Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2000 i Hot Rod

NOT BEHOLDEN The scene is St. Ignace, at the extreme lower end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the place where scores of thousands migrate lemming-like the third week of June to experience the Straits Car Show. And they do it with no less fervor and zeal than the pilgrims who are drawn to Mecca. St. Ignace (say “ignuss”) is defined by its waterfront, but when you venture inland a few blocks and trace its uneven sidewalks and clapboard houses, it becomes any small town anywhere east of the Mississippi River. If there is an upscale neighborhood, it would be nearby’ Mackinac Island, which maintains a fair amount of exclusivity in that it is reachable only by helicopter or shuttle boat. You could probably swim there if you were so inclined, but…

When the 5.7L LS1 V-8 debuted in the Y-platform (Corvette) and F-platform (Camaro/Firebird), we knew immediately that it was a worthy successor to the small-block it replaced. But along with the enthusiasm (generated by regularly observed 3OOhp chassis dyne numbers, a 162-mph top speed, and mid-13-second capability on street tires) was a sense of fear. Many agreed that the LSI was a standout performer in stock trim, but would we be able to hop it up, or would the computer controls required for stringent OBDII compliance leave us out in the cold? Judson Massingill, longtime drag racer and proprietor of the School of Automotive Machinists (S.A.M.) in Houston, Texas, had to investigate this firsthand, so he bought a Hugger Orange ’99 Camaro SS (RPO WU8) with a six-speed manual transmission…

We imagined keyboards clicking furiously; e-mails shooting in from around the globe lambasting us for preaching the science of exhaust technology without providing cold, hard evidence from the real world. The thought motivated us and the premise was clear: take a garden-variety performance engine, outfit it with several sets of headers, and chart the results. Any tuning changes necessitated by the header change would be duly noted. It should surprise no one that we used a small-block Chevrolet for its popularity and because of the vast assortment of pipes available for it. Ours was a typical recipe: 355 cubes, 9:1 compression, aluminum 23-degree Trick Flow heads with 2.02/1.60-inch valves, and a Comp Cams Magnum 286 flat-tappet hydraulic cam (236/236 degrees at 0.050-inch lift, 0.490/0,490-inch lift, 110-degree lobe center). For this…

We want to do bad things, very bad things. The editor’s ’66 Biscayne is sure to live up to its “UXB” (unexploded bomb) vanity plate, what with a twin-turbocharged LSI under the hood and a Richmond six-speed nestled beneath the austere vinyl bench seat. Knowing him, the special of the day is sure to include six-grand powershifts and slick-rippling clutch dumps. No doubt he’d shred the original 10-bolt axle in a jiffy, so Ro searched and scored a 12-bolt out of a ’65 I mpala. But when Ray Currie (of 9-inch Ford axle fame) heard about this, he asked why we’d bother to build the GM axle when he could provide a stronger, less expensive 9-inch alternative. What’s more, Currie informed us that its new 9-Plus product line ol gear…

LARRY WOOD POSITION: Chief Designer. Hot Wheels LENGTH OF SERVICE: Forever (technically, 31 years, but who’s counting?) RIDE: Most recently, a ’34 Ford coupe (traded for his ’32 Sedan Delivery) with a 350/TH400 combo, Lincoln Versailles 9-inch, Mustang II front suspension, and full Pro Street style WHAT HE’S CREATED: If you’ve ever collected, chances are you have a Larry Wood design in your assembly. For about 15 years—from the mid-’7Os to late ’80s—Wood was Hot Wheels’ sole designer; now his focus is aimed at the collector, rather than the kids. HOW HAS YOUR TASTE IN CARS INFLUENCED YOUR HOT WHEELS DESIGNS?: “Gosh, I’ve done so much… most recently that influence has come out in the 1:18 Mercury woodie wagon, and the Gone in 60 Seconds set. The Purple Passion lead…

To millions, Mopar means performance. And Hor Wheels has done plenty of them over the years: from mild to wild, from street-stock to Street Freak. Trucks, concept cars, cop and fire chief cars… this is a pictorial history of Hot Wheels’ take on Mopars over five decades of die-cast cars. Most of the vehicles here are still available in stores, or from mailorder retailers, in one form or another. Many of these 1:64 scale castings has been available in different colors over the years, so what you see here is only a guide to what was produced, and what’s out there to be collected. Hot Wheels Collectibles vehicles feature a higher level of detail than your typical $1 Hot Wheels car, and are available either singly or in two- or…

