Indholdsfortegnelse for July 1998 i Hot Rod

O and Towny As a first-year college grunt, I rented a garage for my hot rod from a guy named Towny I got to know Towny in a way my classmates could not. Though the two of us got on OK and respected each other, this man had a deep-rooted dislike for college kids in general—as I suspect did most others who toiled in that rough, working-stiff Massachusetts neighborhood. It was the thinking of many years, accrued like scar tissue. The spoiled punks at school acted like they were superior…and the town kids liked to fight. Skirmishes were infrequent but usually messy, and most of the time it was the locals who did the bloodletting. One of the biggest wusses in the house was Bob 0, the only and severely…

Ram-Tough Elephants EFI Crate Hemi to Appear in Trucks? Since we discovered that the recently re-released 426 Chrysler Hemi was undergoing emissions certification by the California Air Research Board (CARB) (Roddin’, June ’98), we have learned more about what’s going on with Mother Mopar’s pet elephant. It seems that this engine is not destined for Chrysler’s new ponycar contender, due in 2001, as we insinuated. Sources have confirmed that the Hemi may in fact be a special limited-option package in the truck line, or perhaps a Mopar Performance drop-in offering designed with the Ram truck in mind. Clearly the package will not be cheap, but with all the racing that Chrysler trucks are doing these days (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NHRA Pro Truck), high-profile marketing tie-ins are almost certain. Usually,…

Mattel’s new Legends to Life series is simply awesome, and the first piece, the Snake Funny Car, will give you goose bumps. Press the start button and watch the fun: the body comes up, the engine rumbles as the blower belt turns, the wheels spin, the headers light up, the Christmas tree lights go down, and Snake carries the wheels through the 60-foot, while a soundtrack replete with the Lions Dragway announcer and fierce engine and tire sounds completes the fantasy. All that’s missing is smoke for the burnout. We were so busy showing it to everyone here in the office that we didn’t get any work done for two days! Ours came from Adkins Collectibles, Dept. HR07, 422 E. Oak St., Oak Creek, WI 53154, 414/570-0983.…

This Month July 4-5. Early July brings you more Project Pony. Co-hosts Joe Elmore and Chuck Hanson will install new pulleys and a chip on their 5.0L Mustang LX project car before testing it on the HOT ROD shop Dynojet. Switching to hot rods of the ’90s, they’ll begin a buildup of the popular late-model Chevy Impala SS. The first step will be to install a new ignition system and underdrive pulley set. The show will also visit a powder-coating and chrome-plating facility, where work is under way on the HOT ROD TV ’32 highboy. The street car will be assembled later in the HOT ROD shop. July 11-12. Project SS, the ’67 Camaro, gets a new disc-brake system. And be sure to catch the how-to feature on bracket racing…

Virtual Drag Racing Is Here! Maybe you’re old enough to remember dropping a nickel or dime into the slot, wrestling the steering wheel, and flat-footing the accelerator as you and your opponent watched 1/25th scale models lurch their way over the simulated dragstrip. Advanced versions even had stick shifts you could row, just like Bill Jenkins. Now this stuff is little more than a nostalgic twitch, and it can’t begin to measure up to Bethesda Softworks’ new drag racing computer game. “Burnout: Championship Drag Racing,” affectionately known as Burnout or Burn by regular players, was developed by Bethesda with input from HOT ROD. We can say without reservation that Burnout is the most realistic drag racing computer game yet devised. All you need is a pentium-equipped PC and some free…

If you participate in a HOT ROD Magazine Power Festival at any level and fill out a registration form, please write legibly. There’s nothing more dissatisfying than winning a race or a show trophy, telling all your friends you’re gonna be in HOT ROD, and seeing your name misspelled. Fill out any entry or registration forms slowly and clearly. Help us help you. Thanks. NMCA COMP CAMS STREET CAR DRAG RACING SPONSORED BY CO-SPONSORED BY CONTINGENCY SPONSORS AMALIE OIL, AUTO METER, BFGOODRICH TIRES, BILL TAYLOR RACING, BORLA EXHAUST, CHASSIS ENGINEERING, COMP CAMS, CSI, CRANE CAMS, DYNOMAX, EDELBROCK, FEL PRO/TCI, FLOWMASTER, FORD/SVO, GOODYEAR, HEDMAN HUSTLER HEDDERS, HOLLEY, HOOKER HEADERS, HOOSIER RACING TIRES, HUGHES PERFORMANCE, ISKENDERIAN, K&N, LUNATI CAMS, MICKEY THOMPSON TIRES, MOROSO PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS, MOSER ENGINEERING, MR, GASKET CO. PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS,…

Airflow tends to seek the shortest distance between two points. If you visualize airflow as a fluid, it’s easier to understand the changes in energy it undergoes as a function of velocity. We will use these statements as the basis for our examination of the characteristics of street and race engine intake manifolds. The Premise The intake manifold distributes air or air/fuel mixtures to the individual cylinders under varying engine speeds, loads, and environmental conditions. Whether the working flow is pure air, air/fuel, or air/fuel and other substances—such as nitrous oxide—the intake manifold plays host to a dynamic system of energy fraught with complexity and compromise. Ideally, an intake manifold should accommodate an engine as if each cylinder were an engine unto itself, because the goal is to maximize power…

