Indholdsfortegnelse for May 1999 i Hot Rod

The Thunder Is Back! Every red-blooded, car-loving kid born since the ’50s has probably played with slot cars, the majority of which were H.O. scale and produced by Aurora. The most widely recognized line was the A/FX brand of race car replicas introduced in the early ’70s. but Aurora’s first offerings hit shelves in 1963 and mimicked stock vehicles. Although not as fast or as grippy as later variations, these early renditions caught the attention of collectors and have been steadily increasing in value, putting them out of reach of many who once enjoyed them. Now they’re back, and you can have your very own brand-new Model Motoring cars. The line begins with recreations of the ’67 Camaro and the Willys Gasser and includes two never-before-offered models, a ’67 Chevelle…

I’ve got a job to do. And all I can think about is food. Tender Midwestern steaks, charbroiled on the outside and pink and dripping on the inside, with a small cup of au jus on the side for dipping. Chicken enchiladas, crispy, piping hot, and laced with cheese and tangy red sauce. Racks of slow-roasted pork barbecue ribs that fall off the bone if you so much as think about looking at them. Popeye’s spicy fried chicken with a side of red beans and rice. Spiedini alia Romana—thin layers of bread and cheese coated in bread crumbs, deep-fried, and built for dipping into an anchovy dressing. Crispy greens with a honey-mustard salve. A butter-smothered Waffle House waffle and a double side of hash browns covered in chili, cheese, and…

One of the worst things about doing an engine swap is finding headers that fit. While the aftermarket offers tubes for the more popular swaps, it’s those one-off creations that’ll have you chasing your tail. We’re talking about 427 SOHC Mavericks, 426 Hemi-powered Dodge Dakota pickups, big-block Monzas, or just about any other excursion into automotive never-never land. For these whacked-out combos, the only solution is a set of custom-bent headers. Cough up the big bucks and your problems are solved, right? Actually, they are just beginning. As soon as you start the engine, the heat, moisture, and caustic exhaust gases immediately begin a destructive dervish that can reduce your one-of-a-kind headers to scrap within just a few years—unless you invest in having them 1 treated with a protective coating…

For most folks under the age of 35, the name Trans Am conjures a hopped-up Firebird with a screaming chicken decal on the hood or maybe the image of Burt Reynolds and Sally Field evading the cops in the deep South. But for some, Trans-Am means a road-race series with small-displacement Camaros, Firebirds, Mustangs, Cougars, Cudas, Challengers, and Javelins battling it out in the purest ponycar competition that this country had to offer. Thirty years ago, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey, George Follmer, Mark Donohue, and Swede Savage duked it out fender-to-fender on the straights and corners of America’s road courses—in machines that were closer to real street cars than even the NASCAR rides of the time. From Watkins Glen to Elkhart Lake, Trans-Am cars not only went like stink, but…

Phoenix, Arizona It is no secret that the NMCA Comp Cams Street Car Drag Racing Series has taken off like a Hemi on hydrazine, but the truth remains that all of the events occur east of the Mississippi. West Coast enthusiasts must travel halfway across the country to do battle. The only person who has pulled this off with any degree of success is Pro Street competitor Bob Rieger, thanks to his deeeep pockets and impressive driving skill. Well, West Coast enthusiasts may have reason to celebrate in 2000 because, in all likelihood, there will be some West Coast NMCA events added to the race schedule next year. To test the waters on the feasibil-ity of such an expansion, the NMCA, HOT ROD, and the NHRA joined forces in Phoenix…

One of the most important operations for engine blueprinting is to establish proper ring endgap. Standard, over-the-counter rings tend to compromise cylinder sealing because of excessively wide gaps that allow combustion pressure to leak into the crankcase. Testing conducted by Sealed Power Corporation revealed that reducing the endgaps from 0.024 to 0.016 per inch of cylinder-bore diameter added 30 hp to a 350 Chevy test engine. If you want the most your engine has to offer, employ special file-to-fit rings, so that the endgaps may be set tighter to limit blow-by. Typical ring endgap figures for most street/strip performance engines are: top ring, 0.016/0.018 per inch of cylinder-bore diameter, second ring, 0.010/0.012 per inch. Here are some helpful tools that make that critical operation easier. Sources Bill Mitchell Hardcore Racing…

When we did our HOT ROD Collectibles special last September, we also ran an unannounced contest. Random newsstand copies received a “Golden Ticket” that was redeemable for either a gold-plated Racing Champions’ 57 Chevy or a Hot Wheels ’70 Barracuda Convertible. (The ‘Cuda could not have the HOT ROD name on it for some very dull legal reasons.) One magazine in 88 held a ticket. Only 2,000 of each car were produced; the car. colors, and level of detail on the ‘Cuda were specified by J’ the HOT ROD staff. Internet S auction sites have seen these I, babies selling for upward of $250 apiece. They are not for sale through the magazine, so please do not call. We’re doing another collectibles section this coming fall, and we’ll he doing…

