Innehållsförteckning för December 1970 från Hot Rod

My brother gave to me A Roll/Control to end the creepy feeling facing the tree. On the second day of Christmas My father gave to me A Hurst-A-Matic shifter for his Dodge Super-Bee. On the third day of Christmas My mother gave to me A Mystery/Shifter for her new Torino coupe. On the fourth day of Christmas My girlfriend gave to me A Super Shifter for the 4-speed in my Olds W-33. On the fifth day of Christmas My parts man gave to me An aluminum T-handle so I could get a grip on myself. On the sixth day of Christmas My best friend gave to me A Reverse Loc/Out to keep me going in the right direction. On the seventh day of Christmas My division tech rep gave to…

As we reported on these pages in August of ’69, Chula Vista’s resident genius and full-time tinkerer, Bruck Crower, was deeply en-grossed in a rather involved project at “breathing” the small-block Chevy. The exercise has now progressed through a turbocharged version — which at only 203 cubic inches cranked out 720 horsepower at 22 pounds boost. Plans or engines are not available on how to do this, but hopefully between the pictures and a few facts from Bruce, you will gain an appreciation of Crower’s progress. The turbo Chevy was conceived and built with the thought that it might prove to be competitive on the Championship circuit, where competition comes from turbocharged Offys and cammer Fords. The displacement for a turbocharged stock-block is 203 cubic inches, so this is the…

Joe Pirronello, a San Diego, California, fireman, calls his street roadster the “All-American” to show that patriotism is important to young Americans — even in construction of a hot rod. Joe lives his beliefs by arranging through the San Diego Fire Department for charitable organizations to display his rod to raise money for underprivileged youngsters. Joe based his rod on a tubular digger-style chassis, and he utilizes a 68 Corvette swing-axle rear end with 4.11:1 cogs, specially made Cragar wheels and Goodyear tires. The suicide front perch incorporates a ’40 Willys axle located with handmade radius rods and snubbed with a transverse leaf spring fabricated by Joe. The Avon 2.75 x 16 tires mount on Marv Hall wheels. The two-gallon Moon fuel tank connects to a pair of six-gallon tanks…

Then came Hamm’s. It took a reckless man to brave the taste of frontier beer. Unless he did his drinking at Theodore Hamm’s tiny brewery on the edge of the wilderness. Hamm’s was the frontier’s first great beer. Brewed with the water best for brewing. A beer with a flavor that ran deep. Today, over a hundred years later, Hamm’s is going stronger than ever. Because the flavor still runs deep in every drop.…

If you find a ’39 Willys pickup for $100, you can bet it’s either not complete or not sano; but Phil Nunez is no stranger to the hot car world, and he realized it would cost money to resurrect the ancient rig. He was right: It took seven grand to turn it into a AA/GS runner. The boxed ’39 frame rails were graced with a 427-cubic-inch ’67 Chevy which Ed Dillon had fitted with Venolia pistons and rings, L-88 rods. Sig Erson 1057X cam, Hampton blower, Cragar manifold and drive, Hilborn injectors, Hunt magneto and Dillon’s own headers. Front end and steering gear are ’39 Willys. The ’60 Olds rear end with 4.30:1 cogs is fed by a B&M-prepared ’53 Olds hydro. The American mags are fitted with Pirellis in…

Drag racing’s rules and competition categories are a remarkable compilation of data produced annually by the National Hot Rod Association. Representative of more than 20 years’ experience, the official Rule Book serves as a guide to govern the sport and ensure that its progress is carefully maintained, for only through periodic updating and observance of the rules can the sport’s enviable safety record continue and the inherent fairplay reputation remain unchallenged. Contributing to the evaluation of each year’s rules are the racers themselves, track officials, manufacturers, sponsors, technical representatives and members of NHRA’s large staff of authorities. Numerous conferences are held throughout the United States as each season draws to a close, at which suggested revisions, additions and deletions are considered, some to eventually become a part of the rules…

To fully appreciate Norton Villiers’ new 250 and 37Occ Scramblers, one should have at least a nodding acquaintance with the mad Moto-Cross race for which they were styled. Short, fast, undulating rights and lefts over a not-so-smooth dirt track require light weight, instan-taneous handling, shotgunlike bursts of power and most forgiving suspension. Because of the short duration of each heat and the wheel-lofting nature of the typical Moto-Cross mount, accepted riding position is up on the pegs and leaning into the bars. Consequently, a Moto-Cross bike, as delivered, may require slight modification for the more casual off-road enthusiast, especially if he is larger than normal. Being six feet tall, and decidedly not an up-on-the-pegs rider, I found myself in that situation during a recent outing with Mike Jackson in the…

