Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2025 från Hot Rod

Dennis Taylor has built and painted hundreds of high-end custom cars and trucks in shimmering coats of metallics and pearls in his time, but it’s his latest creation, a vehicle with nearly three-quarters of a century of weathered patina, that the Arkansas automotive maestro stands back and marvels at most. The project in question, a 1953 GMC “COE” (cab over engine) truck, is a visual masterpiece of creativity and the result of seven years of on-again, off-again effort and problem-solving. These COE trucks, very utilitarian vessels of the era, came in a range of configurations and wheelbases for everything from fuel and car hauling to farming, delivery, and wrecker duty. Dennis always wanted to build a COE, and when he saw one come available on eBay years ago, he didn’t…

Early in my career of slinging words and capturing moments for automotive publications, this New Jersey guy (me) was asked by a local car enthusiast if I was ever going to pack up my home, my cars, and my gear and head to the “epicenter” of the classic car hobby, which this guy insisted was in Southern California. Without a second thought, I told him, “Uh, no way, bud!” I mean, why would I ever leave my home? I knew that I had everything I needed to do my job right here in Jersey, and I certainly wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With 10 million people packed onto this undersized strip of sand, soil, and highway situated smack dab in the middle of the most populated area in the…

HOT ROD has been in the Top 10 ranking business for 60 years, though it has been an on-and-off affair. We resurrected the beloved rankings in 2023 after a long hiatus, and the first HOT ROD Magazine Top Ten Club happened in 1963, which was printed in the February 1964 issue. We might not give out jackets like they did in the ’60s, nor did we create a standard of judging like the editors used in the ’80s. Rather, our list is curated using a mix of authoritative experience and a little help from website traffc around these vehicles. We produced hundreds of articles in 2024 as we sought to keep you informed and entertained, and of the thousands of vehicles and trends we studied this year, our list is…

There’s a lot of existential power in “just because”—the reflexive reply to an impulsive act that seeks neither validation nor approval. When we’re children, “just because” is the answer to why we pushed your little sister to the ground or poured maple syrup down the heating vents. No guilt. No contrition. No second thoughts. “Why’d you do it?” “Just because.” Whether through confidence or plain old thickheadedness, “just because” carries through to adulthood, and believe us, there’s not a second thought in Tony Netzel’s head about his choice of a 1961 Plymouth Belvedere as the foundation for twin-turbocharged Pro Street supremacy. He plucked it from a wrecking yard in North Dakota way back in 1994. He’d gone there from his home in Duluth, Minnesota, to buy another Mopar, but that…

The art of stuffng hopped-up powerplants into underpowered compact cars is pretty much the basis for the establishment of the publication in front of you. HOT ROD has consistently promoted the theory that success in motorsport can be achieved by decreasing a car’s mass while increasing its power output. That’s Physics 101, people, and sometimes it’s a lesson learned the hardest way possible. However, when it’s done right and the build’s firing on all cylinders, you’re soon shredding pavement and livin’ large, with years of heart-pumping bliss ahead of you. Since the early ages of automotive production, enthusiasts have sought out cast-off, cheap, lightweight donor cars to bring back to life as street machines. The immense variety of vehicles available at any given time has helped fuel the classic…

The party was over. The fun was done. That was the familiar refrain for the U.S. auto industry in the early ’70s, as several socially and federally driven changes meant high compression, and hood scoops gave way to compact cars and catalytic converters. A few holdouts notwithstanding, the muscle car was dead as 0-60 times meant less than miles per gallon. America wasn’t alone. The swinging ’60s also turned into the sober ’70s across the pond, where Great Britain’s once-dominant auto industry was cracking under the stress of ineffciency, labor strife, and increasing competition, particularly from Japan. It was a painful transition, and just as performance drove into the ditch in the United States, it sailed right off the White Cliffs of Dover in England. Times were tough all over,…

On today’s hot-rodding landscape, station wagons are not just accepted but embraced as a fun alternative to a standard coupe or sedan. Not too long ago, though, most longroof cars were relegated to being parts donors for their more desirable two-door counterparts. Wagons were designed to be used hard and put away wet, which generally meant being picked apart in a junkyard before a final trip to the crusher at the end of their lives. There are a few exceptions to the rule, namely the sporty two-door wagons of the Tri-Five era that rolled out of the Chevrolet and Pontiac divisions of GM. Those wagons, the Chevy Nomad and the Pontiac Safari, are set apart by their sporty two-door design, with a touch of extra bling. At the time, their…

For the past 30 years HOT ROD has been throwing a road trip dubbed the HOT ROD Power Tour. The problem is that in those decades it has evolved from a coast-to-coast drive to a regional five-day cruise that primarily exists in the Midwest and touches parts of the East Coast. Our solution to bringing the joy of cruising back to a countrywide program was to add a second tour, this one called HOT ROD Power Tour West. We launched it in 2023 and brought it back in 2024 as its popularity grew, and the great news is we’re already working on the 2025 Power Tour West. The inaugural tour in 2023 was three days, a way to test the waters in the marketplace, and it finished at the famed…

The original Supervan left lasting impressions on countless enthusiasts, but perhaps the strongest was burned into the psyche of former Ford engineering apprentice Andy Browne, who was a friend of its builder Terry Drury and enamored with the vehicle from the very start. After fulfilling its promotional duties, Supervan was unceremoniously stripped down and its pieces scattered to the British wind. Browne, who wasn’t even 20 at the time, did his best to keep track of the bits. The body passed through a few hands, but Browne kept tabs on it and purchased it in 1973 as a rolling shell for 500 pounds. Investing another 500 pounds, Brown procured a replacement transaxle from Drury. He got the vehicle running and driving, but he had to sell the vehicle a few…