Innehållsförteckning för June 2009 från Hot Rod

PEOPLE CAN’T DRIVE In this column and to pretty much everyone I know, I’ve often lamented the poor state of the average driver’s abilities and how irritating it is to commute among the legions of inattentive, couldn’t-care-less drivers I’m surrounded by every day. As someone who loves to drive and pays attention to what’s going on, it never ceases to amaze me how brain-dead most people are when they get behind the wheel. To go deeper, I think a lot of people are just completely inconsiderate of how their actions affect everyone around them, whether it’s in a car, at 7-11, at a movie theater—everywhere. Most of the population seems lost in their own little worlds (and usually on a cell phone). It makes me want to kill at least…

1965 BRISTOL DRAGWAY We just got the news that the preregistration count for Power Tour® attendance is actually larger right now than it was at this time last year. If history is an indicator, that means the event is going to be bigger overall, which is dropdead awesome considering the economy Hot rodding passions can’t be killed. The news got us thinking about Thunder Valley, the nickname for Bristol Dragway, which is adjacent to Bristol Motor Speedway—the ultimate destination of the ’09 Power Tour®. The image seen here is from the track’s opening event, the ’65 NHRA Springnationals. Then known as Bristol International Dragway, it was constructed for nearly a million dollars and was hailed as perhaps the best track in the country, and according to Wally Parks at the…

FACTORY FIVE’S ’33 Back in the Oct. ’04 issue we had Thom Taylor draw up the Race Rod—a ’33 Ford with a hard-core road race attitude (top). It hung on our office wall for years, taunting us to build it. Then lo and behold, Factory Five developed a kit for it. For $19,990 you get everything but the drivetrain, rearend, wheels, and tires, and FFR claims it handles like a Le Mans prototype. We’re going to find out, as we’re about to embark on a build of one at LK Motorsports in Hermosa Beach, California (310/937-6869). Owner Langley Kersenboom (shown) has dedicated a corner of his shop to the build and through a group effort with the HOT ROD staff and members of FFR’s tech crew and message board members,…

“It looks like a show car, but it’s really a killer.”—Tom Nelson It’s the world’s cleanest third-gen Camaro, and it has 1,700-plus horsepower. As outstanding as that statement is on its own, this car’s engine made it onto our cover because it also exemplifies this month’s theme of new tech, new ideas, and most of all, new power. The Nelson Racing Engines (NRE) 427ci, twin-turbo Dart/Brodix smallblock is crammed with billet-born innovation, including an all-new NRE three-piece intake manifold that features dual integral fuel rails with twin banks of injectors and a bolt-in fuel regulator setup that draws commands from the internally drilled boost-reference ports. The throttle body and inlet pipe are also part of the billet goodness. So, yeah, it’s $8,000 worth of intake manifold, but it includes a…

We’ve been flying at 33,000 feet for the last nine hours and nobody has a clue what to expect. My travel partners are freelance photographer David Newhardt, filmmaker Mark McInnis, Classic Design Concepts owner George Huisman, automotive designer Tom Tjaarda, Ford designers Camilo Pardo and Kyle Evans, and Quality Metalcraft owner Michael “Chet” Chetcuti. All we know is we’re going to drive a handful of Mustangs through India while a film crew documents the adventure in a promotional effort for a new turnkey muscle car called the Equus. How I got here is still not completely clear. But let’s start at the end. This was the trip of a lifetime, the Holy Grail of automotive journalist perks. The reason it gets a story in HOT ROD magazine is because of…

Location: Ann Arbor, MI BUILD A MUSCLE TRUCK PG. 96 Hot rodders have all but ignored pickups. After seeing our 74 Chevy thrash, maybe they won’t any longer. CHEAP 350 PG. 104 Last month’s dirt-cheap 350 Chevy gets more parts to make 420 lap, still for less than three grand. DIGITAL WATER INJECTION PG. 110 Water/methanol injection is back and better than ever, thanks to electonics. PITSTOP PG. 124 Few things are more annoying than a car that over heats. Marian tells you howto prevent it.…

“Our strategy is always to’go fat’and work backward from there, so we learn the quench point, then dial it backto find the sweet spot.”—Matt Snow, Snow Performance We’re sure you’ve heard the stories about how nitrous oxide was first pioneered on German fighter planes during World War II—the Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt interceptors used nitrous in conjunction with superchargers to step up the power. But what a lot of people don’t know is that they also injected a water/methanol mixture for the same reason. Adding a mix of water and methanol to the intake airstream does several useful things that add up to a major improvement in an engine’s detonation threshold. Used alone or in conjunction with an intercooler, water/methanol injection allows more ignition timing, lowers intake air temperature, and provides…

