Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2007 i Hot Rod

THE NEW FACE OF OLD I just realized that I'm old. It's not because I'll be 40 in a few months or because I'm decrepit, half deaf, fat, and balding—though all those things are true—but because I just bought a '71 Duster 340. Having covered plenty of street-rod and '50s car shows in my day, I've always rolled my eyes after asking guys why they built their cars and then hearing the hackneyed answers: “I'm just lost in the '50s” or “It's a re-creation of the car I had in high school.” Get a life, man. Move on. But now it's me who's stuck in the past, with the Duster reminding me of half a dozen just like it that I owned or worked on in the '80s. I've become…

You're holding the Apr. '07 issue of HOT ROD, but we're putting this issue together around Christmas 2006, at which point the February issue has most recently hit mailboxes and newsstands. We knew that issue had some good, thought-provoking stories in it, and you readers confirmed our feelings by writing in droves on a number of topics. That's good, since that's what Bench Racing is all about. This is your space to send in your thoughts on the magazine or the world of hot rodding in general. It's also the best way to get your car in the magazine, with the Readers' Rides that are included here. Send your letters and photos to the addresses above (make sure the photos, if digital, are high-res), and we'll read every one of…

There isn't a GM partin the entire drwetrain. I like the perversity of that.” —Jeff Mann Big trouble starts with small things. In Die Hard, it's just New York cop John McClane deciding to visit his estranged wife and family in Los Angeles over Christmas. In Romeo and Juliet, it's an ancient grudge between the Montagues and Capulets so trivial Shakespeare doesn't even tell us what it is. And for Jeff Mann, trouble started when he bought his '57 Chevy—or when he decided it would be cool to own a Hemi. Well, if it wasn't trouble when he decided to buy the engine or when he bought the car, it surely came the moment he decided to combine the two. Today, Jeff is a successful motion-picture production designer; he's the…

I've never designed opportunities for myself at GM. I never actively went after my next job. They just I sort of happened for me,” John Heinricy says. Now there's a remarkable statement. From a car guy's point of view, John may very well have the best job in the world, and he didn't even plan it that way. John's official title is director of high-performance vehicle operations, General Motors Performance Division. In plain English, that means that among other duties, he is responsible for all the performance versions of GM vehicles, from the Cobalt SS to the Cadillac CTS-V to the Corvette Z06. And he works with them from start to finish: planning, development, testing, and execution. He not only gets to drive these cars before anyone else, but he…

A year ago, when we dropped an LS7 into the HOT ROD Solstice, that crate engine was relatively new, and there weren't very many in the hungry hands of the public. But in the time since, GM Performance Parts has sold a bunch of the LS7 crate engines—pretty impressive considering the fairly high street price that hovers around $13,000 (though the list price is $17,000). But the engine (PN 17802397 at your local GMPP dealer) is worth it. The LS7's parts list reads like a high-end endurance racing engine, with titanium rods and intake valves, CNC-ported heads, offset rockers, and a drysump oiling system. With 427 ci and 505 hp out of the box, this is one heck of a package. And as you may have seen in our exclusive…

RESOLUTIONS I had an awakening last night after a journey into seldom-explored territory in my head, and it led me to what I hope are some life-changing decisions. The first, and most appropriate for this magazine, is that I need to stop the excuses and start working on my Camaro. I just moved, so you can imagine the clutter that is now my garage. Nothing's unpacked out there, so all you see is a bunch of boxes and tools surrounding my gray-primer Camaro. That's the car I tore apart more than a decade ago and haven't done jack to since, for which I get loads of crap from pretty much everyone, including my own family. This job means it would be easy to make it a project car and therefore…

1966 ANNIVERSARY OFTHE318 There's a lot of hoopla in 2007 about the 75th anniversary of the '32 Ford, the 50th of the '57 Chevy, and the 40th of the Camaro. But there's another little centenary not to overlook: the 40th anniversary of the Mopar 318ci LA engine first used in '67-model cars. Or was it? We've actually seen factory documentation claiming the 318 was production ready for '66 models so it could be used in SCCA Trans-Am racing for '66. Some of those papers can be seen at www.teamstarfish.com, the site of Mike Ritz, who races a car that pays tribute to Mopar's '66 Trans-Am season. One of the drivers of those cars was Richard Petty, another was Scott Harvey. Harvey was a Chrysler engineer who rally-raced under the corporate…

One of our favorite stories of all time: Gray Baskerville gets invited to the Grand National Roadster Show with his ubiquitous Deuce roadster, then when he gets there, they won't let the car inside because he drove it there in the rain, didn't clean it up, and the fender had a primer patch. Same deal at the L.A. Roadsters Father's Day Show—they told him, “No unfinished cars inside.” Ol'Dad was gloriously indignant, employed a middle finger to break the news that the car had been finished for 40 years, and later used the word “jagoffs” a lot when he retold the story. "I wanted a traditional-styled hot rod that I could drive every day without fear."—Todd Varble Now the GNRS has trophy categories for Suede Customs and Rat Rods. The…

