Hot Rod January 2024

EDITORIAL Network Director Michael Galimi Editor-in-Chief John McGann Managing Editor Rusty Kurtz Senior Editor KJ Jones Features Editor Timothy Bernsau Technical Editor Johnny Hunkins Technical Editor Steven Rupp Social Media Editor Cyril Soliman HOT ROD Garage Hosts Lucky Costa, Alex Taylor Contributors Wes Allison, Greg Banish, Cam Benty, Greg Emmerson, Marc Gewertz, Drew Hardin, Barry Kluczyk, Jorge Nuñez, Richard Prince, Jordon Scott, Tony Thacker ART DIRECTION & DESIGN Design Director Markas Platt ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR, AFTERMARKET Michael Essex 863.860.6023 ADVERTISING SALES Chicago Mason Alwan Detroit Luke Strobl Los Angeles Cody Busch, Adrian Pierce, Jay Tien New York Ryan Bahoshy, Michael Gilman Account Coordinator Virginia Wright Ad Coordinator Yvette Frost MOTORTREND GROUP President/General Manager Alex Wellen Group SVP, Head of Revenue and Commercial Operations Eric Schwab Head of Editorial Edward…

Here’s a scenario I like a lot. Let me know if you like it, too. It begins with a satisfying clunk of the door closing. Next is the metallic rasp of the key in the ignition switch. Clutch pedal in, shift lever in neutral, and one pump on the accelerator need to happen next before I twist the key to the start position. Once the engine catches, I release the key. The electric choke on my Holley carburetor keeps the engine from stalling on a cold start. As it works, the engine rpm climbs until the choke is fully open and the engine reaches operating temperature. I let it run like this for about a minute, then stab the accelerator quickly to drop the throttle off the fast-idle cam and…

20 Years Ago January 2004: 106 pages, $4.99 Several months before, Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger had written, “There’s no reason HOT ROD shouldn’t cover significant sport compacts,” reasoning that the magazine had featured “the full spectrum of homegrown automotive tinkering for 55 years.” Running a Ford versus Subaru road test on the cover (photographed by Wes Allison) put that reasoning to the test; and readers were, as you’d expect with 20 years of hindsight, not happy. Freiburger wrote another throwback of sorts when he did “A first-timer’s look at the boat drags,” a topic HRM covered frequently from the late 1950s until 1970. Freiburger also made history in this issue with the announcement of the first Pump-Gas Drags. “We’re itching to reinvent street-car racing back to reality,” he said, setting up…

Presented By George Montgomery, the legendary drag racer who passed away in late August at the age of 90, was one of many successful gasser racers to come out of Ohio. Yet his “Ohio George” nickname wasn’t some fond tribute to his roots. Tim Woods, co-owner of another legendary gasser, the Stone-Woods-Cook Willys, started calling him that at the 1963 NHRA Nationals. “It pissed me off at the time,” Montgomery told Gray Baskerville when he profiled the racer for HOT ROD in the September and October 2000 issues. “But it was good press.” And that was important in those days, as the gasser wars were heating to a boil, and there was money to be made at match race appearances. Montgomery started racing when he was a teenager, but he…

The Bonneville Salt Flats in Western Utah are so flat that people say you can see the curvature of the earth, yet they are so barren that not even the simplest life forms can exist. However, there is one thing that does thrive there: speed. Every August, racers are drawn to the salt from around the world in their quest for speed. This year, the 75th annual Speed Week, Mother Nature threw a wrench in those plans. The world’s fastest racetrack was brought to a halt before a single race car even went down the course by a rainstorm that blew across the Bonneville Salt Flats just days before the event, leaving the racecourse under several inches of water. There was cause for concern as anyone who was there last…

More than any other form of motorsport, land speed racing at Bonneville pushes the limits of the cars and their drivers. Running wide open at full load for five miles puts a heavy toll on engine and driveline parts, and the unrelenting heat and grueling conditions of the salt flats themselves add to the charm/torture of the place. This year, we were fortunate to have two excellent photographers covering Speed Week: Marc Gewertz and Wes Allison. This is a very challenging event to cover for a variety of reasons, but especially because of the distances needed to traverse to get to where the action is. From the starting line to the pits, everything is literally miles apart. Marc and Wes are true Salt Flat veterans and make it look easy, though. Wes…