Innehållsförteckning för June 2012 från Hot Rod

Our new YouTube shows are no more sophisticated than that. See, several months ago, YouTube redesigned its site and launched a new mission to offer multiple, topic-specific channels that deliver high-quality, original programming, nearly none of which involves dancing cats. There are several automotive channels, but the only one you need to be aware of is—shockingly enough—Motor Trend’s. Yeah, that’s the clean-hands, wine-and-cheese-tour magazine, but it’s also a YouTube channel with a zillion subscribers, so it’s the home for all the shows from our company, Source Interlink Media. And that means it’s the spot for HOT ROD’s regularly scheduled programming. We’ve got two shows: HOT ROD Unlimited and Roadkill. The Unlimited show is just that, with varied subjects from the universe of domestic performance cars. It’s a short format of…

KEN HEASLIP • HAGERSVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA “I tried to make it look like someone stole Grandpa’s car and stuck a blower motor in it,” says owner Ken Heaslip, and we think he did just that. It’s got an obnoxious blower, a strange color that bleeds into the entire car, huge meats in the back, hardly any trim, a big six-point rollbar, and it’s a ’57 Ford. All that equals just plain cool. Ken wanted something wild that he could still drive, so he purposely went with 15-inch-wide wheels in the back instead of bigger ones (although we think that’s pretty big already). It does have a spool in the Strange rearend with 4.30:1 gears, but Ken still thinks it’s a joy to drive. He puts about 4,000 miles on it…

What was billed as a charitable Rat Roast to celebrate Don Garlits’ 80th birthday turned into an emotional evening in Pomona, California, that saw the Swamp Rat turn the tables on his roasters and steal the show, as usual. One by one, former adversaries and sponsors stepped to the Sheraton Fairplex podium to share personal memories with a sold-out audience of 320 lucky ticket holders (plus standing hangers-on including John Force, who donated thousands of dollars in auctioned memorabilia to the sponsoring Quarter-Mile Foundation). As each celebrity finished his prepared comments, “Big” jumped to his feet and returned the favor, gently jabbing Ed Iskenderian, Tommy Ivo, Dave McClelland, Ed Pink, Don Prudhomme, Jerry Ruth, and Sid Waterman with ad-libbed remarks that repeatedly brought down the house—reminding us that along with…

People lost their minds. Tim Reed’s ’79 Pinto hooked up on 275s, threw chunks of drag radial at the burnout box, and blasted through the quarter-mile traps at 8.02 seconds and more than 171 mph—and all that after cruising 1,000-plus miles during HOT ROD Drag Week ’11™, scoring double-digit fuel economy on 87-octane gas. It was the third quickest car in all of Drag Week™, which is amazing when you look at the big-inch hardware on hand at the event. The combo is deceptively simple, too, with small turbos and a small hydraulic roller cam on a midsize engine. Sorry, Ford guys—it’s a Chevy LS motor. The bottom end of the 408ci engine is full of forged parts from Callies and Wiseco. Trick Flow provided the untouched 225 CNC cylinder…

Part of our gearhead life revolves around fantasizing about the perfect garage. Describing the place will inevitably lead to variations from one person to another, yet you can foresee some common threads in the main requirements. It has to be large enough to accommodate more than one car, tools must abound, and the decor should be an homage to the hot rod scene. Cam Grant’s garage fits the bill—and then some. You might expect such a man cave from a long-time player who has built his share of project cars since the ’50s and stockpiled a number of desirable parts along the way. All this and he’s not even American. Cam’s from the Vancouver, British Columbia, region in Canada. With three quarters of Canada’s population residing within 90 miles of…

The Buick 350 gets no love. Well, it gets very little love. Aside from an aluminum intake and ported factory iron head castings from TA Performance (TAPerformance.com), there are few speed parts available for this neglected mill. That’s why we were happily surprised to discover that someone developed a twin-turbo kit for the predecessor to GM’s successful 3.8L V6—you know, the engine powering thousands of GM sedans and minivans on the road today. Burton Machine of East Wenatchee, Washington, builds twin-turbo kits for the Buick 350 and 455. The $2,000 kit bolts on, except for the oil return line bung that needs to be welded to the oil pan and exhaust downpipes that must be fabricated to connect the turbos to an existing exhaust. The basic Burton kit is not…

