Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2006 i Hot Rod

ALL THE VINTAGE CONVENIENCES It’s been a dry spell for me, rodding wise. Between corporate commitments and a broken wrist (surprisingly, the two are unrelated), lots of time on the road in rental cars, and some trips with my friends from 4-Wheel & Off Road magazine, I’ve been at the wheel of late-model cars more often than not for at least four months. And then, just the other day, I borrowed Steve Dulcich’s old Dart. It’s been a long time since I had one of my own, but I settled into it with a comfortable familiarity and an instant recollection of what I’ve always known: the ’68 Dodge Dart is the pinnacle of automotive convenience and driving pleasure. It’s true. I knew it immediately when I twisted the key and…

PERSISTENCE PAYS ’65 Oldsmobile Cutlass • Lester Conner • Cle Elum, WA A lot of people have to let go of their toys to pay for higher education, but 20-year-old Lester Conner has hung in there and kept his ’65 Cutlass project going. This one’s been in the works since Lester was 15 and has just gotten to fully road-ready form with a 455 running an MSD ignition, Hooker headers, and 3-inch exhaust. Now when Lester cruises the Olds to commencement on his graduation day, he’ll have two examples of the payoff of persistence. THE BIG RIV ’66 Buick Riviera GS Al Hemstreet Warner Robins, GA A veteran of the last two Power Tours, Al made plenty of guys envious, we’re sure, as he cruised in style and comfort in…

KEISLER BUYS GM’S MUNCIE MANUFACTURING LINE You know Keisler Engineering for its manual-overdrive transmission swap kits for classic Ford, GM, and Chrysler vehicles, but the company is gearing up to expand its inventory to include traditional Muncie gearboxes for late-model cars and trucks. Keisler just bought an entire manufacturing line from GM’s Muncie, Indiana, plant and is moving it all to Maryville, Tennessee. Shafi Keisler, president and owner, said, “This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we couldn’t pass up. Everyone knows the Muncie four-speeds are an excellent product. With this purchase, we will be in a position to soon offer a full line of high-performance gearboxes and gearsets for all the Muncie four-speeds—M-20, M-21, M-22—as well as the Chrysler A-833, Ford Toploader, [and] Tremec T56, T5, and T45. [We will…

Had you been traveling through Laramie, Wyoming, late at night a couple of years ago, you might be relieved to learn that this car and driver actually exist. In your sleep-deprived state, you might’ve doubted your own eyes when a vision of a ’68 Camaro miraculously appeared. Despite subfreezing temperatures, its windows were rolled all the way down, revealing a beautiful young driver. Snowflakes were falling into the car, clinging to her long hair. She was expertly steering and slipping the clutch like an old dirt-track racer. When she turned and smiled, you slapped yourself hard and slammed on the brakes. All you knew for sure was that some shuteye was long overdue. That was no caffeine-induced hallucination, partner. Your dream girl was Liz Miles, widely known around the San…

THE HOLDEN EFIJY APRIL ISSUE What’s the difference between a custom car built for a paying customer by a big-name professional shop and a custom concept car built by an OEM? Well, on the pro-built car, usually everything works, whereas the OE concept car is often less than complete. Witness the new Camaro for instance—nice car, cool design, but barely functional. The Efijy is different, however. Not only does everything on it work, but also the level of functionality far surpasses even the highest-end pro-built custom, thanks to factory engineering and execution. And even before I knew that it was fully functional, this car knocked me cold the first time I saw the photos. It blew away everyone in the room, actually. Built as a styling exercise that never had…

Trends come and go; such is the fickle nature of fashion, music, and, yes, hot rodding. There was a time not too long ago, before ground-scraping, big-wheeled Pro Touring cars were the norm, when the only way to get noticed was to have steamroller Mickey Thompsons under massive wheel-tubs in your street machine. The name Pro Street was a play on Pro Stock, since the cars had the look of the NHRA race cars. But because they were designed as street cars, they didn’t have the performance potential of full-on race cars. On the contrary, many were built for show and could barely move under their own power—forget about putting them on a dragstrip. The derogatory term Pro Fairground soon came around to describe these cars, and that began a…

How fast would musclecars have been when they were new if only they’d had decent, modern rubber to run on? How often has the bad-tires excuse been used over the years in magazines, at car shows, and just bench racing among buddies? As unsexy as tires are, they’ve evolved tremendously in the intervening 30-odd years since the curtain fell on the musclecar era. So why would anyone in his right mind step back into the stone age to run on skinny, rock-hard, bias-plies? But that’s just what racers in the Factory Appearing Stock Tire drag-racing class do, and they throw some pretty exotic engine hardware at their efforts to run mid-10s on smoking bias-plies struggling to hook like a dog on a hardwood floor. Call it nuts, but is it…

