Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2000 i Hot Rod

’FRAIDY KAT’S SCUZZY RULE Somewhere between the thump of the bass and the thwock-thwock of the cowbell he lost consciousness, figuratively at least. He wanted to fix what ailed him and what ailed him, was the stone fact that he would never be a crack paint and body man. Just wasn’t ever gonna happen. But hadn’t he relished the guidance of his ace metal-massaging friend? And hadn’t he followed his every blinking command, all the while becoming very aware that the paint job would only be as worthy as the preparation underneath it? And wasn’t he doing all this within the walls of Circus Paint, one of the East Coast’s top color houses? He’d spent way too much time on this thing, block-sanding it into oblivion, for it not to…

GPT300 Is Barry Grant Barry Grant, the acclaimed carb-tuning wizard, is head of the newly formed company GPT300. There are three divisions under the Grant Performance Technologies (GPT) banner: Demon Carburetion, BG Fuel Systems, and Nitrous Works, which handle (respectively) street and full-race carburetors, fuel delivery systems, and nitrous kits. The company continues to operate from its 50,000-sq.-ft. headquarters in Dahlonega, Georgia. Only the name of the company has changed. Barry continues to put his firm’s 15 years of experience and his valuable racetrack exploits (including a #1 NHRA Pro Stock qualifying run at Virginia in ’98) to continually improve his products. The company can be accessed on the Net at www.gpt300.com.…

Like everything else on the Web, drag-racing and drag-racing-related activities can be found almost instantly… if you know where to look. A few of our favorite sites are as follows: • Dig on www.racingnetsource.com for an online drag-racing “Webzine” featuring columnists, feature stories, race results from all sanctioning bodies, tech info, photos, and lots more, all with an irreverent, independent point of view. Regular HOT ROD contributing writer/photographer Jeff Burk and former National Dragster staffer Chris Martin team up to give a point of view not likely seen elsewhere online. As Burk puts it, “It’s not the usual, don’t-say-anything-controversial-type of pabulum that readers get in many online magazines. We are all professionals interested in the betterment of drag racing, and we are against pomposity and stupidity, and will point them…

POWER TOUR Y2K: JUNE 1-10, 2000 HOT ROD’s sixth cross-country Power Tour will take us further than we’ve ever gone before—all the way to the East Coast! Come join us as the editors of HOT ROD magazine and hundreds of America’s coolest rods blast off from car-crazy Los Angeles. We make a dash through the desert, parallel the famed Route 66, and end up in Panama City Beach, Florida, the Spring Break Capital of the World! Rub elbows with the builders of some of the finest custom and performance cars in America! It’s also a great way to make new friends, get ideas for your own hot car, and tour the country to boot. In just a few years, Power Tour has become the standard by which all other cruises…

Hot rodding came of age in the ’50s when Detroit’s automakers began to build high-zoot, high-performance concept cars to attract the youth market. The problem was that these wild-A dream machines were generally one-off phonies that looked more like a Barris TV creation than a scout mom’s-mobile, but for a while they got the car buyers’ attention. Somewhere along the way, these spaced-out ships frightened the car-buying public, which caused Detroit to commission outside vendors to create real vehicles designed to do real stuff—like be driven, not trucked, to the country’s carvalcades and road shows. Three years ago, Les Jarvis—rod builder, magazine owner, and president of Newport Publishing Network—became one of those outside vendors. Jarvis conjured up a series of Poncho Acts for the Pontiac-GMC Special Vehicle Group, and this…

When SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) announced that the 2000 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab had been crowned “Truck of the Show” for the ’99 Las Vegas orgy, the people at DaimlerChrysler were justifiably proud. But prior to the celebration, they had put a slew of early production Quad Cabs in the eager hands of enthusiast publications. They tossed each one a generous but realistic budget and let ’em create a unique customized vehicle for display at this year’s show. While most magazines focused more on looks and utility than raw performance, we wanted to make a statement. Several brainstorming sessions with Troy Trepanier (Rad Rides) produced a plan to build a replica of the new Dodge…with the optional Street Hemi. “Wait,” you say, “the Hemi hasn’t been available in any…

