Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2006 i Hot Rod

MAKIN’ MOVIES One of the most clichéd car-magazine stories is “Best Car Movies,” yet it always draws a huge response. I was reading input about our most recent retread (“Anarchy & Bedlam,” Feb. ’06), which got me thinking about the time my ’70 Super Bee was in a TV movie. I don’t think I’ve ever written about it before. I used Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) to remind myself that the time was 1984, which meant I was in my last year of high school and my father was retired from producing TV commercials for a living. (I was once in a phone-company spot with Bill Cosby, and remember the Pringles commercial with the kid stacking up the chips? Those were my hands.) He continued to work in stage productions and…

STREET GASSERS In [the January issue] you asked for different, so here goes. I always wanted to restore a ’60s Gasser for the street, but I could never afford one. Like you, I like cars that are a little different, so I decided to make a street Gasser out of my ’51 Chevy coupe. It has a straight axle with Ford spindles, a stock Corvair steering box, and a ’56 Chevy rearend with 3.70 gears. The engine is a highly modified 292 six with a Clifford four-barrel intake, a 625 Edelbrock carb, tuned headers, and a Mallory dual-point distributor with a Hywire II control box. All this is hooked to a close-ratio Muncie four-speed with a scatter-shield and a big-block Chevy clutch and pressure plate. It will have two bucket…

Today’s IndyCars are little more than spec racers, with only a handful of approved chassis and engine packages. But back in the day, man, Indy was a hotbed of innovation. Witness the turbine car. The Granatelli brothers (Andy, Joseph, and Vincent) and engineer Ken Wallis turned the Speedway on its ear in 1967 by building a car powered by this 260-pound, 550hp aircraft turbine driving all four wheels. Needless to say, the race car got a lot of attention, including a cover story in the May ’67 issue of HOT ROD. This photo was taken in the Indy garages days before the race and shows the turbine and the fabricated gearbox. Much to the other teams’ dismay, the car worked—at least for a while. Driver Parnelli Jones jumped into the…

“They are really fun, really quick little cars. It’s the same engine and the same weight as the GT40 Mark II. It’s like the little brother of my Mark II.”—Lee Holman On the pages just prior to this feature you read about George Poteet’s Charger, which represents the Stock Car Vibe. Holman Moody’s Fairlane is the same type of hot rod, only it has a legit history in racing and is in fact a true race car. But it also happens to perfectly illustrate another way to build a stock car for the street. And this one runs as wicked as it looks. First a little history for those who are unfamiliar with Holman Moody (H-M). For years it was the official racing contractor for Ford (kind of like the…

“When all the metalwork was done, I I rented a booth and sprayed the car myself. That same paint is on the car now.—Brian Rock Unless you’re building an all-out race car, the hot rodding life is filled with compromise. If you need to be able to turn corners or stop, lightweight drag struts and paper-thin brake rotors are not the hot ticket. Any sort of sustained 60-mph driving negates the realistic ability to run 5.13:1 gears and a loose converter. If you have to sit in traffic for more than about a minute, forget the 290-at-0.050 cam and 1,000-pound valvespring pressures. Even a car built to handle needs to set spring and shock rates for a delicate balance of ultimate cornering speed and some semblance of ride comfort—ever driven…

Most of what we do with cars is physics or chemistry—some kind of science. Want to make more power? That’s all about boosting an engine’s efficiency. Need to make the car launch harder? More science, this time involving traction and overcoming inertia to get the mass in motion. But paint? That’s a different ball game altogether, and in fact seems like the opposite of science. And let’s face it: It’s intimidating. What’s the first thing other people notice about your car? How it looks. And what’s the most important part of the car’s looks? The paint. We fear botching that first impression. We quake at the idea of being dismissed at first glance. So a builder with the talent and skill to do everything mechanical will turn the paint and…

Whether it’s from a desire to maintain a traditional under-hood appearance or an aversion to the perceived expense and complexity of dealing with a modified electronic engine management system, there remain some die-hards out there who’d rather stick with their tried-and-true carburetor, yet still want to upgrade to a modern engine design like GM’s Gen III/IV small-blocks. The roadblock is that this high-tech engine was never factory-available with a conventional carb and distributor. Fortunately, aftermarket carbureted intakes that accept standard flange four-barrel carbs have become available from both GM Performance Parts and Edelbrock. However, without a factory computer, some sort of electrical device is required to both fire the individual factory coil packs as well as provide an ignition advance curve. One simple solution is a standalone aftermarket controller, available…

