Indholdsfortegnelse for May 1995 i Hot Rod

Plans were unveiled recently for a new S72,000,000, banked, 1.5-mile speedway located adjacent to Nellis Air force Base on the northern outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada. The track will be called the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and track owners are already planning on an Indy Racing League 500-mile race to be held in September, 1996, to open the venue. The ambitious track will be managed by Richie Clyne and is only part of an overall super-racing facility that will include 107,000 seat grandstands, 100 glass-enclosed suites and a huge parking area, along with structures for engineering facilities, permanent garages and training grounds for driving schools. In fact, Carroll Shelby has already signed up to locate the headquarters of his Shelby American facilities at the new Speedway Industrial Center. The new…

When a glass body/go-kart combo didn’t make it. Grandpa Norm Cooper, a Vassar, Michigan, hot rodder, changed gears and did what came naturally. He scratch-built a frame—complete with a dropped axle, springs and wishbones—then formed a dummy engine out of aluminum, wood and plastic. According to Cooper, “The driver’s legs poke through the firewall into the hollow engine to operate the control pedals,” because a Briggs’ 8-horse engine, not kid power, supplies the maotor-vation. What’s more, Coop’s hi-toy illustrates rodding’s return to its flamed, fender-free and flatty past.…

There is a Latin term, horror vacui, for the fear of open spaces, that best describes my office. In other words, the walls of my office are spaced out with hot rod art. Now if I’m afflicted with horror vacui, I figure the readers of HOT ROD share that some need to frame their walls with rods that haul. Naturally, Rick Finn, a haul artist from So Cal (Dept. HR05, 2446 Elden Ave. A-3, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, 714/631-4312) has an answer. Although Finn’s collection of 11 xl 4-inch prints, augmented by T8x24-rnch original pen-and-ink one-off watercolor images, won’t cure horror vacui, his art will make the morbus mo’ bettah.…

Jim Ledford’s Mid Michigan Motor-plex isn’t a new track, but it will be a new place for Fastest Street Cars to race, starting with the inaugural running of the World Cup Fastest Street Car Shootout, May 26-29. This World Cup race is going to be a little different from other forms of Fastest Street Car racing you may see this year, as the team at Mid Michigan Motorplex has developed a set of rules that will ensuce only legitimate street cars in Pro and Super Street classes come Io compete. That specifically means cars that HOT ROD magazine is hungry Io photograph, and you can be sure we’ll be there to aim our lenses at everything we can. A complete set of rules is available by writing or calling the…

The venerable Oakland Roadster Show isn’t really a roadster extravaganza but rather a glittering two-and four-wheel tribute to the past and present; a sort of indoor equivalent to the Bakersfield-based Hot Rod Reunion. The show draws old customizers, America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) winners and various glitterati like the Reunion attracts old racers. There is even a Hall of Fame luncheon, where this year Sam Barris, John D’Agostino, Sam Foose and Rich Pichette were inducted into the show’s Haul of Fame. But the show must go and so will we with this overview of Oakland ’95.…

Street rodders love summer. It brings long sunny days, warm nights and, of course, a fresh list of car events to attend (see our Calendar section for details). To ensure fun rather than frustration on that opening rod run, give your vehicle, and this buyers’ guide, a once-over. These are some of the latest offerings from the street rod after-market, and you’ll likely find something that you want or need. All the necessary info is here and operators will be standing by. Now, where did I put my suntan lotion? AIR-TIQUE AIR CONDITIONING Air-tique’s new Mini Heat and Cool systems are designed to provide high output from a compact unit. They also offer a choice of refrigerant types: R-12, R-134a and FR-12. Other options include defrost, floor heat and automatic…

We did it. We met every goal that was set for the Crusher Camaro, and then some. But first, some history on the car, in case you’ve entered the project in midstream. When the Clean Air Act was passed in 1990, one of its goals was to force large factories, especially the major oil refineries, to cut their emissions. Obviously, it’s very expensive to make drastic changes to a refinery and put the industrial equivalent of a catalytic converter on a smokestack. Heavy opposition by the oil companies was encountered, and political deals were struck. One of those deals was that the oil companies can defer the work on the refineries by collecting emissions credits. How do they get these credits? By destroying enough cars that (theoretically) puke out an…

