Innehållsförteckning för May 2020 från Hot Rod

Editor-in-Chief @john.mcgann By now, the first 2020 Corvettes will be reaching Chevrolet dealership showrooms and happy customers will be taking delivery of this highly anticipated, mid-engine C8 platform. I wouldn’t mind being one of those people, though there’s no way I could afford one right now. I’m not into new cars, so if I had the money and was forced to spend it on a new vehicle, I’d struggle with what to buy. I like Challengers; I think they’re the best looking of the current crop of muscle cars, or GT cars, or whatever the segment is evolving into. I’d probably eschew the blower-whine bravado of the Hellcat versions and opt for a Scat Pack Widebody with the six-speed manual transmission—simple good looks, plenty of power, big tires, and the…

“He just wanted a nice driver, but that didn’t happen.” Obviously not. That is the reaction to anyone who hears that explanation while in the presence of the Camaro that Jesus Lopez just built. “It was supposed to be a simple build, but it escalated from there,” he offered as a way to justify how a relatively simple refresh turned into an 18-month endeavor that both exceeded the original budget, and also exceeded the expectations of Jesus and the owner of the Camaro, who is a long-time friend of the family. For Jesus Lopez, this is his first start-to-finish build of a car, and the first for his fledgling business, Lopez Customs. He’s no stranger to the industry, however, being the son of Gabriel Lopez, owner of Gabe’s Custom Interiors,…

Every time we do one of these Week to Wicked builds we learn a ton and opt to up the difficulty factor the next time around. Well, this CPP Week to Wicked build of a 1955 Chevy, is going to be a tough one to top. First off, there isn’t a single part on this ’55 that is more than one year old. The whole deal, from the Golden Star Classic sheetmetal to the CPP chassis, is brand spankin’ new. Finding a starter car has become increasingly tough, so the aftermarket said the equivalent of “Hold my beer!” and created every piece and part necessary to build your favorite Tri-Five. While the assembly of this ride took a week, the project started a couple months prior at Real Deal Steel…

Network Content Director @douglas.glad Did you know that the sounds captured on the set of Fast & Furious aren’t necessarily the same sounds that end up on film? Foley, named for the technique’s inventor, Jack Foley, is the term used for a soundtrack or tracks that are added after the film is shot, during post-production, or just post. This is especially true for car movies, where most of the action is shot outside in an environment full of noise pollution. Formosa Group is a studio in Los Angeles—HOT ROD visited the Santa Monica location—that adds the vehicle noises to films you are familiar with. If you have seen Mad Max: Fury Road, the John Wick movies, or anything from the Fast & Furious franchise, you have seen, or more accurately…

Forever immortalized by Tom Wolfe’s short story “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!” published in his book The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby, Junior Johnson, 1931–2019, was the prototypical NASCAR hero. We’re all aware NASCAR started as a place for the illegal liquor (moonshine) runners in the Southeast to compete against each other on racetracks instead of windy, dirt mountain roads. Junior began as a legit ’shine runner until “Big Bill” France convinced him to drive his 1940 Fords and other liquor cars at his events. Junior was instantly one of the initial stars of the series, winning 50 NASCAR races in the 1950s and 1960s, and going on to run his own team with drivers including Darel Dieringer, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Cale Yarbrough, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Neil…

With strong influence from his father, who was the service manager at their local Chevrolet dealer, Dickie Lowder began messing around with cool cars when he was only 14 years old. He started with a 1955 Chevy, and over the decades has built dozens of street rods, hot rods, and race cars. Though steered toward Chevrolet early on, he was equally attracted to Chevy’s perennial cross-town rival, in part because of his long career as service manager at a Ford dealership. Around 40 years ago, after completing several 1955 Chevys and 1932 Fords, Dickie began looking for a car he lusted after for a long time, but never happened to cross paths with—a solid ’33 or ’34 Ford coupe. “I got the word out that I wanted a ’33 or…

Before turbos became all the rage, another type of forced induction was popular for its brass-knuckle appeal which came in the form of a spectacular-looking block of aluminum sitting proudly atop the engine. There’s no denying the stage presence that a Roots style supercharger commands, and that’s what sits on top of this 572 big-block Chevy. Brian Hafliger of IMM Engine & Dyno wanted to build an engine that combined the blunt-force trauma looks of an old-school build with modern innovations like CNC-ported cylinder heads; an efficient piston ring pack; and a lightweight, low-friction valvetrain with upgraded springs. With that plan in place, Brian began assembling the parts list. From the start, this build was going to utilize an aftermarket engine block, so the decision to go big-displacement, tall deck…