Chances are that we’ve all been the recipients of family heirlooms, but how about holding onto dad’s old ’23 tub? No, you say, in this day of four-wheel, feature-filled family rooms. That makes Rod Hynes and his brother, Martin, quite exceptional. Chips off the old block. And the old block happens to be the late Tom “Red” Hynes, who appeared in the family tub on the March ’50 cover of this magazine. Poppa Tom started it all. He replaced portions of the ’29 roadster that he had built in ’43 for $40 with what was left of a $15 boneyard T touring. His intentions were strictly turning left. “When Dad began the change-over, he kept the frame,” remembers the 47-year-old Rod, “because he was going to make the hybrid T-bodied…

Early Bird John Balash of Bethel, Ohio, doesn’t see many ’67 Firebirds at the shows he attends. We see some here and there, but few this clean and pretty. This one’s packing its original 400/four-speed combo, and its performance bolt-ons include an Edelbrock intake, Holley carb, ACCEL ignition, and American Racing rims. Fly proud, John. Firey Bird Jim Copeland’s ’79 Trans Am makes quite a ruckus when it spreads its wings over Flint, Michigan. The Olds 403-powered Bird features an Erson cam, Edelbrock intake and carb, headers, and turbo mufflers. Jim’s brother Lonnie designed the altered hood graphics for maximum eye-popping effect. Looks like it worked. Thirsty Bird “Spare a thought for us here in the land of $6/gallon gas,” writes Andi Pengelly of Wallington, Surrey, England, about him and…

As reported here recently, and widely speculated for years, the Plymouth marque will be no more: Chrysler’s low-cost division is being laid to rest at the conclusion of the 2001 model year. The Plymouth brand was introduced in 1926 as a low-cost sales leader. In the ’50s, Plymouth shared Mopar powertrains with other models, but in a time when wheelbase determined a car’s status, Plymouths were always a few inches shorter than their corporate brethren. Even into the ’70s, the ‘Cuda was inches shorter than an otherwise mechanically identical Dodge Challenger. Some saw the shorter wheelbase as a plus—an extra step toward a lighter or better-handling car, using the same hairy powertrains as all the other Chrysler products-—- and the marque became a favorite among low-cost performance enthusiasts. Once the…

Here’s something a little different—something on the art-deco side of things: Check out this twosome from Nevco: the Transporter and the Special. The Transporter is 15 inches long, with a cream die cast body and burgundy fenders, and is based on a Belgian ’37 FN truck, It’s designed to carry the first Nevco toy, the Special, a streamlined burgundy sedan seen here nestled snugly in the back of the transporter. Both are numbered limited editions and are available separately. They come in a green-and-black silk-screened box for a period look, and its virtually handmade status assures you of its high quality. The pair will run you a little more than four Franklins, but these first two toys from Nevco are an excellent sign of things to come from this new…

HOT ROD magazine and the NMCA Comp Cams Drag Racing Series—featuring the baddest shoeboxes in the country—is about to commence once again. There are two major considerations for the new season. One includes significant weight breaks for ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s body styles. Other changes include cowl-type hood scoops only for Super Street cars and a 707ci limit (previously 650ci) for Pro Street engines using nitrous oxide. The idea is to make the entrants appear more like street-driven cars and to visually enhance their character and ambience. Secondly, our newly formed association with CarParts.com guarantees the 2000 All-Star Points Fund, which has been increased by $50,000 to $279,800. The venture between Emap-Petersen and CarParts.com goes much further than our drag racing series. For the next five years, both companies will…

Though the intake manifold appears to be nothing more than a connection between the carburetor and the cylinder heads, it plays a dominant role in determining the character of the engine through a collaboration of theories that are both internal and external to the engine. If calculated properly, they would help produce power, while an improper design would hinder it. In this text, gasoline is referenced as fuel. By definition, a gas is any substance that is in a rarefied state. The laws of physics have proven that a gas does not like to make turns and experiences frictional flow losses when this occurs. For this reason, the ideal intake path would be a straight shot to the intake valve. The world of intake manifolds encompasses many facets, and with…