Once reserved for high-end aerospace and military applications, high-tech coatings have percolated down into racing and in recent years have even become available to mainstream hot rodders. Some professional race-engine builders swear coatings offer significant horsepower gains; others dismiss any alleged power benefits but do allow that some types of coatings may enhance engine reliability. With all the hype surrounding the subject, HOT ROD decided to take a look at just what’s available in the world of coatings, and—in conjunction with Duttweiler Engineering—perform an exhaustive series of dyno tests to evaluate some of the more common coatings’ effectiveness when applied to a typical 1.4 hp/ci hot rod engine. So just what are engine coatings, anyway? Basically, they are an entire family of chemical surface treatments applied to various engine components.…

HYBRID MUSCLE? Hybrids, hybrids, hybrids. That’s all you hear about in the mass media. Car magazines haven’t paid much attention to them, but turn on the TV or radio and that’s all they talk about, usually while accusing anything bigger or faster than a Camry of being the greatest threat to humanity. Freiburger’s column a few months ago pointed out a contrary opinion to the general public’s notion that hybrids are the saviors of all mankind, but the fact of the matter is that they’re only going to increase in number in the next few years. Hybrids like the Toyota Prius lost a little luster when the information came out that they’re really not that much more fuel-efficient than a Honda Civic, but the people who buy them don’t care—they’re…

LIVING IN THE BUSH It’s amazing what you can find if you beat the bushes long enough. Mark Martin of southern Oregon stumbled across two fullsize musclecars among the briars in this overgrown blackberry bush. One is a ’69 Dodge Charger, possibly an R/T as evidenced by two holes where the emblem would have been, and the other is a ’68 Mercury Cyclone. Both cars are still living in the bush, since the owner is not easy to get in touch with, but Mark is persistent and is working on securing both of them.…

GIRL POWER So Freiburger and I were sitting with Art Director Edwin Alpanian designing this month’s cover, agonizing over the most effective verbiage for the blurbs, all three of us randomly throwing out suggestions. At one point, while noodling a blurb for the inset photo of Liz Miles, I blurted, “She Streeter.” Freiburger looked at me and just said, “Leslie Reynolds.” Leslie and her homebuilt ’55 Chevy were the subject of a feature story titled “She-Streeter” in the Apr. ’89 issue. Though the story was only three pages long and had not-that-great black-and-white photography, it stuck in our memories all these years. The reason is that Leslie was cute, built the car mostly herself, and ran low 12s with it while also cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, all of which were…

’70 MACH 1 This real 70 R code Mach 1 originally delivered with a 428ci Cobra Jet and the Drag Pack option is the subject of Tom Lantz’s custom buildup. A dual-quad ’66 427ci Ford will serve as a worthy successor to the CJ with a 9-inch rear outfitted with 31-spline Strange axles and Bendix disc brakes to put the power to the wheels. The most impressive part of this build is that most of the work is being fabricated by Tom himself. Outside of the specially designed Afco coilover shocks, all suspension components were handmade by Tom, including the stainless steel four-link designed with late-model Mustang geometry in mind and the aluminum and stainless steel brake-cooling ducts. Tom is even going so far as to handform his own 20-gallon…

Driving a hot rod hard means that sometimes it breaks. Drive it too hard and the damage can be severe, at which point some hot rodders find themselves at a crossroads. Is it best to piece the car back together? Should you cut your losses and part it out? Or do you take it as an opportunity to take the car in a whole new direction? Sometimes it just comes down to the significance of the car itself, as was the case with Don Stellhorn’s ’64 GTO. Giving up just wasn’t an option. Don’s father had a ’64 GTO before Don was born, and rather than giving it the typical straight-line-oriented build, he enjoyed taking the big A-body out for SCCA Solo 2 autocross events. But as is the case…

I hopped in with James in his ’64 Comet Caliente for the first half of the trip to Englishtown. The 347ci stroker topped with an Edelbrock cross-ram intake and 0.547-inch lift had an aggressive sound, so I was prepared for a car that wasn’t particularly dialed in for the street. Once out on the freeway, I was pleasantly surprised by the Comet’s manners. The suspension rode tight, but not punishing. In fact, if you closed your eyes, it would be easy to imagine you were in a mostly stock car going down the road, probably because this Comet retains most of its original chassis. The 347 ci was hooked to an old-school Toploader four-speed and seemed quite content to spin right around 3,000 rpm, though it was fairly loud in…