PROS I am in 100 percent support of the Toyomaro. Total props to Ted Nguyen for putting it together in his own shop, with his own creativity, and with his obviously deep wallet. Nguyen’s car is the embodiment of what HOT ROD magazine should be all about: craftsmanship, creativity, build quality, and power. Sorry, belly button bolt-on boys, but real hot rodders do not order their cars from catalogs. It takes a lot longer to plan, cut, move, rethink, wait for materials, and dial it all in, but it is all worth it when surrounded by a crowd of people uttering, “It has a what in it?” Phil WiltensAlameda, CA Regarding the Toyomaro, I think it’s really cool that someone had the balls to do it. I mean, what about…

FORD’S NEW NASCAR V-8 We’d love to show you spy photos of the hot new V-8 (code name Coyote) that’s going into the ’11 Mustang, but the last time HOT ROD pulled that stunt, we got a scary letter from some corporate lawyer dudes. Yes, we know what cease and desist means, and no, we wouldn’t like to have our lungs and kidneys removed by court order, so we’ll lay off the keyhole photography for now. Instead, here’s the other all-new V-8 from Ford, the company’s FR9 NASCAR Sprint Cup engine. An all-new design from the crankshaft up, the FR9 shares no components with Ford’s previous NASCAR small-blocks, which were based on Cleveland and Windsor production engines. Ford was the final holdout in NASCAR running a productionbased engine, as Chevy,…

Corvettes are icons of performance, so much so that HRM used to dedicate entire issues to them each year. Then, all of a sudden, the restocrowd changed the image of the Vette. We’re ready for fewer chalk-mark cars and more street machines like this one. Lynda Schwartz always loved the lines of the C3 Corvette and owned an Ontario Orange ’72 four-speed coupe from 1985 until 2000—when someone else’s carelessness forced her to sell it. In addition to being a Vette girl, Lynda is also an Aprilla-riding sportbike fan who owns and operates a motorcycle performance and repair shop in Crystal Lake, Illinois. She and an all-female crew (except for one mechanic) run the place, and you could say they catch a few tough guys off guard with their expertise.…

“I first saw a Cobra Jet Mustang race at the Supernationals at Ontario [CA] in the early ’70s and realized that a Cobra Jet was a very competitive car,” John Calvert said. What the owner of Calvert Racing discovered firsthand is what many racers and hot rodders had first discovered back in 1968 after Ford’s competition debut of the 428 Cobra Jet Mustangs at the ’68 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, a showing that legitimized the hottest Mustang of the muscle car era. They won on Sunday and sold like hotcakes on Monday, and the memory of Al Joniec’s win behind the wheel of the Rice-Holman Ford-sponsored CJ still brings a smile to the face of any diehard Ford fan. Calvert got his own ’68 Cobra Jet in 1974 (for—get…

We have a library of automotive schemes logged in the backs of our minds, and in the face of deadlines, the hunt for perfection, and the pursuit of other dreams, they rarely come to fruition—until one day a plan drops from the sky and makes it all happen on a ramrod deadline. That, in synopsis, is the story of the Muscle Truck. For years we’ve noticed that, in a world of overpriced muscle cars, V-8powered pickups still clog the classified ads at dirt-cheap prices. We’ve often looked at them and wondered why no one spins them as street machines. There’s an entire market for quaint, classic trucks and another for 22-inch-wheel wearing customs sprinkled with the polished poop from a CNC mill. But where are the drag trucks? The handling…

• MAIL: HOT ROD PIT STOP, 6420 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES, CA 90048 • FAX: 323/782-2223 • MESSAGE BOARD: HOTROD.COM SOLVING COOLING WOES How much better/worse does a two-row aluminum radiator with 1-inch tubes work in place of the same size radiator with four rows of 3/8-inch brass tubes and everything else in the cooling system remaining constant? What about high performance water pumps versus stock for a real-world temperature reduction? What works better in the real world: a 17-inch-od sevenblade flex fan at an idle speed of 675 engine rpm or a 2,360-cfm 17-inch SPAL electric fan? Is straight water or 50/50 coolant better? The reason I ask is I have a daily-driver ’66 Mustang GT with a mildly modified, 300hp 302 and C4 automatic. The motor was rebuilt…

POWER TOUR® WINNER HOT ROD magazine and GM Performance Division would like to congratulate Lee C. Bartine of Ames, Iowa, the ’08 HOT ROD Power Tour® sweepstakes winner. Lee took delivery of his Chevrolet HHR-SS at George White Chevrolet in Ames and got to dig out his HHR himself. We’re almost ready to make the announcement for our ’09 Power Tour® sweepstakes prize, and we guarantee you’re going to like it. Keep an eye out at HOTROD.com for full details and how you can win. More details to follow in next month’s issue of HOT ROD. We are also proud to announce that Mobil 1 will be the Dyno Challenge Sponsor as GM Performance Division presents the ’09 HOT ROD magazine Power Tour®. The Peak Performance Challenge will also give…

