Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2004 i Hot Rod

BAD CAD ’04 CADILLAC CTS-V CHRIS FREZZA STERLING HEIGHTS, MI When he’s not running one of the most active automotive message boards on the Internet, www.CamaroZ28.com, Chris putts around town very briskly in his new CTS-V. Parts are just starting to trickle out for this 400hp terror, and plans call for bolting on a More Performance cold-air intake and a Corsa exhaust. That should put it firmly in the 12s. Not bad for a luxo-sled. TUBBED AND DANGEROUS ’57 CHEVY 150 JOE THEODORE WASHINGTON, NJ After five hard years of work, Joe finally got his ’57 running last summerand immediately took it cruising. Beneath the clamshell fiberglass hood is a 408 small-block with Dart 230 Iron Eagle heads, two Edelbrock 750-cfm carbs, and a Weiand 5-21 blower. Out back is…

After slow sales in their first year as rebadged Holden Monaros, ’05 GTOs are bulking up in the looks and performance departments with the addition of more aggressive styling and the CG Corvette’s 400hp LS2 V-8 engine. Despite excellent performance, great ride quality, and wonderful interior appointments, the new GTO’s lack-luster styling undoubtedly kept GM’s mid-priced entry into the sport sedan segment from being a bigger hit among American performance enthusiasts, especially those old enough to recall the signature look of the original GTOs. But the addition of a functional ram-air hood along with the LS2’s 50 extra horses should keep buyers in the pipeline until a restyled ’02 model hits the showrooms. As much as we like our own project GTO, here’s our suggestion to GM: build it with…

During a recent tour of the MSD plant in El Paso, Texas (which is impressive, by the way; the plant, we mean—not El Paso), we spotted this all-new stack injection system in the R&D lab. Some of the engineers at the ignition company are hard-core racers of Sprint Cars and drag cars, and they saw a better way to engineer the linkage and serviceability of the mechanical injection systems. While they’re at it, they’re also improving performance. They’re even messing with rectangular carbon-fiber stacks that transition into lightweight polymer bases to ease airflow problems caused by round tubes going into rectangular ports. The buzz with Goodguys Jr. Fuel racers has been overwhelming, and some Pro Street racers are considering the possibilities of EFI idle and part-throttle circuits with mechanical injection…

THUNDERBOLTS REUNITE ATTHE ALL-FORD NATIONALS More than 40,000 Blue Oval faithful packed the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, fairgrounds the first weekend of June for the 10th Annual All-Ford Nationals. Yeah, there was the typical car show stuff, but the main event went down at nearby South Mountain Dragway. Two of the quickest ’64 Fairlane Thunderbolts still in active competition, owned by Phil Featherston and Rich LaMont, faced off to relive the glory days of drag racing. It was all part of the 40th anniversary of one of Ford’s most famous drag cars. Also on hand was an ultra-rare Rankin Ford ’65 B/Factory Experimental Comet powered by a 420 Cammer motor.…

5 PLACES TO BE IN NOVEMBER FORD 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, FL November 21 The last race of the NASCAR Nextel Cup season, Homestead could very well determine the championship winner under the new controversial 10-race-playoff points system. Whether you like it or not, history will be made. Contact: 305/230-7223; Homesteadmiamispeedway.com NHRA FINALS Pomona Raceway, Pomona, CA November 11-14 The alpha and omega of the drag racing season, thousands of horse power will rip the strip at historic Pomona Raceway for the NHRA season finale. Will John Force reclaim the Funny Car crown in front of a home crowd? Contact: 800/884-6472; www.pomonaraceway.com SEMASHOW Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV November 2-5 Everyone should attend this ultimate aftermarket expo at least once, which features over two-million square feet of exhibits.…

