Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2003 i Hot Rod

A flathead Ford V-8 is not a hot rod engine’ Just ask anyone who was around when they first started stabbing ’em in lakes cars. Nope—a Ford A, B, or C four-cylinder with a Cragar head and some Winfield carbs, that was a hot rod. A built four-banger was as fast as a V-8 on the dry lakes, so why would you ever stray from the proven ’banger? Back then, all hot rods were roadsters. Rusetta Timing Association was the first to accept coupes and sedans in dry lakes competition, and the fledgling HOT ROD magazine decided to cover closed cars for the first time. Roadster guys panicked: Coupes and sedans obviously didn’t belong in HOT ROD. According to then-editor Wally Parks, “We got so much bad mail that we…

Royal Purple Lubricants It occurred to us that we’ve yet to run a test with Royal Purple oil that didn’t result in a power gain—it might be a marginal gain (as with our little Acura Integra), but it’s a gain. We’ve also torn down some of our dyno engines that have been seriously abused, but with Royal P in the pan, the bearings have looked new. So consider this an approval of the company’s line of synthetic lubricants with Synerlec. We also like the spray lubricant, and while we can’t document any improvements thanks to synthetic wheel-bearing grease, it makes us feel like we’re doing the right thing when we pack bearings with that stuff, too. Contact: Royal Purple, Porter, TX; 888/382-6300; www.synerlec.com…

IN THREE WORDS Radical, innovative, nutso THE GIST Trail-riding in Jeeps following WWII has gotten more and more extreme as the years have passed, and today’s competition rockcrawlers are the ultimate and most violent iteration of the sport. Sanctioning bodies organize events in legal off-road areas on terrain that would seem unpassable thanks to huge rocks, slippery surfaces, and angles that can and do turn into rollovers. The goal is usually to follow the course without stopping, backing up or winching, without hitting the “gates” or tapes and cones that outline the route, and without exceeding the recommended time for the obstacle. Sounds simple, but the results are hair-raising. Today, there are some classes for OE-based vehicles, but most of the competitors use one-off, tube-frame buggies that reveal the most…

Return of the Red Light Bandit We hear it over and over: “I just wish I had my camera.” Yep, all too many once-in-a-lifetime moments are lost for lack of a light-trapper. But in the case of Bill Bagshaw’s original ’68 Hemi Dart, the Red Light Bandit, Bill did us all a huge favor 35 years ago, in April of 1968, by toting his trusty instant camera along for the trip to Hurst Performance in Hamtramck, Michigan, to pick up his factory-fresh ’68 Hemi Dart. Though fellow Hemi Dart racer Charlie Castaldo also recorded his Hemi’s pickup in similar fashion for the Nov. ’68 issue of the now-defunct CARS magazine (see it on the Web at hotrod.com/old], Bagshaw’s recently disclosed images and notes add another chapter to the saga of…

Disrupting Traffic in Livonia “What’s that?” “One of [Jon] Moss’ trucks we saved from the crusher,” GM’s Gary Penn said with a Grim Reaper smile. Other than the late-’80s colors and complementing stripes, the 1500 stretch cab sported some whopping fat 315/50R16 back skins on flashed-out (but no longer flashy) billets as dated as the paint scheme. But Penn looked good and proud behind the wheel as we burned lots of rubber out onto Plymouth Road at the prime of lunch hour in a mist of adolescent howling. All those 572 ci are most impossible to conceal from the rod-mature ear. There’s a pilot Sportsman Tall Deck (10.2-inch) Bow Tie Gen VI ZZ572/620 crate motor under that flat hood, its mechanicalsecondary 850-cfm Demon whistling sweet as EFI. Everything, from the…

There will always be those who ask if it’s real. “Is that a real Plum Crazy Hemi car?” We ask, what is real? Does the Hemi under the hood make it real? Will a fist of 11-second timeslips convince you that this is real enough? To his credit, owner/driver Dave Dudek of Shelby Township, Michigan, is happy to admit his purple pachyderm’s humble origins: It was originally a 340/four-speed Plum Crazy car and had been converted to Hemi power back in 1976. Dave picked the Challenger up at the Mopar Nationals four years ago. In that time, however, it’s made a radical transformation … not that you’d know it by looking at it. Such are the joys of the Factory Appearing Drags (or FADrags), where musclecars run 11s and 12s…

I got my marching orders on Friday morning. I was to drive the 42 miles from LA to the General Motors Desert Proving Grounds (DPG) in Mesa, Arizona, and infiltrate its 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday. March 2. About the only difference between the DPG and the U.S. governments secret Groom Lake. Nevada, airbase taka “Area 51”) is that the DPG’s existence is officially acknowledged Beyond that, the DPG has always been cloaked in a thick veil of secrecy and carefully crafted camouflage that very few non-GM “civilians” have managed to penetrate. But for its Golden Anniversary, GM sent invitations to local car clubs, former DPG employees, and select friends that read “bring your cameras.” It was an unthinkable breach in the General’s iron curtain—one HOT ROD couldn’t resist. Established…

