Indholdsfortegnelse for November 1993 i Hot Rod

BORN 2 BE BAD Al Leadbeater of East Granby, Connecticut, fell in love with hot rodding at an early age and was intent on someday building his dream machine. After a series of unfortunate events—the theft of his first Camaro and a serious hand injury—he made his dream a reality. Born 2 Be Bad, his dazzling ’85 Z/28, started out as the stripped leftover of some car thief. Al put in a B&M tranny, bored the engine .030 over and installed a Crane CompuCam and Edelbrock intake manifold. He also added a Holley fuel pump, an ACCEL starter and a computer chip. In addition to digital displays and custom-embroidered seats, the interior features a chromed “brass-knuckle” steering wheel and a B&M shifter. Connecticut Custom Car created the distinctive three-D graphics.…

END OF AN ERA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is discontinuing its all-out prototype formula and will switch to a World Sports Cars (WSC) concept. That formula revolves around two-seat open-cockpit automobiles powered by a broad range of production-based engines. The cars are also equipped with normal roaduse features such as functional lighting and full safety protection. A couple of WSC demo runs by Oliver Kuttner and the team of Andy Evans, Tom Hessert and Francois Migault gave the spectators attending the Monterey Camel GT at Laguna Seca, Compare the look of the past with the look of the future. The new WSC BMW Pegasus (46) was driven by Oliver Kuttner, while the guy going by on the outside was Price Cobb in a Spice. Take a last gander…

Graphics hero Scott Sullivan had an idea that was, well, out there. For years, he’d been kicking around the notion of airbrushing some bones—maybe even whole skeletons—on a car. But there was a problem: He couldn’t find any owners who were willing to let him use their cars. So the idea languished for a few years until one brave soul with faith in Scott’s ability stepped up and said “go for it.” That courageous man was Todd Clark, and the car was his ’68 Camaro. Todd’s Chevy was originally an $800 beater in need of quarter-panels and rockers, which Todd replaced himself. Charlie Sneed built the 2x3 tube chassis using Mustang II front suspension and a ladder-bar-equipped 9-inch back half. The frame was built extra beefy so that a visually…

Every hot rodder has his own Mustang story. Whether it was a first car, a friend’s car that you coveted or acar that beat you away from a stoplight three times in a row, you never forgot it. Whatever the reason, the Mustang has been an integral part of the Blue Oval performance legend since its introduction in April 1964. Ford is hoping to recapture some of that glory with the latest in the Mustang lineage—the ’94 Mustang GT. While rumors have abounded for years about the new Mustang, the ’94 pony is more than just a face-lift and tummy tuck. The good news is that while the ’94 looks all new, inside beats the heart of a traditional hot rod. The 4.6L modular engine is still at least a…

The TH350 transmission is one of the most popular GM automatics for high-performance applications. Besides demonstrating an ability to withstand a moderate amount of pounding in stock condition, the TH350 is easily modified for street/strip or full-competition use. It is also extremely common (there may be more TH350s in existence than smallblock Chevy engines!), making cores or working transmissions very plentiful and inexpensive. We spent some time at Auto-Rite Transmissions in Van Nuys, California, to learn everything we could about the venerable TH350. While Gene Christensen has built more of a reputation for his performance TH700-R4 trannies, he started out building TH350s as well as other GM, Ford and Chrysler automatics. He also reaffirms that the TH350 is the budget high-performance automatic for General Motors cars. Christensen first showed us…

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH FASTENER KITS Aftermarket fasteners help dress up an engine in a hurry, and Stage 8 Fasteners lock to provide extra security without the hassle of safety wire or other locking methods. To help improve underhood appearance, Stage 8 now offers complete engine kits for small- and big-block Chevrolets, small-block Fords and Mopar engines. The kits contain locking safety-bolt sets for headers, harmonic balancers, distributor hold downs, oil pans, water pumps, timing chains, intake manifolds, valve covers, starter motors and exhaust flanges. For more information, contact Stage 8 Fasteners, Dept. HRI11, 15 Chestnut Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901, 415/485-5340. FAST NOTES HOT ROD NOTEBOOKS Mead is right on track with its new line of Fast Lane notebooks and portfolios featuring timeless hot rods such as Billy Gibbons’…