This story was virtually impossible. At first we intended it to be Greatest Speed Parts of AH Time, but that suggested a universe of candidates and criteria far too vast to be focused into 20 selections by a diverse and argumentative magazine staff. We needed direction, and we found it by looking only at the aftermarket speed parts that forever changed the face of hot rodding. Holding candidates against that standard, we eliminated OE parts, such as the 426 Hemi, with one notable exception. We also made sure to judge a part by its impact and not by its sheer ubiquitousness. For example, the Holley 1850 and Edelbrock Performer, the MSD 6A and Mallory UniLite, and the Lakewood slapper bars and Hijacker shocks may have been popular and seemingly unavoidable,…

The Edelbrock Slingshot dual-carb aluminum manifold wasn’t the first aftermarket intake for the flathead Ford V-8 and it wasn’t even the first intake that Vic Edelbrock Sr. had a hand in designing (he previously collaborated with Tommy Thickston on a flathead intake], but even though only about 100 Slingshots were built around 1940, its significance as the part that essentially launched Edelbrock as arguably the most influential company in the aftermarket speed parts business can’t be overstated. Since its founding in 1938, Edelbrock, run by Vic Edelbrock Jr. since his father’s death from cancer in 1962, has grown into a multi-million-dollar company producing intakes, cylinder heads, suspension components, exhaust systems, carburetors, and numerous other products. Today, Edelbrock’s aluminum cylinder heads have revitalized many vintage V-8s, and its intakes are available…

It’s the ultimate aftermarket wheel, and it looks good on everything from street rods to Fuelers. But like so many pioneering products in the history of hot rodding, the five-spoke Torq-Thrust wheel was born out of necessity not fashion when drag-racing pioneer Romeo Palamides needed lightweight racing wheels for his dragster. In 1954, Palamides teamed up with San Francisco, California, machinist Jim Ellison to make magnesium racing wheels, and in 1956, American Racing Equipment was launched. Over the years, the company’s most famous product, the five-spoke Torq-Thrust wheel that was introduced in 1963, has evolved, most famously with the introduction in 1965 of the Torq-Thrust D with arched spokes to clear the front disc brakes that were being introduced on many factory cars, and it’s been imitated by endless competitors.…

The rise of Pro Street gave birth to the signature big ’n’ littles look, but for cars built more for street use than drag use, filling the tubs with monster 33-inch slicks made little sense and was technically illegal. Look cool and risk spinning into a ditch, or stay safe and settle for some sissy-sized radials? What the new crop of drag-themed hot rods needed was treaded Funny Car-tires stamped with the DOT seal of approval. In 1982, Mickey Thompson filled the void with the introduction of its Sportsman Pro tires. Just in case Pro Streeters audaciously decided to live up to the image they portrayed, the tires featured wrinkle-wall construction and a gummy drag slick compound. Interestingly, to get Big Brother’s approval, Mickey Thompson marketed the Sportsman Pros as…

The turn happened right around 1972. By then, Grumpy Jenkins had taken the stock out of Pro Stock with his tube-chassis Vega, and NASCAR Stock Cars could no longer be considered production door-slammers. The illusion was maintained well into the ’80s, but—let’s face it—no one today sits in the stands of an NHRA, IHRA, or NASCAR race and goes home thinking, “Man, I gotta get me one of those Cavaliers!” Or Intrepids, or Tauruses, or Monte Carlos. And, frightfully enough, those are pretty much all the nameplates, shy of Pro Stock Grand Ams, in big-time racing today. Some of those cars aren’t even in production anymore, none were performance models to begin with, and if you go to NASCAR.com, you’ll find them so aggressively homogenized that it’s impossible to discern…

