Innehållsförteckning för March 2016 från Hot Rod

Every year, HOT ROD gives out dozens of awards at Drag Week™ for the quickest and fastest cars in each class. But one of the most important trophies presented doesn’t go to the person with the most horsepower—it goes to the one with the best attitude and greatest impact on his or her fellow Drag Weekers. The Spirit of Drag Week™ recipient’s achievements aren’t measured by a timeslip—it’s the amount of heart they have and share with the rest of us. For 2015, the Spirit of Drag Week™ winner is Jesse Madaffari Jr. of Skiatook, Oklahoma, who for the fourth year in a row brought his John Deere Green 1983 Chevy C10 pickup to compete at Drag Week™. Jesse’s weekly average with the big-block-Chevy truck was 13.36…

47 Years of Hemi Development Means Wheelstands and 8-Second Timeslips From Mopar’s First Ponycar The 61st annual NHRA U.S. Nationals had all the drama one would expect at the biggest drag race of the year. Exploding Fuel Cars did their usual display, shredding body parts and dumping fluids on the manicured racing surface of Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP), much to the delight of the fans sitting in the grandstands. But what many fans didn’t see (or even know) was that some of the world’s quickest production-built doorslammers come to Indy to duke it out with other cars in the same class. It’s called the Mopar Hemi Challenge, and it’s been happening at Indy since 2001. The roots of this event go way back, to 1968 to be exact. That’s when…

You knew it was bound to happen. Once the hellacious Dodge Hellcat Challengers and Chargers hit the streets on all fours, it was only a matter of time until the tuners of the hot rod world would be dissecting their 6.2L supercharged Hemi, conjuring ways to add more claws to the already overdriven brute. And, hey, we don’t mind—it’s just part of the progression of power. Even though Dodge put out the baddest muscle car in the history of muscle, it left some headroom for the taking. Online forums have been ablaze with the potential of boosting the Hellcat’s performance with a little provoking, and that’s where HOT ROD stepped in. Third-generation Hemi savant Joshua Schwartz was one of those guys already dreaming up ways to squeeze more power out…

In 1967 the Chrysler Corporation was bound and determined to use its 426ci Hemi engine to dominate as many classes of racing as it could find to cram its “elephant motor” into. While the 426 Hemi had been available as a production option since 1965, Chrysler wanted to develop a factory-built, lightweight car to enhance winning in Super Stock drag racing. The 1968 production order codes L023 for Dodge Darts and B029 for Plymouth Barracudas were for special-order cars with Hemi engines and a whole lot less. Te cars’ seam sealer and insulation were removed, as were heaters and radios. Lightweight front bucket seats replaced standard front seats, while the rear seats were eliminated completely. Thinner side glass was installed in the acid-dipped steel doors, and batteries were relocated to…

The National Hot Rod Association’s Stock Eliminator class has been an integral part of the sanctioning body’s core since its founding days more than six decades ago. In the 1960s, the Big Three realized NHRA’s Stock class would be the perfect venue to showcase their latest models to a young generation of racing enthusiasts looking to shut down the guy in the next lane on Main Street USA on a Saturday night, and in today’s modern horsepower race, the same marketing methods apply. CLASS HISTORY The original class killers were the Tri-Five Chevys powered by the venerable 265ci and 283ci small-blocks and 409ci midsized Chevys, 421ci Pontiacs, 406ci and 427ci Fords, and, of course, Chrysler’s orange monsters, the 413ci and 426ci Max Wedges. During this golden era, the automakers tried…

hMike McAlister doesn’t care about matching numbers, although it wasn’t always like that. When he purchased his 1970 Camaro Z/28 used in 1970, it was his first car. He drove it for years and the miles piled on. Seeking to return the car to its former glory, he had a shop start a full-blown restoration. Progress was slow, so the car moved to another shop. Years went by and with little to show for it, Mike got discouraged. His plans changed when he saw a former HOT ROD feature car built by Mitch Kelly and the crew at Kelly & Son Crazy Painters. The 1957 Chevy that inspired him and renewed his interest in his project was show-car beautiful with a capable suspension and a modern V8 powerplant. After a…

