Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2014 i Hot Rod

Mark Twain is credited with the saying, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” So what do I hear resonating from our collective 66-year HOT ROD history? The idle of brand-new muscle cars on showroom floors across this nation once again. It’s been decades since we’ve heard these sounds with such volume, and I’d be doing you a disservice not to point out the opportunity at hand: carmakers from Cadillac to Chrysler are offering 400, 500, 600, and even 700hp vehicles with a warranty and new-car smell. The last time we had this many makes and models offering performance packages and powertrains off assembly lines was the early ’70s. The march of technology has replaced 4-bbl carbs with EFI, and four-speeds have been trumped by gearboxes with twice…

The Dodge Challenger ranks third in U.S. ponycar sales (behind Camaro and Mustang), yet Tim Kuniskis, president and CEO of Dodge, reports those numbers continue to climb year over year. That’s not a statistic you typically see from a vehicle that’s been on the market for five years—and Dodge is proud of that. The Dodge team is also quick to point out the Challenger has a higher conquest rate (buyers who come to the brand after owning a competitors’ car), a higher loyalty rate, and younger average buyer than the average Camaro or Mustang customer. These younger customers are reportedly purchasing the Challenger not just for its style and performance (which they are) but because the Challenger is larger, more comfortable, and more of a grand-touring vehicle than the Mustang…

PRESENTS DRIVEN BY You know you want to do this! For 2014, Chevrolet Performance presents the 20th running of the HOT ROD Power Tour® driven by Continental Tire. This drive of your life is a cross-country trek with thousands of other HOT ROD enthusiasts from around the world, starting at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina. For the next seven days and seven states, you and 4,500 other hot rods, custom trucks, and street machines travel select scenic routes directing you with concise maps toward our final destination at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, known as the Waterpark Capital of the World. Each day’s drive ends at premium destinations where HOT ROD has scheduled unique and all-inclusive events, ranging from drag racing at Summit Motorsports Park to…

It’s hard to get the HOT ROD staff to agree on anything, let alone being unanimous in their selection of Mike Podaca’s ’51 Cadillac as the recipient of a feature. The staff was tasked to pick a car from the hundreds of entrants jammed around the Fairplex in Pomona, California, at the HOT ROD Homecoming celebrating the magazine’s 65th anniversary last year. What makes this an even odder choice is that the Cad falls into the custom-car category, which doesn’t get a lot of love from HOT ROD. Not that we don’t love a cool custom, it just seems that 700 hp typically trumps 700 body mods. But Mike’s Cad had that nice combo of subtle yet arresting. Mike could have gotten outlandish with the mods but instead…

Contacts NAPA; Atlanta, GA; 877.805.6272; NAPAonline.com WESTECH AUTOMOTIVE; Silver Lake, WI; 262.889.4346; WestechAuto.com HOW IT WORKS Chokes overcome cold start engine problems by supplying an extremely rich mixture. As the engine warms up, the choke is supposed to open; however, if it “sees” insufficient heat, it opens late or not at all. Usually the choke is referenced to exhaust temperature via heat passages in the exhaust manifolds, heads, and intake. If they aren’t present, an alternative must be found—like this divorced electric choke assembly. Chrysler’s solution used a control unit with a resistor plus a normally open thermostatic switch. On a cold engine, the 10.5-ohm, 0.8-amp, resistor reduces battery voltage by increasing circuit resistance; less voltage reaches the choke HOW IT WORKS, CONT’D coil, delaying its opening. At about 82…

The other night, we all worked late. It was dark and fairly cold when I went out the parking lot, so I had to let the Polara idle for a bit to warm up—California choke settings plus massive aluminum cooling system equals a sluggish first few minutes. While I sat there watching the temp gauge stay stubbornly on the Cold side, I noticed HOT ROD boss-man David Kennedy slouched in the driver seat of his ’68 Plymouth GTX. We sat there in the parking lot, our two old Mopars emitting a cloud of hydrocarbon-laced tailpipe steam, sharing a carbureted tradition. I don’t know what DK does while the GTX warms up, but I have a routine in my cars. Start ’em up, read some emails, glance at the temp gauge,…

