Indholdsfortegnelse for February 1992 i Hot Rod

Every once in a while, it’s fun to do something different. About two years ago, HRM Feature Editor Joe Pettitt wrote an article about the world of karting. While most hot rodders may think of karting as a bunch of kids terrorizing the neighborhood in cobbled up crates with lawn-mower engines for power, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, karting is enjoying a significant resurgence in popularity. The world of karting today is filled with custom and factory-built tube frame chassis and wonderfully powerful 100cc race kart engines, making upward of 17 horsepower. While 17 horsepower doesn’t sound like much, when you stuff that much power into a kart that weighs around 330 pounds (with driver), you’ve got one exciting ride on your hands. If you just…

If Woodward Avenue or the 24 Hours of Le Mans are familiar icons off automotive performance to you, so, too, should be the name Greenwood. For almost 30 years, John and Burt Greenwood’s outrageous Corvettes have taken on all coiners at road circuits around the globe. Now, with the Greenwood G572, they’ve aimed this expertise at the world’s most exotic street cars. Based on the ’92 Corvette, the Greenwood G572 is much more than just a body kit with a nameplate. This sleek monster incorporates a 572ci Keith Black (KB) aluminum big-block, heads, and pistons, with Carillo rods, and a ZR-1 fuel management system that produces a thundering 575 horsepower at 5400 rpm and 750 lbs.-ft. of torque at 4000 rpm! Greenwood claims that when mated to the new Hydramatic…

The days were hot and the cars were hotter last October at the 2nd annual Hot Rod and Street Machine Super Nationals as Las Vegas, the city of lights, was host to over 500 vehicles and 30,000 spectators. Friday’s weather looked questionable, but sacrificing a Honda Civic to the rain gods kept them appeased for the duration of the weekend! On display during the show was ZZ Top’s full line of performance cars, including the original Eliminator car, CadZZilla, and both HogZZilla bikes. The midway was filled with high-performance booths, giving everyone ideas for next year’s car. As for participants’ vehicles, there was a little of everything. A handful of well executed Pro Street cars made judging difficult. The Bakers were back with their extraordinary, collection of restored Chevrolet muscle,…

Even though Halloween is far off and Prior Lake, Minnesota, doesn’t look like Transylvania, Dr. Greg Fleury has been busy in his laboratory, transforming Steve Andersen’s bullet nose ’Baker into what is quickly shaping up as Frankenstude! Originally designed by Thom Taylor, Andersen’s rad-a-baker will eventually be placed on a rectangular tube frame, feature all-wheel drive, and rely on a TPI-injected Mouse motor, not a Tesla coil, for power. The big question is color. Will Frankenstude be green or purple? Only the painter knows for sure.…

The two most ancient forms of hot rodding are adding or subtracting. In “Project Baby ’Bolt, Part I” (April ’90 HRM), Scott Sullivan added some visual mods to transform a ’64 Fairlane into a Pro-Street T-Bolt. (This series continued in both the May ’90 and June ’90 issues.) Douglas “Chip” Foose’s ’69 Firebird also had some subtle but significant alterations. In “Chip Mode” (January ’91 HRM), the Firebird’s egg-crate grille was removed, and the Pontiac logos were removed and replaced with a “400” emblem on the driver’s side. Pete Dewhurst did a little adding and subtracting, employing the exchange method of musclecar construction. “When a guy offered me a near-perfect ’69 GTO front end for $600,” recalled the owner of Auto Dynamics II, which is located on the outskirts of…

Let’s face it, no matter how open minded we are when it comes to cars, all we really want is information about our own hot rod! There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s reality. We want fo learn all we can about the car we own and specifically what we can do to it. It’s more fun to read about a modification when you can go outside and perform it on your car. HOT ROD’s “Built By Design” series is intended to do just that. Each month we’ll choose a particular model car and run through the most popular modifications you can make to that specific car. We’ll discuss ideas and parts that are specific to the model and include a car feature that shows a mild street car, using some…

Rod, racer, or hauler, trucks remain hot rodding’s most enduring form of personalized transportation. Show me a rodder, and I’ll show you a trick truckster. Show me a racer, and I’ll show you a parts-toting, trailertowing “support-ster.” Trucks are tough because they are so versatile. A rodder can perform the same mechanical and visual miracles on a truck as he or she can on a passenger car; the difference is that a truck can still haul stuff. I’ve been around trucks nearly all of my life and so has HRM, beginning with its July ’49 cover. To maintain our historic affinity for the commercial side of rodding, we’ve assembled our annual overview of what’s up when it comes to trucks. Better yet, this five-page presentation clearly illustrates what we mean…

