Indholdsfortegnelse for April 1995 i Hot Rod

To briefly fill in those of you who haven’t heard yet, during the week before our HOT ROD Power Festival in Norwalk on May 19-21, we’re going to make a pilgrimage from our home base in Los Angeles to the Festival. We’re driving our own personal hot rods, project vehicles and other neat cars, to show that we like cars that can drive. The Power Tour isn’t just a HOT ROD staff trip, though. We want you to join us whenever and wherever you can. If you can drive with us for the whole chingo (as Gray would call it), great! If you can only join us for a couple hundred miles, that’s fine, too. Either way, we want to get out into the country, meet you, see your cool…

SECOND TIME AROUND When Bud Rinker of Chestertan, Indiana, first bought this ’62 Olds F-85 Cutlass, he powered it with a Buick V6. Obviously, that got old real fast, prompting Bud to fire up the torch and do the car right. The frame was back-halved, boxed throughout and secured with a full cage; a Pinto front suspension makes it steer better; and 29x18.5x15 Mickeys mount to a 9-inch with 4.11s and disc brakes. Thankfully, the engine is a hot 403 Olds, backed with a Coan-converted TH400. Bud did most of the work himself and has one of the nicest ’62 Olds we’ve ever seen. WRAP YOUR KEEL IN STEEL Building a street rod these days is easy. Buy an aftermarket frame, drop on an aftermarket fiberglass body, power it with…

There is a constant in land speed racing. No one, save for a few of your top-end buddies, cares. But that’s what makes time-only racing so neat. You do it because it’s fun. And once a year those who have the most fun are honored at the “Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame” barbe-banquet. Normally these affairs occur at night, but not this one. The Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame ceremony is held during the day in and around Jack Mendenhall’s “Petroleum Museum,” which happens to house an incredible carlection of street, highway, gas station parts and poster signage. In addition to the list of honorees, which included speed equipment manufacturer Vic Edelbrock, Sr., cam grinder Ed Iskenderian, Bonneville starter Bob Higbee and veteran racer Bob Rufi, the ceremony…

It seems like we just left Memphis, but the National Muscle Car Association is already hard at work on the 1995 NMCA-Flowmaster Muscle Challenge series. The schedule has expanded to eight races this year, with new venues in Gainesville, Florida; Atco, New Jersey; and Stanton, Michigan. For your copy of the NMCA rule book and more information on the Street Car race series, contact the NMCA, Dept. HR04, 3404 Democrat Rd., Memphis, TN 38118, 901/365-3779. 1995 NMCA-FLOWMASTER MUSCLE CHALLENGE April 22-23—Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, FL May 20-21—Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, GA June 3-4—Atco Raceway, Atco, NJ July 8-9—Mid Michigan Raceway, Stanton, MI July 29-30—US41 International Dragway, Morocco, IN August 19-20—Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, PA September 9-10—Norwalk Raceway Park, Norwalk, OH October 6-8—Memphis Motorsports Park, Memphis, TN CHEVY PACES RACES Chevrolet will be…

Looking for a screaming deal on a crate motor for your project? Check this out: Ford Motorsport/SVO has a limited number of brand-new, Mustang 5.0L engines that are rated at 240 hp and are being offered in ready- to-run condition for $2995. These engines are equipped with an E303 SVO roller performance camshaft, 60mm throttle body, complete EFI system, distributor, stainless headers, plug wires, water pump and harmonic balancer. The manual transmission engine (part No. M-6007-C50) has a flywheel pressure plate and bellhousing; the automatic version (part No. M-6007-C51) comes with a flexplate. There are only about 1500 of these 5.0s available, so act fast if you want one. Contact Ford M o-t or-sport/SVO at 313/337-1356 for more information.…

Despite snowfall and single-digit temperatures in Detroit, the mood at the North American international Auto Show in January was more than upbeat—it was hot! Just about every automaker had a happy story to tell, whether it was about new sales records, new products or some very zoomy concept vehicle. It was the concept vehicles, in fact, that really caught our eye. Here are a few of the high-performance models we thought you’d want to see.…

