Innehållsförteckning för April 2011 från Hot Rod

ALTERNATIVE FOREIGN ODDBALLS At the risk of earning a bad reputation, I must admit that I can be a fan of the oddball hot rod—and that can include import junk. We’ve seen VW Beetles and Datsun 240Zs with American V 8 power for decades, but if you can lay aside the domestic loyalty for at least the sheetmetal, there are some other really neato foreign car styles out there that are just begging for a hot rodder’s touch. For instance: ’77 Toyota Celica GT: Yeah, it’s a turd of a Toyota, and though I am impressed by what guys do to the last-generation turbo Supras, I normally would never condone this sort of lunacy But ignore the Rising Sun origins and look closer at the lines and details of that…

DISCOVERED: THE FIRST MARCH MEET PICS We've often said there are treasures hidden in the HOT ROD archives, and stuff like this is chief among em: We unearthed some long-lost photos of 1959's pilot episode of the March Meet. That event has become one of the world's most storied drag races; it was a mob scene of a nitrofest held during the NHRAs ban of that most excellent of racing fuels. That race brought Don Garlits to California (from Florida) for the first time. He's seen here during time trials, wearing a helmet and his HOT ROD T-shirt in prep for a 172-mph pass. His backside was handed to him during time trials, and then he chucked a rod on the fire-up road before eliminations. Witnessing the blown California Hemis…

Bryan Fuller got into this hobby the way a lot of us did: on a bicycle. He tore apart, customized, broke, and performed daredevil antics on his bike until his dad decided to build a '65 Mustang and made Bryan be the parts washer and gopher. By the time he graduated from high school, Bryan was a full-on car builder, and during summers in college he painted buddies' cars to earn spending money After graduating from college with a responsible man's degree, he decided building bikes and cars was more his thing, so he enrolled at Wyoming Technical Institute and became one of that school's standout graduates. A job at So-Cal Speed Shop straight out of school, followed by time learning metalshaping from noted metalman Geoff Mitford-Taylor, persuaded him to…

No doubt the Ford Mustang is a survivor. The progenitor of all other ponycars is the only one of its kind to remain in continuous production for more than 45 years (the Corvette is not a ponycar, so no letters, please). The current, fifth-generation platform has been around since 2005, and racers are thoroughly acquainted with its vices and virtues. As with any stocker, once these lead-foots got their hands on the car and started ramping up the power, weak points inevitably manifested themselves. To find out what they are and what you can do about them, HOT ROD consulted leading Ford tuners, including JPC’s Justin Burcham, Paul Svinicki at Paul’s High Performance, and Lethal Performance’s Jared Rosen. These guys actively tune, race, and sell Mustang performance parts. If there’s…

In the Jan. '11 issue of HOT ROD, we launched the E-Rod project, our effort to create a silk purse from a polyester double-knit Camaro. In the episodes that followed, we detailed the installation of the GM Performance Parts E-Rod crate engine, a turnkey, smog-free LS3 sporting 430 hp (Feb. '11), then described how the wow-grade paint was laid on the '79 Z28's once-scabby sheetmetal (Mar. '11). Now we're back with Ol' Rubber-nose, this time to take you through the chassis, brake, and suspension modifications. There was a time when hot rods were asked only to go fast and look good doing it. These days we expect them to turn and stop as well. And if they can handle an afternoon drive without beating their occupants half to death, that's…

When we caught up with this hot rod, its humans were executing some sort of high-cursing roadside repair involving bailing wire. The guys had hit the '10 Power Tour(r) with just 300 miles on their as-yet-unfinished rod and they were hell-bent for the type of adventure that includes clothes stuffed in Ziploc bags in every cranny of a trunkless rod, rainwater blasting through every gap, and raw hydrocarbons belching from open headers for 1,500 miles. The dudes were Jason Fiveash and Raymond Henderson outta Waycross, Georgia, and their homebuilt '31 was largely unremarkable outside of its testament of the fun that hot rodding can be. That entertainment started in Jason's shop, a friends-only outfit known as Granny 5's Chop & Drop in tribute to his very close grandmother who passed…

Adam and Eve, hot rods, and girls. One leads Io the next—always has. Even at the seminal hot rod show—the famed 1948 exposition at the Los Angeles Armory—B-actress Colleen Townsend vamped for the wagging tongues. From the beginning, HOT' ROD included girls in the magazine as straight eye candy; later, the ladies were popular set dressing alongside cars, and subsequently, they've appeared participating in the hobby hands-on. The magazine's May '49 cover was the first with a posed driveway scene and also the first to feature a female. The implicit message was, of course, that if you drive a hot rod, dolls will dig you. For Nov. '49, that memo was also issued to the custom guys, as the cover model could not keep her hands off of Jack Calori's…

At HOT ROD, we spend much of our lives ramrodding guys to get out there and really use their cars in glorious and punishing ways. We hock Power Tour*, Drag Week(tm), the Top Speed Challenge. We needle in general. But we're like monkeys throwing poop from a tree while never leaving our branch; we lead a corporate life of desk riding more than you'd think, and more than we like. While wearing those shackles we've formed a number of private and public excuses for not finishing our cars, many of which you're tired of hearing. We're sick of them, too. Things are changing. The company has allowed us to hire extra hands, and if you saw the recent episode of Garage Mahal on the DIY Network, you know we've got…