POWERTRAIN Engine: Space being at a premium, a compact LSI was the easy choice. It’s been slightly honed to displace 34? ci and is fitted with a Lunati crank, billet 6.125-inch rods, and dished 8.5:l-compression pistons. Fed through a FAST intake, the stock heads have been fitted with Manley 2.02/1.5?-inch valves and sit atop 0.052-inch Cometic four-piece gaskets. A Comp hydraulic cam measures 224/220 degrees at 0.050 and is ground on a 114-degree lobe-displacement angle. The rest of the valvetrain is also from Comp Cams, and the factory GM coil packs are hidden inside the fenders. A FAST standalone system manages the electronics. Power: 730 hp at 5,800 rpm, 710 = lb-ft at 5,000 rpm at 13.5 psi Transmission: A stock GM 4L60E out of a ’99 Pontiac Formula takes…

POWERTRAIN Engine: ’57 Chrysler Imperial 392 Hemi iron block, Valley Head Service-modified stock heads with Donovan valvetrain assembly, Arias flat-top Fuel pistons, Brooks aluminum connecting rods, Henry Velasco-modified stock crank, Chet Herbert cam duplicating the Howard 20, Mooneyham 6-21, Enderle mechanical fuel injection, Cirello Frankenstein Magneto Power: “Somewhere around 2,000 hp at 2,500 rpm” according to John Ewald Transmission: Donovan geardrive, Shaeffer two-disc clutch pack inside a Lakewood aluminum bellhousing Rearend: Chrysler 8¾, 4.56:1 gears, locked differential CHASSIS Frame:’68 Buttera Front Engine Dragster, restored in 2003 by Bruce Dyda Suspension: Solid front axle, fixed rearend bolted to chassis Brakes: Hurst Airheart rear discs Wheels:12-inch unknown motorcycle wheels, front; 15x12 Ansen aluminum wheels, rear Tires:22-inch-tall Avon motor-cycle tires front; 12x15 Firestone Drag 500s, rear STYLE Body: Tom Hanna aluminum tub Paint:…

ECOTEC CRATE MOTOR GM Performance Parts www.gmgoodwrench.com GM wants the Ecotec to become the next small-block Chevy—never mind that the Gen III and IVV-8s already have that covered—so naturally, it’s now offering the hottest version in a crate. The supercharged 2.0L out of the Saturn Ion Red-line and Cobalt SS Supercharged brings 205 hp to the party. The package includes the exhaust manifold, fuel rail, injectors, balancer, water pump, and flywheel. It lists under part number 12499466 at your local dealer for about $4,500. Or you can pop another $1,500 for twice as many cylinders with the complete LSI (PN 25344322), Your call. BLOW-THRU CARB HAT Performance Carburetors 909/673-1080 www.performancecarburetors.com Who needs costly EFI? Performance Carburetors has a specially tuned Holley HP carb with a new blow-thru hat to simplify…

I plan on building a 1,000-plus-horsepower, pump-gas, blown, injected Hemi. Here is a list of components I am considering: 7.5:1 pistons 12-71 blower with pulley ratio for 20 psi boost Blower Drive Service 16-nozzle electronic fuel injection with bugcatcher scoop Billet crank Dry-sump oil system Please tell me what you think. I would also like your opinion on whether or not to use an aluminum block and connecting rods. I only plan on driving it 1,000-2,000 miles a year. Also, some suggestions on cams would be helpful. John LubisichFresno, CA Pump gas is the limiting factor here. It requires holding max boost down to 12 psi or less. You can still reach the power goal by substituting cubic inches for raw boost: Build a 528 (4.5-inch bore x 4.15-inch stroke).…

SMOKE! Memphis native and three-time IHRA Top Fuel champ Clay Millican laid two nasty patches of rubber down Elvis Presley Blvd, to commemorate the city’s ’50 Years of Rock and Roll” celebration on August 9. The smoke show appropriately went down during Elvis week right in front of the Graceland Wall. As part of the festivities, the dragster was tattooed in an Elvis-themed graphics scheme, which Millican’s 104+ Performance Additives/Lehman Racing team raced the weekend of August 20-22 at the NHRA O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. “The 50 Years of Rock ’n’ Roll celebration is a great opportunity for Memphis to show its roots in American culture, and I am so grateful to be able to race this one-of-a-kind Elvis-themed dragster,” says Millican. “Since I’m from the Memphis…