FEAR THE GUN Personal growth involves determining your weaknesses and then setting out to conquer them. Those who don’t try are just giving up, or they’re content enough with their life that they don’t need to continue growing as a person. The latter is pretty much where I stand with bodywork and paint. I give up. I’m content with my incompetence. I’ve attempted to do bodywork and paint three times, and I swear in front of the world that I will never, ever try it again. It’s all about patience, something I’ve never been accused of having much of. The first exercise was with my ’69 Camaro. Back in 1992 the HRM staff was planning the Apr. ’93 paint and body issue, and then-Editor Jeff Smith said he wanted a…

PARTS WAGON? ’59 Chevy Biscayne Panel Wagon Jim Gollwitzer Schaumburg, IL This Biscayne was born to haul—speed parts that is. Purchased new by Duffy’s Speed Shop, it was in service until the gas crunch of the early ’70s. The wagon was parked until a customer talked the shop out of it and put it into service hauling parts for his race car through the early ’80s. The wagon then lived in a relative’s garage until 2003 when Jim was able to purchase it. The car’s essentially unchanged from its first day of service, but Jim’s pondering some modern upgrades. We say leave it be. ONE-OWNER AMC ? ’70 AMC Javelin SST Robert Sweeney Cantonment, FL Remember all those cars you wish you hadn’t sold? Robert was a little smarter than…

DEATH OF THE4.0L You may wonder why an engine currently found only in the Jeep Wrangler merits any ink in HOT ROD. That’s because when the Wrangler is redesigned for ’07, it will bring to a close the more than 40-year history of the AMC six-cylinder. So rather than let its existence be a mere blip in the DaimlerChrysler reference books, we decided to pay homage to the long-lasting powerplant. The concept for the inline-six came from AMC Advanced Engineering, while the design and development can be pointed to AMC Kenosha Engineering. The engine started as a 232ci in the ’64 Rambler Classic Typhoon yellow/black model, making 145 hp for the one-barrel and 155 hp for the double. The red/black ’641/2 Rambler American got a 128hp 199ci with a 3.00-inch…

JOHN FORCE DOES REALITY TV MTVs The Osbournes had the potential to be very entertaining—if you could understand Ozzy’s drug-addled accent. Although John Force is quite an amped-up character himself, hot rodders won’t have any trouble relating to him when his new reality show, Driving Force, premieres on the A&E Network this summer. The show will focus on Force’s attempts to reestablish the relationship with his family that 30 hectic years of professional drag racing really strained at times. Force, who has 13 Funny Car championships and over 100 race wins to his credit, missed everything from piano recitals to school plays as his three youngest daughters Ashley (23), Brittany (19), and Courtney (17) grew up. Through the sport that kept his family apart for decades, Force now hopes to…

In the era before John Force and Gary Scelzi, the Blue Max, or even the Snake and Mongoose Hot Wheels cars, Funny Cars were even “funnier.” The evolution from match-race stocker to flip-top flopper was chaotic to say the least, a case of mechanical evolution run amuck with only the strongest surviving. Examples of the breed took on all sorts of formats, from its door-slammer beginnings in the Southeast in the early ’60s to the advent of the fairly generic, front-engined dragster cloaked in doorless fiberglass that made up most of the entries when NHRA recognized AA/FC as a standalone division in 1970. But it was probably the years from mid-1964 to mid-1966 that saw the most outrageous possibilities in the development process. C.J. “Pappy” Hart and the folks at…

There’s no better fun on Earth than HOT ROD Drag Week™. If that’s an overstatement it’s only by a little — just ask those who entered last year and went home as legends. Even participants with the slowest, most broke-down cars beamed as if they’d won the lotto. They were the progenitors of Drag Week™:a five-day road trip where the cars drive 1,500 miles with no support vehicles and blast down a different quarter-mile dragstrip each day. There were a bunch of class winners, and the one with the lowest average e.t. over five tracks became HOT ROD’s Fastest Street Car in America. Everyone else just had a riot, from 8-second Pro Streeters to 15-second beaters. We’re doing it again September 10-15, starting and ending at Cordova Drag Park in…

