Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Hot Rod

Editor-in-Chief @john.mcgann This is a tough one to write. More than a month into quarantine from this virus that threatens to crash the world’s economy, what could I possibly say to help, inspire, or support anyone who is struggling? I think what we can do is take inspiration from the adaptability and tenacity of the people around us and the businesses that are finding creative ways to respond to and survive the crisis. In the midst of dire news of layoffs, furloughs, and stay-at-home orders, we find a way to persevere. Uber and Lyft drivers are now bringing us groceries and take-out food instead of shuttling us to the airport. Car shows have gone online, and that’s a surprisingly cathartic and pleasant way to spend time on social media. Radwood…

People really dig reading about and looking at old cars pulled from barns. Even if you’re not a hardcore gearhead, the idea of finding something stashed away that is worth a few bucks has a universal appeal. If you’re dialed in to the whole car thing you appreciate them even more, but the expectation is that at some point the well will eventually run dry on these finds. We’re not quite there yet, and like clockwork, they keep surfacing at a steady rate. Even if they’ve never seen the inside of a barn, they are by default lumped into the barn find category. We’ll just cut to the chase at this point and tell you that the 1969 Dodge Daytona that you’re looking at is a barn find that has…

During the late ’50s and ’60s, the number of car dealerships jumped dramatically across the country. Manufacturers reasoned that if prospective buyers had a dealership in their neighborhood, they would sell more cars. In this Golden Age of American car production (1955-1970), some dealerships began to focus on performance cars as a way to generate additional traffic. Yenko in Pennsylvania, Motion in New York, Dana and Galpin in California, Royal in Michigan, and others all specialized in delivering high-powered cars to a thirsty public. Most importantly, car manufacturers took advantage of this specialization, creating unique cars with bigger engines and other performance options to help push cars off the lot. For Mopar fans, no dealer was more performance-oriented than Norm Kraus’s Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago. Opened in 1962 at…

Just about the only thing that’s impossible for Gene Winfield is sitting still. At 92, he’s a living legend who’s attained a fifth level of consciousness when it comes to metalworking, still chopping more tops in a year than many professional builders will do in a lifetime, while also traveling the globe to make appearances and conduct seminars. It was at one of those seminars, hosted by Detroit-area hot rod shop Brothers Custom Automotive, that we caught up with Winfield and got him to sit down long enough to ask why he’s still hammering away, decades after almost all of his contemporaries have hung up their torch or, frankly, gone to that big car show in the sky. “I simply love it,” he says. “There is so much people can…

Roadkill @davidfreiburger I’m writing this on April 15, 2020—perhaps significantly, as it’s the anniversary of the Titanic sinking and that seems allegorical of humanity these days. I can’t predict how the Coronavirus program will be by the time you read this, but I can tell you that I, like you, am sick of hearing about it. So let’s look at the positive: gearhead productivity worldwide has spiked over the last four weeks of quarantine. Faced with nothing left to do because none of my cars are currently on the property, I stared down the calamity of my garage. Moms don’t tell their kids stories of my garage because they’ll have bad dreams. I have a slightly oversized 1941 two-car garage and no fantasy of ever parking a car inside it…

In the early days of California’s hot rod culture, serious racing was done at a small group of dry lake beds in the Mojave Desert named Rosamond, Harper, El Mirage, and Rogers. Situated at the edge of Rogers Dry Lake was Muroc, a desolate farming settlement on a little-used Santa Fe Railroad line with a depot, a small store, and not much else. The Western Timing Association and its friendly rival, the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), liked Muroc for timing meets because of its proximity to Highway 99 and the fact that Rogers was, by far, the largest dry lake in the region. Unfortunately, the Army Air Corps liked Rogers Dry Lake, too—for use as a bombing range. Racing activity was curtailed at the lakes with the start of…

When he was a kid, William Lind would often sneak out of his house to a bakery across the alley and ask if he could have a cookie. The little guy did it so often the bakers nicknamed him Little Cookie. The name stuck. People knew him as Cookie, and when he raced at the Antique Nationals in the 1970s, his flathead-powered ’27 T, which had been built by Bean Bandit Joaquin Arnett, was named Cookie Monster. That’s also why a furry, blue, goggle-eyed Sesame Street character lives on the floorboard of this ’32 roadster. Deuce roadsters are precious things these days, and this one is too, but not just for rarity or collectability sake. This roadster has been in the Lind family since Cookie bought it in the late…

