Indholdsfortegnelse for March 1998 i Hot Rod

Mules Few things are more frustrating than a project car. While it may seem like a pretty cool deal to the uninformed, it represents months (sometimes years) of angst. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Well, you could be halfway through the process and get T-boned in an intersection, total the car, and snuff the project on the spot. The people who gave us the goodies would be miffed, we’d be out the car, and at the very most, you would only get half the story. But the cardinal rule of project cars is this: The first installment must not appear in print until the project is complete. Of course, humans are involved here, so this tenet is regularly violated with reckless abandon. Suppose we begin the editorial coverage…

You’ve seen it on the cover of HOT ROD, or you may have seen it at the Petersen booth at SEMA last November. Now, one of the most talked-about show’ cars of the season is going on tour around the Championship Auto Shows circuit! Our Brizio-built 50th Anniversary HOT ROD ’27 Track T will be coming to your hometown soon! Inspect the pearl-escent white paint glowing in the warm afternoon sun, smell the oxblood leather interior, the big-’n’-little BFGoodrich rubber on steelies, the pie pans and trim rings, and the deep-breathing Ford EFI engine for yourself! Breathe in the celebratory aura of HOT ROD’S 50 years of publishing, and the sight and feel of a sweet, fun, solid little rod. Drink in the excitement! A full schedule of Championship Auto…

The Finals—in More Ways than One Atlanta Dragway Commerce, Georgia (October 4-5,1997) DRAG RACING Series It is ironic that the final event in our eight-race schedule for 1997 was also our last race at an eighth-mile venue. As most of you know, the HOT ROD Magazine World’s Fastest Street Car drag racing series (WFSC) reverts to the more conventional quarter-mile in 1998 (the exception being the eighth-mile event in Huntsville, Alabama, March 28-29). What’s more, we’ve scheduled 10 races in the series. For the full scoop, see “(R)Evolution on the Quarter-Mile” on page 144 of this issue. ROUND 8 OK. let’s tune into the action at WFSC Finals at the Atlanta Dragway in beautiful Commerce, Georgia. Although everyone knew the weekend cash purses amounted to $20,400, the$101,100 total HOT ROD/Mr.…

If you ponder it, a high-performance car is much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a monument to brand loyalty. Back in the ’60s, each musclecar had a specific and instantly recognizable identity, and die-cast metal emblems were essential ingredients in establishing it. Around 1968, Detroit stylists began using adhesive-backed vinyl appliques, and factory-performance cars soon sprouted dozens of amazing and unforgettable designs. Fast forward about 30 years. Today, musclecars are as popular as ever, but enthusiasts are taking power and performance levels way beyond what product planners might have envisioned. Even though we may have replaced the original 396 with a fresh 502, we still want to maintain the correct factory vibes, and that includes critical external identification. Thanks to Modern Image Signworks (MIS), we can put…

An oxymoron is a contradiction of terms, like hot ice, jumbo shrimp, or streetable rods on “stretchers”—a Li? John Buttera term for trailers. Some rodders operate with a show-car mentality: To them it’s more important to win a pro’s pick or “top whatever,” so they haul their concours-clean iron to rod runs without risking the wrath of the highway. I propose a solution to end the oxymoron. Why not hot rod vintage trucks for highway hauling? My initial thought was to tailor ramp rods to what they will be toting. Think theme. If the cargo is a T-bodied something, a “C-cab” or “phone-booth” body would pick up the model-T theme. Other themes could follow a particular model, year, body style, color, or original manufacturer. For starters: If your ride happens…

Anxious to take street car drag racing to the next level, Petersen Publishing recently purchased the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA). In doing so, we’ve created an even better situation for spectators, racers, and sponsors. For several years, the NMCA and HOT ROD have collaborated to increase the popularity of street-legal, late-model, door-slammer drag racing. At times, the two sanctioning bodies bumped heads, and before long, it became obvious that if we all worked together, we’d really get this thing off the ground. Thus, the merger. There have been several exciting changes as a direct result of this marriage. Quarter-Mile Drags! Since its inception, the HOT ROD World’s Fastest Street Car drag racing series (WFSC) has been an eighth-mile venue to help curb breakage and promote safety. On the other…

In the January 1998 issue we presented an article entitled, “Basic Tech Series: Engine Block.” Contained therein was a section called “Align-Bore Blues.” Our treatment of align-boring as a potential villain was a bit misleading. We inadvertently gave the process a bad rap by indicating that it moves the crank closer to the cam, thereby causing slack in the timing chain. This is not always the case. Let’s take a closer look at the difference between align-boring and align-honing. These procedures are intended to correct misalignment of the main bearing saddles in the block. Due to factory production tolerances, misalignments of as much as .003 inch are not uncommon. To correct the problem, several thousandths of an inch of material are removed from the mating face of each main-bearing cap.…

