Indholdsfortegnelse for February 1995 i Hot Rod

As you've probably noticed, we are big fans of driveable cars. We like hot rods you can use. Our choice of Tom Wilkinson's '62 'Bird as '94's Hot Rod of the Year (“Top Ten,” December '94) was a ringing endorsement of function over form (though that car's form was very cool, too). And our predictions for 'What's Hot for '95” January '95) were full of cars going fast as well as looking good. Since we're spending so much time telling you to build driveable cars, we figured it was about time we put our money where our mouths are. How would you like to see our project and personal cars on the road? Then join us on our hottest new happening, the Power Tour. As I hinted in last month's…

Despite the tact mat two or the three Pro category Winston World Championships were decided before the NHRA World Finals, there was no lack of excitement. Scott Kalitta wrapped up his first Winston Championship in Top Fuel by driving past Don Prudhomme (in his last year as a driver). But it was Kenny Bernstein's weekend, as his phenomenal 311.85 in the semifinal backed up his astounding 314.46-mph charge in the final round to win the World Finals. This new mph record shattered Kalitta's previous record of 308.95 mph, set in September at the Keystone Nationals. Bernstein's juggernaut mph record also overshadowed Shelly Anderson's brand-new Top Fuel e.t. record of 4.718. Interestingly, Bernstein barely missed that mark in his 314-mph pass with a 4.720-second effort. John Force also broke his old…

Car Toys is a new publication on the market for those of us who love cars and collect all the cool stuff that goes along with them—from die-cast and promotional models to pedal cars, porcelain signs, gas pump globes, automotive art, even jukeboxes. The 32-page monthly magazine is the brainchild of Sue Elliott formerly feature editor of petersen's Chevy High Performance. Sue saw a need for an automotive-oriented collectibles publication, and she's producing one that will feature classified ads as well as articles and photos, so enthusiasts can buy, sell or trade their goodies. You can order a 12-issue (one year) subscription for Car Toys through Full Throttle Enterprises, Dept. HR02,14347 Albers St., #102, Sherman Oaks, CA 91401. Watch for the first, April 1995, issue on sale soon.…

If you're a Fastest Street Car racer and you give yourself a nickname like “Speedy Petey,” you'd better either have a great sense of humor or the timeslips to back you up. In the case of Pete Walsh from Indianapolis, both are true. His attitude is upbeat and he's always having a good time, whether dicing on the local go-kart track or hanging out in his trailer during a high-pressure event like the Top Ten Shootout in Memphis. And, his tubbed '72 Nova is an honest 8-second car, so Pete's no poseur. It was our first Fastest Street Car shootout in 1992 that inspired Pete to build a car for competition. Up until that point, he had been showing the Nova, an original, numbers-matching SS car that he bought in…

Elsewhere in this issue you'll find two stories on how to buy and install low-to mid-priced car stereos. We purposely kept those stories low-buck because we figured after spending your paycheck on an engine, chassis mods, tires and wheels, you're probably searching under the sofa cushions for loose change—just like we are. However, all of us can dream, and in our dreams our car's stereos are more massive, more impressive and LOUDER. To feed those dreams, we present two demonstration vehicles from two stereo companies that definitely push sound installation to the outer limits. POLK'S CHEVY TRUCK The street rod builders at Posie's put together a killer crew cab phantom dualie for Polk Audio. They hand-fabricated a custom aluminum grille and aluminum ground effects, mounted Boyds wheels and built a…

We went to Lunati for the short-block, using the company's 406-inch Bracket Kit rotating assembly and a prepped 400 block. The kit consists of a reground, blueprinted cast crank, shot-peened rods with high-strength bolts, Michigan-Clevite 77 bearings and Speed Pro plasma-moly rings. Normally this kit comes with TRW forged pistons, but we decided on hypereutectic slugs for reasons explained below. Lunati blueprinted and assembled our short-block, and then it was sent to Westech Automotive for final assembly and dyno testing. Mr. Gasket supplied all but the head gaskets.…

There's no sense building an efficient, roller cam short-block and then strangling it with stock cylinder heads, so the short-block was topped with a set of Edelbrock's Performer aluminum hends. Not only are these heads capable of producing the power we want, but their aluminum construction allowed us to add some compression without worrying about detonation or significant ill effects at the tailpipe. The Edelbrock heads are very good out of the box, so we bolted them on us is with the supplied valvesprings. Edelbrock's Performer aluminum heads come assembled with 2.02/1.60 valves, screw-in studs, guideplates and valvesprings that will tolerate up to. 550 lift. These heads are good enough to use out of the box and come with the bowl blending and port entry work already done, so we…

