Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2006 i Hot Rod

1972 THE STUDIO The car in this shot is Jack Chrisman’s ’72 Mustang sidewinder Funny Car that, according to National Dragster, he never raced, but that later became John Force’s first ride under the name The Nightstalker. But that’s beside the point. What’s really neat here is the rare look at the inside of Petersen Publishing’s old photo studio adjacent to the historic offices at 8490 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. According to company lore, the place was once a film vault for Howard Hughes, and it’s also haunted. It’s been rumored that our patriarch Robert E. Petersen met Margie McNally, his future wife, in that studio back when she was Miss Rhinegold Beer. Tales of the ’70s decadence that occurred in the building still bring jealous pangs to those who…

STEEL IS REAL Steel is real, and when it’s prewar and built on one of Henry’s assembly lines, it can be worth real green. In the right hands, it can also approach art. Bruce Rossmeyer of Florida brought the boys of Hot Rods & Hobbies a ’36 Ford five-window coupe that had belonged to Blackie Gejeian, of Oakland Roadster Show and Fresno Autorama fame. Steve Stanford did the rendering, then the body was put on a Roadster Shop Chassis and the madness began. The top was chopped, the firewall was moved back, and the floorboard was dropped to make headroom under the lowered lid. The doors went suicide, the wheel openings have been angled back to make them flow, and the rear fenders were lengthened. A custom taillight panel was…

If nothing else, the Camaro and Challenger concept cars shown at January’s ’06 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit are terrific teases; the vehicular equivalent of great looking women in short skirts and heels who will spend an entire night dropping provocative hints and making furtive eye contact but won’t even commit to a good-night kiss. No, we don’t know if either of these cars is headed for production. And it’s possible, just possible, that Chevrolet and Dodge don’t know either. But there’s plenty of reason for hope. So let’s enjoy the agony of anticipation while it lasts, because even if these cars aren’t the answer to some of hot rodding’s dreams, at least they have the potential to be. They revive two names at the heart of…

After many seasons of bracketracing success with a ’79 Fairmont station wagon, terminal rust finally forced Todd Blake to switch to a bigger, bolder box. The long wagon taught him that maximum traction comes from maximum weight over the slicks, so Todd eyeballed the family’s ’73 Jeep Wagoneer and bells went off. Unlike the race-only Fairmont, the Wagoneer is fully street licensed and runs on pump gas. The DRGN WGN license plates aren’t there for show, and Todd regularly drives the 3,800-pound sleeper to cruise nights around his Triadelphia, West Virginia, home and says it’ll run high 11s “pretty much anywhere thanks to how well it hooks.” We personally observed several 12.0 passes at the ’05 AMC Nationals in Cordova, Illinois. Why not faster? Todd hasn’t installed a roll bar…

“I was trying to retain the original Doane Spencer race-car look from the ’60s."—David Ley Think of the Sunbeam Tiger as the Cobra’s less-famous little brother. Around the same time Carroll Shelby was putting a small-block Ford into an A.C. Ace body, he was involved in doing the same thing to another English sports car, the little Sunbeam Alpine. Conceived and eventually built by The Rootes Group and initially engineered by Shelby’s crew, the Alpine became a Tiger by the installation of a 260ci small-block Ford among other necessary modifications. It was a big success on the streets since it was much cheaper than the Jaguars and Corvettes it competed with. It also had great success on the track, raced by the Hollywood Sports Car team of Doane Spencer—casual HOT…

It was only in the last year or two of the Fiero’s existence that GM finally got it right. It had a V-6 that made decent (for the day) power, the chassis was sorted to the point that the little Pontiac could tear up the autocross, and those rumors of engine fires were mostly dispelled. And then, true to form, GM killed the car. Though it’s still not the most popular engine-swap candidate, the Fiero should be, as evidenced by Nick Wagoner’s wicked little black ’87 GT. A small-block drops in these cars with only a little bit of whacking. Nick went whole hog by building an LSI with an LS6 intake and ported throttle-body, sprayed down with a 150-shot of TNT nitrous, and slipped it into the tight, mid-engine…

It’s a story as old as hot rodding itself. It starts with the sales pitch—"Buy my widget and your engine will gain 50 hp"—and ends with a disappointed customer with a car that sure doesn’t feel like it picked up 50 hp. A dragstrip doesn’t offer much proof one way or the other on incremental changes because there are too many variables involved, so the seat of the pants was for a long time the only way to tell if a modification or part really helped. That all changed in the ’90s with the introduction of the Dynojet, a portable chassis dyno that was in the financial grasp of most every mom-and-pop performance shop. Finally, power claims were proved or disproved as soon as the stuff was installed. And with…

