. Steve McSwain is a master luthier and the go-to guy for elite guitarists in the industry. His start as a guitar builder began when he bought his first blank guitar body and “just started carving.” That first experimental guitar ended up being such an amazing balance of art and sound that it is now in Steve Vai’s personal collection; he quite literally carved his path in life when creating that first custom guitar. Being “drawn to anything that is handmade” is what defines Steve as an artist. He says when an artist takes the time to handbuild each piece,…

I wasn’t always into cars. It wasn’t until I uncovered a 1971 Plymouth ’Cuda in a repair shop that it flipped the switch in my head. Years ago, I was having a radio installed in my car in this shop when I saw this cool car sitting there. If this was here and I found it by accident, what else was out there? The car eventually disappeared, but in 2016, I decided to stop and see if they ever saw it again. No sooner did I walk in that I saw it! (This time painted red.) Sitting in a pile of junk was the original grille with weird Plymouth stickers. It wasn’t in the greatest shape, so the owners bought a new reproduction for the car. After telling them my…

Nobody is ambivalent about nitromethane. Upon initial exposure to an idling fuel motor, bystanders either sprint away from the sudden assault on eyes, ears, noses, and throats or rush like moths toward the rumble and smell spewing from flaming weedburners and zoomies. Thanks to a curious, noncompetitive activity called cackling, clouds of the stuff are hanging over more places than at any time since drag racing’s golden age a half-century ago—no dragstrip necessary. While supertracks are pricing too many young, impressionable prospects out of the national events that hooked their fathers and granddads, cackling brings tears of joy to the masses at nostalgia meets, neighborhood car shows, and even the SEMA Show. Admission ranges from cheap to free. Even small people can get right up close. Accessibility and proximity depend…

If there was ever a modern Shelby Cobra, it would be this 525hp MX-5 built by the team at Flyin’ Miata in Grand Junction, Colorado. The recipe is the same: a big American V8 between the fenders of an imported sports car. Despite sharing the same footprint as a roller skate, the MX-5’s friendly handling characteristics scale up with the increased horsepower (more than triple the stock number), even though it’s able to churn 0–60 in 3.5 seconds and runs the quarter in 11.7 seconds. Six-piston Wilwoods bring this pocket rocket to a stop quickly, which is necessary, given we could see 90 mph on the go-kart track we drove it on. The 17x9-inch 949 Racing wheels were shod in 245/40R17 200AA-UTG Bridgestone Potenzas, which provided ample forward bite while…

To achieve optimum exhaust scavenging on a four-stroke V8 engine, each cylinder should fire every 180 degrees of engine rotation; on a typical V8 with a cross-plane crankshaft and conventional headers, two cylinders on each bank end up firing consecutively, only 90 degrees apart. The way around this is crossing two primary tubes from each bank over to the opposite bank. For example, on an engine with a 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 firing order (with the odd-numbered cylinders on the driver side and even-numbered ones the passenger side), cross tubes from cylinder Nos. 3 and 5, and 4 and 6. Often termed a 180-degree header, this configuration makes the firing cycle seen by each collector occur 180 degrees apart, improving scavenging as well as low- and midrange torque by permitting a smaller collector…

Mopar Hellcrate Hemi Engine Mopar Performance // MoparHemiCrate.com Mopar’s Hellcrate engine is now available and packs 707 hp from the factory. This version of the 6.2L Hemi was debuted at SEMA 2017 and caused quite the stir. The list of additional parts you get with the engine is lengthy and has been designed with the retrofit project in mind. Included with the engine: powertrain control module (PCM), power distribution center, engine wiring harness, chassis harness, accelerator pedal, ground jumper, oxygen sensors, charge air temperature sensors, fuel pump control module, and a front-end accessory drive (FEAD) kit (alternator, power-steering pump, belts, pulleys). Though it’s been optimized for the time being to be used with the T56 Magnum transmission, we know hot rodders are a creative breed. Price: $19,530 (PN 68303089AA) Optima…