Innehållsförteckning för January 1999 från Hot Rod

We warned you in September. UT’s ’96 Impala SS is now on shelves and ready to blow you away with its rich detailing. The big Chev, clocking in at 1/18 scale (nearly a foot long), features significant tooling changes compared to the police/taxi Caprice on which it is based: New wheels, exhaust, and engine details are easily visible, plus all the correct gray interior accents. Even the rear spoiler has been molded to the trunklid. The doors and hood open, of course, and the wheels steer via the steering wheel. Holding UT’s exquisitely crafted piece in your hand makes you realize even more how dumb it was that GM killed off the real thing. Only the slightly too small wheels detract from what is otherwise the nicest version of the…

The four-day hot-car blowout that is the Stater Brothers Route 56 Rendezvous was held September 17-20,1998, on the streets of San Bernardino, California. Besides the 2,400 cars and nearly half a million people meandering on through to check out the happs, four new inductees into the Cruisin’ Hall of Fame were named. The inductees included Ford F-series trucks; the film American Graffiti (celebrating the 25th Anniversary of George Lucas’ grand epic); Norman "Mr. Norm" Kraus, owner of Grand Spaulding Dodge, the legendary Chicago-based Dodge performance dealership; and In-N-Out Burger, originators ol the drive-thru window and creators of arguably the finest hamburger on the West Coast. See what you missed?…

Kevin Thompson needed an edge. He needed something that would allow him to blend in with the masses, so he could come and go virtually unnoticed. The Pro Street ’72 Bronco he had been running, with its tube chassis, fiberglass body, and bright teal paint, was anything but subtle. Getting a fair race from the guys at the track and a fair break from the cops on the street had become nearly impossible. The remedy was obvious. He would build a new car and leave the Pro Street look to the fairground guys. Thompson had always fancied the ’65 Chevelle SS, particularly those with the Z16 option (the first of the big-blocks), although he had no intention of seeking out one of these collectibles. Instead, he planned what he loosely…

Welcome to Project MONTElgO. It’s an unpronounceable name for a seemingly impossible goal: make a cornering car out of a big bag of old Detroit mush. One lateral g on the skidpad without rattling our fillings out of our heads on the highway or munching expensive tires with bizarre alignment specs is the goal. Pulling off this seemingly Herculean feat in a Camaro or Mustang, especially a newer one, is easy. Compared to our boat, they’re lithe and have a ton of parts available. But in a chunk-style 30-year-old rolling oddball unibody slug like this? What were we thinking? What we were thinking was, first and foremost, it’s a challenge. A project isn’t really a project if you know for certain that you can reach your goal, whatever it may…

Though we were thrilled with our dyno-proven 25hp gain at the rear wheels last month, the zero increase in torque made us sad (“Tried & True, Part One” Dec. ’98). That 75mph sweet spot our 351C suddenly developed did us no good in the stop-and-go grind. The two-barrel heads are the hot setup on street Clevelands like ours: The four-barrel heads simply flow too much air, which hurts low-end power. Back in the day, aftermarket intake-manifold makers cast four-barrel conversions for two-barrel heads, but since the Cleveland engine hasn’t been produced for the American market in about 20 years, development has virtually ceased—the pieces that still exist are only being manufactured to a small degree. Still, the responsiveness of our 150,000-mile engine is reflected in the 25 hp it gained…

We stumbled onto more than just Camaros when we went to Memphis for Chevy’s Toy Test Day last summer. You saw the Cavalier last month; this time, we explore two more performance machines, one of which was a complete (and joyous) surprise. Corvette “Supercar” Chevy has been looking into “affordable” handling and power packages to bolster the Corvette into supercar territory. What is an affordable option, you ask? In the land of the Corvette, that’s about $10,000; it sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that that’s less than half the cost of the ZR1 option when it appeared a decade ago. To that end, we drove the Corvette “Supercar” at Chevy Toy Test Day in Memphis. The changes Chevy made can be easily duplicated by any C5 Corvette…

Welcome to the return of HOT ROD’s lop 10. Did ya miss us? This year we’re making choices, raising consciousness, and presenting what we consider to be the finest rides to grace our pages in the past 24 months. (Since we didn’t do one of these last season, 1 we went through two years’ worth of issues and screamed at, cajoled, and insulted each other into choosing the 10 most worthy!) We sought out ideas and executions that advanced the vision of what hot rodding is and can be today—state-of-the-art, visionary, trendsetting titles that changed the face of our hobby, in some small way, forever. Long-established/recently-restored classics! such as the Hirohata Merc and Don Fransisco’s Poncho-powered T-bird, were therefore ineligible. Beyond that caveat, the field was wide open, although we…

While the first-generation Camaro was every bit the equal of the Mustang in terms of engineering, performance enthusiasts and hot rodders everywhere immediately asked, “Why did they put the rear shock absorbers on the outside of the framerails?” No doubt, it was part of a well-thought plan to minimize squat and roll characteristics. The problem is that the shocks are already in very close proximity to the sidewalls of the meager factory-issue rubber. So slicks or wider-than-stock wheels make contact problems inevitable. Over the past 32 years, hot rodders have found ways around this problem by using deep-dish, positive-offset wheels or (gulp!) aluminum spacers. Now, there’s a neat new kit for the ’67-69 Camaro/Firebird, which relocates the shocks inboard where they should have been in the first place. To evaluate…

