Indholdsfortegnelse for September 1988 i Hot Rod

SKIP’S DRIVE IN: WORLD TOUR For the better part of five years now, veteran model-car constructor Chuck Laymon has been taking his incredible, motorized, table-top version of Skip’s Drive-in on the road to car shows, fairs, and automotive events across the country. With more than 80 1/25-scale model cars on display, Chuck has accurately captured the look and spirit of a ’50s cruisin’ spot in every detail. Virtually every make and model of car and street rod is present in Chuck’s unique representation of this timeless American institution. The cars in the cruisin’ lane ride on a motorized track that keeps them moving around the drive-in, while specially prepared ’50s music and D.J. commentary emanates from the speakers, and typical ’50s characters mill about in the parking lot in search…

The fastest and most expensive sheriff’s pursuit vehicle in the country belongs to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department-thanks to the generosity and community spirit of Fred Ricart, chief executive of Ricart Ford in Columbus, Ohio. This $156,000 *88 Lamborghini Countach was donated by Ricart to help Sheriff Earl 0. Smith and the sheriff’s department sponsor a hard-hitting drunk driving assembly at area high schools. The Scared Stiff program uses the specially deputized Lambo to drive home the idea that, “There are some problems you cannot outrun; such as Lambos and driving under the influence.” The program brings together law enforcement, education, and the business community in a concerted effort to reduce teenage mortality. According to Corporal Denny J. Verbance, one third of all fatal accidents involving high school students in…

It started with 644 pre-’49 street rods, M 16,000 spectators, and some incredible giveaway prizes at the Ohio state fairgrounds in Columbus on June 15, 1979. We called it the HOT ROD Nationals. Obviously it has gone through several changes in the last 10 years (including a new owner/promoter, Special Events, Inc., in 1986), but the HOT ROD Nats- or Supernats, as it was rechristened in ’81—has always been a trend-setter as a national rod gathering. The following is a mini-photo-album to remind us how much fun we’ve had at this event during the last decade.…

Ford makes the best rearends, the best manual transmissions, and engines able to compete with anyone. But in the past, the Dear-born boys have been overshadowed by the competition’s Turbo Hydramatic and Torqueflite transmissions in full-race applications. If Ford Motorsport and engineer Don Walsh have their way, that’s all going to change. While some engineers dwell high up in an ivory tower, generating reams of paper theories on what ought to work, Don is one of those who actually descend to earth, proof-testing their designs in the acid crucible of competition. When he took on the task of bulletproofing Ford’s venerable C4 and C6 automatic transmissions for competition use, he masterminded the building of two suitable test mules. The C6 parts were developed on a Pro Street-style ’86 Mustang equipped…

It a C4 isn’t enough for your application. Ford Motorsport now has C6 modifications that turn Ford’s premiere automatic transmission into a bulletproof full-race unit suitable tor the most demanding bracket-race or class competition. Full-manual reverse shift-pattern valve bodies are offered, including a trans brake version. Trans brakes severely shock the trans, so the critical Nos. 5. 7. 8. and 9 thrust washers are replaced with stronger needle bearings, which reduce friction (resulting in pucker e.t.’s) while offering increased load-bearing capability (thereby prolonging the life of other highly stressed internal components). Kit M-7166-B includes these noodle bearings plus a specially machined reverse ring gear hub. heavy-duty four-pinion reverse planetary assembly and specially machined forward clutch hub. Because the No. 9 bearing is the most critical position in terms of stress…

Winning in NHRA Super Gas has become just as difficult as it is in the professional ranks—a point not lost on ’87 Gatornationals winner Vonnie Mills of Kennedyville, Maryland. To master the competition in ’88, something the soft-spoken Vonnie does with shocking regularity, she and her husband, Eddie, commissioned a new Beretta from Don Ness Racecraft. Currently it has a classification as a Super Gasser; however, Vonnie is considering some Jr. Pro Stock-type competition in the future and living in the heart of IHRA country, where the new Factory Modified class is becoming increasingly popular, will help. Suspension pieces from Strange Engineering and Lamb Components keep the Goodyear/Center Line-shod machine aimed in the right direction, while a Select Performance Powerglide provides excellent consistency. Ken Keir did the aluminum work, after…

