Innehållsförteckning för February 2019 från Hot Rod

Network Content Director @douglas.glad I don’t even know if anyone expected Mopar to introduce a 1,000hp crate engine. Everyone I spoke to was still sufficiently shocked by the 6.2L Hellcrate and its 707 hp. Who would need more than that? Mopar thinks you do. Ignoring most of the existing crate-engine parts, Mother outdid herself by finishing development of the new Gen III–based 7.0L Hemi block, then exhumed the Elephant nickname from 1964. Then stuffed all the parts into a crate and called it the Hellephant. The Hellephant is based on a reworked aluminum Gen III 426ci block that has additional castings in the lifter valley and crankcase, heavy-duty internals, and 3.0L supercharger. The dyno said 1,000 hp and 950 lb-ft of torque, so be prepared to upgrade the transmission and…

HOT ROD Drag Week 2018, Powered by Dodge and Brought to You by Gear Vendors Overdrive We were lost, but somehow, Tom Bailey wasn’t. We had followed our map off the grid in the dark and hammering rain and suffered the spinning arrow of an also-lost GPS. Just before we called for help, we passed Tom Bailey and engine-builder/co-pilot Steve Morris, stopped in a Dollar General parking lot with wet cardboard covering the engine compartment of his 6-second Camaro. Not only was Bailey not lost, he was on his way to winning his third HOT ROD Drag Week™ in the fastest class. Mother Nature threw us a curveball in this, the 14th year of Drag Week™. As Hurricane Florence lumbered toward the Florida coastline, we ducked and weaved around the…

Growing up in the late-’60s,” said John Zick, “I always read the latest CARtoons, and I loved ‘Big Daddy’ Ed Roth and the BIG blowers.” He was in the right place then. His stepdad had bought the Model A in the 1990s, and after he passed on, John’s mom asked if he wanted it. His said he absolutely did, no less entranced by Ed Roth’s aura now than back in the day when he was a whippersnapper. He realized he was in the right place again. His wife, Holly, was behind him all the way on his new departure. “She encouraged me to build the car; it was in pieces and various states of disarray. That’s when I met Matt Backhaus at Streetworks Hot Rods [Waukesha, Wisconsin].” Since the car…

Sometimes, upgrades happen on the machine’s time. Such was the case when it came time to replace the seized power-steering pump on HOT ROD’s project 1996 Buick Roadmaster. The luxury version of the venerable GM B-body wagon included the RPO VM7 variable-assist power-steering system that used a solenoid-actuated needle valve to regulate steering effort depending on speed, offering high boost for slow-speed driving while increasing steering effort at higher speeds for more stability. While modern cars still do this, it’s largely a gimmick for most drivers. Worse yet, the VM7-specific power-steering pump, solenoid, and lines are nearly nonexistent nowadays, which would make any road-side repair more difficult for this highway warship. Thankfully, GM likes to build its cars like LEGO kits, and we decided to move to a conventional power-steering…

Do not disconnect the positive (+) battery cable first! A slip of the wrench here creates a direct short to ground. Think instantaneous arc welder. The negative (–) cable is the ground cable; it is always connected to the frame or body metal and can safely be disconnected first with no chance of causing sparks. By the same token, always reconnect the positive cable before connecting the negative cable. While you’re servicing the battery, be sure to keep the terminals as well as the battery top between the terminals clean and debris-free. If necessary, remove corrosive buildup on the terminals with a solution of baking soda and water. A dirty battery can actually create a weak current path between the + and – terminals and/or the battery retention bracket, creating…

Phillip Thomas Staff Editor @texasthomas At 200 MPH, Nothing Changes—Other Than You This issue has bit of a land-speed kink, which culminated in earning a 200 MPH Club with the ECTA just a month after Bonneville. For me, I really discovered land-speed racing at an elementary school book fair. I bought a book that was full of cutaway drawings of different machines, from NASA space shuttles to McLaren F1s. One section was dedicated to the history of land speed, with machines like Sir Malcolm Campbell’s “Blue Bird” and Craig Breedlove’s “Spirit of America,” but it was Andy Green’s “Trust SSC” that stole my attention. It was like a wingless SR-71, and both were the fastest of their kind. The ultimate land-speed record had created cars that were eerily similar to…

