Innehållsförteckning för November 1971 från Hot Rod

When Jacque Passino, then head of Ford performance, flew out to the West Coast last year to introduce the Boss 351 to the press, he stated that Ford knew that it would probably be the last of the real performance cars. He also commented that in the future “a performance car may be one with a different paint treatment.” Both Passino and the Boss 351 are gone now, but the prediction seems to be coming true. Felled by the hammer blows of insurance surcharges, emissions and escalating prices, the Supercars of the mid-sixties are all in that Big Parking Lot in the Sky, or headed there. A few will manage to survive in name only — Passino’s cosmetic hot rods. And what is happening on the street? Quite a lot,…

DRAGS : Funny Car star Dick Harrell was fatally injured in the crash of his Chevy AA/FC at Toronto after the car reportedly blew a front tire at the finish line. SEMA, NHRA and Mike Sorokin Foundation have launched an investigation into whole matter of front-tire failure on Funny Cars…Ed Donovan’s long-awaited racing engine will debut in Creitz-Maas Fueler. Ed is out to beat Keith Black…Wally Booth’s small-block/Vega Pro Stock is nearing completion… Sox & Martin will build a completely new ’72 ’ Cuda Pro Stock, rather than revising the present ’71, which will become the back-up…The newly finished Century 21 drag plant in Denver has signed with AHRA and is slated to host a major AHRA meet next year…Earl Wade is flogging a Boss 351 engine for possible use…

From the bell mouths of the Enderle injectors to the release cable on the Bob’s drag chute, this car is sanitary. The execution of the many modifications is near perfection. As you can see by the engine location, Sam took full advantaage of the allowable 10% engine setback. The interior looks as if it belongs in a Funny car rather than in a Gasser. Even the door panels are made of aluminum and finished off with black leatherette. Al Bergler handled the aluminum work, and Ferndale Trim fitted the custom diamond upholstery. Sam Gianino is no newcomer to the racing scene. He’s been hard at it for the last 14 years—and has done quite well, we might add. He has held numerous national records, been a Nationals or Springnationals class…

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Don Garlits is the master. He may not be the smartest man in drag racing, hut he’s probably the savviest. His latest (known) trick helped account for the 6.21 e.t. at Indy that nearly caused a wave of apoplexy in the Top Fuel ranks. He calls it his “E.T. Element,” and it’s actually two separate items which combine with his driving to give the final results. The first component is the front axle. It was carefully bent by Connie Swingle, foreman of Don’s chassis shop in Seffner, Florida, so that the leading edge of the right front wheel is about six inches farther forward than the left. The right wheel also carries about four inches of disc, accounting for a total rollout of about 12 inches before the staging beam…

MARK YOU WELL The Dixie Diamond Marking Pencil, with a polished diamond tip, is guaranteed to write on glass, metal, plastic and ceramics. Handy pocket-clip pen barrel. Permanent (can’t rub or wash off) and long-lasting, this pen is perfect for marking tools, equipment, etc. Price is $4.95 (plus 25f for shipping) from Valley Products, Dept. HR, 1253 Ninth St., Green Bay, Wisconsin 54304. LIGHT SPOKES ECM has introduced a 10-pound, 8-spoke (15” x 3½”) front wheel that bolts onto dune buggies and race cars using a VW front end and spindles. Available in gloss white ($62 per pair) or chrome-plated ($99.95 per pair). Chrome dust covers keep sand and dirt out of bearings. Contact El Cajon Machine and Wheel, Dept HR, 10347 Prospect Avenue-A, Santee, California 90271. GOT A LIGHT?…

When John Ross and the Cherokee Indian Nation were forced to leave South Carolina, well over one hundred years ago, the government of this country argued that the growing white population needed the room. That would be a hard issue to prove after spending a Labor Day weekend inside the Darlington Raceway infield. There, for nearly two days, within the 1%-mile oval paved racing surface, a “tent city” of at least 10,000 persons takes shape. Sometimes the advances of civilization are forgotten within this enclosure, and quite often the goings-on are amusing. The word “tradition” came out every time in response to the question of “why are you here?” Nobody ever said it was to see the race, though that is an undeniable part of the tradition. The tradition of…

One nice thing about our not-so-distant cousins of the Rapid Transit System cars is that they have the same kind of guts and engineering we put into Road Runners, 'Cudas and Duster 340s. The same kind of guts and engineering that have made our performance cars three of the most envied, most respected performance cars in America. The 1972 Road Runner, for example, comes with a heavy-duty torsion-bar suspension up front and wide-stanced leaf springs in the rear. (A couple of reasons our cars handle the way they do.) The 1972 Satellite Coupe comes with its own torsion-bar/leaf-spring suspension. The Road Runner has our unibody construction. For strength. The Satellite’s put together the same way. And the Satellite has other things in common with the Road Runner. We put it…