It's obvious that hot rod parts have evolved tremendously over the past 70 years or so. One of the best examples is the small-block Chevy cylinder head. A scant 30 years ago, the iron “fuelie” casting was the single choice for any small-block, race or street. Today, dozens of specialized heads are available for every type of small-block imaginable. Recently you may have noticed race-only small-block heads with unusual valve angle designations, such as Chevy's race-bred, 18-degree head. This refers to the angle of the valve in relation to the deck surface. Standard smallblock Chevy heads position the valves at a 23-degree angle to the deck. In 1989, Chevy introduced the 18-degree Bow Tie aluminum head that shifted the valve angle vertically while simultaneously raising the intake port to take…

Rarely does one come across a “have your cake and eat it too” proposition, but check this one out! The folks at Dakota Digital have done it. They can update 1 your instrumentation without losing the charm of the 1 original surroundings. This is how it works. Dakota Digital has developed a two-part program for owners of our kinds of iron—rods, street machines, trucks and classic Chevys. Part one is a ready-to-install kit. They send you the stuff—five-or six-gauge packages, control box, plugin, pre-wired harness and installation instructions—and you do the rest in two or three hours. Part two is even better. Let's say that I want to digitize my Deuce. I send in my old, familiar, fun-to-look-at Stewart-Warner marine gauge cluster bezel and DD's technicians do the rest. They…

Who would have believed that it would take a car solidly in the 7s to take home the 1994 Fastest Street Car title? Only two years ago, Max Carter drove around Rod Saboury's '57 'Vette in the final round of HOT ROD'S inaugural Fastest Street Car Shootout to win the number-one spot with a then-unbelievable 8.38-second e.t. at 160 mph. By comparison, Max's 8.38 would have placed him seventh in this year's race. To say the least, the action in '94 was considerably hotter. While the Top Ten field in 1992 covered e.t.'s from 8 to 10 seconds, half the Top Ten jackets in '94 went to pilots of 7-second street cars. The slowest car to earn a jacket this year did so with a 9.24 e.t.! Some things haven't…

Motorcycles require a minimalist approach to life in many ways, one of which involves the fact that there really isn't anyplace to pack stuff on a bike. When you go, you take yourself and little more. Add a few hard luggage cases, though, and you now have a place for stuff. The problem with luggage however is that it usually looks tacked on, so if you are trying to look stylish, you need to be creative. Lawayne Matthies, of Grand Prairie, Texas, has figured out how to have his cases and look cool, too. Starting with a full-tilt '89 Electra Glide touring bike, Lawayne lowered the bike with a White Brothers lowering kit, cleaned off all the barbs (which included the front fairing, the rear box and many of the…

BBK Performance has teamed with Eaton Corporation (the largest O.E. supercharger supplier) to produce the Instacharger, a new supercharger for 5.0L-equipped '86 to '95 Mustangs. The Instacharger mounts to a massive bracket on the passenger's side of the engine compartment. In BBK's basic, 6-psi package, the blower will boost engine output by approximately 90 horsepower. And because of the blower's Roots-style (twisted lobe) design, it will boost the engine's performance right off idle and into the engine's midrange. BBK has also incorporated an O.E.-style boost bypass within the unit's intake and discharge castings. This small throttle flap allows boost to recirculate at cruise and idle conditions, which eliminates any drag caused by the supercharger. As the throttle opens, the boost flap closes, so a charge is sent immediately to the…

While the chronicling of hot rodding isn't new, books, magazine articles, TV programs and video tapes exploring our roots, our roadsters, our racing cars, our persona and our impact on automania have, of late, become a cottage industry. Our story to the general public is the embodiment of Yankee ingenuity, involving a loose group of backyard tinkerers who have metalmorphized mass-produced passenger cars and light trucks into works of art. The problem is that most of these same purveyors of information don't know squat about hot rods or hot rodding, which skews their depiction of who, what, where, when and how we are. Fortunately there are exceptions, and Pat Ganahl, ex-HOT ROD and current R&C senior editor, and Robert Kittila, his highboy-owning partner, happen to be two of them. Although…

