Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Hot Rod

Can we just call this the Hellcat of Jet Skis? It needs a low-power key for the weak-willed, it’s got a blower, and it’s just about as irrational. What we’re talking about is the 310hp, 1,498cc four-banger in Kawasaki’s Ultra 310-series of Jet Skis. Known internally as the JT1500LHF, this is a water-cooled, DOHC, air-to-water-intercooled Jet Ski is electronically limited to just under 70 mph, but with an Eaton TVS supercharger carrying a pulley that looks like it could be a few fractions of an inch smaller and a healthy aftermarket, we don’t think it’s an issue for those wanting a bit more insanity. Starting with the company’s 210hp Ninja ZX-14R sportbike engine, Kawi strapped on a 2.0L, four-lobe TVS blower that feeds 16.8 psi of intercooled boost through a…

Leaving HOT ROD Power Tour® 2017, I spent an entire day meandering home and checked out a yard that had proved elusive in the past. When I pulled into the yard’s lot, the owner was working on an old Dodge truck and said I was more than welcome to check the place out. The cars were hard to believe. And the trucks—I’ve never seen so many first-gen Dodge trucks. There were also plenty of muscle cars: Chargers, Challengers, ’Cudas, Road Runners, and even a Superbee. What a great place to visit—well worth the wait!…

Rutledge Wood has been joining us on Power Tour® for as long as we can remember, always bringing something cool. For 2017’s route, he worked down to the wire to ready his 1970 Dodge Charger, which has quite a history. It once belonged to Randy Owens, Richard Petty’s brother-in-law. Randy was only 20 years old when he was killed during the 1975 Winston 500 at Talladega when the pressurized water tank he was operating exploded while he was trying to put out a fire on Richard Petty’s car that was caused by a wheel-bearing failure. Kyle Petty, who was on his father’s crew that day, was only 14 at the time. He later offered to buy his uncle Randy’s car and drove it on the streets of Level Cross, North…

Power Tour® has always brought out a few freaks, and we applaud that. You might get locked up anywhere else, but on Power Tour® you’re just considered a little freaky. We had so many this year we decided to show you the staff’s top-five picks for your perusal, for inspiration, and also to show you what you’re up against in case you have a freak-show project festering in your garage.…

When 26-year-old Vic Edelbrock Jr. took over aftermarket manufacturer Edelbrock Equipment in 1962 after the untimely death of his father, Vic Sr., many in the performance industry were skeptical about whether Vic had the chops to carry the company forward. Sure, he had worked under his father’s tutelage, graduated from the prestigious University of Southern California in business, and even flew T-33 trainers while in the ROTC, but running a company like Edelbrock—always on the leading edge of performance technology and racing—into the future would take a truly gifted person. Vic’s mother told him if the business started to slide, she would sell Edelbrock to preserve the company and her husband’s legacy. With many of Vic Sr.’s core group staying on to help maintain the company’s development and manufacturing, Vic…

QA1 // 952.985.5675 // QA1.net For superior performance and handling on and off the track for a wide range of Ford, GM, and Mopar vehicles, QA1’s full vehicle suspension kits will upgrade all four corners of your car. Available in up to three different levels of performance, each is engineered to provide maximum output and efficiency while delivering stellar cornering ability and a smooth ride. The perfect choice for budget-conscious car builders or for those who are building their project in stages, each kit comes with the ideal combination of suspension components—including K-members, sway bars, control arms, shocks, and more—to seamlessly pair with attached OE components. Art Morrison Enterprises // 800.929.7188 // ArtMorrison.com Designed for the first-generation 1967–1969 Chevrolet Camaro, the GT Sport Package system from Art Morrison Enterprises increases…

A tuned exhaust header’s primary-tube length has a direct influence on engine performance. It controls where in the engine’s speed range the header will add performance. Longer tube lengths pull the torque down to a lower speed. Shorter lengths move the powerband up into a higher speed range. In an extreme example, engines that run to 10,000 rpm might need the primary tubes to be as short as 26 inches. A more typical mild, street hot rod engine with a maximum speed of 5,500 rpm needs a length in the 35- to 38-inch range. The accompanying graph shows the approximate collector lengths needed as a function of engine speed (rpm) and the type of fuel used in the motor. As for the influence of primary-tube diameter—that’s for next month. Stay…

The number-one question the staff is asked as Chevrolet Performance presents HOT ROD Power Tour®, driven by Continental, winds across the country, is some variation of, What’s going on? When we condense it down to explain it to those who have never experienced Power Tour®, we often just say it’s the world’s largest road trip, with 5,000-plus cars driving 1,400-plus miles over the course of a week. To anyone sitting along the route enjoying the longest parade of classic cars, trucks, and hot rods they’ve ever seen, that definition makes total sense. Talk to any of the participants and you’ll discover that Power Tour® represents a lot of things. It provides incentive to get a long-parked project back under its own power. Power Tour® will go on, rain or shine,…