Dan Gurney called it quits on October 4. He had just driven in the Riverside Mission Bell Trans-Am race and come in fifth. He told everyone after the race that part of being a good race driver was knowing when to quit; “and quitting in one piece,” as Gurney also stated, can serve as a testimonial to one’s skill and also his luck. He had many high points during his career, but he added that his low points would take in all those men who raced against him and who could not be here now to share his going away fete. A few short hours later, a United Press insert in the sports section of the Monday morning paper, datelined Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, announced another low point. Curtis Turner had crashed…

In the heavily wooded and often privately owned territory around Middlefield, Massachusetts, the layout of a cross-country run becomes a massive project in logistics and liaison, and a 360-mile overland trials is almost inconceivable — except to one man, Berkshire Trials founder and pathfinder Allen Eames. To reach his goal — that of introducing new riders to the joys of trail riding each year — Al begins his scouting treks late in autumn, stopping en route to obtain right of way from landowners, police and government officials along the way. Working from survey maps, he gradually links the checkerboard of backwoods adventures with brief sections of public roads, then retires when the snow closes in, to reconfirm permission for the riders to use the land and to further organize his…

Things are a-changin’. If you were with us last month, you should be aware that our old standby, Eric Rickman, moved on to one of the other divisions here at Petersen’s. Also that we acquired a new member by the name of Ralph Guldahl, Jr. Well, we thought things might settle down for a while, but as these things appear to run in cycles, it looks as though we’re in for a period of change. This month’s “change your partners” in the “Personnel Reel” takes place on the top rung of the ladder. Our erstwhile, non-hirsute publisher of many years standing, Ray Brock, has finally been cut loose to assume the full-time duties and responsibilities of Vice President/Automotive Group. Since this “big brother is watching” position will keep Ray in…

You’ll find Cragar a very gifted company. For example, a set of Cragar ‘Mags’ makes an excellent gift to dress up your car. Or a set of “cool blue” headers, if you want it to run better, quicker. The “Christmas tree” in your living room — or at the strip — will shine a lot brighter, this season, when the Cragar Super Power Package is “opened up”. The Power Package is Cragar’s new Distributor and Capacitive Discharge Ignition combination designed to shock the competition. And don’t forget your best gal. The partial coverage Cragar Safety Helmet makes an ideal gift for her on those weekend snowmobile, dune buggy and bike dates. See the Cragar line of Christmas “trimmings” at your speed shop, tire dealer or auto accessories store. A subsidiary…

You don’t just bolt-on a supercharger and go. Especially when the car is a Vega. Putting the blower on is the easiest part of the job. Paxton Products supplied us with a full kit, everything nicely painted and detailed, and all parts included. They’ve done a lot more installations than we have, so they knew all the various parts to put in the box so our project would go together smoothly. The package included an air-filtering cannister which is a must for any type of street operation, a three-point side mounting bracket that bolts directly to existing holes on the right side of the four-cylinder engine, and a Dayco 310M belt. While there seems to be gobs of room under the Vega hood, position of the supercharger caused some headaches…

“I had worked all one summer, saved up $300 and bought me a ’37 Ford with a 60-horsepower motor in it, then fixed it up a little … Several of us had street roadsters, altereds and thirty-twos that we were playing around with, so we organized a hot rod club in ’49 known as the ‘Memphis Rodders’ (the club’s still active) … Red Dyer said, ‘That old car of yours looks like a bo’ weevil, what with that long snout.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, how about a Tennessee Bo-Weevi’? So that’s how the car got its name.” By now everyone should recognize the person behind these statements, because there’s only one “Tennessee Bo-Weevil” in the hot rodding world. There’s only one guy like Ray Godman, too. He’s a real personable…

Buzz Freitag digs racing, wanted a machine to advertise his shop, so he went for a ’66 Volvo with Chevy power. With an assist from Joe Zeo and Jack Biggica, he turned out this show and race winner. Under the hood rides a 370-inch Chevy stroker (from 327), topped off with twin Holleys and a Weiand high-ram manifold. Tech-Alloy performed the head and machine work, along with balancing. Headers are by Kook’s. Feeding those inches are JE pistons, Ramco rings, Crane cam and kit, Stewart-Warner pumps. Isky rockers, Milodon 4-bolt main caps. Meltings oil pump. Vertex mag and deepsump oil pan help. A Weber billet steel flywheel with 10½-inch clutch are shrouded by a Lakewood steel safety housing and join up with a Muncie box, modified Hurst shifter. Performance Specialties…