The one thing you can count on reading about in HOT ROD is the baddest doorslammers we can find. We don’t care if we find them on the highways, salt flats, dragstrips, or the local cruise nights—if they’ve got doors and they’re quick, we tell you about them. That’s why 16 years ago this month (this story is being written in March) when Gray Baskerville realized that a bunch of doorslammcr racers were going to make a serious attempt to break the 200-mpl? barrier at the JURA WinterNationals at Darlington Dragway in South Carolina, he packed up his flip-flops, 11RM shirts, and a supply of his favorite adult beverage and flew across the country’ to see and report on the historic pass. He knew that, like the first 200-mph dragster…

First Speed Shop? Your story about the ’02 Power Tour from Speedy Bill’s Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been brought to my attention. It is stated that his speed shop is the nation’s oldest at 50 years (started business in 1952). I question that statement. My shop has been in continuous operation since 1950.1 am not trying to get into some kind of contest (I know Bill Smith and he is a great ambassador to the automotive sport), but I do wonder whose shop is really the oldest. I’ve included a copy of my phonebook ad from the mid-’70s. “Ohio” George Montgomery Dayton, OH Always great to hear from one of the legends! Sport Compacts in HOT ROD I agree with HR’s plans to feature high-performance sport compacts. I’m…

Here’s one you’ll see in HOT ROD cornin’soon. We think that “bling-bling” is a rapculture deal wherein if you got the bling, you got the cash and the flash. That may not be wholly accurate, but we don’t really care—instead, we old white guys have been using it to describe the fully decked-out sport-compact rides with wings and stripes and neon and stuff. In the future, we’ll be covering sport compacts, but only performance and not overdone fashion statements. We call it all zing, no bling. Get it?…

QUICK QUOTES “It’s crazy. To do something patriotic right now, you need to buy a Japanese car.”—Environmental extremist and hybrid-car activist Laurie David, per the March 88 LA Weekly newspaper Palm-Sized Hemi What: 1:6 scale die-cast metal Street Hemi replica, PN 84023 Who: Liberty Classics, www.libertyclassics.com How Much: Under $40 Here’s a wild little desktop jewel for anybody who appreciates brute horsepower and beautifully detailed automotive scale replicas. This fully assembled, 1:6-scale metal, plastic, and rubber model of the ’66-’67 Street Hemi (it has dual fuel filters, ’68-up has one) comes from Liberty Classics and is so realistic you may be tempted to employ the services of the local voodoo shaman to either shrink your car or grow the model so it fits. The metal block and heads are separate…

Speed. It’s the very cornerstone of hot rodding. The whole reason ancient man picked up a club and started souping up his Model T. Speed. Our common object of desire. To a hot rodder, speed is right up there with eating, breathing, and sleeping. And actually, haven’t most of us given up one or two of those, at least temporarily, in the all-consuming quest for an adrenaline-soaked, ragged-edge, living-in-the-moment burst of speed? Speed. It’s the subject of endless discussions, debates, and flat-out arguments, whether it’s in a garage, a bar, or an Internet chat room. We are here to celebrate speed and the ultimate champions of speed. What follows is a review of who has gone the fastest, and what can go the fastest, in various motorized forms. We’re talking…

I’m a firm believer that your very first investment in speed parts should be in traction, because without it, all speed is lost. But within that realm, I have to admit that I’ve never really understood drag radials; You want to go fast, you get slicks. Then I bought an ’01 Mustang GT Bullitt, got the itch to go dragstrip flogging, and the radial thing became clear: I want to drive to the track and back, I don’t want to haul slicks in the trunk (because they don’t fit anyway), and I want to go faster than the stock rubber will take me. Next, the Nitto Tire guys swore to me that their NT555R treaded drag radials really work and behooved me to try ’em. I surfed the tire info…

Dig it. Subtle stripes. Side scoops, Swatches of matte black. Wheels with a feeling for the ’69 namesake. Shaker hood shakin’. And that fat quad-cam motor underneath it has been built for torque as much as for horsepower. A few things make the ’03 Ford Mustang Mach 1 unique. It’s the first Mustang equipped with the DOHC 4.6L that isn’t out of the SVT stable, and it’s the first DOHC Mustang available with an automatic transmission. Unless you really razzed the throttle on a Cobra, it was a cold snake on the low end. To that end, and to qualify it for the automatic, the engine in the new Mach was revised with different cylinder heads (small design changes and rerouting water passages). To boost the grunt factor at lower…