In our search for environmentally conscious performance products, we discovered some interesting information. Any body and paint person will tell you that this industry is undergoing at least as much change as the hot rod industry for the sake of the environment. The concept is the some—to reduce emissions. In the automotive refinishing industry, this means changes in the delivery of the paint and the chemical structure of the products. The main focus is on the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted into the air. These VOC reductions are accomplished by using reduced VOC paint products and by cutting down on emitted vapors produced by spray gun equipment.…

As of this writing, the type of transmission used in an emissions application is not regulated. That left us with the option of using any transmission we wanted. Since we’re interested in good highway manners, performance, and the best fuel economy possible, a late-model overdrive trans was the ideal choice. The answer was a B&M-massaged TH700-R4. B&M upgrades its TH700-R4s to last and provide stronger shifts than stock. We also used a B&M lock-up torque converter and lock-up control switch. The 700 will also improve performance through a slightly deeper (3.06:1) first gear ratio, which should noticeably improve first-gear acceleration. To make driving even more pleasurable, we also added a B&M Street Stick shifter that provides reliable shifts, good street looks, and is easy to operate.…

One of the latest trends in the aftermarket performance industry is to design combinations: parts that work together to enhance the efficiency and power of a particular engine. It’s a logical evolution, since replacing one particular component may reduce rather than improve power. Turbo City, in Orange, California, has developed a line of combinations called Performance Packages. Presently, Performance Packages are aimed at GM EFI throttle-body engines. Turbo City manufactures packages to fit 305, 350, and 454 V8s and the 4.3L V6 with throttle-body EFI. The packages consist of flow-enhancing components, as well as a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM) chip to work properly with the engines’ increased flow capacities. To enhance the flow, Turbo City uses a K&N air filter, a blueprinted throttle body, higher-lift-ratio roller tip rockers (usually…

WON’T TOE THE LINE QI own an E-body Mopar (a ’73 Dodge Challenger) that just started giving me front end problems. When driving forward, the front wheels toe outward. Sometimes I can get the wheels to toe back in by driving in reverse, but not always. Is this a common problem on Mopars, and how can it be fixed? Michael KayserKettering, Ohio A This problem is not generic to Mopars but may be typical of a car that has spent its life in the “Rust Belt.” Assuming corrosion hasn’t reared its ugly head, your front end is merely tired and needs to be perked up with some new upper and lower control arm bushings, ball joints, and tie-rod ends. STRIPPER WANTED Qis there a low-buck way to clean and paint…

The System 1 oil filtration system is a product whose time has come. Because it is reusable, it reduces the waste stream from your hot rod in two significant ways. First, there is nothing to throw away. And second, the filter is nonabsorbent, retaining less than two tablespoons of used oil, so it releases less oil into the environment. In addition to its environmental advantages, the product is also a superior filter. The system features 138 square inches of filter area and depending on which of the three grades you use, can filter down to 35 microns. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter.) With such fine filtering and a large surface area, the filter is an excellent inspection tool, as well. When you change your oil and clean the…

Digital Fuel Injection (DFI), a division of Accel, has a line of EFI kits for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The Thunder Twin kits cover the ’84 to ’91 EVO “big twin” engines. The kits include the throttle body, ECU module and MAP sensor, throttle position switch, fuel pump and pressure regulator, brackets, wiring harness, in fact, everything you need to make the switch. In addition, a variety of kits are available that are calibrated for hot rodded Harley-Davidson engines. Check with your local shop for details.…

Each year, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) sponsors an inter-collegiate competition that involves over 50 universities from across the nation. There are four categories: Radio Controlled Aircraft designed to carry heavy payloads; Mini Baja all-terrain vehicles; Super Mileage Vehicle to maximize fuel efficiency; and Formula SAE open wheel Indy-style race cars. This Formula SAE racer, from the University of Akron, features a 600cc inline-four-cylinder motorcycle engine that produces 50 horsepower and a tubular steel frame with four-wheel independent suspension. With 555 pounds riding on a 70.5-inch wheelbase and Goodyear racing tires, the car’s goals are to cover a standing acceleration of 100 yards in 4.75 seconds, achieve a maximum lateral acceleration of 1.2 gs, and win the ’92 Formula SAE Competition. And it just might do all three.…