Going fast at the dragstrip is what makes most of us really happy. Lower e.t.’s” seem like an easy goal, but how to achieve them isn’t always clear. To make things worse, what works for one car may not work for another, even if they appear to be similar. Further, there are plenty of old wives’ tales being told that may or may not be true and can really complicate the quest for quicker times. There are, however, a few very methodical things you can do to avoid making costly mistakes and realize that much-lusted-after e.t. drop. We combined a conversation with Chuck Samuel of Fast Times Motor Works with our own experiences and a healthy dose of common sense to bring you the following information that should help you…

As we outlined last month, HOT ROD is conducting a shootout between Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler big-block engines in an altered version of the ’Title Bout” story that we did back in the October ’92 issue. That first Title Bout was a crate-motor small-block shootout with only a few rules. This time around, there were just six engine rules laid down—engine displacement must be between 480 to 520 ci, engines must run on pump gas (Unocal unleaded 92), induction is limited to a single four-barrel carb on a cast intake, no nitrous or superchargers allowed, no symmetrical-port heads permitted, and the engine must run through mufflers. No engine rules other than that—a true run-what-you-brung competition. As was the case with the original Title Bout, these engines will be compared on…

Isn’t this just about the swoopiest Harley you’ve ever seen? Wanna know a secret? It was built in the unbelievably short time span of a month. But when you consider that the men spinning the wrenches make up the crew at Performance, Machine (PM) in Paramount, California, it’s no surprise that the bike turned out so cool in such a brief amount of time. Perry sands is the visionary behind the cafe-raceresque FXR, which uses a kid from corbin for its violent visual impact. The body kit consists of the fairing, seat, front and rear fenders, and front frame fairing and it really gives the machine an aggressive, sport-bike attitude. The frame is stock but was ground here and smoothed there. The tank is stock FXR, but it has a…

NOT KITTY LITTER STP SUPER OIL ABSORBENT STP is introducing a new product—STP Super Oil Absorbent— that can be used on all kinds of garage spills, from oil to grease, water and other automotive fluids. It can even be used on snow and ice as a traction aid. The difference between the STP absorbent and other products, according to the company, is that Super Oil Absorbent is made up of finer, smaller particles, so the medium has more surface area and therefore provides better absorption. You’ll find STP Super Oil Absorbent in five-and 10-pound boxes, or in 20-and 40-pound bags, at most automotive parts retailers. A/G BODY UPDATE HOTCHKIS TUBULAR A-ARMS If you want to upgrade the stopping power of your Chevelle, El Camino, Monte Carlo, Grand National or other…

NITROUS LAWS I have enclosed an article 1 recently clipped out of a college newspaper about the recent increase in the misuse of nitrous oxide on college campuses. The students use the nitrous to get stoned, and the article concludes by noting that the state of Ohio has made it illegal to sell nitrous except for food and medical purposes. From what I understand, the nitrous used by the automotive performance industry contains small amounts of sulphur, which would make any would-be abuser one sick cookie. So if the version of nitrous used by the performance industry already precludes its abuse, then what is to be gained by outlawing it? What I’m getting at is this: Can Summit even sell bottles of nitrous anymore? Please confirm this story for the…

This falls under the category of “If you publish it, they will build it.” In the June. ’94 issue of HOT ROD. we ran a fanciful rendering by Bob Thrash of what he thought Boyd Coddington’s ’57 Chevy CheZoom would look like as a motorcycle. Vini Bergman, who owns Ultra Custom Coach, the company that built those wild stretch limousines with the Jacuzzi in the trunk, took it upon himself to build HogZoom. Bergman’s Ultra Kustom Cycles (Dept. HR05, 1310 N. Miller St., Anaheim, CA 92806, 714/572-2194) constructed the all-steel HogZoom with tin-bending help from metal fabricators Al Hallerud and Mike Rice in a scant 23 days. The bike is powered by an 83ci Harley-based S&S engine and five-speed trans with a Corbin leather seat and killer brakes. Even Danchuk…