In Part 1, we introduced the Homeless Hemi, our 5.7L Hemi engine. This particular Hemi was shrouded in mystery for long ago, it had been cast aside and forgotten. Only recently did it reappear, but it was in such disarray that we no longer knew if it ran. In fact, we can’t remember where it came from other than some online junkyard dismantler. The biggest question hovering over the Homeless Hemi was why were there so many pieces missing? Most of the big stuff was there, like the short-block and cylinder heads, but it was far from being in running condition. The missing parts list included a rocker set, valve covers, and oil pan. Also absent was the induction system, front cover, and sensor package. Despite the fact that we…

It’s easy to find true top dead center (TDC) on a fully assembled engine using a degree wheel that bolts to the harmonic damper and a TDC stop that screws into the spark plug hole. Likewise, if you haven’t yet bolted the heads to the short-block, use a piston stop that bolts to the engine deck. We show you how. TOP DEAD CENTER STOPS Comp Cams and its sister company Powerhouse Products are just two of several aftermarket outfits that offer premade piston stops. Sources Comp Cams; Memphis, TN; 800.999.0853 or 901.795.2400; CompCams.com MSD LLC, A Holley Brand; El Paso, TX; 888.258.3835 (tech) or 915.857.5200 (general); Holley.com/brands/msd.com Powerhouse Products; Memphis, TN; 800.872.7223 (tech), 800.365.9145 (general), or 901.260.8256 (local); PowerhouseProducts.com…

In the summer of 2018, the faithful dropped their collective jaws when a Yenko collector named Doug Perry revealed that, after nine years of pursuit, he was fortunate to purchase a one-owner 1967 Yenko Camaro, rarest of the three years of production (1967 to 1969). What was the story? How did this 1967 coupe, born to race, have such low miles? How well preserved was this car? Did it have its original 427? The Camaro’s original owner, John Weaver of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, repainted his Nantucket Blue Yenko red in October 1968, six months after purchasing it the previous spring. That’s why when Perry bought YS760 (YS for Yenko Serial number, 7 for 1967, and 60 for the 60th and last built for the model year), it had to be stripped…

Today’s bolt-on systems deliver a bigger bang for the buck than ever before, and ProCharger’s range of systems for the sixth-gen Camaro is a prime example. On this otherwise stock 2019 Camaro SS, the car picked up an incredible 177 horsepower and 113 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels, all with a modest 7 psi of intercooled boost. The max boost of 7 psi is significant because it’s a must to stave off piston-burning detonation with the LT1’s high 11.5:1 compression ratio. A generation ago, a low-boost kit like this might have been good for about 100 horsepower, but advances in engine efficiency and supercharger technology have enabled the DIY bolt-on systems to offer tremendous gains. And, indeed, the ProCharger kit for the Camaro is something that can be…

Q: I recently purchased a one-owner, stock 1972 El Camino. I plan to make small appearance changes while leaving the car pretty much stock. It shows that it has been very well cared for and is now my daily driver—around 3,000 miles a year. (Yes, I’m retired!) It currently has 14x6 Rally wheels with 205/70-14 whitewalls. I would like to change to 15- or 16-inch wheels with larger, wider Goodrich T/As. Based on availability of 16-inch wheel choices, I’ll probably use 15x8-inch wheels. What would my wheel options be, offset required, and corresponding tire sizes that would fit without any modifications? A: It might be a surprise for some, but when it comes to maximum wheel and tire sizes for the popular 1964–1972 Chevrolet Chevelles and El Caminos, it is…

Smackdown: Engine Dyno vs. Chassis Dyno What’s the real-world difference between running an engine on an engine dyno, or, as installed in the car on a chassis dyno? Recently, we were able to conduct an engine dyno versus chassis dyno smackdown using the Ford 393 Cleveland stroker-engine from Don Hicks’ 1973 Ford Mustang. Regular HOT ROD readers know that over the last few months we’ve been busy fixing the ailing 393 that initially arrived at Mark Sanchez’s Advanced Engineering West (AEW) with a flat cam lobe. Initially Sanchez replaced the dead flat-tappet hydraulic cam with a Comp Cams Mutha’ Thumpr hydraulic-roller cam and associated valvetrain components (“Real-World Repair, Part 1” Mar. ’20). But that was only half the fix. A previous machinist had botched the adjustable valvetrain conversion on the…