Never bet against Texas. The Lone Star State boys know how to make big things happen. Super Street was originally intended as the more affordable alternative to Pro Street in the Fastest Street Car in America competition. Despite being limited to a 10.5-inch-wide rear tire, 9.50’s at over 142 mph won the 1993 show. In 1994, that was so much cannon fodder for the father- and-son team of Jess and Landon Jordan. Their Texas-killer ’69 Camaro posted a series of high-8-second, 150-mph blasts with the quickest an 8.82 at 156 mph. The Super Street rules dictate how a class-legal car should be built and allow 7.5 pounds of weight for every cubic inch of displacement, with a 3000-pound minimum. A quick run on the calculator shows that 392 times 7.5…

Along, long time ago (actually, October ’92) on a dragstrip far, far away (Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale), HOT ROD brought you “Title Bout,” a winner-take-all clash of the factory small-block crate motors from Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler. In that conflagration, each crate motor was unboxed and dropped into a musclecar of the same manufacture. A ZZ3 Chevy went into a ’69 Camaro, an H.O. 351 Windsor slipped into a latemodel Mustang, and an H.O. 360 Mopar dropped into a ’73 Duster. After 12 rounds of undercuts, jabs and more than a few sucker punches, the Mopar emerged victorious, towering over the other two like Ali over Louis. Charges of rules stretching and out- and-out cheating were hurled at and from all three camps, enough to make Don King…

It used to be that the only way you could learn how to build a high-performance car was by diving right in and making all the typical mistakes. Then you either quit out of frustration or toughed it out, and eventually learned how to build a cool car without breaking every part. If you talk to today’s high-performance professionals, you’ll discover most of them learned the old-fashioned way. But today, there’s a better way to learn—go to school. The high-performance world is desperate for qualified technicians who can professionally spin a wrench, fine-tune a carburetor or build a chassis that could win the Daytona 500. These occupations, and hundreds more, require a skillful blend of engineering and physics, along with the skill to apply this knowledge to high-performance street and…

One of the cornerstones of Harley-Davidson’s popularity is its American heritage. So when it came time for Horst and Baumberger to spray Mac Tumipseed’s custom-built ’94 Softail, a Native American theme seemed very fitting. The pictorial created in House of Kolor hues is representative of the way the bike is constructed as well. Traditional wide front forks by Ron Simms were fitted to the Simms custom frame, which also lowered the front 2 inches. The traditional stance is offset by pound after pound of custom billet mounts, brackets and covers. From the Corbin seat, Mac can easily reach the Simms handlebars while staring over the stretched gas tanks and Dakota Digital dash. A twist of the Lightning Bolt handgrip ’ sends fuel through the S&S carb to the thoroughly S&S-equipped…

MORE BUCK IN THE BRONCO Q I recently purchased an ’85 fullsize (not white) Bronco with a 5.8L, four-barrel engine. Besides needing a tune-up, the engine also seems tired. I have an extra, disassembled 351W from a ’72 pickup. The heads are ’70 castings and the pistons are dished. I’m considering rebuilding the ’72 engine and placing it in the Bronco. My goal is reliability, crisp acceleration and decent gas mileage at a bargain price. Jack JonesKennewick, Washington AWe spent a few minutes on the phone with Rod Cack at Total Performance (Dept. HR04, 44050 N. Groesbeck Hwy., Clinton Township, MI 48036, 810/468-3673; 810/468-1357 [tech line]) who reminded us that the biggest drawback to using the ’70 heads is that they do not have hardened valve seats and will not…

This year’s Swimsuit Spectacular features California cars and California swimsuit models all warmed by our SoCal sun. That was the fantasy, anyway. The reality was that, because of production deadlines, all of the photography had to be shot in November and I December—which, for some reason, were a lot colder than usual. pher Peter Linney specializes in shooting at sunset, he had to work fast before our swimsuit-clad models froze in what were often 40-degree temperatures with 20-mph winds. The women braved the conditions and did an excellent job of hiding their goosebumps. But as you can see here, they had to go to great lengths to keep warm.…