Last month in this space I announced that the redesign improvements to HOT ROD, starting with the July issue, were worthy of a 33 percent increase in newsstand sales. Well, I was wrong. That number was based on an early estimate that, in the past, has proven pretty accurate. This time it was way off: The final numbers came in, and we’ve actually grown by 64 percent! If you’re not in the magazine biz, it be tough to grasp just now spectacular and impossible that is. The hot rodders have spoken, making HOT ROD among the most powerful of all magazines. We thank everyone who has come home to HOT ROD, and remind them that this magazine will remain a two-way conversation with its readers. These pages are al! about…

CONTRAST IN RODDING Perhaps 1982 doesn’t seem long enough ago to warrant an archival retrospective, but it was, after all, 22 years ago, and that Cuda should be enough to make you realize it might not have been the good old days. In fact, Allen Owen’s “Kaleido Kuda,” as we called it in the Nov. ’82 feature, helps demonstrate how glaring the primer was on the Eastwood&Barakat ’32 Tudor when it appeared on the cover of HOT ROD in a photo similar to this one by Jim Brown. This was years before today’s resurgence of so-called rat rods, and if it were built today, the nouveau purist artisans of retro would likely shun this sedan for its period-incorrect Fox Mustang bucket seats, Vega steering wheel, and column shifter. Nevertheless, the…

Until now, the one thing General Motors, the world’s largest producer of automotive engines, could not do efficiently was build low-volume, high-performance niche engines a la Ford’s supercharged 4.6L Cobra and 5.4L GT V-8s and Chrysler’s Viper V-l?. That will change once production at GM’s brand-new $10 million Powertrain Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan, begins in mid-2005 with assembly of the Gen IV LS7 V-8 slated for the upcoming’06 Corvette Z06. Production flexibility will be the hallmark of the new facility, where a specially trained 80-member workforce drawn from UAW Local 653 will be capable of assembling up to 15,000 engines annually. Each engine will be hand-assembled by a single technician working at a series of build stations along the facility’s production line, which will allow extremely flexible production…

Caught testing in the summer heat of California’s Death Valley: three high-performance versions of the Hemi-powered ’05 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Magnum, and Chrysler 300C. If rumors are to be believed (and we’re nothing if not gullible) all three get a new 6.1- or 6.2-liter version of the twin-spark-plug Hemi V-8 making somewhere near 425 hp. In fact we’re betting the certification will come in with the engine carrying exactly that power rating as a muscle-bound homage to the “classic” 426 Hemi that was rated at that lofty and precise level. While we’ve heard rumors of a 300C SRT-8, and a Magnum SRT-8 seems only natural, it’s the Grand Cherokee that seems most daring. With the big Hemi under its hood, the Jeep has the potential to be one of…

DREAM GTO General Motors has built some very trick cars to display at Detroit’s annual Woodward Dream Cruise, including a pair of trick fourth-gen F-bodies two years ago, and a Caddy CTS-V and a Saturn Ion Red Line hopped up with road racing themes last year. But the carthe General is building for the 2004 Dream Cruise tops them all. Designed by GM Performance Division stylist Kip Wasenko, who also had a hand in the design of the WDC F-bodies, it’s the most aggressive interpretation we’ve seen yet of the Australian-designed Pontiac GTO. With carbon-fiber-accented front spoiler and side skirts, radically flared front and rear fenders, and massive 20-inch wheels, Wasenko has brought the nondescript GTO to a level only General Motors itself could produce—and it might if response is…