As clothes make the individual, so wheels and tires make the car. Nothing says more about your car, your style of driving, and, ultimately, you than your rims and rubber. A smokin’ wheel and tire combo can make even the sloppiest Bondo job sparkle, give the most timid ride an aggressive demeanor, and make a really evil devil of a mover that much more eye-popping—not to mention the myriad benefits that performance rubber delivers when you’re in motion. You want something stylin’ and profilin’? Dig a set of big-inch rims and low-profile gumballs. You want a look that screams “strip ready”? Big ’n’ littles are the key. Vintage cool? White letters or wide whites and a variety of classic wheels are readily available. And funky, personalized combinations, limited only by…

High, Low, Squeeze, Pop! Q I have restored a ’64 383 “pushbutton” Plymouth as a musclecar of the era. However, the engine has too much compression for modern gas. I don’t like to run race gas, and I don’t like to take all the timing out of the engine because that hurts not only performance but mileage, too. What would you suggest? Tony MongelliDetroit, MI A Let’s get this straight. You don’t want to run race gas, are reluctant to change the timing, think the compression ratio is too high, and want both performance and mileage? Are you also running a fever? Fever or not, consider the following: You can boil the issue down to excessive cylinder pressure, especially at wide-open throttle. Combustion chambers designed in the ’60s can’t accommodate…

How many times have you let unbridled enthusiasm get in the way of common sense, dismissing concern with a quick “Oh, it’ll be OK”? If you think there is a problem, there probably is. Recently, just such a situation arose with the driveshaft in a street-driven Hemi Dart. As we were installing the new rear universal joint, we noticed that three of the four retaining clips were of the same thickness, while the fourth was nearly twice as thick. Despite misgivings, we installed all four, figuring that the mismatched clip wouldn’t have any significant effect. In the following weeks, we drove the car on the street without incident. But when we took it to the dragstrip, the transmission tailshaft housing mysteriously fractured at 120 mph. Hmmm, we thought, could it…

Mee-Yow Michael Kingery of Rye, New York, sent pics of his pretty kitty: this triple-black ’69 Cougar ragtop. It’s an original 351W/four-speed car from Oklahoma that he has beefed up with Edelbrock heads and intake, a rumpity cam, roller rockers, Hooker headers, a 2½-inch exhaust, a Hurst shifter, traction bars, and a Nitrous Works 125-horse dose of laughing gas. We’d be laughing, too, if we had a turn behind the wheel. Really Sharp This sweet ’68 Rally Sport Camaro belongs to Jack Lee of Livonia, Michigan. In addition to such accoutrements as air conditioning and power steering, brakes, and top, Lee has seen fit to plunk a 385 stroker motor between the fender-wells. It’s backed by a 700-R4 overdrive tranny. BFGoodrich rubber on Chevy rally rims completes a package that…

The Demonics The Demonics Man’s Ruin Records Image isn’t everything. Sooner or later you have to match the swagger with substance—just ask Fiat, Brian Bosworth, or Milli Vanilli. So we approach this Demonics vinyl 45 with caution. Sure, it has a Day-Glo monster, smokin’ flames, and a checkered flag. Sure, it’s pressed on translucent yellow vinyl with the record label’s evil feline logo painted on the A-side and a picture of Old Scratch himself on the flip. There’s no question the packaging is grand, but what about the music? Fear not, because Pacifica, California’s Demonics do roar. All three tunes here trip the line with blazing rockabilly guitars, double-speed two/four beats, and singer/guitarist/gearhead Russell Wright’s obsession with fast—both cars and women. The title track is an oddly upbeat homage…

We said write to us, and you didn’t disappoint! We have been deluged with photos and letters about your cars since our March plea. Many thanks to you all. Meanwhile, we find ourselves in one of those weird publishing nether-regions—this story was written before Power Tour but won’t come out until a month after it’s all over! Watch for full coverage of the event in our September issue. Meanwhile, look at what you missed if you stayed home: Scott McIntyre, from Thousand Oaks, California, swears he gets 15 mpg from his 469-powered, 3.90-geared ’72 Skylark. Did he manage to do better across the Kansas flatlands, or did work commitments force him to turn around in Denver? Stay tuned. Wally Nabozny of Livermore, California, grew up in Detroit, so going the…

Until the first HOT ROD Magazine World’s Fastest Street Cars drag racing event at Moroso Motorsports Park, no one in the Pro Street racing mainstream knew of Bob Rieger (San Jose, California) or his car, and with good reason: neither had ever been in a real drag race. But in his first race in a professional class, Rieger set both ends of the Pro Street record (7.134/195.01 mph), put a holeshot on the defending world champion, and went all the way to the final round before he lost to another world champion. Before racing, Rieger was involved in computer science—he created Netcom, one of the first Internet access companies. After the company went public, Rieger sold his shares and began to enjoy life. Until a year ago, he had only…

