Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2003 i Hot Rod

Why Nothing Gets Done I need really badly for my ’32 roadster to be finished. Same for my street-legal-drags El Camino, my cheap road racer, and my Hemi Satellite. I long to get my ’70 Super Bee back on the road. I wish I still had my ’71 440+6 Road Runner and my ’77 Bronco and my ’70 Nova. It’s been long enough that memory has erased the negatives about my 455-powered Buick Special wagon. That old Willys flatfender should have never been sold, and I kinda want my F-150 stepside back, too. If a ’64 Dodge 330 was still in the fleet, I’d turn it into a Nostalgia Super Stocker, and even though the neighbors made me get rid of my ’71 Pinto, I’d still like to build one…

What happens when the former feature editor of HOT ROD Magazine (Jeff Koch) goes to work for one of the leading makers of die-cast miniatures (Johnny Lightning)? You get a whole slew of hot new 1/64-scale collectibles that are sure to appeal to HOT ROD and Johnny Lightning collectors alike. Based on previous HOT ROD magazine covers, the 24 cars in this special collection are well proportioned and feature complete chassis, interior, and engine details as well as faithful reproductions of paint and graphics. Many of the 24 cars are sold separately while others are sold as a set. Check your local hobby store or the toy department of large retail outlets like Wal-Mart and others. There are also some cars available only to Johnny Lightning Collectors Club members; see…

It’s 50 years since our day in the sun at Bonneville when the famed So-Cal belly-tank lakester went I 198.34 mph and took home six awards,” said founder Alex Xydias. “At 81 years old, can you imagine how I exciting it is for me and the company I founded in 1946 to return to Utah with MG Rover, a company with I even more salt under it wheels than So-Cal?” The first name on HOT ROD’S Top Time Bonneville trophy is Batchelor & Xydias, and the car that won it I was the So-Cal Streamliner inspired by a diminutive MG-powered streamliner that was campaigned at I Bonneville by British Lt.-Col. A.T. ‘Goldie” Gardner. MG has continued to race land-speed throughout the I 1950s, and a small team of Brits went…

The meat to this whole barbecue is a new Scat cast stroker crank for big-block Chevys. It swings 4.250 inches, a quarter-inch more than a 454’s stock 4.000-inch arm, so you can build a 489 or a 496ci Rat from a 454 block, up to 540ci with a 502 core, or 570ci if you choke up the bucks for an aftermarket block. That’s good stuff. Best of all, Scat’s Series 9000 cast crank sells for around $300, which is a lot happier than the $800 or more you’d normally pay for the cheapest forged big-block stroker crank. But it is a casting, so the recommended applications fall closer to mild street engines and tow trucks than huge-power screamers. Marc Cafourek over at Scat sent it to us with a nudge…

It’s too cushy to be Pro Touring, too new to be a street rod. It’s a far cry from Pro Street and miles from your average street machine. Chicayne defies the compartmentalized definitions we car guys cling to for safety, reaching broad to appeal to gearheads of every ilk. Rad Rides by Troy’s flawless execution goes beyond simple craftsmanship and into subtle design and innovation that screams to life to the note of a 1,200hp, twin-turbo, EFI, 406ci Dart-based all-aluminum mill. When the car was first featured in the March ’03 HOT ROD we misidentified the core as a ferrous block, and we miscredited the boost-makers; Precision Turbo’s Rod Short wrote to correct our wrongdoings and accept the credit. He and myriad other contributors to the olive-drab monolith called Chicayne…

Co-sponsored by The HOT ROD Magazine Power Tour. It’s the annual road trip wherein HOT ROD cruises byways while readers follow and frolic. This’ll be the 9th year and the 11th running of the Tour (there were two a year for two years), but 2003 marks the first time in ages that we’ve printed a full route map in the magazine so you can join along the way. It’s May 30 through June 6, driving from Nashville, Tennessee, to Arlington, Texas. By printing the map now, more people than ever can plan to join in the festivities. One of the best things about Power Tour is that locals in small towns and back roads all along the way come out to cheer the day-long parade of rods as they throttle…

