Innehållsförteckning för December 2013 från Hot Rod

I’ve always seen HOT ROD as a living entity that’s a product of its legacy rather than a creation of mine. Even so, it’s become a huge part of my sense of self. HOT ROD consumes me, as I’m constantly thinking about how to improve or expand everything we do, and these days we do a lot. Under the HOT ROD brand, there are magazines—including HOT ROD Deluxe, Overkill, and special one-shot publications—digital products from the web to apps, licensed products, events like Power Tour® and Drag Week™, live-feed productions, endless social networking, and video shows. On the Motor Trend channel of YouTube, we do the half-hour Roadkill show once a month and the shorter HOT ROD Unlimited segments every two weeks. More are coming. In general, huge progress is…

When Tad Berkebile walks into a hardware store, he daydreams about parts and pieces that were never intended to work together. Tad, a retired engineer, has been inspired to create various projects in his garage after walking the aisles of Harbor Freight and Northern Tool. His latest is a take on the classic Radio Flyer. He calls his the “Zephyr Flyer.” “You see a lot of little red wagons around swap meets. A lot of guys have pretty neat ideas, but no one has done this,” says Tad. He started his build with a 5.4hp Evinrude Zephyr two-stroke flat-four outboard boat engine. He mounted the 160cc engine horizontally between the framerails of his homemade wagon and built an intake manifold to mount a new diaphragm carburetor vertically. He machined the…

The very first race cars most likely drove to the track under their own power, but they quickly became too specialized for street use. It takes a lot of nitro to cruise a dragster down the highway, plus the gearing tends to be a little low for that sort of thing, so teams had to figure out the best way to get their cars from race to race. From tow bars to ramp trucks, how you pulled into the track said as much about you as how you pulled away from the start line. Pro teams like Sox and Martin or Richard Petty had beautifully detailed industrial-duty trucks with built-in ramps and cabinets. Smaller teams had to make do with smaller trucks or homebuilt trailers, but that didn’t prevent them…

For years I’d heard about a junkyard in Illinois. It’s rarely open for business, but those who’ve stumbled upon the place report cool cars can be seen sitting in the wheat that’s taking over the property. Once I was able to contact the owner, I planned an expedition to visit the yard and all the treasures it held. We got there in the late afternoon, and the owner welcomed us in. He ushered us through his office and into an attached barn where we ran into something unexpected, a ’59 Corvette. One of 1,024 painted in Frost Blue, the Corvette had been in the possession of the yard owner since the ’70s. The solid-axle car didn’t have the original engine or transmission, but it had the makings of a good…

PERFORMANCE AS TESTED Rear-Wheel Horsepower: 77 hp at 4,469 rpm Rear-Wheel Torque: 93 lb-ft at 4,042 rpm Time on HOT ROD Autocross: 1:18.1 Quarter-Mile: 17.17 at 76.59 mph HRM Staff Average Ranking on a Scale of 1-10, 10 Being Best: Competence vs. Purpose: Named dualsport, the car was designed for off-road and street use, both of which it does quite well. Ranking: 8 Performance vs. Potential: All the carbon-fiber and performance goodies in the world won’t make a difference if the engine management system doesn’t put gas and spark in the right place. Waaaay more potential with the right tune. Ranking: 3 Dares to be Diferent: We drove it for three days and never saw another one on the road. Ranking: 8 Fabricated vs. Bolted Together: as a kit-car, it’s…

Every project car has its mysteries. If you’re lucky, you’re only a few owners down the line; between VIN numbers, paperwork, and conversations, you can figure out where your car was built, who owned it before you, and sometimes even how that dried-up bag of weed got in the steering column. When your project car is a genuine ’69 NASCAR racer, the challenge of pinpointing who, what, when, and where becomes more difficult. In the ’60s, no one built a race car expecting it to still be on the track in 2013. Heck, half the time, they didn’t expect the car to make it through one race. For Ron Myska, tracking down the history of his ’69 Ford Torino Talladega has been almost as interesting as getting it back…

“It got more bizarre as we went down the road.” “It got crazier and crazier and crazier.” “Pretty bizarre car—it’s a crazy thing.” Those were builder Steve Moal’s words—his confessions, really—made in the first few moments of our discussion of Eric Zausner’s ’33 Ford Vicky. Moal is a coachbuilder in Oakland, California, and has created a gang of hot rods over the decades. He knows when something is going to catch people of guard—and this car is certainly one of those things. “When you look at [this car],” explained Moal, “you’re thinking, What were these guys thinking?” Here’s what they were thinking: “It’s based on the Blue Train Bentley—this car has a chop just like that car—where the back is chopped more than the front,” Moal says. “The concept…

