Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2008 i Hot Rod

HANG UP AND DRIVE I’m of the opinion that the fewer laws we have, the better off we are. Beyond the basics like don’t steal, don’t kill, and so on, I don’t want the government (or anyone else) telling me what I can and can’t do. As long as I’m not hurting anyone, leave me alone. But there is one new law about to go into effect in California that I support 100 percent: It will be illegal to talk on a hand held cell phone while driving. If you want to gab about Britney’s latest shenanigans during your morning commute, you will have to do it hands-free with a headset or Bluetooth. Thank god! My daily traverse over the mountains of Burbank and down the mean streets of Hollywood…

1965 Later in this issue, you’ll read about Tim Lynch’s amazing twin-turbo Mustang. Another car did the same thing (although not nearly as fast) more than 40 years ago, when Gary and Jerry Mallicoat ran a twin-turbo small-block Chevy in their ’41 Willys in the hotly contested Gas Supercharged ranks back in the early ’60s. They came up with the combination after seeing a similar engine on Ed Iskenderian’s dyno and began a mad thrash to build one of their own, with Isky and AiResearch providing input. The end result was a 327 that made 720 hp—it previously made less than 600 with a Roots-style blower. The draw-through setup utilized twin Carter carbs and a modified Rochester F.I. upper intake manifold. At the ’65 Winternationals (they won B/Gas Supercharged in…

Dearborn Classics (www.dearbornclassics.com) has decided to take advantage of its knowledge and massive inventory of ’57 through ’79 FoMoCo products and build a restomod ’64 Galaxie. The plan is to retain the original feel with much of the stock trim and ornamentation and only subtle exterior changes. Underhood, the original 390ci FE was stroked to 428 ci and topped with Edelbrock Signature Series aluminum heads and factory Ford tri-power with Ford cast-iron 406 shorty headers and Flowmaster exhaust to help it breathe. For a modern stance, Air Ride will get it low over the 20-inch Billet Specialties wheels and BFG rubber. Inside will be a custom two-tone aqua leather Dearborn Classics interior with Billet Specialties accessories and Classic Auto Air Perfect Fit A/C. The shifter for the Tremec TKO five-speed…

While I enjoyed driving every car in this group for different reasons, if you were to tell me I could take one of them home, it would be the CDC Mustang. I absolutely adore this car. It is incredibly comfortable, quiet when you’re just putting around, fast as hell, and it handled like a dream. During my time in the car, George and I even had a lovely backseat passenger with us, and she reported perfect comfort. This is the first Flashback model built, so there were a few minor fixes I would suggest. The clutch pedal released really high, which took some getting used to. The shifter was also a reach in First, Third, and Fifth gears, but that could be fixed with a new handle. Finally, the deep-dish…

His name is synonymous with all things fast. Car roll Shelby is the last remaining original American icon of high performance. Regardless of your brand loyalty, the man has built some incredible performance machines and developed many innovative performance components that have revolutionized the industry. From racing Aston Martins and Maseratis in the ’50s to Cobra and Shelby Mustang development in the ’60s, he may now be writing his greatest chapter ever with the creation of the Shelby Cars complex in Las Vegas. Despite his recent 85th birthday, Carroll continues to clock-in daily, creating more performance models and garnering more headlines than anyone in the American performance car arena. We caught up with him recently and tossed a few old (and new) photos under his nose, clicked on the recorder,…

Making power is a no-brainer; that’s the easy part. Getting it to the ground is what separates the men from the boys and is usually what determines whether you win or lose a race. Since launching on the knife edge of traction is essential to getting the win light, serious nitrous racers utilize methods to soften the hit to the tires when they squeeze the juice. If it’s too violent, the run goes up in tire smoke. If it’s too soft, e.t. is left on the table. Progressive nitrous controllers that control the rate and volume of nitrous delivery have been around for years, but NOS’ new Launcher just made them all obsolete. The days of flipping tiny switches, turning knobs, and fumbling with rpm pills are over. This handy…

BOYD CODDINGTON, 1944 – 2008 Actually, it’s not an astronaut and his ship but rather Bob Ida (of Ida Automotive, Moganville, New Jersey) and his ’04 Ford pickup, named Frightening, on the Bonneville Salt Flats at last year’s Speed Week. Designed by Bob’s son Rob at Rob Ida Concepts, the truck runs a twin-turbo 5.4L, making about 800 hp to the wheels. Bob ran a traction limited 181.766-mph average and nudged the truck a tick over 200 mph, but he pulled the chute when it got squirrelly. You may remember the Idas from the feature on their custom Tucker (“The Lower ’48”) in the Mar. ’07 issue.…

