Indholdsfortegnelse for September 1987 i Hot Rod

Racing Gas Available At The Pump Unocal, better known as Union 76, recently announced a program to offer its 106-plus octane leaded racing gasoline to the public through select service stations. The street-legal high-power gas (lead limits within governmental guidelines) should be available this summer in the midwestern and eastern states. Pricing for the super gas is expected to be set in the $3 per gallon range. This announcement represents a significant advancement towards the preservation of high-performance/high-compression street engines. Pontiac Motorsports has just cataloged a new four-valve-per-cylinder, twin-overhead cam head conversion for the 2.5L Pontiac Super Duty 4-cylinder engine. The kit, as-yet unlisted, will feature a fully assembled head with cams, the necessary drive mechanisms, and a new front cover. Look for a more in-depth feature on this powerplant…

In case you haven’t heard, the HOT ROD National Model Contest is off and running again this year. The big news is that this 2nd annual edition is open to any brand or type of model car or truck, 1/8-scale or smaller, including scratchbuilt. Once again, emphasis in judging will be on creativity and design rather than realism or minute detailing, so don’t think you need to build a big model with lots of intricate parts and gizmos to win (the scale of the model will be considered during judging, too). Box stock, changeover, or “repro” models are not going to catch the judges’ eyes; build something inventive, novel, colorful, outrageous, you name it. That’s what’s so neat about models—you can do anything you want, easily. Entry is still by…

Since its inception in 1979, the Hot Rod Super Nationals has played in a number of cities, including Columbus and Berea, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana—where the extravaganza was held for the last three years. Because this summer’s Pan Am Games topped Indy’s priority list, Special Events Inc. was forced to find another site capable of hosting this ninth edition of the Hot Rod Super Nationals During the weekend of June 5-7, the Super Nationals traveling performance show rolled into the small town of Canfield, Ohio, just south of Youngstown. Canfield not only offers the peacefulness and free-flowing traffic typical of a rural community, but also boasts the many advantages inherent to its suburban situation. Hotel accommodationsare plentiful, and the proximity of the freeway makes the commute to Canfield’s fairgrounds quick…

It’s typical human nature to distrust anything new and innovative. Cave men probably weren’t real fond of fire at first—until they learned what it could do for prime rib. Lighting the fire under the new generation of computer-controlled performance cars from Detroit can also create waves of rumor and misinformation concerning performance changes for computer-controlled cars. While many self-proclaimed authorities say there’s little that can be done to enhance performance on late-model supercars, the exact opposite is actually the case. As we proved last month with the initial modifications to Chris Kaufmann’s 1987 LX Mustang, there is significant room for improvement in these cars—without resorting to exotic high-tech modifications. In the August issue we transformed the ’87 Mustang LX 14.54-second Stocker into a 13.88-second stormer with the addition of sticky…

Milestone MUSCLECARS With the 1964 debut of their famous GTO, Pontiac gets most of the credit for instigating the modern musclecar era. Yet Chevrolet responded, in late ’65, with their SS396 Chevelle. Only a relative few of those big-block A-body brutes were built that year (see sidebar), but they did lead directly to the mass-produced 1966 and ’67 Chevelle Milestone Musclecars that are under review here. First rolled out by Chevrolet in 1964, the Chevelle Super Sport series was planned as the division’s answer to a growing demand for moderately priced, mid-size, performance-oriented models. The cars were attractive to the youth-oriented musclecar market as well as to traditional family car buyers. And by finally developing production big-block versions of these already-popular intermediates in 1966, Chevy provided a fast answer to…

If there is a single string that ties all hot rods together, it is this: Hot rods are an eclectic enterprise, or, to be more specific, a collection of semi-related components. Therefore, it stands to reason that if hot rods represent an amalgamation of various elements—via parts swapping—hot rodders are the personification of collectors. Now, this “scrounge-a-thon” mentality isn’t a manifestation of longing for things past and fast. It’s been with us since our “teens.” Then, used Model T’s were cheap and easy to modify, which encouraged the development of semi-related components such as Buffalo wire wheels, Miller “touring speedster” bodies, Ruckstell 2-speed rearends, and enough power-producing equipment—cranks, cams, OHV conversions, and racing carburetion—to turn a T into an Offy-eating shag nasty. The end result, much to our mothers’ chagrin,…

