Indholdsfortegnelse for December 1995 i Hot Rod

BRING THE TOUR TO YOUR HOUSE Danny Scott’s fiery nitrous explosion is just one of the highlights of the new HOT ROD Power Tour/Power Festival “Official Event Video” available from Simitar Motorsports Video. The nearly hour-long tape follows the entire Power Tour, from the kickoff party at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles to our triumphant arrival on the Norwalk Raceway Park dragstrip. In between is footage of the cars, the cruise nights and the people that made the Power Tour such a memorable experience. Once the Tour is complete, the tape continues with coverage of the Norwalk Power Festival’s car show and driving events (including the Scott explosion in superslow-motion). For those of you who were on the Tour, this tape will bring back a lot of memories. (Boy,…

Some HOT ROD readers will remember an article in “Rodding at Random” concerning an in-progress photograph of Dave Murray’s stretched ’57 Chevy limousine. Well Murray, with help from Cary Weisner, finished it in time to transport the Hugo Hammers, a Little League baseball team from Hugo, Minnesota, to the Peanut Championship game for third graders. The kids’ style and profile were so heavy that they won the game and the championship. Standing from the left are Brad Ness, Brian Weisner, Dave Murray (limo owner), Troy Schloer, Tommy Williams, Dave Flom (coach), Nick Weisner, Steve Kokaisel. Cary Weisner (coach), Josh Flom. Jake Lee, Dan Waskow, Nick Pastorius, Shawn Burr, John Kostuch and Steve Smith. Tony Langevin and Aaron Grove are in the sun roof, and coaches Brett Kostuch and Rick Lee…

AUTO EXHIBIT OPENS IN LAUGHLIN Following the pattern set by the Harrah’s Auto Museum (now the National Automotive Museum) in Reno and the Imperial Palace Antique & Classic Auto Collection in Las Vegas, a new car exhibit has opened in a casino in the growing resort town of Laughlin, Nevada. The Auto Exhibition Hall, located at the Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, is the brainchild of Don Laughlin, founder of the riverside city. He wanted to share his passion for collecting and restoring cars, so he set up the 34,000-square-foot facility to house about 70 cars, some of which are on loan from the Imperial Palace collection. Included in the exhibit are a replica of an 1886 Benz, a WWII-era Jeep, a ’41 Lincoln Towncar (built for Mrs. Henry 1…

Do the names Sal Gonsalves, Chris Cherry, Steve Williams, Jerry Moreland, Gary Case, Jim Gordon, Jamie Mussleman, Kirk Kuhns, Jack Bliss, and Matt and Debbie Hay sound familiar? If they do, you’ve got a good memory. You see, 10 years ago we chose each of them as our first Top Ten Hot Rods of the Year. Then as now, the subjective process governing our selections has remained the same. What happens is this. First the staff—Drew Hardin, Jeff Smith, Cole Quinnell, Rob Kinnan, Will Handzel and your ol’ Dad, Gray Baskerville—pour through 12 months of issues and zero in on the 10 rods that quiver our livers. (Any car that appeared in the magazine is eligible.) Then each editor hands his list of liver quivers to your ol’ Dad, who,…

It’s a 406 small-block with aluminum heads, a 280/292 roller cam, a Callies forged crank and 4340 Carillos. Ross slugs give it 13:1, so it 1 runs 116 through the 850 double-| pumper on a Victor Jr.” “Uh, what?” Cam specs, head flow numbers and similar points of engine envy are heard at every race or cruise, and for every person who understands everything about the above paragraph, we’ve noticed two or three hot rodders who are still new to the game. They’re in the crowd nodding their heads, as if to imply that they understand. In fact, they’re thinking to themselves, “I have no idea what he’s saying right now, man.” If you’re new to hot rodding, this may be you. You don’t know what all this stuff means,…

It wasn’t all that long ago that a story detailing the high-performance modifications of a pair of late-model street machines would have been very short. Many enthusiasts feared there would never be emissions-legal hi-po parts for these “smog” cars. But those fears were unfounded, and this near-new duo are late-model examples of how to combine performance with political correctness. There’s an even better ending to this story than just a warm, fuzzy feeling that the hot rod industry is doing its part to make smog-legal performance a reality. These two cars, duly dubbed the ASAP twins, are projects from Automotive Specialty Accessory Parts (ASAP) built to showcase the company’s broad selection of high-performance mail-order parts. In fact, all the major components used in the construction of these two rides are…

