Innehållsförteckning för May 2022 från Hot Rod

@john.mcgann In a recent staff meeting, when I mentioned that May would be the electric Project X issue, a colleague joked that the main headline on the cover should read, “This is the Last Issue”. While we all shared a hearty chuckle, in the back of my mind, I was worried. What does this latest push to electrify all modes of personal transportation mean for the performance-minded enthusiast? How do we react to what seems to be powerful forces making radical changes to our lives? At a more basic level, are these changes really necessary? Will electric vehicles save the planet? Is this the end of things? Is it even possible to have an honest discussion on some of these topics? Motor Trend has gone all in on the EV…

A lot of us had our taste in cars influenced by the first car we worked on or drove when we were young. Dean Settje, from Raymond, Nebraska, said that for him the influential car was a 1957 Chevy. It wasn’t his own car, but it belonged to a high school friend, and he helped with the build as much as he could. That’s all it took to hook him for life. It didn’t take long before Dean started owning his own cars and trucks, but it would be a couple of decades before he found a ’57 of his own. That day came about 20 years ago. The car—the deep red Bel Air hardtop featured here—had been owned by a car collector and was being sold at an estate…

I like to call John Fardone “The King.” It’s kind of a joke between us, but I say it with a bit of seriousness. The always humble John just scoffs at my praise, but he knows my words have more than a hint of truth in them. In my small slice of the automotive world he’s the Monarch of Muscle, the Ruler of Rust. The Baron of Barn Finds. John has certainly earned his title. He’s been out there hunting, scavenging, and sniffing for signs of these rusty gems for more than 30 years. Modest by nature and radiating a youthful aura that follows him on his trails, he pumps out a childlike exuberance whenever he talks of his favorite subject, those lost, forgotten, and stowed-away muscle rides from the…

Around 10 a.m. on January 15, 2022, Marlan Davis died of complications from pancreatic cancer just four weeks after diagnosis. He was 66 years old. It was an ignominious end to a stellar career as America’s most widely-respected expert on all things hot rod and performance. Over a 44-year career that spanned from the fall of 1976 until his involuntary retirement in 2020, Marlan focused his research, writing, and photographic skills on hot rods, muscle cars, and V8 engines of all descriptions (Marlan was not known to play favorites in print, but more privately preferred GM products). In later years, his specialty was fielding tough tech problems from readers and fixing them on the pages of HOT ROD for his column “Ask Marlan.” Marlan was born April 21, 1955, in…

When we did the electric conversion on Project X for the 2021 SEMA Show, we had just five weeks to install Chevrolet Performance’s eCrate system into our 1957 Chevy. Five weeks isn’t much time, and like most of the cars at SEMA ours was finished days before the event. And, just like many of the other SEMA projects, ours still needed sorting out. Sorting out an electric vehicle is much the same as an internal-combustion engine (ICE) build, but it’s a lot different in terms of electronics. With an EV, far more is controlled by computers, and when dealing with 400 volt three-phase DC power, there are a lot of redundant safety systems. When we finished the install before SEMA, the throttle pedal was very touchy. With an EV, the…

With our hot rods, gasoline gets all the glory, but they also need electricity to run, and as we add more and more bells, whistles, gadgets, and accessories to the mix, the electrical side of the equation becomes even more critical. In some cases, these electrical items consume a little power even when the ignition is off. If you drive your car or truck daily, that’s not an issue; but if it sits between events, you might have a surprise next time you try to go for a drive: a dead battery. Installing a battery disconnect switch to kill the car’s power is an easy solution to that problem. The good news is that it’s a pretty easy project to knock out. Sources Eddie Motorsports; 888.813.1293; eddiemotorsports.com Painless Performance; 800.423.9696;…

Email us at hotrod@motortrend.com Hi! I’m Lawson Mollica, and I am the marketing guy at AEM Electronics. So, why was I asked to write this? My guess is because this issue of HOT ROD details the evolution of the infamous Project X, fully converted to electric propulsion. If you didn’t hear, AEM recently launched a line of electronic controls for EV conversions (think standalone ECUs for EV swaps), so we have been digging deeper than most of the aftermarket into EV performance for the past few years, which has allowed us to gain perspective on electric propulsion and its future in the enthusiast segment. Back to Project X: I’m guessing you are hopping mad after reading about it. I get it, because awhile back I would have hated what they…

Over the years, there have been dozens of long-term “magazine” project cars, but none as long-lived or as famous as the yellow 1957 Chevy known as Project X. It all started in 1965 (the year this writer was born) when Popular Hot Rodding, then part of Argus Publishing, bought the used ’57 Chevy for $250 at a Santa Monica car dealer. Yeah, that’s not a typo—250 bucks! Oh, how times have changed. The idea of Project X was for it to be a product and technical test bed. Engines, tires, suspension, paint, it was all set to be tried out and, where applicable, track tested. There was no plan for X to ever be finished, no end goal; it was just a car to try out ideas for readers and…

Arecord-setting belly tank race car from the ’50s and early ’60s is now carefully stored in a New England barn. Almost 60 years since its last race, this historic hot rod survivor awaits a return to its early racing condition, complete with the supercharged and injected Hemi engine that carried the tank to speeds of 200 mph and faster on the Bonneville salt flats. The belly tank is one of numerous significant cars owned by Dave Simard. Dave has been professionally building and restoring early-style traditional rods at his shop, East Coast Custom in Leominster, Massachusetts, for almost 40 years—in addition to curating his amazing personal collection. Among the rows of time-honored prewar Ford street rods, race cars, and customs in his barn, this belly tank stands alone. In the…

