Indholdsfortegnelse for June 1996 i Hot Rod

Here’s The Latest Power Tour News The second annual HOT ROD Power Tour is about ready to roll (May 9-18), and the list of special events related to the cruise keeps growing. Here’s a rundown on the latest: Heavy Chevys—Jon Moss, the guru of Chevrolet’s specialty and concept vehicles, plans on displaying several of his “heavy-metal” cars at the Detroit-area cruise night in Mount Clemens, Michigan, May 17. Better still, he’s bringing those cars to the Power Festival in Norwalk, Ohio, to make some exhibition passes on the strip. His list isn’t firm, but it will probably include the Monte Carlo Pro Street (our February ‘96 cover car), the big-block powered ZL-1 Camaro featured in “Fat-Block F-Bodies” (May ‘94), a bigblock-powered Impala SS and possibly the “Coolside” big-block concept pickup.…

Sporting a white-with-orange-stripes paint job just like the ‘67 and ‘69 Camaros that paced the Indy 500, a ‘97 Camaro will lead the pack of Winston Cup cars around the famous 2½-mile oval this August, coinciding with the Camaro’s 30th birthday. Of course, the pacecar trim package will be available through Chevy dealers. The 30th Anniversary Z28 pace cars will have white paint, orange stripes, white 16-inch aluminum wheels and special houndstooth seats with 30th Anniversary embroidery on the headrests and the floor mats (sorry, no orange interiors). The Camaro continues Chevrolet’s stronghold on the Brickyard 400, because Chevys have not only paced both races so far but have also won them with Jeff Gordon in 1994 and Dale Earnhardt in 1995, both in Monte Carlos.…

The latest effort to escape from automotive artist Thom Taylor’s drawing board is this fanciful gene-splicing effort that combines a late-model Caprice station wagon with styling cues from a ‘57 Nomad. Santini’s Custom Paint Werks in Westminster, California, will build this back-to-the-future ‘57 Nomad/sedan delivery. The effort will place steel C.A.R.S., Inc., ‘57 rear fenders over the original Caprice wagon body, molding into an actual ‘57 rear bumper. The chrome spears on the top of the fins and the tailgate trim pieces may be either original stainless-steel or custom-made pieces. Instead of actual fender trim, Santini plans to use custom graphics to simulate the stainless steel. The sedan delivery window panels will also encompass the rear doors, turning this four-door wagon into a phantom two-door. The car is still on…

If you’re planning to join us on the Power Tour and drive the whole route from Los Angeles to Norwalk, you’ll not only benefit from a joyous time on the road, but you’ll also walk away with some cool goodies. First is a comfy T-shirt from the folks at Kicker. The company that brings earth-thumping, earbleeding tunes to our cars will provide “I went all the way with Kicker” T-shirts to everyone who makes the long haul. The company is also throwing the kickoff party in Los Angeles, driving Dan Jobin’s ‘65 Corvair on the Tour and displaying Rick Kirk’s radical Falcon sedan delivery (featured in the November ‘95 issue of HOT ROD) at the Power Fest in Norwalk. Also, going in the trunk of all the full-length participants is…

As we said last month, when we put the call out for all of you to send submissions for our special Readers’ Rides section in the May issue, you responded. Our offices were literally flooded with envelopes, Fed Ex packages, boxes and cash bribes. Now that the dust has settled and the mail guy has stopped the death threats, I’ve had a chance to count all the entries that arrived by the February 1 deadline and divide them into makes, allowing me to see my office floor again and giving us a good indication of what our readers are actually driving. The following is the list of what you sent us. For those of you who don’t believe what we keep saying about Chevy dominance among our readers, the numbers…

In the January issue we said that one of the coming hot trends is street cars built as clones of ‘60s NASCAR Stockers, and soon after we received a press release from Motorsport Sales (Dept. HR06, 18239 S. Figueroa St., Gardena, CA 90248, 310/532-8261) telling us about its line of Bassett Wheels for the street. The same company that outfits many Winston Cup and Super Truck racers (Mike Skinner’s truck is shown here) now has similar street wheels to add the perfect finishing touch to your Street Stocker. Come on, let’s see ‘em!…

How well you prepare your hot rod’s sheet metal before you paint it is more important than the actual paint job. Every step, from stripping the Old paint, welding in the patch pan els, smoothing the dents, spraying on the printer to sanding the surface mirror-smooth, must’he performed impeccably to ensure that the paint looks its best when finished. There is no question the paint will look less than beautiful if any of those details isn’t done right. To help you learn some of the paint-prep tricks, HOT ROD followed along as the pros at Classics By Bernt in Stanton, California, prepped a ‘63 Chevy Nova. In an upcoming issue, we’ll feature the finished car so you can see the results of a professional-quality paint job. DISASSEMBLY One of the…