On December 6, 1963, a group of Chrysler engineers huddled to watch a pair of mammoth valve covers quiver as the 426 Hemi rumbled to life for the very first time. They had no idea that the lump-in-your-throat, tear-in-your-eye, fear-in-your-heart emotion of the day would be shared by car freaks every time a Hemi was fired up for the next 30-plus years. The engine would eventually shatter all records at its 1964 Daytona 500 debut, knock down the 200-, 250-and 300-mph barriers at the drags, run more than 400 mph on the salt and power the most violent street cars ever produced. Which is why Chrysler refused to make limp-wristed smog Hemis to meet 70s emissions laws. The last Hemi car was built in 1971, and Chrysler would later throw…

There they were, stacked up off the Florida coast like airliners in a holding pattern, a raft of five tropical storms that were ready to pound the southeastern United States. The rain was much needed in Georgia. Locals told us about weeks of dry weather, about how hot and humid it had been just before we arrived. Unfortunately, we arrived at the same time tropical depressions Humberto and Jerry decided to linger over the northeast corner of Georgia. So the storms that broke Georgia’s drought also brought three uninterrupted days of rain to the second annual HOT ROD Power Festival at the Atlanta Dragway near Commerce, Georgia. So much for the drag racing. Luckily for those who did come to the show, the temperatures stayed warm, so an umbrella or…

For the first time in its 26-year history, the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) Street Rod Nationals were held in upstate New York at the Empire Expo Center in Syracuse. The new venue generated a lot of excitement and attracted nearly 10,000 street rods to the midsummer gathering. Every day was jam-packed with a full agenda of things to do; the only problem was deciding what to do first. The Automotive Trade Show filled four main buildings and a number of parking lots full of exhibitors and vendors from across the country. Technical seminars were held all weekend, as were NSRA safety inspections and activities at the Michigan Hot Rod Association repair shop. Saturday’s events included the Under 21 Show, Mopar Country, the PPG Awards and the coveted Pro’s Picks.…

A custom painter cannot have anything plain as his daily driver. What you drive must showcase your talents and act not just as a conveyance but also as a rolling business card. A custom car painter driving a plain jane stocker is tantamount to Monet hanging a velvet Elvis painting on his wall. It’s just not acceptable. Bernt Karlsson of Classics By Bernt in Stanton, California, whose work has been featured in HOT ROD (remember the Crusher Camaro?), knows this. He had a totally tricked out sport truck for transportation, but a customer loved it enough to convince him to sell it for a large sum of money. It’s a good thing Bernt was just wrapping up this custom Softail, because he would need it to get to work. The…

FORD HISTORY I am writing to settle an argument that’s been going on here between a few hot rodders. Did Ford ever make a hemi engine? Steven FletcherSusanville, California The Boss 429 engines Ford offered in o limited number of Mustangs in 1969 and 1970 were outfitted with heads that had hemispherical combustion chambers. (Actually, they were crescent shaped, so the engine is often referred to as a “semi-hemi.”) Power for the Boss 429 was rated at 375 horsepower and 450 Ibs-ft of torque. More recently, Ford’s Special Vehicle Engineering team dropped a Roush Industries-built 604ci fuel-injected version of a Boss 429 into a late-model Mustang and created quite a car; we profiled it in January ’95 (“This Car Is Boss”). WE GOOFED How many people proofread HOT ROD before…

Looking for a distinctive gift for the hot rodder in your life? First Class Mail now offers these trick mailboxes for the car freak who wants to proclaim his allegiance to his brand. The black mailbox is a classic ’57 Chevy design, while the more colorful orange box represents early Mustang style. First Class Mail also offers ’55 Thunderbird and ’59 Corvette motifs. These boxes aren’t cheap, but they look cool—so cool, in fact, you’ll probably rather keep them in the den for your important papers. If this looks like the ultimate holiday gift, contact First Class Mail, Dept. HR 12, N8968 Highway FW, Randolph, Wl 53956, 414/326-3157.…

