Innehållsförteckning för November 2008 från Hot Rod

1995 Starting on page 34 of this issue, you’ll read about the ‘08 HOT ROD Power Tour®, the biggest rolling car show in the world. It’s an annual happening that has grown into an immense collection of diverse hot rods that this year featured 1,245 vehicles driving 1,283 miles over eight days and six states, picking up at least another 2,700 cars along the way for a day or two at a time. Of course, those were just the people who registered; there were thousands more on the road just cruising with us who didn’t bother with the paperwork. The opening line to the story mentions the original Power Tour® back in 1995—here’s what it looked like. This Scott Killeen shot was the lead photo to the story in the…

HOTROD FLEX In a combined build with Ford for this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas, HOT ROD and several other Source Interlink magazines are building special versions of the new Ford Flex. Here’s HOT ROD’s take on it. We’re working with Larry Weiner at Performance West Group to give a new Flex a distinct Salt Flats look as a modern interpretation of HOT ROD’s old panel wagon staff truck. The flex will get Moon disc-style wheel covers, a pair of aluminum pushbars, and a heavy metalflake treatment to the white roof. Inside it’ll be a mobile office capable of carrying all ourjunk and have the capacity to haul the latest engine project to the dyno. Check out the buildup online at www.HOTROD.com. —ROB KINNAN G.T. 500 WILLYS Bogan Renfoe,…

Gerry King commissioned Kustom Creations in suburban Detroit to build the slick ‘55 Chevy ragtop we’re featuring here, but hold on. This car might not be exactly what it appears to be, especially if you don’t know about Gerry, or about EMI—Experi-Metal Inc., the company where he serves as vice president of manufacturing. While this would certainly appear to be an original ‘55 Chevy, and a remarkably straight and clean one at that, the truth is that except for the firewall panel and a few stainless trim pieces around the belt reveal, there are no parts from 1955 in this car. Actually, you probably have stuff in your sock drawer older than the assemblage of components shown here. This is a brand-new ‘55 Bel Air convertible, more or less, built…

How would you like to improve your hot rod’s fuel economy and power in one step? It seems like an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what happened when we installed Edelbrock’s Pro-Flo XT electronic fuel-injection system on college student Gino Furiani’s ‘71 Nova. Built by his dad, Mike, Gino’s Nova is one sanitary ride that puts the 19-year-old behind the wheel of one of the coolest cars on campus. It’s motivated by a basic—but effective—355-cube small-block with 10.3:1 compression, AFR 190cc aluminum heads, and an Isky hydraulic roller cam with 0.505/0.530 lift and 225/234 duration at 0.050. Exhaust is handled by a set of Hooker Super Comp 13/4-inch headers feeding into dual 21/2-inch pipes. Backing the mill is a TCI Turbo 350 with a full-manual valve-body and a Hughes 10-inch 3,000-rpm-stall…

SHELBY LAX Car Art by David Snyder • 513/722-9608 • www.davidsnydercarart.com In this print, automotive artist David Snyder pays tribute to the Shelby shops at LAX. Travel back with him: It’s March 1966, the two Ford GT40s are being loaded for the trip to Sebring, the ‘66 G.T. 350s will be on the way to Ford dealerships, and the G.T. 350-Hs will be headed to Hertz rental agencies. Inside the hangar, new 289 and 427 Cobras are undergoing final preparation. Each Shelby LAX print is signed and numbered by the artist, and the artist proofs are cosigned by Carroll Shelby, the fearless leader of this little slice of heaven. Only 95 artist proofs are available, and the limited run of 950 prints is signed and numbered by David. For additional…

MONSTER RIDES HIT THE STREETS Meet Monster Rides. Designed to celebrate HOT ROD magazine’s 60th anniversary, these handcrafted works of art are exaggerated parodies inspired by old HOT ROD cover cars chosen to reflect the different-style rods built \ through the years. There are customs, muscle cars, and other legends you. wish you had in your garage. Each car is initially sculpted by hand from a pencil sketch, then molded in cold-cast resin to retain detail and hand-painted with a high-polish finish. All orders arrive boxed with a burnout pad along with a title registration. Monster Rides come in several styles and sizes from 7 to 9 inches long with a suggested retail of $49.99. Visit www.coynes.com to see them all and find a store near you, or find them…

