Indholdsfortegnelse for April 1999 i Hot Rod

Hey! It’s just me down here in the alley bangin’ on a trash can with a two-by-four. Gosh knows there are some of you who’ve been very diligent about telling us where and when we’ve strayed from the path of righteousness. Believe me, your reactions remain with me long after I read the thoughtful, objective, well-written responses to what we paste in these pages, and it’s high time you got some satisfaction. The mail reveals several constants: An inordinate amount of editorial devoted to GM products. Chevrolets head the list, of course, and ’67-’69 Camaros and the tri-five branch of the family tree are under particular scrutiny. Tobacco ads infuriate some of you, either for health reasons or on the grounds of morality. No big deal. We’ll simply lobby the…

First Drive: ’99 Mustang Cobra SVT The big question we keep hearing about Ford’s ’99 Cobra revolves around the car’s new independent rear-suspension setup: Does it work? Is it any good? After about four hours of seat time, up the mountainous switchbacks of Angeles Crest Highway and around the tricky turns of Willow Springs Raceway, we say hell yes. While we weren’t looking, Ford sent the SN-95 to finishing school, and it’s now as polished as a prince at a procession. The IRS transforms the Mustang from ponycar to a genuine grownup GT. The Lincoln Mark VUI-based independent 8.8-inch rear is equipped with Traction-Lok and 3.27:1 gears; indpendent rear no doubt helped that deceased barge (and its platform siblings the the ’89-’97 T-bird and Cougar) handle and ride better, but…

Johnny Lightning Musclecars USA The revived Johnny Lightning, around since ’93, has been getting better and better with its successful Musclecars USA series. This latest round of 10 cars includes a ’67 and 71 GTO, 70 Torino Cobra. ’65 Nova. ’68 Chevelle, 70 340 T/A Challenger and AAR Cuda, 73 Charger. 71 Demon, and the AMO Rebel Machine. Most have opening hoods, and all are offered in authentic colors. The new castings are rid of the tippy-toes stance that previous JL Musclecars suffered, and at less than $4 apiece in stores, the quality is among the highest you’ll find. Watch for its new James Bond 007 and Hollywood series cars tor Thanks to Fred Blood at Full Grid (310/792-0308), who sells the 10 musclecar set for $35 postpaid, for our…

Japanese or Not, the Factory-Works Race-Spec22B is too Cool to Ignore Imagine the thrill of driving a factoryworks race machine like a Black Widow ’57 Chevy, a showroom-prepped Ford Thunderbolt, or a Super Stock Dodge A990 on the street. Behind the wheel of something that could just as easily be a race car—and is in fact meant to be, but sold through official channels. Pretty trick, right? So imagine our delight when this little monster turned up in our mail slot. Introducing the Subaru Impreza 22B. It may look like a stereotypical cracker box with spats and spoilers and wings thrown on for the hell of it (McGean’s twisted idea that it looks like a Dodge Shadow notwithstanding), but for once, the sizzle is backed up with the steak under…

The influx of car-related video games seems never ceasing; two more CD-ROMs to cross our desk lately include Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Motorhead, both for the Sony Playstation. GTA, by Take 2, whips you around three of America’s toughest-driving cities and your choice of dozens of vehicles. There’s no fixed track—you choose where you want to go, and you’ll have to to duck all of the rival gang members, hired guns, and mercenaries out for your hide! Rated M for strong language and animated blood (eew). Motorhead, by Fox Interactive, sets you into futuristic landscapes where you battle for motorized supremacy among the desolate wastelands of a future where speed knows no limitations. Motorhead is acceptable for all ages. Available wherever finer computer games are sold.…

Ever wonder how much power your car really puts to the pavement? Power Tour introduces a new level of excitement and interactivity with the Holley Dyno Challenge. At each stop on Power Tour West 1999, Holley will have a portable chassis dyno to test your car’s capabilities. Prizes will be given for the highest, horsepower street cars (none of this trailered-’n nonsense) at each event. It’s guaranteed to make a lot of noise and maybe even break some parts…if your car can’t handle it. Make an appointment at the Holley truck in the manufacturer’s midway’Long Haulers only, please! Sign up in LA, and listen for your name to be called at one of the drivers’ meetings (which will be held after the festivities end at 8 p.m. sharp). The next…