MY LOCAL TRACK Imagine my surprise to see my local track, Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio, mentioned not once but twice in the Apr. ’09 issue (“The Ones That Didn’t Get Away” on page 44 and In Their Own Words with Shirley Muldowney on page 69). I just had to write. What really got to me was Shirley’s explanation of the lower photo on page 67. That’s exactly how my parents, Bob and Kay McCrary, took their Corvette to the track in the early days of my dad’s racing career. He is no longer with us but would be proud to be seen in your publication. Robin McCraryFindlay, OHP. S. The ’63 pictured didn’t get away, either. I still have it. BAD PENNY CAMARO I believe that no amount…

NO-MAINTENANCE 9s ’72 Chevrolet Nova SS • James Baird • Via email After getting the back half and rollcage completed at Rapid Motorsports, James Baird went to Charlie Buck Racing Engines in King, North Carolina, for a no-maintenance engine capable of pushing a 3,300-pound car 6.0 in the eighth-mile. What he got was a Dart-based 522ci big-block Chevy using an LS7 crank and Jesel-equipped Dart 355 heads to make 839 hp at 7,200 rpm and 747 lb-ft. With a transbraked ATI TH400 sending power to a Strange nodular centersection with 4.33 gears, a Mark Williams 40-spline spool, and gun-drilled Mark Williams axles, the Nova regularly sees 60-foot times in the high 1.30s to low 1.40s. So far, James has run a best of 5.98 at 114 in the eighth-mile and…

Perhaps the best characteristic of the automotive aftermarket industry is its constant push forward for a better mousetrap. Hot rodders by nature can’t leave well enough alone and are always tinkering with a part, an idea, or a concept to try and make it better. It’s all in the name of going faster than the other guy or the pride in developing something better. Even in these tough economic times, our industry is plugging forward as fast as it can, developing sweet new speed parts to make our junk run better and faster. We have compiled a list of the 50 newest parts we could find—many of which are so fresh that they don’t even have part numbers or set pricing as we go to press—and present them here as…

There’s a fairly well-kept secret in the Motown car biz: The factory dream cars—concepts, prototypes, show cars, affinity vehicles, you name em—often are not built by the automakers themselves. Instead the OEs rely on a small group of highly specialized fabrication shops based around the Detroit area. These companies are among the few entities in the world with the skills and resources to turn a pile of raw materials into a complete, functional automobile. By that we mean not just bodies and chassis from scratch, but every last component: taillamps, instrument i clusters, glass, interior trim, and exterior emblems, all in the finest show-quality detail. Everything. And depending on the deadline and budget, these shops can often create a finished car in as little as 90 days from start to…

PRESENTED BY GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVE™ Here’s the big change for 2009: We’re requiring windshield wipers again. OK, not really. That was an inside joke for the 300-plus guys who have competed in HOT ROD’s Drag Week™ over the last four years. But the thing is that you can become one of those insiders if you just sign up for the ’09 edition of what we honestly believe is the greatest street drags competition ever, if we do say so ourselves. You could have lifetime stories of glory, personal achievement, and camaraderie. Drag Weekers are both an elite group of diehards who have made the commitment to the journey and an open gang of hot rodders who will do anything to keep another racer in good spirits and in healthy competition.…

HOT ROD recently assembled an economical 0.030-over 350 Chevy based on a Coast Motor stock-replacement-style shortblock that made 391 hp when equipped with GM iron Vortec heads, a Comp Cams hydraulic flat-tappet oval-track cam, an Edelbrock Performer RPM high rise dual-plane intake manifold, affordable Summit Racing 1 5/8-inch primary-tube headers, a GM HEI distributor, and a Holley 750-cfm vacuumsecondary carburetor (see HOT ROD, May ’09, “Cheap 350”). The whole package came in at just over $2,600, a real boon in today’s tight economy. But 391 hp, although certainly no slouch in the power/dollar department, was still shy of our original 400hp goal. This month, we decided to bring the Cheap 350 back with some alterations in an attempt to blow past the 400hp mark without shelling out cash like a…

HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS Crashing or blowing up something at the track is embarrassing when it happens in front of a bunch of spectators, and it’s doubly worse when it shuts down the track for a while. Thankfully, ’when John Irving plowed down the Christmas Tree at the ’09 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, he did it during Thursday’s qualifying session with only a few hundred people in the grandstands. The left rear wheel studs on Irving’s M/SA Dodge pickup sheared off when he launched and sent the truck into the Tree, smashing it into a million pieces and causing about an hour delay in the proceedings—until the NHRA had a new Tree up and wired. — ROB KINNAN…