Indholdsfortegnelse for January 1961 i Hot Rod

For the man a kart is the racing sports car in miniature he always wanted to own. For the woman it is the chance to experience driving thrills in a new sport where (because of lighter weight) she is often superior to the adult male kart driver. To children driving a kart is perhaps the greatest single thrill they will ever know because karting duplicates every big car condition in miniature; skids, slides and all types of control situations that few adult drivers ever get the chance to experience. To the teen-ager, racing a kart is a fine “safety valve” because he will get the sensation and mental stimulus of great speed but without the danger. He will be a much more skillful and safer big car driver because of…

61 PLYMOUTH… SOLID BEAUTY You'll have nothing but warm words for this hot Plymouth bundle. Praise for the way the Golden Commando 395 V-8* eats up the map. Admiration for the quiet way Unibody stands up. Applause for the way Torsion-Aire “levels with you"'—for the neat new steering ease. Plymouth's Solid Beauty will win whistles from everyone. Get neat to a '61 Plymouth at your nearby Plymouth dealer's today!…

Testing the latest offerings from this country's automobile manufacturers is, despite what many of you might think, not always an easy job. There is no broad quality scale with good cars at one end and bad cars at the other; it's just the opposite. All of the cars produced in this country are good buys in terms of engineering value received for dollars spent. The big difference is the type of job they are going to be required to perform and the buyer's preference in styling, size and price. What makes a car easy or hard for us to evaluate then? If it is a good all-around automobile that looks different than last year's model and will run well over 50,000 miles with nothing more than fuel, oil, tires and…

Nineteen hundred and sixty was a banner year for drag racing. 1*1 For this was the year that the National Hot Rod Associa- 11 tion announced its new and different World's Champion Drag Racing Points Competition; a system whereby an authentic and representative drag racer could be crowned “King of the Sport.” The system proved an instantaneous success and the winner of the competition, Mr. Buddy Garner of Hobbs, New Mexico, is certainly as representative of the drag racing sport as anyone could be. What is most incredible of all is the fact that Buddy turned the feat with a C Altered drag machine. NHRA had devised the Points Competition system to place a leveler on the sport, allowing every rodder a chance at the title, no matter what class…

In the design or modification of a high performance internal combustion engine one of the most important single items is the combustion chamber. Valves, cams and crankshafts are certainly important, but the layout of the combustion chamber decides whether the engine is going to be a champ or chump. In the article “High Performance Has A Hot Heart” we discussed the vital importance of having smooth normal combustion. This article is intended to augment the initial article on combustion by showing how the engine designer or engine modifier can insure he has normal combustion in his engine by applying basic combustion chamber technology to the operation or design of his engine. Some of the combustion chamber technology we will discuss came from the purely theoretical work of some real pioneers…

Fenders have been extended three inches for headlight tunnels. 58 Olds chrome trim. The grille is stock with…

NHRA CHARTER CLUB When show time rolls around, there's one NHRA Charter Club that's really outstanding in participation and interest; the Road Knights of Davenport, Washington. Since formation of the Knights in early 1955, show-going has been one of their chief activities. Interest in exhibiting the club cars is most evident in the long list of wins recorded from many of the Northwest's biggest auto shows, including top Canadian presentations. The club members walked off with a big share of awards at the Capital City Custom Car Show at Olympia, Washington; the Dalles, Oregon Show; the County Fair Car Show at Davenport; and Spokane's big auto show conducted by the Manito Lions Club of Spokane, Washington. Main objectives of the Knights include better driving by the members, strict observance of…

Many of today's hot rodders may be surprised to learn that the competitive part of this sport wasn't always synonomous with drag racing. Legal competitive hot rodding originated on the dry lakes of Southern California. This was years before anyone so much as thought of legalized drag racing. There was plenty of drag racing even then but it was usually a secretive, after-dark part of the sport. Muroc dry lake, second only to Bonneville salt flats for highspeed straightaway events, was the scene of the original dry lake activity until it was taken over by the U.S. government to become a military aircraft test center. After being ousted from Muroc. hot rodders wandered back and forth between Rosamond, Evans, and El Mirage dry lakes in search for a suitable place…

Wilmington, California Wilmington, California Photos by Curt Hamilton…

This fantastic air car won for builder George Barris first place in the Experimental class and the coveted Custom Shop Achievement Award. XPAC 400 featured fluorescent lighting front and rear, electronic controls, directional control via air ducts, and stnning red. white, and blue paint. Main portion of Irotly was finished in Metal- flake from Dobeckmum Company. Car Craft Magazine headed-up impartial show judges.…