I doubt that there’s a hot rodder in the country who hasn’t been fascinated by the Oscar Mayer Food Corporation Weinermo-biles, the company’s four-wheel promotions that have been a high-mileage, high-profile part of the street scene since the ’20s. Since they are constantly being driven they, frankly, wear out. Consequently, every 10 or so years, Oscar Mayer upgrades its aging fleet of Weinermobiles. This time the company commissioned famed automotive designer Harry Bradley and fabricator Bruce Brackman of Prototype Source of Santa Barbara, California, to ensure that the new os-cars haul buns and weenie, too. Presently, the futuristic fiberglass frankfurter will be placed on a Chevy truck, motor home, or rectangular tube frame, and fitted with heavy-duty truck suspension components and four-wheel disc brakes. The boogie part will be in…

Building a car to perform up to 1992 hot rod standards is no easy feat. As automotive technology advances, so do our vehicle performance expectations. A 13-second street car used to be considered pretty stout. Today that’s just entry-level street performance for a car designed primarily for straight-line acceleration. And speaking of acceleration, the quarter-mile has become just one of several figures used to compare vehicle performance. A ’90s hot rod should be able to generate good lateral acceleration measured in g’s on the skidpad and complete a timed run through pylons to measure transient handling and braking distances. In short, more is expected of today’s hot rod than ever before. Due to these high expectations, getting the combination right means everything. For most hot rodders, “the combination” concerns the…

Danny Taylor has a thing for Malibus. Of the 41 cars the 29-year-old pinstriper from Louisville, Kentucky, has owned, 14 of them have been “Malibooze.” But number 14 is way rad. Danny calls it his new look, encompassing a series of styling changes in which every piece of the car was either reworked or replaced. However, the changes are so subtle, it’s hard to determine what has been modified. The ’78 Bu acquired its low stance from a pair of Bell Tech dropped spindles augmented by Charlie Davis’ batterydepleting hydraulics. The rollers rock thanks to Boyds Rod Sport wheels (15x6 front and 15x8 rear) shod with Comp T/A (205/60R15 front and 235/60R15 rear) squeals. For a powerplant, Danny simply invested in a TPI-fed IROC Mouse that was rebuilt by Dewayne…

While guys his age are usually hot rodding in foreign cars or bbmc’s (bellybutton musclecars), 24-year-old James Maneri has taken a big step backward and time warped himself into a ’33 highboy roadster. It all began in 1983 when at the tender age of 15, James told his dad, “That’s the one for me,” after seeing a similar rod at a rod run. The object of his affection is a super traditional fender-free ’33. Nonetheless, James’ jammer relies on a high-winding, tunnel-rammed 292 Chevy, torquing into a Super T-10 four-speed that is attached to a ’57 Chevy third member. You won’t find gennie rails here—Just A Hobby repops under its ’glass body are sufficient. But the balance is bitchin’. James took three inches out of the windshield, added a Rootlieb…

More often than not, cars either look east good or run good. So when you find one that is strong in both areas, like Robert Wicker’s stunning ’62 Corvette, you should take notice. Visually, little needs to be said. All of the original body seams were removed and a scoop was added to the hood. The body sports a flawless coating of PPG Mint-Green paint, which was applied by Charles Anderson and Dick Brown of Lansing Michigan, This color theme continues in the interior, with two-tone blue tweed and vinyl seats and panels by Steve’s Upholstery in Jackson, Michigan. Other touches include Auto Meter gauges, a LeCarra steering wheel, and - an Alpine stereo system. To understand the performance aspects of this Corvette, the only thing you need to know…

In its day, the Ford GT-40 ruled the Grand Touring road racing classes with a big-block cast-iron fist. And with a hot 427 or a Gurney-Weslake small-block strapped to its midsection, the GT-40 shot straight and true down the straights of the world’s road courses. The GT-40 won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1966 and 1967 and brought the world manufacturer’s trophy to Ford in 1968 and 1969. For most enthusiasts, the GT-40 is strictly a race car. However, the GT-40 was also released as a street car with a stout 289 small-block for power, which is the case with this Ford. Fran Kress, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bought this car (GT-40 P/1054) from the original owner and restored it. In its first life, this GT-40 was painted pine…

