Indholdsfortegnelse for August 1990 i Hot Rod

THE PRICE OF TECHNOLOGY A sequence of events occurred, and only by accident did I chance to put it together. On the surface, the events appear unrelated but are, in fact, all a part of our technical world. A friend of mine told me a great story about a fantastic deal he stumbled upon. He bought a nice ’69 Camaro for an outrageously low sum ($1000 if my memory serves me). The owner was completely frustrated with the car and wanted to unload it. He claimed the engine was junk, and he wanted out from underneath this burden. My friend towed the car home and started diagnosing the problem. After a few hours, he discovered the previous owner had attempted to swap intake manifolds but had not bothered to remove…

DODGE STEALTH PACE CAR The new Dodge Stealth recently made its debut as the CART Indy Car PPG Pace Car, and it will continue in that capacity throughout the 1990 racing season. Sporting special modifications required for pace-car duty, the Stealth Pace Car is based on the twin-turbocharged V6 package estimated to deliver 300 hp. The car shown here was also used to pace the opening round of the Dodge International Race of Champions at Talladega. Watch for it at upcoming races. Callaway Corvette Debuts Unavailable in the state of California until now, the Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette combines unmatched performance and highly refined day-to-day driveability in a high-performance package. The Callaway can accelerate from zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds with quartermile times in the high 12s at about…

Given the limitations of currently available 92-octane pump gasoline, a good-running, streetable small-block Chevy typically produces around one horsepower/cubic inch. By “streetable,” we mean a normally aspirated, single 4-barrel engine—with a hydraulic cam, iron heads, and around a 9.0 to 9.5:1 compression ratio—that still retains acceptable idle quality and decent vacuum readings. Power levels beyond this point on carbureted engines typically result in a loss of driveability or require the addition of supercharging, nitrous oxide, or high-compression ratios with the attendant need for fuel additives or race gas. Even the one horse/inch level requires a reasonably coordinated selection of complementary valvetrain, cylinder head, induction, and exhaust components. Because such parts are typically produced by a diverse lot of manufacturers and the average hot rodder usually doesn’t have access to dynos…

If you’re a hot rodder, then you need a pickup. I mean, you’ve gotta have a parts hauler for your hotty, don’t you? But what if you own a hauler that’s also a hotty? I do, and so does Danny Shaffer, a transportation-company owner from Bakersfield, California. It’s like having your kemp and eating it, too. Better yet, our hotty haulers have a number of things in common. Both are Ford pickups, both are powered by Chevys, and both are painted Freuhauf Yellow … but that’s where the similarities end. Mine’s just an old drag racer, while Danny’s ’56 F-100 “big window” could well be the finest example of low-down, pickup truckin’ in the country. When one considers that 40-year-old Danny has owned five various street rods and three F-100s…

The shortest and most rewarding path to street-machine success is usually a straightforward, simple approach to car building. Fred Lebbert followed this simple guideline and rewarded himself with a sensational small-block-powered ’66 Nova that fits the home-built musclecar image perfectly. The car was originally built to compete as an SS/KA Super Stocker, but it gradually evolved into a street machine. To form the basic platform. Custom SRD frame rails with Competition Engineering ladder bars and a 10-point cage were matched with a 12-bolt rearend, Strange Engineering axles, three-way adjustable front shocks, a fuel cell, and large wheel tubs. Weld racing wheels of the 3½-inch-wide front and 12-inch-wide rear variety with 6.00-15 front tires and 31x16.5-15 rear rubber keep it hooked to the ground when the potent 383-cubic-inch small-block starts making…

Every spare moment since Denny and Diane Wing took possession of this hot-looking ’34 Ford highboy, they’ve kept pavement passing beneath it! And who could blame them? It blends all the elements of a true hot rod with a touch of the ’90s. Builder Jack Bliss accomplished this blend through conventional methods and considerable skills. A pair of bobbed and molded ’34 rails joins with a Super Bell dropped axle and spindles, a chromed buggy spring, Vega cross steering, and tube shocks in front. A polished Winter’s quick-change with TCI coil-overs and a Panhard rod brings up the rear. At each corner, JFZ calipers and Wilwood rotors join with Magoo’s rotor covers to bring the fully polished Hali-brands to a halt; the 15x6-inch fronts are fitted with P165/SR15 Michelins, and…

Luke Shaffer’s father, Bill, is a long-time car nut. He has raced Formula Fords, likes to restore cars, and has a fascination with drag racing. Growing up surrounded by cars, Luke had ample opportunity to be bitten by the hot rod bug, and as his 12-second Camaro indicates, he has been thoroughly infected. At first, Luke was into the restoration craze. He did a frame-up resto on his ’68 Camaro that was good enough to take First Place Restored at a Super Chevy Sunday meet. But restoring a car isn’t as much fun for Luke as tuning it to go fast. Luke’s first step in becoming fastei and quicker was installing a Joe Sherman-built .030-over 406 small block motor in his Camaro. The stock 400 block was machined until it…