1 Racing Chevy Rods Manley732/905-3366www.manleyperformance.com Add legit NASCAR stuff to your engine with Manley Performance’s Winston Cup forged steel connecting rods for small Chevys. These highly refined rods are manufactured from 300M materials that meet NASCAR’s 525-gram weight requirement. The rods have a 6.000-inch center-to-center length. They’re excellent for many racing applications that require rods capable of handling 750-plus horsepower. 2 Tapered Ring Compressor Line Automotive Racing Products800/826-3045www.arp-bolts.com ARP does more than just bolts, including the best tapered piston-ring compressors available in sizes from 4.000- to 4.625-inch and 75-95.5mm bore sizes. They have a true radius and are gradually curved to gently squeeze the rings as the piston is pushed into the bore. ARP’s ring compressors are CNC-machined aerospace alloy aluminum and Type 3 anodized for extra durability. 3 ARC.1000…

The object is to stop hydraulic roller lifters from rotating in their bores. The panacea is straight out of GM’s SPO organization; it’s an inexpensive and lightweight (composite) device called the Quik Cam Lifter Retainer. The Gen III LS engines have always employed this method of coupling the lifters. Now the ’87-and-newer Gen I and Gen II small-blocks—including the LT1, LT4, and any other block with enough meat between the lifter bores—can use this to their advantage. Ask the GM Performance Parts person for PN 88958652.…

If you coulda done this, like, 15 years ago, you could have cleaned up at the street races sooo big. You read right: 454 cubes in a small-block crate engine, and not an exotic, tail-deck block with a bunch of specialized components, but in a regular ol’ Chevy-type package that bolts right into anything that’ll swallow a conventional small-block Chevy. It’s the new deal from World Products, the same company that previously introduced the 427ci smallies (see “Little Block, Big Inches,” Aug. ’01). The 454 is based on the World Products’ Motown iron block, and the biggest news about it, beyond the huge displacement alone, is the 4.250-inch bore. That’s enormous for a small-block; a stock 400-based Chevy block cannot generally be bored beyond 4.165 inches, and aftermarket manufacturers have…

So you take a 58AB flathead and swap it into a Model A roadster. Or you take a 818C and swap it into a Civic Si sedan. What’s the difference? They’re both hot rods. But the Honda is faster. Jeff Cheechov at the Progress Group grew up like you and me, reading HOT ROD and Car Craft, and his dad’s a first-generation rodder and lakes racer who introduced Jeff to the sport through his friendship with Gale Banks. Jeff’s company kicked off about the same time as the first Import Drag Wars here in LA, where he watched seething gangs of teens who drove to the dragstrip in their hoopties, tore the seats out, and generally looked a lot like ’50s backyard hot rodders, but with baggier pants. As the…

’62 Chevy Chevy II Mike Patterson Brunswick, ME Who decided that first-gen Novas were supposed to be painted with Tri-Five Chevy trim? We see it all the time. Mike’s got just $10,000 in the car, which seems like a deal. He bought it already built and has been rubbing on it to make it roadworthy. The paint’s Hugger Orange and white, the frame is 2x3 square tubing, and those rear meats are MT 26x15.50s. The ubiquitous small-block moves it. ’71 DeTomaso Pantera Dick Leadbetter Tarpon Springs, FL If there was ever a good place for a Ford Cleveland, it was between the rear wheels of a Pantera. This one’s got the grab thanks to that PPG Harlequin Magenta Fire Mist paint job at a miserly $1,100 a quart. The car’s…

Encountering resistance trying to solve a tech problem? I’ll answer batteries of tech questions here at no charge. You can reach me via conventional mail, e-mail, or fax. I’ll try to answer as many inquiries in the magazine as space permits, but unfortunately, I will not be able to respond personally. Here’s how to write: SNAIL MAIL: HOT ROD Pit Stop, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 E-MAIL: hotrod@primedia.com; don’t forget to put your real name (not screen name) and hometown in the message body FAX: 323/782-2223 Electric Fuel Pump Installation I’m going to install a ZZ502 crate engine in my ’70 Chevelle. The late engine block has no provisions for mounting a mechanical fuel pump. Since I’m forced to use an electric pump, can you outline the particulars,…

Have you visited our redesigned site yet? The new format includes thumbnail photos and teaser text for each story (1), a more logical and easier-to-use left navigation bar [2], and a search function (3) that pulls up stories by keyword or phrase. The search also checks on our 18 sister sites to see if the topic you’re after is covered in their content archives. Plus, we’re adding features all the time. Go there now and preview the stories listed on this page. Give it a look, and enjoy more stories of all typesl August Issue On Sale July 1, 2003 COMING NEXT MONTHBoost Shootout:Turbo vs. Centrifugal vs Roots SEE THESE STORIES NOW AT HOTROD.com/web Looking for old copies of the magazine to get all the dirt on your favorite HOT…