There’s no special trick to installing Moon’s new big-block-Chevy valve cover breather. Just don’t try it on some other kind of engine.It’s made to fit stock 396-427-454 Chevy valve covers, and it is shaped to fit over the stock breather outlets. This means that lines leading to the base of the carburetor or to the air cleaner no longer function as originally planned — which means that the breather doesn’t allow a stock vehicle to be legal for street operation. But there are no restrictions for using this item on a race car or an early-vintage machine with a late Chevrolet engine transplanted between its frame rails. Use the gasket or the center cast piece for a drill template on the valve cover. Make sure the center extension fully covers…

THE HOWMET CORPORATION’S NEW TX MARK II turbine car has set six International Records in two weight categories. Al-though technically described as being in Category A (Special Automobiles), Group VIII (turbine engine), Class 2 (for cars weighing between 500 and 1000 kilograms), 850 pounds of lead ballast were added so the TX Mark II could a!so run against Class 3 records. With designer Ray Heppenstall of Glenside, Pennsylvania, at the wheel, the Howmet TX Mark II established a 76.103-mph average for the standing-start quarter-mile in Class 2, a 64.902-mph average for the standing-start quarter in Class 3, a half-kilometer standing-start average of 82.947 mph in Class 2, a half-kilometer standing-start average of 71.076 mph in Class 3. Running against an 83.8-mph average for the Class 2 standing-start kilometer posted by…

Somewhat surprisingly, September turned out to be a very exciting and active month for off-roading. In previous years, September has been full of talk and frantic little searches for money, sponsors, parts or rides for the Mexican 1000 in November. This year the word started leaking out in July that there would be a major off-road race — to be called the SNORE 250 — in the Las Vegas area in September. The race was promoted and run by the Southern Nevada Off Road Enthusiasts. It came off as planned, and our coverage of same is included in this issue. The growing number of hard-core off-roaders who race primarily for fun are also excited about the possibilities of another race starting and ending in Ensenada — this one sponsored by…

Your engine won’t say no to you in the morning, if you let STP Oil Treatment®go to work for you at night. You see, oil alone, even all-weather oil, drains off the cylinder walls, pistons and other vital parts and runs down in the oil pan where it stiffens your car sits or how from the cold. So inthe morning get the lubrication there isn’t always you need right from enough lubrication left the start. on the crucial parts This winter, make to turn the engine sure STP is in your over easily without engine at night. Your friction and wear. STP helps your motor oil cling. No matter how long your car sits or how cold it gets. And you get the lubrication you need right from the start.…

Trimming the Christmas tree … Chrondek or traditional, is now “tenths quicker” with Holley’s new GPH-110 electric fuel pump. This newest product from Holley makes gift giving and receiving for the performance enthusiast an easier job. The GPH-110 is the final link in the high performance fuel system, and is designed to deliver maximum results from your Holley carburetion. Two models are available. P-6145AAA is for street use, where high pressure is not desirable. P-623OAAA is for all-out competition. The competition model, used with a special Holley pressure regulator, (P-6146AAA) allows adjustment of the unit to fit the system’s needs. Completely self-priming, the GPH-110 is fitted with big 3/8” outlets, and comes with mounting brackets. The single unit GPH-110, with pressure regulator, out-pumps and out-flows any other two electric pumps.…

Six short years ago an American Gothic scene unfolded in the environs of the president of American Motors. Seems there was this whipper-snapper Rambler dealer in Norwalk, California, who campaigned a drag racing funny car, and by the great horned spoon (!) even had the agency’s service manager swapping 327-inch Ambassador motors into economy six-cylinder Rambler American compacts (bite thy tongue!). Said Norwalk AMC dealer, on another annual pro-racing pilgrimage to Kenosha, walked briskly into the president’s office, and — better get ready for this — the prez said: “Well, well, if it isn’t Barney Oldfield himself.” To Rambler management, circa 1964, Barnstormin’ Barney represented the beginning, end and sum total of automobile racing. A startling bit of naiveness, yes, but useable here in contrasting the vast turnaround lately taken…

