Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från Hot Rod

Over the last two months I’ve solicited feedback from you, the readers of HOT ROD, and I’m humbled by the outpouring of responses. Thank you, first and foremost, for your feedback. I also appreciate the candor and constructive criticism expressed by many of you. Yes, I got a lot of “Nice job”, and “I like what you’re doing”, and those feel great, but I really do appreciate people saying what the want to see less of and more of in HOT ROD. A resounding no was motorcycle edit. Fine with me. Regular readers know I love riding, but I had dismissed the notion (and solicitations from some PR agencies looking to get into HRM) of putting motorcycles in the magazine. I try not to let my personal biases influence the…

We love a finely crafted show car as much as anyone, and some cars are so well done that they’ve transitioned from automobiles to art pieces. However, when we see a high-end custom that actually gets driven, our interest is most certainly piqued. Randy Johnson’s COPO-themed 1969 Camaro falls into this category for sure. Randy is the owner of D&Z Customs, and he builds his cars for function in addition to form. He knows that you can have your performance cake and chow down on it as well. Though admittedly more partial to the curvaceous lines of the earlier ’67 and ’68 Camaros, Randy describes how he came to buy a ’69, saying, “One day, a good friend of mine who had this original Hugger Orange ’69 Camaro project sitting…

Finley Ledbetter stood in the center of his “Blue Oval Car Barn” in Mineral Wells, Texas, surrounded by a showroom of 1971 Mustangs, all high performance. “These are just my cars. I don’t sell them, I don’t trade them. I’ve sold 3 cars in 40 years.” No wonder. He found this incredible barn find, a 1971 Super Cobra Jet Mach 1, hidden in a salvage yard in Missouri. What is the fascination with 1971’s? “Had one. Had one in high school. Started with one, plus the 1969-70’s are really small inside—not enough leg room,” Findley replied. Finley slid behind the wheel of a blue 1971 429 Cobra Jet convertible; one of nine four-speeds Ford built. He got up and pointed out two Boss 351s and two Super Cobra Jets—one a…

The Buick Grand National has been a collector’s item from day one, but there was a time when these cars could be seen on the road on a regular basis. Such is the case with this 1984 Buick Grand National, a car that was once a daily driver, then a weekend cruiser, and then was eventually parked sometime around the turn of the century. Although not quite as valuable as the 1986 and 1987 Grand Nationals, this early model has rarity on its side, as only 2,000 units were built in 1984. Known as “hot-air” cars, these non-intercooled Grand Nationals and Buick T-Type Regals can be a bit finicky to work on, but we decided to tackle the project of putting this Buick back on the road after 15-plus years…

The stigma once attached to the word “clone” or “tribute” as it relates to look-alike classic muscle cars is thankfully gone. Once upon a time, a car like David Randall’s ’66 Plymouth Belvedere I Street Hemi might’ve been considered scandalous without a neon billboard stating such. These days, building a clone car is not just popular, it’s considered a sign of the owner’s good taste and nuanced knowledge of automotive history—in this case, Mopar Street Hemi history. If we rewind the clock to 1964, Chrysler’s Hemi was tearing up the race world with win after win with its 426ci Hemi, an engine that was only available over the counter—if you could even get one. The Hemi was a race-only affair and was never supposed to be available to the public,…

When you’re walking a trade show you never know what you will come across, and the 2022 PRI Show was no exception. We weren’t expecting to stumble across a four-cylinder crate engine topped with an LS3-port head! BluePrint Engines’ John Chrise told HOT ROD, “We were there to show off some new racing V8s, so some of our guys weren’t thrilled when we decided to take this new four cylinder from our R&D Department.” (This explains why the small mill was hiding in a corner of the booth.) “We were wrong! It turned out that the 3.6-liter “LS” was a major hit at the show. We constantly had people coming by the booth asking about it.” Chrise continued, “This combination starts out utilizing our tried-and-true, heavy-duty block from our industrial…