There’s a certain autonomy afforded aftermarket industry insiders—it’s the liberty to rip apart brand-new cars and throw everything at ’em in a manner that few real-world rodders could afford, all in the name of product development, PR value, being the first to find the car’s limits, and just plain goin’ fast on the company dime. So, when we ran into Flowmaster’s Kevin McClelland at the ’03 SEMA Show and he told us that the company had ordered one of the first ’04 GTOs from Wood Pontiac, we told him we wanted to tag along. Then there’s the reality of the aftermarket life, which is that hot rodding doesn’t always go exactly as planned. If you recall our first announcement of the Flow GTO in the Project Garage section of the…

We just knew it wasn’t gonna work. Over the past few years, nearly every cam manufacturer has introduced 4/7-swap cams for big and small Chevys, all claiming that the change in firing order makes power. Lunati was the only cam grinder to actually ask us to test a pair of cams to learn for ourselves what the big deal was. So we did. FIRING ORDER BASICS First, let’s give you a clue what we’re talking about. A 4/7-swap cam changes the engine’s firing order, moving the power stroke for cylinder 4 to where 7 used to be, and vice versa. Therefore, a stock Chevy firing order of 1-8-4-36-5-7-2 becomes 1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2. To understand how this is done, you need to know about companion cylinders, which are the pairs of cylinders that…

Pesky driveability problems; engine combo recommendations; drivetrain swaps and change-outs; theoretical musings; locating hard-to-find parts—I deal with these issues and all other hot rod tech-related subjects here at Pit Stop, so ask away. Don’t forget to include your real first and last name (not screen name) and hometown or military unit, base, or ship in the letter or e-mail message. — MARLAN Davis BLOWN HEAD GASKET I have a ’63 Falcon Futura with a 0.040-over 302. It’s using SRP forged domed pistons (PN 150070) and Pro Topline heads (PN F1208000180) with 58cc chambers and 180cc intake runners. Going by SRP’s compressionratio chart, my engine should have a 14.0:1 compression ratio. My problem is blowing the head gaskets out at the bottom of cylinders 2 and 3, and 6 and 7.…

PONTIAC’S TRIPLE CROWN When General Motors pulled Pontiac out of NASCAR a couple of years ago, it may have seemed odd that the company’s purported performance brand was no longer involved with America’s most popular motorsport. Of course the Pontiac whatever-it-was that ran in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series was distinguishable from its Chevy whatchamabob siblings only by the name on the valvecovers and a sticker on the hood of a sheet-metal body that had already become so homogenized that it’s hard to know how many fans even noticed. However, Pontiac has by no means abandoned motorsports competition. A recent press event organized by Pontiac and GM Racing dubbed the Pontiac Motor-sports Triple Crown reminded us the brand had a bang-up year in 2005, winning manufacturers’ championships in the NHRA Pro…

HAIL THE CHAMPS! The odds against John Force winning an unprecedented 14th NHRA Funny Car championship were steep as the AAA Finals in Pomona began, but midway through the second round things changed after contenders Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps both lost. All Force had to do was get around former teammate Tony Pedregon and win the race. Great Cinderella concept, though everyone knows Force has been wearing drag racing’s glass slipper for decades. This time he was late to the ball, i.e., he had a lousy reaction time, and despite Force’s superior e.t., Pedregon moved on to the next round while Force got a one-way ticket to Palookaville. Gary Scelzi won a much-deserved Powerade championship and joined an exclusive club with just one other member—Kenny Bernstein. They are the…

It’s Okay to Build Something Other Than a Musclecar. Here Are Several Examples of Hot Rods That Are Cool But Far Removed From the Mainstream. It’s been nearly 20 years since HOT ROD broke the tradition barrier by saying that it’s socially acceptable to build oddball cars. Back then, we featured bullet-nose Studebakers, big ’70s cruisers, and some truly weird street rods, and they were all cool because they were far enough removed from the mainstream to be fresh and innovative. However, in those days, all you really had to do to get noticed was be the first person to put fat tires under a DeSoto. Times have changed, and today you’d be hardpressed to find a body style that hasn’t been modified in some way. With the current frenzy…

Aside benefit of being different can be saving big bucks. That’s what Rich Downing found when he sold his Pro Touring ’69 Camaro for enough _ —money to build three new cars. One of those is this ’66 AMC Rambler American, a car that defines a trend we once rudely dubbed Faux Touring. We coined that term in response to the number of otherwise stock nonperformance cars upgraded only with big wheels and airbags. But as we’ve come to grips with the fact that most Pro Touring cars are poseurs themselves, we’ve had a change of heart. There’s no reason to pick on a car just because it doesn’t have pizza-pan-sized disc brakes or EFI. Actually, the bone-stock simplicity of Downing’s stock-interior, six-cylinder Rambler combined with its great stance and…