Pounding Pavement As a long-time ’57 Chevy lover, I feel compelled to comment on your December cover. Pavement Pounder is what I would have built in my youth if I had the means. It has style, something Pro Street cars usually lack. The pictures give us almost everything—the look, the stance, the attitude. All that’s missing is the sound. If anyone does a “.wav” file of this bad boy starting up, let me know. I want to install it on my computer to activate when I open an application. That’ll wake up the office! Karl D. StellFriendswood, TX 32 Valves, No Comparison Wait a minute. Rob Kinnan writes in “Multivalves for the Masses” that “we wouldn’t be surprised to see a few racers pick up the flow potential and exploit…

There is a stereotype about race car drivers that never seems to go away. It has to do with being “over the hill,” and therefore too old to be competitive. We’ll tell you that’s a bunch of horse mucky. Talk to Eddie Hill, Ronnie Sox, or Jimmy Jackson. Just ’cause a guy is over 50 doesn’t mean he can’t make a lap with any less ability than he could at 20. Besides, Jackson’s got a Tree wired up in his garage and he practices regularly. At 58, Gallatin, Tennessee, native Jimmy Jackson is the senior competitor in the HOT ROD WFSC series. His dossier reads like this: No. 1 qualifier at Rockingham and Bowling Green; No. 2 qualifier at Michigan, West Palm Beach, and Norwalk; No. 3 qualifier at St.…

Four hundred years ago, Pizarro called Incan tattooing “savagery”—and the attitude still persists among certain of the squeamish and authoritarian today. Unfamiliar’ Unconventional? Bad. But times are a-changin’. Now that taboo is a heavily marketed commodity, voices at the other end of the cultural spectrum are murmuring that social acceptance has atrophied skin art s rebellion muscle. Vilified and outcast one generation, trendy and mainstream the next—it’s a dynamic hot rodders themselves are familiar with. So where does that leave the real rodders and tattoo hounds—and the guys who’ve combined both? They couldn’t care less. It’s just a bold and sometimes beautiful proclamation of love for hot cars, cool aesthetics, and doing whatever you want. Regardless of what the sociologists are muttering.…

We started out with such good intentions: Get a new Mustang, a GT with the 4.6 SOHC engine, and turn it into a real go-getter. Not so tough, right? Yeah. That’s what we thought a year and a half ago. And now? We wonder. The 4.6 modular motor has proven a tough nut to crack in terms of wringing the necessary performance out of it. We weren’t looking to turn it into a Pro Street acceleratomonster, but for something to perk it up. Then there’s the OBD-11 imp lurking around every corner. And this is an entirely new engine, so parts don’t just show up at the speed shop overnight. They have to be developed, and this takes time—more so, thanks to stricter electronic parameters and space limitations. Most cars…

Speed is great—wind in your hair, the roar of the engine filling your ears, the pungent scent of fuel and exhaust cramming your sinuses. Ever give much thought to your brakes? For everyday driving, your braking system is as important as all the horsepower under your hood. For high-performance driving, when speeds are higher, good brakes are even more critical. Ettore Bugatti once remarked that he built his cars to go, not to stop. Now look at him. He’s dead. That’ll teach him. Raybestos The Raybestos Brutestop line of disc-brake pads gives performance-minded customers superior braking power under all conditions. They dramatically reduce fade, and recover up to twice as fast as standard pads. Brutestop’s integrally molded construction is 400 percent stronger than riveted pads for all performance production cars…

East Coast ‘Stangbangers are convinced that no one in California cares about 5.0 Mustangs. Convinced that everyone here is down with hottie Hondas. Convinced that Cali-based Mustang owners are more interested in waxing a carrot than waxing the competition. Oh yeah? David Schapiro of Tarzana, California, and his daily-driven ’93 LX AOD Mustang prove them all wrong. A 73mm C&L. mass-air meter, and a 70mm BBK throttle body feed a GT-40 intake while a 190-gallon-per-hour Motorsport fuel pump and a Crane regulator feed 24-pound injectors. Ported and polished cast-iron GT40 heads with 1.72:1 rockers, Manley valves, a custom Motorsport bump-stick, and Hooker shorty headers help wring out a reliable 368 hp, and 400 lb-ft of torque. The bottom end is stock. The powerplant was built by David’s brother, Brian, and…

If you keep track of all things automotive, then you know about the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and the annual Las Vegas convention, where its entire automotive aftermarket industry does its version of show and tell. The SEMA gig isn’t only a place where ideas are showcased—it’s also a place where ideas are born. Each new product triggers a hundred imaginations to think of a thousand applications, and each hot car spawns ideas that other builders integrate into their own work with a personalized twist. And when two heads get together and go off in the same direction, anything is possible. Such was the case when our editor got together and met with Jeff Moses of Auto Custom Carpets (ACC) at SEMA in November 1996. Moses wanted to build…

