Innehållsförteckning för November 2009 från Hot Rod

RETRO NOSTALGIA Yeah, the title seems redundant. Nostalgia means retro, but what do you call it when we’re looking back at a celebration of nostalgia from 39 years ago? That’s what this is, a Gray Baskerville photo of the Antique Nationals in April 1975 (as covered in the Aug. ’74 issue, Gray’s second as a staffer). Nostalgia rods and racing are scalding hot today—as evidenced by the style of the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year on page 42—which makes it a little baffling to realize that the vintage-rodding craze has been happening since the Antique Nationals first started at California’s Orange County International Raceway in 1970. Yep, less than 20 years after the first organized drag race, guys were already celebrating its history. Dick Iandola organized the event along…

Steve Darnell’s ’28 Dodge Bros. sedan is quite an attention getter. While rat rods are nothing new, Steve’s 693-rwhp, Cummins turbodiesel-powered rat rod is indeed something different. All that power isn’t for (show, either, as the 3,800-pound rat has run 11.69 at 118 mph in the quarter, limited by gearing (out of rpm by 800 feet) and traction (2.24 60-foot). Another shocker is that this project went from a bunch of steel and a rusted shell to a running rod in just three and a half months, although Steve estimates a good 1,000 hours of labor were put in during that time. In addition to the diesel, Steve’s rod also dares to be different with an agricultural theme. The front axle was lifted from a coal mine truck, and John…

We’ve all seen the cheesy Thunderbirds and Monte Carlos painted up to look like NASCAR Sprint Cup cars, but this is something completely different. This is the Super Street Series (SSS) produced by Jeffrey’s Custom Conversions (www.jeffreyscustomconversions.com), and it’s no OEM stocker parading around like a racer. In fact, this is a nearly purebred race car tuned down enough to make it survivable—and legal—on the street. Jeffreys builds every car to order from scratch with 60 percent of the same components as the Cup guys use, and each gets its own VIN. That means there are no hassles trying to get a VIN transferred from an old donor car. Each tube chassis is constructed by a Nextel Cup chassis builder somewhere in South Carolina (Jeffrey’s won’t reveal who) before it…

“The LS9 drops right into the Camaro. The tough part is getting all the accessories to work.”—John Hennessey Dude, where’s the shift light? In the 10 minutes it takes for your right hand and left foot to catch up to the HPE650 Camaro’s voraciously revving LS3, you’ll find yourself asking that same question with each and every stab of the throttle, in each and every gear. And that, friends, is a very good problem to have. With a Magnuson supercharger, ported heads, and a wee bit of cam, supertuner John Hennessey’s latest creation dispatches nearly 600 hp to the rear wheels and makes half of the Tremec’s six cogs feel entirely unnecessary. Once you’ve recalibrated your reflexes to successfully pull the handle before the fuel cutoff, the experience is intoxicating,…

You know of Factory Five Racing (FFR) as the creator of you-assemble-them roadsters (don’t call them Cobras—Shelby gets really territorial), Daytona coupes, and the GTM supercar, but its new car is a whole other ball of wax. FFR owner Dave Smith had always sworn he’d never create a street rod kit, since he hated the way the typical rod rode and handled. But when his director of R&D, Jim Schenck, came to him with a new idea for one, it was obvious what needed to be done. Schenck designed a tube-chassis car that handled like a son of a gun and wore a ’33 Ford suit. In Smith’s words, “Today, most guys get their parts from a variety of sources—say a frame here, a body there, a front end, and…

By the time you read this, NASCAR will be upon a very significant milestone, but it will probably pass by with little or no official mention. Ford and Dodge are both introducing new engines over the course of the ’09 season. And when the new Ford FR9 motor replaces the venerable Windsor, which has been in competition for two decades, it will be the first time since NASCAR was founded more than 50 years ago that no car in the entire field will be powered by an engine family that has never appeared in a production automobile. That trend began when Toyota joined NASCAR’s truck series in 2004 and the Sprint Cup Series in 2007. The automaker had no cam-in-block V-8 in its lineup and was allowed to design one…

I must be getting old. Is it that, or could it be the world situation that has me hiding from reality and seeking solace in days gone by? Regardless of the cause, from cars to music, I’m in a nostalgia rut to the point that I’ve become this guy: I want my old car back. I hear graybeards all the time who say they built their current car because it’s just like the one they had in high school, or when they were dating, or when they came back from Vietnam. The one I want back is the one that readers seem to most remember me for: the Cheap Thrills Dart. Many of you recall the stories on that car that appeared in the Mar., Apr., and May ’94 issues…