A Testimonial We received a note from Sue LewisPhillips, Chevy’s own Power Tour PR machine, shortly after Power Tour East. It reads: While the polka band played in Ocala, Florida, encountered a Power Tour participant who expressed appreciation for the help he received from the Chevrolet Motor Medics. “I want a job like that,” he said, “a job where can create vehicles like the ones Chevy has here.” replied he should go out, and get one. “I don’t have a degree in engineering,” he replied. said again, “Get one.” He countered that he was too old, that he planned to retire from the fire department in Kansas within a year. told him that this was not his practice life, and that if he didn’t do now what he wanted to,…

You can’t do that! No way. You can’t run more than 10.5:1 compression on pump gas. No sir. No ma’am. Case closed. Don’t tell Mike Morgan that because he does it every day. That’s right, Morgan’s high-10-second ’69 Nova budget beater regularly makes the street scene even though its 406-cube mouse is packing sky-high 14.5:1 slugs! And when it’s time for a fill-up, he pulls right into any gas station for a bellyful of premium unleaded. How’s he do it? Morgan relies on four simple things. A loose GER 8-inch torque converter flashes to 6,000 rpm but has the right balance of low-rpm slip/hold to minimize the load on the motor while cruising. The gear multiplication afforded by the 4.56:1 ring-and-pinion make life easy on the motor and keep it…

Life is a fraud. Everything you see and hear around you is fake, a trumped-up prop to coerce your imagination into such a frenzy that you overlook the murky, disturbing details. The growing number of media promotions that feature such lunacy—X-Files, The Truman Show, the six o’clock news—are designed to throw us off the scent. The insidious truth is not about covering up UFOs, it’s a lot more basic than that: Its about money. Take 1998’s home-run race in baseball. Please. A players strike decimated the sport a few years ago, and our national pastime didn’t bounce back. How to make it vital again? Hmm…. Let’s have a home-run race! Not just one guy going after the record…how about two! It has catapulted the business back into the limelight and…

Mankind is forever in search of the meaning of what makes it whole. Why are we here? Some struggle to find reasons within the confines of their cold, hollow world; others look beyond our known, earthly boundaries for their answers. Still, others argue that the struggle to find meaning contains the kernel of meaning within itself. Visual stimulation all too easily distracts us from our quest, and as a society, we seem to have given up the search Who needs real news? Let’s have more sound bites! Anything more than 5-seconds old is boring. Seinfeld, the most successful television program in recent history, proudly boasted that it was about nothing and proves it on a nightly basis. Yet in this age, where we tear everything to shreds and criticize the…

Joe Morgan is our kind of guy. He likes to go fast but insists on low cost and the utmost in streetability. After we watched his ’76 Pinto run a string of 10.75s at 118 mph, we assumed it was powered by a small-block Ford. We caught up with Morgan, a high-school teacher from Corona, California, for the straight skinny on his 400hp four-popper-powered, 2,500-pound turbo bomb and how anybody can duplicate it for less than seven grand. The primary ingredients in this tasty little recipe include a light body, a junkyard 2.3L turbo motor, a C4 automatic transmission, a big bottle of nitrous oxide, and a few inexpensive speed parts. Roll them all together, as Morgan has, and you’ll end up with a 10-second screamer that gets more than…

We thank Revell-Monogram for providing us with the Kscale Visible V-8 model kits used in this story. Building one of these plastic marvels is just like assembling an actual engine. Construction takes about six hours, and painting is not required. Best of all, a hand crank sets the completed model into motion, the clear block and heads revealing the inner mysteries of the internal combustion engine. As such, the Revell-Monogram Visible V-8, PN 85-8883, is an excellent educational tool. Some helpful building tips are careful use of cyanoacrylate super glue instead of model cement for faster assembly and a more durable finished product, and remember to apply a film of spray-can cooking oil to all bearing surfaces for smooth operation. Look for the Revell-Monogram Visible V-8 model kit at a…