This red, slammed '49 Ford F-l pickup belongs to Chris Seay of Warrenton. Virginia, and is Posie's Pick of the Month for an outstanding hot rod built by a rodder under 25. Chris, who is 19, started work on the truck when he was 14 and it was a rusted-out farm truck. It took him four years to finish the job, but he did all the work—except paint—himself. A Ford H.O. 5.0L mated to an '87 Mustang five-speed gives the truck its go, and it sits on a Martz independent front suspension and a 9-inch in back with 3.70 gears. Cragar Protechs are wrapped by BFGoodrich radials. Inside the cab are bucket seats from an '87 Nova, a GM tilt steering column, VDO gauges and a Kenwood sound system. If…

It's time for us to take a last look at Project Super 'Stang, the '89 Mustang LX that we've been transforming from a humdrum grocery-getter into a bitchin' daily driver. We're building a Mustang that will go fast, corner hard and look great doing both. Once we're through making the modifications—and we're just about done at this point, but not quite—the car will hit the promotional trail and eventually be given away in a sweepstakes with Super Shops stores. In the last six months, we've gone through the Mustang from front to back, tuning and tweaking just about every component we could find. We kicked off the project in August '94 by rebuilding the stock 5.0 with a lot of help from the folks at Edelbrock. Using their Performer cylinder…

Our only concession to emissions was in piston choice. Instead of forged pistons, we elected to go with a set of KB hypereutectic pistons from Silv-O-Lite. Because the hypereutectics don't expand as much as forged pistons, they can be run with tighter piston-to-cylinder-wall clearances. When the engine is cold, these tighter clearances will seal better, which is important because we plan on putting the car through an IM240 emissions test that includes a coldstart cycle. Westech installed the pistons with, 003-inch wall clearance, and gapped the rings at. 018-inch. When it comes to emissions, higher compression means higher NOX emissions, but usually lower HC emissions because the engine is more efficient, it's a fine balance between making power, running street gas and staying clean.…

Once Westech had finished the assembly, the 406 was bolted to the Stuska dyno at Power Built, Inc. and broken in for a half hour. Using the Holley Dial-A-Jet, Brandes made the initial pull with 72 jets, then did three more pulls, each time leaning the carb out. As predicted, as the engine got leaner, horsepower went up and torque went down. The best horsepower was with 62 jets, which made 426 horses. Peak torque was 457 lbs-ft at 3400 rpm with 72 jets. With the 62 jets, the torque fell to 453 lbs-ft. With the 700R4 and 4.11 s, this thing oughta scream!…

We all love tunes in our cars. The song of a crisp engine can only soothe you for awhile, then you need to roll the windows down and crank up the jams. Bolting a nice car stereo in your ride definitely makes driving more fun, but before you get to the fun part, you need to determine what components you want and how the gear will be installed once you get it. Assembling a crankin' stereo for minimal bucks is easy if you spend the time to figure out what you must have from your stereo system and what you can live without. We found that without breaking the bank, you can have a crisp, clear and powerful stereo system that can be bought and installed in stages, be easily…

Installing a quality audio system in your car is a lot like building a respectable street engine. The secret is in knowing the right combination of components to use. Unfortunately, the recent explosion in the car audio market has made this selection process rather intimidating for those of us who aren't quite sure exactly what an audiophile is. To simplify matters, we've compiled the following car audio buyers' guide to get you headed in the right direction. There are no high-end components here, rather, moderately priced gear that represents a solid value for those looking to add or upgrade their system. We've listed the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) to make comparisons easier, but remember those prices are just guidelines. With careful shopping, you'll find it's not necessary to spend…

Now that you've reached this two-page car feature, please take the necessary time to study Gale Pitman's '48 Packard. His 2200-series two-door represents a beautifully detailed, totally modernized, high-horse, Pro-Streeterized rod that is cloaked in an overlooked body style. What's more, these postwar passenger cars—especially those manufactured by Detroit from 1950 to the early '60s—make perfect fodder for rodders who are into going, not towing. Gale's “Pack Rat” may have missed the nifty-thrifty-'5O cutoff point by two years, but it still meets the criteria of having “smooth-side bodies” that feature no running boards or bolt-on, easily removed fenders. Better yet, it's Packard-portly, with plenty of room for modern suspension systems, powertrain and interior accoutrements. Underneath the Packard's mildly modified, 47-year-old envelope—Gale lost the exterior handles, the hood ornament and the…