Have you ever wondered how Superman would view a cool ’57 Chevy with his X-ray vision? Look no further than this outstanding cutaway drawing of a mildly built ’57 Chevy by artist Karl Loveridge. You too can have this Super view of this Bel Air, because Loveridge has produced 3000 prints of his wonderful artwork for the discerning classic Chevy enthusiast. The poster goes for $25 plus $5 for postage and handling. You can get one by contacting Technical Ink Illustration, Dept. HR 12, 702 E. Center St., Logan, UT 84321, or call 800/484-5772, ext. 9393.…

Vintage auto-racing photography and hot rods owned by ZZ Top band member Billy Gibbons are among the new displays at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The photographic collection features works by Jesse Alexander, who has been documenting international motorsports since the mid ’50s. Alexander’s dramatic photos capture not only the history of motorsports but the spirit and passion of racing as well. The exhibit features more than 50 photographs, including a 7x12 foot photo mural of Eugenio Casielotti negotiating the Nurburgring’s Karussel in a Ferrari 860 Monza [shown here}. The Gibbons display will feature several of the bearded one’s customized cars, including CadZZilla, the Eliminator and a new car currently under construction. (We’ll show you more of that one in an upcoming issue.) The Petersen Automotive Museum is…

Let’s say you’re cheap, really cheap, and it’s time to rebuild that worn-out V8. Of course, you want to do it for the cost of a Meal Deal. We know where you’re Kflw coming from, and do we have a plan for you. We set out to rebuild a Chevrolet F 350 on a hamburger-and-fries budget—$800 to be exact. That includes everything, even spray paint. And since you’re reading HOT ROD, we wouldn’t dream of showing you how to perform just a stock rebuild. We threw in as many performance parts as we could under the tight budget and even dyno tested a very similar engine to see just how much power the combination could produce. Building an engine on a budget means taking a few shortcuts, so we should…

Swap meet shopping can be a very rewarding experience if you follow some basic rules. The most important rule is to never pay more than you have to for something. While it might seem stupid to have to point that out, we all know swappers who will buy something without knowing what the part costs new or whether the part will fit their application. Which brings up another important rule: Always know what you are looking at before you buy. How can you expect to get a deal if you don’t even know what you’re buying? The real deals are found when you know what a part is or what it is worth and the seller doesn’t. If the seller knows what the part is worth, the price will probably…

Tim Allen, the star of TV’s “Home Improvement,” is probably the world’s most famous tool freak. In his stand-up comedy act he uses the line, “I’ve got tools to fix tools.” Well, we’ve got tools that will make you drool if for no other reason than they’re so dirt cheap. Any hot rodder knows he has to have tools to do the job. Often, how-ever, those tools either don’t exist or are so expensive that it’s tough to justify purchasing them when you don’t intend to use them very often. But when you do need them, they are invaluable. The budget alternative is to make your own tools. Not only will you have the satisfaction of building the tool yourself, but you’ll also save a ton of money in the…

There is one term that is universally recognized when it comes to Harley projects: basket case. These two words conjure up images of a basket, box or some other container overfilled with V twin parts, fuel tanks, a headlight, maybe some fork tubes and a frame. With plenty of love, money and elbow grease this pile of parts will be transformed into the hot bike of the owner’s dreams. George Cassell (or Fish as his buddies call him) knows this parts-to-bike progression well. His ’87 FXR came to him in a basket, and he spent the next year getting the ride ready for Sturgis. He started the rebuild with a ’93 Evo motor punched and stroked 95 ci. Al Taylor did the heads using Black Diamond valves and a Crane…

HEAD SHOP Q I am building a ’68 302 and want to put 351W heads on it. Everybody I talk to tells me that I have to buy tapered head bolts. What do I really need to do? Tom SpoonHolton, Michigan A Pete Christensen at Jim Grubbs Motorsports (Dept. HR12, 28130 Ave. Crocker, Unit 331, Valencia, CA 91355, 805/257-0101) says that the only specialty pieces you definitely need to bolt on the Windsor heads are stepped head bolt washers, which are available from American Racing Products (Dept. HR12, 250 Quail Ct., Santa Paula, CA 93060, 805/525-5152). These washers are necessary because the 302 engine will use 7/16-inch head bolts, while the 351W heads will be clearanced for V2 inch head bolts. You’ll also need to check piston-to-valve clearance with the…

