Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Hot Rod

Last weekend was the 59th running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, and I was there in spirit as I listened to nearly the entire race broadcast on IMSA Radio through my headphones. It was an exciting race with long stretches of green flag racing and plenty of wheel-to-wheel action. The Wayne Taylor Racing Team, which fields the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura was the overall winner in the Daytona Prototype (DPI) class. That car, piloted by co-drivers Ricky Taylor, Hélio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi, and Filipe Albuquerque crossed the finish line a scant 4.7 seconds ahead of second place Kamui Kobayashi. In four of the other five classes of cars on track during the event, the second-place finisher was on the lead lap, if not within seconds, of the…

Old Smokey is hard to characterize. It’s a tube-chassis race car hiding under a weather-beaten 1949 Ford F1 body. It is registered and legal to drive on public roads. It obliterates a pair of rear tires at will, thanks to a massive wave of torque from the turbocharged Cummins engine that clatters between the fenders, and it set a new record for diesel-powered vehicles at the 2020 running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Owner/builder Scott Birdsall has a tough time describing his truck, too. It defies easy explanation, and therein lies its appeal. It’s impractically cool because it’s so functional in ways that it shouldn’t be. Most people wouldn’t build a race car out of a ’49 Ford pickup, even within the muscle truck movement sweeping the country right…

Raiden Higa’s 1965 Ford Falcon is what you could call a legacy purchase. His dad was always into Falcons, and that interest must have rubbed off on him because in May 2010, he found a clean, unrestored Falcon in his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada that was spot-on. He points out, “I’ve always wanted one and really liked the smaller Fords and Chevy IIs. Those types of cars.” Unfortunately, in most instances, the offerings under the hood of these small cars didn’t exactly stir the soul. That was certainly the case with this car and its 260-cubic-inch V8 and two-speed automatic. At the root of his purchase was a desire to go faster with the Falcon but still keep it streetable, so within a matter of weeks that engine and…

Does an intake manifold really make a difference? Two basic types of intake manifolds are used on most carbureted and many retrofit fuel-injected engines: a dual-plane intake and a single-plane intake. In the battle for intake manifold supremacy, which is better? With so many choices for popular engines, it gets “plane” confusing! Let’s examine the single-plane vs. dual-plane controversy, and why—depending on the end goal—you might pick one over the other. What Is a Dual-Plane Intake Manifold? The traditional design choice for most stock intake manifolds, a dual-plane intake manifold is essentially two separate intake manifolds separated by a divided and unequal-height plenum. Each half, or “plane”, routes air and fuel from that group’s separate plenum area to half the engine’s cylinders. The runners are grouped so that 180 degrees…

As a young lad, Kevin Martin was always the one who knew what every car brand or model was. As he got older, that passion didn’t fade. When he was financially able to start buying up cars, he went on a shopping spree that included GTOs, midyear Corvettes, Chevelles, Camaros, and even a few Mopars. The list was long, but there was always one that stood out—the ’55 Chevy. “I think it is just tough looking,” he explains. “I like the post cars because they look like hot rods. I prefer the 210 over a Bel Air because I don’t like all the glitzy chrome.” The opportunity to buy a ’55 came about when he found a nice candidate locally with just a little over 55,000 miles on the odometer.…

❱As HOT ROD readers most likely know, unibody cars don’t have frames in the conventional sense. There is no single support structure that more or less everything is bolted to. Rather, unibody framerails are really just like every other part of the body shell. They are formed and boxed pieces of sheetmetal, though they are typically made from thicker material than, say, a fender, for example. This is so the structure of the car can handle the higher loads it needs to. Yet, because framerails are basically just pieces of formed sheetmetal, they can be replaced the same way as any other panel on the car. It’s common to think that the front framerails support the entire front of the car: suspension, engine, and all, from under the floor, but…

An idea catching fire today revolves around the theme of “just get it running,” which saved this 1968 Road Runner that had been parked in a farmer’s field for decades “close to Caddo Mills…in East Texas,” according to its rescuer, Jerry Coleman. Getting a car up on its feet avoids “paint jail,” a term for cars that get caught in a failed restoration. Installing a modern drivetrain instead of using the OE parts would wipe out the original factory formula and drive up the price. These ideas were on Coleman’s mind when he found this roller on Craigslist for $1,500. He bought it sight unseen with a plan not to restore it. Instead, he traded labor at his heating and air conditioning business to Craig Borden, an enthusiast he met…