Scott Brenner’s radical ’69 Camaro (this month’s cover car) is a complete departure from our practical Pro Street philosophy—but it was just too bitchin’ to pass up. While a select number of full-tilt, tube-frame cars definitely represent the outer limits of Pro Street culture, Scott’s Camaro still maintains its street-bound identity with a relatively stock front suspension and the basic original chassis modified with Alston kit components. It started out as a cruiser and gradually evolved to its present state after consistently losing to Pro Street cars at car shows. A blown, 402-cubic-inch, all-aluminum, Donovan small-block with a dry sump oiling system is a little beyond the budget of your average Pro Street project, but Scott was determined to outclass your average Pro Street car. With 9-second capability and the…

DRAGLINER LIVES You may recall that in our March ’87 issue we featured the Arivett (Don and Gerald) Bros.’ new, streamlined, Top Fuel dragster (“Dragliner”). The dragliner was then still under construction and no firm date was given when it would be finished and operating under its own power. A follow-up piece in “Finish Line” (June ’87) made mention of the fact that Dale Armstrong (the crewchief on Kenny Bernstein’s Budweiser King Funny Car) had commissioned the Arivett Bros, to build the team a new body using the same carbon-fiber sandwich technology they had employed to form the one-piece body that covers their unconventional streamliner. We say “unconventional” because the so-called streamliners—being raced during the first part of ’87—are and/or were nothing more than conventional rearmotor Fuelers with some Lexan…

STAR CAR Four years ago I started building a ’73 Comet, with air shocks and N50s in the back, skinnies in front, and Cragar SSTs all around. After the car was “finished,” I met a girl and we were soon engaged. I shared with her my dream of building a car that I could neverhave afforded to build myself. Well, I am very happy to report that we have finally built our dream car—a full-tilt Pro Streeter complete with full cage, narrowed rearend, and all the other neat and expensive equipment that goes with it. I would just like to thank my wonderful wife for being behind me 100 percent and helping me to realize my dream. Ernie Bergmann, Jr.Converse, Texas BIG IS BEST When are you people going to…

Okay, we’ll admit it. Some of the cars we feature in HOT ROD Magazine are not realistic. Wewon’t say “many,” because that’s far from true. But the far out, overdone, push-the-limits, go-for-broke vehicles are the ones that demand the attention, the ones you remember. That’s why people build them. That’s why we feature them. But don’t think that these vehicles are real cars—the kind you jump in and drive. Sure, they may start, run, steer, and be able to drive around the block. But the cars we are talking about—street rods with blown and injected alcohol motors, Pro Streeters with 2 inches of ground clearance and a 5-gallon fuel cell, street racers with 121/2:1 compression and a. 650-lift, triple valvespring cam—are built for purposes other than regular street and highway…

Back in the ’60s, many really fast Detroit stockers presented an out-ward facade that at first glanceseemed little different from your mom’s grocery-getter. If you looked carefully, there may have been a subtle fender-mounted engine badge, proudly pro-claiming to the world (if only the world knew where to look) what was really hidden under the otherwise innocuous-appearing sheetmetal. In later years, the tape stripe and decal quotient increased in inverse proportion to plummeting horsepower and performance levels. Either way, the appearance of Detroit stockers served to bear out that old aphorism, “Looks can be deceiving.” To this, hot rodders add a wry corollary: “Beware the sleeper.” They know that the gaudiest, flashiest machine with a blower sticking through the hood more often than not turns out to be “all show,…

If there is one fault line that runs throughout this entire Mustang muscle-building program, it has to be with the term “emission-legal.” It would take a small book to cover all the intricate details of the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) rules concerning the modification of a car equipped with exhaust pollution controls as operated in the state of California. Simply stated, CARB requires that any aftermarket component not designed as a duplicate of the original factory part must have an exemption from CARB in order to be legal for use on emission-controlled cars in California. Taking this definition in its strictest sense means that the camshaft installed in this Mustang would now make this vehicle illegal in a smog test. However, when we tested the Mustang, it still met…