Welcome to the Hot Rods section of the mag, where all the car features live. Know of a great ride that should be here? Got killer photos of cars in action along with details about them? Tip us off: email HOTROD@hotrod.com or mail to HOT ROD Hot Rods, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Different strokes for different folks—that’s what keeps hot rodding interesting. Take these two sweet. 67 Chevelles for example. At one end of the hot rod spectrum we have Ken Dutton’s clean, mostly original example. We love it just as it is—the Butternut Yellow paint paired with steelies and redline tires give it a classic muscle car look, and the swapped-in 42Z underhood gets lots of respect at car shows and cruise-ins. At the other end…

Making old racers change their ways isn’t always easy, as Kevin Triplett learned. Kevin began his career by creating a couple of cars for quick resale at the budding Barrett-Jackson auction back in 2003. Taking note of the adrenaline-fueled bidding fury and occasionally overinflated selling prices, Kevin knew a good opportunity to launch a career when he saw one, and by 2005, he was hauling 12 cars to the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction. The cars kept selling, allowing Kevin to build more complicated projects—the main problem was finding quality shops to work with. As they say, if you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself, so Kevin founded Tripnozzi Muscle Cars in Grand Junction, Colorado, with the initial objective of solely building auction cars. Word got around about his…

After attending the ’08 Power Tour® in Little Rock, Arkansas, hot rod builder Dennis Taylor (Dennis Taylor’s Reproductions) and his wife, Debbie, decided they wanted to be part of the fun. Unfortunately, they didn’t own a good road trip-ready rod. Noticing how easy it is to become lost among the thousands of similar muscle cars and hot rods on the Tour, Dennis decided to be as unique as possible and resurrect a ’53 DeSoto wagon. Dennis fabricated a new chassis, building everything from the control arms to the rearend housing. To get it as low as the rendering by Brian Stupski of Studio PCK (problemchildkustoms.com), the body was channeled over the new frame, and Air Ride Technologies bags brought it the rest of the way to the ground. Though we…

Phil Bonner’s overheating Thunderbolt has stalled. The 14.0:1 pistons in its 427 High Riser are not happy on this muggy June day as steam slowly hisses from the filler neck of the lightweight aluminum radiator. We’re inside the locked gates of Ford’s Dearborn proving grounds as Bonner and a select group of helpers do their best to restart the potent 427. It’s a tall order, but all put their backs into hefting the 3,200-pound Fairlane—Bonner included—as repeated efforts are made to push-start the exotic wonder weapon by popping the clutch from a 10-mph roll. The 550hp FE mill resists at first, but a few tries and a whole bunch of sweaty brows later, the Fairlane coughs to life. The open headers bark madly as Bonner takes the wheel and begins…

Fifty years ago, the Chevrolet W-series 348/409 blazed a legendary trail across America’s racetracks. While Chevy’s early big-block has always retained a faithful following among resto guys and nostalgia racers, until recently the lack of modern piston, ring, cam, valvetrain, and cylinder head technology limited the engine’s potential. The introduction of Edelbrock aluminum heads a year ago began a rekindling of interest in the historical engine, and it’s now possible to bring it into the 21st century with modern high-tech ingredients, including Scat stroker cranks and rods, CP flyweight pistons with thin rings, Comp quick-acting mechanical roller cams, and T&D shaft-mount rocker systems. The only limiting factor is the scarcity of blocks, with rebuildable 409 castings costing a pretty penny. However, the smaller 348 blocks can still be found, and…

EDELBROCK PRO-FLO XT Edelbrock • 310/781-2222 • www.edelbrock.com Scared of fuel injection and all the necessary components? Edelbrock has put an end to your fears. The Pro-Flo XT kit has everything you need to apply EFI to your Chevy small-block or Rat motor. Tuning is a breeze with the handheld tuning module, though Pro-Flo XT software is also included in case you want to break out the laptop. Edelbrock has also improved the ECU to provide sequential injection and predefined calibrations as well as wideband 02 sensor compatibility. Complete systems include ECU, a wiring harness, a handheld tuning module, all electronic sensors, fuel system components, an intake manifold, injectors, fuel rails, a 90mm throttle body, and software. Applications include small-block Chevy with standard and Vortec heads, big-block Chevy with oval-ports,…