Don’t let anybody kid you. Nothing did—or does—it better than a big American V8. For 80 years, the passenger-car eight-cylinder engine has provided power, sound, and soul for the cars of our dreams. These engines are light, cheap, plentiful, and reliable. Their magic lies within their layout—eight pistons and rods connected at 90 degrees to a common crankshaf. It’s the sacred geometry of horsepower. So here’s a historical breakdown of the most significant American production-car V8s, as well as the Ford four-bangers that really started the whole hot rod deal. We didn’t include all V8s, for as superior as they are, there were some engines that were embraced more wholeheartedly than others by hot rodders. Disagree? Give us your list at HOTROD@HotRod.com. FORD FOUR-BANGERS Tough the Ford flathead…

CLONES: 1. ’67-’79 GM X-Body (Nova excluded) An Oldsmobile Omega, a Pontiac Ventura, a Pontiac Phoenix, and a Buick Skylark, are all less expensive versions of a Nova. Find a ’70s Omega or Ventura, and you’ll have a unique cruiser on the cheap that’ll accept virtually any GM engine. The ’74-and-earlier cars are like first-generation Camaros and Firebirds (F-cars) underneath, and the ’75-’79 are similar to second-gen F-cars. THE LATE-MODEL OPTION: 2. Ford Crown Victoria Police Cars Just like the Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers, “It’s got a cop motor…cop tires, cop suspensions, and cop shocks” After they’re retired from police service, Crown Victorias, although usually high mileage, are immaculately maintained and auctioned of cheap. Current Highway Patrol versions have 4.6L mod motors, which are great engines for the guy…

Every car project begins with a vision—or an acquisition. In this month’s Project Car Update, we bring you one of each by introducing two new buildups planned for 2014. The cars themselves have very little in common beyond the first names of their creators. You already know HOT ROD’s David Freiburger; now meet HRM’s new David, David Kennedy, and see his latest car project. REPLACE EVERYTHING THAT SPINS OR HOLDS FLUID Constant readers are no doubt looking at the photo and guessing which project is whose. Easy money says the ’68 B-body is Freiburger’s—but guess again. Kennedy is Freiburger’s new protégé, and while he’s a Mopar guy, too, the GTX actually runs, and he swears to keep it that way. Why take such a vow? Simple. Kennedy’s day job just…

An often overlooked aspect of race cam selection is the influence of the connecting rod length/crankshaft stroke (R/S) ratio on the cam’s lobe-separation angle (LSA). Higher R/S ratios need cams with a greater LSA to maintain equivalent performance. For example, the adjacent graph based on data supplied by Comp Cam’s Billy Godbold shows that if a short-rod engine with a 1.4:1 R/S ratio ran best with a cam ground with a 106-degree LSA, going to a long 1.85:1 R/S ratio requires a 109-degree LSA for power to peak at the same rpm. That’s because higher R/S ratios increase piston dwell time at TDC, making the engine act like it has more overlap. Widening the LSA decreases the actual amount of physical overlap, bringing the combo back into overall balance. Contact…

The Combo As detailed in our Aug. ’13 “HOT ROD to the Rescue,” Chris William’s ’08 SRT Challenger couldn’t keep a drivebelt on its 1,000hp, blown, 426ci, late-model Hemi stroker. After many trials and tribulations, Norm Brandes’ Westech Automotive in Silver Lake, Wisconsin, perfected the front-drive system, only to have the power-steering pump go Dixie when it couldn’t withstand the newly stable eight-rib serpentine drivebelt’s tremendous torque. We fixed that, too. Williams was definitely a happy camper when he left Westech, with everything at last seemingly OK. But several months after the car drove away, it limped back into Westech. The Challenger’s independent rear suspension (IRS) was making noise. THE PROBLEM “After Norm fixed the belt, I was able to put about 2,000 miles on the car,” reports…

At the ’63 Daytona 500, the world got its first glimpse of a 427ci engine that would change Chevrolet performance forever—and HOT ROD was there. This race-only big-block became known as the Mark II Mystery Motor and paved the way for the Mark IV Rat motor enthusiasts have known and loved since ’65. The Mystery Motor came about when Chevrolet used a wormhole in NASCAR’s manufacturing rules that allowed teams to race with an engine not yet in dealer showrooms. Less than 50 Mystery Motors were produced before GM’s ban on corporate-backed racing was announced in January of 1963. Only five Mystery Motors entered the Daytona 500 that year, and HOT ROD’s Technical Editor Ray Brock convinced one of those teams to let him inspect the engine. Because of the…