NEW HEMI CAMS FROM LUNATI Lunati 662/892-1500 LunatiPower.com Hot rodders looking for more power from their 5.7L and 6.1L Hemi engines can look to Lunati for custom cam grinds and three new Voodoo billet cams. Though all three of them work well with blown and nitrous applications, the mildest one [PN 61900) has 209/213 degrees of duration [at 0.050 lift) and 0.506/0.512 gross valve lift, making it perfect for trucks. PN 61901 offers 217/221 degrees of duration, 0.518/0.525 lift, and is suited for higher-performance engines with upgraded valvesprings, aftermarket programmers, and higher-stall-speed converters. The most aggressive grind [PN 61902) has 225/229 degrees of duration and 0.531/0.538 lift, serving a wide range of modified applications, including those with an aftermarket converter, an upgraded intake, a blower, or nitrous. All three grinds…

Several years ago we ran a car feature on Brent Jarvis' bright-orange, midyear Corvette, built with show car level detail but in a package he wasn't afraid to beat on. A lifelong Vette lover, Jarvis is back at it with a vengeance, building not just one more Vette, but two. And like the orange car, he is beating them like rented mules, because that's what you're supposed to do with any hot rod. Check in next month for the feature on the latest pair of Plastic Fantastics. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE MAY '11 ISSUE OF HOT ROD MAGAZINE On sale March 15, 2011 Meanwhile, Get Your Car Fix at HOTROD.comFacebook.com/HotRodMag And YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine HOT ROD (ISSN 0018-6031), April 2011; Vol. 64, No. 4. Copyright 2011 by Source Interlink…

NOT APPROVED FOR ROAD USE Ford Racing has unveiled another pair of turnkey, production race cars. First is the Mustang Boss 302S, a road racer approved for SCCA's World Challenge and NASA's American Iron Series. Powered by a Boss 5.0L four-valve engine coupled with a six-speed gearbox and a Torsen T2 differential, the 302S features adjustable coilovers all around. The '12 Cobra Jet Mustang drag car follows similar '08 and '10 models built for NHRA Stock and Super Stock categories. It's equipped with a 5.4L V8 with your choice of 2.3L Eaton TVS or Whipple 4.0L superchargers. Both cars will be built in a special run of 50 units each at Ford's Flat Rock, Michigan, plant, where production Mustangs are assembled, and will be sold through Ford dealer channels. —BILL…

HOT RODS THINKYOU CAN DO BETTER? The Derelict is the best all-around rat cruiser we've ever driven. See why in our “Calling All Beaters” video at HOTROD.com or YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine, or scan the code to see it instantly. If you don't think the Derelict is the greatest, prove us wrong. Post a photo and description of your ultimate beater at Facebook.com/HotRodMag. The editors will pick one beater from the continental U.S. we deem better than the Derelict, and we'll shoot a HOT ROD feature story on that car. We are only looking for great, daily-driven, modified beaters—no show cars, race cars, or stockers. The best beater will have to outdo the Derelict in character and style, comfort and amenities, ride quality and acceleration, and reliability. And it can't have good paint.…

Ron Fournier is one of those rare people who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives when they were 12 years old. Wandering into a family friend's garage in suburban Detroit, he saw a Sprint Car under construction. At that instant, he saw his life mapped out before him. “Seeing that process, I decided then and there that this is what I wanted to do. By the time I was 14, I was totally on track with it. I was already learning how to weld. “It just hit me over the head that you could take raw materials and build some thing from nothing. It fascinated me. Seeing them bending tubes and creating bodies from flat sheetmetal hooked me. I had to be part of it. I…

Hypothetically speaking, let's say you had the wrenching skills necessary to build a 600hp Rat motor for $6,500. With the astounding airflow potential of today's conventional, 24-degree, big-block Chevy cylinder heads and the multitude of dirt-cheap rotating assemblies cluttering up the Summit catalog, this caliber of horsepower-per-dollar heroism is certainly attainable—try hard and you could even do it with stock rec-port heads. Even though that would qualify as an impressive budget build by most standards, how many people have an extra $6,500 to throw around on anything, let alone an engine, these days? Since we've all had to recalibrate our affordability scale in recent years, it's only prudent to pursue truly budget-friendly engine combos that most hot rodders can build without running up the credit cards. While that concept is,…

RACE RAMPS' WHEEL CRIBS Race Ramps adjustable Wheel Cribs aren't your ordinary jackstand. Weighing in at 7 pounds, these stackable, interlocking composite pieces provide a sturdy platform for tires up to 12 inches wide and will hold up to 3,000 pounds. They are available in heights from 4 to 12 inches, which is useful if you want a unique way to display your car at a show or to prop up your hot rod for an oil change in the garage. They also make a decent step for working on tall vehicles. Price: $129.00 SOURCE BRUTE INDUSTRIES INC.; Escanaba, MI; 866/464-2788; RaceRamps.com…