Yo! Dude! Glad you could make It to our second Readers’ Rides cruise. Yeah, we’ve got some fairly sizzlin’ iron again, and maybe your car is part of the fun. You did remember to send in that trick photo of your favorite set of wheels, didn’t you? We hope you did, but what’s important now is that you’re here, the cars are here, and the fun is going to last all month long. So hit the recline lever, lie back, order your burgers, shakes, and fries, and enjoy this impromptu parade of street-heated Detroit iron. Oh, and could you pass the ketchup please? Brett Cairns, ’63 Corvette, Hornell Heights, Ontario, Canada One of the most recognizable cars ever built is the ’63 Corvette hardtop; it’s tough to miss that divided…

They’re hot, they’re hip, they're hauling and they’re where Pickup trucks are happening in 1990, and we're going to show you why. Never before have they had such an impact on the hot rodding world, and now they're caught the attention of both manufacturers and rodders alike. New and old, fleetsides, stepsides, full-size and mini-trucks are finding their way into the hearts and garages of Americans looking for fun. While some look for the visual impact of body updates and wild paint schemes, others are doing it at the track, through horsepower and high-g handling; stretching the envelope of utility to the limit and beyond. Here you'll see some of the finest examples of trick trucks, highway haulers, and powerful pickups to ever turn a wheel as we pound the…

TERROR TRUCKS The air was crisp that morning and filled with talk of a 7-second truck. “Sure bet,” said one guy. “No way,” barked another. “We’ll just have to wait and see!” Parked in the staging area it looked rather docile, until it started! With the sound of a Pro Stock, the aerodynamics of a boot, and the frontal area of a small house, the ’72 Chevy roared into the bleach box to warm its slicks before prestaging. The tension mounted when raw nitrous shot from the vent lines above the cab as the manifold was purged. It crept forward, lighting one bulb, then another. In the next second, it was gone with a frame-twisting blast that seemed to bend the laws of physics! With the front wheels just off…

Street-tough styling and 462 inches of Suburban Ring ’n’ Bearing-built Chevy big-block give the punch to Steve Kantor’s ’69 AMXtra. The four-bolt Rat-block was bored, honed, and otherwise squared to the world. It was then stuffed with 12.5:1 TRW slugs and 7/16 Chevy rods on a steel Chevy crank. An all-Crane rollerrocker valvetrain, including cam, snaps the TRW valves open and shut, while an Enderle fuel-injection setup squirts into a custom Weiand intake. Chevy points trigger a high-output ignition, and Casler headers route the gases. Steve backed up his big-block with a B&M-shifted, 8-inch A-1 converter-equipped TH400 automatic. In addition to installing the engine and trans, Ken Keir Race Cars built a six-point roll cage and narrowed rear tube frame. The company also narrowed a Chevy 12-bolt (with a 5.57…

One look and you’ll understand what Fred and Sandy Fox of Puyallup, Washington, first saw in this ’33 Ford Vicky. Fortunately for them, Dale Boesch of Humphrey, Nebraska, was looking to sell it. Soon their old ’33 would be down the road, and so were the Foxes, headed for Nebraska to take delivery! On their return to Puyallup, the qualities of this Vicky began to set in! Its stretched chassis combines well-proven componentry with subtle detail. A dropped I-beam axle joins with a transverse leaf spring, ’67 Cougar steering, and ’70 Mustang disc braking. In back, a ’73 Lincoln rearend, complete with disc brakes, passes power to the pavement by way of Jim Taylor modular aluminum wheels and Goodyear Eagle radial rubber—P255/70R 15s in back and P195/60R15s in front. Motivation…

With the classiest image in the entire GM F-car lineup, Pontiac’s Trans Am GTA offers sleek, uncluttered styling to capture the hearts of performance enthusiasts and car buffs from, every corner of the social spectrum. It’s virtually impossible to find someone who doesn’t think the Pontiac Trans Am is still one of the most handsome cars on the road today. And Thanks to a broad choice of factory and dealer options, the Trans Am can be configured to suit the most discriminating buyer through appearance packages and various powertrain selections. Of course, any ardent hot rodder can promptly recite a list of things Pontiac could do to make the Trans Am better, and while most of these ideas are desirable qualities in a performance car, many of them fly in…

If you want something that’s fast; Italian; and very, very red; you have two choices. You can get yourself a Ferrari Testarossa—for over two hundred grand—or, if you’re talented enough to dispense with two of its four wheels, you might be interested in the new, hot-off-the-line Ducati 851 Superbike. Its list price is much more reasonable at about $11,000. But the rest of the machine, from its race-bred frame and engine to its clean, sleek, and flammably red paint, is fully capable of delivering Ferrari-like impressions. The 851 owes its existence to a European racing series called International Superbike. Patterned loosely after our own production-based 750cc National road races, the series pits production-based machines and topranked riders from all over the world against each other. Conventional wisdom has it that…