Dare to be different can extend far beyond the type of car that gets hot-rodded. It’s about doing something—anything—different from the norm and standing out among a crowd of me-too cars. That power-producing lump of cast iron under the hood is one way to be different from all the rest. How ‘bout dropping a Hemi in a Camaro? Wouldn’t that be cool? (For the record, we checked. It won’t fit without a whole lot o’ work.) Or instead of buying a crate motor for your Chevelle, build the 250ci six-banger and throw a turbo on it. Chris Campbell’s Second Opinion column in the Sept. ‘08 issue asked readers if they wanted to see buildup stories on oddball engines, like straight-sixes or vintage Buick nailheads. Many people wrote in saying they…

STOP TEASING US Chevrolet continues to trickle out facts and images of the ‘10 Camaro, currently scheduled to go into production at GM’s Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, plant on February 16, 2009, with the first shipments expected to arrive in dealerships sometime in mid-March. The big news: The company has now officially acknowledged the SS, the top performance model in the lineup so far. The SS is powered by a 6.2L V-8 that is available with a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission or the 6L80E six-speed automatic. The automatic version, an L99 V-8 based on the LS3 V-8, features Active Fuel Management and is tentatively rated at 400 hp and 395 lb-ft. The manual V-8, also an LS3, reportedly will be good for 422 hp and more than 400 lb-ft. We…

HONORING OUR ENLISTED GEARHEADS While they’re out there fighting for our freedom to enjoy things like hot rodding, some grateful citizens have taken the initiative to say thanks to our gearheads in the service. —CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL WYOTECH HOT ROD MAKEOVER: ‘73 BARRACUDA WyoTech students and staff from Laramie, Wyoming, teamed up to make a dream come true for Army National Guard pilot Andrew Stiles. Stiles, like many soldiers serving in the armed forces, put his life, hobbies, and passions on hold to serve his country. While Stiles was flying C-23s and Black Hawks over Iraq, dozens of WyoTech students and instructors volunteered to devote time after hours to restore and modify his ‘73 Barracuda. In addition to the new bright-yellow paint job (complete with his daughters’ handprints), the car received…

Location: Bent Custom and Performance, Chatsworth, CA EFI FOR ANY CAR PG.72 Electronic fuel injection doesn’t have to be difficult to install. We go in search of complete systems that are fairly easy bolt-ons, then test three of them for both mileage and power. FORD FE BUILDUP PG.100 Fans of Ford’s FE-series engine are fervent about their favorite mill, and Joe Sherman adds more fuel to the fire with a 680hp street bruiser. THE LAST SMALL-BLOCK PG.108 Using its new, affordable iron street block, Dart builds the perfect 500hp engine for your street car. 2,050HP LS PG.116 Kis is the incredible 2,000-plus-horsepower, twin-turbo, 400ci, LS-based engine built by Thomson Racing for GM Performance Parts. TEST AND TUNE PG.132 Borla’s hot new race muffler, some cool artwork, a Model A frame,…

In a list of the top 10 reasons rodders shy away from EFI conversion, always hovering near the top is a phobia over the complexity of a fuel-injection system versus a carburetor, followed closely by dread over the amount of parts swapping required. After all, carbs are mechanical, familiar, and easy to tune. Also, you’ve probably already spent some time sorting out the details to dial in your carb’d combo perfectly. Why mess with perfection? The rest of that list typically revolves around aesthetics. Maybe the efficiency, easy cranking, and ‘round-town driveability of EFI sounds tempting, but when you pop the hood in answer to “What’s it got in it?” the simplistic, traditional look of a carb is what you want admirers to see. Either way, a front-load-style intake or…

In the Sept. ‘08 issue (“Dart’s New Block”), HOT ROD gave you the scoop on the company’s new Special High Performance cylinder block for the Gen I Chevrolet. You might recall that in closing out the story, we mentioned that Dart President Richard Maskin and his small-block consigliere, Dick Arons, were threatening to assemble a sweet street engine to show just what their new piece can do. Here is that engine: a 400-incher with a single four-barrel carb and cast-iron heads. The goals for this motor included 500 hp or better on pump gas with long life, good road manners, and decent driveability—and most importantly, do it all without breaking the bank. Since Dart’s objective for its SHP block is maximum value for the street-level enthusiast, this was to be…