GREAT CRATES Q I am rebuilding my dad’s ’79 Oldsmobile Delta 88 mainly for street use, but I want some added performance and would like to replace the 301. A few months ago, I saw the article on CheZoom, which is powered by the computerized LT1 Corvette engine. Where can I purchase an LT1 crate engine and four-speed automatic transmission? Robert VillegasPt. Washington, New York A The more budget-oriented approach to this project is to install an Oldsmobile or Pontiac 455, but we understand the appeal of a fuel-injected, late-model performance engine such as the LT1. An LT1 can be purchased directly from General Motors, configured for a Corvette or F-body (see accompanying chart for part numbers). The Corvette LT1 is a four-bolt-main engine, has a five-quart oil pan and…

DESPERATELY SEEKING ED STUFF Ed “Big Daddy” Roth is looking for photographs of any of his famous cars, bikes and trikes, including Outlaw, Beatnik Bandit, Road Agent, Mysterion and Orbitron. The photos are to be used in a forthcoming book. Anyone who supplies a photo that is used will receive a free, autographed copy of the book, and all photographs—used or unused—will be returned. Roth is also trying to track down some of the lost vehicles, such as the Orbitron. Anyone with photographs or information should contact the book’s editor, Tony Thacker, at 714/840-3086. Tony ThackerSunset Beach, California ALWAYS REMEMBER ELEPHANTS In regards to the Hemi heads for 440 blocks shown in the “Street Hemis” story (August ’93), I believe you have the photo on page 45 mismarked. You say…

For 1994, Pontiac made slight changes to its Firebird lineup but retained the solid performance platform that’s sure to help it to the front of the affordable, rear-wheeldrive pack. We were awaiting some of the changes with baited checkbooks, while others, well, were just awaiting. First, the Trans Am body (shown in photo) gained the spoiler used on the base and Formula cars, yet it retains last year’s Trans Am side molding and smoother nose with driving lights. The Trans Am GT name has been applied to last year’s Trans Am as the image-leading top of the line Firebird. Performance wise, the LT1 5.7L V8 has received mass-airflow sequential fuel injection to replace the previous speed-density multipoint system. That allows more accurate fuel delivery from cylinder to cylinder, potentially aiding…

Jim Ewing, founder of Super Bell Axle Company and Bell Tech Industries, was killed in an aircraft accident when the plane he was piloting came into contact with a cable while over the Colorado River near his home in Parker, Arizona. Ewing’s career began as a high-profile part of the Blair’s gang, which eventually led to a stint at PSI, followed by his development of a broad range of street-rod chassis parts that ended with a series of dropped spindles for late models. A subsequent association with Hydramatic, which became an integral part of his ongoing land-speed Studebaker project (“Bonneville Then Bust,” November ’92), ended with Ewing’s death. However, we understand that the world’s fastest gasoline-powered Studebaker will be entered at the Bonneville Speed Trials before it finds a permanent…

While we were visiting Jack Chrisman Enterprises for the “How To Assemble a Ford 9-lnch” story in this issue, Steve Chrisman showed us this killer all-billet 7075 aluminum modular Top Fuel rearend. Check the specs: The ring gear is a special 10.5-inch unit from Richmond, and the axle has a 2 9/16-inch outside diameter! All of the heavy breathers are using them, and the cost is a mere $8500. We won’t be impressed with any more Pro Streeters unless they have one of these babies between the Mickeys.…

Imagine it: The Partridge Family sings backup for Metallica. My Three Sons moves in with The Simpsons. People start wearing Spandex bellbottoms. You get the concept: cool 70s stuff with a wild ’90s twist that assaults reason. Just like the built 70 rides you see here. The year 1970 was a time of raw speed. Al Unser won both Indy and the USAC National Championship. Gary Gabelich ran a 622.407-mph flying mile in the Blue Flame the same year that Cal Raybom set the land speed record for a single-engine motorcycle at 265.492 mph. And Harley-Davidson first raced the iron-head XR-750 in 1970. The Big Three and even the Small One (AMC) built musclecars designed to intimidate. It was heaven for rodders and a bad trip for the rising Left.…

The now-standard Ford 9-inch rearend gives you a “means business” aura. It’s strong, it looks good, there are endless new and used parts available for it and, most importantly, people think you’re cool if you’ve swapped one between your aft meats. But it’s also one of the easiest rearends to wrench on. Follow along as we chase Steve Chrisman of Jack Chrisman Enterprises through the buildup of a 9-inch pumpkin. It took Steve about an hour to complete the job with all the right parts from Drive Train Specialists (DTS), but he has the advantages of a lot of experience and all the specialized tools. You should be able to handle the job at home in less than a day. GEAR BREAK-IN The informative instructions that come with the Richmond…