LIKE US ALL, WHITTIER, CALIFORNIA, BASED LAN NY BOELTL GOT HIS CAR UP BRINGIN’ RIGHT OFF THE PAGES OF DOG-EARED POCKET SIZES … AND HE KEEPS ’EM HANDY TO THIS DAY. AN UPHOLSTERER BY TRADE. THE THIRTY-YEAR-OLD TRIMMER’S HANDIWORK IS INDEED EVIDENT—MODERN AUTO TRIM’’ HIS LABEL.…

A HUSTLER CATALOG contains a complete selection of high-performance and competition parts and accessories for the Datsun pickup, both 1300 and 1600. There are chrome goodies, engine parts, camping items and serious off-road equipment. Send $2 to Hustler High Performance Products, Dept. HR, 951 N. Enterprise, Orange, California 92667. B THE FAIRBANKS CATALOG is the most comprehensive catalog of high-performance automatic transmissions and related components. Photos and applications of all makes of transmissions, parts and accessories are included. Send $1 to Fairbanks Racing Automatics, Dept. HR, 335 Elm St., Stamford, Connecticut 06902. C SPEEDWAY MOTORS CATALOG is 116 pages filled with all types of racing equipment. There is a special listing of ’T’ accessories. Also included are driving apparel, dress-up items, etc. Catalog is $2 from Speedway Motors, Dept. HR,…

TAKE IT OFF Gentlemen: I am writing this letter in reference to your article about 1972 engines in the August Hot Rod. I see they are inventing more and more gadgets to put on engines. Pretty soon all of your articles are going to have to be in two parts. The first part is how to get all the junk off your engine, the second how to put the goodies on. Your mag is tops. M. L. PattersonThe “Nam” For sanctioned racing only, please. — Editor BORED Dear Sirs: I was looking back through some of my old mags and noticed that in your February ’67 issue there is a picture of Tom Dalton’s “Scotch and Soda” VW. The same car appears in the March ’67 issue of Car Craft,…

Unfortunately, most performance enthusiasts seem to have the wrong idea about running Bonneville. The National Speed Trials is often seen as an elderly, out-of-date event attended by a handful of fanatical, out-of-touch competitors. This is hardly the case. Fact of the matter is that the salt is where an elite group of “horsepower builders” come once a year to slug it out with their compadres. Here, and only here, can they be concerned about producing pure horsepower and not be bothered with the politics of contingency or the nagging thought that a chassis is out of date by one or two trick factory parts. These guys go to the salt to learn, and to prove to themselves the credibility of various engine-building ideas. Take Mark Dees and Bob Joehnck, who…

Butch Leal, better known in the racing world as “The California Flash," has been racing professionally for the past 11 years. At 27, he owns and drives one of the most competitive Pro Stock Plymouths in the country. Butch set the Pro Stock national record at 9.57 and still holds the mph record at 144.92 mph. The chassis of the ’71 Duster is the handiwork of Ron Butler and incorporates many innovating, weight-saving ideas. The car has an ideal front-to-rear weight bias, as the problem now is keeping it on the ground. The 426 Hemi is the product of Joe Allread. Joe’s ability in squeezing all available horsepower out of the Hemi engine is evidenced by Butch’s impressive performances. Engine pieces consist of such items as TRW Nasear pistons, Nasear…

• Joe Leonard merely outlasted everyone faster to win the second running of the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway, last Labor Day weekend. Joe couldn’t outrun them. His car was built more for comfort than for speed; that is, if you can call a one-seater gas tank with four wheels comfortable. His speed wasn’t that poor; his 175.020-mph qualifying time was good enough to land him in the middle of the fourth row, which is the 11th quickest position. The front two rows of three cars were all turbo-Oify-powered and slick as glass. One of the things evident at this year’s California 500 was the added attention to streamlining. While this has always been important, the way the Team McLaren came to Indianapolis this year with their low-cut M16…

Creative pinstriping is an art normally acquired only through years of experience. However, the ability to apply a simple stripe accent to a body panel is not at all difficult, and with a few helpful hints, anyone can become adept enough to do his own car. We visited with Dean Jeffries, of Jeffries Automotive Styling in Hollywood, who gave us a few tips to pass on to do-it-yourself stripers. The first item needed is a good striping brush. Dean uses a No. 0 made by Dagger of West Germany. Next, get some enamel sign paint and some slow-drying enamel thinner (available with the striping brush at your local sign painters’ supply store). Now to the most important part—loading the brush! Start by dipping the brush into the enamel and wiping…