So you want to get rid of those clangs and bangs in your daily driver’s sheetmetal, but you don’t have any bodywork experience and don’t want to pay someone to do it. Well, now is the time to learn the basics. Performing bodywork on your car can be a rewarding experience if you follow some simple steps, use the proper tools and have a healthy dose of patience. Observe here what you need to know to fix a dent, then try your hand at home. SOURCE Granger’s Classic Auto BodyDept. HR067008 Canby Ave.Reseda, CA 91335818/881-4558…

Wow, this is fast,” I say to myself, exhaling loudly. Unfortunately, I’m not driving on the Daytona International Speedway in the Pontiac International Race of Champions (IROC) racecar as I had planned. Instead, I’m hurtling through some forgettable swampland at warp speeds on one of Florida’s coastal highways, I’m late for my final shot at driving the new IROC Firebird after going to Orlando for the Race Rock opening and getting stuck in traffic—and I can’t forgive myself. IT’S A DREAM JOB Things had been going my way as far as testing fun hot rods, so I should have known a payback was coming. After being assigned the story, I called Jay Signore, IROC president and general manager, to set up a time to drive. This year, as he has…

Building a race car is easy. Even building a cool street cruiser is relatively light work. But building both aspects into one car is very challenging. This month there were a few areas where Pavement Pounder’s twin targets of nine-second e.t.’s and 3000-mile cruising capability clashed and demanded compromises that generated creative solutions. That’s what building a real hot rod is all about. The first fact of life when building a car like this is that very few off-the-shelf parts exist that will do what you need. Headers are a good example: You can’t buy headers for a bigblock in a ‘55-’57 Chevrolet when the engine has been moved forward and down, especially with the tubing diameter required for Pavement Pounder’s larger big-block. The solution was to have Kevin MacKenzie…

For last year’s HOT ROD Power Tour, we set out to get more than 20 mpg from a 425hp 355ci smallblock Chevy. Within days of leaving, we stuffed this engine in a ‘65 Chevelle graced with a Lingenfelter-designed SuperRam EFI intake, which was controlled with an ACCEL/DFI electronic-fuel-injection system. And for the ultimate in highway cruising, we backed it up with a Richmond six-speed overdrive transmission. The Chevelle successfully averaged more than 21 mpg for the Tour, which was an achievement considering the minimal tuning effort that went into the combination. This challenged us to come up with a small-block Chevy that was capable of both more power and better mileage. Boldly going where few have gone before, our goal became 550 horsepower combined with 25-mpg fuel economy in that…

Can you have power, performance and reliability on a budget? One man’s quest for an answer is the project you see here. Pete Walsh is an Indianapolis resident who campaigned a ‘72 Pro Street Nova in a number of Fastest Street Car races and drove the same car (albeit in detuned form) across the country on our inaugural Power Tour. This year Walsh has a new goal: build a 10-second, small-tire Nova on a $10,000 budget and navigate it across the U.S. of A. on Power Tour ‘96 in the same trim. As with other budget-oriented buildups covered in HOT ROD, we’re holding Walsh to some basic ground rules to make the story more meaningful for our readers. All work performed on the car and all parts must be purchased.…

Street rodding is neato because it’s dynamic. Every aspect of this native-born, engine-urged, basicbodied, four-wheel movement is in a constant state of flux. Yet when one gets down to the basics—having fun with cars—street rodding hasn’t changed all that much. We’re just doing it differently.…

If you were anywhere near Orlando, Florida, in February, then you know the new Race Rock restaurant chain had its grand opening. Formed by a who’s who cast of partners in motorsports that includes Richard Petty, Michael Andretti, John Force, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan, Kyle Petty, Geoff Bodine, Don Prudhomme, Scott Parker and restaurateur Bobby Moore, this flagship Race Rock boasts 20,000 square feet loaded with authentic racing machines and motorsports memorabilia. On-site entertainment includes driving simulators, a multiscreen video system (showing plenty of racing and crashing) and a retail area with apparel and collectibles. You can have a drink at the bar under an upside-down, rotating Lola Indycar (and John Force might actually serve it to you!), eat “Nitro Wings” (chicken wings) under Jeff Gordon’s and Dale…