If the ’80s was the “me” decade, then the ’90s must be the decade for hot rodders who want it all. And we’ve got the perfect car to exemplify that spirit. On the surface, Todd Jupiter’s outrageous ’65 Corvette roadster would appear to be just a nice street ’Vette with a wild induction system. Spend some time around it, though, and you’ll discover that this beast can do it all. In many ways, Todd is just like every other hot rodder: He wanted something different. In the last few years, killer hot rods that can be driven anywhere and do it all have become seriously in vogue. So it was up to street-rod builder Mike Adams—owner of Adams’ Rod Shop (ARS) in West Palm Beach, Florida—to transform Todd’s existing plain-vanilla…

Project vehicles always butt up against too-close magazine deadlines and make the project coordinator’s life a living hell. “We need it done NOW!” is shouted at least once a week and is usually followed by a mild nervous breakdown, which is in turn followed by a nasty ulcer. But somehow things always come together in the end when it really counts. Do we ever learn? Of course not, because the end result is nearly always a showstopper, and once a few weeks (or months or sometimes years) have passed, the “cool factor” of the vehicle overcomes the memory of those terrible days and nights spent under the gun. That was and is the case with Edelbrock’s Performer Pickup giveaway truck. The last five months have been a grueling affair for…

Among purists, those of the Mopar contingent are the most faithful. They are the easiest to offend during bench-racing sessions, the quickest to put up when everyone else shuts up, and they’re offended the greatest when one of their beloved Pentastars is blasphemed with a nonChrysler drivetrain. That’s why Randy and Vicki Williams stuck with a Mopar motor for their Pro Street Daytona. You see, Randy originally configured the car for a big-block Chevy, but when the local Chrysler gearheads found out about it, he was quickly, shall we say, persuaded to dump the Bow-Tie in favor of a 360. The car is actually an ’85 model updated with ’89 sheetmetal and ground effects. Randy built the 2x3 chassis first, using a Dana 60 suspended with Alston ladder bars and…

In the old days, automatic transmissions were scorned by any self-respecting hot rodder. He’d rather push his car than use a slush box. But times have changed—especially with the new generation of four-speed overdrive transmissions. The automatic is now very much an accepted performance component. If you’ve ever driven a car with an automatic with overdrive, you know how nice it is to cruise down the freeway at 70 mph with the tach just nudging 2000 rpm as opposed to a screaming 3500 rpm or more. Add a lockup torque converter that saves another 200 to 300 rpm, and you have a slick package that, with a little installation ingenuity, can be adapted to virtually any street machine or street rod. In this short piece, we’ve included not only gear…

That’s right—136 degrees. On the starting line. Al Billy Meyer’s Ennis, Texas, Motorplex. It was a scorcher, but the National Muscle Car Association (Dept. HR1 1, 3404 Democrat Rd., Memphis, TN 38118, 901/365-3779) still drew the racers for its second event of the year, and also hosted a Fastest Street Car In America warm-up. All the racers on hand were new names playing the field for the trip to Memphis to meet the big guns. Check out the photos for a look at the Texas haps.…

The 6500-member Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 20th Annual Back to the ’50s weekend consumed the Minnesota State Fairgrounds with hot rods, customs and special-interest vehicles over the weekend of June 18-20. Vehicle entries reached o whopping 5800 chopped, channeled, sectioned, smoothed and customized rods. Beautiful tree-lined one-way streets made cruising the fairgrounds a breeze, and venders for all types of products attended in full force. While clouds and threatening rain skulked in the background, spectators converged on the fairgrounds in droves, and many described it as the best event they’d ever attended. The Michigan Rod Repair Shop donated time and effort to help troubled rodders, and the NSRA’s Safety Inspection team was available to give advice throughout the weekend. The notorious disc jockey Wings Kalahan provided top-flight ’50s and ’60s…