DANNY ASKS: I have an ’89 Pontiac Firebird. I’m going to swap its factory 305 LO3 TBI engine to a 350ci/385hp Fast Burn crate motor. What is the best option: Keep the factory 700-R4 transmission or swap to a TH350 with a 3,000-rpm-stall-speed converter? How can I do the swap and keep the factory torque arm? MARLAN ANSWERS: The Chevrolet Performance385 Fast Burn crate motor (PN 19201331) is a non-computer-controlled small-block that’s delivered with a traditional carburetor and HEI distributor, so I’m assuming you’ll be trashing the factory computer (Electronic Control Unit or ECU). That calls for extensive rewiring, so I highly recommend springing for the complete factory service manual and wiring schematics (Helm is one source). Your trans choice really boils down to intended usage combined with any budget…

HAD ENOUGH HEMI YET? If you didn’t get enough of early–Chrysler Hemi tech in this issue, come back next month for more excruciating detail on cylinder heads and engine-swap adapters. (The Hemi in the photo is in Danny Ongais’ Honda of Willmington dragster in 1966.) We’ll also reveal a very cool ’69 Mustang SportsRoof powered by a new Coyote 5.0 and one of the most unusual roadsters yet. We’ll cap the next issue with a story all about slamming your car as low as it can go without having it ride like 1-ton truck. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE JULY ’12 ISSUE OF HOT ROD MAGAZINE On sale May 15, 2011 HOTROD.com Facebook.com/HotRodMag YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine…

In a few pages, you’ll read Dave Wallace’s tribute to Don Garlits on the occasion of Big Daddy’s 80th birthday. In these pages we’re doing the same while also honoring the memory of Tommy “T.C.” Lemons, Garlits’ longtime crew chief and friend. T.C. was living on the property of Garlits’ Museum of Drag Racing—which he helped to establish—fighting bladder cancer and working on the museum cars, when a heart attack took him away on January 13 (on the eve of Garlits’ birthday) as he rested in his favorite chair. Garlits himself found him. Also known as Top Cat, Lemons is one of the men, along with Connie Swingle, whom Garlits credits for the demon tweak (slower steering) that made the rear-engine dragster practical. The second rear-engine car, Swamp Rat 16,…

Engineer Ken Koch designs electric vehicle drive systems, and his longtime dream was to build a ’30s Ford roadster. But it wasn’t until he started planning the specifics of this particular car that he decided on an electric powertrain. Two series-wound General Electric 400hp, 1,000-lb-ft motors were blueprinted by Dennis Berube and installed in a modified TCI Pro Street chassis under a fiberglass Wescott ’34. An Eaton ELocker-equipped Dana 60 rear with 4.11 gears and 35-spline Currie axles should be up to the task of putting the power to the ground via 18-inch-wide Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials. We asked Ken about the longevity of the 2,592 lithium-ion batteries, and he said they are expected to last 7 to 10 years if they’re kept cool during use and are charged…

Tom Medley has been associated with hot rodding ever since his name appeared on the masthead of the second issue of HOT ROD (Feb. ’48) as the Humor and Cartoon Editor. He was an illustrator for Stars and Stripes during WWII before he created the famed Stroker McGurk for HOT ROD. Medley stuck with Petersen Publishing until 1985, leaving a huge legacy of art and photos and lasting cultural and business impacts on HOT ROD, Rod & Custom, karting, and hot rodding in general. T-Med lives a few blocks from current HRM Editor-In-Chief Freiburger, who happened to drive by during a heartbreaking scene: 91-year-old Medley’s garage was in flames. His longtime project and driver, a ’40 Ford coupe, had backfired and ignited a blaze that eventually took down the car,…