Executive Editor @john.mcgann I recently returned from the Engine Masters Challenge, held this year in a new location at Wiseco Pistons’ headquarters in Mentor, Ohio. It was a sentimental trip for me, because I grew up in Cleveland about 25 miles away. I worked for a while in Mentor at Classic Chevrolet in the body shop, and that’s the singular job in my past I can point to that led me to where I am now. At the time, I was about 25 years old and floundering in life. I had been in and out of college and couldn’t figure out what to do for a living. I had worked a variety of different jobs, ranging from janitor to parts-store counter person. I wasn’t happy. I knew I wanted to…

What is it to build a hot rod—or, more accurately, what is a hot rod? In today’s times, we’re further and further from the prewar terrorizers of speed and noise beaming across the Bonneville Salt Flats to answer the great question of what the machine was ultimately capable of (and maybe the meatbag behind the wheel, but we’ve yet to hit the limit of that, either). They didn’t pick up a bomber belly tank or Model T body because they were simply cool—that measure hadn’t been built yet—instead, they were working to go as fast as possible with what they had, and that mentality bred every motorsport we love today. Especially in the era before an overwhelming aftermarket rose to answer almost every need, hot rodders were hand-building the solutions…

David “Dang” Marin is an unsung hero behind the Le Mans–conquering, championship-winning Corvette Racing program. He’s one of the team’s superstar race mechanics who keep the C7.R Corvettes at the front of the pack with meticulous preparation and lightning-fast pit stops. Skills honed in the most demanding environment, a circle of friends with equally mad skills, and access to a wide array of “obsolete” racing parts from cars designed and fabricated at Pratt & Miller Engineering, all proved invaluable when Marin decided to build a wickedly cool daily driver out of this 1966 Nova. “A few things drove all of the choices I made with this car,” Marin explains. “I want to participate in the HOT ROD Power Tour®, so it was built to drive, to be super-reliable, and to…

To many, the thought of building a car from scratch can be a mind-blowing affair. Some eventually succumb to a dismembered project strewn across the garage floor in favor of more space to store the Christmas decorations. Luckily, companies like Factory Five Racing have distilled the frustrations associated with vehicle assembly and present a gift-wrapped plan, in the form of a Bible-thick assembly manual. What if you’re ready to pull the trigger? We walk you through some of the most important tips when it comes to building a Factory Five project car. EASY OPTIONAL UPGRADES WHEN ORDERING Factory Five’s website walks you through the cost to option every single kit. Check all the boxes, and everything you need shows up on the back of a truck. Some can’t afford to…

Q: I have a 1989 Mustang that I have owned since it was two years old. I have used it for everything from transportation to Solo II racing to bracket racing. A few years ago, the engine blew up at a drifting event. The car sat for a while, then I rebuilt the engine from leftover parts and parts I found by keeping a close eye on eBay and at swap meets. I then drove it regularly back and forth to work. My daughters that have been driving for a few years have shown interest in the car (they can drive a stick, unlike other teenagers). We started to take the car to autocross and cruises. We had plans this summer to set it up for the 130- and 150-mph…

Roadkill @davidfreiburger Don’t worry, this isn’t (completely) an editorial about 4x4s. However, I find the study of gearhead sociology fascinating, and my own Jeep was the trigger for my most recent lesson. Here’s the setup. A couple weeks ago, I un-mothballed my 1981 Jeep Scrambler that hadn’t been on the open road in 15 years. A Scrambler is a CJ8, like a long-wheelbase CJ7 with extra rear overhang and most often fitted with a fiberglass half-cab to create a small pickup (Jeep is soon to introduce a modern iteration based upon the new-for-2018 JL-series Wrangler). I built my version way back in the late-1990s, focusing on rockcrawling performance by bobbing 12 inches out of the overhang to improve departure angle, and also shortening the nose with a military M38A1 front…