SUMMERTIME OLDS Summertime is about the only time that John Stark can drive his ’69 4-4-2. You see, he lives in Anchorage. Alaska, and the car is too nice to leave in hibernation during the nasty Northern winter months. Stark craved cubes, so the stock 400 was swapped for a 455 with 11:1 pistons, a Performer 455 intake, a Holley 750, a set of Hookers and a Cheater nitrous system. A TH400 with a TCI converter and 4.11s heats the streets. Next on the list are a set of Center Lines and a possible tub job. After all, he’s got all winter to work on it. QUICK DRIVER A daily driven 12-second car is rarer than most people think, but Fountain Valley. California, resident Mike Laske’s blue 71 Nova gets…

In the October issue we celebrated Nifty Fifties, and while ’50s cars are hot and will stay hot for quite some time, we’ve got yet another half decade from which to draw excellent hot rod material: the early ’60s. Whereas ’50s cars are normally round and meaty, the cars of ’60 ’65 are angular, long, low and built to cruise, lust check out a few examples we witnessed at Hot August Nights in Reno (coverage elsewhere in this issue). With one exception, these are all Chevys, but look around next time you’re out on the streel. There are dozens of beautiful early-’60s body shapes and styles that don’t have Bow-Ties on the grille. They look great and are complete cruisers, thanks to cavernous interiors and dashboard design trickery. We’re thinking…

Many of you followed its buildup in this magazine during the summer and fall of 1994. More people saw it as it traveled the highways on Rod & Custom’s Americruise in 1994, on HOT ROD’s Power Tour in 1995, and as part of BFGoodrich Tires’ roving car show display over the last two years. And 335,000 of you registered to win “Son of Green Machine,’’ BFG’s wild, flamed ’57 Chevy, seen here on a leg of the Power Tour. Well, we hate to break the news to the other 334,999 entrants, but the lucky winner of this classic Chevy, built by California Street Rods, is Josh McClung of Brownsburg, Indiana. Congratulations, Josh! We look forward to seeing you on one of next year’s Tour legs.…

PRO STREET TOUR The car that usually drew the largest crowd at each stop from L.A. to Norwalk was Pete Walsh’s Pro Street Nova, and why not? With huge-by-large Mickeys out back. 4 1/2-inc Flowmasters bellowing big-block tunes and a full cage in the i interior, this car doesn’t look as if it could drive across town, much less across most of the North American continent! If you don’t believe you can drive a Pro Street car on the street, Pete made it the entire way (except for a short rain delay in the trailer). And he wasn’t the only one. The list of Pro Streeters that joined the Tour included Rocky Robertson’s ’51 Kaiser, Lee Birkett’s ’55 Chevy, Dale and Debbie Keiser’s ’68 El Camino, and others who joined…

The war against automotive air pollution is hitting the streets in California with what is called the Remote Sensing Device (RSD). This latest weapon is a mobile sniffer that detects exhaust emissions from cars traveling past it. The RSD works by shooting a narrow beam of infrared light across traffic. The beam reads the exhaust plume from the tailpipe and feeds this data to a computer. At the some time, a video camera takes a picture of the car leaving the test site and records the license plate number. The emissions from The car’s exhaust is then compared to standards for that year of vehicle. If the car is clean or even marginal, no action is token. However, if the car is deemed to be a “gross polluter” with exhaust…

At first glance. Ron Rhodes’ ’68 Caniaro wouldn’t seem like a good candidate for a budget engine issue. The car has “show quality” written all over it, from its immaculate engine compartment to its mirror-straight body panels and deep red paint. We thought “show car” too when we first saw it at this year’s Norwalk Power P Festival—at least, until we walked . around the Camaro and saw rear quarterpanels that were filthy from all the black rubber crumbs. First impressions can be deceiving. Ron’s car is no megabuck trailer queen. It’s a driver, a true street/strip car, and a real-world car at that. Ron figures his total investment in the Camaro is about $15,000. Granted, that is not dirt cheap, but it’s a fairly modest investment for a car…