“There’s something wrong with a guy who wants 1,600 hp in a street car.” This is coming from a guy who has a Chevy Caprice wagon running around with 1,740 hp. Yes, you read it right: 1,740 hp—on pump gas. Clearly, there is something wrong with Steve Morris, and we mean that in a good way. Not that you’d know it by looking at him or his shop. Sure, he’s got a certain mad-scientist gleam in his eyes that any good engine builder should have, but otherwise, Morris comes off as a quiet, average guy. He’s certainly not as cocky as you’d expect for someone developing power numbers once considered impossible. His shop is tidy and spacious, but there’s no secret room where he mysteriously creates extra power. It all…

BUICK STAGE 1 400-430-455 ALUMINUM CYLINDER HEADS TA Performance Products 480/922-6807 www.taperformance.com TA Performance has a way to shed some weight from the top end of big-block Buicks with its aluminum Stage 1 Street Eliminator cylinder heads. With 235cc intake runners and 145cc exhaust runners, the Eliminators flow as much air as fully ported factory heads out of the box with additional port work yielding as much as 350 cfm with a 2.130-inch intake valve and a 1.755-inch exhaust valve. The heads are compatible with any intake, exhaust manifold, or header that works with stock Buick, heads and all valvetrain parts can be transferred over from production heads. Increased deck material and the optional four extra head bolts ensure the heads are ready for any compression ratio or power adder…

GLAMOUROUS, NOT Many thanks to ace photographer David Freers and Greg Cote of MSX who, rather than cruising Woodward the night before Dream Cruise, spent their evening (and most of the night) holed up in MSX’s Auburn Hills, Michigan, photo studio, where David captured the Cherry Bomb Charger fresh from its conversion. Thanks must also be extended to Jon Clark of Mopar Performance Parts, who provided all the hardware for this SEMA-bound Charger. HOT ROD SUPER NATS The 27th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts HOT ROD Super Nats presented by Toyo Tires proved once again the place to be with more than 1,500 hot rods, street machines, and two-wheel-drive trucks rolling into the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The Springfield, Illinois, locale will also host Edel brock’s Official Cruise Night for the ’07…

I’m constantly amazed at the volume of e-mails we get from people asking how to get their cars into HOT ROD, since we address it right here in Bench Racing every month. Here’s the deal once more: Send good photos of the car and a letter explaining what you did to it and any other pertinent details, and we might run it. Be aware that we get a lot, so if we do choose to run it in Readers’ Rides, it still might take a while. Digital photos should be 300 dpi and at least 4x4 inches in size, and try not to send too many, as it’ll clog up our e-mail system and prevent others from sending in theirs. We really want to see some well-done, low-buck rides, too,…

Freiburger stirred the pot again and got people to respond in droves. His September Starting Line column revealed his distaste for the skyrocketing values of musclecars and how they not only make it hard to afford something cool, but they also make current owners of those cars afraid to drive and enjoy them. For a big segment of the hobby, it’s now all about “How much is it worth?” instead of “How fast is it?” The end of that column asked for readers’ submissions of their own low-buck rides, but surprisingly, we haven’t gotten very many. C’mon folks, fire off some good photos of your homebuilt or otherwise low-buck hot rod, and we’ll show the rich guys we’re not afraid to modify their “investments.” JUST COOL HOT RODS I really…

THE FUTURE CAMARO CHASSIS? What costs $1 billion to build, is rear-wheel drive, and is available with a 363hp Gen IV V-8 and six-speed auto? Unveiled to the world in mid-August and destined for a few hundred thousand Australian garages is Holden’s new VE Commodore. While both the model designation and the Commodore brand name may be foreign to many of you, the Commodore has been Australia’s best-selling rearwheel-drive vehicle since 1978 and with the VE is enteri ng its fourth generation of development. The last iteration of the Pontiac GTO was based on the third-generation two-door VT Commodore, known Down Under as the Monaro. Using the Australian-designed Zeta platform GM recently utilized under the Camaro Concept vehicle, the VE comes in a range of powertrain and specification options to…