In hot rodding’s infancy, drag racing was not as it is today. Back then hot rodders decided King-of-the-Hill status by who had the fastest car rather than the quickest. In Southern California, the places to race were the dry lakebeds in the high desert north of Los Angeles. Several groups, notably the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) and the Russetta Timing Association, held top-speed races on the Muroc dry lakebed, which is now a part of Edwards Air Force Base and an occasional landing strip for the space shuttle. Racers who participated in these top-speed contests were rewarded with metal timing cards that were stamped with the date, the location of the race and the car’s number, cylinder-head type and top speed. These timing tags became instant badges of honor…

Mark Stielow is busy building a ‘67 Camaro to make another assault on the One Lap of America competition (he finished Fourth overall last year with his ‘69 Camaro). Called the Camaro GTP because it incorporates GTP technology, the original big-block car will be powered by a GTP-spec 396ci aluminum GM Bow-Tie block equipped with splayed valve heads (the SB2 is a hybrid of these heads), a modified SB2 intake, an ACCEL DFI fuel injection and headers built from a Stahl header kit that will pour the exhaust into a Borla 3-inch system. Stielow has modified ‘87 Corvette spindles to accept ‘67 Camaro steering arms and modified the front suspension for better handling. The car will utilize 275/40-17 and 315/35-17 Goodyear GSCs to put the small-block’s heat to the road,…

In all my years of dyno testing engines, it’s not often I’m surprised by a product that noticeably improves power, mileage and engine smoothness. Jacobs’ Energy Pak (the “brain” that adjusts the spark for each cylinder individually and independently) is such a product. I saw for myself-I’m absolutely convinced this is one “blackbox” that works! How does it do it? This documentary is intended to show what’s so special about Jacobs Electronics, and how they can deliver such significant improvements, not only over stock ignitions, but also over all the other aftermarket systems. Q: How can Jacobs Electronics ignitions not only produce, but guarantee*, more horsepower and miles per gallon than any other ignition, be they OEM or aftermarket? Superior technology builds better parts. When your company founder and driving…

It’s the classic car story. Boy meets car, boy crashes car, boy rebuilds car, boy crashes car, boy rebuilds car, and then grown man wins World of Wheels trophy with car (whew!). Our tale begins with young Ted Hutton buying a pristine ‘69 Chevelle while a junior in high school. The second bash came at the hands of a drunk driver who haphazardly removed the entire front clip. That should have been the death knell for Ted’s Chevelle, but as these photos attest, it persevered. Ted’s final version is by far his best. Once the front sheetmetal was replaced and the frame was straightened, the Raytown, Missouri, native had Chassis In A Day do a back-halved tub job matched to a narrowed 12-bolt on the Chevelle. Then he stuffed a…

February 13, 1996 To Edelbrock, When I first bought your headers in 1992 I had never installed a set before. But after reading your instructions and following them, I had no problems installing them. It took me about 3 hours. Now, after 4 years and several other changes to the car, I decided to try another brand of 1-3/4” headers. Then, after several trips to Los Angeles County Raceway (2800 feet above sea level) I realized that this other brand of headers don’t live up to their extra horsepower claims. Besides, they took me over 8 hours to install having to use a die grinder to get the holes lined up before they would bolt on to the heads. Plus the high price being more than twice the cost of…

Trendy paint and graphics treatments fade faster than an unprotected lacquer job in the Sahara, but a hot set of flames on th(right vehicle never goes out of fashion. Flames have been lickin’ at hot rod hoods since almost day one, and a feast of fire screams “hot” louder than anything else that comes from a gun or brush. The problem is that painting flames is like painting any kind of graphics—you have to be Rembrandt to lay ‘em out and get ‘em right. HOT ROD’s story on how to paint flames in the May ‘95 issue (“Pyro-Technique”) took some of the mystery out of the deal, but since then we’ve discovered an even easier way to set a hot rod on fire. We ventured to Chris Wood’s Air Trix…

When we were younger, we all had a grown-up superhero we wanted to be. But as we got older, we just wanted to be younger. Unlike any of us, when Mike Grieco of Hesperia, California, got older, he started building super-trick “character” bikes. One of the many bikes Grieco and M&F Custom Cycle have built is shown here: Captain America. Mike’s superhero Harley is based on a Daytech frame (stretched 2 inches and raked 38 degrees) that has been molded and powdercoated by JPM in Hesperia. A Daytech swing arm has been shocked and sprung with Progressive coil-overs, and 2-inch-lowered Harley-Davidson forks are held on the frame by polished and anodized red-satin-finish BW Billet triple trees. RC Components wheels (21-inch front and 18-inch rear) hold Metzeler rubber and rotors for…