There is peace in the desert. Scrub brush and infinite horizons and silence and saguaros. A gentle breeze blows past, cooling the brow as the unblinking sun glowers over all. Then, without warning, it appears in the distance—small but growing, initially just errant beams of light glinting off of polished paintwork. A dull roar, almost too far away to be noticed, dances lightly on the inner ear and grows in intensity. A full-tilt package of superstrength industrial rhythms align their song as the apparition approaches: wide-open throttle, the banshee wail of eight melodious cylinders singing an octave and a half above normal operation, air getting slapped aside in a manner most bestial. It blasts past in less time than it takes to tell; the Doppler shift knocks the tone down…

Charlie Turner makes missiles. No, no, we’re not using metaphors for his ’95 Mustang here: He’s an aerospace engineer by trade, so he knows a thing or two about getting metallic objects to hurl themselves toward terminal velocity—and when he wanted his Mustang to do exactly that, he chose Steeda of Pompano Beach, Florida. Turner’s car is regularly the fastest Ford at the top-speed events; he’s seen 210 mph behind the wheel and managed 198 and change out on the Bridgestone/Fire-stone proving grounds. (His was the only street car here that didn’t have all of its seams taped up, so there’s bound to be more….) He currently holds the fastest open-road average race speed for a Ford product: 174 mph-in a car that’s only a cat-equipped H-pipe away from being…

Since the beginning, we’ve been fascinated by engine buildups. We’ve run the gamut from dead stock to all-out race—some were losers, others were killers, all were educational. But what were the long-term ramifications? These days, most magazine engines feature dyno figures and sometimes drag tests, but it isn’t often that readers get to see what happens to these motors after a few seasons of racing, or 25,000 miles of street driving, or both. How do these power makers hold up over time, and what would their creators have done differently if they were to build the same engine today? We wanted to cover the Big Three, as well as focus on engines that are experiencing renewed interest. The big-block Chev is enjoying a resurgence in popularity among “regular guy” racers…

In the hierarchy of hot rodding, Fords are the Rodney Dangerfield of engines. They get no respect. This time was no exception. HOT ROD staffer Cole Quinnell proposed a small-block horsepower shootout between Chrysler, Chevy, and Ford. But this one had a twist. The engines had to be built for under $2,600. Quinnell chose the Chrysler, Rob Kinnan took the easy way with the small-block Chevy, and I took the Ford, even though I thought it would be handicapped due to the higher cost of hi-po Ford parts. Unfortunately, this shootout became a two-way contest when Quinnell discovered the Mopar couldn’t run with the big dogs at a budget of $2,600. Sure, the Chrysler won the big-block shootout (thanks to a no-limit budget and an admirable effort by Herb McCandless…

War and peace. Darkness and light. Good and evil. Men and women. Love and hate. Street cars and Outlaw Street cars. Polar opposites, all. One cannot exist without the other. The trick is to live in harmonious balance, to not let one become so firmly rooted in our psyche and our way of life that we completely forget how to deal with the other. Peace could not exist without the bloodshed and distress that war brings. Without darkness, light would be meaningless. Without Martian men and Venusian women getting together, there would be no future for any of us. And without street cars, there would be no basis for the hairy Outlaw Street class that threatens to eclipse Pro Street in terms of speed and crowd popularity. So if men…

Excellent Eldo There were 400 ’57 Eldorado Broughams made…the ’57s were dual quads, while the ’58s were Tri-powers,” reports Dominick Vermet of Detroit. These cars were low and smooth from the factory to begin with, and adding a set of modern aluminum rims only accentuates that feature. And the magnetic flames on this particular ’57 are quite removable—” to keep the purists at bay,” says Dominick. Delicious De Ville The ’59 Cad is a creature of Americana and opulence. What better car to turn into a screamin’ Pro Streeter? None, thought Patrick Raquepaw of Westland, Michigan, so he hopped to it. A transplanted big-block Chev and 700-R4 tranny feed power to a narrowed Corvette independent rearend. Disc brakes are used all the way ’round. Boyd’s rims, 33x22x15 Mickeys, and purple-mica…

Detroit’s Hottest Concepts Power the Proper Wheels Fans of traditional rear-drive performance were given plenty to be hopeful for at the annual North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past January. Dipping into the nostalgia bin worked gangbusters for Volkswagen with its New Beetle; love it or hate it, it’s been a marketing coup to the once-moribund titans from Wolfsburg. The Big Three rooted around in their respective pasts and did much the same thing, all with the same results: drooling showgoers. If our meters are correct, each company pegged it right this time out. Chevrolet Normal We were somewhat premature by calling Chevy’s prototype LT4/six-speed 2WD S 10 Blazer the new Nomad in the February issue—our Bow Tie bods already had one of their own in the works!…