See HOTROD.com/2012/PowerTour BE THERE! It’s free to be a spectator at a Power Tour® cruise scene, or you can register at the gate to bring in your car. Saturday, June 2: GM Proving Ground, Milford, MI Sunday, June 3: Downtown area, Muskegon, MI Monday, June 4: University of Illinois Assembly Hall, Champaign, IL Tuesday, June 5: Gateway Motorsports Park, Madison, IL Wednesday, June 6: Buffalo Run Casino, Miami, OK Thursday, June 7: Kicker Corporate Complex, Stillwater, OK Friday, June 8: QuickTrip Park, Arlington, TX DETROIT IS READY TO ROCK The ’12 HOT ROD Power Tour®, presented by Chevrolet Performance, will help kick off Autopalooza, a celebration of southeast Michigan’s automotive heritage through a series of major automotive events during the summer of 2012. The Power Tour® begins behind the fence…

“You can drive it anywhere, assuming you sort of obey the law.”—Darrell Wark Why do you think guys race lawn mowers in the South, have sand drag races in the West, and race barstools at Bonneville? Because a true hot rodder will hot rod anything. Darrell Wark of Colby, Kansas, is one of them, and as a true rodder, he recycles—and that’s what brought this scheme to life. He had a bunch of old race-car parts sitting around, so why not use them on a ’47 Ford 2N tractor he purchased from his town’s mayor. Darrell used to run a four-banger, X-class dragster in the ’50s. “I sure wouldn’t drive that thing today; it’s a death trap,” Darrell told us when we caught him at the Golden Nugget hotel and…

Doane Spencer, Joe Nitti, Neal East, Bob McGee—names forever synonymous with the hot rods they built or bought in the ’40s and ’50s. Their projects have become icons of the genre, and while you might name another couple hundred hero cars that have been storied ad nauseam, the workaday rods by Joe Average radically outnumber those exalted examples. This story is here to honor the anonymous. Hot rods fueled teenagers’ social landscapes in the ’50s, and they vexed Main Streets well beyond the borders of the Southern California motherland. Contrary to popular impressions, HOT ROD reached outside those palm-fronded confines in its coverage, especially while visiting grassroots America from 1954 to 1956, when magazine photographer Eric Rickman hit the road with the NHRA Drag Safari. The Safari’s mission was to…

THE PREMISE The drop lights most of us grew up with were a joke. Drop them and they broke—end of story. The glass light bulbs were guaranteed to shatter and were also hot and sure to melt carpet and clothes if left sitting long enough. These days, Snap-on has a plethora of modern drop lights that are long on features and designed to be dropped on the ground, in the dirt, and in a small amount of water. That sounds great in theory, but are they tough enough to survive in our garage? THE STUFF Check out the charts and captions for details on all the lights we tried. Interestingly, all the lights are Snap-on branded but made by a variety of manufacturers. THE TEST First, we charged all the…

The ’12 Deuce Week at the Petersen Automotive Museum celebrated the 80th anniversary of the ’32 Ford, and as part of the festivities, the museum asked nine hot rod builders to each customize a ’32 pedal car that will be auctioned to raise money for the Petersen Free School Bus Program, which offers free field trips to the museum to kids from underprivileged schools. The pedal cars, from Warehouse 36 (Warehouse36.com), were given to builders across the country with no more instructions than “Build something cool.” They did just that, putting as much attention into these pedal cars as they do their own show cars. The cars will be auctioned off during the RM Auction events in Amelia Island, Florida (completed by the time you read this) and Monterey, California…

For traditional hot rodders and racing fans, Ken Block might not be a household name, but if you mention him around a teenager or YouTube junkie, the lights will come on. On the Internet, Ken is a superstar. His videos include insane, tire-smoking action, but it’s not quite stunt driving, not quite rallying (because he’s on concrete and asphalt), and not quite racing or drifting. It’s called gymkhana, a special form of fast driving around a tight, unique obstacle course where finesse, acrobatics, and tire smoke are more important than time or speed. The video sequels seem never-ending, as Ken recently released his fourth, driving through Universal Studios’ backlots, inches from people, props, and moving forklifts, and through walls–literally. The video, DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial,…

