Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2008 i Hot Rod

THE MOTHER LODE Anytime we offer a list of the 100 All-Time Whatever Hot Rods, as HRM recently did, the first question people ask is invariably “Where are they now?” We can vouch for many on that list, while others are long lost or remain to be found. One we came across recently, however, is the venerable Sadd-Teague-Bentley Bonneville roadster, and we found it right in Al Teague’s shop, along with his famous streamliner, which still holds the FIA record as the world’s fastest wheel-driven vehicle (409.9 mph, 432 one way). The S-T-B car with its blown fuel Chrysler Hemi was the first highboy roadster to break the 200-mph barrier way back in 1955, and it continued setting records until it blistered a phenomenal 268-mph record in 1973. Al is…

Don Garlits has rolled out a new Swamp Rat. Actually, this car is equal parts old and new: It’s an authentic tribute to the glory days of front-motor Top Fuel racing, and it’s a showcase for the latest engine technology from Mopar Performance. If that sounds like an unusual combination, well, there you go. The crazy idea took shape when Big Daddy was in Detroit visiting the Walter P. Chrysler Museum with some of his old friends representing Mopar and Wynn’s, his longtime sponsors in drag racing. Seeing all those vintage Mopars on display must have lit a spark, because soon the Mopar and Wynn’s guys were asking their old buddy Don if he would be interested in converting a Mopar 392 New Hemi crate engine into a genuine oldtimey…

Southern California’s thickly populated San Fernando Valley seems awful lonely at 5:30 on an August Sunday morning. The streets are empty, the only place open is Circle K, and the only going industry seems to be the Los Angeles Times home delivery. But here are lanky Arizona State undergrads Brad Nielsen, 20, and Kyle Jones, 19, standing next to their white Toyota pickup in an otherwise empty strip-mall parking lot in the city of West Hills along the Valley’s northwest rim. They have just pulled a seven-hour overnight haul from Phoenix to get to that lonely spot. They had to in order to be on time to run their newly built soap box racer with the sort of famous—on the Internet at least—San Fernando Valley Illegal Soap Box Federation (S.F.V.I.S.B.F.).…

FIREBALL Randy Walls, a longtime all-Chevy Funny Car stalwart, suffered a major meltdown at the 16th annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in the first round of Nostalgia Funny Car qualifying on Sunday, October 13, 2007. Apparently Randy had a hung valve and blew out the burst panel, at the same time blowing fuel back into the fuel tank, splitting the seams and causing a huge bumper-to-bumper fire from halftrack to at least an eighth of a mile past the finish line. On speaking with Randy after the blaze, he said that he couldn’t use the brakes since they made the car go sideways and he didn’t really want to roll over. The car went through the lights at 73 mph engulfed in flames. Both the…

Readers were diggin’ on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s Detroit Speed-built Camaro that graced our Dec. ‘07 cover (except for one guy who was really R?.’d about seeing a Camaro on the cover), but we also got a few letters griping about it being just another rich guy’s paid-for toy. We can understand the sentiment, but it’s not like he’s the only one, and we know for a fact that unlike many other high-dollar, pro-built cars, Dale is actually using this one, so you gotta give the guy a little credit. Besides, the car is truly cool. For those of you who want to see more real-world cars built with the DIY ethic, check out page 36 of this issue.—ROB KINNAN BAD JR., BAD! As I was flipping through the Dec. ‘07…

SUMMIT TURNS 40 As HOT ROD magazine celebrates its 60th anniversary, we’re joined by Summit Racing: The mail-order giant turns 40 this year. Founded back in 1968 as a part-time one-man show in Stow, Ohio, Summit got into the mail-order biz in 1970 by selling Mickey Thompson ET Wheels through ads in the back of HOT ROD and Car Craft. Its first real catalog came in 1976, and by 1978 the company had four buildings in Akron, Ohio, and was off to the races. We all know how huge Summit Racing is today, and HOT ROD even uses it on many occasions to set prices in our tech stories. Summit also hasn’t been shy about sponsoring racers and events. So join us in congratulating Summit Racing on its 40th anniversary.—ROB…

Anytime we feature a professionally built car in HOT ROD, we get the inevitable letters from folks saying they love the high-zoot stuff, but they also want to see real-world cars they can afford. We hear ya, so back in the July ‘07 issue we put out the call for readers to submit their hot rods, with the stipulation that they had to be mostly built at home, not by a pro. We picked 24 categories, and the best Homebuilt Hot Rod in each category was promised a spot in the magazine and a cool prize from our sponsors, with one overall winner gracing the cover. Our suspicions were confirmed by the colossal quantity of primo rides that flooded in: Our readers build badass cars! Actually, if it weren’t for…