This started out to be a nice everyday driver for my wife. It was a rust-free Georgia car that had been stripped completely. I mean everything: nuts, bolts, wires, glass, etc.—all gone. We decided to put a power-steering unit in and a 350 with an automatic transmission. Well, the next thing was a subframe for disc brakes (of course). But I decided I didn’t like the way it sat (too high). Sooo…back to the drawing board. Someone mentioned tubs, big tires, and narrow rear. Wow! The excitement became too much, and before I knew it the wife’s car became my car. Sorry, Bonnie.” So wrote “Big George” Greenwalt of Grant, Florida, about his chopped, dropped, and tubbed ’51 Ford custom. We understand. The seven-month wonder includes a 2½ inch top…

I really don’t know how this project went down, except that it’s a logical extension of the street/strip Chapouris “Limefire” thing we did a year ago (HRM October ’87). But instead of driving a totally repop roadster to the dragstrip, converting it to race-car trim, then reconverting it to street-legal status for the return trip, Jim Davis (B&M) and Roy Brizio (Roy Brizio Street Rods, 263 Wattis Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080,415/952-7637) had visions on a grander scale. To demonstrate the dependability of a B&M blown/Performance Automotive Warehouse (PAW)/Dick Landy Industries-built 351 Windsor Ford placed in one of Roy Boy’s show-quality Deuce highboy roadsters, team Davis/Brizio collaborated on a most unusual project. Davis would furnish the engine and driveline components and Brizio the rest. Once the project was completed,…

CAM-RODDERY Q I am building a high-torque small-block for a ’55 Chevy. Is the ’73 400 the preferred high-tin block? Although the 400’s short rods (5.565 versus the 350’s 5.7-inch length) exert more thrust on the cylinder walls, they produce more torque due to mechanical advantage. It’s the breathing these rods produce that interests me. The lower rod-to-stroke ratio causes the piston to accelerate away from TDC more quickly, drawing in the intake charge sooner and harder. Also, the piston’s quick acceleration allows the intake valve to open sooner and the exhaust valve to close later. I’m unsure of what the best cam specs would be—perhaps 108-degree lobe separation and 220/230 degrees in-take/exhaust duration at .050-inch lift? I have “441” cylinder heads and a die grinder for port matching and…

Fronts For Fats Valley Vintage Rods, in the best rotund-fun tradition, has become part of the “porky one to porky eight” movement and is now offering heavy-duty front crossmembers for fat-fendered ’41-’48 Fords. Fixture-fabricated and designed as a bolt-in, VVR’s custom-built crossmember will also lower the front end of the car three inches and provide the correct caster angle for proper wheel alignment on raked rods. Additional info on this low-fat part can be obtained by contacting VVR, Dept. HR-09, 5960 Valentine Rd., Unit 1A, Ventura, CA 93003, (805) 658-7677. Rod Gallery Why hang a painting of your lady or a portrait of your pampered poodle in the house when you can have Neseman Enterprises render and air brush a full color illustration of your hot rodney from a color…

All right, Funny Car fans—we’re finally going to pull the lid off the smoldering rumor that Kenny Bernstein has secretly been running nitrous oxide in his brew-mobile. Is this—a mini-bottle and a bank of NOS solenoids—what has been hiding under the terrible towel? Is this what we find when we pry open the black box? Would you expect us to be serious at a time like this? Of course not. What you actually see here are two separate systems on Graeme Cowin’s Fuel Coupe similar to those employed by most of today’s fuelers. They’re made by NOS, but they have nothing to do with nitrous oxide. The bottle contains compressed air and the two smaller solenoids are air valves used to engage the fingers of the multistage lock-up clutch. The…