We predicted in the January ’93 issue that if the fates allowed, Boyd and your ol’ Dad would be driving CheZoom—Joe Hrudka’s rebodied ’57 Bel Air—from Coddington’s hot rod shop in Stanton, California, to Goodguy’s Hot Rod Happening at Raceway Park near Indianapolis, Indiana. The gods were kind. We did… and more. Our cross-country sojourn—headed by the Sultan of Stanton and aided by his son Chris, his old pal Bob Bauder plus yours truly—led to Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Terre Haute and Indy. Then Boyd and Chris left for the West Coast. Great! That allowed Bauder and I to continue to Dayton before heading west to Springfield, Missouri, for the first-annual Rod & Custom Americruise. Except for a couple of new-rod bugs—the flap that hides the…

For about the past year, Ken “Posie” Fenical has selected one well-built hot rod completed by a reader under the age of 25 for inclusion in the current issue’s Roddin At Random department. Posie makes his pick from a group of vehicles that are selected for the honor each month, and his selection for November is Dave Rothwell’s ’37 Vauxhall. The British vintage tin was put together by the 24-year-old Dave in and around his home in Cheadle Hulme, England. The top has been chopped 5 inches and fitted with a power roof, and the formerly four-door body rides on a 2x3-inch frame. The car’s ride is enhanced with an independent front suspension, and power comes from a 350ci Chevy V8. Dave says that it runs in the 13s, and…

Kemco America’s Top Gear video race game for Super Nintendo game systems was a true kick, letting would-be Parnellis and Marios put the moves on each other through a variety of race tracks in countries around the world. And now, Kemco has bettered itself with Top Gear 2, a sequel that brings video racing a couple of steps closer to the real deal. The different race courses remain, as do the spills, thrills, spins and wins of the original, but weather elements and cash considerations have been added. In the new game, you may have to race in rain or snow as well as the daylight and dark. But you can also outfit your car accordingly, thanks to a series of options. The catch is that you have to win…

The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) membership now stands at more than 43,000, and when better than 25 percent of it gathers in one spot, you’ve got a lot of cars. In the case of the 24th Annual NSRA Street Rod Nationals, held at the Ohio Exposition Center in Columbus from July 15 through July 18, the official tally was 11,627 coupes, sedans, pickups, deliveries, assorted phantoms, customs and other radical rods. In fact, the Street Rod Nationals is billed as “the largest automotive participation event in the world,” and after walking the Exposition Center grounds for four days, we can report with swollen feet and slightly addled senses that it’s true. The range of vehicles at Columbus was inspiring. Some were complete to the last detail (and, in some…

One of the new shakes within the street-rod movement is what has been termed “hot rods and Harleys.” It refers to owners who are in the process of building two-wheel V-twin clones of their favorite hot rods. Dick Spielman of Parker. Arizona, is just such an owner. A few years back, Dick bought Pete Chapouris’ Limefire ’32 highboy roadster (“Limefire” October ’87). The owner of RHS carpet mills, Dick is also an avid factory race-car collector, street rodder and motorcycle rider. He and hot rod and Harley builder Bob Bauder got together and collaborated on what is now Lil’ Limefire. Dick’s Lil’ Limefire is based on an ’89 FXR Low Rider Harley-Davidson that has been given the full-on Bauder treatment. According to the King of Crestline, California: “We made the…

SOUNDTRACK. PETERSEN PUBLISHING OFFICES, 1968 TO PRESENT: Flop, Flop, Flop, Flop (Buuurrp!). Ring…ring…ring. “Hullo? Yes, this is Gray Baskerville. That’s right, Gray, as in the color of my hair, Baskerville, as in Hounds of The. What? Well, heeeyy! Ooo, hoo, hoo, hoo, it’s soooo bitchin’!” After Gray Baskerville’s 25 years with Petersen Publishing Company, our only regret is that you readers don’t get the audio, complete with Benny Goodman background tunes. Without it, you miss part of the aura of the lovable déjà dude of rodding. But the good news is that what you read is what you get. When I first started at HOT ROD, 1 never figured that I’d actually meet the famous Baskerville, assuming he was some remote icon who couldn’t be bothered with the new guy.…

Circle the number(s) of the literature you would like to receive. Enclose a check or money order payable to HOT ROD for the total literature fees plus $1.50 handling charge. Mail coupon and remittance to: HOT ROD, P.O. Box 5294, Pittsfield, MA 01203-5294. Catalogs will be mailed directly to you by the companies making the offer. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for shipment. Requests will be honored if received by January 31, 1994. HOT ROD and Petersen Publishing Company are not responsible for unprocessed orders. Companies participating in this section have accepted full responsibility for filling reader requests.…