Innehållsförteckning för June 2017 från Hot Rod

Nelson Bandy has been a longtime antique and vintagecar collector, scouring the country for collectibles most of his life. Back in the 1970s, Bandy was very familiar with this 1968 Shelby GT500 KR convertible and its rarity. “It was owned by a very young couple in Lobelville, Tennesee,” he says. “I would try to buy the car every time I saw them driving around town.” Bandy’s persistence paid off in the summer of 1978. “I think the guy thought he would give me a ridiculous price and I would go away,” he says. “I went to the bank the next day and showed up with the cash and bought the car.” Bandy rarely drove it, and because of its rarity, decided to park it before the end of the year—and…

The Ringbrothers’ latest Camaro creation, this customized 1969 model, dubbed “G-Code,” elicits responses like no other car we’ve featured in recent memory. For example, in the short afternoon we spent riding around Southern California, we saw several thumbs-up from fellow motorists, were gawked at while at a filling station, and were, completely unsolicited, informed the effect the car had on a passerby’s state of arousal. We were also joined in admiring the Camaro’s bodywork by members of the local constabulary—complete with firearms drawn. Granted, the later event didn’t have anything to do with the Camaro in particular, but the patrolmen did seem impressed. Mike and Jim Ring’s shop, Ringbrothers, is located in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and builds several high-profile and high-quality custom muscle cars each year while producing their own…

Regardless if you’re a Chevy, Ford, or Mopar fan, almost anyone can acknowledge the Ford 5.0L Coyote packs a lot of punch with its 302 ci. Add a small amount of boost and you’re guaranteed to make more than 600 hp at the wheels. While being gigantic in size, the cylinder heads flow extremely well and the Ti-VCT-controlled quad cams optimize the powerband. The short-block, the six-bolt main caps and factory 4340 forged crank are virtually indestructible. But every engine has its weak point, right? The piston and rod combination in the Coyote isn’t ideal and the oil pump gears become an issue when turning a lot of rpm, launching hard at the track, or running a supercharger. Once you start crossing the 1,000hp mark, the next major issue is…

I’d never been so peaceful at 249.532 mph. Maybe it was the bliss of fulfilling a plan that failed nine years ago, but I think it was more. Deep in South Australia lies Lake Gairdner—glorious to the eye, peacefully absent of phone reception, and appropriately used for racing. Similar to the USA’s Bonneville Salt Flats, the Aussie version is roughly 37 times the size and remains unspoiled, with a salt thickness and flatness unmatched in Utah. For 27 years, land-speed racing at Gairdner has been sanctioned by the Dry Lakes Racers Australia. In 2008 my racing partners Keith and Tonya Turk, along with friend Steve Atwell, shipped our HOT ROD Mag. Spl. Camaro to Gairdner, only to send it home when the meet was canceled due…

With the passing of driver Pat Minick of the popular “Chi-Town Hustler” team of Farkonas, Coil, and Minick, we’re reminded of everything that made Funny Cars so exciting wrapped up in one single car. In the 1960s and 1970s, a small crew like Chi-Town could make a living barnstorming from match race to match race with appearance money and winnings from several races a week. The downside was those dragstrips were mostly light years from the conditions found at facilities hosting national events, so crap tracks with dark, short shutdowns, dips, and sketchy surfaces were Chi-Town’s bread and butter. Minick did yeoman’s work by deftly hammering the wild Charger to a 90-percent win rate. The car was built by John Farkonas and featured a unique left-hand seating position, with the…

The car has been in this location since 1974 and has never moved.” — Cliff Gottlob Being a young teenager conducting performance mods for Chevrolet’s Ed Cole, CEO of Chevrolet Motor Division, and Vince Piggens, manager of Chevrolet’s high-performance pursuits, in the early-1960s sounds impossible, but that’s what Cliff Gottlob was doing out of his parents’ rural Kansas home garage. What’s even more unbelievable is Gottlob specialordered this Regal Red 1965 Z16 Chevelle from Chevy and has kept it for more than 50 years. Catching the eye of Chevy corporate for setting records with his 1959 Corvette at Alton Dragway in Alton, Illinois, had its perks. First was a round trip to GM’s 13th floor to meet Cole and Piggens, then there was the 409-equipped, 1961 Chevy bubble- top given…

You guys know I love the Dodge Viper. Well, I finally got a chance to put someone else’s money where my mouth is and spent the past three months daily driving the 2015 Viper GT that Freiburger and Finnegan off-roaded in Episode 38 of Roadkill. Dodge had strongly encouraged the company to buy the car after its motorcross excursion, and since then, it had been sitting in the parking garage at the office. I drove the Viper every day and quickly found its strengths (long road trips, desert jaunts, winding roads, impressing teenagers) and its weak points (tight parking garages, drive-thru windows, Costco runs). The whole time I had it, people kept saying, “Boy, you are going to have a hard time going back to your old cars after this.”…