With the carburetor becoming an oddity among new cars, today’s manufacturers have developed a new conglomeration of electronic fuel-injection (EFI) equipment, lingo, and information for daring high-tech tinkerers. Despite the EFI trend, the carburetor remains the most adjustable and understandable fuel metering device for the performance enthusiast. Besides, a maze of electronics can’t meet the innate appeal and guttural draw of a wide-open four-barrel. Here we present a battery of tips and trends for fuel delivery—from today’s EFI to the four-barrel carburetors of yore. MANIFOLD DESTINY Today’s shade-tree wrench has acquired a fear of the dreaded “black box” found with electronic fuel injection, and most associate the EFI’s crisp performance with an intimidating wiring schematic. Actually, EFI benefits are more attributable to intake manifold design than to electronic wizardry. Intake…

Like Posie has said. MHnif “Anyone can restore a low - mileage gennie, but it takes a real rodder to chop one up!” Meet Mike Jamieson, a hot rodder from Plano, Texas, who revels in the fact that his Nomad was once a two-owner, all-original car with 38,000 miles showing on its 37-year-old odometer. “I bought it in Oklahoma,” he wrote, “and drove it home like a new car.” Then he cut it to smithereens in a true Texas chain-saw fashion! The first pass was the cruelest—its original frame was severed from the body and replaced with a 4130 chrome-moly facsimile by Pro Motion Race Cars. Then the space frame that is complete with front struts, Koni coil-overs, Fiat rack and pinion, JFZ discs, and a 9-inch Ford rearend was…

A lot of things can happen during a season of professional drag racing. Three events come to mind that could alter the face of the digs next year. The first was the death of Gary Ormsby, which hastened the emergence of Pat Austin in Top Fuel. Austin, by the way, won T/F at both the World Finals and the Heartland Nats, plus he was runner-up at the U.S. Nationals and World Champ for the umpteenth time in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Second, Kenny Bernstein added veteran tuner Wes Cerny to his crew. The combo of Dale Armstrong and Cerny could turn Bernstein into Bernstomp and the Bud King into the Bud Kicker. The third event was Steve Sanchez’s cylinder head development in Top Fuel. Word has it that a pair…

The second season of the IMSA sanctioned, Bridgestone Supercar Series gets the green flag next month, March 1, at Daytona. The series pits the fastest production cars in the world against each other in a series of road racing events. The cars run on shaved Bridgestone RE-71R D.O.T.-legal tires. The sizes are restricted to the size tire the vehicle comes equipped with from the factory. The only other changes allowed are for safety, including some handling upgrades such as the use of rod ends on pan hard rods. The cars are blueprinted to get the best from the factory specs. The cars also carry a certain amount of ballast to equalize the performance potential of competing cars. Last season was the premiere of the series, and it took a few…

There are few true drag racing legends. Wild Willy Borsch—the hero handler of the Marcellus and Borsch Winged Express AA/Fuel Altered whose one-hand driving style made him an all-time drag racing favorite—is one of them. Willy died last November. Moreover, the stories that Willy recounted while driving his blown, fuel-burning, ’23 T-bodied roadster during the late ’60s and early ’70s were as incredible as the car itself. Here’s a sampling of Willy’s stories. “The car was always doing wheelies or hitting the guardrail,” said Willy, “so we built the front end out of exhaust tubing. All we had to do if we bent or broke something was find a muffler shop and gas-weld in new parts.” Or, “Marcellus gave me two driving instructions,” recalled the bald and bearded chauffeur, “drive…

A few years ago, Pete & Jake’s Hot Rod Parts, one of the pioneering manufacturers of street rod chassis components, was sold to Kansas City’s Jerry Slover. Jim Jacobs, the “Jake” part of P&J, now works out of his garage in Temple City, California. The “Pete” part, after a stint with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) has joined forces with Bob Bauder to form Syntassein. Syntassein’s specialty is building hot rods and Harleys, such as the pair of HogZZillas that recently graced the pages of HRM. The boys are hog at work on a number of projects, such as restoring A/FX Hemi Mopars and Cammer-izing a ’50 Ford for Jerry Moreland. Best of all, Pete and Bob are in the process of renovating one of the most famous coupes…