MOTORHEAD I am a long-term reader of HOT ROD Magazine. My friends ask what size motor I have in my car. I say I have two motors in my car: one running my windshield wipers and one my starter. If they would ask what size engine I have in my car, I would say, “383 Magnum.” My friends tell me they have a 350 motor in their car. I ask how long the extension cord is. Engines are gas operated, motors are electric. I just thought I would bring this to your attention. Jim CooperHaverhill, Iowa Just don’t put any motor oil in your motors, Jim. THIN I am 15 years old and love cars and your magazine. My dream is to build a ’70 Mustang Mach 1 with a…

Pro Stock World Champion Bob Glidden and Funny Car World Champion Mark Oswald will be fielding all-new Ford Probes for the 1989 season. Already under construction at Jerry Haas’ shop in St. Louis, Missouri, Glidden’s new ride promises to be plenty stick with Harry West composite body panels and Jim Hooker paint Job. Mark Oswald’s now Funny Car body la also being constructed by West, but you can bet It won’t look anything like Glidden’s Pro Stock piece. The accompanying Illustration is based on the racer’s ’88 sponsors and paint schemes and Steve Stanford’s fertile imagination.…

There is a special relationship between the Kolmoses, Bob and Sharon, and the world’s most frenetic hot rodder, Little John Buttera. Bob and Lil’ grew up together in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and both eventually moved to Southern California. Both found work messing with cars—John building them, Bob buying and selling them. So when Bob decided that Sharon needed a closed car to keep his Deuce phaeton company (see “Colonel Mustard,” HRM March ’86), they chose a ’32 Tudor sedan to be its garage mate. What Sharon and Bob didn’t figure on was Buttera’s input. Instead of haying the smooth-talking Fat Jack Robinson build a somewhat feminized, “beaned-out” B-model, Lil’ altered their plans… radically. Ralph Kirby, Fatness’ superb metal man, was called on to chop the top 2 ½ inches, shorten the…

Pro Street hot rodding has become a category in which mega-dollar cars are built solely for the purpose of winning Pro Street awards at a few select events during the summer. It tends to exclude about 95 percent of the other wellbuilt Pro Street cars that are usually more functional and built with reasonable budgets. Bill Cline’s new-wave Pro Street ’68 Camaro not only highlights our cover this month, but it also represents an emerging trend that’s leading us back to clean, classy Pro Street machines that aren’t decked out with every piece of speed equipment manufactured in the Western Hemisphere. Cline’s car will probably never win first place in the Pro Street judging, because it is a single 4-barrel car that lacks many of the mandatory components required to…

Without a doubt, the “run-what-you-brung” (and hope like heck you brung enough) door slammers are the hottest act in organized drag racing. And well they should be; it’s in the lineage, you see. Those 6-second, 200-plus-mph shoeboxes happen to be the direct descendants of these two legendary coupes—the incredible Mooney-ham & Sharp A/Fuel ’34 and “Ohio” George Montgomery’s equally impressive and influential ’67 AA/GS Mustang. Drag racing in the ’60s had room for a lot of “different” classes for cars … including blown fuel- and gasburning coupes. These were the shoeboxes of that era, the hottest stockbodied slammers in captivity before flops and factory hot rods(?) muddied up the waters. From a fuel coupe/altered standpoint, the most feared ground shaker of them all in the early ’60s (see “Built For…

Often referred to as history’s most overlooked and underrated musclecar, the ’70 Buick GS455 Stage 1 merits more than considerable credit. But looking back, the car’s place in domestic car chronicles must be put into true perspective. As with all of Motown’s muscle machines of that period, the GS455 was only as good as the tuning, tweaking, and driving abilities of the car’s owner, his pals, and the dealer. And since the Flint factory rolled out only 3776 of these Stage 1 455 engines in ’70 (including 479 in the GSX model), there were few opportunities back then, compared to the competition, for the hands-on hot rodders’ traditional refinements. Milestone MUSCLECARS Sure, there were a couple of hot GS (and Gran Sport) Buicks built before it (see “Milestone Musclecars,” HRM…