The National Hot Rod Association has just announced that the 1961 WIN- Pomona, California, drag strip, located on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Dates have been set at February 17, 18, 19 with the rain date being one week later. The initial WINTERNATIONALS were held at Daytona Beach, Florida, but this big event has been moved west as a balancer to offset the eastern location of the recent Nationals. Speculation among drag racing enthusiasts as to the site of this year's event, which shall be named the “BIG GO WEST,” has been at a fever pitch ever since early autumn, when it was announced that the affair would be held somewhere “out west.” Prospective participants are already contacting NHRA field representatives for information on the winter run. It seems a…

MIDGET MAKER Dear Editor: I would like to compliment you on your fine magazine. I'm sure it is a great help and entertainer to auto enthusiasts throughout the United States. Enclosed is a photo of my street midget. It is constructed of all Ford parts. The midget is powered by a Ford V8 “60” running through a '38 trans and Model T rear end. The frame, steering gear and front end are also Model T. The body is built of straight pieces of metal except for the grille, which is a '37 Ford. A specially built case on the underside of the frame is for the battery. The gas tank is located in the tail. I hope to soup up the engine in the near future. Jerry Mans Mankato, Minnesota…

The new-size Tempest is primed to scoot on less gas! Five hot versions of the Trophy 4 engine. 110 to 155 h.p. Any choice will move out in a hurry, sail up a steep hill in high gear, has the power for quicker, safer passing. Front engine is balanced by rear transmission. (Standard stick shift or extra-cost automatic.) Takes weight off the front. Easy steering. Longer tire life. Adds ballast in the rear. Improves traction and braking. No big floor hump. Foot room and leg room for six men. Independent suspension at all 4 wheels. Most other cars only have it in front. Wide-Track, too. The Tempest wheels are set farther apart than the wheels of other new-size cars. Gives a solid stance. Secure cornering. There's a 4-door sedan and…

Scientists say that the world and everything in it are based on mathematics. Without math the men who are continually seeking the causes of and the reasons for the many things that make the world go 'round would not have any means of analyzing, standardizing, and communicating the things they discover and learn. Math and the formulas that allow it to be applied to different problems are. therefore, essential to any scientific endeavor. Hot rodding is a science. It's not a science as involved as determining what makes the earth rotate on its axis or building a rocket or putting a satellite into orbit but it is, nevertheless, a science. But because science is based on mathematics doesn't mean that a hot rodder must necessarily be a mathematician. A guy…

Visual impact, a mighty important phase of custom car design, is currently being exploited through an exciting if not controversial technique known as panel painting. As the logical evolution of striping, scalloping and flame painting, the panel kick provides the effects of all three while offering still more outlet for the highly imaginative artist with a spray gun. No longer is a paint job merely a protective finish; now each custom becomes a mobile masterpiece with sharp detail and overspray blends highlighting the oirginal metalwork with bursts of color and accentuating curves. We went through the process with striper Dean Jeffries of Hollywood just on the chance that the gimmick might appeal to you; the middle-aged, conservative and faint of heart not withstanding.…

Salem, Virginia…

There have been a number of new engines introduced within the past year, thanks to GM, Ford and Chrysler com-pacts, and to date the one which has proven to be the hottest is the slant six used by Valiant and also, in 1961, the Dodge Lancer. Equipped with an optional factory kit, the Valiant shocked its competition last winter at Daytona Beach as it turned speeds above 128 mph on the 21/2-mile Daytona Speedway and also waltzed away with a compact sports car race. This 170-inch engine differed from showroom stock in carburetion, cam, compression and exhaust. A four-barrel carburetor and ram-tuned intake manifold fed the air/fuel mixture to the cylinders with 10.5:1 pistons. The camshaft was a long duration grind with springs and pushrods designed to perform best between…

Great emphasis is placed upon safety in drag racing, and every year, hundreds of rodders compete for the coveted Don Ziemer Safety Award at the National Championship Drags. The 1960 trophy was presented to Harold Carter (center) from Cleveland, Ohio. Of general interest to all hot rodders, and of particular interest to drag racers, is the news that the NHRA Drag Rules Committee has met and developed the basic rules and regulations that shall govern drag racing in 1961. As in the past, major emphasis has been placed upon the vast responsibility for drag strip and vehicle safety, with considerable attention paid to making all drag classes more competitive and more fair. Just after the 1960 National Championship Drags in Detroit, NHRA field directors began setting up their divisional…