Although Chevrolet originally intended to build a limited run of competition-oriented Mark IV “mystery motor” Chevelles in 1964, a major sanctioning organization’s ongoing rules tuning delayed actual RPO Z16 production until 1965. By then, however, the performance plan had been revamped so that instead of assembling 200 lightweight racer-like machines, Chevy turned out 201 extensively optioned Super Sport models that were based on top-of-the-line Malibus fitted with the big-block 396 engine. The initially unplanned-on, 201st Chevelle became the only Z16 convertible that the factory ever built. Recognized as the first Chevys to become known by their RPO designation rather than by their actual model name, the legendary Z16 A-body cars were all assembled in the division’s Kansas City plant in red, white, or black. Most of these units were fitted…

Like Warren Person, 47-year-old Jerry Moreland became actively involved with cars at the ripe young age of 14, and, by the time his 18th birthday rolled around, he was being flagged off the line in his ’57 Ranchero at Santa Ana drag-strip (in California) by none other than C. J. “Pappy” Hart. Jerry’s innocent run, which started it all 29 years ago, has ultimately led to a cool million-dollar-plus collection that currently includes a ’32 roadster, ’33 and ’36 cabriolets, ’40 sedan (HRM November and December ’85 cover car), his ’57 Black Widow (HRM August ’87) and hardtop, two ’62 Pontiacs (Super Duty and Grand Prix), a ’63 Max Wedge Plymouth (aluminum front end), two ’63 lightweight Galaxies, three ’64 T-Bolts, two ’64 lightweight Galaxies, plus a ’64 A/FX Comet,…

If I were to ask you to define the term “hot rod,” what descriptive words would you use? Art Hursey’s all-’glass ’33 Willys coupe is his definition. “It’s a home-built car, built in a one-car garage, and it required many, many hours of fit, forming, and fabrication.” The fabrication part was its chassis, based on Art’s 2x3-inch mild steel frame augmented by a six-point roll cage and running gear—a combination featuring custom A-arms and uprights, Carrera coil-over shocks, Pinto steering and spindles, and a rear suspension system based on an SRD four-link system attached to a ’70 Chrysler/Dana rearend. The fit part was “shoehorning” 427 inches of Hilborn-injected Rat into a spot once occupied by a valve-in-block 4-banger. The potent Rodent has it all: 4-bolt main block, Crane solid-lifter cam,…

In 1983 Ford Motor Company asked the editors of HOT ROD, Car Craft, and Motor Trend magazines to help them promote their new Ranger mini-truck. The plan was simple. Ford would provide the raw material in the form of three stock trucks and then allow each magazine to do their “customizing” thing. The finished trucks would then be displayed at various shopping centers, malls, and dealerships throughout Southern California. Since that promotion was such a success, we were asked to do it all over again; this time our sister publication, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, would also be included. While the other magazines got trucks, HOT ROD was presented with an Aerostar van, which became an “Aerosport.” Now, stock Aerostars aren’t all that bad, but you know how hot rodders are—nothing would…

Hedder First Hedman Hedders is now offering Chevy small-block short headers for street rod applications where space is minimal between the engine and the frame. Featuring 15/8-inch tubing and a 21/2-inch collector, these new headers are available with the corrosion-resistant, chip-free High Performance Coating (HPC). For additional information, write or call Hedman Hedders, Dept. HR-09, 9599 W. Jefferson Blvd, Culver City, CA 90231, (213) 839-7581. Rochester Carburetors The revised edition of Doug Roe’s Rochester Carburetors now includes a chapter on design and service of electronic models and chip-controlled Quadrajets. This 176-page book is available for $12.95 from HP Books, Dept. HR-09, P.O. Box 5367, Tucson, AZ 857039990, (800) 528-4923. Transmission Tips on Video A step-by-step guide to the mysteries of rebuilding your automatic transmission is now being offered on video…

Back in the early ’50s, when street was neat and rods were reet, the car to own was either a Deuce roadster or a ’39 or ’40 coupe—and if it was a ’40, make it a “deluxe.” If you were to ask Jan Carpenter (B&M’s customer service manager) or Ken Huffstetler (a crane operator at Alcoa Aluminum Co.), chances are they would still answer, “Deuces may be dandy, but fat is where it’s at.” Ken’s corpulent coupe happens to reside at his house in Maryville, Tennessee, and it represents his first attempt at building a street rod. On the other hand, Jan’s full-bodied Ford had been a daily driver until three years ago when she and her husband decided to totally rebuild their Northridge, California, runner. And as luck would…

