Innehållsförteckning för February 2020 från Hot Rod

Editor-in-Chief @john.mcgann By the time you read this, the movie Ford v Ferrari will be out, though obviously it’s not, at the time I’m writing this. The movie is set to come out on my birthday, which makes the date easy to remember, but also gives me something to look forward to during my slow, but inevitable, march to turning 50 years old and whatever that brings with it. I still have a couple years to go before that happens, and I suspect 50 will feel a lot like 40 or 45. It sounds more ominous, though, and I know the sounds of a 427 FE with High Riser heads on the big screen will be a worthy distraction. A few of my colleagues have seen advanced screenings of Ford…

“BUILD IT FAST, MAKE IT LAST” is the mantra of HOT ROD Drag Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive and this year’s weeklong torture test authenticated it. The field of 355 entries saw unprecedented tales of mechanical survival and the first official 5-second run in the competition’s 15-year history. HOT ROD officials selected the Mid-Atlantic region as its base of operations for the 2019 running of Drag Week. Virginia Motorsports Park served as the host track where the tour began and finished. Day two brought the street car mob to Cecil County Dragway (Rising Sun, Maryland) before shooting north to Atco Raceway (Atco, New Jersey) and then back down to Maryland International Raceway (Budds Creek, Maryland) for the fourth round. The final day at Virginia Motorsports Park sealed the fate…

For 65 years, drag racing die-hards have converged on Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend for the annual running of the NHRA Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. This six-day drag racing extravaganza is an endless parade of horsepower that kicks off with Stock Eliminator and carries through the ranks of Super Stock, Comp Eliminator, Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Alcohol Funny Car, Dragster, and the 11,000hp nitro cars. This year more than 850 racers competed for a chance to take home an NHRA “Wally” trophy. We watched the shining moments from dawn to dusk that included the thrill of victory and heartbreaking disappointment as dreams of winning were crushed. Big news happened when the timeless John Force grabbed his 151st win in grand fashion, topping Jack Beckman in…

Bolting up large-tube headers can be a real pain due to tight wrenching clearances. The center tubes on a small-block Chevy are one tough nut. Traditional header bolts have always had downsized wrenching heads: 7/16-inch head on a ⅜-inch bolt, for example. “Normal” ARP standard header bolts go one step further: The wrenching heads are the same as the bolt (⅜ on ⅜). But there are ARP header bolt kits that have a 5/16 head on a ⅜ bolt. You may have missed them because they’re listed at the end of the per-application header bolt catalog section as “universal” kits. They’re available with hex or 12-point heads in black-oxide or stainless.…

I am building a budget 1935 Ford truck rat rod and wondered if you could help with some basic engine mods. I have a complete running 1973 big-block Chevy truck chassis with all the components. What would be the cheapest and most direct route to wake this engine up? I’m looking more for torque than big horsepower. I know this was the low point on the performance scale but it was too good of a deal to pass up. It has a Turbo 400 and 4.10:1 rear gears. Mark Cash Vanport Trucking Vancouver, WA Three key words here: “running”, “budget”, and “torque”. We are assuming the engine is basically sound—a complete rebuild anytime soon isn’t in the cards—and you want to run what you have with a minimum investment. A…

Roadkill @davidfreiburger Here’s a hot rodding conundrum that involves what I perceive to be either hypocrisy or a change in moral standards: VIN swapping. Now, I know that moving vehicle identification numbers from one car to another is technically a federal crime. But these days, I kinda wonder what defines “car” in the realm of total restorations. During the muscle car boom of the 1980s, it was universally accepted that you were the lowest of life forms if you did something like putting a Duster 340 VIN tag onto a factory six-cylinder car—and you would certainly fry in hell for any Hemi-car VIN shenanigans. I think the ethics may have shifted or the standards become muddied because of today’s plentiful selection of reproduction sheetmetal parts, including complete steel Taiwan-stamped muscle…