Now in its 20th month, an event we thought would be temporary shows no signs of slowing down. “Here we are almost two years into doing this, and everyone’s enthusiasm for The Cruise keeps growing month in and month out,” said co-founder Hector (Hek) Valdez. “This started because we were getting a little stir-crazy sitting at home last spring, and now people are coming from hundreds of miles away to cruise with us. It’s incredibly surreal and humbling to know that a few of us going for a drive has grown into this shared experience that people really enjoy being a part of. There really is nothing like the Quarantine Cruise.” With everything from in-progress home builds to SEMA-ready show winners, the event has become a showcase for vehicle owners…

It’s time to put down your beer and take a serious look at EV swaps for performance-oriented hot rod guys. If you haven’t become jealous of the factory 2022 Tesla Plaid that de-pantsed the Big Three with low, low nine-second quarter-mile times using street tires on a mildly prepped racing surface, you should look into it. The Plaid did the deed off the trailer with a Skechers-shod crossover tester behind the wheel—no swaggering Top Fuel pilots or professional drivers were present. You don’t need ’em; going real fast in the Tesla is an exercise in button-pushing and slapping the pedal thingy to WOT. You’ve also likely seen or heard of Tesla-powered C10s, and former air-cooled sports cars being swapped at shops around the country. Those kids are known as early…

The internet loves to argue over whether it’s better to hook up a master disconnect switch to the negative or positive side of the battery. Many stock car rule books call for the switch to be on the negative side, while the NHRA demands it be on the positive side. So if you’re putting in the switch to pass tech, you’re going to want to do some reading of the rules before you start. Some prefer to put the switch on the negative side for a safety reason. The theory is that the exposed terminals on the back of the disconnect switch could contact metal in a crash causing a short (and possible fire). This isn’t a concern with the negative side since it’s already grounded to metal. Of course,…

While many manufacturers have toyed with building engines with hemispherical combustion chambers, only Chrysler has wed itself to the technology to the extent that the name “Hemi” has become synonymous with Chrysler. As domestic manufacturers fought for engineering supremacy following World War II, it was Chrysler that emerged with unique research produced from an experimental inverted V16 engine with over 2,500 hp and 36 liters of displacement called the IV-2220. When mounted to the airframe of a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, the hemispherical IV-2220 was able to sustain level flight at 504 mph at 15,000 feet. Despite this being unheard of for a prop-driven aircraft, the military contract was canceled. New-fangled jet-powered aircraft were the future, but the breakthrough engine still had a role to play, albeit in greatly modified form.…

This ’57 Chevy’s backstory from an insider might be more interesting than the official one. This is a love story of sorts. Project X is the 1957 Chevy 210 two-door sedan that Popular Hot Rodding (PHR) magazine bought in 1965 for $250 with the intent of modifying it in accordance with readers’ wishes. The love story part is complicated, as many things in life are. Popular Hot Rodding readers loved it, and by all accounts, so did the original staff of PHR. The magazine had started only three years prior, in 1962, as a competitor to cross-town rival, HOT ROD, and what the magazine needed was an affordable project on which to try various new speed products that were being developed by folks like Hedman, Edelbrock, and Alston. Although building…

This is going to sound a bit repetitive, but it needs to be said again: since we first bought Project X for $250 back in 1965, its main reason for existing has been to act as a testbed for new hot rodding trends and technologies. There was a time when that was electronic ignitions and EFI, but it’s 2021, and just as Smitty explained in The Hollywood Knights, “everything changes…nothing stays the same.” Project X has been on 21 magazine covers and has been the subject of 93 articles, many of them technical stories where changes were made to the car. Of course, doing an EV swap is a pretty big deal. We get the mixed feelings, and in some cases, outright anger, expressed by some people (mostly in the…

If you want to make big power without the help of any power adders such as boost or nitrous, then you need to go big on things like displacement, compression, and cam. As Engine Masters co-host and dyno master at Westech Performance, Steve Brule sees a lot of big-inch top-shelf engines, so when one grabs his attention, he’s quick to shoot it over to HOT ROD so we can share with all of you. Such is the case with this 540-inch solid-roller big-block Chevy. Sources CP-Carrillo; 949.567.9000; cp-carrillo.com Crower Cams; 619.661.6477; crower.com Dailey Engineering; 951.296.2110; daileyengineering.com Dart Machinery; 248.362.1188; dartheads.com Donovan; 310.320.3772; donovanengines.com Holley; 877.712.0002; holley.com Manton Pushrods; 951.245.6565; mantonpushrods.com Rockett Brand Racing Fuel; 847.795.8400; rockettbrand.com Westech Performance Group; 951.685.4767; westechperformance.com…

Nitrous oxide works by introducing extra oxygen into the intake charge which in turn allows for a greater amount of fuel to be added and converted into energy. This can greatly increase the power produced by the engine. Since nitrous oxide is stored as a liquid, its evaporation in the intake manifold helps drop the intake charge temperature. This cooling effect causes a denser charge and can increase power output and can also reduce the chance of detonation. We wanted to see how a basic nitrous system could increase power on an average engine. Our test mule was Scott Miller’s 1966 Nova with a mild 350. To it, we added ZEX’s perimeter plate nitrous kit. The engine has a dual-plane intake which can be problematic when using a spray-bar-type nitrous…