Innehållsförteckning för February 1986 från Hot Rod

It utterly amazes me how many ways our November ’85 cover story, “Pro Street—Who’s Kidding Who?” was interpreted. (For just a sample of the responses, check this month’s “Reaction Time.”) Senior Editor Pat Ganahl has an excellent grasp of the English language and was extremely explicit, presenting the entire picture very well. But as you can see by the opposing viewpoints in “Reaction Time,” there is more than a little confusion about where we stand on Pro Street. My concern (voiced in November’s “Starting Line”) is the escalation of costs in building an “acceptable” car, in particular as it applies to Pro Street. These kinds of cars have a big effect on our entry-level rodders who want to emulate the cars they see in the pages of HOT ROD. They…

Remember Starsky and Hutch? If not, we don’t blame you … it was a chase-and-shoot TV show starring a couple of young bucks who drove—mercilessly—a bright red Ford with a bold, pointed, (ugly) white stripe wrapping over the roof and up to the front fenders. Our point is that soon we saw look-alike red mid-’70s Torinos with ugly white stripes and mag wheels nearly everywhere. Next it was orange, late-’60s Dodge Chargers with “01” on the doors. Well, here is a spy photo of the next hot car craze—Bill Elliott T-Birds! We spotted this red, gold, and white-painted ’Bird driving the streets on the north side of Atlanta (not far from Dawsonville …). With dish mags and a simple rear deck spoiler, it looks surprisingly tasteful (compared to the predecessor…

Beyond hopped-up stock V6’s, beyond swapped in big V6’s, there remains the ultimate potential S-10 powerplant—Chevy’s legendary small V8. Hooker Headers recently introduced their new kit designed to install the Chevy Mouse motor into GM’s downsized pickup. Since the V8 is such a tight fit, it is recommended only for use in two-wheel drive vehicles with automatic transmissions. Previous swap experience is highly recommended. Cutting and welding will be necessary. The basic kit consists of frame adapters (part No. 12609) and headers (part No. 2837), and is designed to mount the Chevy V8 and Turbo 350 automatic trans combination using the existing trans crossmember. Hooker also offers their own replacement crossmember (part No. 12649) for mounting the beefy Turbo 400 trans. The frame adapters bolt to the stock motor mount…

Todd Degitz was president of his high school senior class, a member of the National Honor Society—and uncertain about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Would he be a lawyer or an engineer? In conjunction with stepfather Lee Hamilton, who runs an automotive repair shop in Quincy, Illinois, he decided to build up his ’75 Camaro LT to see if it would help him decide. First the suspension and chassis were modified with Competition Engineering (CE) subframe connectors and narrowed rear frame rails. CE wheel tubs were added to make room for the big Mickey Thompson tires mounted on Center Line wheels that bolt to the narrowed Chevy 12-bolt rearend. Up front, a Vega steering box with custom steering arm replaces the stock power steering…

The technology behind a state-of-the-art Pro Stocker is pretty much cut and dried. Tires, chassis, and aerodynamics play a significant and well-defined role, but it’s the brute force of a 500-cubic-inch, 1100 horsepower engine that really makes it thunder. The key element behind these incredible mechanical warheads is cylinder head technology, the kind of airflow expertise that can pack a 63-cubic-inch cylinder with enough fuel and air to make a whopping 2.2 horsepower-per-cubic-inch. That’s roughly 135 horsepower per cylinder-more power in one hole than most new cars are delivered with. We’re talking intake ports that flow more air (450 cfm) than the carburetor on your average 8-cylinder station wagon. When you’re talking these kinds of numbers, it’s not hard to understand why even the best production-based cylinder heads fail to…

Ever try to join two pieces of sheetmetal with an arc welder? It’s nearly impossible. Even with a conventional arc welder set on its lowest heat setting, so much heat is produced that it just burns holes in the metal. To successfully weld sheetmetal requires hands experienced with oxy/acetylene equipment (torches) or more expensive MIG or TIG welding equipment. This leaves most backyard car builders no option but to take their sheetmetal repairs to a professional welder or bodyshop. The Eastwood Company (147 Pennsylvania Ave., Box 296, Malvern, PA 19355, 215/644-4412) has recently introduced their Stitch Welder, an attachment for the common arc welder which reduces and controls amperage to a level that enables you to run an even bead on .040-inch-thick sheetmetal. According to the manufacturer, the Stitch Welder…