Buz Nye of Lucky’s Speed Shop in Mulvane, Kansas, built his D2BD entry inspired by mid-’60s, AHRA C/Altered dragsters. The triple-stage candy paint draws crowds with every 3.5-gallon fill-up at the convenience store. When he hops back in and lights the mag, they get a meaningful roar and jump when she hits First. A teasing tap on the Mooneyes pedal brings a grin to the local police as Buz turns north and head for home. This one’s built for fun, pure and simple, and it started around the engine. Buz had this same 220-horse 283 in a ’57 Chevy that he raced AHRA Stock Eliminator with in th (’60s and ’70s. With the engine freshened up and sitting in his shop, Buz decided he wanted to build something to put…

Ford unveiled the Boss 429 in 1969 after NASCAR had disallowed its 427 single overhead cam motor. Decision makers inside Ford were tired of getting whupped in NASCAR competition by Chevrolet’s canted-valve big-block and Dodge’s vaunted Hemi, so after the SOHC motor was rejected, they scrapped the aging 427 block design altogether and produced a new, lighter, thin-wall block with a 4.36-inch bore and 3.59-inch stroke based on the 429/460 engine. And thus one of the most outlandish engines B Ford ever built was H born: The Boss 429. The other version of the Boss motor, the 302, was quite successful as a road racer, and while the 429 also found its way into drag racing, its reason for existing was to dominate the oval tracks of NASCAR. To make…

LA CARRERA ON HRTV The HOT ROD TV crew headed to Mexico for the famous La Carrera Panamericana race last October, and they were all smiles until they discovered the HOT ROD Hummer’s integrated safety feature—when the doors are closed with the windows up, the Hummer automatically locks itself, even when the keys are in the ignition. A passing EMT crew radioed the closest town, a local police officer located a locksmith, and the day was saved with mere minutes to go before the start of the race. Watch for HRTV’s two-ep isode series on the La Carrera Panamericana on The Outdoor Channel in mid 2006. WHERE TO GET BACK ISSUES We get a lot of readers asking how they can purchase back issues of the magazine, and here’s the…

Eric Medlen, driving one of John Force’s Funny Cars, ended up in the top-end sand traps at the NHRA Automobile Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona last November when he had trouble getting the parachutes to deploy. As you can see in this Paul Click photo, the chutes did come out, but not quickly enough to keep him out of the sand. This happened in the semifinals after Medlen had just run a 4.74 to beat Tommy Johnson Jr, Initially, his crewchief and father, John Medlen, thought they were done for the day, but crew members from all three Force teams thrashed to get the car to the starting line for the final round. They did a burnout and staged but had no plans of making a full pass…

E-MAIL: HOTROD@PRIMEDIA.COM•MAIL: HOT ROD BENCH RACING, 6420 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES, CA 90048•FAX: 323/782-2223•MESSAGE BOARD: HOTROD.COM We’ve gotten so much good mail on a variety of topics that we decided to really let loose with this month’s Bench Racing. Normally you’ll see a single page devoted to the mail on a particular topic; this month we have two of those pages. And Freiburger’s column in the January issue, a precursor to this month’s Dare To Be Different section, had the oddball cars coming out of the woodwork, so we devoted this month’s Readers’ Rides to a selection of those that arrived via e-mail. We hope you’re equal parts intrigued, appalled, and entertained. We certainly were! And we’ve got more, so we’ll try and filter them in the next few months.—RoB…

MSD ACQUIRES RACEPAK This one seems like a no-brainer—MSD Ignition has purchased Racepak, the maker of data-acquisition f systems, to corner the market on performance electronics. Racepak is best known for its high-end data-acquisition components, but its new G2X GPS system is aimed right at the weekend racer. It costs under $1,000 and provides lap times, speed, lateral g’s and acceleration g’s. You can add on with Racepak’s V-net sensors for even more data. The system is simple to install, so it’s easy to move from car to car. With MSD’s marketing savvy and enormous distribution network, we don’t doubt you’ll see lots of Racepak units on the streets soon. MSD is based in El Paso, Texas, but Racepak will still operate out of its Rancho Santa Margarita, California, offices.…

RETAIL RAT ROD How deeply has the rat rod movement infiltrated American culture at large? So deep you can now get a flat-black Ford F-150 Super Crew direct from Galpin Ford in Van Nuys, California. It’s a truck with a so-called rat rod look—and leather upholstery and a factory warranty. Galpin has been either the first or second largest Ford dealer on Earth for years and a leader in the movement toward dealership-massaged production vehicles intended to attract buyers who don’t want just another mass-market machine. The dealer has Galpinized just about every member of the Ford product line at one time or another, but this F-150 is clearly the one that most closely reflects an aspect of hot rodding. To build the faux rat rod, Galpin takes the stock…