Crash hats are a fact of life in many states (as much as some of us hate it), and they’re a smart idea even if not required by law. Just ask Gary Busey. But there’s no reason to cruise with a plain black wrapper on your head. Trick it out with some cool hues! While Chris Wood was showing us how to paint custom graphics on Harley tanks, he also showed us how to customize a helmet. Lo and behold, the tricks are the same, and the results are just as impressive. SOURCE Air TrixDept. HR06336 Nopal St.Santa Barbara,CA 93103805/962-8672…

RACING June 6-9—Pontiac Excitement Nationals, Columbus, Ohio, 818/914-4761. June 15—Buick Race Day ‘96, Norwalk, Ohio, 810/655-8277. June 20-23—Mid-South Nationals, Memphis, Tennessee, 818/914-4761. June 28-30—NHRA Festival Of Fire, Sears Point, California, 800/870-RACE. June 29-30—Virginia Motorsports Park, Petersburg, Virginia, 901/365-3779. ROD RUNS AND OTHER FUN STUFF May 10-11—Summit Racing’s Super Summit IV, Tallmadge, Ohio, 330/630-0230. May 31-June 2—Street Rod Nationals East, York, Pennsylvania, 901/452-4030. June 1-2—Grand National GM car exhibition, GM Boisbriand Plant, Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada, 514/433-4450. June 1—Artesia Car Show, Artesia, California, 310/869-4977. June 1—Wheels Of Time, Hight Point, North Carolina, 910/869-7313. June 1-2—Goodguys Californio R&C Classic, Merced, California, 510/838-9876. June 2—Goodguys Muscle Car Shootout & Show, Sonoma, California, 510/838-9876. June 2—Antique Nationals, Palmdale, California, 909/787-0672. June 2—Charity Classic, Lakewood, California, 310/869-4977. June 7—Lincoln Land Kustoms Open Cruise-In, East Peoria, Illinois,…

LARGE BARGE Larry Reber of Whittier, California, gets a hefty trophy for his bright red ‘65 Impala. Under the hood is a 396 with a mild cam, a 650 double-pumper, and headers leading into 2½-inch Flowmaster mufflers. A 3000-stall converter in the TH400 and some 3.73s get this monster moving, and an all-new interior makes the ride pleasant. KELLY JO, THE CAR Kelly Jo is the name of both Gary Howell’s wife and his ‘66 Chevelle. His flamed hottie turns 10.89 at 123 in the quarter on 10.5-inch slicks and weighs 3500 pounds—not too shabby. He gave us some specs on the drivetrain, such as a Dana 60 rear with 4.56:1 gears and a TH350 with a 4000-stall converter, but he neglected to mention the engine size. What we do…

When HOT ROD staffer Will Handzel got the nod to scream around the high banks of Daytona in a legit IROC Firebird (see page 52 for the story), the rest of us felt more than just a little jealous. While still not enough to take all the green out of our envious thoughts, it consoles us to know that Young Will had to wrench a little to pay for the ride. We see him here changing the front sway bar on the No. 22 car he drove. Apparently, the change worked. He kept it off the wall and out of the tubes and was allowed to leave the grounds with his posterior intact—a little puckered but nonetheless intact.…

Since the first of the year, the crew at Lobeck’s V8 Shop in Cleveland, Ohio, has been hard at work constructing the SplitFire “Performance V” ’33 highboy roadster so it can be driven on Power Tour ’96. The Just-A-Hobby frame, Gibbon body, Rootlieb hood and one-off Lobeck rollpan will be painted similar to this Thom Taylor rendering. For the ride, the ’33 rolls on BFG tires mounted, to Boyd Vintage IIs (15s up front, 17s in the rear), all suspended by Pete & Jake’s and Super Bell suspension components. Mullins and Borgeson handled the steering system, turned by a supertrick Pete & Jake’s billet bell-type wheel. Lokar linkages handle the throttle, shifter, E-brake and kickdown, and a Carolina Custom hood kit allows access to the powertrain. Of course, when you…

From motorsport artist John Pugh come these two dramatic prints. The first, entitled “Snake Racing,” shows Larry Dixon Jr. launching to a 4.66-second pass at Englishtown in the Prudhomme/Miller Genuine Draft digger. A total of 466 signed, limited-edition 16x24 prints will be offered for $66 each, as well as 100 artist proofs for $100 each and 20 framed canvas transfers for $185 each. The second print illustrates an up-close-and-personal look at the nose of K.C. “Hollywood” Spurlock’s Fruit Of The Loom Funny Car. Only 450 of the 14x24 prints will be signed and sold for $59 each, with 100 proofs for $100 each and 20 canvas transfers for $185 each. Get yours at Fineline Studio, Dept. HR06, 700 W. 48th Ave., Unit A, Denver, CO 80216, 303/293-9215.…