No one is really convinced that Pro or Outlaw Street racers are anything approaching “street” cars in the NMCA/Comp Cams Street Car Drag Race Series, so Super Streeters are the fastest class that many fans regard as “real” cars! And they come out wheels up, which is something that the big guys can’t afford to do! The Super Street class also has the classic Ford-versus-Chevy battle that fans can sink their teeth into! And now they’ve dipped into the 7s and run numbers that would shame the Pro Streeters of just five seasons hence! This is the class to watch! Was it Einstein, or perhaps it was the “late” Colin Chapman, who dictated that “Low mass is its own reward”? ror Nick Scavo, going from his legendary, bad-in-black “Heavy weight”…

Writing letters to Reaction Time relieves angst and can ease stressful financial burdens. April’s “Letter of the Month” winner will receive a bunch of HOT ROD licensed goodies, including a Signal Apparel T-shirt, a Testors/Racing Champions 1/24-scale die-cast model, and a case of HOT ROD health food, which includes HOT ROD Cola by Fat Me Now and hot sauce salsa by Dave’s. Junky and Funky I’ve been a faithful A reader since 1956, and this issue restored my faith in HOT ROD I’ve been waiting for years to see an article like “Junkyard Jewel”, (Jan. ’99) Don SmithBrook, IN “Junkyard Jewels” was great! I’d like to see more of this. I understand some pickups had steel cranks an four-bolt mains. Classic Motorbooks offers a small-block V-8 ID guide that might…

Two words most of us have never put together before, electric and dragster, can now be safely said in the same sentence. Say watt? It’s true! The rail job you see before you, owned and run by Dennis Berube of Laveen, Arizona, is the world’s fastest electric-powered dragster, running a silent 10.4/118 mph. We’d love to clue you in I on all the shocking developments of the so called “Curent Eliminator,” but neither Berube nor the PR hack at I sponsor Instruments could see their way clear to call us back. So much for keeping current.…

Play R&B FavoritesEstrus Records Wrong place, wrong time, punk? Looking for a bellyful of slugs? Well, you got the right soundtrack at least—Impala’s R&B Favorites. From its surfexplosive “Squad Car” to the razor-sharp swagger of Henry Mancini’s “Experiment in Terror,” Memphis sax-’n’-guitar-driven instrumental combo Impala knows the seedier side of Gotham like the back of its assassin’s hand. Don’t be smoked by the title—there’s nary a drop of conventional R8B in this Molotov cocktail. What you get instead is an alley-way exploration of hot rads, switchblades. and catfights that’d have the Grammy “Best Instro” committee signing bonus checks if they weren’t scurrying to safer environs. Impala racks up the bodies with a fierce cover of Link Wray’s “Vendetta’-two chords, two barrels, direct hit. “The Scratch” and “LTD A GoGo” are…

The Dates Are as Follows: Thursday, May 13: Kickoff party at the Glen Helen Regional Park, Devore, California (northeast of San Bernardino) Friday, May 14: Northern Arizona University Skydome, Flagstaff, Arizona Saturday, May 15: Downtown Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico Sunday, May 16: Tri-State Fairgrounds, Amarillo, Texas Monday, May 17: The Admiral Twin Drive-In, Tulsa, Oklahoma Tuesday, May 18: Station Casino, Kansas City, Missouri Wednesday, May 19: DAY OFF Thursday, May 20: Gateway International Raceway, Madison, Illinois (near St. Louis) Friday, May 21: Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky Saturday, May 22: Downtown Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee Sunday, May 23: Downtown Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee…

One busy morning! Power Tourers will spend the morning of Saturday, May 22, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Savvy road rats will either get a jump on traffic or…check out one of three tours available to us! Holley is opening its doors to show how the most legendary carburetors in America are made. The Corvette Museum will entertain all Power Tourers who want to check out the lineage of America’s premier sports car. And the Corvette assembly plant will be opened especially to show us around—the factory and the tour are usually closed on Saturdays! Word is that the owner of a Corvette, so fresh that it’ll roll off the production line the Friday that we hit town, will pick up his car at the factory on Saturday and continue on…