FREAKSHOW ’65 Ford Econoline truck Jason Seidel Valdese, NC Rather than graft that straight-axle into something else, Jason decked out his rare ‘65 Econoline truck in gasser style with Torq-Thrusts and pie crusts in a radiused rear wheelwell. Dig those red tinted windows. It’s not a wheelstander, but with 400 ci of Poncho power backed by a TH400 and a 9-inch Ford with 4.10 gears, it’s got plenty of get-up-and-go. 20 HP IN FRONT ’16 Model T pickup Rick Stanton Fullerton, CA But, it’s 714 hp in the rear! Rick Stanton still uses his pristine stock Model T pickup to run errands and even haul his engines to the dyno for tuning. The beast in the bed is a stroked 351C destined for a customer’s car, and it made 714…

TAKE A FRIEND TO A RACE The Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC), a council of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), is launching a new campaign to increase attendance at Motorsports events and public awareness of the industry. The program is titled “Take a Friend to a Race” and includes a series of ads and promotional pieces that urge enthusiasts to invite and introduce friends, relatives, and neighbors who have never attended a motorsports event to do so. “MPMC members are in the business of manufacturing parts that are designed specifically for race cars,” said MPMC Chairman Bill Floyd. “That gives us a vested interest in the health of the motorsports industry, which translates directly into event attendance. ‘Take a Friend to a Race’ will have a significant effect on…

It’s not just a road trip—it’s the road trip. What began in 1995 as a group of magazine staffers and buddies driving crosscountry to a car show, the HOT ROD Power Tour® has grown into a phenomenon all its own, including thousands of cars at venues across the country. It is consistently the biggest event of the year, packed with the widest variety of hot rods you’ll ever see in one place. The ‘08 Power Tour® ran from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Madison, Wisconsin, stopping in Springfield, Missouri, Topeka, Kansas, Lincoln, Nebraska, Ames, Iowa, and Rochester, Minnesota, along the way. How it works, if you’ve never been on Power Tour®, is that everybody hits the road in the morning and joins their fellow hot rodders on a day trip that’s…

The benefits and shortcomings of EFI versus carburetion is a hot and ongoing battle in the hot rod community—and one we’re not going to engage in for this feature. No, for this one we’re going to assume you’re already intrigued by fuel injection and want to know what your options are. One thing’s for sure—there are plenty of choices to find the right system for your car. To save you time, we did the digging to ferret out all the street-oriented conversions the aftermarket has to offer. From off-the-shelf, turnkey systems that come with all the necessary parts to custom-crafted systems, we’ve got all the players. In addition, we’ve got real-world installation details and test data to weigh the benefits on average muscle cars. We can’t test ‘em all, but…

For most of us, the chief requirement for aftermarket direct-port electronic fuel injection is the elimination of the after-installation hassle factor. We anticipate a nest of wiring, fuel system routing, and fabrication—that’s understood and worn as a badge of honor in hot rodding. While routine laptop tuning may wow your friends, we’d rather cruise with Della in the shotgun seat—not the Dell. What we really want is the convenience of a carburetor with the precision that computer-controlled EFI offers. Crisp throttle response and thrifty fuel usage is why we would even consider going through the effort. However, if an EFI system provides improved horsepower, torque, and fuel economy, the company providing such would rule the world. Enter Chris Richards from Mass-Flo EFI. We first met Richards in the Feb. ‘05…

It’s not every day you find vintage speed parts with your name cast in them. Contributor Brad Ocock sent us this photo of a set of early Mickey Thompson Hemi valve covers, currently on the wall of Battle Creek, Michigan’s David Crane. “My uncle George raced out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, back in the day,” Brad says, “and had a guy named Dan Dunscomb [εd. note: We’re not sure if that’s the right spelling] working for him. Dan went to California, got into the aftermarket industry, and somehow ended up salvaging some of Thompson’s old molds after Mickey sold the company, telling George he’d send a set of covers with his name cast in them. Years went by, the covers never showed, but George heard about them a few times…