Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Hot Rod

PRESENTED BY Reading about the recent RPM Barona Drags and The Race of Gentlemen’s airport drags earlier this year had us going back to the archives to visit the days when these kinds of events pioneered organized drag racing. The NHRA’s Drag/Safety Safaris of 1954-1956 were coast-to-coast training sessions to teach local car clubs how to put on a safe, responsible drag race. The various local meets run by the Safari team and club members were also covered in HOT ROD to demonstrate and promote the growth of the sport. To that end, the stories tended to be upbeat summaries of big car counts, fast top speeds, and large numbers of enthusiastic fans who turned out to support their local heroes. Sometimes, though, those large numbers could become too much…

“You’re driving it back from LA to Detroit?” I asked. Will said, “Sure, why not?” “Who is going with you?” I asked, although I already knew the answer. “Just me right now …” Will said, with a long pause at the end that he later admitted was fully intentional. “I’ll go with you,” I said. I could tell he wanted me to come along but didn’t want to impose by asking. Then I said, “You know, I’ve never spent any time in a roadster—let alone driving 1,700 miles!” Perhaps I was already subconsciously looking for a way out. That’s when Will said, “What could go wrong? It’ll be fun!” It was entertaining and a whole lot more. This now ranks among my most cherished road trips, tucked right next to…

Tires and wheels—what they look like and how they fit are two of the most critical factors in the success of a hot rod. That was expressed to us by every builder and manufacturer we spoke to for this story. Building a prewar hot rod involves a thousand decisions and looks are high on the list of critical considerations. Except for paint and graphics, your tire and wheel choices are what create the strongest first impression. Get those right and you create interest for the rest of your car. Get them wrong and that interest evaporates from 100 feet away. Using terms like “right” and “wrong” is asking for trouble. Taste is subjective, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there are no rules in hot-rodding, right? Well,…

Exactly 75 years ago, Bob McGee drove his red ’32 roadster in front of historic Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California and a photograph was taken that would become the cover of the October 1948 issue of HOT ROD magazine. Now, on a beautiful May morning in 2023, I was standing in the exact same spot. When the same bright red ’32 roadster drove by, I had a brief notion of what it may have been like for a young Pete Petersen to capture this iconic photograph so many years ago. As people strolled casually by, I heard comments of “Cool car!”, and “What is that?” as most people have no idea what this car is or why it’s important. In fact, I don’t think many automotive enthusiasts…

American Motors Corporation, or AMC for short, was a company that made cars between 1954 and 1988, and it’s unusual to find an enthusiast who collects AMCs because they are particularly difficult to restore. Typically, if someone rebuilds an AMC vehicle it requires at least one parts car, as many restoration parts are not available. It’s even more rare to find a collector who concentrates on the not-so-glamorous AMCs built between 1979 and 1983, when the Spirit, Pacer, Eagle, and Concord were on dealer lots across America. These cars didn’t get much respect at the time, and they’re seldom seen and barely remembered these days—even seasoned car enthusiasts find themselves asking “What is that?” when they see one in the wild. We recently had the chance to tour Jeffrey Smith’s…

Over the past year, we assembled two very mild small-blocks aimed at the typical hot-rodder looking for a solid street engine built on a budget. Once both engines were assembled, HOT ROD Editor John McGann suggested we test both to see how they compared, which we thought was a great idea. In case you missed the buildups on the two engines, the first was the 355ci small-block Chevy using a 1986-and-later one-piece rear-main seal block that we built to replicate the affordable crate engine that Chevrolet used to sell but has discontinued. We upgraded our engine with cast-iron Vortec cylinder heads and more compression in “Modest Mouse” (Nov. ’22). The LS engine was a slightly different approach. It started life as a Gen-III iron 5.3-liter that was machined out to…

General Motors built the last of its full-size, body-on-frame, rear-drive passenger cars at its Arlington, Texas, plant in 1996, some 27 years ago, but interest in these long-discontinued vehicles endures. Used by families, retirees, law enforcement agencies, and taxi fleets, the final version of General Motors’ B-body ran its course from 1991 to 1996, with over 200,000 produced under the Buick Roadmaster banner. (Chevy had the Caprice and Impala SS; Oldsmobile the Vista Cruiser wagon; and Cadillac had the Fleetwood D-body, a lengthened B-body with a 6-inch-longer wheelbase.) Most of the GM B-bodies had no high-performance inclination until Chevy got the great idea of dropping the C4 Corvette’s LT1 V8 into the Caprice to create the 9C1 police package for 1994. That move caught the eye of Chevy performance head…

“You have to be in the right mindset to drive this car,” says Logan Kucharek of the chopped and channeled ’32 Ford coupe he shares with his brother Tanner. “It’s raw and it’s rugged, and that’s all part of the experience. You just want to be prepared for it.” The three-window Deuce is admittedly short on creature comforts such as side windows, a heater, or anything like carpet or door panels that could absorb a decibel or two on the highway, but that rawness is a cherished attribute that channels the spirit of their uncle, Jon Grinager. He built the car in the 1950s and left it to his nephews when he passed away in 2015. Jon bought the car when he was a sophomore at a suburban Detroit high…

This year, Chevrolet’s Corvette Racing program is running one C8.R in the American-based IMSA series and another in the European-based FIA World Endurance Championship series. Following the two longest races on IMSA’s 2023 calendar, the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January and the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring in March, the No. 3 Corvette C8.R ran its shortest race of the year in Long Beach, California, on April 15. The 100-minute Grand Prix of Long Beach was also the only street race the Corvette team will compete in this year. Because of the C8.R’s performance in the 2023 opening rounds at Daytona and Sebring, the team came to Long Beach confident they would be competitive. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, and Tommy Milner drove the No. 3 Corvette to a…

We ask a lot of our classic cars. After all, they were never designed to support the parts we’re trying to transplant into them. Back in the ’60s, transmissions were small, and with only three or four gears, they didn’t need to be any bigger. Today, one of the most popular transmissions for transplantation into early Camaros is the Tremec Magnum six-speed. The six gears, two of them overdrives, offer the perfect blend of performance and highway manners. The big problem (pardon the pun) is that it’s far larger than what GM envisioned when they designed the Camaro’s transmission tunnel. You can also run into space limitations with a larger automatic transmission swap. The simple solution is to do a little metal surgery and make the tunnel roomier, a task…