Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2002 i Hot Rod

At the New York Auto Show, GMNA Chairman Bob Lutz announced that the General will be bringing the Holden Monaro Coupe to America to become the 21st-century interpretation of the legendary Pontiac GTO. Lutz likes to put the hammer down. “I gotta tell ya, I love driving this car,” he said. “It’s got a 5.7L V-8 and a six-speed transmission—and when it was introduced in Australia last October, it became an instant classic…. It shares that V-8 heritage and a brawny, muscular stance with the classic GTO, and it will make a fine flagship for Pontiac.” Expect to see the car as a GTO about a year from now for the auto show deluge. Soon after, it will appear in Pontiac dealerships. Should be a pretty fat season (Chevy SSR,…

In the ’90s, I carpooled up to Wilshire with Steve Wolcott. I wouldn’t have subjected myself to a 150-mile roundtrip with anyone unless I was fond of him or her, and though Steve’s upbeat needling would have been obnoxious in anyone else, it endeared me to him because he did it with such confidence and style. He was the publisher of 5.0 Mustang then, and he’d often be back from a weekend of some event. And he’d always be counting the cash, literally. He’d have all those Jacksons and Franklins drooling out of paper sacks, plastering down the front seat, and while he counted it he’d be murmuring “Boy, does this feel good.” Right then, I knew my car mate was destined for grander appointments, fueled by the desire to…

Yikes, this is pricey. However, the cost of the 426 Hemi and the Weiand blower kit alone add up to just under the selling price of a Mopar Performance 528ci crate Hemi ($13,995), and our blown unit makes about 140 extra horsepower. Pick your thunder. We also added a bunch of stuff that might not be considered mandatory. And remember that a blower might just fit the engine you've already got-Weiand 6-71 and 8-71 kits for big-and small-block Chevys mail-order for between $2,000 and $2,500.…

You knew he was up to something when Cactus Jack teamed with World Products to produce a line of Roush-series small-block Ford cylinder heads. That something was, evidently, this: an all-new 347R Ford crate engine direct from Roush Performance. What’s to separate this from the fray of 347s on the voluminous 5.0 Mustang market? Exclusivity, power, and value. Roush is hoping to market only 1,000 of these exclusive critters this year. With a 4.030 bore and 3.400 stroke (stock 302 is 4.000x3.000), the complete 347R makes 430 hp and 415 Ib-ft for $7,500. Though that seems a fairly heavy hit, the Roush engine drips with premium items. Those on a budget less inclined could opt for the Roush long-block assembly at $6,150 or the short-block for $3,995. Roush Performance builds…

You hear lots of wild stories at car shows. Some are even true. One tale that really got our attention involved a shop that’s cranking out brand-new aluminum ’63 Pontiac Super Duty fenders, ’62 Z11 Impala hoods, ’63 Galaxie lightweight bumpers, ’64-’65 Race Hemi hood scoops, and a dazzling assortment of other exotic goodies. It had to be a joke—this stuff is the rarest of the rare. But it’s true. The shop is Wayne Williams Metal Shaping, and his hand-formed reproductions are as close as you can get to original without investing millions on dies and massive stamping equipment. Wayne opened his first body shop in 1958 back in his home state of Illinois. He specialized in custom bodywork and was the man to see for a shave, chop, channel,…

“Hey, man, do it agaaaaiiinnn,” coo I the flame junkies from the sidewalk across the street. It’s well past dark and the fire and brimstone shooting from the rear of Dean’s gone-nuts custom is spending its last on the invisible pavement. Then ol’ Dean opens the check valve and fills the exhaust system with raw gasoline for the tenth or twentieth time. “Do it, man, do it,” the harpies sing. And Dean does. We can feel the heat and the light from the violent plume of spurting gasoline 30 feet away, like we’re sitting around some demented campfire. Dean is totally in his element. The cops do not appear. “I know ’em all,” he cracks. “And I told them what I was gonna do tonight, so they’ll leave us alone.”…