What wheels will look good on your car? Let’s face it—not all of them will. Most wheel and tire guides will throw in a bunch of press release photos and some glowing copy about quality, durability, style, and more. Big words, big hyperbole. Big deal. If they don’t look like they belong on your ride, who cares? We, in conjunction with Summit Racing Equipment (which will be selling wheel and tire combos like these about the time you read this), are doing something a little different in our wheel and tire guide: We’re going to shut up and let the pictures do the talking. Read on. THANKS! Thanks to Bob Lorius of North Canton, Ohio, for the use of his ’57 Chevy; Doug Mosley of Akron, Ohio, for his ’33…

Loyal HOT ROD readers will remember Dave Rentsman and his bad-to-the-blown ’41 Willys. The sight of his red gasser-like road warrior thundering next to Jack Chisenhall’s 220-mph ’53 Studebaker during Power Tour 1996 was what it’s all about. Rentsman and his Willys parted company soon after its last 11-second pass down Norwalk’s (Ohio) quarter, and he took the following year off. But Rentsman was hooked, and it didn’t take a line of sweet talk to reel him into another Power Tour project. “Edelbrock’s Jim Losee and HOT ROD’s Ro McGonegal were the ones who really got me started,” he recalls. This time, though, Rentsman took a whimsical approach to building and driving a “readier.” That Pure Funn is a nostalgic, street-legal, ’32 Bantam-bodied, double-A altered is understandable. Roadsters are the…

This letter is in response to Michael Peters’ letter in the April 1998 HOT ROD. I am lucky enough to live a few miles from Troy’s shop, and I was able to watch Sniper go from a pile of tubing, a wrecked Viper, and a ’54 Savoy shell to the supercar that it is today. I asked Troy the same question Michael asks and was told that building wood bucks to form a body can easily run $50,000. And, as most professional builders are paid by the hour no matter what kind of work they’re doing, it’s in the best interest of their clients to start out with the best donor vehicle they can find. That’s a piece of advice we can all use for our next project. Besides, anyone…

The History Channel has been airing its uniformly excellent Automobiles series for a couple of years now, and the holiday marathons F have become a tradition well worth avoiding your family for. Now, put on your four-point harness and get ready for The Dream Machines, airing June 15-19 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT. While the series will give dream cars, sports cars, Italian cars, and Harleys their own shows, HOT ROD fans will want to tune in on Wednesday, June 17, for the history of hot rods and hot rodding. What? You don’t get the History Channel? Then call your cable company and get on its case.…

Hot Rods by Boyd Edited by Tony Thacker Thaxton Press Henry Ford may have been America’s first hot rodder, but Boyd Coddington legitimized this uniquely American hobby by creating a smooth, simple, and symmetrical look with the help of premiere automotive designers, stylists, and craftsmen. Using 180 four-color photographs—many of them heretofore unpublished—by Bo Bertilsson, Pat Brollier, Jim Brown, Bob D’Olivo, Eric Geisert, Dave Fetherston, Rob Fortier, Scott Killeen, Randy Lorentzen, Steve West, and Scott Williamson (and some of your ol’ dad’s stuff), Tony Thacker has captured the essence of Coddington with Hot Rods by Boyd, a 128-page book illustrating how he and his cohorts transformed ancient Detroit iron into works of art ($29.95). Thacker has made defining the term “hot rod” easy. All you have to do is…

HOT ROD Magazine Power Festival Stars Fall on Alabama On March 28 and 29, a packed house at Huntsville Dragway in Huntsville, Alabama, devoured the HOT ROD Magazine Power Festival featuring the World’s Fastest Street Cars Drag Racing Series, a car show sponsored by the North Alabama Late Model Mustang Club, and a pro and super pro bracket racing program. Did we kick booty? Listen to dragway owner George Howard: “We had 21,590 people and 832 race and show cars here this weekend, and from the looks of things, this may be the largest turnout we’ve ever had for any event. Even John Force didn’t top the number when he stopped by last year to put on a match race.” The Fastest Pages in HOT ROD Magazine. Huntsville is the…

Hot Tips Stainless Specialties Exhaust Tips You pay attention to the details. So check out the Wide Oval exhaust tip for that extra bit of finesse. The tips are constructed from 304 stainless steel and measure 2¾x6½ inches. Available with either single or dual inlets, the Wide Oval is a perfect fit beneath the center section of that independent rear suspension. Information: Stainless Specialties, Dept. HR07, P.O. Box 781035, Sebastian, FL 32978, 561/589-4190. Burnin’ Rubber Hoosier Drag Tires So you want to really hug the strip. Well, pick up Hoosier Racing Tire’s ultimate DOT drag tire, the Quick Time Pro. They are available in tread widths of 8 to 17 inches and diameters of 14 to 16 inches to ensure a custom fit. A two-ply “wrinkle wall” construction and aggressive…