Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2004 i Hot Rod

GIVING PAPPY HIS DUE As much as I appreciated the ’64 HRM Championship photo and recap in August’s HOT ROD Archives, your lead sentence is incorrect: “Organized drag racing was devised in the offices of HOT ROD…” In fact, C.J. Hart and two partners (subsequently bought out) opened the Santa Ana Drags in June 1950—one year before NHRA was founded as a car-club organization by then-editor Wally Parks. Two more years passed before NHRA staged its first drag race, the 1953 Southern California Championships (in Pomona). By this time, independent dragstrips were operating throughout the country; the sport was flourishing. There’s no question that Mr. Parks, the NHRA, and HOT ROD all played major roles in its subsequent development. However, in the beginning, there was Cloyce J. Hart, who was…

RETURN OF THE RACE ROD I still miss Gray Baskerville around the office, and will always remember when he pulled open a drawer and extracted a photo of roadsters racing on a wooden track on the stadium floor of the Rose Bowl before the War. It was the first time I realized how thoroughly the early guys were into it. They drove their rods on the street out of necessity, but raced them on the dry lakes, the dirt tracks, and laterthe dragstrips out of desire. Even Pikes Peak and the Mexican Road Race were the realm of the inspired hot rodder. So what happened? Today’s street rod guys, many of whom were yesterday’s hot rodders, have risen to new levels of polish and sunk to a spectacular lack of…

GOLD CHAIN NOT INCLUDED This turd of a ’79 Trans Am is proof that some people never learn from their mistakes. One such glutton is HOT ROD Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger, who has purchased a string of steaming piles in an attempt to fulfill his dream of smashing a record at Bonneville in some arcane SCTA land speed racing class. By our unofficial count, the T/A is aborted candidate No. 6, following short-lived infatuations with a ’62 Biscayne, an ’81 Trans Am, two third-gen Camaros, a ’91 Firebird Formula, and a ’73 Camaro, all of which failed to spark sufficient inspiration to bring the project to life. However, as of press time, Freiburger is weeks away from attaining his goal of driving for the record in a far wiser manner: By…

In 1992, a Detroit street racer showed up at HOT ROD’s very first Fastest Street Car Shootout in a memorable 8-second Pinto station wagon, but what the staff remembered most was the guy lit-erally beating a piston back into the engine block with a ball-peen hammer in the hotel parking lot. Today, the same Mike Moran holds the distinction of having the world’s fastest doorslammer, a successful racing engine business, and a reputation as one of the country’s top EFI and turbo experts. We could never have guessed. The legend around our offices actually had Mike pounding the piston back into his own engine, but when we asked him about it, Moran set us straight. “I definitely hurt a piston [at the first Shootout], but I looked at it and…

“It’s my goal to have the quickest daily driven modern truck on the planet.”—Jim Neuenfeldt Oh those silly rats. In pursuit of an easy meal one second then dead the next, they never quite see the terminal trap of doom coming. Mosquitoes do no better, zapped into shriveled balls of crusty waste by the same pretty blue light that seemed so stimulating just moments before. Surely humans can’t fall to such obvious forms of trickery. After all, we are the enlightened species that came up with Pet Rocks, Betamax VCRs, the Atkins diet, and the Cadillac Cimarron. Our advantage in brain mass notwithstanding, Jim Neuenfeldt has built the ultimate people-lure for enticing and eradicating filthy street vermin. Last September, Jim picked up an ’03 standard cab, shortbed Silverado 4×4 and…

General Motors and HOT ROD have partnered for the last several years to give away a car during Power Tour™. This year had the best sweepstakes ever, as the sweepsakes included Car Craft’s former Cheap Street ’70 Chevelle project after it was treated to a complete makeover by Steve Strope and his pals at Pure Vision (www.purevisiohdesign.com). Over 10,000 people entered in person and online, and the winner, was drawn at random by Skip Holdren, last year’s winner of our Powerdriver ’67 Chevelle, which he drove all the way in 2004. The name on the card this time was Ken Chandler of Johnstown, Colorado. He and his wife Linda couldn’t hold back the tears of joy as they sat for the first time in their 502-powered Chevelle that will be…