Ever wonder what it would be like to drive cross-country with a bunch of road-weary, half-crazed HOT ROD Magazine Power Tour enthusiasts? The answer is just a few mouse clicks away on the MOTHERS® Polishes/Waxes/Cleaners Web site. At www.mothers.com, you’ll discover three years of Power Tour West coverage—the good, the bad, and the oh-so-ugly. And in keeping with tradition, MOTHERS’® own Ken Holland and Forrest Tosie will be covering the 1999 Power Tour West with a laptop computer, digital camera, and a hot rod full of NODOZ. While you’re surfing the MOTHERS® site, enter its Customers’ Cool Cars contest. Winners get a free MOTHERS® Ultimate Wax System® shipped right to their doorstep. Says so right here in this press release.…

Thanks to his dad, Bruce Morgan, 45-year-old Mike Morgan has been involved in drag racing since he could walk. In 1961, the elder Morgan drove his fuel-injected ’57 Chevy from California to Indiana to compete in B/Stock at the inaugural Indy Nationals. He won the class and a brand-new ’61 Super Duty 389 Pontiac Catalina courtesy of George Hurst. The Poncho was prepped by Royal Pontiac as a race-only machine. So what did Bruce do? He flat-towed the Pontiac to California behind his ’57! History buffs can read about Bruce’s win in the November 1961 issue of HRM. Because Mike was but 7 years old at the time, he had stayed home, but he was a regular pit helper at the local drags. It all indicates that early exposure to…

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, C:A: Today tragedy at a Southern Kalifornia kustom kar kongregation during a healthy breakfast of krullers and koffee: A ktistonr ’55 Oldssmobile began belching 8-foot flames out its tailpipes, singeing ankles and melting shoes into polyvinylchloride puddles, sending dozens fleeing in all directions, covering buildings within a three-block radius with a healthy layer of carbon, and spontaneously setting off an entire truckload of Jiffy Pop popcorn, further, it ignited several dozen small brushfires around the Southland that were still raging out of control at press time. Our cameras were there to capture the blistering carnage. This may not be suitable for all audiences. Several eves were witness to this recklessness; sadly, most were painted on the sheetmetal of the Oldsmobile itself and could not be questioned for comment.…

Considering that we all breathe air, we must adopt a responsible approach, and we’re ready to prove that power and cleanliness can peacefully coexist. Just look at what we have today. We can’t think of any out-of-rhe-box ’67 Camaro that ran low 13s like a squeaky-clean OBD-I1 1999 Camaro can. The by-product of the internal combustion engine is generally referred to as exhaust emissions. Creating higher engine output necessitates more fuel while concurrently producing more residual end gases. So the hot rodder is caught in a catch-22 situation: the pending emissions laws that mandate a level of strict compliance. If the engine in your car fails to meet them, your car will be prohibited from the road. Since the introduction of the Clean Air Act (1970), which was limited to…

Setting yourself apart from the crowd usually isn’t too tough for hot rodders, especially when you consider the soulless, overly sanitized, cookie-cutter sedans and SUVs that litter the highways. Anything with a throaty rumble, a big tire; and a hint of chrome seems to stand out…unless you’re on Power Tour. Once you join those ranks of tricked-out rides, exclusivity becomes more difficult. The staff at Comp Cams had Tour savvy, however—the result of attending every one we’ve had. So when it came time to build their own cruiser, they knew exactly how to get noticed. (Long pause; uiy SO niayne it ooes seem use every otner L-amaro produced in 1969 finds its way to the Tour, but the Comp guys were serious about getting noticed, and they took a different…

Every engineering breakthrough is usually accompanied by a trade-off, and such was the case when unibody chassis structure came into popularity in the ’60s. By design, unibody cars were able to absorb crash energy in a more effective manner, and they were lighter and better handling than the bodv-on-frame cars they replaced. However, full-frame rides had it all over the unibody “tub” in terms of ride quality, road isolation, and torsional stiffness. Unibody hardtops and convertibles were particularly vulnerable to these stresses. Since the chassis did double duty as the body shell, all sorts of unfortunate things happened to it under duresspopping window glass, wrinkling roofs, and doors swinging open in the midst of a turn were not unheard of. These are extreme but vivid examples of what happens to…