BMW is not real good at keeping a secret. The motorcycle press had been hearing rumors and seeing spy photos of the Bavarian company’s new triple for over a year—but the official line was, through it all, that the K75 did not exist. Finally, in August, the boys from Bavaria knuckled under and held a world press review of the new machine. Editors were invited to ride the 740cc machine at the legendary Nur-burgring and over the winding switch-backs of the Bavarian Alps—the kind of roads the K75 was designed to travel. Instead of orienting the engine across the frame, as on so many Japanese machines, BMW chose to position it longitudinally in the K-series. To keep the weight low, BMW flopped the engine over on oits side. The engine…

Super Perfect The chances of running a perfect 9.90 in the Super Gas bracket class are about a zillion to one. So are the chances of making any money with a S/G car at an NHRA National event. Yet Mike Ferderer towed his “Teddy’s Toy” Pontiac J2000 all the way from Tacoma, Washington, to the Nats in Indy, and came home $7000 richer! In the second round of eliminations Mike ran a perfect 9.900 seconds (one thousandth of a second short of breaking out), and picked up TRW’s Grand Nine Ninety award of $1000, plus another six grand accumulated from previous events where no one was perfect. The only previous driver to collect was Dennis Hartenstein, who bagged $3000 for his perfect run at the Cajun Nationals. Both use TRW…

Give a hot rodder a truck and stand back. The truck will eventually haul class. For instance, the first hot rod I ever saw, and what eventually got me into this thing called hot rodding, was a brilliant yellow, fenderless, SCOT-blown ’27 T pickup. And who can forget that the guys who raced midgets, sprints, and track roadsters always drove wild pickups and push trucks? Drag racers were no different. They too had wicked trucks … either on or off the strip. And then there were the top-enders like “Big” Bill Edwards and his blown, Caddy-powered F-100 or Tom Beatty and his equally awesome supercharged Olds-urged ’40 panel. They were responsible for the term “haulin’ A.” Be they T’s, A’s, or ’32’s, pickups, monsters, customs, low-riders, three-doors or hybrids, early…

This section could be entitled “How to Bolt on 50 hp to Your 2.8L V6,” except it’s not quite a bolt-on. Fabrication will be required. But the power is there when you need and want it, and with the required hoodscoop everyone will know your truck is not just another “S-box.” As delivered, B&M’s special 2.8L V6 blower kit comes with a special offset input shaft that provides clearance for the air conditioning compressor. The unique design allows all stock accessories to remain in their original locations. However, in an S-10 the fan shroud must be trimmed slightly to clear the extra blower pulleys. The S-10’s low profile hood won’t clear the stock carb once the blower is installed, requiring a hole to be cut in it and the grafting…

Often the best horsepower-per-dollar return is realized by replacing a stock engine with a large V6 or V8 engine. This is especially true if the engine bolts in with little or no alteration to the rest of the vehicle or drivetrain. TCK Enterprises (340-C Vernon Way, El Cajon, CA 92020, 619/588-7681) markets Toyota truck conversion kits that fit these criteria to a tee; practically all you need to change is the engine and bellhousing, as the rest of the stock drivetrain remains as is, in its original location. TCK kits are available to install the Buick V6, Chevy small V8, Chevy 90-degree V6, or Chevy 60-degree V6 in any manual trans-equipped 1977-’86 Toyota two-wheel-drive pickup truck. The same kits will work with the four-wheel drives (4WD), except those 1981 through…

Even with 11 superspeed-way wins and a two million dollar season, Bill Elliott lost his bid for the 1985 NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Championship (Darryll Waltrip out-pointed him with consistently high finishes). But he accomplished more for the sport in a single season than anyone in the last decade. Team owner Harry Melling, Bill Elliott, and the rest of the Elliott family are largely responsible for the resurgent national attention focused on Grand National racing during the ’85 season. NASCAR has a new folk hero, and he came along just in time to save the circuit from the stagnation of cookie-cutter race cars and choreographed performances. Elliott’s colorful, laid-back style and apparent indifference to established racing protocol has made him an instant favorite with the fans. He was the…

We can see it now. Old Route 66 will become the most traveled piece of asphalt in the country this summer as grads of the ’60s—who grew up watching Tod and Buzz go from one misadventure to another on TV—will be looking to recapture their youth and lead a free-spirited life as Corvette-powered crusaders. Teams of designer-jeaned, Gucci-shoed yuppies will be saving damsels in distress, fighting with long-shoremen, and helping the local sheriff apprehend dope pushers. All this because Chevrolet re-introduced the Corvette convertible. After 10 long years of no convertible production, the Corvette “ragtop” is back. That’s right, folks, America’s sweetheart has gone topless, again. And it was no small undertaking. Given the current Corvette’s cornering and performance capabilities it took a sizable engineering effort to ensure that Chevrolet…