Wow, if Fram’s AirHog Mustang weren’t a car, we’d almost feel sorry for it. It’s been a brutal few months for the Competition Orange Mach 1, as we’ve beaten it on the dragstrip and road course multiple times and logged a couple thousand miles on the HOT ROD Power Tour, where the giveaway car served glorified rental-car duty for the HOTROD.com editorial team. Since we purchased it from Galpin Ford in late March, we’ve rolled up nearly 4,800 miles, about 500 of which are bogus due to a speedo error we didn’t correct until near the end of the Tour (more about that later), and never have a few weeks have gone by without a major modification to the car. The Mach 1 was barely a week old before we…

THANKS FOR THE HELP! The HOT ROD Power Tour™ can’t happen without a number of folks across the country who volunteer their time, energy, and cash to keep the cars rolling, the participants happy, and the staff living during the week on the road. Here’s a World of HOT ROD tribute to just a few of those who we’d like to thank for going above and beyond the call of Power Tour™. EBAY MOTORS It costs $500,000, cruises all day at 90 mph on the freeway, holds over 250 gallons of fuel, features everything from satellite TVs to toilets inside, and spends most of the year carting around rock stars. The eBay Motors luxo-bus ensured that important Primedia henchmen (ie, non-editors) frantically typing into Blackberrys and blabbing on cell phones…

It can now be said that the redesign of HOT ROD initiated in the July issue is a resounding success. Several hundred very kind e-mails from readers and industry insiders told us so, as did a pile of snail mail and faxes and strings on many Internet message boards. Even more telling is that sales for the July issue showed a 33 percent increase. In today’s newsstand market, that’s huge. Welcome all you new readers, and thanks for joiningus. We’ve had few complaints about the new look, but when we did hear them, it was mostly from people who just fear change, or from those who felt the new ty pe is too small. So, while I’d promised in the September issue that we’d print a variety of opinions on…

Quality junk with patina! That’s what we asked for in the August issue, and readers sent us photos of the best abandoned or rescued cars, parts, and automobilia they’ve come across. If you’ve dragged the stuff home, give us the story so we can hate you as much as this month’s guy with the Model A. If you haven’t scored yet, don’t worry: we won’t ask you to reveal the location of any hidden treasure. If you e-mail us digital photos, make sure they are 300 dpi at a size of around 5×7. You can send printed photos, too, and they just may show up in Hidden Treasures of the Month in HOT ROD. Let’s see ’em! I FOUND THIS IN THE DESERT I found all this stuff in the…

FIRST DRIVE: ’05 CORVETTE “More power, more passion, more performance than ever before.” That’s how Corvette Chief Engineer Dave Hill describes the new sixth generation ’05 Corvette, and after our recent test drive at the launch event for the latest version of America’s original sports car, we’d say that just about sums it up. Hill’s comments also reflect the fact that the newest Corvette is less a clean-sheet-of-paper redesign than an evolution of a car that was pretty darn good to start with. Big changes have been made to the interior and exterior styling as well as the powerplant, but taken as a total package, the mods feel more like well-thought-out refinements than a fresh start. The biggest single improvement comes in the spacious-feeling interior design, which is far less…

NHRAANNOUNCES NEW PURE STOCK RULES There comes a time when technology advances faster than the rule book. Under the NHRA’s current rules, bone-stock 13-second convertibles, such as late-model Camaros and Mustang Cobras, are illegal for competition right off the showroom floor, as edicts mandate a rollbar and driveshaft loop. In response to the growing problem of street racing—and how overly stringent rules might actually keep racers away from the track—the new Pure Stock Street Legal amendment permits factory-stock newer vehicles to run as quick as 11.50 without any safety equipment. The move also acknowledges the improved safety infused into production vehicles by the OEs concurrent with improved performance. With the exception of aftermarket exhaust systems and drag radials, vehicles must remain completely stock. Checkout www.nhra.com for full details—STEPHEN KIM CAMAROS…