If you haven’t noticed, muscles are big in the ’90s. While Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Hulk are crushing Hollywood, Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan have a stranglehold on the sporting world. It’s no wonder that musclecars are still defining performance and putting power to the pavement. In the next few pages, we’ve compiled an impressive cross section of pumped up cars that look good. These everyday drivers are strong on looks, right for the road, and headed for tomorrow. GS SPORT With the price of the famed Buick GSX climbing beyond reality, Tony Arrato decided to copy an original. Using either new or original components, he reconditioned a worn out ’70 GS 350 before adding a front spoiler and rear wing beneath a brilliant layer of Buick Saturn Yellow. The…

Mustangs aren’t known for their great cornering abilities or braking power. The chassis has too narrow a track with a high center of gravity, is quite flexible, and the 11-inch (10 inches before ’87) disc brakes aren’t up to the performance potential of the engine. We were really interested to see how Richard’s car spec’d out in terms of overall performance. So, how big is the performance envelope in this Mustang? To find out, we persuaded Don Alexander, chief instructor at the Driver’s Connection driving school in Southern California, to fit the car with a g-Analyst and wring it out on the Streets of Willow (Rosamond, California) road course. With the g-Analyst, we graphed out what Valentine Research (g-Analyst’s manufacturer) calls the car’s g-signature. The g-signature traces the g forces…

“Asps…very dangerous. You go first!”—Sallah (played by actor John Rhys-Davies) to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember when men were men and Cobras ruled the earth? Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when men of iron drove impossibly high-powered cars to the ragged edge of adhesion and beyond. Try to recall when big-block predators roamed the land, and the only law was simple survival. Eat or be eaten. Search your memory for a time when cars were not only awesomely powerful, but also easy to repair. If these images conjure up faint recollections of Carroll Shelby’s Cobra, then there’s hope for you. But even Shelby will admit that the Cobra of over two decades past is a dated car. Today, Chrysler offers a…

When the tire smoke had cleared and the numbers were crunched, we had reached our goal. We started last month with a terribly illegal, slow ’76 Camaro and transformed it into an emissions-Iegal performer. On the surface that appears easy, right? After all, those cars were slugs to begin with. The ’76 model was equipped with a four-barrel and a TH350 that ran a yawn-inspiring 16.10 e.t., according to the HOT ROD archives. We figured we could do better than that, even with one plug wire tied behind our back! And, in a matter of speaking, that’s what we did. The handicap: We could only use emissions-legal parts, which presented an interesting challenge. Last month we installed a replacement engine from California Discount Warehouse, slid in a Crane cam, added…

You don’t need us to tell you that the world ofl high-performance vehicles is changing. Sticking big blocks in third-generation Camaros is taboo, replacing throttle-body fuel injection with any type of carburetor is illegal, and adding dual cats to a car not originally equipped with them is out of the question. But hot rodding is not dead. It’s very much alive as new equipment is being produced and more companies are certifying parts for emissions applications every month. Crane, Weiand, Hooker Industries, Edelbrock, Jacobs Electronics, Doug Thorley Headers, Holley, K&N Engineering, MSD Ignitions, and World Products all have more in common than just familiar names in the fastest circles of street and strip performance; they also produce emissions-legal performance parts! With help from the above mentioned companies, we decided to…

We love dynos. We spend a lot of time watching engine builders pull handles, load wheels, analyze data, and change combinations. But one of hot rodding’s greatest questions is: What happens to a high-performance engine once it leaves the dyno? In Dr. Tony Walcott’s case, his Joe Sherman-built long-rod 406 found its way into this bitchin’ Chevy II. The name Tony Walcott probably doesn’t mean diddly to the readers of HRM. It didn’t strike me either until a little voice in the back of my befuddled brain said, “Hey, maybe he is the same Tony Walcott you knew in high school way back in 1953.” To make a short story even shorter, it was good ol’ Ton’. He is a retired dentist and is currently spending his golden years doing…

Keith McPherson, a Maryland-based hot rodder, has one of the best Cyclones around. This musclecar is one of 350 produced and was originally owned by Eddie Wood, who is the son of Glenn Wood. If you aren’t up on NASCAR history, the Wood Brothers raced Mercs like these on the high banks a few years back, taking the NASCAR Championship with this style of car. The Woods, as well as other teams, did so well that the Cyclone is the winningest body style in NASCAR history. McPherson’s Competition Orange Mercury Cyclone Spoiler has 15,400 miles on the clock and is in perfect condition. It won Best Musclecar at the Super Nats in Canfield, Ohio, and other awards at various shows. The car is powered by a 429 Cobra Jet with…