FACEBOOK FANS 4,670,387 TWITTER FOLLOWERS 746,546 INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 382,274 TOP YOUTUBE VIDEO 11,449,876 TOTAL RESULTS 17,249,083 TOP VIDEO VIEWS Red Bull World Record Rally Car Jump WORLD RECORDS Guinness World Records: longest rally car ramp jump at 269 feet ADRENALINE JUNKIE Jumped out of a plane without a parachute in 2007 BUSINESS DEALINGS Started Nitro Circus (like Jackass with dirt bikes), which consists of a series of movies, TV shows, and touring acts that features outrageous action-sport stunts. SPORTS HE HAS COMPETED IN Motocross, Global Rallycross, World Rally Championship, NASCAR, and American Rally FACEBOOK FANS 3,449,455 TWITTER FOLLOWERS 295,321 INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 520,056 TOP YOUTUBE VIDEO 53,004,477 TOTAL RESULTS 57,269,309 TOP VIDEO VIEWS Gymkhana Three, Part 2 ADRENALINE JUNKIE 171-foot rally car jump (Pastrana beat it a couple years later) BUSINESS…

On October 4, 1965, at Lions Drag Strip, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen flew his rear-engined, Hemi-powered Yeakel Plymouth Barracuda 30 or 40 feet in the air on its first full pass. Here’s what it was like, from ’Goose himself: “In those days those little short cars—none of them would go straight because they were such a short wheelbase. They’d take a torque-set and go down the track not very straight. As a driver you just got used to that, and that’s how it was. We learned to go with the flow. We were all so stupid we’d drive anything out there, so we didn’t know how it was supposed to be. This car was tracking fine. It was a new car so I didn’t know what was coming. I had…

Clint Neufeld told us he doesn’t consider himself a mechanic, saying his cast-ceramic engines and transmissions are artworks about memory and masculinity. We’ll save that conversation for the art magazines. What interested us about the Canadian sculptor’s work was the build process. Each sculpture starts out as a real engine, and in many cases Clint has to track down missing parts like the correct carbs or pulleys. He then cleans and disassembles the entire thing and casts each piece in clay, using a process called slip molding. Then, he glazes the individual parts with traditional tea-set glazes and patterns, hardens them in a kiln and reassembles the final engine for display. Sounds a lot like mechanic work to us! You can see more of Clint’s clay carbs at ClintNeufeld.com.…

“Looks like a bit of a death trap—still cool, though.”—Reader Jacob Skinner The Viva Las Vegas Vintage Car Show (VivaLasVegas.net/car show) is just as much about ’50s fashion and lifestyle as it is the cars. So while this vibrant Model A Ford had some competition from a bevy of bombshell pinups in full regalia, the car stood out in a parking lot of patina like a brand-new penny in a handful of rusty bolts. Don’t get us wrong—we love the authentic finish of a barn-find hot rod, but when you see a blown, mechanically fuel-injected ’31 Model A, cobwebs and rust take a back seat to blower whine and bomber seats. Owner Kevin Brooks, from Mount Shasta, California, drives this car on the street and was kind enough to…

Every car buildup has a price tag. Whether it’s a creation of Troy Trepanier, the Pentagon, or something you cooked up in your own backyard—everybody has a budget. Give any of us more time, money, or resources and we’ll do more. So if budgets are a reality for everyone, don’t look at them as a restriction—see your budget as a motivation to focus funds on the areas that matter most to you. Every issue of HOT ROD showcases cars that stun, inspire, and polarize. It’s actually the car build-ups that force you to think differently about your own project that are the ones you can learn the most from. In this issue, we’ll pull back the cash curtain and reveal the formulae of the zillion-dollar customs that fill our dreams.…

Forced to compete against much lighter compact cars in the early ’70s, Chrysler’s Pro Stock program went to great lengths to campaign a competitive racer. Dan Knapp, Dick Oldfield, and the guys behind Chrysler’s drag team built a flyweight ’74 Duster using titanium axletubes and a unique system of tensioned wires to support the rear bodywork. Those two rear cables on the experimental racer are why this would-be fourth-generation Mopar Missile was also known as the “Wire Car.” The result was a 340-powered A-Body that weighed around 1,800 pounds in race trim. When Plymouth pulled out of Pro Stock racing, the car was campaigned by Don Carlton. We showed you how the car looked in the Mar. ’12 issue of HOT ROD, when The 401k Club Hot Rod Shop (The401kClub.com)…