Before there were roadster shows or “most beautiful” trophies taller than your wife, before anyone thought of pinstriping their car’s framerails or plating the steering box, and before there were billet muffler clamps shrink-wrapped for sale at Schuck’s, hot rods were built solely to go fast. They were race cars, or at least cars built to perform. But so much of racing has diverted from what we drive on the streets and build in our garages that it’s almost impossible to remember that. There are no stock parts on NHRA Pro Stocks or NASCAR Stock Cars. Big-time racing has almost completely abandoned hot rodding. The “almost” exception is the SCCA’s Speed World Challenge GT and Touring road racing series. When it comes to pro racing vehicles descended from street cars,…

An unbiased publication is more utopian ideal than gritty reality. True journalistic objectivity would require people to overcome the partiality inherent in human nature that has led to the emergence of Democrats, Republicans, Coke, Pepsi and just about everything else in life. Our current masthead comprises musclecar buffs, late-models guys, brand loyalists, and those who just like everything. Diverse, yes, but we’ll confess that no one here exhibits a particular proclivity toward Pro Street, as we struggle to purge ballerina-pink paint jobs and the ignominy of fake blowers from our collective memories. However, as slaves to the universal lust for horsepower and nostalgia, sometimes exceptions can be made. As we reported in the April ’02 issue regarding this very car, “The typical Pro Street ’40 Willys is a bit hackneyed…

So here are the theories we’ve read for years: Smaller-diameter header tubes tend to shift the torque peak to a lower rpm, and larger-diameter tubes bump it to a higher rpm. Longer header tubes favor low-end torque, and shorter ones deliver the fat part of the power curve above the torque peak. For similar reasons, long collector extensions are for low-end, short ones are for high-end. This month’s installment of the Every Trick in the Book series reveals those old saws to be essentially true, though perhaps not as definitively as you might like, and with some minor caveats. We’ve found that the more extreme the engine, the more distinctly the minutia reveals itself in bonus power. Small tweaks become increasingly important as you crest 1.5 hp/ci with, for example,…

NORTHSTAR CRATE MOTOR GM Performance Parts www.gmgoodwrench.com It shouldn’t take much thinking to come up with cool uses for this motor, especially since Cadillac now bolts them in the right way (longitudinally) and includes the matching exhaust manifolds. Essentially the same engine that powers the SRX sport-ute and XLR roadster, the crate motor kicks out 320 hp and features an aluminum block and heads and 10.5:1 compression. Although accessories aren’t included, the Northstar comes complete with an intake manifold, balancer, water pump, flywheel, fuel rails, and injectors. Just call up your dealer and ask for part number 12499468. It’s about $4,300 plus shipping. BUILT T56 TRANNIES Rockland Standard Gear877/RSG-GEAR www.rsgear.com Whether they’re the older Borg-Warner units or the newer Tremecs, T56 six-speeds are popping up all over the place these…

It probably seems as if every time you flip on the television there’s another new show about making over a kitchen, reorganizing a bedroom, or trading entire living quarters with a neighbor down the street in an attempt to spruce up the joint. But there’s one part of the house that is constantly ignored: the garage. This space undoubtedly holds the most important treasures in life the car, the library of HOT RODs, the collection of random tools and equipment…. Just because it’s a garage, chaos is considered acceptable! Not anymore, because we’ve co-branded with Sauder Woodworking to launch Hot Rod Garage by Sauder, furniture that will get your garage in order, maximize its space, and make the area more functional. Keep in mind that giving your garage an extreme…

KEEP THE PEDAL DOWN! Glory Be! Just when I was, reluctantly, almost ready to concede that Motor Trend had run right by you guys—kaboom!—along comes your July issue. I am so impressed with the whole package and with its very visible evidence that you’ve finally been unleashed to utilize your capabilities. The boldly attractive new look is something I have long hoped to see in HOT ROD, and I am grateful to Craig Reiss for making it happen. As the traditional leader among auto enthusiast magazines, HOT ROD finally looks it again. Congratulations—and keep the pedal down! Wally ParksNHRA FounderGlendora, CA…