Power Tour® is difficult to explain at times, even for us, as it means more than anyone can imagine to some folks. In practice, it’s a massive road trip over thousands of miles, but for others it’s a bookmark in their lives. If you’ve ever been through a life-shaking injury, you know how destructive the experience is to your morale and how important it is to find meaning in things again. For Dennis Perkins, Power Tour® became real therapy in his recovery after his 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle fell off its jackstands, crushing his skull and rib cage back in April. “I was detailing underneath, and when I reached over, the watch band I was wearing shorted out on the starter,” he recalls. The starter began driving the six-speed Chevelle off…

This 1959 Biscayne Sedan Delivery has been in the Mothers family since 1984. You may recognize it from the numerous ads that have featured its flawless sheetmetal and perfectly polished paint or its multiple trips on Power Tour®. Its latest build was commissioned by Mothers owner Barbara Holloway in 2014. Barbara worked with Troy and Jack Trepanier at Rad Rides by Troy in selecting the chassis color, drivetrain, and interior—also insisting on the car’s nickel trim. It was completed in time for the 2015 Power Tour®, where Barbara drove the car with Troy’s mother, Judy Trepanier. Originally a six-cylinder three-on-the-tree, various small-block Chevy engines and automatic transmissions have powered the car over its long career as a Mothers spokesvehicle. It was still using its factory chassis in 2014 when Barbara,…

GM has decided to take a page out of the Porsche Racing handbook and offer the Camaro GT4.R as a fully backed, customer-car program that will allow it to compete with the likes of Porsche, McLaren, Aston Martin, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, and the recently unveiled Shelby Mustang GT350-based GT4 race car. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Chevy unveiled the purpose-built Camaro GT4.R racer, which has been homologated to global GT4 regulations. Developed by the SRO Motorsports group and sanctioned by the FIA, this class is structured around factory-built race cars that are available to the public, though not street-legal. Built on the Alpha platform, the GT4.R is 200 pounds lighter than the previous-generation Camaro and sheds another 700 pounds in race trim. It requires only a few…

“Wow, those are really bad. You probably shouldn’t drive this until we replace those.” My fella, Tom, and I had the Dodge Polara on the lift and we were looking at the front tires. A combo of miles and worn-out front suspension had left them with a deceptive amount of tread on the outer inch and more torn-up cord than your old jeans on the inside edges. I ordered new rubber, and feeling like I’d dodged a bullet, took the Opel to run some errands and head to my friend Lyn’s house for a lady day. I was pretty darn smug about catching the Polara tires before they blew, and that feeling lasted about 3 miles until I went to make a right turn into a parking lot and felt…

THE COMBO “Ever since I was 16, I’ve been into cars and hot rods. I’m definitely an oddball in what’s still mainly a man’s world,” Pam Jacoby said. “Guys are surprised that a girl owns and drives old American iron. When I’m with my boyfriend, they tend to ignore me and start talking to him about my cars!” Pam’s latest find: a beautiful 1932 Ford roadster she discovered online at Autotrader Classics (Classics.Autotrader.com). Its Chevrolet 350 Ram Jet crate motor is shifted by a 700-R4 trans with a 2,500-rpm stall-speed converter. CALLOUT LEGEND The red-letter callouts reference the diagram and photo callouts on this page and page 112. The red-number callouts reference detailed numbered photos on pages 114–118. A] Ignition switch (01–03) B] Manual dash switch (04–06) C] Trans case…

Holley Offers Classic Weiand Finned Oil Pans Holley // 866.464.6553 // Holley.com Intended as a direct replacement for stock, factory-style oil pans, Holley/MSD announces it now carries classic finned oil pans from Weiand. Designed with the hot rodder in mind, the cast-aluminum pans have a 4-quart capacity to dissipate heat and lower oil temperatures to enhance engine life. Complete with a nostalgic look, the oil pans include a matching gasket, pickup tube, and pan-bolt kit for fast, easy installation. Offered in two finishes—polished and black powdercoat—they are made to fit popular 1986–2002 small-block Chevrolet and 1965–1987 small-block Ford applications. Price: $229.99 or $239.99, depending on application and finish Wilwood Front Drag-Race Brake Kits Wilwood Engineering 805.388.1188 // Wilwood.com Wilwood Engineering is now offering eight new front drag-race brake kits designed…

Did you know there was a Funny Car curse? Known as the “Corvette Curse,” superstition runs through every form of racing, including drag racing. In the late-1960s through early 1970s, numerous Corvette-bodied Funny Cars met unceremonious ends from evil handling, contact with both walls, and cars in opposite lanes, starting with Don Cullinan and Jim Wetton’s “Mako Shark” Funny Car that crashed at Lions Drag Strip in 1969. The next year, Glenn Solarno’s “Invader,” Bob Harris’ “Super Shaker,” Vic Morse’s “Mister-T,” and Don Hampton’s twin-engine “American Bandstand,” all Vette Funnies, met quick ends blamed mostly on the curse. Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) held an all–Corvette Funny Car Invitational to capitalize on the curse and tempt fate, hoping to draw a crowd steeped in superstition, speed, and barbecued fiberglass. Gene…

