Innehållsförteckning för February 2018 från Hot Rod

Look back in time, further…a little more…there! Back to the first time you saw something working like a trip hammer or ticking like a clock with mysterious inner workings. If you are reading this magazine, you likely had a moment where you began to love machinery for the sake of it. Was it a nail gun or lawnmower, airplane, or train? Stop and remember. Later, you realized that some machines provide freedom from parents and access to faraway lakes and towns. And girls, maybe. There is no memory without emotion and no emotion without sights, sounds, and smells. So when you are parked at the lake this weekend, are you remembering the car that got you there the first time? I am on my 20th year with HOT ROD and…

Drag Week™ 2017 was the largest yet, with 388 intrepid racers lining up in the staging lanes on Day 1. This is an era where single-digit e.t.’s make up a majority of our winning times, but the diversity in powertrain combos and chassis has never been greater, with a speed freak to suit any kink. As this race grows, each of these wins becomes harder fought with heart-wrenching defeats and hair-raising wins separated by a few tenths or a trail of parts, but 308 of you proved that you’re a different kind of crazy when it comes to running with the quickest and fastest street cars in America. UNLIMITED DAVID SCHROEDER 1966 CHEVY CORVETTE 6.81 AT 207.47 MPH Easily the fairytale story of the year, Dave Schroeder and John Ens…

A former World Champion AHRA Super Street and NHRA Super Gas drag racer with time on his hands and wanderlust led to the most unlikely outcome of road-tripping through Europe in a 1973 Plymouth Road Runner. Three different times. Al Young didn’t start out thinking he’d joyride in Europe and former Soviet Bloc countries with a muscle car when he started his quest for a simple project. The now-retired school teacher from Seattle never liked idle time, especially those three months during the summer students and teachers typically enjoy, which led him to campaign a 1970 Challenger running AHRA and NHRA Northwest division Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. The Challenger started as a drive-to-the-track car, but over 30 years of racing ended up as an 8-second, full-tube chassis…

Mike Cole from Milton, Wisconsin, built this 1990 Eagle Talon in a small space on a small budget. After buying the car from a friend for $500, he built a nutty race car in 18 weeks because someone said it couldn’t be done. His only stipulations were: the whole build needed to max out at $5,000, the engine had to fit without hacking stuff apart, and he wanted to go on Power Tour® that same year. It was no small undertaking; the car was swapped to rear-wheel drive using a Ford 8.8 housing, a custom subframe had to be built, and there is even homemade, firewall-mounted steering. For power, Mike went with a 2005 4.3L Chevy V6. To be really cheap, he dumped the EFI for a carburetor and cobbled…

Q: I have a normally aspirated 1981 Buick 231 V6 in my hot rod and was wondering what flexplate to use. It seems there are internal balance and external balance applications. Is there any reason I can’t use a Grand National flexplate that is rated for high rpm? The trans I am using is a TH200-4R. My hope is to eventually turbocharge this motor. A: Aftermarket rotating assemblies with forged cranks are usually internally balanced. All production Buick V6 cast-iron crankshafts are externally balanced. The unbalance factor for 1977-and-earlier odd-fire Buick V6s is different than the factor for 1978–1987 even-fire Buick V6 engines. According to TA Performance, the even-fire production unbalance factor is 36.6 percent. During the even-fire era, Buick still used different stock flexplates depending on the specific model…

It’s easy to just glance at these photos of time and place and miss all the things that are going on. The time was 1971 to 1975 and the place was Orange County International Raceway (OCIR), and of course, these are Funny Cars on the line shot by Ron Lewis, a photographer that you can still find, on the line, at NHRA events. HOTROD.COM/Douglas-Glad…

Exhaustion, triumph, desperation, gratitude—a quick walk through the lanes of Drag Week™ will show you the tip of the iceberg on how a racer’s week is going, for better or worse, with just a glance at a facial expression. People put their hearts on the line at Drag Week™, with this race hosting what has to be one of the most unique and widespread racing families out there. You’ll see everything from grins bursting like levees in moments of success to sharp eyes in cold concentration as an engine is eviscerated on the side of the road with the goal of driving into tomorrow’s staging lanes. Long days, short nights, and countless memories make up the faces of Drag Week™.…

Most avid car enthusiasts have heard at least a few tall tales about a rare, vintage car parked in a barn. Most of us usually dismiss it as just that: a tall tale. Rumors of a 1970 Chevelle SS454 sitting in a collapsed barn in Ohio have swirled for many years around the Chevelle enthusiast circles, but solid proof confirming this story had never been available until May 2017, when a short cellphone video of the car surfaced, along with an email address. An email was sent to the owner in an effort to gain additional details about the Chevelle and its whereabouts. The owner responded a couple days later that the car was located just a few minutes from Urbana, Ohio, and was an original 1970 SS454. The owner…

hThe GM overdrive transmission swap has been covered ad nauseam, and to be fair, it’s an incredibly straightforward swap for anyone who’s even done the most basic of hot rodding—that’s why we love it. Overdrive is the difference between cruising on the freeway with an engine chugging along at 1,800 rpm or winding out at nearly 3,000 rpm, which not only burns fuel about as quick as you can pump it but also raises oil temps and prematurely wears out an engine if you’re trying to keep with modern highway traffic. We’ll talk about some of the main “gotchas!” of the swap in Make It Better, a series that focuses on weekend projects that make daily driving your hot rod that much easier. Not only is our daily driven 1969…