DON’T GET RID OF STUFF Regarding Freiburger’s editorial column in the March issue, I still have my ’67 GTX [my only new-car purchase). It now needs restoration, but hopefully I’ll get to that this year. My only regret is that I could have ordered the 426 Hemi for an additional $690. As I was only earning $379 a month in 1967, it was out of the question. I also still have two ’66 SS Novas—a six-cylinder automatic version and an L-79 four-speed version. I have a friend who wishes he still had his ’65 Corvette fuelie roadster and a cousin who wishes he still had his ’62 Corvette 340hp roadster and ’63 Corvette fuelie split-window coupe. Never get rid of anything car-related. Rand Tambert Via e-mail A DIESEL MUSCLECAR? I…

LESS THAN AN ENGINE REBUILD Here’s my find of a lifetime. Though pretty rough, it was almost complete. It is a ’66 Mustang convertible with an A-code, four-barrel 289 engine; power steering; and a power top. It took six months of negotiating, but I managed to purchase this “beauty” for less than an engine rebuild. Yes, that is poison ivy surrounding the car, but the rash has gone away now. Near it are a ’65 Mustang coupe, a ’66 Mustang coupe, a ’64 Falcon, and a ’62 Buick Special convertible. There were a total of four other Mustangs in the same backyard in Houston, Texas. Marcus D. Friske Pearland, TX…

CRANE’S NEW FRICTION PROCESS Few parts in a car have to endure the stress that valvetrain components do, so cam companies are always looking for ways to make their parts more durable. Crane Cams recently showed us its new Mikronite process, and it’s impressive to say the least. The process itself has a function similar to shot-peening since it compacts the metal’s surface, but Crane claims it’s far better. Parts that come out of the process look as if they’ve been polished, and the results are stronger parts and much less friction. The best news is that pretty much anything that’s made of metal can be Mikronited, including transmission and ring-and-pinion gears. And Crane claims the greatly reduced friction translates into much longer life and more power at the tires.…

“The wheels are the only place where I went away from the NASCAR look and leaned heavy towa rd vintage I ndy.”—Steve Strope NASCAR stock cars looked best from about 1965 to 1973, and for years we’ve been hoping to see this look make its way to the street scene. Chargers, Fairlanes, Monte Carlos…all made exceptionally good-looking NASCAR stock cars, and the look would be relatively easy to carry over to the street. Occasionally these types of cars have come out of the woodwork, but none to the level of George Poteet’s Charger. It was built by Steve Strope at Pure Vision, a shop that has cranked out more than a few magazine feature cars—a lot of them Mopars and three of them HOT ROD Top 10 cars. “When George…

Location: Ken Lotz’s shop, Lake Arrowhead, CA PAINT YOUR CAR! PG.90 Part 1 of our new series on paint and body kicks off this month with some tips on assessing your project and deciding how much you should really take on yourself. THE HOT ROD SOLSTICE PG.100 The new Pontiac Solstice is a good car, but how much better would it be with a V-8? We decided to build one for ourselves—and we’re not sticking just any engine in it: We’re going with an LS7 for ridiculous, turnkey speed. This is Part 1, with Parts 2 and 3 to follow in the next two issues. REAL-WORLD BRAKES FOR MUSCLECARS PG.112 A daily driver doesn’t need 14-inch brakes to stop well. We prove it with an early Mustang, updating the stopping…

The proliferation of Pro Touring cars, G-machines, or whatever you want to call cars built to do everything well has been made possible in large part by the development of bolt-on aftermarket brake kits. Baer, Brembo, Stainless Steel Brakes, and Wilwood are the big players, but credit Baer with really ramrodding the aftermarket scene with affordable big-brake kits a decade ago. Before the days of aftermarket options, if you wanted good binders on your drum brake-equipped musclecar, you had to either scrounge for junkyard parts or spend big money on full-race brakes. The factory swap parts were the cheapest, but the braking results weren’t all that incredible—they were as good as ’60s and ’70s factory disc brakes. If you were one of those people on the cusp of the Pro…

THE EL MIRAGE BALLET? While the November 2005 two-day season-ender for the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) proved the fastest of the year, it also saw its share of loop-de-loops, this one courtesy of Inez Carlson in the Carlson and Sprayberry F/Blown Street Roadster. Powered by a turbocharged Nissan inline-six, the car ran 151.144 mph on a 153.392 record before swapping ends. Inez is the daughter-in-law of our friend JoAnn Carlson, SCTA media liaison and winner of the ’05 Vera Aldrich award for the woman who did the most to promote SCTA racing. The photo was snapped by Stewart Harnick of the Sidewinders club and provided by SCTA Racing News Editor Ed Safarik. For more on the El Mirage racing season that starts with a two-day meet May 6-7, see…