Nobody will ever call Terry Cook conventional, that’s for sure. The owner of Deco Rides, founder of the Lead East custom car show, and a former HOT ROD guy, Cook marches to the beat of a drummer not heard by many hot rodders. But through this eccentricity often comes true creativity, as displayed by the cars you see here. A Chip Foose illustration of “an Auburnesque” Boattail Speedster in an older issue of Rodders Journal got Cook all frothy at the mouth, and he coaxed the plans out of Foose in order to build the real thing. Cook had just finished Scrape, a custom Lincoln Zephyr, and had made molds of the body, so he was ready to take on the Boattail. With the help of Rob Ida in New…

It’s tough maintaining orthodoxy and doctrinal purity in the High Church of Hot Rodding. Just when it seems that some major tenet of the theology has been perfected and is infallible, someone comes along with a car that is undeniably better because of its apostate violation of exactly that tenet. But if there’s one bedrock belief upon which this religion has been built it’s this: Real hot rods don’t start out as Toyotas. Apparently Mitch Allread wasn’t in the pews when that particular sermon was preached. And he happened to own a ’68 Toyota Corona two-door coupe that he was using as his daily driver when, one day, he decided he wanted something like a fenderless ’32 Ford that was something completely unlike a ’32 Ford with power from a…

Dave Jarvis’ van pegged our dare-to-be-different meter a couple of years ago because of what it had already done—run low 11s with the front wheels a foot in the air. But since we first saw it on the Internet, Jarvis has embarked on a plan that should eventually send his short-wheelbase ’78 Chevy even further off charted territory. For most of the past year we’ve followed Jarvis’ progress in swapping an all-aluminum 18-degreeheaded 414ci small-block in place of the iron-block 23-degree 406. Last winter the van was repainted, and Jarvis took the opportunity to slim down its previous 4,400-pound race weight by swapping on a fiberglass side door and hood along with an extensively lightened engine K-member. He doesn’t plan to change much of the rest of the setup, which…

There will never be an end to the debate of what is and is not a “street car.” We thought Drag Week(tm) would do that, and at least in our minds it has. But as expected, there are some out there who think Carl Scott’s tube-chassis Nova is certainly not a street car, even if it did drive 1,500 unassisted miles and rip off mid 8s. Some guys will just never be happy, and they’re the same ones who will holler and scream over John Creekmore’s ’57 Chevy. While there’s neither anything from 1957 nor from Chevrolet on this car (except for the heavily modified dash), it is still registered with the state of Florida as a ’57 Chevy. Yes, it has a tube chassis. Yes, the radical, 78-scale Pro…

FLOWMASTER GTO PG.92 Flowmaster got one of Pontiac’s first new GTOs and planned to twin-turbocharge it. But saner heads prevailed and they went the nitrous and suspension route instead, resulting in a 700hp street car. BOSS 429 BUILDUP PG.98 Here’s one you don’t see every day: A buildup of one of the rarest Ford engines ever, the incredible Boss 429. This one started with a junk set of original cylinder heads that may or may not have big-league NASCAR history. TRICK NEW HEAD GASKET PG.104 Marlan takes an inside look at Cometic’s new gas-filled O-ringed head gasket, which is claimed to be the next evolution in engine sealing. CAM SWAP FOR POWER PG.106 Some claim you can find power by changing the firing order on Chevy engines. We try the…

Reliably sealing the cylinder heads to the engine block when running extreme high-boost or a big nitrous load has always been a challenge for engine builders. For economic reasons, ease of assembly, and daily driveability (for dual-purpose, street-driven hot rods), some sort of conventional head-gasket solution would be the preferred choice. Yet while technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years, even the best of the modern conventionally based composition and MLS (multi-layer steel) headgasket solutions may run into problems when subjected to extreme combustion loads, particularly on engines like Ford V-8s and GM Gen III smallblocks that have only four head bolts sealing each cylinder. When normal head gaskets can’t do the job on full-race, conventional American V-8s, engines builders usually resort to O-ring wire…

FORD 8-INCH TRACTION-LOK Randy’s Ring & Pinion 800/291-1360 www.ringpinion.com One-legged burnouts are no fun, especially if you’re stuck with a Ford 8-inch rear that doesn’t have a durable aftermarket limited slip. Randy’s Ring & Pinion feels your pain and has a new 8-inch Traction-Lok diff built from billet steel and nodular iron. Additionally, the unit has four 8620 steel spider gears as opposed to the two found in factory units, and the Raybestos clutches improve wear. To cater to both cruisers and racers, the diffs are offered in two levels of spring-pressure preload. MUSTANG EXHAUST Hooker Headers 800/465-5391 www.ilovemyhookerheaders.com The ’05 Mustang GT already produces an aftermarket-caliber exhaust tone, but Hooker’s Aero Chamber mufflers add even more bark with the bite. They’re constructed from lightweight 18-gauge Type 304 stainless steel…