299.6 HP AT 5,250 RPM 328.2 LB-FT AT 4,000 RPM Before the baseline testing could even begin, we had to cure the miserable old 2-inch exhaust system and Super Shops headers that were intertwined with the front suspension. We removed them the easiest way possible on a small-block A-body Mopar with cheap headers: Sawzall. To replace that disgrace, we had heard that TTI Exhaust made out-of-the-box coated headers and 3-inch exhaust systems that work well, so we tried them. It was true, and we chose the base DynoMax mufflers rather than the optional Flowmasters. The complete system with mufflers runs $552, and the coated headers are $560 direct from TTI. Source Tube Technologies Inc. (TTI) Corona, CA; 909/371-4878; www.ttiexhaust.com…

The first Chevrolets to race the Indianapolis 500 weren’t cars or engines—they were brothers. Arthur Chevrolet placed 36th at the 1911 inaugural event with a factory-entered Buick. In 1920, all three brothers drove Monroes built by Louis Chevrolet. Arthur crashed in practice and didn’t start, Louis went out with steering failure, but Gaston Chevrolet came through for the brothers’ first and only win. General Motors already owned the Chevrolet car company by then, and though the 216/235/261 inline six enjoyed backyard hot rodder popularity, it wasn’t until the small-block V-8 debuted for ’55 that Chevy supported competition. Small-blocks quickly replaced the Ford flathead in short-track oval racing. At Indy it was a different story despite the 50ci advantage over the four-banger Offys. It took until 1963 for a Chevy V-8…

Description: When we first launched the HOT ROD Approved column, we warned you that not all the stuff we’d loan endorsements to would he car parts. Here’s a good example: Mechanix Wear gloves. Designed specifically for wrenching, we use ’em all the time to avoid getting dirty at the junkyard, for handling sharp or rusty metal, for holding onto wrenches in the cold, and even for moving wood around the house. The company makes different models for different tasks, including the Original Glove for general wrenching, the M-Pact and M-Pact II for knuckle-busting environments, and the 0.5 Original and 0.5 M-Pact for applications requiring greater feel and dexterity. Our favorite new product is the Cold Weather Glove with Thinsulate, and though we haven’t tried the mitts designed for solvent use,…

This Months Mail OK, back to a semblance of normalcy. Last month was all about the passing of our 01' Dad, and the marl that continues to come on that topic will be shared with the family. Thanks to all for your condolences. But the gearhead life must go on, and so must the mail. A surprising amount of feedback from the past several months has been in regards to my Mercury-Capri-bashing story, "Best Deals: The Top 10 Bargain Protect Cars'' in the April 02 issue. You'll see some of it below. -David Freiburger E-MAIL: hotrod@primediacmmg.com MAIL: HOT ROD Reaction Time, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 FAX: 323/782-2223 WEB SITE: www.hotrod.com Our 10 Best Bargain Picks I see you morons are at it again. You picked eight of…

You’ve seen our new HOT ROD Hemi Ram: a 528ci, Elephant-powered what-if. Though we built it with generous factory assistance, it could hardly be called a “production” vehicle. For shame. But the Dodge truck division has a highperformance muscletruck history that goes back nearly 40 years, long before Ford Lightnings or Chevy 454SS pickups made the scene. 1964 D100 CUSTOM SPORTS SPECIAL: 426CI/365HP It took Dodge to whip up the Custom Sports Special, the world's first big-block muscletruck, based on the 122-inch wheelbase DI00. Raiding the corporate parts bin, the package included Dart GT bucket seats, a ’63 Polara 500 floor console, and an optional 365hp 426 Street Wedge. Unique features included an actual Stewart-Warner in-dash tach (426 models only}, a chrome grille, and four 1-inch racing stripes covering the…

There are cheaper ways to make 750 hp, but not on pump gas, and no way are they this easy. Here’s the plan: Take your Mopar Performance 426 crate Hemi out of the box, bolt on a Weiand 8-71, and watch it barf up 753 hp at 6,300 rpm and 669 Ib-ft at 4,900 rpm. That’s a gain of 259 hp and 169 lb-ft over our tested baseline—simple! Many of you will guffaw char the dorks at HOT ROD spent a fortune and called it cool when of course a blown Hemi should make big power. OK. Bur consider that nor one internal modification was required. We even used the stock hydraulic flat-tappet cam (278 degrees advertised duration, 0.490/0.480 lift), so it starts and idles like a bone stocker. There's…