The question is nearly as old as the magazine itself: “How can I get my car in HOT ROD?” The answer is a little more difficult, but the good news is that between more room for car features, two pages every month devoted to the car show in “Power Fest News,” and the HOT ROD 51 announced last issue, there is a better chance than ever that your car will be seen in the pages of HRM! There are two constants, however. The top two answers, in this order, are: 1. Be where we are. 2. Be thoughtful. Finding out where we are is easy. Between Power Fests and Power Tours, the outlines of our travel schedules through the month of October are printed elsewhere in the magazine. We cannot…

In his exploration of the mysteries of combustion, British engine-design genius, Sir Harry Ricardo, concluded that: “The power output of an engine is determined by the amount of oxygen it can combine.” In common terms, combining with oxygen means burning. The more fuel an engine can combine (burn) in the cylinder, the more power it can make from that fuel. Power adders. A potent term for a potent concept. Generally speaking, a power adder is defined as an external influence that adds serious output to an internal-combustion engine. The objective of using a power adder is to get more oxygen into the cylinders. This overview of the most popular power adders is intended to address the advantages and disadvantages of turbocharging, supercharging, nitrous oxide, and stroker kits. Although stroker kits…

When the speed hits your eye like a big pizza pie…Behold the owner of the fastest race average of any openroad race competitor, ever: 194 mph. Rick Doria’s goat is to be the first to average 200 mph, which means he’ll have to be doing well over 200 on the straightaways. Doria will tell you that his Greenwood-bodied Vette is not the prettiest thing on the road, but he’ll also be the first to prove that it is the fastest thing out there. He considered his 223mph performance on the big oval on practice day a lack-luster one: Poorly ported heads with insufficient oil drainback necessitated some creative lubing solutions which, sadly, starved the engine in the turns and munched some bearings, piston rings, and a cam in practice. A…

Loewy-coupe Studeys have always been favorites of Bonneville beaters. Here’s one for paved roads. Bill Golden completed his ’54 just three days before its Friday test session and had not turned a wheel until it showed up at the Bridgestone/Firestone test oval. In a previous life, the car had run in the modern La Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, but Golden took it down to bare metal and redid the whole burrito in 13 months. He’s still at the steep end of the learning curve, and his 201 mph run was at 6,500 rpm (well below the engine’s power peak). With practice, we expect that Bill’s runs could challenge Doria and Eastty for the 200mph average record. ENGINE Type: GM Performance Parts Bow Tie 350 block, balanced, assembled by the legendary…

The proof is in the pudding, a cliché as old and true as the earth beneath our feet. Remind us not of the turmoil. Spare us the expectations. Just show us what it will do. With the tools of creation set aside, it was time to see what the Pavement Pounder would do. Our ’57 Bel Air was built to achieve two things: do a 9-second dragstrip boogie and be civil enough to complete Power Tour West. Now, it has done both. Any car running down a racetrack requires shakedowns, adjustments, shakedowns, and more shakedowns. It’s difficult to build a hot rod for Power Tour—critical issues such as engine cooling and drivetrain longevity demand attention and testing. Guardrail to Guardrail Several chassis and engine tune-ups were required before achieving a…

For folks with high horsepower street cars, the allure of a “clutchless” manual Lenco gearbox—and the cool-looking lightning-rod shifters—is pretty clear, but historically, the cost has been prohibitive. After all, a five-speed CS2 Lenco race trans costs more than $8,000. But customers have been clamoring for a street version of this exotic gearbox for quite some time, so the company recently introduced the STI200, which is wholly based on the racing design. The ST1200 is capable of backing up as much as 1,300 hp and more than 900 lb-ft of torque. There are some notable differences between the CS2 and the ST 1200, not least of which is price: The street version is available with three, four, five, or six speeds and starts at $4,500. It utilizes an aluminum, —rather…

Caribbean Cruiser Q I recently installed a master rebuild kit in my 305, which is the original engine in my 1985 Camaro Berlinetta (H code). The kit included flat-top pistons, new valvesprings (stock heads), and a 214/224-degree, 0.443/0.465-inch-lift hydraulic cam. I also installed an Edelbrock Performer intake and 600cfm carb, an MSD 6A ignition box and ACCEL Supercoil, AC R46TS plugs and Hedman Hedders (stock intermediate pipe), and a performance muffler. The trans is a stock 700-R4 and the rear axle has 3.08:1 gears. The results are a great-sounding exhaust, an occasional chirp from the tires…and that’s it. Overall, the car felt quicker from idle when stock and would accelerate through the gears faster as well. It seems lazy on pickup, especially when trying to pass another car, and the…