Although famed for its below-sea-level density altitude and supremely quick e.t.’s, Englishtown Raceway Park needs your help to stave off some despicable weasels who somehow find political incorrectness in safe, sanctioned racing. Undercurrent New Jersey law, the Motor Vehicle Racetrack Exemption from the Noise Control Act of 19P1 allows competition vehicles to operate without mufflers. A recent legislation proposal from surrounding local communities seeks to remove the exemption, which would have a devastating impact on how all tracks operate statewide. Do your part by e-mailing Monmouth County Assemblymen Michael Panter [AsmPanter@njleg.org] and Robert Morgan [AsmMorgan@njleg.org], or send them a snail mail to New Jersey General Assembly, Legislative Office, The Galleria, 2 Bridge Avenue, Bldg. 2, Red Bank, New Jersey 07701. If sending an e-mail, send Englishtown a copy as well…

IN THREE WORDS: Four-wheeled centrifuge THE GIST: Paring weight is as good as adding horsepower, and when the vehicle at hand weighs only a tad more than your average pudgy American, you know you’re in for a good time. While less than a small dose of nitrous, 32 hp goes a long way in a sled weighing only 200 pounds. As the name implies, shifter karts are essentially go-carts—but with six-speed sequential transmissions. One of Bob Bondurant’s 125cc CRG karts will catapult you to 100 mph in a blistering 6 seconds, halt back to a standstill in 4, and pull a brain-sloshing 2.5 g’s in lateral acceleration. No wonder shifter karts are the training ground for future stars and the off-season weapons of choice for Formula One and Indy/Champ car…

When the clutchless four-speed Lenco planetary-gear transmission arrived, it forever obsoleted the drag racer’s art of manipulating a four-speed manual transmission. The Lenco transmission was the brainchild of Leonard Abbott, who a few years earlier revolutionized Top Fuel racing with the introduction of a two-speed overdrive. Employing planetary gearsets modules, the clutchless Lenco allowed seamless transfer of power from the engine to the track, with no lost motion during shifting. Air-shifted Lencos followed, but the design was eventually banned when Pro Stockers were mandated to return to manually shifted five-speeds. Today, Lencos live on in Pro Mods, Comp Eliminators, and many a Pro Streeter.…

By the ’90s, hoards of enthusiasts were jumping on the EFI bandwagon and singing the praises of driveability, gas mileage, and (sometimes) horsepower improvements. But in the realm of serious power, limitations in factory electronics capped ultimate potential. EFI didn’t like big cams, refused to rev beyond the factory air/fuel maps, and didn’t get along with fuel injectors big enough to make real horsepower. Then in the mid-’8?s, computer-whiz John Meaney created a standalone engine management system that controlled fuel and spark independently from the factory computer. Dubbed Digital Fuel Injection (DFI], Meaney’s device provided almost limitless tuning potential based on a few simple parameters. The DOS-based software was easy to navigate and afforded real-time fuel/spark changes. Engine combos once deemed too radical for the street could be tamed to…

Before the Asian Invasion, your average Joe Lunchbucket had to pony up big-time for quality steel connecting rods, and only the wealthy could put together big-inch stroker motors with custom crankshafts. That all changed in the mid-to-late ’90s with the influx of internal engine parts from overseas. Though the prospect of targeting a particularly patriotic demographic with products from a Communist regime seemed optimistic at the time, the lure of dirt-cheap parts proved irresistible. Suddenly, reconditioning stock rods wasn’t any cheaper than buying new forged pieces, and the average backyard wrench could build big-displacement strokers with a slew of cast- and forged-crank options that cost a fraction of quality Callies, Lunati, or Crower products. At first there were some issues with tapered crank journals, oblong rod end bores, and Mallory-hungry…

You’re not necessarily a producer until you mortgage your house for an idea you have,” says Bud Brutsman, the executive producer and creator of both Overhaulin’ and Rides on cable television’s TLC. “Your return is equal to your risk.” Brutsman admits that bank loans bridge much of the budgetary gap between what he gets from TLC and what it actually costs to produce each episode. If the shows are hits, he’ll more than make up the difference in foreign rights and ancillary revenue streams such as licensing, or at least that’s what we’ve been reading in Business Week. Fortunately for Brutsman, his big risk will apparently pay off, because both his shows are among the most popular on cable television and the hottest things going at don’t-call-it-The-Learning-Channel TLC. According to…