Potent Ponchos Hail to the Chieftain Doug Myers of Nipomo, California, sent us some shots of his sweet ’57 Chieftain. It’s packing a rebuilt 347 with a four-speed, dual exhaust, and a lowered suspension that puts the body closer to the 70-series BFGoodrich rubber and Progressive rims. Paint is a 300ZX pewter-gray. Doug says it’s a daily driver. The Forgotten Grand Am? Few ’78-’80 Pontiac Grand Ams rolled down the line, but here’s one of the heppest we’ve seen. Larry Weaver of Arlington, Texas, rebuilt his ’79 over the years, dropping in a 350 Chevy with a Holley 650 on an Edelbrock intake, ported 1.94 intake heads, Black-Jack headers, a Melting street cam, an M22 four-speed, and more for motivation. Visuals include a custom “GTO”-style hood, 15x8 American SS wheels,…

There is only one 50th-Anniversary HOT ROD ’27 T. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to win your own go-cart replica! FunKarts’ version features a steel chassis, a plastic body, and a 3.5hp Briggs & Stratton engine. The cart is second prize in our 50th-Anniversary sweepstakes. Look elsewhere in this issue to find out how to win. If you’re not feeling lucky but you just need one of these for your kid or your own collection, contact: FunKarts, Dept. HR03, 1530 W. 10th Pl., Tempe, AZ 85281, 800/336 3378.…

You’ve seen the HOT ROD 1/64-scale cars; are you ready for the next level? Check out 1/24 die-cast HOT ROD series cars! Limited to just 4,997 pieces per style for collectability, our feature car is a ’40 Ford with a wild flames-on-black paint scheme. The body is die-cast metal, and the hood opens to reveal a dual four-barrel bigblock Chevy mill. The twin exhaust and American wheels are chrome, the tires are rubber big-’n’-littles, and the look is just plain boss. We’ve also seen ’66 Novas and bubbletop Chevys—yummy stuff.…

Tradition is a wonderful thing, and there’s certainly a lot of that around here. As we head into our Golden Anniversary year at HOT ROD, it’s appropriate that the magazine’s logo once again flanks the sides (and hood!) of what we’d consider the ultimate hot rod: a 5,000hp Funny Car. During our formative years, we had a visual presence on a number of quality race cars, but none of them, even on their finest day, could have hoped to record the 4-second e.t,’s and 300-mph-plus speeds that we’ll be seeing from the Interstate Batteries/HOT ROD Pontiac Firebird this year. After a trying 1997 Funny Car season during which pigskin premier Joe Gibbs (a two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach for the Washington Redskins and recent inductee into the Pro Football Hall…

What is art? Is it something to cover up those bare-naked walls of your home? Does it establish a mood through color and line to make you feel at ease, amused, contemplative? Is it an investment, purchased merely for coldly calculating reasons of increasing one’s bankroll? Is it political comment of the times brought to life and public consideration on a canvas or in a sculpture? Is it merely in the eye of the beholder? Well, then. Behold. Automotive paintings and prints are often a reflection of memories (real or imagined) al ready lurking in a dark, seedy corner of the viewer’s mind that has been left unvisited for too long, restoring scenes that have become idealized by time and years of telling and not telling. With their available choices…

Editor’s Note: Our November ’97 issue featured what we called “maximum power street cars.” Among the selectees was Frank Currie’s ersatz ’32 highboy. Its mission? To be the first hot rod in history driven to the Bonneville Salt Flats, timed in excess of 200 mph, and then piloted home under its own power. And that’s where we start, Frank Currie behind the wheel of his one-off, facsimile Ford with 950-plus horsies under its hood vectoring northeast to Wendover, Utah, more than 700 miles away. It was four o’clock Wednesday afternoon—motorhome loaded, rental car in the trailer—and Frank was ready to do his thing. He was driving the hot rod and his crew—son John, Hank Adams, and grandson Brandon—were in the motorhome. When Frank stopped at the local gas station to…

This could be the last Pro Street Camaro you see in HOT ROD. Between a “been-there, done-that” feeling and letters we receive daily that plead, “No morel”, we’re getting the point. So, you ask, why pay attention to this one? Not just because Ken Faust of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, has won the ’97 Street Machine Nationals Grand Championship, though that’s impressive. No, it’s the detailing that makes Ken’s Camaro stand apart. Though sweet details abound on this car, the one that most intrigued us is the ’69 Corvette independent-rear-axle assembly sparkling beneath it. While most folks would be satisfied with a four-link with coilovers under a 2x3 tube chassis (like this car also has), Ken wanted more. It’s a subtle touch. We like that. A Heidt SupeRide front end features tubular…

“Warrants” Further Study Q I recently took my ’97 Camaro back to the dealer for a down-shifting problem. When the service manager saw that I’d installed aftermarket headers, he refused to fix the transmission under warranty. I’m not writing HRM a long letter about this because I’m not sure if it belongs in “Pit Stop” or not. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I thought products that were certified didn’t void warranties. (name withheld by request) A Discussion with legal sources for the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) reveals that certain information is available from the association dealing directly with problems such as yours. Essentially, the dealer should not void your warranty from the installation of an emissions-certified product. You can contact the SEMA Technical Department at P.O. Box 4910, Diamond…