TOP FUEL In the week before the Nationals, the rumors had filtered to the West Coast, word that Don Garlits had run a pair of 6.18s in tire tests at Indy. Most who heard it dismissed it as fiction, merely a gambit by “Big Daddy” to psych-out the opposition. But there was strong interest when Garlits brought the black Wynn’s Charger to the line for its first run late Thursday afternoon. Garlits’ rear-engine car, running a Keith Black 473-cubic-inch Hemi and direct drive, shot for the top end, leaving twin streaks on the damp track surface and flashing up to 230.76 in a fantastic 6.211-second elapsed time, the quickest in NHRA history. Later in the day, though, Connie Kalitta gave the fans something else to think about. Driving his brand-new…

The year 1971 has been a big one in the hot rodding/drag racing world, and it takes a big book—like the new 352-page Hot Rod Yearbook No. 11—to cover it all. This latest annual edition starts with a 60-page roundup of the ’71 drag racing scene—the drivers and the cars that made the news and set the records … and were caught in the act by the sport’s top photographers. Then there’s a revealing analysis of the rear-engine dragster revolution and a fascinating comparison of Ollie Morris’ White Owl (1955) and Don Garlits’ latest Swamp Rat back-motor machines. Active drag racers will find special value in “Grip Tips,” an in-depth analysis of how to pick slicks for a particular class of car or type of strip. The fascinating history of…

By now everyone knows that the ROD & CUSTOM Magazine Street Rod Nationals turned out to be a whopping success. The reasons are varied, but the most important one stems from the fact that we projected the image and con-cept/format of ROD & CUSTOM Magazine; the event was an extension of the magazine’s purpose: To revitalize hot rod-ding from an enthusiast’s standpoint, returning to the “good oF days” attitude of the sport. In brief, we offered an activities arena which was devoid of commercialism, albeit supported by sponsoring manufacturers, to maintain a very casual atmosphere beamed at the oft-ignored hard-core early iron enthusiasts of street rodding. Participants were offered a wide variety of activities … but they weren’t required to take part in anything. They were told, in effect, “We’re…

From a personal viewpoint, Bonneville National Speed Trials is the most inspiring race of the year. Each time, I come away jazzed, saturated to the eyeballs with the desire to hop-up or fine-tune every piece of machinery within my domain immediately upon return home. You can’t watch 150 crotch car pilots go for broke seven straight days without being infected. Within hours I had reset points and timing on the Matchless, adjusted the deraileur on daughter’s Schwinn and completely overhauled an ailing sprinkler head—pathetic, true, but mighty big around our household. Bonneville flies bravely in the face of adversity — a monument to raw enthusiasm. Despite national cries to preserve our ecology, the State of Utah still permits adjacent commercial mining interests to drain away the salt, to the extent…

Clyde Baker of Urbana, Illinois, witnessed an incident at the local drags which prompted him to send us this nifty trick. As Clyde relates it, "A stocker was staged awaiting the countdown, when, for some unexplained reason, the driver shifted to neutral and back into what he erroneously thought was first gear. The lights blinked down and said driver dumped the clutch, only to discover he had selected reverse instead of first. Unfortunately, there was another car waiting behind him, and the incident proved to be an expensive mistake." Perhaps Mr. Baker’s reverse-warning light setup will save someone else from such an unpleasant experience.…

Selected letters to Shop Talk will be answered only in this monthly column. DO NOT send stamped, self-addressed envelopes with your question. It is impossible to send out personal replies. PAINFUL PERFORMANCE Dear John: I have a problem that isn’t really new, but it’s very troublesome. I run a Rat motor AHRA Hot Rod Camaro that has all the good engine stuff — pieces like Forgedtrue pistons, reground crank and bushed rods, aluminum heads, Weiand manifold with dual Holley 660 carbs and a Vertex ignition. The problem is with ring life. I can’t seem to get more than a handful of runs before the moly goes away. I’ve reringed the engine three times now, and the problem is no better. I’ve tried various makes, different end gaps, but nothing…

Automotive Research Library PETERSEN PUBLISHING CO. MOD PROD SPECIAL A Look at Drag Racing’s Modified Production Classes–What They Are and Who Rules Them ONE STEP BEYOND Complete Technical Analysis of Mickey Thompson’s Compressed Air-Boosted Drag Engine: 2800 hp at 9200 rpm PERFORMANCE AMERICAN STYLE Full Details of H. L. and Shirley Shahan’s Amazing AII–AMC Pro Stockers and a Test of their Production Brother, the 304 V8 Gremlin X ART WAS MY COPILOT “Jet Car” Ralph Guldahl Takes a 279-mph Ride in Art Arfons’ “Cyclops II” LOOK FOR DECEMBER ISSUE on sale December 2…