On a recent trip to the Midwest, we stopped by Brookville Roadster in Brookville, Ohio, to check out its repop steel street rod bodies. Brookville uses a 400-ton press to hammer out brand-new Model A steel bodies for anyone who needs them. The press is shown here stamping trunk lids for a ‘30-’31 body. Brookville also does some ‘32 Ford pieces, like this Deuce grille shell. To make the grille shell, five separate dies must be used, with trimming done to the metal in between. A first-strike grille shell is shown on the left, and the finished product is shown on the right. The company is also working on a ‘32 roadster body that should be available in 1997. If you need any Model A sheetmetal, give Brookville Roadster a…

Hot rodders have many enemies. The high price of horsepower is always a problem, as is never having enough time. But perhaps a hot rodder’s worst enemy is rust. It seems as if Mother Nature schemes to find new and innovative ways to turn your precious metal into a lump of junk. Water, humidity, salt on the roads and just about every other natural phenomenon cooperate to create an ideal environment for rust. Fighting rust is a never-ending battle, because whether or not you drive your car everyday, rust never stops. In keeping with our paint and body theme this month, we’ll focus on ways to deal with body and sheetmetal damage, although many of these plans will also work with any ferrous metal. The ideal way to prevent rust…

On May 26, 1996, the public will get its first look at the new Dodge Viper GTS as it paces the 80th Indianapolis 500, with Chrysler President and CEO Bob Lutz at the wheel. But in case that tiny image of the blue and white car just isn’t good enough, let your eyes linger over the photos here. In fact, to make sure there’s plenty of room for these automotive portraits, we’re keeping our words to a minimum. We’ll have more to say when we climb behind the wheel of one of the new Dodge supercars. This new Viper is far more than just a reskinned roadster. The car has been reworked front to back. The aluminum 8.0-liter (488ci) V10 now puts out 450 horsepower and nearly 500 lbs-ft of…

Although 2400 miles separate the Oakland Coliseum in California from Detroit’s Cobo Hall in Michigan, the two venues share one thing in common. They house the two oldest hot rod shows in the country. The Oakland Roadster Show, first produced by its originator Al Sloanaker in 1949, remains three years older than the Autorama, started by the Michigan Hot Rod Association in 1952. However, there has been a vague East vs. West contest since 1964, when Bob Larivee and the MHRA decided to present the Ridler award (in memory of the Autorama’s first promoter Don Ridler) to rival Oakland’s America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) trophy. If you look closely at the lead shot from the Oakland Roadster Show, the Frank Mack T and the Neikamp A—the first winners at the…

The dictionary defines the word evolution as “a gradual process in which something changes into a different, especially more complex or more sophisticated, form.” That pretty much describes what we all try to do with hot rods, and it’s also the reason why Terry Larson gave his ‘34 Ford coupe the name Evolution. As with many well-built cars Larson’s ‘34 is much more than the sum of its parts. Spending a few hours going over the details is the only way to truly appreciate the car. What’s neat about this coupe is that Larson built it the way he wanted. The bumpers, the running boards and the unchopped top are neither trendy nor flashy, but the look is timeless. This car won’t be out of style in three years, like…

When it comes right down to it, most people modify their Harleys with the same parts as the guy (or gal) next door. So often the only things that really separate the bikes from each other are the paint and the graphics on the tank and the fenders. These parts are small and easy to remove, so painting a bike is much easier than painting a car—and less intimidating for the average backyard enthusiast. Chris Wood at Air Trix in Santa Barbara, California, showed us a slick way to design and paint graphics on anything, including tanks, fenders and helmets. Check it out.…

Nothing makes a car look better than a new paint job, and if it’s applied correctly and maintained, the paint will last a long time. But if the car is driven at all, the paint will eventually fade. Or if you’re buying a used street machine, you may be faced with the problem of faded paint. A good paint job can easily cost more than $1000, but there is a low-buck way to put some life into old, faded paint, and that’s by rubbing it out. This involves using compounds, chemicals and lots of elbow grease (unless you have an orbital buffer) to remove the oxidized top layer of paint and then polish it. To find out which chemicals to use and how to use them, we took a severely…