There are lots of ways to build a sleeper. For most of us, the backbone of the less-is-more sleeper aesthetic involves is a series of deliberate decoys intended to lull potential prey into a false sense of security. To give the initial impression of slipshod construction and weak performance potential, we'll intentionally incorporate dents, primer spots, rusty chrome wheels, and a general aura of grunge while beneath the skin lies a highly evolved shredder. But for others, the perfect sleeper is a car with showroom stock looks inside and out. After all, hot rodding is all about climinating Detroit compromises. Everybody knows that stockers don’t run, right? In the case of this subtle cream yellow ’66 Chevy II sedan, a veritable greatest hits of small-block Chevrolet factory high-performance hardware was…

What if you could raid your favorite NASCAR team’s shop and stuff a gennie SB2 small-block under your hood? You can. We proved it in the July ’01 issue when we introduced you to Muscle Motorsports, one of the largest dealers in the used roundy-roundy speed-equipment biz. While that story showed the variety of components available from Muscle, this one will reveal how the parts can be used to make a wicked, 357ci, 8,000-rpm-capable, 650hp, 500-lb-ft, pump-gas-sipping engine: the Muscle Motorsports Street Fighter. Streetable? Kinda, but the violence, NASCAR legacy, and not-a-bellybutton-Mouse-motor appeal more than makes up for poor low-end manners. Cheap? Yes, considering the quality of the components and the power you’ll get. But if you’re on a junkyard budget, no—expect this sucker to run $12,000 to $18,000 complete…

The rules are about as simple as they get: Build a car for $2,002 or less, then show up with a bunch of other goofballs and have a dragstrip/autocross/show-and-shine shootout. Wish we’d thought of it. Actually, we did—but so did the gearheads at Grassroots Motorsports and presenting sponsors CRC Industries. The difference is that they had the stones to pull it off. GM is a little sports-car magazine out of Florida—one of few not owned by our company, but one that has a decent following among the collective Primedia staffs. As Owner/Founder/Publisher/Wacko Tim Suddard put it, “I’m not really a magazine guy—I’m a car guy that’s kind of publishing a magazine.” He does a good job of both (the mag is 18 years old), and the annual Challenge is representative…

Duct tape, cardboard, and even HOT ROD license plates—whatever was handy, we quilted it into our headliner bows to keep the curtain from dropping in our face. Danged annoying, it was, not to mention a really trashy sight; but we lived with it. Headliners are cheap, but getting them installed is intimidating. The easy out would have been to check in our Duster with a trim doctor and swap some cash for the cure. While pre-sewn ’liners (such as the six-bow Plymouth Duster piece we obtained from Year One) can be had for almost any application for well under $100, adding a pro installation could easily triple the out-of-pocket. Though we’re not contrary to shelling out where necessary, we’ve hung plenty of ’liners in our day, so it was just…

311.6 HP AT 5,150 RPM 338.4 LB-FT AT 4,000 RPM Sitting to the rear of the intake was a single-point distributor not much removed from the ones introduced in the horseless-carriage days. We diligently upgraded this piece in hot-rodder style with a racy set of springs plus new points and a fresh condenser. With that done, was it as good as anything else? Some guys say “Spark is spark as long as it fires." Hmmm. We had a new prototype MSD Ready-To-Run electronic sparker to see how it measures up. This distributor does not require any external trigger box such as a Mopar electronic unit or an MSD 6A, and we ran it right out of the box without spark amplification for simplicity. The result was an impressive 12hp, 10-lb-ft…

340.4 HP AT 5,650 RPM 371.9 LB-FT AT 3,750 RPM To add some variety to the mix of mods contemplated, we looked disdainfully at the fixed six-blade fan spinning via a solid hub at the front of our engine. Seems we read somewhere in a magazine article that big power was consumed by such an arrangement as recorded on an engine dyno. Was it fact or colorful fiction? We wanted to be believers, and fortunately had an OE seven-blade viscous-drive fan to test the theory. It turned out to be the cheapest upgrade we made for a significant gain of 16 hp, but curiously, not quite 1 Ib-ft.…