The problem with towing is that whatever’s being pulled is separate from the thing doing the pulling. Hence, they tend to behave like separate vehicles, and where they’re joined, the hitch, is yanked all over the place and gets sloppy. Draw-Tite’s new J-Pin hitch pin compresses the hitch mounted accessory against the inner side-wall of the hitch receiver tube so that once attached, the company says, “the hitch and towing components seem virtually welded together.” That means less trailer sway, less rattling, and more confident towing leading to a generally better life for you, your family, and America. Draw-Tite Inc., Dept. HR10, 40500 Van Born Rd., Canton, MI 48188; 734/722-7800; www.draw-tite.com. Big Trucks, Big Sound Loud is easy, better is difficult. And short of the Boston Pops or Tony Bennett,…

Crystal and ’33 David Helms of Fort Payne, Alabama, convinced cutie Crystal Jones to park next to his ’33 highboy. The three-window features a mildly worked 351 Windsor out of an ’86 Ford pickup and is backed up by a C4 automatic. “This car represents several hours of hard work,” says David, indeed. Jennifer and Chevelle Todd and Jennifer (seen here) Green of Orange, Connecticut, took three long years to piece their big-block baby together, and they say it’s been worth it! Their ’71 sports a 0.060-over 454, 11.5:1 compression, an Edel-brock tunnel ram with two 660-cfm carbs, an M2l four-speed, a 12-bolt rear, and tons of metalwork. Dawn and Another Chevelle Dawn Proctor, living somewhere in California, sent this picture via HOT ROD Power Club. (The Readers’ Rides editor…

Imagine 100 of the best and best-known hot rods in America today, all under one roof! HOT ROD Live! will offer up more than 50,000 square feet of the coolest, most significant street rods, street machines, Pro Tourers, and modified performance vehicles in America at the California International Auto Show, November 8-12, 2000, at the Anaheim Convention Center. You’re invited to drop by and see what’s what! You can also see all of the latest and greatest new and concept vehicles, some of which you may have read about in these very pages! More than half a million people showed up at last years California International Auto Show, and with the added attraction of HOT ROD Live!, we expect even more folks to check out what’s going on. Call 717/566-6100…

If familiarity breeds contempt, then the ’69 Camaro must be one of the most despised cars of all time. While many will scream “classic,” others wail just as loudly, “enough already!” Perception is reality, and these pictures will likely help recement our reputation as a Chevy magazine, despite things like Oldsmobile features and Mercurys on the cover. Doubtless, the very fact that a Camaro is in our pages will be enough to send Mopar purists, Pontiac nuts, Mustang supporters, and every other faction into spasms and convulsions and to writing clever letters saying things like, “How come you only write about Chevys? Do more [fill in the blank]! You suck!” Sigh. Assuming you’ve read this far, and you’re not a Camaro booster, don’t think of this car as a Camaro.…

If you’ve ever wondered about the torsional stress that the roof of your car absorbs, take an empty shoebox, put the lid on, and flex it. Then take the top off and flex it again. See the difference? That box bottom is your chassis, and if you stress it too much and too often, something’s gonna break. Starting with a convertible, then, is not a way that many of us choose to get intimate with bends in the road. The extra bracing added at the factory hardly ever makes up for what a real roof can do; a proper rollcage stiffens things up but adds more weight still. Pillared coupes usually get the nod for this kind of duty, and in general, the smaller the car, the easier it’ll be…

As Ray Currie says, “There’s a big difference between ‘I can do it’ and ‘I can do it for a full racing season with no maintenance.’” When it comes ro comparing a stock Chevy 12-bolt to a 9-Plus (or even a stock Ford 9-inch for that matter), the harsh reality is that the 9-inch is the better choice for anything short of a full-on restoration. Hey, if the thought of hanging a Ford axle under your GM product gives you the shakes, remember, the 9-Plus line is composed entirely of aftermarket parts. The carrier bearing cap on the left is out of a 12-bolt; the one on the right is a double-rib, nodular iron goodie from a Currie 9-Plus Street case. The 12-bolt cap is outclassed in the strength department;…

More cars. More people. More fun. Less heat and humidity, somehow. All of it produced a field of more than 250 cars at the Bowling Green Power Fest. Here’s just a sampling of what you missed out there in the rolling hills of Kentucky. Power Festival 2000 Sponsors FEATURING SPONSORED BY CLASS SPONSORS OFFICIAL PRODUCTS CONTINGENCY SPONSORS ATI, AUTOMETER, BG FUELS, BORLA PERFORMANCE, COMPETITION CAMS, CSI, DEMON CARB, EDELBROCK, FLOWMASTER, FORD RACING, HEDMAN HEDDERS, HOLLEY, HOOSIER RACING TIRE, MICKEY THOMPSON TIRES, MOROSO PERFORMANCE, MOSER ENGINEERING, MR. GASKET COMPANY, MSD IGNITION, NITROUS WORKS, TENNECO, TORCO RACING FUELS PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS Modem TechBranden SuttonCarthage, TN’89 Red Pontiac Grand Am Paint & GraphicsJeff WeiheLouisville, KY’69 Orange Chevelle Street RodRon SchmittKokomo, IN’37 White/Red Flames Ford InteriorBill HibbsMt. Washington, KY’94 Red Chevy S-10 EngineRodger WeiheLouisville,…