SEND STUFF IN: EMAIL: HOTROD@HOTROD.com• MAIL: HOT ROD, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 PHOTO REQUIREMENTS: Minimum size 1,600 x 1,200 pixels MESSAGE BOARD: HOTROD.com “Once in a while a car comes along that changes everything, and that was the original Mustang.”—Lee Iacocca RETURN OF THE FASTBACK MUSTANG Most people know Lee lacocca as the face of Chrysler in the ’80s and the force behind the K-car that helped pull that company out of bankruptcy back then. But hot rodders know him as one of the key guys behind the Mustang—as a Ford executive, lacocca launched the original Mustang at the ’64 New York World’s Fair. Forty-five years later, he’s back in the fold and releasing the lacocca Silver 45th Anniversary Edition Mustang, lacocca’s new car is a collaborative…

Online auto auctions are a crapshoot, since you have to trust that what the seller describes is true. Often, it’s not. But Dave Sherer and Anthony Musilli of DNA Restorations (Dave and Anthony, get it?) got lucky when they decided to roll the dice on a ’69 Chevelle project car located in Colorado (they’re from New York). Because it had no engine, trans, or rearend and lived in a snowy climate, it was a risk, but when the Chevelle was delivered, they happily found it wasn’t a wrecked rust bucket. It wasn’t exactly nice, either. “It was a pretty shoddy body,” Anthony told us. Up-close inspection revealed that every panel from hood to trunk needed some filling, sanding, and straightening—but all in all, it was workable. The shell went directly…

Scott Sullivan has checked in. First, the Dayton, Ohio, builder responsible for the Cheez Whiz ’55 Chevy, among other memorable rods, wants you to know that the stories that he has forsaken cars for bikes are greatly exaggerated. Sure, the whole custom chopper thing was red hot for a while, and the pros work where the big money is. But he’s never left the car scene; he’s still way into the four-wheeled art form, he assures us. Take this ’51 Henry J he created, now owned by Bill Jergens. Cute as they are, it’s difficult to make a Henry J look good from some angles. “If you really look at the lines, they’re sort of screwed up,” as Scott says. Take the weird, motorboatish front doghouse, for instance. Scott fixed…

You’re not going to believe this, but this stellar ’30 Model A is Bill Steele’s first complete rod build. We’re not suggesting that Bill just fell off the truck yesterday with a crescent wrench and a claw hammer—the 38-year-old collision shop owner is a hands-on bodyman and painter and an accomplished custom bike builder as well. He’s done a number of partial buildups, “cars already started by someone eke—that kind of stuff)’ as he puts it. “But this one is my first car done completely from start to finish,” he swears up and down. Nice work, rookie: Goodguys selected Bill’s coupe as its ’09 Hot Rod of the Year. Bill is quick to mention that he had collaborators during the nine-month effort: the crew at RPM Motorsports in Warrendale, Pennsylvania,…

For the past year or so, HOT ROD has driven and reported on the new Camaros, but we hadn’t gotten our mitts on one to, well, hot rod. That changes this month, as we throw a bunch of parts and tuning to a ’10 Camaro SS and see what it’s worth at the track. The Camaro belongs to NMCA racer Robin Lawrence, and we’re following along as he tears into his brand-new car. Initial testing in stock trim showed 374 rwhp and 375 rear-wheel torque on a DynoJet chassis dyno at Abaco Performance. Next, the car debuted at Cordova Dragway in Illinois to a curious and cheering crowd. “The Camaro had a gathering around it every time I pulled into the staging lanes,” Lawrence comments. With a soft launch and…

RETURN OF THE ’80s! It’s a style we thought would come back, at least a little bit—the return of the late-’70s and early-’80s street machines. For next month’s issue, we dug through our archives to find the tastiest examples of the style while avoiding the truly heinous. Though there area few violations on this Vette that Gray Baskerville shot at the ’80 Street Machine Nationals West (the shorty side pipes and wire wheels mostly), isn’t it soooo bitchin’ anyway? If you agree, come back for plenty more in the December. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE DEC. ’09 HOT ROD MAGAZINE On Sale October 20, 2009 Meanwhile, Get Your Car Fix at HOTROD.com…