Innehållsförteckning för October 2010 från Hot Rod

OLD VERSUS NEW ENGINES Back in the mid-’50s when the small-block Chevy first came out, it was nearly an overnight hot rodding success. Racers and hot rodders immediately saw the potential and started modifying them and sticking ’em in all kinds of cars. Edelbrock and other aftermarket companies pumped out speed parts in no time, and the legend was born. But there were still guys decrying that “late-model junk” and sticking to their flatheads with a vengeance. Many still do, but now it’s really for the sake of tradition or just in an attempt to do more with less. Forty-some years later, the first generation of the LS-series GM engine was born and the same thing happened. Many people jumped on the bandwagon right away and many stayed with the…

STUART HILBORN This issue of HOT ROD features a story with a topic that has not likely been seen in a mainstream magazine for a long time: how to understand the basics of mechanical fuel injection. The primary source Marlan Davis used for that story was the same one that’s been there during this magazine’s entire history: Hilborn Fuel Injection. Stuart Hilborn started hot rodding as a California dry lakes racer in the early ’40s, then while serving in the Army Air Corps (later to become the Air Force) during World War II, he had the idea to put fuel injection on cars. He used his first injection setup to great success on his postwar streamliner (it was open wheeled, so we’d most recognize it as a lakester today), which…

Hot rods and motorcycles, especially Harleys, go together for a lot of people, including Almir Rocha from Sao Paulo, Brazil. After a while driving his heavily customized ’59 F-100 truck, which he named Blue Rock, he got a hankering to build something new. As soon as he saw one of Harley’s Night Rod Specials, an all-black, badass version of its V-Rod muscle bike, Almir knew that was the look he wanted. And to keep the free and rebellious spirit of his two-wheeled muse, Almir had the perfect base: a ’28 Chrysler Model 72 Roadster that used to be a Carretera (old cars prepared for racing, very popular in Brazil and Argentina in the ’50s and ’60s). It was to be a hot rod from another era, a roadster with a…

Envision a world where every car in sight is a hot rod or street machine and you’ve pictured life on the HOT ROD Power Tour®. An explanation for those of you who’ve not left your hovels for 15 years: HOT ROD maps a road trip through seven cities and sets up party stops every night, title sponsor GM Performance Division makes it happen, and 3,000 to 4,000 cars join us each day to live the dream. This year, the route took us on a 1,370-mile trek from the Kickoff Party hosted by Painless Performance in Newton, Iowa, to the Surf City Garage party in Mobile, Alabama, June 5-12. An amazing 4,850 cars and an estimated 76,500 spectators participated during the week, and 2,570 people in 1,512 cars went all the…

Last month we had a big story on Where Are They Now?, a collection of former feature and cover cars that have been unearthed, sometimes after years of obscurity We had so much good stuff for that story and not nearly enough pages, so we’re back for part two. Here, you’ll find some cars that may ring a bell, some that were milestones, and others that were barely a blip on the hot rodding radar but are cool nonetheless. As mentioned in part one, if you know of any other old magazine feature cars and where they are today, let us know. Maybe we’ll do a part three. “The European contingent tried to get the car outlawed tried to its unsophisticated nature [looks], but in reality was kicking their fannies…

VACUUM AND TURBO HOSE QUICK-COUPLER SYSTEM Oomph Labs 435/425-2222 OomphLabs.com Oomph’s unique system converts all vacuum and turbo hoses to a quick-coupled setup, eliminating broken fittings or barbs during removal or troubles with rigid hose ends. They connect and disconnect in half a twist of your finger and thumb, are capable of withstanding high underhood temperatures, and are rated for 30 inches of vacuum and 135 psi of pressure. Color-coded lines and fittings can be formed in dozens of different configurations. And with a quick-coupled tee in place, hooking up a vacuum or pressure gauge is easy. The fittings consist of aluminum rotating collars that snap onto molded nylon male hose ends. These, in turn, connect to nylon female-flanged hose ends. The rotating collars are available in a variety of…

FREIBURGER SCHEMES This issue features another pack of off-kilter cars that fall under HOT ROD’s oft-repeated theme of Dare To Be Different. As guys who spend every waking moment reviewing car stuff, we just can’t choke down another formula Camaro—even if we own ’em! These days I’ve often said I’m the world’s biggest Camaro hater who owns 3.5 of them, but I’m also buried in other freaky cars and just-plain-wrong dreams for them. Most will never come to fruition, others will. My crazy schemes come and go on an hourly basis on most days. I really can’t be held to any one plan for more than a lunch hour. With that caveat, here’s what’s on my someday plan today. 1) The Rally Gremlin: This was originally an idea for a…

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.co mail to: HOTROD@hotrod.com or mail to HOT ROD Hot Rods, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245. “I just couldn’t bring myself to paint over some of the body flaws. The dash is a good example; my brother took a hammer to the metal on the dash when he was 2. Those are the little imperfections that I just want to keep.”—TOM DUNRUD Psychologists have a term called the imp of the perverse. It refers to an early 19th century Edgar Allen Poe short story of the same…