This issue’s story on revamping a Mopar 360 reminded me of my earliest days as a HOT ROD staffer when, in 1992,1 was responsible for that same engine as it was prepared by Dick Landy Industries for competition in the HOT ROD crate-engine shootout. It didn’t take more than a few stories like that for the readers to tag me as a Mopar guy. It’s a reputation I’ve tried to detune over the last decade since I’m fairly brand-indifferent, but I was, in fact, a pure Mopar geek during the early years of my infatuation with cars. That kink led me to hours behind the yellowed pages of old HOT ROD and Car Craft magazines that I bought used, and I memorized the legacy of the biggest names from back…

THERMOS IS BACK IN THE NITROUS GAME Nitrous-oxide guru Mike Thermos, founder of Nitrous Oxide Systems and the guy who’s arguably most responsible for the overwhelming popularity of nitrous as a power adder, has jumped back into the business after a recent “semiretirement.” Thermos and his partner Dale Vaznaian founded the company that has become virtually synonymous with nitrous in 1928. He sold the operation to Holley Performance Products back in 1999, and briefly served as a consultant before settling into a self-described “boring retirement.” When that got old, he found a building in Huntington Beach, California, hired back some of his old NOS technical support staff (including “Pro Mod” Wad), placed a substantial opening order with Holley for NOS kits, and opened Mike Thermos’ Nitrous Supply. According to Thermos,…

This is the moment that forever changes the face of street machining. By the time you read this, you’ll be able to buy a reproduction ’69 Camaro convertible bare body or a complete turnkey car. Hardtops are coming next, and new ’67 Mustang fastback bodies are already in the works. It doesn’t take much to figure out that the ’69 Camaro platform could easily be manufactured as a ’67 or ’68, or even as a first-gen Firebird. Discussion has already begun on much longer-term projects: ’69 Mach Is and ’70 ’Cudas, probably in that order. And you thought this day would never come. We see this as the street-rodification of the musclecar market. In 1969, a ’30 Model A was 39 years old, just a bit more antique than a…

Driving 1,100 miles to hit five racetracks in five days is either one helluva nightmare or a racer’s dream come true. When it’s the Open Track Challenge, it’s both. Launched in 2002, the Open Track Challenge gives road racers whose cars aren’t built to any specific rules a chance to compete head-to-head at world-class race tracks in Southern California and Nevada. Like a West Coast version of the grueling One Lap of America, it’s an event that tests man as much as machine during five days of racing sessions with lengthy overnight hauls between tracks. Unlike One Lap, where all entries must be driven from track to track with no chase vehicles or trailers allowed, the OTC is divided into Touring and Unlimited classes to give competitors the choice of…

TOUR PARTICIPANTS BYSTATE TEXAS: 20% WISCONSIN: 13% ILLINOIS: 13% MISSOURI: 8% OKLAHOMA: 5% MICHIGAN: 5% IOWA: 4% KANSAS: 3% INDIANA: 2% OHIO: 2% MINNESOTA: 2% ARKANSAS: 2% LOUISIANA: 2% SARS is just a sissy bug. Power Tour™ is the real-deal infection, its victims multiplying more rapidly in the past several years than a mere acute respiratory epidemic. Instead of killing you with malicious germs, Power Tour™ elicits the best of the car community, unifying gearheads, hot rods, and rolling skunkworks exhibitions from around the globe. The 2004 Tour, presented by GM and cosponsored by Flowmaster, brought out 2,251 Long Haulers™, 51,500 spectators, and 1,270 cars that drove with us through six states in seven days from Arlington, Texas, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the biggest and best event in history.…

THE REAR VIEW Every year we get complaints from readers who are tired of reading about Power Tour™, but it’s living scenes such as this one that keep participants coming back. This classic shot is from Tour first-timer Brian Winckler, who told us, “Well, it was everything you said it would be,” and we’d warned him that a week on the road with Christopher Titus and crew could get ugly. The rear viewis on Titus’ Foose-built Once a Knight ’56 Chevy that’s being chased by the Brizio-built Edelbrock ’32 roadster and MSD’s fresh Pro Street ’55 Chevy. How do you get tired of that?…