I’m a firm believer that all hot rods should have three pedals below the dash. So I was stoked to learn that not only was I going to Bob Bondurant’s school of hi-po driving (Bondurant.com) for two days, but also that I’d be schooled while wheeling an almost-new, six-speed Grand Sport Corvette. Between playing Grand Theft Auto and a lack of fear behind the wheel, I’d developed several bad driving habits I was hoping to break. Bob Bondurant wasn’t my instructor, but I did meet him and hear some of his great stories. Then I set about making my own stories in a skid car, during accidentavoidance maneuvers (while driving the Grand Sport) and finally, on the track. The instructors were supremely helpful, and I spent almost every second in…

Back in the mid ’90s, Rod Evans was crossing the finish line at Los Angeles County Raceway in his 11-second Dart Lite when one of the rods in the swappedin small-block Dodge decided to go solo. He pulled into the pits and told his pals, “I think it’s broke.” Broke it was, but it still drove up onto the trailer with only seven cylinders. When the guys tore the engine down they found the crankshaft was undamaged. Rod reassembled the Chrysler 360 with a new pan, two new rods and pistons, and a few replacement valves, and it’s still running today. He kept the damaged pan as a souvenir, the broken rod embedded like King Arthur’s sword in the stone. Legend has it that he who pulls the rod from…

Year? Make? Model? A: You’re looking at the driver-side valve cover of a Ford Boss 429, which was Ford’s NASCAR answer to Chrysler’s Hemi in 1969. HOT ROD TRIVIA Q: 1 True or false? The first-gen Camaro Z/28’s 302 was a destroked 327/350 using a 283 crank. 2 When and on what car was the name Shelby Super Snake first used? 3 Why did the Big Three start using cross-bolted or four-bolt mainbearing caps in V8s? A: 1 False. While the math is correct, Chevy’s 302 was purpose-built. 2 Mel Burns Ford in Long Beach, California, purchased a ’67 Shelby GT500 with a 427 engine. Don McCain coined the term. 3 Early ’60s NASCAR endurance races proved crankshaft flex caused oiling and bearing wear problems. The fix for production engines…

SEND YOUR PHOTOS To be included in Scene by Readers, send low-rez photos and some information about them to HOTROD@HotRod.com. If we elect to use your photo, we will email back with instructions on how to send us a high-rez photo for publication.…

Drive-ins are a staple of American pop culture: sneaking in by hiding in the trunk, watching dancing cartoon candies make their way to the concession stand, relaxing in your favorite car, and watching a movie next to the stars. But that slice of Americana is being threatened, as only 368 drive-ins remain in the U.S. In 2014, there may be far fewer, because all major movies will become digital. Most drive-ins theaters use film projectors, and a digital film projector replacement costs more than $80,000—not a viable amount for drive-ins that charge pocket change for tickets. Honda started Project Drive-In, a fundraiser to help keep drive-ins alive. The project will donate a digital projector to five diferent drive-ins, chosen by online votes. Along with the five selected, Honda is accepting…

Though Ford has used an EcoBoost badge on five different engines, the name always signifies a highpower, small-displacement motor with one or two turbochargers. Every new car Ford has launched since 2009 has been offered with an EcoBoost engine, so it’s no secret Ford’s next-generation Mustang will have at least one EcoBoost option. So far, rumors point to Ford using a new four-cylinder turbo engine in the ’15 Mustang. But until we get a call from our friends in Dearborn to drive the next pony, HOT ROD has tested the most powerful RWD EcoBoost on the market to show you what the future might hold. That put us behind the wheel of a ’13 Ford F-150 crew-cab pickup with the 3.5L twin-turbo V6. TORQUE ON DEMAND The 3.5L EcoBoost in…

Steve Carpenter wanted to sell this ’57 Ford before he even started on the Galpin Gasser III project—the car was in that bad of shape. Carpenter knows how to sell; he’s the sales manager for Galpin Ford’s Galpin Auto Sports division. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t know how to buy—which would be surprising since he’s been around cool cars and car magazines since he was a kid hangin’ with his dad, Phil Carpenter, who worked at Popular Hot Rodding, Super Chevy, and 1001 Truck and Van Ideas for Argus Publishing back in the ’60s and ’70s. He’s built a few cars before his golden gasser and wanted to start with a good, cheap driver, and boy, did he get one. Hitting the “Buy It Now” button on an…