So your daily driver hot rod has an engine that runs good but looks like a horror-film reject. What do you do? Well, you could bolt the hood shut and drive the beast until it dies, or you could spend a weekend sprucing up that happy but ugly little runner. The cleanup is simple but messy, so if you do decide to jump in, expect muck up to your eyeballs. Refer to an engine manual for torque requirements when reinstalling parts, and make sure the parts go back on the engine the way they came off to ensure that the engine fires up easily. When you’re done, the engine will look a million times better. Plus, you’ll be more inclined to work on the thing, since the haz-mat team won’t…

Anyone who has ever wrenched on a vehicle knows there’s more to this hobby than greasy clothes and scarred knuckles. While our significant others might disagree, we hot rodders can have fun without lying on our backs in a puddle of oil. To showcase the lighter side of automotive enthusiasm and offer some great gift ideas, this month’s buyers’ guide is full of nongrimy car-related items. From killer T-shirts to billet key chains, you’ll find lots of ways to further express your automotive affinity. And remember, if you’re lucky enough to get one of these cool shirts or jackets, don’t work on the car in it! BOYDS’ BILLET This scale version of the true Boyds billet wheel is machined on the same equipment as the real thing. Dress up your…

Everyone talks about building the “something different” street rod, but it took the folks at Summit Racing Equipment to boldly go where no street rod has gone before. It was originally Summit engineer Mark Stie low’s idea to blend the ultimate application of handling, performance and acceleration into a slick street rod that could do much more than just look pretty. What resulted from that flight of fancy is this all-wheel-drive ’32 Ford with 500hp worth of fenderless excitement. While some purists may blanch at the thought of such a nontraditional effort, the results speak for themselves. The car is based on Just-A-Hobby rectangular framerails and a round-tube rollcage designed to support a GMC Syclone all-wheel-drive, viscous coupling and front differential mated to a BorgWarner aftermarket T56 six-speed manual transmission.…

The homestretch of building a street rod has to be the most frustrating aspect, because all you want to do is get behind the wheel and drive the thing! The problem is that even though the car looks close to being done, the work required to complete the little details seems to take forever. Like any big project, finishing a car takes patience. Keep plugging away, though, because once you get behind the wheel, you won’t want to work on the car—you’ll just want to drive it. The ’31 Ford Model A roadster street rod seen here was built on a $10,000 budget by an enthusiast with no prior street rod building experience. Knowing how this car was built on a tight budget will give you ideas on how to…

SCENES FROM THE STREET TRICK TRUCK MIRRORS Outside mirrors can either detract from a vehicle’s appearance or enhance it. Street Scene’s new truck mirrors are not only visually tied into the body lines, but they’re also very functional, with convex glass on the right-hand mirror and optional electric adjustability. They’re available for GM S and C/K trucks, Astro vans and Dodge Rams, and are made of high-impact ABS plastic to handle plenty of abuse. For more information, contact Street Scene Equipment, Dept. HR12, 12245 Coast Dr., Whittier, CA 90601, 800/636-6616. GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YA ENGINE TREATMENT With the new TM8, Valvoline becomes the first motor oil marketer to develop its own engine treatment. Valvoline claims that TM8 is a blend of eight components, including Teflon, that chemically bonds to…

As we prepared for this year’s Power Tour, we planned to use our Chevy 1-ton dualie as a support vehicle and all-round tote-goat. The problem was that its open bed didn’t offer us any protection from the weather or light-fingered passers-by interested in our tools, T-shirts and other gear. The solution was to add a shell, and for that we turned to SnugTop here in Southern California. SnugTop offers a variety of fiberglass shells in a number of designs, with and without windows. We chose a “Cab-Hi” model with screened, tinted sliding-glass windows. All of SnugTop’s shells are made from a single piece of fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin that’s been molded to fit the particular truck bed’s dimensions (ours was made specifically for a ’93 Chevy/GMC club cab longbed). The roof…