Indholdsfortegnelse for February 1988 i Hot Rod

Jim Austin’s ’41 Bow-Tie coupe may not be of the Pro Street kind, but it is nevertheless plenty rotund and rumpy. With 468 cubic inches of Mar Fab and Street & Performance-dressed Speed Specialties big-block power under the hood, the 3-inch front and 2½-inch rear chopped Toyota Supra red coupe is a fast cruiser. Norm Francis Street Rods of El Cajon, California, which performed most of the work, mated a 2-inch-lowered Heidt Mustang II IFS with power disc brakes and rack-and-pinion steering to the stock frame, and hung a Ford 9-inch axle to the stock rear springs. Fore and aft Francis anti-roll bars complement Center Line-mounted 195 and 235/70x14 radial rubber to improve comfort and handling. The smooth Tom Taylor and Jack White bodywork includes hidden trunk hinges, filled grille…

There’s more than one way to attack a fat-fendered Ford or Chevy—or Mopar, Olds, Buick, or Merc, for that matter. In the early days, rodders thought ’36 and later models (the first cars you could put fender skirts on) were good only for tail-dragging customs. Then some rodders realized they could take a ’40 or ’36 coupe, lower the other end, drop a hot mill in it, paint some flames on the hood, and rod it. Later, the Gassers raised the fronts of these fatties, put hotter engines in ’em, and influenced street rodders to do the same. Finally, when race cars went nose down once again and tucked the big tires inside the fenders, somebody thought it’d look great in a fat Ford body, and Pro Fat was born.…

Don’t let the story title mislead you. This Diamond Black ’67 Mustang Fastback is no weenie; it just belongs to Frankfort, Illinois, resident Terry Podschweit, a 44-year-old coal miner. A long-time hot rodder and former owner of various hot cars, Terry planned to restore this nearly new Mustang when he bought it from the original owner in 1981. The plan went as far as a new paint job by brother Herb before the hot rod bug bit Terry again. The first step was to install a homebuilt ’76 Ford 302 V8 stuffed with a steel crank, Arias 7:1 pistons, a Crane valvetrain, a Dyers blower topped by a pair of Carter AFBs, an Accel igniter, and Hooker headers. A B&M-driven (3500-rpm converter), cooled, and shifted C6 automatic sits out back.…

A few years ago purists would have been aghast at what they thought Virginian John Reedy had done to an immaculate ’55 Thunderbird. After all, these increasingly rare machines are considerably more valuable as restorations than as race cars, so installing a 482-cid Dale Engineering-built Chevy would have to be considered the ultimate in automotive blasphemy. Relax. Reedy’s Quick Rod (8.90 dial-in IHRA competition) only looks like a classic ’Bird. In reality it’s a ground-up, custom-built race car featuring a 104-inch-wheelbased, Jeg’s Automotive-built tubular chassis with Strange Engineering suspension and brakes, Koni shocks, and Ford rack-and-pinion steering. Mickey Thompson slicks provide the traction, with Moroso front rubber providing the direction on polished Center Line wheels. Because consistency is the key to winning in Quick Rod, John relies on a TCI-modified…

Modified resto cars seem to be the perfect compromise for performance enthusiasts desiring both brute acceleration and the classic look of a factory musclecar. John Seguin, an auto parts salesman from Van Nuys, California, took the initiative to tinker with Oldsmobile’s premier contingent, creating his version of the perfect hot rod. This owner-painted, Cinnabar Red 4-4-2 is the result of seven years of labor and a $20,000 investment. Other than the installation of Hooker headers flanking the factory 400-inch engine and miscellaneous plating, John’s engine compartment appears to be relatively stock. But we all know that appearances can be deceiving. In the case of this Olds, the bruiser’s been bumped to a whopping 482 inches! Custom 4.25-inch Arias pistons, 7-inch 425/400 rods, and a 4.25-inch stroke 455 crankshaft make for…

For the price of the trans pan, valve body, and separator plate gaskets, the firmness and quickness of GM Turbo 400 upshifts and downshifts can be dramatically improved, according to Darrell Young’s Racing Transmissions (7250 Hindes, North Hollywood, CA 91605, 818/503-9055). The simple mod requires only drilling out some holes in the separator plate. The separator plate is accessed by first removing the pan and filter, then the valve body. When removing the valve body, be careful not to damage the governor tubes (consult your service manual for detailed instructions). At this point, the separator plate is visible; proceed as follows: 1. The separator plate is held in position by the kickdown solenoid. On the trans case side of the plate are six check balls. To avoid losing these balls,…