We’ve previously discussed header design; what about post-collector extensions? Most commonly seen on motorcycles and other small motors that are inherently peaky, a megaphone-shaped collector extension, in theory, can be beneficial on any engine because it further extends the system’s tuning range by delaying the reflected wave. As for straight collector extensions, they’re an old racer’s trick, an example of real-world cut and try. During initial tuning, a slightly long extension is installed, with a stripe painted down its length. After several runs, the collector is cut short to match the point where the paint stops burning off. Although collectors basically act as transition pieces, extensions and megaphones serve to increase the system’s total effective length. This may cause the header to tune at a lower rpm than desired. To…

Mr. Gasket–Fabricated Aluminum Valve Covers Holley // 866.464.6553 // Holley.com Mr. Gasket–fabricated aluminum valve covers from Holley/MSD provide installers with a fast and easy way to make the engine bay appear like a true race car. Produced from 6061-T5 sheet aluminum and TIG-welded for durability, the valve covers feature a one-piece, ¼-inch-thick mounting flange for a leak-free seal and flat mating surface. They’re available in a variety of configurations, from standard height or extra tall, with or without breather openings, and are natural anodized or black-coated. Multiple fitment options are offered for popular GM, Ford, and Chrysler applications. Each set comes complete with mounting hardware. Price: $119.95 to $139.95, depending on finish and application, available on Holley.com Light It Up, Break It Loose With Liquid Wrench Lubricant Liquid Wrench //…

Those bleak Northeastern winters will make people do strange (and, frankly, awesome) things. Case in point: Heads-up belt-sander racing! This is John Ellsworth’s “Loco,” a 1950s Porter Cable BB10 belt sander modified for Stock-class competition at the Fenwick Trustworthy Hardware store in Fenwick Island, Delaware. Most series run a 25- to 75-foot track with two classes, Stock and Modified (or Unlimited). Fueled by the power company’s finest 110v, these belt-sander drag racers go through their power tools to find every ounce of speed. The Stock class often requires that the internals remain factory, but in John’s class, he can modify them for better performance. The motor was blueprinted and micropolished to reduce friction in the armature assembly. The driveline bearings that support the chain-drive and rollers had their dust seals…

An incredible collection of Mopars tucked away in the hills of Pennsylvania was discovered after the recent Chyslers at Carlisle event. Inside a small, private body shop located behind a family home is an impressive selection of old Dodges, including this 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T covered in decades of sanding dust. Though it’s a fairly basic car—originally equipped with the 383 Magnum, air conditioning, and power drum brakes—the fact that there are still cars like this to be found sitting in outbuildings is exciting. Fortunately, because this E-body has been stored inside this building since the early 1990s, it seems to be in pretty good shape, and the family has plenty of engines sitting around, so hopefully this car will see the roads of America once more.…

hJason Engel, owner of Classic Recreations, brought one of his company’s latest projects to Southern California for a tour on some of its winding canyon roads. We took the opportunity to poke around the Shelby-inspired fastback and learn more about Classic Recreations operation. As Jason explained, “We have a niche business. Unlike a restoration shop, these cars are brand-new, and I have cars ready.” Well, they’re not entirely new, but they are taken completely down to their shells and rebuilt with new components. “These are original Ford stampings, there’s a history with the cars.” The constant demand for early Mustangs means that they can focus on just one type of car and have a sort of assembly line of their own, with specialized fixtures and jigs to build the car…

This is a column I’ve been dying to write for nearly two years. I pictured it with triumphant fanfare; the hero returns to the city, the dragon vanquished, the 1970 Challenger runs again with a monster, 505ci big-block and the ability to turn tire with the twitch of a toe. I could have laid it out like that for you, but this space has always been about the truth of project-car ownership, so instead of bragging about burnouts—which it does do (now)—I’m going to talk about the slow march to glory. The actual engine build took about a year, and that was after we had the bulk of the hard parts. There were machining waits, and machining costs, which meant time periods of no action, just saving up money. By…

THE COMBO Bill Stockdale’s 1967 Shelby Cobra replica is powered by a built Ford 351 Windsor–based motor stroked out to 418 ci. The 10.2:1 engine is equipped with free-flowing Edelbrock Victor aluminum heads and a fairly stout Isky hydraulic roller cam ground on a 110-degree lobe-separation angle (LSA), with 0.544/0.573-inch valve lift and 238/248 degrees duration at 0.050-inch tappet lift. Torque flows through a Tremec TKO five-speed/overdrive manual trans back to an independent rear suspension (IRS) based around a 3.27:1-geared Ford 8.8-inch centersection with Traction-Lok. THE PROBLEM When Stockdale purchased the car from the previous owner, it had a severe fuel leak as well as clutch issues. After they were fixed by a local shop, Stockdale says, “Through the gears at full throttle, the car ran like a scalded dog—no…

I consume a lot of car parts. I spend three to six thousand bucks a month on stuff for several video shows and I personally handle or install nearly everything we buy, so my opinion is relevant when I tell you this: The quality keeps going up for many aftermarket performance parts, yet the plummet is out of control when it comes to run-of-the-mill replacement parts—at least, the ones for the old cars I deal with. I’m sick of it. Anecdotes follow. In the past year, I have had two stock-replacement water pumps that had the impeller pressed onto the shaft in such a crooked way that the pump wouldn’t even spin. I had another that leaked through a porous aluminum housing, one with a cockeyed and leaking seal. Parts-store…