Pontiac Sunbirds have been the dominant cars in NASCAR’s fast-paced Charlotte/Daytona Dash series throughout the ’80s. With five straight championships and a host of track records, Pontiac took charge of this series in much the same way that it is beginning to dominate midget racing. Because the turbocharged 2.0L engine is not legal in the Dash series, the Sunbirds are powered by normally aspirated 2.5L versions of the same powerful Super Duty 4-cylinder racing engine that is enjoying so much success in drag racing and IMSA road racing. The Sunbird GT bodies are among the most aerodynamic in the series, and with upwards of 300 hp from the Super Duty engines, they have moved into the 170-mph range on the super speed-ways. Larry Caudill (No. 77) is the current series…

STROKES OF GENIUS Only the length of the crank throw determines stroke, which, when combined with an engine’s bore, yields displacement. Connecting rod length and piston pin location have nothing to do with stroke—except to locate the top of the piston in the block for desired clearance. To determine which parts work together when changing the stroke length, use the following formula: D = H + P + R + (½)S, where: D = Distance from the crank centerline to block head face (observed, or derived from published “blueprint” information) H = Deck clearance P = Piston compression height (distance from pinhole centerline to flat on piston top) R = Con rod center-to-center length (½)S = One-half the crank stroke (throw) To see how this actually works, examine the diagrams…

CARS & TRUCKS ’57 AUSTIN HEALY sports car with small-block Chevy, Muncie 4-speed, narrowed Ford rear, front disc brakes, plus 1959 parts; car needs new engine, $3200. Keith Redetzke, 614 W. Yandell, El Paso, TX 79902, (915) 533-2539. ’70 CHEVELLE SS CONVERTIBLE. Big block, trade for farm tractor, dump truck, etc. Send long, stamped envelope for pictures and description. Richard Massey, 1403 N. Stonewall, Memphis, TN 38108. ’74 BARRACUDA. 90-percent restored, one-owner car. Red, beautifully maintained. Must sell. $3500 Fred Sneed. 653 Hemlock St.. Brooklyn. NY 11208. (718) 277-7517. MATT AND DEBBIE HAY’S PRO STREET Cl ERA. Blown, injected, Lenco, Dana 60. $39,000 o.b.o. Serious only, please! Matt Hay, 4171 W. Victoria Ln., Chandler, AZ 85226, (602) 839-5409. ’70 T/A CHALLENGER. Auto, fresh engine, panther pink, black interior, 3.91 ratio,…

Bruce Larson participated in the East Coast’s first organized drag race at Linden, New Jersey, in 1954. He has been competing at national events for 22 years. His star-spangled USA-1 Corvette (and Chevelle, Camaro, Vega, Monza, and Beretta) Funny Cars were the “home I boys’’ of East Coast match racing, a staple of the circuit. He’s 49 years old. He’s used up as much nitro as anybody in the business. But last May, at the NHRA Cajun Nationals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bruce Larson finally lost his virginity. He won his first national event title. The fact that Larson recently joined fellow Pennsylvanian Joe Amato’s team, and secured the engine building/tuning expertise of crewchief Tim Richards, has obviously helped. The fact that the new candy red and white car lacks…

Abrasive Personality Impregnated with aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, or crocus abrasives, Mitchell’s Abrasive Cords and Tapes are ideal for removing baked-on carbon from piston ring grooves, valves, and other engine parts. Packaged on 25-yard spools, the cords come in 0.012- to 0.150-inch diameter, while the tapes come in 1/16- to ¼-inch widths. For more information, contact E.C. Mitchell Co., Inc., Marketing, Dept. HR-09, 88-90 Boston Rd., Middleton, MA 01949, (617) 774-1191. Coloring Book Bitchin’ Products offers a neat coloring book featuring 64 line drawings that include street rods, cartoons, street machines, and racers. Each book comes with eight crayons. Send $5 (add $1.50 for postage) to Bitchin’ Products, Dept. HR-09, 10707 Airport Dr., El Cajon, CA 92020, (800) 422-3993. Poly-Valence Polyshield Products offers five car-care formulas that can help you…