When you’re Kimm Neimann, manager of husband Kurt Neimann’s Hanna, Indiana, race car fabrication shop, what kind of commuter car do you run back and forth to work and market with? Why, a little subcompact 1980 Plymouth Arrow, of course—with a fully balanced and blueprinted Mopar 340 installed beneath a lift-off front end, and backed up by an A797 Torqueflite and 4.10-geared Dana 60 rearend equipped with 35-spline axles. The Neimanns started out with a front-end “total” and promptly scrapped everything back to the firewall, which itself was moved back 5 inches to clear the V8 engine. Custom front frame rails were fabricated both to clear the new engine and accept ’71 Pinto front suspension components. Once the firewall was shoved back, the steering column had to be similarly relocated,…

OLD STYLE 318 Q I own a 1962 Dodge pickup with a 318-inch Canadian block, I’m currently looking for a 4-barrel intake manifold. Any ideas? John FernandezModesto, California A At one time, there were factory 4-barrel and even 8-barrel intakes available for the ’66 and earlier 318 engines, but they’re pretty rare today. Weiand still offers a dual-plane 4-barrel intake (part No. 7503) that fits the ’56 277, ’57 301, and ’58-’66 318 engines. THE STRAIGHT STEER Q in the last few years, GM has produced a Model 808 (successor to the older 800) power steering sector that has a fixed ratio of 12.7:1. These sectors are used on the ’83-’84 Hurst/Olds, ’85 442, ’83-’85 Monte Carlo SS, and the Buick Grand National T-type. This type of box would be…

Downsized pickups may do an admirable job as basic transportation haulers, but they leave lots to be desired in the horsepower department. That’s where we hot rodders come in. Whether it’s a basic carb, intake and exhaust swap, blower installation, or complete engine swap the goal is to achieve what the OEM manufacturer was unable or unwilling to provide—an exciting vehicle that performs as well as it looks. The roads to increased performance are many and varied, limited only by the enthusiasts’ ability and finances. In the following pages we present a sampling of performance improvements for the popular GM S-10/S-15 and Toyota pickups. Swap or hop, the choice is up to you.…

Many people don’t want to tear up a brand-new $12,000-plus vehicle by swapping engines. In some areas, increasingly stringent emissions standards preclude most common engine swaps, as well as limit allowable modifications to the the existing powerplant. To eliminate these hassles for owners of S-10-type vehicles equipped with the 2.8L Chevy V6-60-degree engine, Edelbrock has introduced a coordinated intake manifold and tubular exhaust system package. The intake manifold is a unique two-piece design that combines a common base (cat. No. 3785) with a choice of tops: either a 2-barrel Performer lid (cat. No. 3787) that accepts the factory carb and all emissions equipment including EGR, or a 4-barrel non-EGR Torker II lid (cat. No. 3789) that’s intended strictly for performance applications using a 390-cfm Holley carb (Holley 0-8007). Edelbrock’s tubular…

Morrison/Cook Motorsports, newly crowned SCCA Showroom Stock Endurance racing champions, are preparing to run two near stock Corvette chassis in IMSA’s Endurance Series Championship for GTO class road racing cars. Shod with race rubber and 450 horsepower, but otherwise in stock trim (which will put them 450 pounds over the legal weight limit and some 200 horsepower short of the tube-frame cars currently running in the class), the team logged 300 test miles during its recent testing at Daytona International Speedway. Lap times came within 15 seconds of the current GTO lap record. At first glance that would render the car uncompetitive, but a review of GTO race times indicates that the cars run about 5 seconds a lap slower in endurance events. Given the Corvette’s durability, and Morrison/Cook’s record…

CARS & TRUCKS AAR ’CUDA with original TA/340. Absolutely no rust, $4500. Kent Ruf, RR #2, Laurel, IN 47024, (317) 698-2432. ’69 AMX HURST SUPER STOCK. One of 52 built, 200 miles. Boxholder, P.O. Box 235, Champaign, IL 61820, (217) 367-2999. BEVERLY HILLS JIMMY & CLUB COUPE S-10 PICKUP. Appeared in January and February ’85 HOT ROD Magazine. For information, contact Tony Nancy, 4363 Woodman Ave., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423, (818) 789-6926. ’68 CAMARO. 1800 miles on complete rebuild. 350 LT-1, Turbo 400 with gear reduction. 12-bolt Posi 3.36, very clean, must sell. $7900 o.b.o. $13,000 investment. Chris Conn, 3663 Ranch Rd., Bishop, CA 93514, (619) 873-4692. ’69 CAMARO SS. Maroon, completely stock. Solid steel body in very good condition. 350 2-barrel, Powerglide transmission, 67,000 original miles. $4000. Angelo J.…