Any car magazine can tell you about what’s happening for the 2001 model year, which is upon us as you read this. But where else can you find out about the smoldering new performance goodies headed your way for 2002 and beyond? Only from your pals at HOT ROD. Our moles have been digging around file rooms and warehouses deep into the night to bring you next year’s news now. We’ve already speculated that Chevy will have something special planned for the Camaro at the end of its run, but there’s much more coming. Sounds like 2002 will be a banner year for modern performance. 2002 LS1 IMPALA Stung by criticism that it killed off a good thing in the prime of life, and doubtless responding to pressure brought to…

Our Power Tour coverage usually consists of us telling you how wonderful everything was. This year, we gave six Long Haulers notepads and cameras and asked them to tell us their Power Tour stories. Get a glimpse into the insanity and mundanity, the cars and folks, the side trips, the bad food, the good vibes—all that makes Power Tour what it is, from the people who made it what it is. Join us next year, and make your own story. The Players Martin Weinreb and Steve Strope (SS) met on Power Tour West ’98. This year they took Martin’s ’72 “Challenger X” on the Long Haul. Watch for a feature soon. Kansans Adria DeGrazio (AD) and Brooke Vannaman did their first Long Haul in Adria’s Mustang Cobra ragtop, and had…

Improving the performance of a given engine is the basis of our hobby, yet the goals we set can be elusive, even risky at times. Obviously, the risk stems from the unknown; how well our cars will run after modifying them remains a variable until the results are tested. The best we can do is to gather all available input from enthusiast magazines, word of mouth, and perhaps even the Internet. From there, we take a leap of faith and lay down hard-earned cash for equipment we hope will be worth it. Unfortunately, in our zeal to make big power gains, we sometimes select the biggest, baddest, ultra-slick trick-of-the-month items, regardless of whether they’re actually suited to our application. The results are often a major disappointment and we retreat into…

POSITION: Modelmaker, “I work with the sketch guys to make their designs come to life, massaging some things when necessary. I also help shrink and tweak things to make them fit the packaging.” LENGTH OF SERVICE: Five years RIDE: All-steel ’34 Ford coupe, SBC/TH35O, 6-8 inch roof chop, Wilwood four-wheel discs WHAT HE’S CREATED: His only original piece to date is the NASCAR toolbox, but a ’51 Studebaker truck in l:64 scale in the Designers Originals series is on the way for 2001. HOW HAS YOUR TASTE IN CARS INFLUENCED YOUR HOT WHEELS DESIGNS?: “I own about 50 cars, and that Studebaker pickup is one of them.”…

HOTCHKIS DAKOTA QUAD CAB The best thing about trucks is that they’re trucks, not Camaros. Here, in the vastly advanced 21st Century, a better running, better handling machine-that can haul crap back from the swap meet just might be the rig-building ideal. Hotchkis Performance’s 2000 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab is a sweet example of new-era truck performance. It’s lowered, but not slammed into uselessness, and definitely handles better than the original. It’s quicker than stock and sounds majestic, but its 4.7L, OHC V-8 hasn’t been overwhelmed with trick stuff that demands constant tinkering and S3-a-gallon pop. And with a smoothed rear bumper, custom grille inserts, and gorgeous wheels, it looks about as good as a truck can look. Since Hotchkis has built its reputation on handling, the chassis got the…

All in One Piece Performance Distributors The D.U.I. (Davis Unified Ignition) is the latest one-piece iteration for Mopar motors. The D.U.I. coil is contained inside the distributor cap, along with the high output Dyna-Module for a neat installation. Every unit is calibrated for a specific engine combination. Information: Performance Distributors, Dept. HR10, 2699 Barris Dr., Memphis, TN.38132; 901/396-5782. Roll Outta This Bed Beaver Bed Systems Recently awarded SEMA’s Best Engineered Product of the Year, Beaver Bed Systems announces its patented retractable truck beds. With the tailgate lowered and the locking mechanism released, the platform rolls out to conveniently load and unload cargo. These platforms also function as a work structure for on-site construction projects. Information: Beaver Bed Systems, Dept. HR 10, 1069 John R Rd., Rochester Hills, MI 48307; 248/608-0905;…