Maximum Motorsports //805.544.8748 //MaximumMotorsports.com S197 Mustangs (’05–’14) are decent-handling cars from the factory, but engineers had to dial out some performance in favor of noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) dampening. Maximum Motorsports takes the Mustang to the next level with its Road & Track Grip Box that combines good ride quality with grip capable of cornering at a continuous 1.2g on street tires. The kit includes Koni adjustable struts and shocks, custom springs, a front sway bar, caster/camber plates, an adjustable Panhard bar, rear lower control arms, shorter bumpstops and complete installation hardware. Everything is designed for easy assembly with common tools. Price: $2,014.11 (’05–’10); $2,022.35 (’11–’14) Bucket For Your Body Corbeau Seats //801.255.3737 Corbeau.com With the level of today’s performance suspension setups, especially in the high-end pro-touring world, stock…

With the Mustang celebrating its 50th anniversary, you could pull from any number of years and categories to showcase racing successes with this most versatile of race weapons. Practically throwing a dart on a board, we chose the ’70 Trans-Am series with Parnelli Jones at the wheel of the Bud Moore–prepped Boss 302 Mustang. The Trans-Am races were an incredible convergence of virtually every American car manufacturer offering up competitive cars with legendary drivers, especially in ’69 and ’70. Even American Motors fielded Roger Penske Javelins with none other than Mark Minter, and Vic Elford campaigning Camaros; Sam Posey with his Donohue and Peter Revson driving. Then you had Jim Hall, Milt Challenger running a Keith Black–built 340; Jerry Titus in a single 400ci Firebird; and Dan Gurney driving the…

Google “David Kimble” and you’ll learn he’s an automotive illustrator best known for cutaway art. Google “Cutaway Art” and—well, if you’re having to Google all this, it explains why this art form is a dying art. David Kimble is one of the greats. His see-through technical illustrations are a staple for helping us understand the inner workings of vehicles and performance parts. He was “always fascinated with the anatomy and physiology of machinery,” and grew up in Southern California right in the heart of the motorsports community. His dad raced midgets in the ’30s, and that gave Kimble the enviable opportunity to spend every spring watching Frank Kurtis build race cars. The experience made Kimble want to design cars, not just illustrate them, and his eye for detail was on…

If you think of hot rodding as a community, then you can imagine it with a diverse assemblage of characters. In that context, there are the artsy-fartsy types who inhabit a different group of creatives than those fabbing independent-rear suspensions, grinding exotic cams, or consistently cutting low reaction times. If you’re an artsy fartsy within the culture of fast cars, you’ve got to be intimate with your subject matter—and be good. There’s little tolerance among hot rodders for art and artists, unless they can also build an engine and maybe do incredible bodywork besides sling ink. Keith Weesner satisfies all of the above. He not only draws and paints cars on canvas, and does it well, he also wrenches on his ’29 highboy roadster, chopped ’50 Ford, and myriad old…

We need some superheros in the car hobby. Brave men and women who will protect us from boring cars, and who will stand up to evil whenever it threatens to limit our imaginations. Enter Jon Sibal, a mild-mannered graphic artist by day and a caped crusader bent on breaking down the walls between car guys so that all can enjoy the fireedom to have a sweet stance by night. OK, no cape, but the rest is true. Jon works as an automotive illustrator and comic-book artist, and his ’09 Dodge Challenger refflects his interest in European and Japanese car culture as well as vintage Trans-Am racing, all wrapped up in a menacing black-and-bronze theme that would make Batman consider trading in the Tumbler for a Mopar. Jon is…

Magazines are like restaurants in many ways: most go out of business soon after they start up. It’s a tough business to survive in. HOT ROD had a lot of things going for it 66 years ago that helped elevate it above its peers, not the least of which were the elaborate, detailed cutaways appearing each month alongside the “Hot Rod of the Month.” Just like a restaurant needs a signature dish or desert, or maybe a terriffic view or theme to stand out, one of the distinctive highlights of those early years of publishing that allowed HOT ROD to stand out were the iconic pen-and-ink drawings by Rex Burnett (lef, holding a piston). Burnett’s cutaways first appeared in HOT ROD’s Sept. ’48 issue. Preceded by HOT ROD’s…