In 1962, Don Prudhomme hod one dream, to own a paint shop. What he did for fun was smoke the slicks off of Tommy Greer and Keith Black’s Fueler. Thirty-three years later, Larry Dixon Jr. will be doing the same to Prudhomme’s Miller Genuine Draft Spl. If you just got in from Mars and didn’t know, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, one of drag racing’s all-time drivers, has hung it up. Ironically, Prudhomme’s career ended where it began. In 1 962, he made his first pass down Pomona’s quarter in the legendary Greer-Black-Prudhomme A/Fuel dragster. Thirtytwo years later, Prudhomme made his last pass down the same dragstrip. But before he turned the “butterfly” over to Larry Dixon, Jr., son of former Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon, Prudhomme stood still long enough…

In our “Chassis Tips and Tricks” story in the February ’95 issue, we showed this photo of the traction device on Bobby Johnson’s Super Street Nova, complete with the Lakewood sticker. We later learned that Lakewood doesn’t make this part. It’s actually a Cal Tracs traction bar from Calvert Racing in Lancaster, California (805/948-1490). John Calvert, who was the ’91 NHRA Winston Stock Champion, designed and patented the bars and has them on several Stock Eliminator and NMCA cars. So stop calling the folks at Lakewood; they don’t have them.…

One of the coolest street rods we’ve seen belongs to 19-year-old Andrew Anderson of Katy, Texas. He began his rod project at the age of 15 when he found an original ’29 Model A roadster pickup body for sale in the local paper. He wanted to keep the truck simple, to stay within his budget, and created a ’50s-looking rod with an updated powertrain. Working with his father, Don, Andrew restored the roadster body and shortened the bed 9 inches. The original nickelplated grille shell sports a brass skull ornament in keeping with Andrew’s “Grim Reaper” theme. Under the louvered hood is a late-model 350/350 combo with a Maverick 8-inch rearend. The engine is dressed with old aluminum finned valve covers and topped with a baby Moon ’46 Ford hubcap…

Each year, we have planned our special swimsuit edition around a particular theme, from rock ’n’ roll songs to racing cars. When we starting racking our brains for this year’s issue, we realized we were overlooking a natural theme, something that stared us in the face day in and day out: the unique relationship we Southern Californians have with our cars. After all, hot rodding was bom here, in the speed shops and on the dry lakes in the 1920s and ’30s. In the ’60s, the Beach Boys immortalized our sun/cars/fun lifestyle, and we still take full advantage of it every day. We can drive and work on our cars long after our unluckier friends in the East are stuck inside watching the snow fall. So what better way to…

What’s the first thing you look at when checking out a car? What’s the second thing? Probably the wheels and tires are high on the list—how they fit on the car and how they help or hurt the car’s appearance or performance. A car built on the cheap that has the right wheels and tires, the right stance and a good exhaust note can often look better than a big-money car without these things—just because of the overall look. To help you achieve that look, we have put together some new and old ideas in picking wheels and tires for your car. You can learn everything from the basics of determining the correct backspacing, to how wheels with different diameters will affect your car’s looks, how to outfit your car…

It’s a good thing we saved our Crusher Camaro project car from the steel-grinding jaws of the crusher machine, because word from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is that the practice of crushing classic cars for emissions credits is only going to increase in frequency. In order to appease the ozone sniffers and get them to ease off on the electric vehicle mandate for California, the Golden State’s government has opened the door for an excruciating 75,000 cars per year to be crushed. This little fact has gotten us working like mad to finish the Camaro, hopefully in time to make our point that old cars aren’t necessarily bad, and that we can all behave and have well-tuned, environmentally friendly hot rods that run hard. That, and we really want…

People are always asking, “What’s hot?” Rodding in general, woodies in particular are hot. Why? Would you believe ’50s-style nostalgia, or that they have character, or they ooze beach-blanket frivolity? In other words, woodies are hard core. Every year a bunch of these fir crazies meet at an obscure parking lot near a beach in Southern California and do what comes naturally: woofin’ wood. Woofin’ wood can be anything from how to get your varnishing act together to what splinter group to join. However, the hottest direction the wood-is-good crowd is taking is toward mildly customized ’50s station wagons, and there were a number of these kustom kabinets taking up parking spaces at Moonlight Beach (near San Diego, California), the site of last year’s wood-in. Meanwhile, a stroll around Moonlight…