THE CAMARO COUPE BODIES ARE HERE! Few things generated as much interest as when we broke the news about Dynacorn’s brand-new ’69 Camaro convertible bodies two years ago. HOT ROD got one of the first bodies and built it into a complete car, highlighting it all in the Dec. ’05 issue. In those stories, we said a coupe version was coming soon, and we can now report it’s finally here. Year One took delivery of two of the first six to be produced. The first one, shown here fresh from the crate, is being built for a customer, while the second will be an in-house project. While the coupe bodies were on the drawing board, they benefited from a couple of improvements, which have also been incorporated into the convertible…

Plus: HOT ROD OF THE YEAR on pg. 58 The year 2006 saw an abbreviated HOT ROD staff. Former Associate Editor Stephen Kim got sick of living in L.A. and left for Texas back in mid-’05, and Matt King left soon after, when Harley-Davidson came a-callin’. That left Freiburger, Kinnan, and Davis as the sole people responsible for creating America’s largest performance magazine. But we got through it, and now we’re back up to a nearly full staff with the recent hirings of Associate Editor Christopher Campbell and our brand-new Detroit Editor, Bill McGuire. In the past, when it came time to select our favorite hot rods of the year, each staffer would make an individual Top 10 list, then we’d gather around the conference-room table, see what everybody picked,…

The mission’s concept was deceptively simple: Take FoMoCo.’s most powerful production V-8 ever, shoehorn it into a suitably bolstered ’06 Mustang shell, and see just how quick the thing would rocket down the quarter-mile. But wait; those track antics could take place only after the muscular mutant debuted front-and-center in Ford’s main corporate booth at the ’05 SEMA show in Las Vegas—a piece of real estate not easily attained, we assure you—meaning this particular drag project also had to display all the spit-and-polish attributes of a show car. Even if that original concept had seemed straightforward on the surface, its execution by Paul Svinicki and associates at Paul’s High Performance (PHP) was not without its challenges. First off, they not only had to talk Ford out of a brand-new ’06…

A little less than halfway to Englishtown, I switched over to Steve’s sleek, black Fairlane. As I climbed over the X’d door bars, I noted the interior had a decidedly more austere race-car feel to it than the Comet, with the shaved dash, sheetmetal transmission tunnel, and thin fabricated steering column mounted to a crossbar on the rollcage. However, the interior also felt very open because of the extreme setback of the seats on the custom floorpans. Steve’s car is a much more radical take on Pro Street, as very little of the original chassis remains—the car now rides on a tube frame he fabricated. Once out on the road, the more race-car-oriented build showed as the Fairlane suspension was much less forgiving, making all points of the uneven pavement…

Location: Alan Mest Early Automobile Restoration and Repair, Gardena, CA ALL ABOUT ENGINE COATINGS PG.94 It consumed a year of Marlan’s and Duttweiler’s lives, but our exhaustive test of engine coatings is finally done. Read and find out if all that science and chemistry is worth it on your engine. BIG POWER ON PUMP GAS PG.106 Everyone wants 1,000 hp these days, so Steve Morris builds engines with ProCharger blowers that hit the number and then some, doinxg it all on pump gas. PAINT & BODY PG.114 Once the paint and clear have cured, you’re only halfway there. Here’s what’s involved in color-sanding and buffing, steps that separate top-notch paint jobs from average ones. TEST AND TUNE PG.128 Quick Tests and new products that range from french-fry holders (really!), to…

There is a difference between street legal and actually driveable, and Steve Morris’ ’93 Caprice wagon definitely walks that line. He claims the wagon is easy to drive but admits he can’t get even close to full-throttle on public roads. Other than the engine, the Caprice is incredibly close to stock. Morris explained as we drove out to the gas station, “The radio still works, power windows still work. It is a little loud though.” That would be an understatement—the Caprice is so loud it’s hard to think. And though the giant cowl hood gives a good view of the humongous ProCharger blower sitting inches from the windshield, it blocks a sizeable portion of the view forward. The dash is still stock, as are the side doors, but everything behind…

Busy lifestyles often mean drive-through food, and when you get fries with that order, have you ever been able to resist reaching into the bag and rummaging around? Fries & Things is an interesting approach to that no-time-to-eat mentality most of us here at HRM fall victim to. It slips into any standard-size cupholder and creates a cradle specifically shaped to hold a box of french fries or other artery hardeners. We thoroughly tested ours with orders of french fries, onion rings, and chicken strips while maneuvering through Los Angeles traffic and lost not a single bite. Now if they only made one that would hold the burger, too. Price: $4.99 SOURCE FRIES & THINGS; San Diego, CA; 877/226-5687; www.coloursusa.com…