The proportions are a bit odd, the abbreviated windshield and roll hoops/headrests look gimmicky, and the vertical bumpers are anything but functional. However, to vintage-car historians, those quirks—reminiscent of the flamboyant Motorama machines of the ’50s and ’60s—are all part of the charm of the funky ’64 Dodge Charger. Says owner Joe Bortz, “It’s not an aesthetically sleek car, but it’s bold, masculine, and looks like it’s on testosterone.” At first, the notion of a ’64 Charger sounds as silly as a ’62 Mustang or a ’65 Camaro, and that’s because it shouldn’t even exist. However, Bortz’s Charger is a genuine ’64 based on a hardtop two-door Dodge Polara that was sliced and diced into what you see here. Joe says this factory show car is the first car ever…

“There’s the billet and chrome crowd, and there are people with fast beaters who talk a lot. I’m neither.”—John Cunningham For every show-car owner sick of hearing “your junk don’t run” jokes or Midwest bracket racer tired of the usual “your junk’s fast but ugly” sneers, John Cunningham’s mint ’68 Nova serves as the perfect poster child for busting stereotypes, shutting the naysayers up, and shutting the competition down. When we say that every car at last May’s HOT ROD Magazine Pump Gas Drags was a nice all-around street machine, we’re not just tooting our own horn. Despite the stiff competition, the car that laid down the quickest single pass of 9.08 at 152 mph also happened to be one of the most beautiful and original. So what makes John’s…

What if you could take your engine from nearly 11.0:1 to practically 9.0:1 with just a head gasket change? We’ve done that with the overt butchery of stacking shim gaskets, but now you can do it the right way with Cometic MuIti-Layer Steel head gaskets that are available in custom bores and thicknesses from 0,040 to 0.125 inch for virtually all GM, Ford, and Mopar engines. The MLS gasket was originally designed for superior sealing, but the billet center layer makes the custom thicknesses possible. In our case, we were able to convert our 489ci Rat motor from a 10.74:1 naturally aspirated combo to 9.11:1 compression just by using Cometic gaskets that were 0.040-inch and 0.125-inch thick, respectively. The change of 0.085 inch should be accompanied by a change in…

What’s the deal with different lobe-separation-angle numbers on identical-lift camshafts? And would a ’95 Ford Lightning cam work on a carbureted 302? The engine would be going into either a ’65 Falcon wagon or ’23 Maverick, I’m looking for excellent torque and good horsepower for highway passing. What are the cam specs for the ’93-’95 Lightning anyway? David James HillyerWoodville, TX Lobe separation, also called “lobe displacement angle” (LDA), is obtained by dividing the sum of the intake-lobe centerline and the exhaust-lobe centerline by two; it is ground into the cam and can’t be changed during installation. Don’t confuse it with lobe center-line, which is the angle in crank degrees between the max-lift points of the intake and exhaust lobes; the centerline can be altered during cam installation. Cam timing…

INSIDE THE OEs SSR POWERS UP A year after debuting its retro SSR roadster pickup with an anemic 300hp 5.3L V-8, Chevy is stepping up the SSR’s performance several notches with the addition of a 390hp version of the new all-aluminum LS2 6.0L V-8 and an optional Tremec M10 six-speed manual transmission for the ’05 model year, adding much-needed oomph to go along with the SSR’s muscular looks. Revised intake ducting and exhaust account for the LS2’s down-rated power in the SSR, but a stint at the wheel of a six-speed-equipped SSR proved that the SSR now packs the punch to go along with its hot rod styling.…