PERFORMANCE AS TESTED Rear-Wheel Horsepower: 355 at 5,000 rpm Rear-Wheel Torque: 400 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm Quarter-Mile: 13.16 seconds at 112.56 mph HRM Staff Average Ranking on a Scale of 1–10, 10 Being Best: Competence in its Intended Purpose: it’s a hot rod that gets cruised a lot, it turns heads, it’s fun, and it scares grown men. Ranking: 8 Performance vs. Potential: the dyno proved the car makes too much boost, and the extreme intake-air temperatures hurt its power output. Kevin says he’s addressed that, but as we always do in flog features, we go by our data. Ranking: 6 Dares to Be Different: a blown small-block isn’t too risky, although the packaging is out there. Ranking: 7 Fabricated vs. Bolted Together: relocating the cooling system to the rear…

1] AN FITTINGS VS. PIPE THREAD FITTINGS AN stands for Army-Navy, and its name alone will answer the question: They’re military-grade parts that work in the aviation world. They’re also the standard of motorsports for plumbing all kinds of fluids. AN fittings use a 37-degree flare, while most automotive fittings use 45-degree flares. They’re not interchangeable, but adapters are readily available. Steel and brass pipe fittings are more commonly found at the local hardware store, while AN fittings are—for most of the U.S.—a speed shop or mail-order-only part. Buy AN Fittings: If you never want to worry about your car’s plumbing again. Buy Pipe Thread Fittings: To save money and you can fix your car in a hardware store parking lot. 2] CRATE ENGINE VS. MACHINE SHOP Figure out how…

Adjust rocker arms frequently—or not at all? Rev to the moon—or stop at the smog layer? Tese are the eternal questions that have plagued hot rodders trying to decide whether to purchase a mechanical or hydraulic-lifer camshaf. Experience has taught us to expect the valves in a small-block Chevy to foat at around 6,500 rpm with any hydraulic-tappet cam. Tis uncontrolled valve foat results when the hydraulic lifers pump up with oil at high engine speeds and hang the valves open at the wrong time. At best, this causes the engine to lose power as the camshaf loses control of the valves; at worst, this causes the valves to crash into the pistons. As far as we’re concerned, spinning serious rpm was strictly solid-lifer race-cam territory. Until now.…

Next Month: Add Nitrous to Anything…

I have destroyed some engines. Sometimes they go slowly, during months of increased oil usage and ghostly tapping sounds from deep within. Others go in a blaze of glory, belts flying and rods spreadeagle. Some engines refuse to go at all. There’s a Slant Six buried in a Hollywood backyard that never stopped running despite my once having to put five quarts of oil in it. It wasn’t even running hot! It’s probably still idling under the vines. I’ve taken engines out in freak accidents—a valve-cover baffle came loose and the engine ingested it—and through inattention. I blame the Rolling Stones for that one. I was too busy rocking out to notice the creeping temp gauge, the sticky steering, or the plumes of coolant until it was too late. That…

The perfect wheel and tire combo accentuates a hot rod’s look; it doesn’t detract from it. The best-looking wheel is useless, though, if the tires rub on the fenders, chassis, or suspension when the car is in motion. Nailing the perfect fit is all in the width and the backspacing of the wheel. Tires are no longer the problem because companies have given us a massive selection of diameters, section widths, and profiles, so it’s up to us to find the right wheel to make them work. We stumbled upon a fantastic tool to make that job foolproof. The Wheel Fit tool bolts onto the hub of your car, clamps the tire in place that you want to run, and then indicates the right backspacing. All you have to…

01 MARCH PERFORMANCE MarchPerf.com; 888.729.9070; $2,689.97; PN 20060 The Style Track kit is machined from 6061-T6 aluminum and features two idler pulleys to prevent belt slip. March uses stock-style tensioners so replacement parts are easy to find anywhere. These kits feature all-new engine accessories and are ofered in a variety of configurations: alternator only; alternator on left or right side; and with or without power steering. Every variation is ofered as either a “standard kit” (for use with electronic throttle bodies) or a “narrow kit” (for use with mechanical throttle bodies). Prices start around $2,000. March offers dimensions for all of its kits on the website. 02 MARCH PERFORMANCE MarchPerf.com; 888.729.9070; $2,009.97; PN 20035 Designed with accessory performance in mind, the Pro Track kit uses an oversized crank pulley to…