Stuffing vintage tin full of the latest Detroit technology has become an increasingly popular trend among enthusiasts, and it’s not hard to figure why. Combining the style and character of the classics with all the benefits of the last 30 years of automotive research and development is like a dream come true for many hot rodders. None of this has been lost on Pete Mungo. Growing up around his father’s Baldwin, New York, service garage provided young Mungo the opportunity to observe the latest Motown engineering feats, as well as those from Germany, England, Japan, Sweden, and so on. His fascination with cars and performance made him mindful of the trick stuff used by automakers, all of which he noted mentally for future use. The idea, of course, was to…

Suspension tuning is an exact science, but to the uninitiated it seems more like a black art. Between spring rates, shock valving, sway bars, tires, caster, camber, toe-in, front-to-rear balance, and other variables, you can change one component and alter the entire feel and performance of your vehicle—for better or worse. Modem performance cars usually have things more or less dialed in from the factory, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement; it’s the older cars, which didn’t handle well even when new and are worse now that its components are worn, that need the most help. Our Montego has a 117-inch wheelbase, weighs 3,675 pounds (without driver), and has a crummy 59/41 weight distribution with the 351 Cleveland. Our goal is to pull 1 lateral g around a…

For the past 10 years, street rodding has gone through a number of styles—high tech, dare to be different, phantoms, retro, and now… rats. Rat rods are patterned after hot rods pieced together by owners/builders prior to or just after World War II. These home brews were crude, dangerous, and less than welcome on SoCal’s wide, straight streets. But they were fun, fast (for the time), and very frugal. Hot rods soon became a national passion, and the original, owner-assembled gow jobs became more sophisticated. The by-product of this craftiness spawned the aftermarket and the creation of an ancillary group of professional street-rod builders. Rodders no longer had to prowl boneyards for parts or farmers’ fields for abandoned bodies and rusty frames. They could just as easily pick up the…

More power is on tap for the redesigned Mustang. Job One commenced in November, and the latest version of Ford’s best-selling ponycar will be in showrooms about the time you read this. The round of changes for ’99 will be the last significant freshening until 2002-2003, when Ford is said to be introducing an all-new model. The two-valve 4.6 modular engine, first seen in the Ford Crown Victoria in 1992, is now pumping out 260 hp, according to Ford propaganda. Higher-lift, longer-duration camshafts; straighter intake manifold runners; and the SVO aftermarket heads, featuring bigger valves and better-shaped combustion chambers, are reasons for the better breathing. All Mustangs are now equipped with 3.27:1 gears. These changes will no doubt help the car’s tepid straight-line capabilities. The V-6 model is now up…

Since our squib on Ford’s upcoming modular three-valve heads (“Three and Clear,” Oct. ’98 Roddin), we’ve learned that Jim Feuling (Feuling Engineering) has not only developed the heads for Ford Motorsports but also holds the patent to its design; he has licensed this technology to Ford. Feuling has been at it for a quarter-century; he helped the Quad 4-powered Olds Aerotech to its 200-plus-mph speed runs back in ’87. He also developed a twin Quad 4 (called the Quad 8) that is said to be the prototype for Cadillac’s DOHC V-8 Northstar engine, a powerplant that is gaining favor with performance builders. So Feuling knows a fair amount about making serious power with OHC and multivalve head designs. Feuling claims that the new Ford head design will increase horsepower and…

Bob Bickwermert of Robards, Kentucky, is a Chevy man. Throughout his 43 years, he’s built Tri-fives, Novas, Camaros, El Caminos, Corvettes, big Chevs, pickup trucks, you name it. If it’s got a Bow Tie under the hood, Bickwermert has had his name on the title and his mitts in the motor. But after years of messing with the same stuff that everyone else in America (it seemed) was building, he yearned to do something different. The catch? It had to be a Chevy. Spot the problem? Right: What the hell is a different Chevy anyway? A different Chevy is like jumbo shrimp, a safe bet, the Senate Ethics Committee, rap music, a family vacation, death benefits, soft porn, or soap scum: It’s an oxymoron, two contradictory words that don’t belong…

Three Scoops Aero Fiberglass Aero Fiberglass manufactures racing-style hood-scoops for the strip or the street. Three types are available in either high-quality fiberglass or ultrastrong, lightweight carbon-fiber/Clegecell composites. The parts can be bolted on or molded on. Information: Aero Fiberglass, Dept. HR01, 3250 50th St. S.E., Delano, MN 55328, 612/972-3565. A Better Boost NOS NOS "Octane Booster" is formulated to boost octane ratings and provide a real power increase, too. There are three different formulas for street, off-road, and racing. Each one adds horsepower without the risk of detonation. Information: NOS, Dept. HR01, 2970 Airway Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, 714/546-0592. Product of the Month Bleeding Tool Phoenix Systems A new line of Phoenix Injectors™ is designed to bleed clutch and brake systems. Using its patented Reverse Fluid Injection system,…

“Ether” It Leaks or It Doesn’t When the engine in my ’92 Ford Probe is warm, it surges during light throttle acceleration but doesn’t die. I suspect there’s a vacuum leak. Any suggestions on a quick way to spot vacuum leaks? Jason MilburnBaytown, TX Aerosol cans of "quick-start" fluid work well. With the engine idling, squirt small amounts of ether spray into the air immediate to the various vacuum-line connections. If the engine responds with a slight increase in rpm. you’ve found the leak. Don’t spray ether near the inlet of the induction system. The engine will speed up hut won’t correspond to the leak you’re trying to spot. Depending on mileage and age of the vehicle, you may find that the bellows-type hose, between the air throttle valve and…