Tommy Howe became the first member of the exerting Wild Bunch team to break into the 6-second zone, running 6.99 during the IHRA Summer Nationals at Atco Dragway, New Jersey. Howe’s 543-cubic-Inch, blown, injected, alcohol-burning, Rodeck-powered Nissan 3O0ZX joined the NOS 6-second club and also powered Into the exclusive Sonny’s Automotive 200-mph club with a speed of 201.79 on the 6.99 pass. Built by Rizzoli Competition Design in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Howe’s awesome machine runs a Lenco 4-speed and weighs 2700 pounds with the driver. With a previous best of 7.16/198.57, Howe had the big Rodeck set on kill In an effort to really fly on his home track. Just when you think these cars can’t possibly go any faster. somebody like Howe steps up and reaffirms the thrill of drag…

Imagination is the root of all hot rodding. With it comes cars modified by their owners for better looks and performance. Without it comes Stockers, lots of stockers. Obviously Randy Grubb, a glass blower by day, a hot rodder by night, isn’t short on imagination, nor is his ’40 hair-blowin’ hauler close to being a weak pressure differential, either. It all started the day when Randy saw Pete Chapouris’ ’39 convertible on the July ’85 cover of HRM. “First I died; then I determined that my ’40 pickup was a natural to make into a roadster pickup. So I bought another pickup for $1700, spent an additional $5800 and 1200 man-hours ’converting’ it, and now I’ve got my own dream machine.” What Randy has fashioned is unusual in that it…

The C4 trans may not have the brute strength of its massive C6 big brother, but properly built it makes a fine street/strip automatic transmission. It’s also 60 pounds lighter than a C6. A good deal of the weight savings comes from lighter internal parts, which translates into less inertia horsepower losses, assuming they are up to the job. Don Walsh’s prototype unit has successfully run consistent high-1 Os behind a nitrous-assisted 302. Walsh recommends starting with a stronger ’70-’81 “truck” C4 trans. These units were used primarily in trucks, but are also found behind some passenger-car 351W and 351M engines. They can be identified by separate (instead of integral) bolt patterns for the front pump and bellhousing, as well as a filler tube that goes into the oil pan…

There’s one thing wrong with Chrysler’s legendary 426 Hemi Elephant motor—they didn’t make near enough of them. Unlike the early Hemi that was-a regular production engine from ’51 through ’58, the race-bred, completely different 426 was produced in very small quantities, first as an over-the-counter race-only piece in ’64-’65, then as a limited-production street option from ’66 through ’71. Whereas millions of early Hemis were produced, even they are getting pretty scarce these days (partly because so many were used up by racers in the past). So you can imagine how hard it is to find good 426 Elephant parts—and how much you have to pay for them once you locate them. Well, Eric Hansen and Bill Stel, the guys who started Stage V Engineering in the summer of 1984,…

There is a changing of the guard occurring on the streets these tl days. The evolution of the small-block Chevy has gradually assumed increasingly larger proportions. In the ’50s, the small-block Chevy was exemplified by the 283. By the ’60s, the Mouse motor had matured to 327 inches, and in the ’70s it bulked up into the 350. But now the savvy street 350 has inherited the long arm of its 400-inch brother and has been transformed into the larger mini-Rat 383. What has fostered this move to ever-larger Mouse mutations? Simple: Cubic inches rule the streets, and what easier way to build a better Mouse than to just build it bigger? A 383 is actually nothing more than a .030-inch overbored 350 stuffed with a turned-down 400 crank-shaft. The…

Dick Murray, a mechanic and chassis constructor from Youngstown, Ohio, likes to do things backward. In the old days, most rodders would start with a Streeter and convert it into a stripper. Not Murray. He did just the opposite. By removing the twin turbos from his 1900-pound, 9.40-second, 460-inch Rat-attack ’27 T roadster and replacing them with a single 1150-cfm Holley, he went from strip to street. Why make the switch? So he could drive it “two or three times a week, instead of a quarter-mile at a time.” Even though the topless terror still rests on its owner-conceived chassis—a combination comprised of a 2x3-inch tube frame, dropped axle, Koni coil-over shocks, Pinto steering, Airheart discs, ’67 Ford drums, plus a narrowed 9-inch Ford rearend—you have to know that profiling…