When former GM exec Bunkie Knudsen became the president of Ford, one of his most infamous moves was asking designers to stretch the proportions of the Mustang for 1971. The reaction from the buying public wasn’t what the Bunkster had in mind. Sales plummeted, as folks didn’t seem to buy the marketing tactic of “Now with 20 percent more Mustang!” The ’71 to ’73 Mustang has always been a bit of a black sheep among Mustang body styles, with some enthusiasts calling them Clydesdales, which are enormous, cloddy horses—though they deliver beer, so they can’t be all bad. Buddy Shores figured a ’71 Clydesdale also had some merits and envisioned his ultimate Mustang with help from designer Ben Hermance. As he did when building his Power Tour® Challenge-winning ’67 Chevelle,…

Model: Summer Sabers Stylist: Diana L. Chan / DianaChanStylist.com Wardrobe Assistant: Khloe Kay Dionisio Makeup/Hair: Christine Choi Production Assistant: Kasia McDermott Oh, the stories this car could tell. Ryan Adams of Santa Ana, California, has owned this old Ford since 2000. His buddy Dano Nichols found it in Riverside, California, where it was languishing in a sorry state after serving as a dirt-track car. We don’t know how long this poor soul was beaten and battered in side-by-side racing before it was finally put out to pasture, and we can only imagine how thrashed the body was back then, but since it was real, 70-year-old Ford steel for only $1,500, we can use our imaginations. Its scarred past is long behind it now, however. Seven years in the making and…

Among hot rod engines, the flathead Ford V8 and small-block Chevy V8 are usually considered the most significant milestone powerplants. But there’s another mill that ranks right up there with the Big Two: Chrysler’s first-generation Hemi of the ’50s, Detroit’s first serious attempt to build a mass-produced, no-compromise engine using advanced (for the time) hemispherical combustion chamber technology previously reserved for aircraft or exotic sports cars. Chrysler’s early Hemi grew out of experience gained during World War II with developing Hemi-headed aircraft and tank engines for the war effort. After the war, Chrysler needed to remain competitive with the new Caddy and Olds overhead-valve V8s, so it began developing brand-new motors. Early testing of alternative head and valve layouts revealed that the hemispherical combustion chamber was superior to other designs.…

EDITOR’S NOTE: If your existing hot rod has a gremlin that just won’t quit, you could be one of the lucky candidates chosen for a hands-on thrash. Drop us a line at pitstop@hotrod.com, and put “Rescue” in the Subject Line. We won’t repair factory stockers or build you a whole car, but HOT ROD and industry experts will fix the immediate problem. THE COMBO More than 10 years ago, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Gregg Gunta restored his ’73 Z28 Camaro LT. The refresh included a brand-new GM 350 HO with Vortec heads (old GM PN 12486041) that he purchased in April 2002. The original M21 Muncie four-speed and 3.73:1, Positraction, 8½-inch 10-bolt rearend were retained. THE PROBLEM As is the case with many of us, it took Gunta a while to complete…

WILWOOD CALIPERS Wilwood Engineering 805/388-1188 Wilwood.com Wilwood’s Superlite radial-mount calipers attach to the spindle via a bracket with a pair of vertical studs instead of the more common horizontal mounting bolts. This gives the caliper position more adjustability and less flex for an even grip on the brake rotor. Wilwood forges each caliper with the grain of the aluminum, resulting in a metal that is specifically designed to work with the rotation of the rotor. Superlites are available in signature black or red powdercoat as well as custom colors and a new Quick Silver nickel-plate finish. Price: $353.93 six-piston (PN FNSL6R), $323.93 four-piston (PN FNSL4R) DEMON’S NEW STREET CARB Demon Carburetors 270/901-3346 DemonCarbs.com Demon Carburetors has changed ownership and is back in production with stricter quality control. The first new…