After purchasing a brand-spanking-new Harley, it's time to start doing what we do best and hot rod that sucker. Most of our Harley tech stories up to this point have concentrated on bolt-on parts for Evolution engines, but bolt-on parts will only get you so far in terms of performance. Just as with a small-block Chevy, if you want to make horsepower, you've gotta go beyond bolt-on parts and get serious with the internal engine components, such as the cam. Most Harley “bolt-in” camshafts have only. 490 lift, the limiting factor being the stock valvesprings. For serious power from an Evo, lift numbers over. 500 are necessary, but that requires head disassembly and spring work. Since we plan on getting more involved as time goes by, we thought this would…

Valvespring retainers are parts that you generally don't think about until you begin a trick engine buildup. One tip that we encountered during an engine dyno test at Flowmaster's R&D facility is using a Chevrolet small-block spring retainer that is lighter than regular production pieces and gives more seal clearance. These retainers also locate the spring. Our cam didn't have enough lift to cause a seal clearance problem, but these retainers would be a good solution for any engine that has only a slight clearance problem or if you are searching for an affordable, lighter-weight retainer. The retainers are used on the H.O. 350 engine and are available in packages of five under GM part No. 10045007.…

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, we thought we'd do something a little different with Tech Inspection and offer some tips for your relationship with the one you love. Relationship maintenance is as important as hot rod maintenance, especially on this most romantic of holidays. So to keep things running smoothly outside the garage, here are some timely dos and don'ts. LITTLE THING MEANS A LOT For the men: Surprise her with gifts (flowers are a good one). Don't work on the car every night. Talk about subjects other than cars. Don't let your friends do burnouts in front of the house. Spend time with only her, doing something she likes to do. Water the plants, mow the lawn, wash her car. Don't pretend you're Dale Earnhardt on…

LIFE IN THE FAIRLANE Chris Kentopp paid $150 for this '66 Fairlane GTA but he had to drag it home in pieces. With help from his father Bob and brother Joe, Chris rebuilt the hulk into the bright red beast you see here, stuffing it full of 390 cubes with such goodies as Ross 11.5:1 slugs, a Crower cam, ACCEL ignition and an Edelbrock/Holley induction. Automotive Specialists built the engine and the C6 trans. The 78,000-mile car sure has come a long way from its humble, in-boxes beginning. FROM FIRE TO TIRE FRYER Bummer deal. Joseph Hayter of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, bought this chopped '32 five-window as a finished car in '91. A few months later, a fuel leak and a hot trouble light conspired to set the Deuce on fire…

No, we're not talking fashion here. These shorts are race cars, the miniature dragsters that were run by eight-to 17-year-olds at the First Annual Junior Drag Racing League National Championships at Indianapolis Raceway Park last summer. Running on a 90-to 150-inch wheelbase, these Briggs and Stratton-powered terrors can cover the eighth-mile in the mid-9s at speeds upward of 66 mph. For comparison, these downsized diggers are as quick as a 5.0 Mustang in the half-mile. Plenty of speed was on tap for the weekend, but so were plenty of outside events. Friday night's trip to the Indianapolis Zoo for dinner and a dolphin show was great, as was Saturday night's cookout and magic show. Winners in eight age divisions took home trophies and a $5000 college scholarship check. All participants…

Gary “Goodguy” Meadors became the world's fastest street rod association president at the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association's “World of Speed” when he swapped his flamed drawers and T-shirt for a flame suit and helmet and jumped into the seat of Ed Hegarty and Dave Dozier's grape-colored streamliner. Meadors and the 'liner—competing in the Vintage blown gas class (XO/BGS) and stroked by a B&M-blown, 323-inch, '39 Chrysler straight-eight—averaged 223.220 mph. Like Meadors said, “Biowin' a tire at 191 got my attention, and cruising the salt at 223 is neat, but at my advancing age I can still think of something else that is even neater."…

Yes, real people do win the cars we give away in our Petersen Publishing sweepstakes. We offered a '94 Mustang GT in our November '93 issue, and the proud winner of that car is Leonard Tanfield of Minneapolis. Mr. Tanfield got the keys to his red GT convertible in June, and he calls it “absolutely fantastic.” Next on the giveaway agenda are BFGoodrich's Son Of Green Machine '57 Chevy and Super Shops' Super 'Stang '89 Mustang, which will be awarded this year. Keep those sweepstakes cards coming. You can't win if you don't enter.…

The goal of the Crusher Camaro Poe is threefold. First, save a classic car from being crushed into oblivion. Second, build it into a real hot rod that runs like stink. Third, prove that a hot rod that runs like stink can also pass a stringent smog test without any modern emissions equipment. The last two installments have shown our efforts to build the car back into a respectable hot rod, and this month it's time to assemble the drivetrain that will allow us to fulfill the last two goals. After some soul-searching and consultation with engine builder Norm Brandes of Westech Automotive, we opted to build a 406-inch small-block for the Camaro. We decided on a smallblock to make our efforts more applicable to most of our readers, and…