In 1958, Mike Casey, the owner of Mike Casey’s Metal Fab in Wakefield, Massachusetts, was born. So was his recently resurrected ’36 five-window coupe. In fact, 32 years ago to the month, Mike’s ’50s-fashioned Ford was as new to the New England hot-rodding scene as Mike was to his proud parents. According to Metal Fab Mike, the ’5Os-style ’36 once had it all, including the mandatory white tuck-’n’-roll trim job, Caddy V8 engine, and Tahitian Red paint, which was sprayed over the original, factory-applied tan finish. During the ensuing years, the old ’36 was subjected to a pass-around, garage-to-garage existence until Mike acquired it in 1982 from a local speed-shop operator. As Mike recalls, “I bought it because the body was so nice, and it took $3000 to complete the…

Have you ever considered what it would take to chop a ’40 sedan delivery? In short… lots of work. But don’t take our word for it; just ask “Monty” King of King’s Restoration in Roanoke, Virginia. According to this car’s current owner, Jim Sartori, Monty “was both the previous owner and builder of my ’40, and he did all the work on my truck.” Mechanically, Jim’s orange three-door is rather “Pro-saic,” because it’s essentially based on a boxed and narrowed ’40 frame, which was fitted with a Heidt-hemmed front end and a narrowed Currie Enterprises-produced 9-inch Ford rearend. It rolls on Weld wheels that retain BFGoodrich littles and Mickey Thompson bigs and is powered by 302 inches of Shelby-cammned, Holley-carbureted, and Edelbrock-air-cleaned Ford that torques into a B&M-shifted C4 trans.…

TERROR TRUCKS Doesn’t run? Put a ’Vette engine in it!” Back in the ’60s, when the Corvette was king, one sure way to wake up a stock production slug was a healthy dose of high-output Corvette power. The ’Vette always received the most powerful engines, and for those owners of passenger cars, street rods, and trucks stuck with run-of-the-mill powerplants, an infusion of ’Vette tonic—be it individual component parts or a complete transplant—was just the magic elixir needed to unleash the wolf hidden in sheep’s clothing. The more things change, the more they remain the same. When GMC realized there was a market for a real high-performance pickup, it went knocking on the Corvette motor’s door. Working in conjunction with aftermarket companies, several ½-ton Sportside two-wheel-drive pickups were built using…

We publish hundreds of pages a year on ways to make your hot rod run faster and quicker, and do so in a prudent manner with sound engineering. As the art of hot rodding has progressed, “The cars,” to quote Sonny and Cher, “are going faster all the time.” To be sure, the performance of some of today’s street cars rivals that of pure race cars’ of only a few years ago. And yet these blindingly quick street cars wouldn’t be allowed to run at an organized drag racing event if the builder omitted some safety device or used unsafe construction methods. This is a story we’ve been meaning to write for some time, but it always got put on the trailer. That is, until Roger Lee, vice president of…

TUBE STAKES Q My brother and I are building a Pro Street tube chassis (four-link, Pinto front suspension, 14-point cage), 440 Dodge Demon. Are the Pinto front suspension and rack-and-pinion units strong enough for racing? Do you recommend using 2x3 box frame rails or 1¾ round tubing? Also, what is the purpose of the two ladder-barlike “inner frames” that run along either side of the transmission tunnel on several current Pro cars? Ed KearceOrlando, Florida A Warren Brogie (1273 W. 9th, Up land, CA 91786, 714/981-5810), a leading West Coast Sportsman chassis builder, reports that the Pinto front suspension and rack are adequate for racing, “provided that the rack is positioned in the proper location in relation to the lower control arms.” Looking straight up from the bottom of the…

CARS & TRUCKS ’48 ANGLIA HOT ROD. Show-winning street machine, able to win races, too. Big-block Chevy, 4-speed, 9-inch Ford rear, 4.10 gears, tube frame, tubs, parachute, wheelie bars. Serious inquiries only, asking $20,000 with trailer included. Call after 7 p.m. EST. Phillip Skinner, 221 Wilder Wood Dr., Guilford, CT 06437, (203) 453-4271. ’85 S-10 PRO STREET BLAZER. Full-built, no corners cut. Three national magazines in ’90. Four passenger, has A/C, call for complete info., “No Pro Tow, Pro Driver." Must sell, building new car. $20,000 negotiable, may deliver. Larry Butler, RR #1, Box 461, Mitchell, IN 47446, (812) 849-4891. ’34 BUICK VICTORIA COUPE. Model 58, 454 Chevy, Turbo 400, 12-bolt Posi. Light gray w/pink and red graphics, red velour interior. $15,000. Steve Walczak, 719 Burritt Rd., Hilton, NY 14468,…