Q: I keep hearing about putting a 5.7L Gen III Hemi into a K-body, but what about an M-body? Is there no info on that? I would like to find the difficulties of putting one of these engines in a 1984 Chrysler Fifth Avenue that has a 318 “LA” small-block in it now. Alexander Wesley Via email A: The K-platform refers to Chrysler’s FWD (front-wheel-drive) econoboxes with transverse engines and transaxles made from 1981 through 1989. Converting a K-car to a V8 (any V8, not just a Hemi) requires replacing the complete drivetrain with a longitudinally-mounted engine, conventional transmission, and separate RWD (rear-wheel-drive) rearend. Basically, keep the body shell and ax most everything else. The result is a drag car, or what some call a Pro Street-style muscle car. Not…

The 2020 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona was completed just as we were wrapping up production of this issue. This event, the 62nd running of the historic endurance race at Daytona International Speedway, was the first official on-track race of the new, mid-engine Corvette C8.R race car, though it wasn’t the first time the car was seen on-track. Last October, Tommy Milner took one on a hot lap around Road Atlanta prior to the start of the Petit Le Mans race. The car was on-track again at the beginning of January for the Roar Before the Rolex 24, basically a practice session and short enduro race three weeks before the Rolex 24. This year, Chevrolet entered two cars in the Rolex 24, the familiar yellow Number 3 car, with drivers…

This 1970 Mustang Sportsroof is one of a handful of early 1970 models with the 351 Windsor and a two-barrel carburetor under the shaker! The owner doesn’t have a Marti report on it, but some research indicates that only a few hundred cars came equipped that way. In 1983 he was involved in an accident and pushed the car into his garage—where it has sat ever since, damage and all. He did collect a new fender to replace the damaged one, but hasn’t yet gotten around to mounting it. Hopefully, he can get the car cleaned up and back on the road. It doesn’t look like it needs that much to get done.…

In 1968, Chrysler commissioned Hurst Performance to build about 50 1968 “BO29” Plymouth Barracudas and 50 1968 “LO23” Dodge Darts powered by the 426 Hemi engine. These purpose-built A-Body Mopars were intended to compete in Super Stock drag racing, and featured lightweight seats, fiberglass body components, a large hoodscoop, lightweight side glass, and no sound deadener. According to Mopar expert Jim Kramer, Chrysler ended up building 72 BO29 Barracudas and 83 LO23 Darts between February and May 1968. Those 155 Hemi cars were instantly all the rage in 1968 Super Stock drag racing competition, and their popularity has continued to grow at the racetrack over their 52-year run. NHRA has designated the SS/AH class as the home for all Super Stock ’68 Hemi Barracudas and Darts. Of course, the real-deal…

Disc brake designers classify the caliper mounting position on the rotor as either “leading” (forward or ahead of the spindle or axle centerline) or “trailing” (rearward or behind the spindle or axle centerline). In theory, a caliper that mounts at a leading position might develop better squat and result in a greater tire contact patch under hard braking. Yet on production cars, caliper position is seemingly random—apparently just a matter of convenience. Does caliper mounting position really make any difference in the real world? Not really. Chassis builders can achieve the desired amount of antisquat on acceleration and deceleration by altering suspension-linkage angles versus the vehicle’s center of gravity. The gains achievable by suspension tuning are huge compared to any derived from altering caliper mounting location; therefore, caliper-to-chassis clearance, positioning…

Roadkill@davidfreiburger I’ve always been enticed by the call of a Route 66 road trip, but put off by the specter of fake-’50s nostalgia with imagery of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and finned Cadillacs at every turn. Finally, eschewing nostalgia phobia, I took the plunge, and my boy and I spent 12 days on The Mother Road from western St. Louis to Barstow, California. It’s probably my greatest road trip (in competition with the time Rick Péwé and I drove a stock WWII Jeep from Phoenix to Fairbanks, Alaska). Repellent ’50s clichés were more scarce than expected and I did a surgical job of avoidance. I also discovered that the road and its relics aren’t about the ’50s—cool remnants of neon excepted—but more so the ’30s and ’40s. New Mexico’s crumbling…