Swindler II Lowers The Boom.” “While The Mournful Refrain From ’Chloe’ Echoes From The Stands…S-W-C Where Are You?” “Big June All Shook Up Over Losing The Big One To S-W-C.” “Who Is The Number 3 Gas Coupe In The Nation, Ohio George Or Big John?” “Flash! George Montgomery A/Gas Supercharged Winner At Indy…Who’s Drinking Their Milk From The Hind Faucet Now?” Do these headlines sound familiar? I doubt it, unless you were part of the early-to mid-’60s drag racing scene—and caught up in drag racing’s most colorful era, the gasser wars. Ah yes, la guerre de gas—one of drag racing’s finest periods. It was a time when the gas coupes and sedans ruled the roost. The likes of cam grinders Ringo (Engle) and Eskimo (Iskenderian); trans builders such as C&O,…

As America’s only sports car, the Corvette has always represented the leading edge of Yankee high-performance technology, and on the occasion of its 35th birthday it continues to demonstrate the things that are right with America’s automotive industry. While Detroit continues to take it on the chin for everything from poor quality to mediocre design, the Corvette shines brighter than ever with state-of-the-art engineering, unparalleled performance and superb quality. Continual refinement has been a longstanding hallmark of the Corvette, and the current level of performance and reliability it enjoys is the result of strong engineering efforts and three wildly successful years of SCCA Showroom Stock endurance racing. In its current generation, the Corvette remains undefeated by any production automobile. Refinements to the 1988 model are dedicated to reliability, convenience, and…

At first glance, Charles Anderson’s Oriental Candy Blue ’69 Z/28 is just another, wheel-tubbed Camaro—a generic Pro Streeter, just as a red ’32 Ford is generic street rod. But Anderson, who works for GM in Lansing, Michigan, knows and loves Camaros (this is his 11th). This one drives on weekends, wins car shows (16 trophies in five outings), and turns 10.80s at 129 on the strip. Marrah Auto Body installed new frame rails, tied to the front subframe; installed a narrowed 5.38 Dana 60 on A-M coil-overs with C.E. ladder bars; built an eight-point cage; and then detailed it all in blue candy. Meanwhile, Reichert Racing Engines was assembling a steel-crank, four-bolt 355 with 12.5:1 TRWs, Crane roller cam, ported 292 Turbo heads, and a Holley Dominator on an Edelbrock…

The original Holley Model 4150 carburetors were introduced over 30 years ago. While the now-classic design has withstood the test of time and outlasted most other competitive 4-barrels, inevitably the 30-year learning curve and modern technological advances have shown there’s a need for design refinements. In that vein, Holley Replacement Parts Division is introducing all-new, high-tech universal carburetors that incorporate significant improvements over previous Holley 4-barrels, while still retaining all the ease of tune-ability and parts interchangeability for which traditional Holleys are famed. Why a new carburetor model at this time? There are several reasons: With manufacturing and material costs continually rising, Holley needs an easier-to-manufacture, less-labor-intensive design with fewer separate parts and castings. Traditional Holleys look somewhat dated in the modern 1980s billet, polished, “high-tech” engine compartment. Existing Holley…

Supercharging has been a hot rodder’s favorite power-enhancing trick for some time now. In theory, an engine fed by a forced-induction system is able to reap the benefits of processing a greater mixture of air and fuel. This gives the illusion that the engine has a larger displacement than it actually does. Even though it’s considered to be better than turbocharging, thanks to increased throttle response, supercharging has largely been ignored by the major automakers due to cost and gas-mileage concerns. Other than a few obscure instances when factory-supercharged cars were released to the general public (such as the early Paxton-blown Fords), Toyota is really the first manufacturer’to step up and offer a mass-produced supercharged car: the 1988 MR2. The platform for the MR2’s supercharged induction system is a modified…

When the original race-replica GSXR1100 hit the streets in 1986, it stood the motorcycling world on its ear. It was lighter than most 750s, with a chassis right off the front-running Formula One racebikes. Its 18-inch wheels and rigid, all-aluminum frame made it a handling sweetheart—and its engine made it, categorically, the quickest and fastest production motorcycle ever built. The riding position was cruel in the classic hunchback racer crouch, but for those with an abiding need for speed there was no other choice. The sporting GSXR is still with us in 1988, and it hasn’t lost a bit of its scalpel-slick handling crispness, or its 160-mph top-end punch. But few riders could stand the ergonomic penalties that come with riding a GSXR day in and day out—chiropractors don’t come…

The 1933 Model 77 Willys and its 1940 Americar counterpart have been described as “a cross between a Mexican Chihuahua and a baby pig. One either loved them or hated them,” according to Cars of the Early Thirties author Tad Burness. Obviously, these Willys have come a long way since then—because John Davidson’s yellow ’40 fattie and Larry Williams’ bad boy ’41 are two examples of Pro Fat performance. In the next 16 pages, we’ll explore the new trend in rotund runners as well as the history of gasser racers of the 1960s. Obviously it wasn’t the Willys’ fuelburning frugality or its low-buck price of $499 in ’33 or $580 in ’40 that attracted the hot rodders. No indeedy. It was the Willys’ size, which was so diminutive that the…

