Indholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2025 i Hot Rod

The craftsmen at the Roadster Shop never know what offeat project might turn up at their shop for a high-end makeover. Such was the case with past customer Jon Hall and his 1990 Chevy OBS truck build. Hall owns Shadow Rods, where he repops flathead V-8 engines out of aluminum that are stronger and more powerful than the original mills. He’s had a ton of higher-end builds done at top shops, including Roadster Shop, and has built his own share of hot rods. “[Hall] is a wildly talented guy that can not only dream up some crazy stuff, but he has the skills and resources to make it, as well,” Roadster Shop’s Jeremy Gerber told HOT ROD. “He has built some of the most elaborate stamping dies I have ever…

The 10th annual MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge was nothing short of legendary—it was a fitting celebration of the event’s historic milestone. This year’s high octane event once again took over Woodward Avenue, uniting the Roadkill universe to mark Dodge’s bold next chapter in the muscle car saga with the debut of the ICE-powered Dodge Charger. Fans packed the venue to witness the show’s hosts and creators Mike Finnegan and David Freiburger in action with a wild Dodge Charger tug-of-war, fan meetups, and a full-throttle day of street-legal drag racing. At the core of Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge are three adrenaline-packed racing categories that transform Woodward Avenue into a legal street racing battleground with the Direct Connection Grudge Match, Big Tire, and Small Tire shootouts. More than…

Alex Taylor, the accomplished drag racer and former co-host of HOT ROD Garage, makes running 6s at 200-plus mph look easy. With the support of her father, Dennis, the father-daughter team has made their nearly 3,000-horsepower shoebox the fastest street-driven ’55 Chevy in drag racing history. Such stunning performance, driven by a big-block with big boost, inevitably takes its toll on the car’s equipment, though the veteran of road-tour races, including our own HOT ROD Drag Week, has been admirably reliable. Nevertheless, as Alex keeps pushing the e.t. envelope at track after track, next-level performance from the car’s powertrain is another target she and her father continually chase. That includes the transmission, which transfers enormous power from the twin-turbocharged engine to the rear axle. It’s a Turbo-Hydramatic 400 that includes…

Black Hole—that’s what builder Angelo Vespi calls this 1987 Buick Grand National, and the name fits. It’s an all-consuming, all-encompassing, no-detail-left-untouched project that pulled in over 10,000 hours across four years of obsessive fabrication, design, and tuning by Dutchboys Hotrods. With a Mast Motorsports Black Label 427 LS7, a Nelson Racing mirror-image turbo system, and a fully custom chassis built in-house, this Grand National redefines the boundaries of pro-touring performance, OEM-level integration, and personal storytelling. You might remember Vespi from the 2014 SEMA Battle of the Builders, where his 1969 Camaro took top honors. That car launched a reputation for clean builds that blend race-proven hardware with wild creativity. He followed it up with a C10, but this time, he couldn’t resist the G-body platform that had haunted him since…

By every measurable metric, the 2025 HOT ROD Drag Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive proved to be the biggest event since the adventure began in 2005. It marked the largest turnout in Drag Week history with 417 participants, delivered the biggest same-day livestream audience, generated one of the highest social media traffc weeks of the year, and achieved the some of the largest web traffc in the event’s history. On track, it was no different—event winner Ned Dunphy shattered the nine-year-old overall average record, with 10 more records rewritten along the way across nine other categories. And three more names were added to the prestigious and exclusive HOT ROD Drag Week 200 MPH Club. For those who aren’t familiar with Drag Week, it’s a grueling weeklong competition created by…

In a week overshadowed by the tragic death of Chris Raschke in the Speed Demon crash, land speed racing fans needed an uplifting moment, something to celebrate at the end of the week. Danny Thompson, at the wheel of the Ferguson Streamliner, delivered that good news. With a calm and stoic demeanor, he smashed two records and posted the highest recorded speed of the event. The son of Mickey Thompson, Danny is a racer in his own right. He’s been chasing the win at Bonneville for years, and it finally paid off. They began by shattering the C Fuel Streamliner record on Monday, running a 370.756-mph average. The previous record was a 335.325, and they beat it with a Hemi engine built and balanced to run on seven cylinders to…

On the horsepower game, whether it be for racing or just street cars, there are hundreds of engine builders. In reality, though, most of these people should actually be called engine assemblers. That’s because the term “engine builder” has been thoroughly abused. However, Kenny Duttweiler is one man who can rightly lay claim to that title. If you’ve read these pages for more than a few years, his name has likely crossed your path. Today, he’s best known for constructing among the most powerful internal combustion engines on the planet, which have powered the now-famous Speed Demon blown fuel streamliner to more records and more runs above 400 mph at Bonneville than any car in history. Duttweiler is also fully vested in his eighth decade of playing with cars and…

Talk is cheap. It’s a phrase especially suited to the performance aftermarket. “Hey, buy our widgets for your hot rod project and go faster!!” Maybe, maybe not. How do you know control arm A will outperform control arm B just by looking at it? You don’t. You end up buying performance parts based on the promise of improved performance, reviews by others, and the reputation of the company selling the go-fast bits. Some companies, the forward-thinking ones, figured out that building cars using their parts and running these cars and trucks on track was a great way to back up that performance promise with some real-world data. RIDETECH’S BADASS 1985 MUSTANG IS A GAS-GUZZLING 2025 EXAMPLE OF AN OLD-TIMEY SALESMANSHIP. That brings us to Ridetech’s extremely badass 1985 Mustang project.…

Three years in the making, it became clear in 2023 that Ned Dunphy was destined to leave his mark on HOT ROD Drag Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive. After two heartbreaking seasons filled with mechanical failures and subpar performances, Dunphy and his codriver/crew chief, Jey Klegg, regrouped with a single-minded focus—to become America’s Fastest Street Car. In 2025, Dunphy delivered—and he did it in record breaking fashion. Averaging a new record of 6.1754 at nearly 250 mph, his flawless performance reset the overall benchmark for what’s possible at Drag Week. Surprisingly, the week was relatively drama-free for an Unlimited-class monster making 3,500 horse power. Even a rain-soaked drive went well; the only trouble resulted in a broken starter and a loose sensor wire. On track, the Viper was ruthlessly…

Forty years ago, in 1986, Ford equipped the Mustang with electronic fuel injection while Buick gave its already enigmatic Grand National an intercooler. Those upgrades—along with advances across Detroit’s lineup—laid the foundation for a new generation of horsepower wars. EFI, overdrive transmissions, and hydraulic roller camshafts opened the door to more precise control, wilder street cars, and reliable power gains. As the ’80s gave way to the ’90s, turbochargers and super chargers became mainstream, with aftermarket companies racing to deliver bigger, better boost. Without this transformative era, would today’s street car movement and modern muscle craze even exist? That generation of hot rodders—my generation—led the way to incredible performances and ingenuity. I lived it, breathed it, and still absolutely love the cars and trucks from that era and can tie…