A few weeks ago we sat and watched John Force pay $25,000 for the driver’s suit you see Wally Parks wearing in this story. Wow. Wally is that important to our sport and this car is that historic to the magazine and the industry in general. That’s why, as the Best of B’ville series nears its wrap next month, we thought Gray’s Feb. ’96 piece on the reproduction of HOF ROD’s Suddenly was a perfect penultimate tribute to Gray, who himself was a huge fan of Wally, Suddenly, and El Mirage. It all fits. If you read last month’s issue of HOT ROD (January’ 1996), you’ll recall that editor Rob Kinnan stated in his “What’s Hot” piece that interest in restoring or re-creating old racing cars was heating up, and…

Fiat/Abarth 685 Fabrizio Biundo New York, NY It’s got 10-inch-diameter wheels and just 695 cc (that’s 42 ci!) of air-cooled power, but it’s a hot rod because, as Fabrizio tells us, “It’s a true test to take 499 cc and 21 hp and trick it out to 695 cc and 65 hp. It’ll go over 100 mph. This is 1 of 200 Fiat/Abarths that were factory-built race cars; there are only four known in the U.S.” ’69 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S Bob & Brenda Metzger Livonia, MI Bob bought this car from a pal in 1973, raced it (high 11s), then sold it back to the friend he bought it from. That guy restored the car using Bob’s race drivetrain, then Bob bought it again in 1999. How’s that for…

This Month’s Mail As of this writing, the April issue has only been on sale two days and we’ve had a bit over 1,100 e-mails in favor of Chevy building our Thom Taylor-illustrated Chevelle SS concept we flung out there for your review. Think we can make Chevy build it? Hope so. And believe it or not, we got some mail on other topics this month, too. Here it is.—David Freiburger E-mail: hotrod@primedia.com Mail: HOT ROD Reaction Time, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 Fax: 323/782-2223 Web site: www.hotrod.com It Worked for Chevy I’m a 30-year subscriber to HOT ROD, and I am currently working in Australia. I just picked up a brand-new for ’03 Ford BA Falcon (looks like a Taurus but rear-wheel drive) from Hertz. If Pontiac…

In the Mar. ’03 issue we introduced you to the Ford Focus racers of the Rolex Sports Car Series. The #88 Multimatic Ford Focus led only the first lap of the Daytona 24 Hour, then overcame several small setbacks to move within 7 seconds of the winning Porsche, but drivers Scott Maxwell, David Empringham, and David Brabham survived numerous obstacles to claim the first class win in the new Daytona Prototype. A throttle-return spring came adrift twice during the race, and a broken header was the final flummox. Number 88 took fourth overall with its Robert Yates 5.0L DOHC production-based engine.…

Clearly discontent to rest on his considerable fame and fortune, Carroll Shelby continues to crank out specialty vehicles: a new line of Eleanor Mustang fastbacks was recently announced, and now the 289 Cobra. Called the CSX8000, these street cars recall the original CSX2000-series of about 500 289 Cobra (street version) cars produced from ’62-’65. These new cars are available in component form (don’t say “kit”) or as a complete vehicle with a Shelby VIN. Power will come from a Ford 302 crate engine and a four- or five-speed trans with your choice of colors, wheels, and rearend ratios. Get the “Convenience Group” for a 15-inch small-spoke steering wheel, heater/defroster, leather seats, an ashtray, cigar lighter, door map pockets, and a glovebox. Spartan. Buy yours at 702/643-3000 or www.shelbyamerican.com.…

We build engines and they end up stacked in the shop like cord-wood. Meanwhile, we get letters every month from readers offering to take them off our hands for free. Putting two and two together, it looks a lot like readers want free engines. Here ya go! We’ve rounded up some of the top aftermarket companies to help us with the HOT ROD Win Your Dream Engine Contest. Full legal rules are on page 110, but the bottom line is this: Pick the parts you want from our sponsors, fill out the attached form, and get it to us by June 2, 2003. HOT ROD will select four engines to build and test—a Chevy, a Ford, a Mopar, and a Pontiac or an Oldsmobile—then we’ll ship them to winners. The…