The idea to build a high-powered Ford Windsor that would be competitive in a 10-second class probably began with Jay Allen, sales technician at Canfield Cylinder Heads. The impetus for his interest was the fully CNC-ported Ford small-block heads that Canfield has just released. Though Allen had built some Fords that made more than 500hp with “out of the box” Canfields, his curiosity was piqued when he saw the flow figures (intake @ 0.500-inch lift: 301 cfm @ 28-inch H70; intake @ 0.700-inch lift: 320 cfm @ 28-inch H0) on the latest heads. A conversation between Allen and Canfield’s major domos, John Fenton and George Porinchak, quickly turned into a discussion of the power that could be produced his juiced small-block Mustang. Even though we don’t intend to build one…

Mike Nordahl’s first encounter with the little compact—originally built by John North Willys, who pronounced his name “Willis” but called his cars “Willyz”—ended before it began. The father of Nordahls partner flat said no to the stroker Olds A/Gas ’41 coupe that they had planned to race. So Nordahl found a wife and a steady job while his former partner honored his father and put his Gasser money in the stock market. By the late ’60s, Nordahl began the transformation into Willyz Man. He’s a “you-know-what” collector who has developed an extensive line of reproduction replacement parts for his beloved compacts. As catharsis, he assembles blown “Gasser” motors, and the racy-race parts to go with them. His collection includes 11 of the little spartans moaning and groaning in various states…

2003 MUSTANG NEWS! New V-6s, New V-8s, More Power… and a Lincoln Chassis? Word is leaking out that the 2003K Mustang, codename S197, should be a real screamer. The chassis will utilize a modified, shortened version of the current Lincoln LS/Jaguar S-Type/Ford Thunderbird floorpan, which includes four-wheel independent suspension. This marks the first time that the Mustang chassis has been based on something other than a family-oriented platform (Falcon, Pinto, Fair-mont). Dramatic early sketches, seen on blueovalnews.com, a Ford-oriented Web site, have the car looking decidedly “New Edge”-y and Cougar-like, but with far more muscular features like fender flares, and a greenhouse shape similar to the current Mustang. Meanwhile, the base Mustang’s 3.8 V-6 will soldier on until 2002, when a 210hp 4.0L SOHC V-6 becomes the base engine; an…

East River Pipe The Gasoline Age It takes an unusual songwriter to create a heartbreakingly beautiful ditty titled “Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile,” F.M. Cornog (who records under the name “East River Pipe”) is such a man. The lyrics, with telegraphic minimalism, sketch the scene of a few guys out driving aimlessly. Most driving music portrays the car as a place to escape from your problems. This goes the next step- the car as a place to embrace your troubles, to bring them into clearer focus, to wallow in them and transform them into something beautiful. It’s the perfect soundtrack for those nights you find yourself on some highway at 1 a.m. because you just couldn’t stand to be in your apartment one second longer. If I hadn’t already read that Cornog…

Traditionally, hot rods have relied on racing cars or luxury vehicles for their styling cues. Chopping, channeling, and sectioning boxy Detroit-builts were attempts to approximate the proportions of the handbuilt bodies produced by the classic coach builders of the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s. One merely has to look at a Duesenberg coupe and see that its greenhouse is far lower than a comparable Ford of the same period. So the rodder would remove a corresponding amount of metal from the middle of his coupe’s top and, “presto-hacko,” a Duesey-like Ford. Channeling (the removal of the floor pan and lowering the body over the framerails) or sectioning (removing a 360-degree horizontal section from the body) became a huge part of pre- and post-war customizing or visually hot rodding Detroit-produced passenger cars…

Moving the shifter from the column to the floor goes a long way toward erasing any “grandma” image your rad ride might possess, and gives it a sportier look and feel as well. Other considerations, like an impending interior re-do and the yawning chasm between our new Corbeau bucket seats, convinced us that the time was right to install a Hurst shifter in Project Montelgo. Now, keep in mind that while the Hurst catalog is chock full of C4 and C6 tranny applications for Fords, we’re running an AOD in ours. We had to do some finagling to get things to work, including using an adapter from another company. In fact, several of the modifications were part of the conversion process from C4 to AOD and won’t be necessary for…

When it comes to rusty metal, most of us have a pretty keen sense of what a problem is and what can be ignored. Got a spot of corrosion on that old chrome wheel? Don’t look at it. Flaking bumpers? Zap the offending area with silver paint and get back on the road. On the other hand, the presence of rust, any rust, on a driveshaft slip yoke is a recipe for trouble. Here’s how to patch things up in a jiffy.…