When building a hot rod, everyone talks about modifying the engine, suspension or other major components. Yet, changing those systems usually requires custom fabrication of the steering system, which is rarely mentioned. While failing to build an engine properly might leave you stranded somewhere, an improperly built steering system might cause a little more excitement when it fails, or at least miles and miles of aggravation. So here are some dos and don’ts of putting your steering system together, along with some tips on making those miles you turn happy ones. STREET ROD STEERING FAT FENDER COLUMNS TIP SOURCES Borgeson Universal Co., Inc. Dept. HR04 187 Commercial Blvd. Torrington, CT 06790 203/482-8283 C.M.I. Chassis Works Dept. HR04 11717 McBean Dr. El Monte, CA 91732-1106 818/444-4280 Tri-C Engineering Dept. HR04 27820…

One of the latest Harley-Davidsons to come out of Milwaukee is the attention-grabbing FLHR Road King. Based on the Electra Glide touring Harley, the Road King combines the convenience of hard-case storage with cool, around-town cruiser style for a look that is unmistakable. While the Road King might look good right out of the box, adding some Genuine Harley-Davidson Parts and Accessories along with some aftermarket pieces definitely completes its look. HOT ROD followed along as Bumpus Harley-Davidson in Memphis, Tennessee, added a White Brothers lowering kit and various trim pieces for a subtle custom look. We followed the installation of a I White Brothers lowering kit on a Dyna Glide back in the December ’94 issue (“Lowering Your Tail”), but the forks on the Electra Glide require a different…

PANNED OUT Setting the oil pump pickup height is a problem for some engine builders. An almost foolproof method (a real fool can mess anything up) we found is to measure the depth of your oil pan by placing a straightedge, a file in this case, across the rails of the oil pan (as shown in photo A) and using a ruler or tape measure to find the distance from the bottom of the straightedge to the bottom of the area in the oil pan where the pickup should sit. Then, tap the pickup up or down in the oil pump until there is ¼ inch of clearance between the bottom of the pickup and the ail pan (as shown in photo B).…

FASTEST CAR OF ALL TIME I have a question that my friends and I have been fighting about for a couple of years: What was the fastest production car ever made? I say it was the Hemi Dari, while one of my friends says it was the Cobra, and yet another claims that it is the Corvette ZR-1. Please have an answer for us so that we can stop quarreling and go back to building fast cars instead of just talking about them. George Lynch East Lansing, Michigan Answering something like this is hard, because you have to be very precise about the question first. Do you mean fastest, as in top speed, or quickest, as in quarter-mile times? What qualifies as a “production car"—a minimum number of units? Factory…

The latest limited-edition print from automotive racing artist John Pugh is this collage of driving memories from the award-winning driving career of Darrell Gwynn. The print traces Gwynn’s history behind the wheel, from his earliest days in a junior dragster to his 1990 Gatornationals win. In all, Gwynn racked up an impressive list of 28 national event victories, 10 in Alcohol and 18 in Top Fuel. Each 21x34-inch print is signed by both Gwynn and the artist. Limited edition prints are available for $69.95, while artist proofs are available for $100. For more information, contact the John Pugh Studio, Dept. HR04, 509 Airport Blvd., Unit F, Aurora, CO 80011.…

This year’s HOT ROD Power Festivals (May 19-21, Norwalk Raceway Park, Norwalk, Ohio; and August 25-27, Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, Georgia) will be bigger and busier than last year, but one thing will remain the same—the car show portion of the Festivals will be a big part of the goings-on. As was the case last year, the HOT ROD editors will act as judges. And like last year, our judging will be informal; no clipboards, no points for proper chalkmarks. Instead, we’re looking for the kinds of vehicles and workmanship that we like to champion in the pages of the magazine. As a result of your comments and our own experiences at last year’s Fests, we’ve fine-tuned the judging categories. Many of you with home-built cars didn’t like competing in the…