Through no fault of his own, Bill Thomas never got a fair chance to match his Cheetah against the man, machine, and factory that Chevrolet had secretly contracted him to unseat: Carroll Shelby and the Cobra, whose backdoor support from Ford was helping spoil the new Stingray’s expected domination of production sports-car classes. Although Bill Thomas Race Cars had undertaken various skunkworks projects for Chevrolet since the Automobile Manufacturers Association racing ban took effect in 1957, he’d never built a car from scratch. When he visited Detroit in 1962, one of the projects Bill pitched was a Chevy-engined, Indy-influenced “sport special” street coupe that Thomas and in-house fabricator Don Edmunds, the retired Indy-car driver, had barely begun planning. All he had to show the factory were crude drawings, yet officials…

We responded to a tip from a reader about a group of cars sitting behind a truck-repair shop. It had been the collection of the previous property owner, who had passed away, and the new owners allowed us to take a look around. Looking through some crazy vines, there were rows of cars. Though nothing was especially rare, a few Dusters, Darts, and third-generation Chargers stood out. In addition, there were Mopar parts everywhere: trunks full of 1969–1970 Dodge Charger taillights and Challenger taillights, grilles, and air cleaners. Everything was covered in vines—we needed a machete to cut through the vegetation! CONTACT RYAN! Want Ryan to visit your stash? Drop him a line on the cool stuff you know about, and he might go on an expedition with you! His…

Eric Cook of Kings Mills, Ohio, has been making automotive-repair videos for more than 10 years on his YouTube channel, Eric the Car Guy. Though he’s fixed hundreds of cars, he has never built a complete car until now. His daily driven, sleeper 1979 Ford Fairmont has a turbocharged Mustang drivetrain underneath. Eric purchased the Fairmont for $3,200 from a used-car lot in Ohio. He went straight to the local dragstrip to make his—and likely the car’s—first passes on the quarter-mile, where it ran low-20-second e.t. baseline passes. Eric set out to cut that time in half, and he started by building a naturally aspirated, 400hp 5.0L from a Fox-body Mustang parts car. Because the Fairmont shares the same structure as the Fox-body, aftermarket parts are readily available and, with…

The salt was cleaner than it had been in decades, they said, and it was showing in the volume of 400-mph passes made by Danny Thompson, George Poteet, Robert Dalton, Rob Freyvogel, and Dave Spangler—driver of Team Vesco’s unique streamliner known as “Turbinator II,” and winner of the HOT ROD Trophy for 2018 with a 463.038-mph flying mile. It is SCTA’s sole turbine-driven machine in a world of pistons. Instead of the Lycoming T-55’s output shaft spinning the rotors of a Vietnam-era Chinook, a compact all-wheel-drive system drives all four wheels on a custom set of tires. “Experimental, Not For Highway Use,” it said on the sidewalls, as if there was any confusion about the Bonneville specials. But for the HOT ROD Trophy, an award given to the team with…

Introduced in August 1964, Ford’s first-generation Model 1G alternator was a real step up in reliability and current output compared to the old-school generators it replaced. Originally available in ratings ranging from 38 through 60 amps, the 1G was at best barely adequate when the electrical system was brand new and most cars only had a radio, a heater, windshield wipers, lighting, horns, and a points ignition system. But with an aging, under-wired electrical system and today’s typical hot rod add-ons like electric fuel pumps, fuel injection, high-output ignition systems, Halogen headlights, power windows, and air conditioning, those lazy 1G alternators and their crude separate voltage regulators aren’t up to the job. Frankly, other than a straight resto, it’s time to put them out to pasture in favor of modern,…

Eliminator Race Intake Manifolds for SBC Air Flow Research // 877.235.4466 // AirFlowResearch.com This intake manifold, PN 4811, was designed specifically for competition small-block Chevy engines running between 3,500 and 8,000 rpm and is compatible with standard intake-port cylinder heads. Extra cooling outlets have also been added to suit any custom cooling system, and extra bungs have been cast into the top of the intake runners for fuel injectors or nitrous nozzles. The 4150-type carburetor flange has an overall height of 5.500 inches. AFR’s intakes are made in the USA and can be run “as cast,” but it’s recommended that customers have the ports matched to the cylinder heads for maximum performance. Price: $324.95, press-time sale price at Summit Racing Variable Cam Timing Support for 2015–2017 Coyote Engines Holley //…