So you want the perfect black paint job, do you? According to the top painters in our industry, that’s no problem for them, but it’s going to require more work (or money) on your part; prepping to paint a car black is a daunting task and requires an attention to detail that goes far beyond average. The reason for this is simple: you see everything in a black paint job. Any flaws in the bodywork (waviness, contamination, or imperfect filler) will show like a zit on a beauty queen’s nose. Still, there are few colors that draw as much respect and praise as black when applied over a properly prepped body. So to help you get the best black paint for your car, we’ve talked to three of…

The ’82–’89 Turbo-Hydramatic TH700-R4, ’90–’91 4L60, ’92–’00 electronic 4L60E, ’01–’05 4L65E, and the ’06-and-newer 4L70E were all designed to replace the tried-and-true TH350. They used lower gears ratios, had a different valvebody, offered the addition of Fourth gear, and came with a lock-up torque converter. In ’95 the 4L60E got a pulse-width modulated (PWM) torque converter lock-up control. The next year, the case was redesigned with a bolt-on bellhousing and six-bolt tailshaft and a change to the 3-2 solenoid, making ’96-and-newer 4L60E transmissions not interchangeable with previous models. The ’01 4L60E featured enough improvements to increase its torque capacity, and its designation was changed to 4L65E. The main improvement of interest to hot rodders is the 4L65E’s five-pinion planetary carrier that replaced the 4L60E’s four-pinion. More pinion gears help to…

Proper exhaust-pipe size is a function of both engine output and displacement. The higher the engine’s output, the larger the pipes should be. Likewise, larger engine displacements call for bigger pipes. But you don’t want to become a victim of “More’s Law,” either: While up to a point reducing exhaust restriction generally helps both power and gas mileage, going too large can over-scavenge an engine and actually decrease engine output as well as fuel efficiency. The accompanying exhaust system size guidelines are compiled from Flowmaster Muffers and Roadkill Customs.com data. To avoid becoming a restriction, all Muffer and catalytic converter inlet and outlet sizes should correspond to the exhaust pipe sizes, and design your exhaust system to use the minimum number of bends. Contacts FLOWMASTER INC.; Santa Rosa, CA;…

THE COMBO Bob Momcilovich’s Lake of the Woods, California–based ’64½ Mustang currently runs a ’68 289ci V8 backed by a wide-ratio Ford Top Loader four-speed trans and 8-inch Ford rearend stuffed with a Traction-Lok diff and 3.23:1 gears. The motor is warmed-over with a healthy Comp Cams flat-tappet hydraulic cam, an Edelbrock single-plane Torker intake fed by a 650-cfm Holley Ultra Double-Pumper carb, a Per-Tronix breakerless conversion kit in the original Ford points distributor that’s boosted by a MSD-6A ignition box, and longtube headers. Bob also installed a ’68–’73 Mustang front disc brake setup and dual master cylinder. Like most Fords of its era, the car used a lever-style Long clutch. For street use, Long clutches—especially when upgraded from OE configuration—can be overly stiff with harsh engagement characteristics.…

SEND YOUR PHOTOS To be included in Scene by Readers, send low-rez photos and some information about them to HOTROD@HotRod.com. If we elect to use your photo, we will email back with instructions on how to send us a high-rez photo for publication.…

The ’14 Ford F-150 Tremor, like the seismic shudder for which it is named, is over before you realize it’s happening. Ford introduced the Tremor for ’14, but has already said it won’t be available for ’15, so if a turbocharged, two-seater, shortbed is the truck of your dreams, you better take a hammer to your piggy bank now. Is the short-lived Tremor worth fussing over? We took one out for a weekend to see if it could outrun the shadow of the legendary Ford Lightning. With the 365hp Eco Boost twin-turbo V6 between the fenders, expectations were high that the “Baby Lightning” would be a real performer. The baby isn’t small, nor is it a lightweight, tipping the scales at 5,380 pounds. The regular cab only seats two—and that’s…