HOT ROD’s Drag Week™ is a global drag-racing phenomenon that was created to find the quickest street vehicle on Earth. In the 11 years we’ve been hosting this event, the e.t.’s of street cars have plummeted from the 8s to the 6s—and 5-second passes are within striking distance for 2016. While those crazy-quick timeslips have literally rewritten the rules of what a quick street car is, Drag Week™ is also a proving ground for cars that are built in driveways and home garages. These cars are still brutally fast, and they’re the ones your street-strip project can really learn from. First the disclaimer: This ain’t the same old HOT ROD Drag Week™ Daily Driver class. For the first time in 11 years, we forced every 2015 Drag Week™ competitor to…

Q: When I look over past Rescue and Pit Stop answers concerning ignition tuning, it seems that usually a traditional carbureted V8 engine seems to like around 36 to 38 degrees total ignition advance. For example, the story about Jeremy Brown’s 1966 Fairlane (HOT ROD to the Rescue, July 2015) says the timing was set at 38 degrees total advance. Isn’t that a little too high for a car running on pump gas and wouldn’t that cause spark knock or detonation? A: Not necessarily, especially if the engine incorporates more modern cylinder heads and cam profiles. When gasoline octane and quality went downhill in the 1970s, tuners were initially very conservative. In those days, existing technology was based on carryover designs that (in light of modern knowledge) proved to be…

Car culture has proved to exist beyond the borders of America’s 50 states. HOT ROD was first captivated by United Kingdom–based Stuart Mitchell’s photographs when we came across his bizarre images of a 1959 Chevy Impala creating some serious burnout smoke. For Mitchell, the love for cars goes way beyond the limits of the European car scene that exists in England. His automotive photography career might be fresh, but cars have fascinated him since he was six, when he attended his first drag race. Mitchell has been photographing American cars for more than five years. The most common locations he shoots at are dragstrips like the Shakespeare County Raceway and the Santa Pod Raceway. Some of his best photos include Funny Cars, awesome gassers, and, of course, several nostalgic muscle…

For years I’d heard about an Oldsmobile 442 sitting locked away in a garage in my hometown. When I finally caught the garage door open, I discovered the car was, indeed, a 442, but I wasn’t expecting it to be a 1974 model— a survivor of the Colonnade-design era. The owner bought the 442 new and had driven it for years. This one had an M-code Olds 350 in it—not the bigger 455. His reasoning for the engine choice was that there was only a 30hp difference between the 350 and the 455 in 1974, so why get the bigger powerplant? The 442 hadn’t run right in years, even though it was constantly being tinkered with. The car was eventually relegated to backup duty and has sat in the garage…

For the first time in class history, NHRA will require the use of a spec multi-port EFI system in Pro Stock, and it uses many of Holley’s aftermarket fuel-injection components. The NHRA worked closely with Holley to build a spec EFI package using a mixture of NHRA Pro Stock–specific and off-the-shelf parts. The intake-manifold design is open to interpretation by the teams so long as the throttle-body is forward-facing, as seen in most modern intake-manifold design. NHRA 2016 PRO STOCK EFI REQUIREMENTS ENGINE CONTROL UNIT • Holley HP ECU PN 554-129 • EFI closed loop functionality permitted REV LIMITER • NHRA hard limiter set to 10,500 rpm THROTTLE-BODY • Holley PN 112-123 • Must be mounted forward-facing and remain in the engine compartment FUEL INJECTORS • Holley PN…

Is there anything better than turning a wrench, bolting something to your ride, and then getting more horsepower, or better stops, or more control on a track? Sure, more involved internal engine-building is the way to a mad-scientist, fire-breathing monster powerplant, but if you’re not ready for that yet or want to keep your later-model car from flashing a check-engine light, there are some pretty impressive offerings from the aftermarket today. Sometimes, a bolt-on product can provide the quickest way to fun, and if getting your tires to the pavement is one of your goals, it’s worth checking out the latest and greatest engineered parts from the automotive aftermarket. So check these products out, drool, plan, save, and once you install them, put ’em to use! Art Morrison Enterprises Inc.…

HOT ROD Drag Week™: I’ve written the rules, helped organize it, marketed it, hosted it, been a tech inspector, thrown people out, run lanes, covered it as a journalist, and worked it as the announcer. One thing I’ve never done is raced in it, but our first-ever Drag Weekend event in October 2015 finally gave me a taste. I participated as a poster child for the target audience: people who want to run the bigdaddy Drag Week™ event but are unable to register in time, or geographically undesirable, or too busy to take that much time off. Our concept for Drag Weekend is to show people what the big game is all about in a much more relaxed environment with looser rules, fewer classes, and lighter…