The “Original Ramchargers” have been around for a decade or more, and unlike old soldiers, they just don’t fade away. Their ’70 Charger has been around a year now, and it’s already running in the low 6.90s. pushing near the NHRA funny mark of 211 mph. Pilot of the ’Chargers’ candy-striped beauty is the Israeli rocket hisself, Leroy Goldstein. Based on a Woody Gilmore Race Car Engineering chassis, the machine features a 120-inch wheelbase and is shocked fore and aft by Konis. P&S spindles and steering help in controlling the action. Because the Fiberglass Trends body has —? been narrowed five inches, the late-Ford rear end also had to be zapped. Hurst?Airheart disc binders are utilized at rear, assisted by Bob’s drag chutes. Driving through a Lake wood safety housing…

Ron Ebert located an old whiskey still and built a fantastic street and show bike around it Ron Ebert’s wild rig looks like a cross between a roadster and a motorcycle, it’s because he wanted both, and “Home Brew” was his way of getting what he wanted. A ’63 Olds F-85 supplied the engine.trans and rear end; Ron supplied the 1½-inch tubular frame. He also fabricated the five-foot-long girder front end and custom valve covers. A 3.00 x 21 Avon absorbs bumps in front, while the 12.00 x 15 M&Hs on ribbed steel wheels in back are torsion-bar-suspended. Ron’s seat is just forward of the fiberglass ‘T’ bucket, and he controls the automatic trans with the valve on the left. The ’glass ‘T’ was painted by Ron and Hal Whipple;…

Touring the pits at the recent NHRA Indy Nationals, one couldn’t help noticing the big crowd around the Accel tent every day of race week. Everyone from the “little guys” to the “big guys” was taking advantage of the free assistance offered by the people from Accel — and need it they did. We were really shocked to discover how many guys have been running for months — many doing pretty good — with distributors that were “out to lunch” as far as being in decent shape. We picked up an Accel kit for a Corvette distributor, then stopped off at Tak’s Automotive in Lakewood, Colorado (near Denver), on the way back to the West Coast from Indy. Tak Shiramizu and Dan Fink are kept pretty busy performing engine swaps,…

Controversy isn’t what makes Charlotte Motor Speedway. They have very little of this around the mile-and-a-half track. Good management and good promotion have accounted for always good racing attendance, and CMS is one of the few tracks in the country that has reported profits year after year. Charlotte Motor Speedway is progressive, in a quiet way. They have a tremendously good rescue team, and this year, management made use of a tilt-bed heavy-equipment trailer to bring disabled cars in off the track. Not only is this a very fast way of hauling race cars, but there is very little damage incurred, such as can be done with a tow rig. Despite Charlotte’s dignified manner in presenting a race, there was controversy surrounding the 11th National 500 in October. But NASCAR…

Those of you who have campaigned a competitive Jr. Stocker can appreciate the time that is involved in preparing a set of heads for such a car. Well, as many of you can guess, building Jr. Stock heads for racing is one of the most tedious, time-consuming and thankless businesses one can get into. We say that simply because a company can produce what we would consider a “close” set of heads, and if those heads don’t get thrown out during a teardown because of a tenth of a cc or whatever, many times they lose their effectiveness after just a few meets because of neglect (wear). There is much truth to that statement. Many guys simply do not realize the importance of upkeep on a good set of heads.…

This blown, 352-inch, Chevy-powered AA/Dragster cost six grand to build and won the 1961 NHRA Nationals while at the same time propelling its driver to national prominence. From left to right, crewman George Timmons, co-owner Bill Word, Mr. Eliminator 1961: “Sneaky Pete” Robinson. L.W. Farrington of Metairie, Louisiana, appeared in the July 1960 issue of HRM, along with his sleek ’57 T-Bird. McCulloch-blown, 342-cubic-inch Ford mill pulled car through Bonneville clocks at 173.41 mph. Candy Apple Red monoposto features full belly pan and early-model front end. Moon wheel covers identify this Mandarin Red 1932 Ford Victoria as one appearing in an early-sixties HRM. The ’57 Chevy engine was bored to 301 cubes and fitted with two fours and an Engle cam. Top insert, runningboard cuffs and interior are white Naugahyde.…

Owners of late-model (’64-’70) Chrysler hemis will appreciate these new water fillers, which slip right into the cylinder head expansion plug bores (after you knock the plugs out), front or rear. The machined neck comes with an O-ring, which seals the filler when the Allen screw is tightened, pulling the internal tapered lock up tight. No tapping, machining or grinding involved here. Fillers also feature a boss that lets you install overflow lines if that's what you want.…