Dial in Your Clutch Release Magnus Motorsports // 905.669.8400 // MagnusMotorsports.com Spend enough time behind a clutch and you’ll probably scatter a few parts here and there pursuing consistency. Magnus Motorsports’ Launch Control Device is a switched release valve with a useradjustable delay. Tie the solenoid to your two-step limiter for launch-only activation with no delay on upshifts. Price: $275 Flex-a-lite’s Hurricane-ina- Box Flex-a-lite // 800.851.1510 Flex-a-lite.com Flex-a-lite introduces the ultimate track fan: The new 1000 Airmover is a compact, durable fan for cooling you and your race car. The roto-molded case is impact-resistant and allows the fan to perch itself at different angles. A 110v plug is included on the unit so more Airmovers can be daisy-chained or a small power tool can be plugged in. Price: $219 GForce…

We’re not sure where the recent kink for diesel swaps has come from, other than maybe an abundant number of Dodges finally retiring from under their Cummins turbodiesels and ending up in junkyards and Craigslist ads. Nowadays you’ll see a swapped coal-burner under the hood of everything from custom tow rigs, to drag cars, and even hot rods. Of course, lawn mowers and go-karts aren’t immune to the trends of their giant automotive siblings, so we have Canadian Chris “Doc” Smith’s Diesel Weasel, a diesel-swapped, rat-rodded 1960s Viking mini-mower. The stock body and frame were used, with a custom, solidly fixed drop axle up front that reuses the original kingpin knuckles with improved high-speed geometry, correcting the Ackerman, camber, and caster. To keep with the rat-rod inspiration, Doc mocked a…

A friend from Michigan asked if I was interested in seeing a Dodge truck in an old garage. While I agree Dodge trucks are cool, it wasn’t something I was about to drive 4 hours to see—until he said it was a Macho Power Wagon! The owner passed away, so the truck was sitting for more than a decade because of a rear-axle problem. His wife was ready to sell, otherwise it was going to the scrap yard. The truck is Burnt Orange with the full stripe package and deluxe interior—but with radio delete. It even had the original spare tire in the bed. The stuck brakes were broken loose, but while rolling the truck out of the garage, the passenger-side wheel fell off. The problem with the rear axle…

On New Year’s Eve 1983, Mario Rossi vanished off the face of the Earth. Not long after his disappearance, Mario’s son, Bill, went on a quest to locate and purchase one of his father’s race cars. After 33 years, he found what he was looking for. From 1968–1971 Rossi’s Automotive Engineering maintained and operated a highly successful NASCAR race team. During the team’s five-year existence, four drivers piloted Rossi race cars, including Donnie Allison (1967), Darel Dieringer (1968), Bobby Allison (1969– 1970), and Dick Brooks (1971). In 1970 Rossi came up with the idea to de-stroke a Chrysler 340 TA engine to meet the new 305ci engine displacement mandate for the 1971 NASCAR season. To keep the wing or aero cars from showing up at the 1971 Daytona 500, this…

If the cylinder heads are the lungs of an engine, the camshaft is the brain. It affects the powerband and temperament of a motor more than any other single part, and a slight change can turn a car from a mild-tempered grocery-getter to a downright nasty machine. On the surface, the camshaft’s job is simple—open and close the valves—but beyond that superficial description, it’s one of the most mysterious and misunderstood engine components. A cam card with its myriad numbers, acronyms, and abbreviations is one red-pen stroke away from a failed math test. But to choose the perfect cam, all of that information needs understanding. Every spec is a road map to what the valves are doing, the most common of which are lift, duration, and lobe-separation angle (LSA)—the latter…

It’s a condition we’re at a loss to explain but most enthusiasts succumb to at some point: the allure of the oddball car. As much as we all love a classic Deuce roadster or 1955 Chevy sedan, you have to wonder how we can pivot from admiring these preeminent designs and then get hooked on 1941 Willys, Daytona Chargers, and things like this rare fastback Nova. You can see where cars built specifically for competition (like those aforementioned) become objects of our lust by the fact they represent a serious pursuit of speed wrapped in a unique package. But taking a step back, your attraction is still to the design if you think it looks good rather than odd. But odd is defined as “different from what is usual or…

Q: After my 1955 Chevy V8 hasn’t been driven for a week or more, when going downhill under engine compression braking, fairly heavy white smoke comes out of the exhaust ports. Why is this happening? A: The cause of “white exhaust smoke syndrome” could be as innocuous as water in the exhaust pipes condensing and boiling off or as serious as a cracked head or block. You can narrow down the cause by observing the exhaust smoke’s color and when it occurs. I don’t think it’s water condensation in the mufflers or tailpipes because that would happen at cold-start whether the car was stationary or moving. The symptoms as you have described them— they occur only after the car has sat for at least a week and only when going…