Pro Street cars are known more. for their flash than for serious street stompin’ ability: But Vern-Young’s extraordinary ’67 Mercury Cougar has appropriate credentials in either capacity. In his first attempt at a max-effort street machine, Vern spent three and a half years and less than 15 grand putting together a unique ride that any street machiner would be proud to call his or her own. Like any good hot rodder, Vern carted home a $300 basket ease from the local wrecking yard and set out to build his own contribution to Pro Street culture. He stripped the car and started from scratch with a home-built frame, engine, and driveline components. With help from friend Mike Conklin, Vern-used 2x3-inch box tubing and round tubing to narrow the frame rails and…

Debuted at Daytona in early 1963, Chevrolet’s big-block V8 was introduced to America as the Mark II “mystery motor.’’ As a replacement for the division’s venerable W-series 348 and 409 engines, the 90-degree big-block was designed as Chevy’s front-line weapon in Detroit’s escalating horsepower wars. Although the motor met with considerable success in its early outings in NASCAR and Can-Am competition, it wasn’t until 1965 that the big-block found its way into mass production as the legendary Mark IV 396 and 427-cid engines. As fitted to the Chevelle models discussed here, the 396 came with a 4.094-inch bore and a 3.76-inch stroke. Weighing 690 pounds, the bigblock came in three distinct forms. Rated at 375 horsepower, the first 396 fitted to the A-body Chevelle in 1965 (see sidebar) was designated…

The 1965-73 Ford Mustang ranks among the most popular candidates for restoration. Sheetmetal, interior, and even many drivetrain pieces are widely available from aftermarket sources. But all those neat N.O.S. and repro parts are worth nothing if a key link is missing. In the case of the old Mustang, the missing horseshoe all too often turns out to be the steering box. However, suspension expert Doug Norrpin, owner of Global West Alignment Specialties in Montclair, California, is able to recondition many totally lunched boxes to better-than-new condition—even though Ford no longer stocks most major new components. Since you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, first let’s take a general look at the Mustang steering box. The so-called “Ford” box is really GM Saginaw manual steering “inside the casting.” In…

Spots With Spindle Mounts Halibrand Engineering, in conjunction with Dick “Magoo” Megugorac, has recently perfected a new front disc brake kit/spindle-mount wheel combo which combines the polished good looks of early-type Halibrand wheels with the stopping power of modern, JFZ-style braking. Wheels are 15x472 inches wide, designed to be mounted on ’37 to ’48 Ford spindles. For further info, contact Halibrand Engineering, Dept. HR-09, Box 12499. El Cajon, CA 92022, (619) 588-4084. Small Tools for Big Boys’ Toys D&D Metal Works is one of those places where trick tools are sold, and now they’re giving away a fully illustrated, four-page brochure filled with goodies from Blair, Cleco, Dzus, Greenlee, Milbar, and Morse. Included in D&D’s inventory are AN-type tube flaring tools, metal shrinkers/stretchers, hard-to-find hardware, special cables (for shifters, clutch…

CARS & TRUCKS ’72 CAMARO SS. Full custom body, Porsche red, 350, 4-speed, one-of-a-kind, must see. Asking $8000, or trade. Tony Kressy, 2652 N. Rutherford, Chicago, IL 60635, (312) 8897990. ’68 CAMARO RS. 39,000 original miles, 10,000 miles oi new 600-hp Turbo 350, all original “RS” interior, professions aerodynamic body design. S20.000 invested, asking SI2,00i o.b.o. Dan Stamer, 5020 E. Adams, Tucson, AZ 85712, (602 881-4939. ’57 CHEW. Strong 350, 4-speed, loaded. $6500 negotiable. 1308 Oak Ln., Miami, OK 74354, (918) 542-6986. ’24 MID-ENGINE ROADSTER. HOT ROD Magazine cover car and “Top Ten Rod.” 350 Olds V8, Weber carbs, very streetable. Asking $24,000. Bill Porterfield, (517) 323-3655, evenings. ’71 MACH 1. 429-SCJ, 4-speed, 3.91 T-lock. $12,000. Jim Booher, Box 244, Townsend, MT 59644, (406) 266-3593. ’78 MID-ENGINE 442. HOT ROD…