Hot rodding is much more than just working on and enjoying cars—it’s a lifestyle of its own. And an important part of any lifestyle is its music. Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records realizes this and is proud to offer, in compact disc form, many of the cool tunes his company originally labeled. The CD titles include “Hot Rod Hits” (32 songs with the rear view of a Deuce on the cover), “Hollywood Drag,” “Hotrodders’ Choice,” “Drag Beat” and “Sun & Surf Cars and Guitars.” The discs feature music from The Darts, The De-Fenders and the Deuce Coupes. The music is timeless, and the recordings are mastered from digital tapes transferred from original analog master tapes, which means the sound is clear and clean. The occasional noise of a vintage fueler…

The staff of HOT ROD magazine is taking a cross-country, high-performance drive through the v heart of the USA, and we’d like you to join us. The Power Tour will travel from our home base in Los Angeles to the Power Festival in Norwalk, Ohio, during the week of May 13 to May 19. This is a great opportunity for us to get in touch with our readers, and for you to meet us, as well. Join us wherever you like, and drive with us for as long as you can. There’s no fee to drive on the Power Tour, and there is no better way for us to see your cool cars. Along the route we’ve set up evening cruise night/party stops in Kansas City, Kansas; Springfield, Illinois; Merrillville,…

The 1995 HOT ROD Power Festival, May 19-21, presented by BFGoodrich and sponsored by Chevrolet, is shaping up to be an awesome event. Car show entries are up, more manufacturers have signed on to be on the Manufacturer’s Midway, and we’ll have more action at this Festival than at any previous show. The Power Festival is truly a “something for everyone” kind of event. Our car show runs the gamut from vintage street rods to the latest in street machines, musclecars, trick trucks and even Harley-Davidsons. The Manufacturer’s Midway will be there for those of you looking for parts and pieces for your own car, with companies like BFGoodrich, Chevrolet and Kicker bringing their wares. There will be games to play and prizes to win. There will be action on…

Hot rodders are a creative bunch. They are driven by the urge to build and race something that has never existed before just because no one else has done it. An excellent example engendered by this kind of thinking is the Summit Racing Equipment QuadraDeuce—a very bitchin’ highboy roadster that has an all-aluminum small-block driving all four wheels through a six-speed transmission. There are four-wheel disc brakes doing the whoa under a DuVall windshield, which is bolted to a Harwood fiberglass roadster body on highly modified Deuce Just-A-Hobby framerails. Whew! This thing is sick with tricks! To top it off, this car is going to be fully functional. The QuadraDeuce will join us on our Power Tour in May, and then it will compete in the One Lap of America…

When you look at Steve Bland’s ultra-sharp ’70 Mustang, what do you think of? The smooth black pavement of the local…grocery store? Your hand firmly wrapped around the handle of…a shopping cart? Unless you were born with some primal urge to get milk and eggs, the answer is obviously NO! This car wasn’t built to get groceries, it was built to get going! Two years and two assistants, Steve’s brother Clint Bland and friend Jan Shnur, were needed to build the steed up to its present status. The frame work was done by Steve and Clint and was kept to a minimum, the most notable exception being the tubular rear frame that replaces the stock assembly. A rear antiroll-bar and Chassis Engineering rear springs and shocks were added to help…

Hot rodding is all about efficiency. Getting more horse-power and torque out of your engine involves nothing more than making the engine more efficient. While much attention is spent on glamour parts like big carburetors, intakes, blowers and cylinder heads, any engine will respond to changes that will allow it to make more power. The tough task is to pull this off without spending a lot of money. Anybody with bucks can stuff a blower on an engine and pump up the power. But it takes skill, patience and ability to squeeze that last bit of power out of your engine. What you’ll find here are some low-budget tips and tricks for making more power. Each of these short items will cover a particular path to improved power that will…

There are few collections of automobilia that can equal the size or variety of the Smith Collection housed at Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bill and Joyce Smith, owners of Speedway Motors, have spent their lives collecting, restoring and displaying race cars, hot rods, pedal cars, tether cars, toy cars, race, hot rod and prototype engines, hot rod parts and other automobilia. Because of its size, the photos here only provide a taste of the Smith Collection. Since it is open to the public only a few times a year, the best way to see more is to attend this year’s Rod & Custom Americruise, July 7-9, as the museum will be open to Americruise participants that whole weekend.…