Network Content Director @douglas.glad Nothing is better than an emerging country for a fun look at daily transportation. During a recent adventure, I visited a South American jungle town abandoned by turn-of-the-century colonial rubber traders. Exiting the plane, I was immediately smothered by pre-monsoon heat and a marauding pack of Mototaxi drivers looking for a fresh, pasty, tourist fare to the ubiquitous Plaza De Armas. There was pushing and shouts of 20! 20 soles! I raised my hands with a confident one-five soles, as a sign that I wasn’t a chump. Five bucks was the going price, right? (Later I learned it should have been three). Highway robbery notwithstanding, I put my bags on the floor of the motorized contraption and ducked in. Like many jungle-frontier towns, there are no…

Southern eighth-mile grudge-match staging lanes are often filled with LX Mustangs, G-bodies, second-generation Novas, and fourth-generation Camaros. They’re inexpensive and feature tons of room for performance upgrades. Buried in those lanes, you may discover this gem: an original 1967 Mustang Fastback. It’s a steel-bodied car with immaculate paint and stellar craftsmanship designed to turn heads and blow the tires off the competition—and it doesn’t have an LS under the hood. Powered by a 600ci big-block Ford, it made 1,800 hp at 7,900 rpm to the 275 tires, on what the owner calls the mild tune. It only took nine months to complete and has a best eighth-mile pass of 4.70 e.t. at 150 mph. Owned by Chris Cantrell of Anderson, South Carolina, it’s currently maintained by Stallion Autosport in Greenville,…

The Shelby GT500 has been giving Mustang enthusiasts class-leading performance since its return in 2007. Now, after a six-year absence, the 2020 model that’s due to hit showrooms this fall packs a punch with 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque, and it introduces an all-new Tremec seven-speed DCT (dual-clutch transmission) that has purists questioning Ford’s sanity. Why? Because Mustang owners like to bang gears, and the DCT does the dirty work for you. In fact, every specialty Mustang offered by Ford over the last 20 years has been equipped with three pedals and a six-speed manual gearbox, so owners are accustomed to gripping and ripping. When it came time to develop the new GT500, Ford looked at every way it could improve performance, and one of the sticking points…

Bolts, nuts, and washers: They hold your ride together. But how well are they doing their job? Hopefully, you’ve read our primer on engine and driveline fasteners chiefly subjected to tension loads: forces mainly exerted on a fastener’s longitudinal axis (Dec. 2019). With the help of the good guys at ARP, we explained why specialty bolts matter and how metallurgy, heat treating, and proper tightening procedures are critical for tension fastener survival. Most of us understand the need for specialty hardware as it applies to a drivetrain’s power-making and power-sustaining parts, but the same concern and care isn’t always applied to fastener selection and installation when it comes to other critical parts subject primarily to sideways or bending forces. Engineers term these forces, exerted perpendicular to a bolt’s axis, “shear”…

Hi-Po Suspension Kit Performance Online Inc. 888.984.2621 performanceonline.com When it comes to a high-performance coilover suspension kit for the ’63-’87 Chevy C10 and GMC C15 truck, take a gander at the Stage III Plus coilover setup from Performance Online. This street or track kit utilizes tubular upper and lower control arms to significantly improve front-end performance and handling via improved geometry and more ground clearance than factory stamped units. You’ll also get all-new Aldan Phantom Series single adjustable coilovers to further improve handling and ride quality over stock. Aldan’s high-tensile coil springs are designed as a direct fit and true stand-alone coilover suspension; speaking of stand-alone, the exclusive lower control arm shock positioning puts the “perform” in “performance.” Also, ride height adjustable spring seats allow adjustment of up to a…