To some people, Carson Lev might just have one of the world’s best vocations. He “works” in the Design and Development group at Mattel and is active in the licensing end of it, too. He wanted to be a doctor and was in a premed program in college, but when his four years were over, he wound up designing medical equipment for a living instead. Then he had his own CAD-based prototype shop, but in 1995, his life changed forever. Now the middle-aged man with a kid’s heart is in a scale-replica wonderland all his own. “I grew up in Lakewood (California) with the Mooneyhams and Vince Rossi. Through them, I met Mert Littlefield and the Pisano Brothers. These guys were all hard-core drag racers, and that’s what 1 came…

John McNamara ’77 Chevy Impala Yorkville, IL OWNER’S OCCUPATION: Police sergeant ENGINE: 406 small-block ENGINE MODS: Speed Pro flattop pistons, 9.25:1, dual-plane intake, Holley 750 vacuum-secondary carb, L-82 valve covers DYNO-PROVEN POWER: Didn’t say. We’re sure the sergeant has no interest in exceeding the speed limit anyway. TRANSMISSION: Turbo 350, 2.500-rpm stall converter, Hayden auxiliary cooler REAREND: ’96 Impala SS rear axle assembly, 10-bolt, 8.5 ring gear, Auburn limited-slip, 3.42:1 axle ratio SUSPENSION: Lowered 3 inches, gas shocks, large-diameter front sway bar with poly links, rear 9C1 sway bar WHEEL TYPE AND SIZE: 17-inch OEM 96 Impala SS TIRE TYPE AND SIZE: BFGoodrich T/AKDWS 255ZR50-17 PAINT COLOR: BASF base/clearcoat. Diamont series. 91 Cadillac Fire Mist, Dark Blue Sapphire Metallic BODY MODIFICATIONS: Blackout trim, selected areas dechromed. ’78 Impala grille and…

Before testing the blower, we also ran our Hemi with the Mopar Performance crossram and Holley 770-cfm Race Hemi carbs. Year One (800/YEAR-ONE; www.yearone.com) supplied the linkage, and makes it for both Holley and Carter/Edelbrock applications on the crossram. (See the full catalog listing at Year One's newly revamped Web site.) We ultimately found that the crossram made about an extra 20 top-end hp at the cost of 20 Ib-ft at the low-end. However, the crossram also made for finicky tuning, and the spec carbs even came with staggered jetting in each carb, and the left and right carbs were also jetted differently. We had difficulty tuning it to run smoothly throughout the rpm range, and wouldn’t recommend this setup for a 426 with the stock cam and compression—this is…

Stimpson isn't the first guy to marry Corvette fuelie power with the diminutive Chevy II. In our Mar. ‘62 issue, the late Ray Brock explored the world of factory-engineered Chevrolet V-8 engine-swap kits for the then-new ‘62 Chevy II. Though assembly line V-8 installations didn't come until 1964 with the 195hp L32 283 two-barrel option, comprehensive over-the-counter kits opened the door for owner/dealer installation of any small-block right up to the 360-horse 184 Corvette 327 fuelie. Remember, those were the days before CAFE and strict federal pollution regulations. The white 327 fuelie Nova two-door hardtop (top) tested by Brock was so impressive, he wrote, "Once these kits are available in quantity, every Chevrolet service shop throughout the country will be plenty busy making engine swaps. Wonder what they'll do with…

Does this look like a $2,002 car? Apparently it did to the fellow competitors, as no one protested. But here’s a good comment on the GrassrootsMotorsports.com message board: "Sure, just take a 3,000-pound block of billet and machine away anything that isn't an F1 car." Kinda what Team Mongrel Motorsports did, putting many, many hours into the detail work of a BMW 2002 with a Tii engine, an Eaton blower, and nitrous. Team Mongrel showed up with a 27-foot trailer and two spare short-blocks after melting a piston in testing. At the Challenge, the car placed 12th at the autocross, but netted a deserving top score for the show and shine. At the dragstrip fun day, it went a best of 15.20 before smoking a clutch then cracking a blower…

Crouching behind 2,500 hp in a rudimentary chassis was a dangerous place to be in 1973, just as it had always been. Compared to the safety concessions 30 years hence, those old guys really did run on a prayer and without a wing. Oh what days they were! They also marked the end of nonconformity and the wildness that had made drag racing so enticing and intense to young hearts. In 1973, I was busy trying to be the editor of Car Craft. When it came time for the epic annual Funny Car issue, I more or less revolted. I was a hard-core doorslammer disciple who had no time or inclination for anything (Fuel Altereds excepted) that wasn’t wearing them. To me, early Factory Experimental coupes were the hottest thing…