Harley-Davidson has used the 40mm Keihin constant velocity (CV) carburetor since 1988 on Sportsters and introduced them in 1990 on the Big Twins. The 1988 model differed from the 1989-and-later carbs in that it didn’t have an accelerator pump; for that reason most shouldn’t attempt to hop-up the ’88 carbs. The carbs also differ in jetting and slide needles depending on the bike they were used on and the state in which the bike was sold. Modifying the stock carb can vastly improve the performance of your bike and isn’t rocket science, but you do need good basic knowledge of carbs, decent tools and lots of patience. You can find the information on carburetors by reading the Harley-Davidson Service Manual for your motorcycle. The carb is called a constant velocity…

STEAMED Q I’m writing in regard to the z67 Camaro project (“Crusher Comoro, Part III”) article that appeared in your February z95 issue. Concerning the cylinder heads, you state that the “Edelbrock heads are very good out of the box, so we bolted them on as is with the supplied valvesprings.” In the photo of the head, I noticed that they had no steam holes between the chambers. I’ve been to a few machine shops while building my 406 small-block, and they all told me that any heads other than stock 400 heads would need to have steam holes drilled in them. Is this a definite must that you forgot to mention, or is this another way for the machine shops to squeeze $50 to $100 out of us tight-budgeted…

Late-model, fuel-injected 5.0 Mustangs are quickly becoming the ’55 Chevys of the future. One trait that the Mustangs share with the old ’55 is a tendency to run hot. The engine-driven fans in the ’86 to ’93 models sometimes have a problem with low-speed heating, especially if underdrive pulleys have been added that slow both the water pump and the fan. Flex-a-lite has a solution to this dilemma. It’s called the Black Magic 175 electric fan. While many electric fan installations can be complicated, Flex-a-lite has made it easier for EFI Mustang owners by creating a dedicated mounting system for these cars. The fan mounts behind the radiator where it works most efficiently and is fitted with a built-in shroud and temperature sensor that automatically turns the fan on and…

NOT AN SS Real Chevelle enthusiasts know that SS cars came with big-blocks, while Malibus could have small-blocks or straight-sixes, and that’s the way it should be. That’s not to say you need an SS to be cool. Joe Maggiore of San Martin, California, knows this and built a mid-9-second small-block ’66 Chevelle using an all-steel body and a 394ci small-block that was dyno’d at over 720 horsepower. He gives Mike Blackstone and Jim Dunford credit for building the stout motor and hopes to improve his e.t. even more by adding nitrous and a tunnel-ram this year. FIELD CAR Even though field cars are usually riddled with rust, it seems as though an usually high number of hot rods are rescued from farms to start their second lives. Gary Johnson’s…

Jim Oddy is one of the premiere competitors in IHRA Pro Mod racing. Toward the end of last season, Oddy built a new car that has taken right up where he left off with low 6.30s at over 216 mph. The new car is a carbon fiber ’37 Chevy body built by Superior Glass Works that, is hung over a G-Force Race Cars tube chassis housing a rather smallish 526ci big-block Chevy. But Oddy makes up for the engine’s diminutive displacement with a monster BDS blower while carrying only 2500 pounds. Driver Fred Hahn recently sized up Scotty Cannon and his ’41 Willys for a best two-out-of-three match race that really showed the chubby Chebby’s strength, getting the best of Cannon’s Willys. With times like these, how long before you…

Fresh out of hot rod stationery or envelopes? Want to spruce up that vanilla letter carrier before it goes out to your fellow car enthusiasts? How about a trick mailing label or even custom stationery? Paul Oxman Publishing Company (Dept. HR05, P.O. Box 8509, Fountain Valley, CA 92728, 800/228-0787) has just what you’re looking for. It offers a few styles of car-inspired stationery and a great variety of mailing labels that can be imprinted with your name and address. Shown in the accompanying photo are only a few of the mailing label images available, which include an Alky Funny Car, a Top Fuel dragster, winged and non-winged Sprint Cars, a flamed ’32 roadster, an Indy car and even a Formula race car. The company also offers a couple of motorcycle…