They came with team names like Mourning Wood, Bada Bing Motorsports, and Team Slow Rusty Turd. The vehicles ranged from big domestics to tiny, unidentifiable imports adorned with a variety of bizarre accouterments whose conceptions were no doubt the aftermath of hallucinogenic binges. The place was Flat Rock Speedway in Flat Rock, Michigan, a small, quarter-mile paved oval about a half-hour south of Detroit Metro Airport. The event was the 24 Hours of LeMons, the brainchild of automotive writer Jay Lamm and vintage-racing enthusiast Martin Swig. It’s just like the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans except for the fact that it’s in Michigan instead of France. And the cars are $500 pieces of crap instead of multimillion-dollar exotics and prototypes. And anybody who takes it seriously is in for…

When you show up at Bonneville Speed Week and set a new record on every day of the meet, all above 225 mph, it gives the illusion that you had an ace of a plan. And when those records hit the books with a driver’s name next to them, it suggests that guy is the hero. In our case, it ain’t so. We just have a bunch of friends whose efforts were rewarded with a lot of luck. See, for the past two years we’ve been planning to build a trick little 299ci Brodix small-block with Lunati guts, but magazine work has held us back. About two months before Speed Week ’07, we realized that we needed an emergency plan if we wanted to race the HOT ROD Magazine Spl.,…

LS SERIES CAMS FROM GMPP GM Performance Parts800/577-6888 (nearest dealer)www.gmperformanceparts.com In the July ’07 issue we suggested that GM Performance Parts had never released its factory performance cams for the LS-series engines, but they are in fact available and ready to wake up those beasts. Look for GMPP PNs Hot Cam 88958733, Stage 2 Cam 88958722, Stage 3 Cam 88958723 Price: $350.00 JESEL L92 SHAFT ROCKERS Jesel • 732/901-1800 • www.jesel.com GM’s L92 heads flow well enough to support high rpm, and now Jesel has rockers to keep the valvetrain rock-steady. The trunions and roller tips ride on needle bearings, the bodies are shot-peened for strength, and you can get ’em in 1.65:1 to 1.90:1 ratios. Tool steel pushrod cup adjusters are standard with ball adjusters optional. ARP hardware anchors…

BOW TIE LOYALIST Randy Johnson’s love for big American iron has never strayed across party lines—he’s always had Chevrolets. Some of the cars he has built have included a ‘70 Camaro with a 396 and more recently a ‘67 SS/RS Camaro with an LS1 and T56. Once both of these found new owners, Randy wanted a car to elevate his skill as a builder to the next level. It also wouldn’t hurt if it was big enough to haul his growing family, so Randy selected a ‘66 Chevelle to fill both those needs. When it debuts at the Detroit Autorama, it’ll have a Schwartz Extreme Performance tube chassis and a breathed-on LS7 crate motor. For the outside, Randy called on Murray Pfaff (www.pfaffdesigns.com) to whip up a few ideas. The…

We learned of this outrageousness from Rob Freyvogel, the guy with the disingenuous ’63 LeMans (“Oh, This Old Thing?” Nov. ’07). Rob had mentioned to us in passing that his main venue for racing the twin-turbo-fied Tempest was the Flashlight Drags, which operates in a fairly close radius around his western Pennsylva-nia home. We had sort of heard of the series in a vague, general way, but to tell the truth we didn’t really know a thing about it. “Well, then, you might want to get over here and have a look,” Rob said into the horn. “It’s a whole lot of fun.” Very well, then. We were on our way to check it out. The Flashlight Drags are the work of three racers: Dan Chisholm, Tom “Turk” Napierkowski, and…

Since the days of relieving flathead Fords, we’ve known about the advantage of porting. Grind those critical passages with the right touch, and airflow through the engine improves—and with more air comes more horsepower. There was a time when a set of ported heads was considered exotic, the realm of high-end race power. Back then, a set of nicely ported heads on a street machine was enough to have a leg up on the vast majority of regular Joes with their typical street brawler or Saturday night race cars. Times have changed. With the explosion in aftermarket cylinder heads and easy CNC porting, these days it seems like any serious engine build will include a set of ported heads. Does that mean the job is done? Not according to Bryce…

JACK’S BEST DAY EVER We don’t know if he’ll buy 10 copies for his mother, but we do know that Editor Rob Kinnan and Photographer Randy Lorentzen made Jack Hodson’s day when they showed up at his door in October to photograph the Glendale, Arizona, resident’s ’67 Camaro for our cover and feature. If you haven’t had your fill of Homebuilt Heros in this issue featuring our 25 finalists, be sure to check out our newsstand special issue “HOT ROD: The Best of Readers’ Rides.” Culled from more than 4,000 entries, we include all of our Homebuilt Heros winners, plus a number of our Second and Third Place choices and images of some of the best homebuilt hot rods of all time. Pick it up at your favourite newsstand on…