What made the gasser wars “Wars” was six years’ worth of fun-loving verbal abuse generated by the gassers’ prime actors: Doug “Cookie” Cook, “Big John” Mazmanian, and “Ohio George” Montgomery. While it is true that the “others” were just as fast, hard working, and dedicated, they didn’t set the tenor of the times as well or as skillfully as Chef, Big June, or Ohio did. So with that in mind we decided to call all three and get the lowdown on what it was like to be caught up in the high-profile war of the Willys. DOUG COOK “As I recall,” reminisces Doug Cook—a pioneer drag racer who still remains active helping his son Mike with the 260-plus-mph Leggitt, Labash, and Cook AA/Fuel Roadster—“it all started back in 1955 with…

After the near-quantum performance leap in Top Fuel during 1987—which, in just one year, saw a raw speed and elapsed time gain from a best of 278 mph and 5.261 seconds to 285.98 mph and 5.084—the obvious question becomes: What is it going to take to break drag racing’s next two barriers—the first 300-mph pass and the first 4-second e.t.? Before we start we may already have two problems. HRM’s three-month delay (yes, the magazine you’re reading was actually put together in November) is one of them. The other is that the way dragstrip performance increases keep rising, even during the off-season, those two magical barriers may have been broken by the time you receive your February 1988 issue of HRM, making this four-page yarn academic. But, in the event…

At the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas last November, Billy Meyer held a packed press conference to announce his future plans for the International Hot Rod Association, which he had purchased from founder Larry Carrier three weeks prior. At the conference Billy passed out a slick, hot-off-the-press, eight-page brochure on the “new” IHRA. It began: “Stirred from its slumber by Texas entrepreneur Billy Meyer, the International Hot Rod Association is being structured as drag racing’s creative alternative for the 1990s… for the last several years [the IHRA] has merely smoldered … Meyer brings the fire.” Billy announced the IHRA purchase on October 27th. Two days later he was competing at the NHRA Winston Finals in Pomona—where he dramatically won the Funny Car eliminator—and between rounds he was laying out…

To tell the truth, Tim White never planned on driving, much less owning, a ’70 Maverick. He would rather have walked to school than been caught driving the most “uncool” present he ever received from his dad. In typical “Southern California high school dude” fashion, Tim’s real aspiration was more toward the rounded lines of a Cal-Look VW bug. In the end, however, the old Maverick grew on him, and he took on the challenge of turning the undesirable piece into a distinctive street machine. The most immediate fix was a 4-inch lowering job involving TRW front coils on ’72 Comet disc brake spindles, and lowering blocks out back. Next, the original metallic green paint gave way to a bright orange coat, while polished aluminum eight-spoke wheels further improved the…

Imagine a late-model, high-tech automatic 4-speed trans with a lower first gear (3.06:1) than the obsolete 2-speed Powerslide, or even the 3-speed TH-350 or TH-400. Imagine the effect of a high-gear lockup torque converter in improving top-end trap speeds. Imagine all this, plus a .7 overdrive fourth gear that reduces a steep 4.10 ring-and-pinion to a highway-haulin’ 2.87 (Chart 1). Imagine the high-tech GM TH-700R4—and imagine it and the steep rearend installed in a ’67 396 Chevelle, converting what was previously a singlepurpose dinosaur into a modernized vehicle equally at home off-the-line or cruising cross-country. Unfortunately, until recently all you could do was imagine, for like most modern drivetrain products, the 700’s design dates back to the late ’70s, a dismal, depressing period when it was thought that engines would…

SENSE OF BALANCE Q Can 1974-and-up Chrysler 440 low-compression pistons be used on pre-1971 steel cranks without rebalancing the crank? James O. YoungParis Crossing, Indiana A It depends (as usual). The 1972-’74 low-compression, high-performance motors used lightweight pistons. Standard-performance 1972-’74 and most later low-compression motors had pistons that weighed about the same as those used in earlier high-compression engines. In theory, you only need to rebalance if using the 1972-’74 high-perf pistons in the other engines, or using the heavier pistons in the 1972-’74 high-perf engines. But these engines are old, and may have been rebuilt several times with “mismatched” or “nonstock” components. It always pays to balance a hot rod motor. CAN’T CAM Q What problems would be encountered dropping a Buick 400/430/455 camshaft into a Buick 350? Steve…

While attempting to qualify for the ’87 NHRA World Finals at the Pomona Fairplex, the “Birky’s Bunch” Top Fuel team of Arnold Birky and Bobby Neal experienced one of the wildest engine explosions ever observed. The case-splitting grenade occurred as driver Bobby Neal stabbed the throttle for the ritual burnout. When the smoke had cleared, the entire right cylinder bank was found dangling off the left side of the motor, with the two magnetos and one piston reported missing. While the mags were found in the tower-side photographers’ area, the missing slug had literally rocketed outside the facility and bounced off a pickup truck passing on adjacent E Street! Arnold Birky later admitted driving a new blower at a slow 25-percent-overdrive ratio (instead of the usual 30-percent ratio) while spinning…