Troy Ladd, owner of Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank, California, is a tad bit averse to technology. He’s not a complete Luddite—his shop has a website, of course—but right there at the bottom of every webpage, you’ll see the mantra, “Respect Tradition,” in large type next to the galleries of prewar coupes and roadsters. He admitted to us that before this Mustang, he’d never even owned a new car. He’s well versed in everything deuce, fathead, and Hemi (at least the early ones) and has dabbled in muscle cars. That didn’t stop him and his crew from diving headfirst into one of the first Coyote 5.0L swaps back in 2010. That project, a roadster pickup for Raybestos, gave the shop an appreciation for modern engine design and got…

You’ve no doubt heard the stories about the legendary ’69 Pontiac Ram Air V, the exotic, rev-happy V8 with cylinder heads that reportedly outflowed the vaunted Chrysler Hemi. Stufed between the framerails of a GTO or Firebird, it offered the Pontiac faithful a stab at an 11-second timeslip. It was an engine that was set to rewrite muscle-car history before it was canceled at the eleventh hour. The Ram Air V saga was yet another agonizing chapter in Pontiac’s history, one full of potential and promise, shot down by upper management unwilling to rock the boat on any level. There would be more such sad chapters in Pontiac’s history before the axe finally fell on the brand in 2009. The truth is, there were actually four versions of…

If you’re an engineer at one of the Big Three car companies, and you’ve been a part of TV shows like Overhaulin’ and Two Guys Garage, what kind of car would you wrench on in your off-time? If you said, “LS-powered BMW M3,” then you must be Kevin Byrd, ’cause we’re pretty sure this Bimmer is one of a kind. Here’s how he built it. GOT PICS? If you’ve built or restored your car and have documented it in pictures every step of the way, we might be able to use your story in HOT ROD. Contact us to find out. Mail: HOT ROD Start To Finish, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245. Email: HOTROD@HotRod.com.…

Mark “Mr. Explosive” Sanders (Facebook.com/MrExplosiveNitro FunnyCar) returned to nostalgia Funny Car racing in 2013 with a ’70 Ford Mustang SportsRoof to replace his Nova Funny Car. The new car ran well at the ’13 March Meet, putting down a nostalgia Funny Car track record 0.98-second 60-foot time and posting a best quarter-mile pass of 5.765 seconds at 251.53 mph. This year’s March Meet wasn’t so fruitful. On Saturday’s final qualifying session, the engine over-revved, tearing one of the connecting rods in two and causing such a spike in crankcase pressure that one of the valve covers blew apart. Nitro tuning is as much an art as it is a science, and all it takes is a bit of tire spin for teams to suffer engine failures like this, which is…

Q: I purchased a set of what I believed to be Pro Comp PN 3021 rectangular intake-port heads for my 454, but after cc’ing them my machine shop said that although the intake runner volumes were close at 324 cc, the chamber volumes are a huge 134 cc! I was shocked because they were advertised at 115 cc. The heads are new and in great condition otherwise, so I was planning to remove and replace the pistons to make up for chamber volume, as this is a budget build. The machine shop recommended a 0.060-inch overbore to put in a set of Keith Black KB245-060 pistons to get me 10.5:1 compression, assuming a 0.020-inch “down” piston block deck height and a 0.020-inch compressed head-gasket thickness. Is this a good…

Fate has put me in the bittersweet position of being the last active HOT ROD editor to have known, or at least met, most of the originals from the first few years of the magazine. That includes Robert E. Petersen, Wally Parks, Eric Rickman, Ray Brock, Ak Miller (not on the staff, but heavily involved), and even Andy Granatelli, who—it may surprise you to know—was on the very first issue’s masthead. All those men have passed away. Sadly, Tom Medley has joined them—lost in March, just shy of his 94th birthday. You learned the basics of T-Med’s life earlier in this issue (page 84). It always saddens me that the memories and accomplishments of the hot rodding pioneers can never be fully captured in any volume of articles, photos, or…