We’ve all seen those scam advertisements for the so-called “electric turbo.” These inexpensive devices are claimed to function as turbochargers, but they are really just simple ducted fans or blowers, at best good only for blowing smoke. If you think there’s anything to them, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn I wanna sell you. This is not that article. What you’re about to read about is not your leaf blower or a phony low-cost electric turbo. Instead, we are going to look at the cutting edge of what you might call electrically-assisted turbocharger technology. We’re going to tell you about the revolutionary “e-turbos” perfected on Formula 1 (F1) racing’s V6 MGU-H powerplants and how this now-mature turbo revolution will likely be coming to production cars at your local dealership within the…

At Chevrolet’s preview of its new-for-1966 models held in July 1965, Petersen Publishing’s photo chief Bob D’Olivo captured a boat of an Impala convertible lapping a GM proving ground. It’s hard to make out in the photo, but there are crossed flags on the Imp’s front fenders, a tip-off that this was no everyday boulevard cruiser. It was a Super Sport, powered by a top of the line 427 and backed by a four-speed, no less. Chevy’s big-block offerings grew to 427 inches for 1966, and two versions were offered for full-size cars and Corvettes. The L36 was stout, with its 10.5:1 compression and hydraulic cam working to produce 390 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque. But with four-bolt mains, bigger valves, a solid-lifter cam, tighter squeeze at 11.0:1, and…

There was no shortage of history-making events in 1971. The Apollo 14 astronauts landed on the moon, the war in Vietnam continued to rage on, Intel released the world’s first microprocessor, and Dirty Harry made his big-screen debut. But none of it mattered all that much to Frank Kassel. At the time, his attention was focused squarely on one thing: scoring his very first set of wheels, and that turned out to be a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T. “In the summer of ’71 I had just graduated high school,” Frank remembers, “and was working full time as a mechanic in a Cities Service gas station. My goal was to save enough money to buy my first car.” After working at the service station for a few months, Frank met a…

The Chevy versus Ford debate is as old as these legendary car companies, and within each camp, smaller factions duke it out for performance supremacy. One such battle has long been GM 12-bolt versus Ford 9-inch. In truth, the 12-bolt is a far more efficient axle than the 9-inch because it consumes less energy. The reason for the 12-bolt’s efficiency is the distance from the pinion gear to the ring gear’s centerline. The 12-bolt’s 1.50-inch offset distance offers a 3½ percent horsepower advantage over the Ford’s 2.25 inch because the greater distance between the two creates greater internal friction and heat. The 9-inch is also a whopping 30 pounds heavier than the 12-bolt. Despite the 12-bolt’s obvious advantages, there’s a reason why performance enthusiasts on all sides of the debate…

When adjusting hydraulic flat tappet or hydraulic roller lifters for proper preload on a 350 small-block, a 454 big-block, and other displacements and engine makes with non-positive-stop stud-mounted rocker arms, stock specs typically call for a conservative one turn past the zero-lash point. Turning the rocker arm adjustment nut a lesser amount after reaching the zero-lash point positions the plunger closer to the snap-ring retainer. At high rpm, this delays hydraulic lifter pump-up because the plunger can’t move far enough to interfere with valve closure when hydraulic force overcomes valvespring pressure. In fact, some racers even adjust the nut as close to 1⁄8 -turn or less down from zero lash. This positions the hydraulic lifter plunger nearly against the snap ring, effectively causing the hydraulic lifter to act like a…

Today, my TV cohost Mike Finnegan called me and asked if I’d be down to help him install a Toyota 2JZ inline-six engine into his ’68 Dodge Charger. I said yes. This was not the me of 30 years ago. It may have sort of been the me of 10 years back, and it’s certainly the me of now. I don’t want to personally own a Charger with a Japanese inliner for power—in fact, I’m building yet another motorhome 440 for one of my own cars—but I don’t mind learning about something new to me, especially something that’s been as hot for as long as the 2JZ. In truth, my acceptance of this is part of the backfire from the craze of turbo LS Chevy engines being swapped into everything.…