The 2003 HOT ROD Magazine Power Tour goes Deep South, an area where enthusiasts have traditionally feasted on buckets of horsepower and tons of torque. Get ready to eat hearty, people; supper will be real good come the first week of June. This year’s exhibition will demonstrate unequivocally that “GM Performance Division will enable the design and engineering of ‘gotta have,’ fast-to-market vehicles that enhance the driving experience,” according to GM North American President Gary Cowger. Indeed, the blood-pumping, over-the-road ambience nurtured be the Power Tour features a high-performance incarnation for every mindset and persuasion, and we spoke with Chevrolet’s Pat Henyon to get the inside scoop on the cars that General Motors intends to pound on for Power Tour. While GM’s 2003 phalanx echoes the past, it sends a…

We stepped in this one without even looking. See, we’ve claimed for a long time that an engine is an engine and the name on the valve covers matters zero to nothing when it comes to making power. We proved the theory purely by accident when we built a 408 Chevy then discovered that it had virtually the same power curve and nearly identical critical components as a 408 Ford that Car Craft had built months earlier. You can get into esoteric discussions of port design and layout, friction, oil systems, crank weights, and their effect on power production, but what we’ve long assumed and what we’ve shown here is that, with average street engines, you’ll make the same power if you’ve got the same compression, airflow, camshaft, and displacement…

Now that the racing season is in full swing again, we thought we’d remind you that our Web site has a finely detailed racing news and results section. Whether you’re a fan of NASCAR, the NHRA, the SCORE off-road series, the IRL, or just about any other type of automotive competition, you can pull up the latest results, points standings, and feature stories. Just click on the Race Results tab on the left navigation bar of the home page, and you’re on your way to the winner’s circle. Are You Touring to Power Tour 2003? It turns out that lots of readers are organizing their own, unofficial mini-tours to the HOT ROD Power Tour kickoff party. Want to join them? Then go to this link and see who’s going where.…

• According to the FBI, the estimated number of reported vehicle thefts for 2001 (the latest year for which data is available): 1.2 million• The average value of motor vehicles stolen: $6,646• The estimated total value of stolen motor vehicles: $8.2 billion• Percent of that amount recovered: 62• Overall, the theft rate per 100,000 people was up 4.5 percent in 2001, the second consecutive year of increase following a 10-year decline The 10 most-commonly stolen U.S. passenger ground vehicles in 2001, according to a study by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a not-for-profit insurance organization committed to combatting vehicle theft and insurance fraud: 1. Toyota Camry 2. Honda Accord 3. Honda Civic 4. Oldsmobile Cutlass/Supreme/Ciera 5. Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee 6. Chevrolet fullsize C/K pickup 7. Toyota Corolla 8. Ford…

This HR Approved isn’t for performance at all, but for appearance. That’s something we’ve got little time for, so when we do get around to detailing, our cars are really scongy. The Mothers Clay Bar system is for situations like ours where the paint is not oxidized, just loaded with surface contaminants from smog and junk. Clean your car well, then look at the paint through a loupe and you’ll see many particles of crud left embedded in there. You can feel ’em. The California Gold Clay Bar is swiped along the paint with California Gold quick detailer as a lubricant, and it sheers off and pulls out the tiny chunks of filth to leave the paint feeling smoother than ever and looking perfect. It takes a long time to…

We’re several months delinquent with this news, but our industry’s trade organization, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, has a new president: Chris Kersting, seen here to the right of HOT ROD’s Steve Magnante on the set of HOT ROD TV at SEMA’s recent Spring Expo. While the organization has always been known as the best for its trade shows, it’s Chris’ mission to make it the go-to place for info and support for every company in the industry, as SEMA offers lots of quality services that member companies do not fully utilize. SEMA offers a lot to the average consumer, too, in its fight for enthusiast rights at the governmental level. Aftermarket members can see more at www.sema.org, and the enthusiast site is www.enjoythedrive.com.…