I have this thing for heavy haulers. Remember, a roots-blown ’27 T roadster pickup introduced me to a 50-year involvement with hotties. I won’t talk about the clone of my M&V B/Altered NHRA record holder—a hybrid ’27 touring/’28 bed and tailgate combo—which is still a part of my life. I will never forget Danny Shaffer’s wonderful ’56 big window, a class house that Fat Jack built. Now there is another—perhaps the finest of the genre—scheduled to reside in Longview, Texas, but for the immediate future it will rumble the roads in Santa Ana, California, the home of Chrisman Auto Rod Specialties Cars (CARS). The project began years ago when Sidney Allen commissioned Dick “Magoo” Megugorac to assemble a ’32 Ford sedan. During the initial planning stages, Art Chrisman was tagged…

UK-Based Publishers Fork Over $1.2 billion A funny thing happened on the way to our April Fools’ issue. A planned (mock) story about Petersen being sold—again—came true, though not from our expected target! Petersen has been purchased by EMAP pic, one of Europe’s largest magazine publishers, for $34 a share (nearly double its IPO just over a year ago). That works out to a nice, round $1.2 billion. The announcement came a week before Christmas; the new EMAP Petersen Division was expected to commence operation in mid-January pending shareholder approval. Since investment group Willis, Stein purchased Petersen Publishing in mid-1996, it has purchased 60 magazine titles, bringing Petersen’s magazine count to 132. EMAP publishes 157 of its own titles in the UK and France, including Car (its version of Motor…

Official Event Videos Missed all the six-second action of the NMCA’s record-busting ’98 season? Not to fear! You can run it in your living room night after night! Prodigy Motorsports, producers of HOT ROD’s official event videos for the 1998 season, introduce home videos for the Indianapolis, Memphis Fastest Street Car shootout, and Atlanta Dragway season finale. Indy and Atlanta are $19.95 each, while Memphis is $24.95 (plus $2.95 S&H for each tape). The set is just $59.95, plus $6.95 S&H. Such a bargain! Contact: Prodigy Motorsports, Dept. HR04, P.O. Box 22551, Santa Fe, NM 87502, or call toll-free 888/466-4443.…

Let’s face facts: Your Power Tourer may need some unexpected work along the way. This year, we have four separate facilities extending a helping hand. Going west to east, the first emergency pit stop haven will be with Chuck “Otto” Anderson of Otto’s Garage, located at Third and Kinley in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Anderson’s got 16 full-service bays, and he’s equipped to fix just about everything. He also does a live hot rod-oriented call-in TV show on Channel 27 in Albuquerque, called Ask Otto Live and In Color, which airs Wednesday nights from 7-8 p.m. On your day off in Kansas City, Missouri, two facilities will be opening their doors to greet us. JC Conversions/Harder Performance in Tonganoxie, Kansas, offers up its 3,700-square-foot garage and invites us to check out…

One of the newer trends in hot rodding is building cars that were never built. Dave Ahokas’ 1940 Willys sedan delivery is a fine example—Willys Overland never offered a ‘40 three door. Barry Margolis’ 1970 Eliminator convertible is another. Ford didn’t build any, but it did sell a number of Cougar XR7 raggies. So Margolis-a cop from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida—partially restored a semi-complete ‘70 Coug and fleshed it out with NOS Eliminator graphics. body, and suspension options. He went through the 351C and upgraded it with an Edelbrock dualplane intake and 750 double-pumper. After spending two hours in Margolis’ basher, I’m convinced that his better idea was a cat that Ford should have trapped.…

PEOPLE CARS AND MORE FROM THE PREMIER HOT ROD EVENTS We have great news to report regarding the 1999 HOT ROD Magazine Power Festivals. As always, you’ll witness the head-to-head, wheels-up antics of the NMCA/Comp Cams Street Car Drag Racing Series. Adjunct to the tire-frying, we’re placing an emphasis on the manufacturer’s midway this year and in the car show in particular. In fact, at each of the 10 Power ’ Fests, HOT ROD magazine staff members will be searching for tomorrow’s stars and hanging out with you. Our hope is to discover some of hot rodding’s best and brightest talents and put ’em on these pages. At the end of the year, we’ll pick the 51 best cars (to celebrate our 51 years of publication) and induct them into…