You’ve seen ’em on the page; now see ’em in ’ person! We plan on having no less than seven HOT ROD cover cars on the Power Tour. Our long-distance award will probably be claimed by Pete Walsh. Speedy Petey is bringing his Fastest Street Car-racing Nova (February ’95 cover) from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, just to drive it back to Norwalk. Hey, when we said Fastest Street Car, we meant it! Also along for the ride will be the Crusher Camaro (March ’95); Fred Warren’s Boyd-built Smoothster (January ’95); BFGoodrich’s Son of Green Machine ’57 Chevy (November ’94); HOT ROD’s ’34 Chevy sedan delivery (April ’94); Rob Kinnan’s ’67 Fairlane (May ’94); and Mark Stielow’s QuadraDeuce (this month’s cover car). Other HOT ROD staff-owned vehicles on the Tour will…

Rods are the essence of cool. Anyone can buy a stocker, but purchasing a rod is far different. You don’t own it: it owns you. Over the years, rodders have generated a number of hot rods; ground-pounding iron guaranteed to shake a saint, fake out the federales and put fear in their mothers’ hearts. On the other hand, the hop-and chop set has also created a number of streeters. These were less noisy but equally spectacular examples of the rodder’s eclectic art that, in our own vernacular, we refer to as bitching (another word for cool). The problem is how to encapsulate cool and capture its essence. Perhaps this cast of cool characters will help us to chill out.…

Flame paint jobs aren’t new. Flame jobs have been with us since the 1930s, when a circle racer became involved in a spectacular fire. The appearance of those flames boiling out the louvered hood was so “cool” that rodders began to use paint to visually set their own hot rods on fire. Like the rods that employ them, flames come in all colors and styles—traditional, overlay, ghost and outline, to name a few. “But,” according to Tom “Shaky” Otis, “flames have to be graceful, with a liquid-fire look that exhibits no ill shapes to foul up the basic design of the car.” Because flames remain an ancient but popular part of hot rodding, we thought it would be kicks to show our readers little Shaky’s hot licks and paint tricks.…

The most famous aircraft of World War II was a Boeing B-I7 called the Memphis Belle. She was the first bomber to carry her crew safely through 25 combat missions over Europe, earning a place of honor in history. Annette Summer is not quite as well-known among history buffs, but maybe that’s because she’s not finished writing her story in the Fastest Street Car record books. While she has yet to win the Memphis finals, she’s already earned two Top Ten spots in her first two years, and this year came as close to winning it all as you can get. And like the fabled Memphis Belle, Annette’s Camaro has carried her through her entire drag racing career, from her early days as a street machiner and bracket racer to…

A four-barrel carburetor and manifold are the classic definition of performance. Everyone wants the big carburetor and manifold that exudes power. The problem is that those nice, new shiny parts cost big money. It’s incredibly easy to sink $500 or more in new induction parts. But for those of us on a tight budget, there’s also a low-buck, parts-scrounger approach to more power. We’ll assume that you have a lo-po two-barrel sitting atop that early-’70s cruiser and want to upgrade it to a larger, four-barrel carburetor. The least expensive route to four-barrel happiness is to take a spin down to your local recycling yard or swap meet and find a suitable factory four-barrel manifold and carburetor that will fit your engine. Often, you can pick up the pair for less…

One of the nicest Harleys ever to lay rubber to the road has to be Bob Lowe’s Fatboy custom, featured in the March ’94 issue of HOT ROD (“2 Lowe”). The all-black bike was a radical custom, no doubt, but lacked the frilly gewgaws that typify most show bikes. In our opinion, 2 Lowe had the cleanest lines, features and detail of any bike that came before it. So how was Bob to top that effort? By building another full-on custom, but this time with a different slant. Lowe had never seen a Lowrider Custom hot rodded to his liking, so he decided to base his new bike on the FXLRC, with the lofty goal of winning every show on the circuit. Taking the top prize at the Oakland Roadster…

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 July 31, 1995. 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. 1. Speedway Motors ($5.00) 2. Grant Products ($3.00) 3. Auto Accessories Of America, Inc. ($5.00) 4. Summit Racing Equipment ($4.00) 5. Mid America Designs ($5.00) 6. Street & Performance ($3.00) 7.…