Of the Dodge Ram SRT-10 is good for hauling nothing more than ego, the new ’05 Quad Cab version lets you share greatness with a couple of extra buddies. Like the original, this four-door version packs the same Viper-sourced 500hp V-10, 15-inch four-piston front brakes, and a similar performance suspension. However, a beefy 48RE automatic trans, heavy-duty torque converter, two-piece driveshaft, and 4.56:1 rearend gears enhance driveline durability, earning a 7,500-pound tow rating.…

HOW THEY MAKE IT: EDELBROCK IAS SHOCKS Shock absorbers are one of the most critical chassis components on your vehicle, working reliably for tens of thousands of miles to damp and control the suspension over a variety of road surfaces and different driving conditions. Some premium shocks offer unique valving that actually allows the shock to adjust to changing road conditions. As applied to Edelbrock specifically, its patented IAS (Inertia Active System] features an inertia valve that allows the shock’s damping characteristics to switch instantly from a soft circuit on rough surfaces [valve opens quickly on rebound, delivering a smooth ride) to a firm ride for driving on smooth surfaces (valve closed, delivering maximum performance for responsive handling and less body roll). Edelbrock has invested in a highly automated manufacturing…

On a recent stroll through Chancellor, Alabama, we stopped at the shop of Pilcher’s Automotive&Machine, home of a serious Pro Mod effort. The family operation of Johnny, Billy, and Hazel Pilcher runs a Sonny Leonard 205ci mill on huge nitrous, and while they’ve recently switched the chassis (as seen here), much of the development time now is going into the magic of the slew-rate feature of the new MSD 2531 ignition. With it, they’ve been able to launch harder and without tire shake, running low 4-teens in local eighth-mile competition and 6.30s the few times the car has been on the quarter-mile.…

Based on the wildly successful NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion now in its 13th year in Bakersfield, the second-annual National Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, last June featured everything from street rods to musclecars, to nostalgia Top Fuel dragsters. According to Sam Jackson, executive director of the Parks Motorsports Museum, “The Reunion almost doubled in size across the board. The crowds, the racers, the street rods, the vendors-everything was way up, and best of all, everyone went away thrilled with the event.” The event featured a kick-off party, show ‘n’ shine, nostalgia drag racing, and an all-around good time. We hear they’ll do the East event again next year.…

Technical discussions on vehicle handling almost always include the phrase polar moment of inertia. Although it sounds counterintuitive, a “low moment” is good, while a “high moment” is bad. Picture the imaginary axis around which a vehicle rotates while cornering. In its simplest terms, the moment of inertia refers to how difficult it is to get an object to rotate around the axis. The farther away from the axis of rotation the mass is, the harder it is to make it turn. Conversely, if the mass is concentrated near the center, it is easier to turn. One obvious method of achieving a low moment of inertia is reducing mass, but relocating mass closer to the rotational axis both fore-and-aft and side-to-side yields much more dramatic improvements. For example, while a…

It was like the OEs made a pact with the devil. Although factory performance began to return in the ’80s, it brought with it a Grim Reaper who struck fear into the hearts of hot rodders: EFI. With not a carb jet to swap or an idle-screw to twist, many a gearhead threw in the towel and declared the hobby dead. But then Mark Heffington and Hypertech hit the aftermarket scene and showed us knuckleheads that computers and aftermarket parts could peacefully coexist. Delving deep into strings of factory computer codes, Hypertech engineers learned to manipulate ignition and fuel curves for maximum power. All the end-user had to do was replace the factory PROM chip with a Hypertech Power Chip. Today, while it can be argued that generic tuning isn’t…

Today, we take drag slicks for granted, but in the early days of drag racing, tires were a big headache. Until the mid-’50s, racers were forced to use smooth-tread recapped passenger tires, which provided marginal traction and often disastrous results if the caps peeled off at speed. That all changed in 1952, when Marvin Rifchin (the M in M&H Tire Company along with father Harry) introduced the first purpose-built drag racing slicks at a drag race in South Carolina. Later, Don Garlits recorded the first officially recognized 200-mph run in Great Meadows, New Jersey, on M&H tires. “I went down to the dragstrip in Chester, South Carolina, and guys like Garlits, Setto Postoian, and Bob Sullivan were down there racing and they all tried the tires. From what I could…