It's ludicrous, we know. After buying an $800, clapped-out Camaro, we treated it to the most extensive body massage we've done to a project car in recent years just to paint it satin Army green. It just worked out like that. But along the way, we documented everything to show you exactly how to prep your car for even the highest-gloss finish, because, as Scott Carpenter said, “This thing is so straight, we could have just painted it black.” And it probably would have been easier. Carpenter is the next character you'll meet in the long lineup of guys who made HOT ROD's Project F-Bomb happen. The story began in the Sept. '06 issue with Tom Nelson, the relentless power guy at Nelson Racing Engines who served up 1,500 hp…

V-FORCE EFI Wilson Manifolds 954/771-6216 www.wilsonmanifolds.com Wilson's V-Force is an all-inclusive fuel-injection system featuring eight injectors, which are available from 30-160 lb/hr. With a flow capability of 1,130 cfm, Wilson says the V-Force will work on pretty much any intake manifold with a standard 4150-style carburetor flange. Installation is as simple as bolting on the V-Force body and adding a coolant-temperature sensor, a throttle-position sensor, and an O2 sensor (all available from Wilson), and hooking up an ECU. Thanks to the unique eight-injector design, the V-Force throttle body is compatible with most popular aftermarket ECUs so you can use the EFI controller of your choice. Price: $698.00 without injectors BOLT-ON PADDLE SHIFTERS RetroTek Speed 951/737-2006 www.retrotekspeed.com Even if you're hard-core old-school, it's hard not to appreciate the coolness of switching…

PUSHRODS RULE THE WORLD In Cologne, Germany, a worldwide panel of experts has selected the Corvette LS2.R as its Global Motorsport Engine of the Year. The award, sponsored by Race Engine Technology magazine in Great Britain, was presented at the Professional Motorsport World Expo in November 2006, after votes were taken from 50 top engine designers from the USA, Europe, and Japan. “It is doubtful if ever have so many experts voted for a competition award,” Editor Ian Bamsey said. Not to mention, they cast their votes for a good-old American pushrod V-8 in a field dominated by four-valve DOHC engines. The LS2.R engine, which is based on the same architecture as the LS7 offered in the current Corvette Z06, powered the Corvette C6.R that won its category at Le…

These days, the automakers work hard on their street cred. They spend lots of time and money persuading consumers that the people who design and build their products are real car guys with a passion for performance. But at the Chrysler Corp. in 1958,no posturing was necessary. Over in engineering, the company had an entire crew of speed happy maniacs it couldn't beat back with a stick. These young gearheads were graduates of the Chrysler Institute's class of 1957, its largest ever, and naturally, they were crazy about drag racing. Every day at lunch—in the Highland Park engineering cafeteria, at a long table near the windows—they gathered to bench race and trade ideas. Some of the guys had hot street cars they raced on Woodward Avenue and at the strip.…

"I love the car too much to only use it in rallies. I drove it yesterday with my son, and after 20 minutes, we both had a thumping headache.” —Eric Bana There are plenty of wealthy celebrities in the world paying top dollar to have hopped-up musclecars and hot rods built for them, filling garages and warehouses with their automotive jewelry. However, the sad fact is that often the cars are either hardly driven or sold soon after the build process. Sure, there are some exceptions to that statement, given the likes of the inimitable Jay Leno or ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons to name two. But often celebrity car modification amounts to little more than a tiresome exercise in fashion accessorizing. The same cannot be said for Australian actor Eric…

With apologies to Robert Duvall, I love the sweet smell of high-octane fuel in the morning … it's the smell of victory. I love the sound of piston slap in the morning. it's the sound of power. And I love seeing lots of tire smoke in the morning (or any other time) … it's the visual manifestation of performance. If you agree, you've come to the right place. This is Pit Stop, where we're all about power and performance—and how to get more of it. If you have a tech question, drop me a line. When e-mailing, don't forget to include “Pit Stop” in the subject line, as well as your real full name and hometown or military unit, base, or ship in the message. I'd also like to see…

2,000 HP It's not often that our cover cars are not also featured in the issue, and honestly, we felt a little guilty about this month. So, for our farewell page, here's a closer look at the engine of the '63 Pontiac LeMans that caught a sliver of this issue's cover. The paint was done by Scott Carpenter, who was featured in this month's paint and body story, and the engine is by Tom Nelson. It's a 522ci big-block Chevy with twin 76mm turbos and Brodix Big Duke heads. Other goodies include a Dart block, a Cola crank, Oliver rods, JE pistons, a Hogan sheetmetal intake, and Electromotive EFI. The result? A meager 1,250 hp on 91-octane pump gas at 11 psi boost, and 2,000 hp on 116 with 32…