There was quite a build up to the first-ever NHRA National Championship Drags meet, “America’s First Acceleration Championship.” It marked official national acceleration records for the standing quarter-mile for 30 competitive classes, and the event also conducted some special testing: trying out kilometer runs. This race—held on a concrete runway in Great Bend, Kansas, in September 1955—was going to make all sorts of history, even with the final day being rained out by way of the worst storm in 30 years. Yet the Nationals “produced some of the hottest competition ever seen in the annals of hot rodding,” HOT ROD goes on to say. But let’s back up a bit. In the Sept. 1955 issue of HOT ROD, we conceded we had an obsession with drag racing and that month’s…

Back in 1970, a guy (who we’ll call Richard) walked into a Mercury dealership and ordered a 1971 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT with the 429 engine and special paint. He drove it for several years before selling it to free up some money. Recently, Richard was able to buy it back with the original 429—just not in the car anymore. A Marti report says with all the options and rare paint this Cyclone is just one of one built! The car is now safe in Richard’s garage until he can work on it again.…

In a world of Camaros, this one stands out. And of course it should, because Bob Schumacher doesn’t build boring cars. He and the team at Vintage Fabrication have churned out some truly amazing muscle cars and hot rods over the years, but this 1971 Camaro may be the feather in their cap. The car’s owner, Gary Fish, came to Schumacher with a vision of a one-off Camaro inspired by Dave Leisinger’s “The Professor” Camaro, built by Roger Burman. Fish wanted an uber-custom split bumper of the same caliber, and the hunt was on for the perfect canvas for the build. At the Springfield, Missouri Street Machine Nationals, Schumacher found the perfect specimen. It was a 1971 Camaro with an anemic 6-cylinder power plant but a perfect, rust-free body. They…

The modern Ford automatic transmission market has always been a step behind its competition from the General. The Fox-body Mustang fanatics suffered through the lethargic AOD era, followed by the AOD-E, which was marginally better. The 4R70W, which debuted in the Lincoln Mark VIII and was carried over to the Modular generation of Mustangs, had been a step in the right direction, but only when the aftermarket got involved in a complete rebuild. Sure, Ford produced the robust 4R100 that was found in heavy-duty trucks and the Gen 2 Lightning, but its strength came with girth, making it less than ideal to swap into most cars. The Ford world rejoiced in 2005, however, with the introduction of the 5R55S, an automatic transmission that changed the landscape and made an auto-equipped…

There’s a whole category of bolts and screws available in an endless variety of configurations and thread forms that find use in noncritical applications. We’re talking here about self-tapping fasteners, often used in production by the OEs to cut costs. Some have limited functionality in hot rods and race cars. Sheetmetal screws are a quick and dirty way for joining panels and attaching wires. Thread profiles vary per intended application and material to be joined, but the two most common types of self-tapping sheetmetal screws have either a pointed, special coarse thread for joining (as its name implies) light sheetmetal panels, or blunt-ended screws with a finer pitch used with aircraft Timmerman nuts. There are special “Grade 8” sheetmetal screws (Specialty Fasteners was one of the pioneers) that are used…

Q: I have a 1969 Corvette with a 300hp 350 engine. The engine was rebuilt several years ago with just enough bore to clean up the cylinders. It has the stock cam, stock heads with stainless steel valves, and a stock Rochester Quadrajet carburetor. It runs a 160-degree thermostat, a new heavy-duty water pump, and a nearly-new fan clutch. When the engine temp nears 200 degrees Fahrenheit in heavy traffic, it starts missing and will shut down if I do not get off the road to let it cool down. It seems as if it’s experiencing vaporlock or the fuel is boiling out of the carburetor. In an attempt to isolate it from engine heat, the carburetor has three gaskets under it: fiber on the intake, a thick stainless steel…

In this month’s installment, we check back in on an old friend—the So-Al Special land speed Camaro that David Freiburger and Keith Turk have campaigned at the salt flats and dry lake beds for the last decade or so. Keith has been working on the car at his home in Alabama with plans to race at El Mirage in the spring. Also, Pure Vision Design is making major progress on the Scamp, one of the stars of our Sketchpad issue last year. Let’s have a look.…