It used to be that the easiest way to tell a show car or a trailer queen from an actual runner was to look at the headers. Nice clean paint or flawless chrome meant that the engine had run a total of about a minute, if it had been started at all. Real hot rods had grungy, rusty headers that showed their wear with pride. Trouble is, the wear wasn't just cosmetic. As headers are used, the continuous process of hot-cold-hot-cold cycling wears away the metal. At first the result is discoloration, but before long a trip to the speed shop for a new set of headers is required. Notice we said it used to be that way. Modern technology has done wonders for the automobile, from carbon-fiber body parts…

Having a like-new interior in your ride is not only important for appearance, but the increased comfort usually makes driving your car more fun. We followed along as a Chevy II and a Chevelle underwent some interior improvements, which included re-covering the seats, repainting the dashboard, installing a headliner and more, to show you how to make that ratty mess look new again. The nice thing about doing interior upgrades is that you can do a little at a time, so we've split the work up into smaller tasks. INTERIOR PREP SEAT COVER REDO DISASSEMBLING SWITCHGEAR REMOVING WINDSHIELD PAINTING DASH INSTALLING HEADLINER INSTALLING CARPET KIT SOURCES C.A.R.S., Inc. Dept. HR02 1964 W. 11 Mile Rd. Berkley, MI 48072-3046 800/521-2194 The Eastwood Company Dept. HR02 580 Lancaster Ave. P.O. Box 3014…

This is a spectacular time for hot rodders. Never before has it been so easy to go fast. But with quick e.t.'s and high trap speeds comes the responsibility of making sure your car is safe. For years, the NHRA has required certain safety equipment on any car running down a dragstrip. These rules are designed to ensure safety not only for the driver but for other competitors and spectators as well. Rather than looking at these rules from the standpoint that “NHRA's making me spend more money,” think of them as recommendations that can perhaps save your life and/or your car from serious damage. A young hot rodder recently complained that his local dragstrip “browbeat” him into wearing a helmet while racing his 12-second street car! He obviously missed…

HOT ROD magazine isn't the same publication that it was 46 years ago. A quick perusal of HOT ROD'S January 1949 issue will show the reader how hot rodding has changed. Remember now, in 1949 there was no organized drag racing. There were no rod parks. Instead, we called them “reliability runs.” Track roadsters were for the most part a West Coast phenomenon. The only car shows featured hotties from the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA)~—which figures, because what we really did was land speed racing. And there was no “Specialty Equipment Market Association” (SEMA), either. Back then, a group of HOT ROD's speed equipment advertisers, including Navarro, Stelling, Cyclone, Shell, Bell Auto, Edelbrock, Blair's, Eddie Meyer, Harman & Collins, Crankshaft Company, Getz, Evans, Offenhauser, Iskenderian, Sharp and Weiand, welcomed…

A fact of life concerning Harleys is that they're expensive. Compared to the crotch rockets and cruisers from Japan, a Harley-Davidson is often 50 to 100 percent more expensive. What that money gets you though is style, sound and attitude unmatched by any imported bike. But in case you didn't know it, there is an affordable, entrylevel Harley, and it's called the Sportster. Harley-Davidson introduced the Sportster way back in 1957, and this little Harley has had a loyal following ever since. Smaller and lighter than the fullsized F-bikes, the XLH Sportster has a personality all its own. Sportsters are built in the same Milwaukee factory as all other Harleys, but a new branch of the assembly line has recently been added to speed up production and ensure quality construction.…

FLEX-A-FAN LITE AND BREEZY If you're looking for the lightest fan to do the cooling job, take a look at the Flex-alite model 400, which weighs a mere 11 ounces. The one-piece, nylon-molded design gives this fan great flexibility and durability without robbing horsepower. Better yet, this piece comes in at under $20! For more information and a color catalog, contact Flex-a-lite, Dept. HR02, 4540 S. Adams, P.O. Box 9037, Tacoma, WA 98409, 206/475-5772. IT'S IN THE BAG BAG IT OR LOSE IT It's tough to justify the cost of a heated garage for all those long, cold winter months just to keep your hot rod dry. The alternative might be the OmniBag (r). The bag, intended for indoor use only, is a completely sealed, non-breathable enclosure that will keep…