Troy Ladd, owner of Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank, California, has been building himself a hot rod, but not the kind of hot rod you’d expect from this two-time winner of the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award. This is not something over-the-top. No, this would be a simple, no-frills driver that could be drag raced occasionally. Being a busy shop owner, Troy only gets one day off from running the shop per week, but he’s a talented fabricator who gets a lot done in a day. In Part 1 of this build, we looked at the chassis he assembled using a Brookville Roadster Lakester frame left over from a customer’s project that went in another direction. Atop the frame would sit a chopped ’31 Model A coupe body, and to…

Most think of Shelby’s Cobra as a sports car, but it could be argued that there’s more than a little hot rod in the heady mix that created it. Let’s start with the fact that the very first Cobra was put together at Dean Moon’s shop—a hot rodder if there ever was one. True, it used a British sports car body courtesy of the AC Car Company, but Shelby woke up the little car’s performance tremendously by swapping in a powerful—for the day, anyway—Ford V8, another hot rodding staple. Shelby, the Cobra, and Ford are forever intertwined now, but it could have been very different. When Ray Brock introduced HRM readers to the Cobra in “Tailormade Sports Car” (Dec. ’62), he noted that in the 1950s, “a few sports car…

The 22nd Annual Dodge Hemi Challenge was held on September 2, 2022, at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. The Dodge Hemi Challenge is reserved for SS/AH 1968 Barracudas and SS/AH 1968 Darts powered by the legendary 426 cubic inch Hemi engine. The event pays proper tribute to the 72 original BO29 Hemi Barracudas and the 83 original LO23 Hemi Darts that were built by Hurst Performance in 1968 for Super Stock racing. Both sticks and automatics compete together in the SS/AH class, running heads-up off a 9.45-second index. Success at the Dodge Hemi Challenge depends on both driver dominance and engine builder brilliance. In this year’s Dodge Hemi Challenge, Charlie Westcott Jr. built the Hemi engine for 5 of the 16 cars,…

By now, the HOT ROD audience knows there are a ton of ways to build an LS engine for big power. Given the versatility of the LS platform, how do you decide which way to build it? The first thing you need to ask is how you want to use it. If hard handling is in your future, then saving weight by going with an aluminum block makes sense. Of course, saving weight in a drag application helps, but it’s not nearly as critical and makes not a lick of difference in a street cruisier application. The benefit of an iron block is strength, which moves up the priority list quickly if you’re considering boost or some nitrous in your future. An iron block, even an aftermarket version, will also…

Early in 2021, NHRA officials began talking with numerous racers about creating a new class based on the Factory Stock Showdown Eliminator, which includes the Chevrolet COPO Camaro, Ford Performance Mustang Cobra Jet, and Dodge/Mopar Challenger Drag Pak. The concept was to put the same engines that propel those cars to mid-to-high 7-second elapsed times into tubular-chassis machines that weigh around 1,000 pounds less and mandate a manual transmission to make things exciting. Rather than continuing with the svelte tire specifications of the Factory Stock Showdown cars, this class would utilize 33x10.5-inch tires for far greater traction. The recipe, called Factory X presented by Holley, interested several racers, including Geoff Turk, the 2018 NMCA Factory Super Cars champion and the first racer to clock a 7-second run in competition. “There’s…

Hot on the heels of the Grand National Roadster Show, we gathered several of the nation’s top car builders in our photo studio to discuss car shows, building show cars, running a business building custom cars, and how it’s possible to build a car in seven days—well, eight days, actually. Our esteemed panel included Ben York of Roseville Rod & Custom, Scott Williams of Swillco Speed Shop, Bill Ganahl of South City Rod & Custom, Troy Ladd of Hollywood Hot Rods, and Chip Foose of Foose Design. We were honored to host the discussion, and the conversation was insightful, enlightening, and hilarious at times. Best of all, we recorded the whole thing for posterity’s sake. Look for the video on HotRod.com along with expanded coverage of the 2023 Grand National…