The P-51 Mustang fighter plane gave the Ford Mustang its name, and it’s also Jack Roush’s favorite aircraft—he has one in his personal collection. As a tribute to both, Roush has built P-51–inspired Mustangs with earlier versions of the car, but 2017 is the first time for an S550 model. Jack’s son, Jack Jr., races a Ford Mustang in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and helped develop the current P-51. Jack Jr. drove this pre-production P-51 on Power Tour®, and we spoke with him about the car. The P-51 is the premiere Roush Mustang, riding on a triple-adjustable coilover suspension and forged, three-piece Weld wheels that are similar to those worn on some of Jack Jr.’s competition cars. “This car is kind of my baby,” Jack told us. Perhaps that’s…

Michael Callahan from Cincinnati always dreamed about going to Bonneville with a street car and getting into the 150 MPH Club. Or should we say, drive a car to Bonneville, make his passes, and then drive home. A few years ago, he got into the 130 MPH Club with a 1999 Ford Crown Vic that was a Bondurant Driving School car set up by Jack Roush with a 1999 Mustang Cobra valvetrain. He got into the club with it, but he knew it couldn’t go 150 mph, and you know that higher speeds are addicting. After he retired from the printing business, the search for a 150-mph street car commenced. He wasn’t after any specific car, with his parameters set for something he could easily modify aerodynamically and performance-wise. In…

Even the best-laid plans are subject to forces beyond human control. When the Lowe family planned to tackle another Power Tour® in their 1964 Impala, mother, Alice; father, Raymond Jr.; and son, Keith, planned the trip months in advance. Sadly, in December 2016, Raymond Jr. suddenly passed away, leaving heartache and vacancy in the family and the driver seat. “In January and February [2017], I was just kind of out of it,” Keith said. “It was hard for all of us and we weren’t thinking about the tour, but Mom came to me and said, ‘Lets do it—let’s me and you do it.’” In Raymond Jr.’s memory, Alice and Keith began making plans and getting the car ready for the trip. To understand the car’s importance, it’s necessary to dial…

Running boost through a carburetor is nothing new, but what’s groundbreaking is blowing boosted, sub-freezing air through a carburetor. In case you missed the previous tech pieces in HOT ROD, partners Dale Vaznaian and Karl Staggemeier have developed a package using 3,300-psi bottles of compressed air to feed virtually any engine and can make 850 flywheel horsepower by merely standing on the throttle pedal. They call it compressed-air supercharging (CAS). The previous two stories featured electronic fuel injection (EFI) as the means for managing the fuel-delivery portion of this power equation. But Vaznaian and Staggemeier understood that a significant number of drag racers would rather work with a carburetor, so they decided it was best to show that a blow-through carbureted application could work equally well while eliminating the expense…

The most prized, rare, and crazy designs of the muscle-car era are the Fords, Mercurys, Dodges, and Plymouths made for the NASCAR aero wars in 1969 and 1970. Starting with flush grilles and aero Band-Aids, it quickly wound out of control with the otherworldly Daytona Chargers and Plymouth Superbirds. The rules said you had to “homologate” aero-friendly iterations with a production run of 500 cars available to the public. Ford and Mercury were also on the crazy aero train track with plans to produce the 1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II seen here, and just behind it the 1970 King Cobra Torino. These prototypes never made production, as NASCAR put the brakes on the whole homologation wackiness. NASCAR saw that sanity was quickly giving way to aero-insanity. Many viewed the street…

Q:I’d like to put a mid-1980s T5 manual trans in my 1957 Ford with a 1990s 5.0L truck engine, but I want to use the Z-bar and Long-style clutch. Is there an adaptor to use a 1960s bellhousing? The scattershields I have found are way too expensive. I would like to run a 14-inch flywheel. Contacts ADVANCED ENGINEERING WEST (AEW); Mira Loma, CA; 626.222.4648; AEWperformance@aol.com Butch’s Cool Stuff; New Carlisle, OH; 937.260.2451; ButchsCoolStuff.com California Pony Cars (CPc); Ontario, CA; 888.225.7669 or 909.923.2804; CalPonyCars.com ASK MARLAN A TECH QUESTION: PITSTOP@HotRod.com A: The T5’s input-shaft length, front bearing-retainer and bellhousing pilot-hole diameter, trans-to-bellhousing bolt pattern, and distance from the block to the trans mounting pad are not the same as classic Ford Top Loader transmissions, so an adaptor will indeed be needed…

People ask me all the time: What’s it like moving from editing magazines to being on shows? Others wonder what I really do here. So I’ll tell you. First, some context. I was hired at HOT ROD in 1991 and then edited a few magazines at the company before coming back to HRM in 2001 and running it for a dozen years. Years in print media, about 25. These days, I host four shows: Roadkill and Engine Masters on both MotorTrendOnDemand.com and the Motor Trend channel of YouTube, and Roadkill Garage and Roadkill Extra (a daily show) as exclusives to MTOD. I’m the executive producer of stuff like HOT ROD Garage and Put Up or Shut Up, which just means I throw my opinion around. My title insinuates that I…