The mail is unyielding. It is a steady stream of inquiry and is as varied as the origins of postmarks on the envelopes. We love it. Your queries keep us on our toes, constantly checking the facts and exploring the latest automotive technology as well as new remedies for age-old mechanical maladies. But this is not without conflict. The problem is a matter of real estate; we simply don’t have enough space to respond to every letter in our monthly Pit Stop column. The net effect is that intriguing questions sometimes get bumped back an issue or so, but while they hover in limbo, more letters are arriving. Our solution: Expand Pit Stop, posting letters that address commonly pondered topics (also known as FAQs—Frequently Asked Questions). The latter part of…

It’s no secret that most of an engines potential is lurking in the cylinder heads. Until recently, unleashing the hidden charms of contemporary performance engines usually meant valve upgrades and hours of porting, and only after suitable castings had been located. For years, “silver heads” were considered pure exotica, reserved for racing and the occasional factory-produced rocket. But now this technology is available to all of us and at a very reasonable price. Though the benefits are varied—the most obvious being weight savings and the dissipation of heat—how does aluminum actually increase performance? In truth, the material has little effect on engine output; the performance gains netted by today’s aluminum heads are the result of port and combustion-chamber designs that very often outshine the best iron castings ever offered by…

We gathered a gamut of streetable performancet Theresa Marie Willix’s ’66 400 Pontiac, Power Tour participant Ed Rogers and his ’86 Monte Carlo SS, and Eric Kang’s blown 383 ’95 Trans Am. We pit ’60’s musclecar tech along with the early renaissance of performance against the latest that hot rodding has to offer. The Pontiac featured a basically stock 400 equipped with a flat-tappet hydraulic cam and an Edelbrock intake. Our Monte SS had a modified version of a ZZ3 crate engine with GM’s complete emissions-legal conversion that was modified with a hydraulic roller cam and Brodix heads. It retained a modified feedback Q-jet that would be its down-fall. The ringer was Kang’s blower car. Along with its Vortech S-Trim supercharger and liquid-to-air intercooler. it featured coated pistons and cylinder…

We recently received an invitation to partake in a thorough examination of a most unique new engine, the VeilRev V-8. Its designer, Sir Vel Revson, a man who proudly claims to have more education than intelligence, asserts that this new engine will revolutionize hot rodding and the global auto industry because it consumes no fuel and produces absolutely zero emisions. Heady claims indeed. We had to have a closer look. At first glance, the Veil-Rev V-8 appears to be quite conventional in design and construction. But being the fruit of Sir Revson, a serious and eccentric I man who will not tolerate frivolity where the art of engine design is concerned (and who spits venom at all those he suspects of selling his ideas short), we soon found ourselves checking…

If the ’60s was the epoch of counterculture outlandish, hot rodding surely reflected its influence. The digs became the showroom for jet and rocket cars, wheel standers, and Chevy-powered motor cycles augmented.by nitro-burning, altered-wheelbase coupes. Street rodding was del uged by Kookie car look-alikes. And th entertainment industry—including the car show clan—discovered that whacked-out wagons were hot, too. As movie buffs will recall, specialty cars have been a visual part of the industry since Max Sennett and the Keystone Kops. Reflecting America’s growing affluence and love affair with the car on screen, Indy rac ers, moonshine tankers, hot rods, and cool customs were eagerly added to the mix. By the late ’50s and early ’60s, TV’s esoteric automotive needs expanded the horizon and prompted LA’s custom builders, led by George…

Born to Perform Edelbrock Edelbrock’s new Performer RPM Vortec mani¬fold is exclusively for small-block Chevy engines equipped with Vortec truck heads. The manifold’s 180-degree firing order is designed to create power in the 1,500- to 6,500rpm range and works with high-performance square-bore carburetors. Information: Edelbrock, Dept. HR04, 2700 California St., Torrance, CA 90503, 310/781-2222. Big Spark MSD The MSD 6A capacitive ignition control is legal for use on vehicles equipped with a distributor to produce a powerful spark which will improve combustion throughout the entire rpm range. Information: MSD, Dept. HR04, 1490 Henry Brennan Dr., El Paso, TX 79936, 915/857-5200. Torsionography PST Since corro sinn, hard driving, and mileage all a, lead to the deterioration of suspen sion components, PST’s Mopar Torsion Bars, backed by a 20-year warranty, will improve…