Motor racing history is filled with milestones. Or in the case of the hyper-legendary Greer, Black and Prudhomme fueler, quarter-milestones. To this very day, the G-B-P rail remains a significant part of drag racing lore for a number of reasons—a 200-plus- to-9 win/loss record; the creation of the first modern owner, builder, driver team; perhaps the first slider clutch; and the resultant fame of its driver, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, and its equally famous engine builder, Keith Black. The contrast between drag racing’s all-time winner and today’s g-pulling, 5000-horse, rear-engine Top Fuel dragsters 1 is so pronounced that we can only offer this stat: In 1964, s G-B-covered Pomona’s quarter in 7.7 seconds with a top-speed of around 208 mph. Thirty years later, Bernstein’s Bud s King covered that very…

So, you’ve spent countless hours and untold riches tweaking your rod. Everything from the radiator brackets to the exhaust tips has been either stripped, sanded, pounded, polished, honed, hacked or otherwise refurbished to meet your discriminating standards. Sounds great. But remember, that class-winning Pro-Streeter still has one thing in common with a $500 beater. It all comes down to where the rubber meets the road, baby! With that in mind, HOT ROD offers a glimpse at some of the latest wheels and tires available. There’s something here for everyone, from light truck wheels to all-out racing slicks. Space limitations prohibit us from displaying these companies’ entire product lines, but we have included information on how to contact them. ALCOA Alcoa Wheel Products has introduced forged-aluminum 16x6 and 16x7 wheels for…

Dick Goldner’s Deuce highboy is a stellar example of the classic hot rod. With its blown Hemi engine, lowered front end and smoothed body, it’s hard to believe the inspiration for this beauty came from...a tow truck? But that’s exactly where Dick’s first experience with Chrysler Hemis began. In the late ’50s and early ’60s, he was part of the pit crew for Joe Gerdelmann’s Hemi-powered dragster. “The truck we used to tow the twin-engine, blown-Hemi slingshot dragster was a 392 Hemi-powered ’32 Ford pickup. Since then, a Hemi-powered roadster was in the plans,” he said. Dick’s plans finally came together in March, 1994. The result is this stunning ’32 Ford roadster. The Ford’s chassis comes from Total Cost Involved Engineering (TCI) of Ontario, California. The front suspension utilizes leaf…

The motorcycle-riding faction of this staff had eagerly awaited its opportunity to straddle the Buell S2 Thunderbolt since early last year when we were first allowed to drool over the teaser photos of the all-new motorcycle. The bike promised to offer the best of all worlds, with performance a sport-touring bike enthusiast would appreciate, comfort found in only a few sport bikes currently available, and the style and content of a truly American motorcycle. When the Buell finally arrived at the HOT ROD offices, it was even more beautiful than the pictures we had seen. The next few thousand miles would tell us all we needed to know. If you’re unfamiliar with the Buell Motorcycle Company, you are not alone. Only die-hard motorcycle fans have heard of Buell and even…

HOT HOLLEYS RACE-ONLY CARBURETORS Holley introduces a new line of factory race carburetors. These Pro-series carburetors feature newly designed main bodies with no choke tower, specially contoured venturi entry angles, new high-flow metering blocks, needle and seat assemblies, and Dominator fuel bowls. These 950-cfm race carbs are built for both circle track and drag racing and are available in gasoline or alcohol versions. The gas versions come in either vacuum-secondary or doublepumper models, while the alcohol version is available only with mechanical secondaries. For more information, contact Holley Tech Service, Dept. HR04, P.O. Box 10360, Bowling Green, KY 42102-7360, 502/781-9741. CRANK IT INTERSTATE POWER Interstate Batteries announces a new battery warranty program that triples the free replacement period on a new battery from six to 18 months. This applies to…

We are living in the age of electronics. New cars won’t run without a couple dozen engine and drivetrain sensors, not to mention the hundreds of electronic connections that make up the audio and electrical circuit systems in any car. Each of these electrical or electronic systems relies on hundreds of electrical connections to perform properly. Often, these connections will deteriorate over time and create problems that can lead to intermittent or complete electronic failures, which are often difficult to find and repair. We’ve run across a product called Stabilant 22A produced by D.W. Electrochemicals in Ontario, Canada, that may be a long-term fix for this unnerving problem. The product is a liquid surface contact treatment that doesn’t make a good contact better but rather improves older electrical contacts that…