When we ran a quickie bleat on the Silverado SS regular-cab in the Dec. ’02 issue (“Chevy’s $23,000 Super Truck”), we got response to gag a rat. It wasn’t inquiry, it was an outpouring, a plea for a genuine high-performance, stick-shift, rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet. You stormed dealers. You harassed Chevrolet. You were angry with us. It was all too much, too soon. Now we have the culprit by the ear, and we made him tell. What’s the big deal? It’s a strippo regular-cab/short-bed with 6.0L power and a six-speed—the muscletruck you’ve been clamoring for. What you won’t discover here is when it’ll become a production item or the MSRP; the truck seen here is still just a concept. Our guess is that the production Silverado SS shortie won’t see daylight until…

Tuning an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system is fundamentally no different than dialing in a conventional carburetor and distributor, so if you have experience dialing-in a carb and distributor and have access to a Windows-based laptop computer, there’s no reason you can’t get an EFl system up and running. To get some advice on dialing-in aftermarket EFI, HOT ROD talked to a half dozen experts in the fuel injection field, including Doug Flynn at Holley, Mike Taylor at FAST, Joe Pucciarelli at ACCEL, EFI godfather John Meaney at Big Stuff, ace EFI tuner Steve Cole at TTS, and Flowmaster’s engine research and dyno development chief Kevin McClelland. We discovered the procedures for dialing in consumer-level, aftermarket, speed-density-based, port EFI systems are pretty much the same, regardless of brand. Naturally, this…

Remember the GMC Syclone pickups and Typhoon sportutes? The idea came from Gale Banks’ 2?O-mph Bonneville truck of the same name (Syclone) and resulted in a brief run of factory 28?hp, turbo 4.3L V-6 supertrucks with AWD. In ’92 and ’93 they were the muscletrucks to have. Running low 14s right outta the showroom, the Typhoons were likely the quickest production SUVs ever. Thing is, they get scary fast right away with a minimum of bolt-ons. Steve Gavic’s ’92 Typhoon is a good example of one that actually started its life on the racetrack—not a dragstrip, but on the Rockford Speedway (Illinois) NASCAR short track as an official Pacetruck during the ’91-’92 season. After its roundy-round stint, Steve decided to go drag racing, but not before he mooched the warranty…

Try to imagine a world without the Mustang 5.0. Had Ford wimped out back in ’82 and not introduced the Mustang GT, the art of power-shifting could have been lost forever. Though the 157-net-horsepower ’82 GT H.O. motor was a very modest proposition, the GT’s standard SROD (single rail overdrive) four-speed manual transmission was a breath of fresh air for performance buyers. You see, EPA regulations and shifting market priorities had all but banished the classic V-8/manual-transmission drivetrain combination to light trucks and vans. Stick-shifted high-performance passenger cars were as dead as the dodo bird until the ’82 GT came along. As the ’80s unfolded, the Mustang 5.0 grew from strength to strength and, many say, kept Chevrolet and Pontiac on their toes with escalating power and performance options that…

On first inspection, this somewhat weathered ’41 Hudson Traveler coupe may cause some readers to question the sanity of the HOT ROD staff. Sure, well admit that it’s a bit rough around a lot of edges. But when owner and lifelong Hudson fanatic Dany Spring told us about the car’s racing history, we realized it isn’t just some hashed-out junker but an historic dragstrip survivor. How historic? This baby ran E/Modified Production at the ’63 AHRA Grand Nationals, the ’65 and ’66 HOT ROD Magazine Drags, and the ’66, ’67, and ’68 NHRA Winternationals, to name just a few. Victories include a class win at the ’66 Winternats and a class low-e.t. record at Irwindale in ’67. Originally built by a Southern California racer by the name of Dick Thorp,…