We’re not going to tell you that Steve Roach’s char-coal and black 71 Nova is a daily driver. But it is street licensed, sees occasional duty on the streets of Vallejo, California, weighs 3250 pounds, and still cuts 10.90 quarters at 125 mph with—get this—an all cast-iron, two-bolt main 396! The early Rat gets plenty of help from 70 closed-chamber, square-port heads with Manley stainless valves, 11.5:1 Ross pistons, a Crane solid-lifter cam and roller rockers, an 800 Holley on a Torker intake, a Stinger ignition, and Hooker headers. A Powerglide with a brake and 4800-stall converter puts the punch to a 4.88 M-W aluminum Ford rear with Henry’s spool and axles and ladder bar/coil-over suspension. Other than a ’glass hood and trunk lid, Alston cage, single seat, Harwood fuel…

With all the hoopla in the motor-flcycling world about the open-W class machines—the biggest, fastest 1000cc and 1100cc roadburners from Japan—it’s easy to forget the next class down—the 750. The advances in engine and chassis technology often hit the 750 class first, because it’s the predominant production roadracing class. If your 750 ain’t fast on the street, it ain’t gonna be fast on the The Suzuki GSXR750 is the epitome of the racer replica. Its aluminum chassis is, in fact, lifted right off the blueprints of Suzuki’s factory endurance racer, the one that took the World Championship last year. The air/oil-cooled GSXR is the lightest (495 pounds wet), fastest (153 mph), and quickest (10.85 at 124.4 mph) machine in the class, and it is a proven roadrace winner; like the…

DRAG RACING Sept. 1-5—NHRA 34th annual U.S. Nationals, Indianapolis, Indiana. Information: (818) 914-4761 Sept. 4-5—NDRA second annual Northwest Nostalgia Drags, Seattle, Washington. Information: (714) 539-NDRA Sept. 9-11—18th annual U.S. Open Nationals, Rockingham, North Carolina. Information: (817) 776-7733 Sept. 15-18—NHRA fourth annual Keystone Nationals, Reading, Pennsylvania, information: (818) 914-4761 Sept. 23-25—IHRA eighth annual Fall Nationals, Bristol, Tennessee. Information: (817) 776-7733 ROAD RACING Sept. 3-5—IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship 4-hour Grand Sports, Lime Rock Park, Lime Rock, Connecticut. Information: (203) 4352572 Sept. 4—CART/PPG Indy Car World Series Escort Radar Warning 200, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio. Information: (419) 884-2295 Sept. 11—CART/PPG Indy Car World Series Road America 200, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Information: (414) 8763366 Sept. 24-25—IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York. Information: (607) 974-7732 Sept.…

HOLY SMOKES. BATMAN! This comes from the HOT ROD Believe It Or Not file. Yes, folks, there is now a semi-official, sanctioned Burnout Contest. The brainchild of car show chairman “Mad Man” Mike Maddox, it has been staged for the past four years as part of the annual Lakefest, held the second week of July in Culver, Indiana, on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee about 50 miles south of South Bend. We’re talking serious, competitive, judged, and measured burnouts here. There are classes for 4-, 6-, and 8-cylinder cars, front-drive, rear-drive, posi-rear, and even four-wheel-drive vehicles. There are trophies for Best Smoke, Best Sound, Best Black Marks (measured for length, width, and depth), Most Awesome Display, and the killer—Total Destruction of Tires. We’re serious. The red ’61 Impala shown here…

Dink Widenhouse seems to be in a peck of trouble in his B-29 Ford at the ’56 Daytona NASCAR race. Somehow his I hood has come open and folded over the windshield. But I these were the days when stock cars were (more or less) I stock, and the drivers were made of steel. It would take I more adversity than this to bring Dink in off the track. He I simply stuck his head out the window and put the pedal to I the metal. Having started 59th out of 75 cars(!), he finished I 34th, still running at the 152-mile race’s end (a feat in itself). I This was when the Daytona Beach track was mostly sand, I with a two-lane paved backstretch, and crashin’ and bangin’ I…