Old stuff, new stuff, parts are parts. So what’s the difference, right? We had a hot-but-cheap 360 in our ’70 Duster—a lowly rebuilder’s short-block topped with ported production heads squeezing 9.0:1 compression and amped up with cast-off performance parts on a meth-head’s budget. Though our combo was archaic, the performance was credible to the tune of 300 real rear-wheel horsepower. That’s stout output. Manly enough, in fact, to propel this nearly stock-chassis Mopar A-body down the quarter at 12.95 at 103 mph with a four-speed and 3.55:1 gears. We were smugly satisfied with that accomplishment while relying on swap-meet technology. Was this old stuff as good as it gets? Cautiously, we considered shuffling our basic combo with more recent incarnations of the traditional performance parts that got us to our…

321.8 HP AT 5,100 RPM 367.6 LB-FT AT 3,750 RPM Spanning the gap between the heads was the proud Torker intake of yesteryear, selected for no reason other than that we had it. Made obsolete years ago by Edelbrock, the original Torker seemed to develop credible output. Cynical though we can be, our strong supposition is that Edelbrock has pushed up the potential of its aluminum passages in the decades since the old Torkers were poured. Is there a better way to confirm our suspicions than to bolt on Edelbrock’s newest intake, the Performer RPM Air-Gap, and see? It’s PN 7576, $234.95 at Summit. Source Edelbrock Torrance, CA; 310/781-2222; www.edelbrock.com…

350.5 HP AT 5,700 RPM 389.2 LB-FT AT 3,900 RPM Going back to the top, our 360 was still capped with an old 750-cfm Carter AFB carb, a veteran workhorse straight from the musclecar era. We knew that Barry Grant was vending a modern line of performance mixers. We wondered, however, if we would really see any gains with a stylish new Demon carb over our similarly sized aluminum four-barrel. The SuperFlow chassis dyno promised to lay our questions to rest with real numbers. The carb we used was Speed Demon (PN 1402010), which sells for around $400. Source Demon Carburetion Dahlonega, GA; 706/864-8544, www.barrygrant.com…

Instant-Fit Steering Shaft Flaming River 800/648-8022 www.flaming-river.com If you’re building a street rod or anything that requires a custom link between the steering column and the box or rack, then you’re familiar with the hassle of cutting the shaft to make it fit properly between a pair of U-joints. Well check this out. Flaming River—maker of our favorite battery cutoff switch—has a new EZ Fit shaft that expands or collapses to fit without any cutting. It’s preassembled with the U-joints, and the spring maintains tension to avoid annoying rattles. Pretty cool. Flaming River also has a full line of conventional shafts and joints as well as new columns and steering wheels. Lightweight "fraction Steeda Autosports 954/960-0774 www.steeda.com We re on a big kick for lightweight parts—nothing else makes you run…

Ask Axle What is the difference between a posi rearend, a locking rearend, and a live axle rearend? What applications are they meant for? Brian BoneVia hotrod.com Even if you aren’t new to the automotive world, there are plenty of terms to get straight. Here’s the deal on rearends: The word "posi" has come to be universally accepted as meaning an axle equipped with a differential that is capable of supplying torque to both tires provided there is not too much of a difference in traction between the two. (Hence the other generic term, "limited-slip.’’) The name goes back to December, 1956, when Chevrolet released the Posi-traction option for Corvettes and passenger cars. A locking rearend incorporates a mechanical coupling (usually a ratchet-type device) that locks both rear axles together…

I don’t know about you, but I’ve about had it with header-collector leaks. Unlike header flange gaskets that go between the header and exhaust ports, the collector flange gaskets are often subjected to non-stop shredding forces. As the motor moves in its mounts, the rest of the exhaust system has to move with it and the flanged junction between the collectors and head pipes can become an unwanted pivot point. No matter how tight you turn the bolts, typical asbestos composite gaskets either crush, crumble, or tear in the line of duty. A good solution is the use of aluminum or copper replacement gaskets. They conform to irregular shapes without damage, they’re reusable, and they never bum out. Shown here are aluminum Real Seal gaskets from Flow Tech (602/966-1511), but…