Count ’em. Eight turbos! Surely, there are legitimate virtues of multiple-turbo arrangements, namely dividends in responsiveness and low-end grunt. In the mid-’90s, cars such as the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4, Porsche 993 Turbo, Toyota Supra, and Mazda RX-7 utilized this philosophy successfully, but come on, those were OE applications with girly displacement. Our redneck-sized V-8s can easily spool single 88mm turbos, good for over 1,000 hp, quickly enough to deliver near-uncontrollable off-idle torque. So what’s the point of cramming in eight turbos and the accompanying pipe organ of convoluted tubing to get it all to work? Simple: It’s all about image. Such blatant pursuit of the ostentatious begs a harrowing question. Has the current state of Pro Touring reverted back to the one-upmanship of the Pro Street heyday, when 14-71 blowers…

Nostalgia done right makes the present better. The story here isn’t just that brothers Don and John Ewald found the BankAmericar Top Fuel slingshot dragster that Don campaigned in the late ’60s and early ’70s and restored it, but that in doing so they made today better for both them and for everyone who cares about drag racing. In other words, the best thing about this car isn’t what it was 35 years ago, but what it is now. Still, it all starts back in the ’60s. Don Ewald started racing around Southern California in 1962 with a series of Gassers and Altereds. Back then he worked as a parts manager at Boulevard Buick in Long Beach to finance a competitive sportsman effort. By 1966 he was bitten by the…

Most gearheads understand the basic definitions of caster, camber, and toe, but when it comes to actually measuring or setting these wheel-alignment specs, the easy solution is to bring the car to a professional shop. For cruisers where an alignment is a set-it-and-forget-it proposition, that’s probably OK. But if you enjoy the satisfaction of knowing how to do it yourself, or if you expect to be making enough alignment changes that taking your car to a shop every time would be expensive and impractical, you’ll benefit from adding alignment skills to your mental toolbox. Aligning a car may seem like one of those voodoo sciences that makes no sense if you’ve never actually seen it done, but as we learned by doing in preparing this article, the process is really…

Cooler air-intake temperatures yield more power, hence the decades-old ritual of icing down the intake manifold between dragstrip runs. In an attempt to do away with the hassle and mess of leaky ice bags, Racing Coolers has come up with a simple-yet-clever reusable heat-absorbent gel that’s sealed in a durable plastic pouch. The gel pack slips into a fire-retardant bag, which then attaches to the fuel rails with Velcro straps; applications are available for LS1/LS6 cars as well as LT Is, L98s, and anything with an ACCEL Super Ram. The beauty of the setup is that it can remain on the intake manifold throughout the entire quarter-mile assault—not just in the pits—without leaking water on the track. To give it a test on our project ’04 Pontiac GTO six-speed, we…

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

BUILD YOUROWN DIE-CAST MUSCLECAR There are lots of cool die-cast models around, but the real fun is in building a car, right? Classic Metal Works and HOT ROD let you wrench away in 1:24 scale with a new line of U BUILD IT models, including a ’68 Chevelle, a ’53 Ford Kustom coupe, a 70 Buick GSX, and a first-gen Camaro. Actually, you don’t need any wrenches. The steel body and plastic interior, floorpan, wheels, tires, windshields, bumpers, and trim pieces all snap together into place. Even us brain-cell-deficient editors managed to put one together in about 20 minutes. Pick yours up for $20 by phone at 419/842-8114 or online at www.classicmetalworks.com. HOT ROD SATELLITE The latest HOT ROD-licensed die-cast from Brooklin’ Models is this l:43-scale ’69 Plymouth Satellite based…