When HOT ROD threw down the challenge to Dare To Be Different, Jim Riley was listening. Yeah, we know his car is another Deuce, but it’s longer and wider than most, it’s powered by a Jaguar V-12 engine, and more important, Jim built every inch of this car over the span of five years, and he drives the wheels off of it. Jim is a sports car guy and works as a mechanical engineer designing copiers and printers for Xerox, so it’s natural that he stuck the running gear and suspension from an ’89 Jag XJ-12 sedan into a ’32 Ford roadster. As an engineer, though, he couldn’t do it the easy way with a complete body and chassis kit. No, instead he constructed a level build table, set the…

This story is about the life of the Pavement Pounder ’57 Chevy, a project car that shares a similar story to David Freiburger’s Super Bee that we’ve reported on over the last three issues. Both were HOT ROD project cars, both were built in the mid-’90s, both were radical, and both, sadly, suffered the ignobility of storage and lost attention for more than a decade, which should show you that we’re just like you. We know what it’s like when other priorities get ahead of your pride and joy. When paint for the house is more important than paint for your car. When time for your career and family displaces time for your hot rod projects. But as with the Super Bee, we were persuaded to bring the ’57 back…

Here’s a typical system layout for a door-slammer with a rear mounted main fuel tank. When the fuel tank is in the back, a separate forward-mounted reservoir is highly recommended to ease priming and minimize system restrictions. With such a separate tank, an electric automotive fuel pump (1) and filter (2) feed fuel from the main tank to the surge tank through a Holley float bowl (3) that is used to regulate the tank’s fuel level. The surge tank needs a vent (4), preferably exiting outside the engine compartment. Fuel is drawn from the surge tank by an engine-driven injector pump (5), which delivers the main fuel feed to the barrel valve (8) through a high-flow inline filter (6) and shutoff valve (7). The barrel valve distributes fuel to the…

HOT ROD DRIVES THE GT500 AT VIR Here’s an invitation HOT ROD couldn’t refuse: a testdrive of the ’11 GT500 at one of America’s classic road courses, Virginia International Raceway. The supercharged Shelby has always been a rocket ship, with the previous version sporting 540 hp. But with the big power came compromise, as the cast-iron 5.4L truck motor and Roots blower added several hundred pounds to the Mustang’s nose. All that extra mass between the front wheels made the otherwise perky ponycar feel downright ponderous at the limit. Ford has addressed that issue head on with the latest GT500, using a linerless aluminum block to shave more than 100 pounds from the front end. The new block employs a technology Ford calls Plasma Transfer Wire Arc. Only 150 microns…

Håkan “Hocky” Johansson may live in Åby, Sweden, but he’s a for-real hot rodder in the American style. Previous projects include a Pro Street ’55 Chevy and a ’32 Ford five-window that runs 9.40s at 140 mph. For his latest buildup, Hocky returned to his Scandinavian roots with a ’75 Volvo 242, a callback to his very first car, another ’75 Volvo his parents gave him when he was 17. “My mom thought I should have a safe car” Hocky says. However, his latest Volvo carries tricked-out suspension and a supercharged Chevy LS1. Under the boxy Swedish sheetmetal is a Pro Touring terror machine. Mom, don’t watch Hocky’s YouTube video. A computer programmer by trade, Hocky used AutoCad to design the front and rear suspension, which are fully adjustable for…

Steve Bashford decided that maybe a Pacer, dorky as it is, could be more than merely a running gag in the Waynes World movies. He saw potential. Starting with a pristine ’78 wagon with only 9,000 miles that he scored at a California estate sale, the veteran rodder from Belleville, Michigan, swapped in a Chevy V-8, a race-prepped Powerglide, and a 9-inch Ford rear. But at the same time, he strove to preserve the car’s ineffable Pacerness. And that’s the charm of it. The oddball exterior sheetmetal is absolutely unaltered, and the paint, chrome, phony woodgrain, and much of the interior are factory original, just as they came from Kenosha. Steve has owned the Pacer for around eight years, but construction didn’t begin in earnest until about two years ago.…

Asking Don Prudhomme about retirement seemed like a good idea at the time this article was assigned. Not until driving down the Pacific coast to Snake Racings headquarters complex did the possibility of encountering a coiled Snake occur. After all, one of the most successful, most intense drag racers of all time had just been shut down by the only opponent he hadn’t been able to outsmart, outdrive, or out horsepower: the cost of racing a fuel car without multimillion-dollar sponsorship. Worse, only two months earlier, the 50th Winternationals had been just the second he’d missed since nitromethane was allowed in 1963, and the first since 1986, the season he sat out after failing to find a backer. Missing Pomona must’ve been particularly painful for the man who dominated Top…

The monster intake ports in tins tunnel-ram feed a V-S that makes 2 hp/ci without a power-adder. It’s also durable; we sprayed the beast with nitrous after making more than 1,160 hp on the motor alone. It’s a radical piece that you could build, too—if your wallet can stand the hit. Find out all the details of the recipe next month. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE NOV. ’10 ISSUE OF HOT ROD MAGAZINE On sale September 14, 2010 Meanwhile, Get Your Car Fix at HOTROD.com HOT ROD (ISSN 0018-6031), October 2010; Vol. 63, No. 10. Copyright 2010 by Source Interlink Magazines, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Published monthly by Source Interlink Media, LLC, 261 Madison Ave., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY,…