POOR REPRESENTATION I must say as an avoid reader of HRM, the Torque Monster Cadillac (Apr. ’07) was one of the poorest representations of an engine to date. The heads that are said to have been new are indeed the old style. There are new heads in the works for this engine that will outperform those heads and be about the same price. There are rods available that are more than capable of doing the job for half the price of the ones used in the article. The crank received treatment for an all-out drag racer, while stock nodular cranks available in some Cad engines can be cleaned up and balanced for next to nothing and perform the task for much cheaper, especially for a truck motor. And rope seal?…

THE BIG SHOW For the Detroit automakers and the Motor City at large, the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is a big deal—prom night and the championship game rolled into one. More than 5,000 members of the global automotive press flock to the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit to see the latest products, joined by more than 700,000 spectators—many of them employees of the Detroit Three and their associated industries, who come to cheer for the home team. For Chrysler and Ford, the big story this year was the introduction of their redesigned pickups, the ’09 Dodge Ram and F-150. While sales have declined as fuel prices have shot up in recent months, trucks remain a major portion of their market shares. Trucks are key. To draw attention to…

BOYD CODDINGTON, 1944 – 2008 Just as we went to press we learned that hot rod builder and Hot Rod Hall of Fame member Boyd Coddington died due to undisclosed health issues. Boyd-built cars won the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award a record seven times, and he was well known to both regular readers of HOT ROD and also viewers of his television show, American Hot Rod. Boyd is the guy who brought billet to the mainstream, both through his wheel company and the style in which he built street rods. He went through some hard times, such as the bankruptcy of the wheel company in 1998 and his guilty plea in an illegal vehicle registration deal in 2005, but the business seemed to rebound quite nicely, as seen…

As the ramp gate lowered on the trailer, we were all taken aback by how aggressive the Terlingua Mustang looked. Our surprise turned to shock when the engine lit off. My immediate reaction was “No way that’s a six.” This thing has throat, and frankly, sounds pretty damn menacing. As it was backed out of the trailer into the light of day, it just got better. Dripping in gloss black and bright yellow and sitting on all-about-business wheels and tires, this puppy was writin’ pit bull–sized checks. I stared over the roof stripe and peered down the front straight of Willow Springs International Raceway’s “Streets” racetrack in Lancaster, California, and wondered just how fast this thing might be going by Turn 1. After a “get to know ya” walk-around, I…

It’s often been said that there are no new ideas—that any “hot new thing” is just a redo of something that was created years before. After all, is there a way to build a ’32 Ford or a ’69 Camaro that has not been done already? While we were brainstorming our now infamous AMC hoax (“The Return of AMC,” Apr. ’08) with Steve Stanford, the subject of different build styles with common cars came up. We began talking about the still somewhat affordable cars out there we thought could use a fresh take, and before he knew it Steve had another sketchpad on his plate. Some of these babies you could absolutely build at home in your garage, while others require Marcel DeLey’s skill and a well-equipped fabrication shop. Of…

Back in the Sept. ’07 issue, we tested some factory-based bolt-on parts for the new Mustang, the GTO, and the new Charger (cover theme: “Power Parts”). At the time, Mopar Performance was in development of a 5.7L kit, but deadlines being deadlines, we had to opt for an aftermarket story (“The State of the Hemi”). However, even in that story the Hemi computer was a limiting factor. Since then, our pal Jon Clark at Mopar Performance has made us aware of new performance parts for the Hemicars, including significant computer upgrades, and he urged us to try them out. So we found an ’05 5.7L Magnum and took him up on it. The Mopar Performance Parts Stage 1 kit includes the typical upgrades: a cold-air intake and after-cat exhaust. However,…

HAVING A BIG TIME I enjoyed reading in the Feb. ’08 issue about Lee Fabry’s restoration of Fred Castronovo’s ’73 Dodge Challenger that my dad drove for many years. It was a close call for that body to survive my childhood. Between races, the body of the car was on the side of the Custom Body Enterprise shop, under some trees. One day I was outside playing around, crawling under the body, and decided to add some excitement. I found a dog-dish hubcap, and I used it to collect the puke tank contents (nitro, methanol, and oil) from the race car in the shop. I took the hubcap and placed it where the engine would be, and I crawled back under the body. Then I took out the matches that…

EVANS’ NEW JOB Though this may seem to be a case of total butt-kissing, we’re glad to learn that our boss, Doug Evans (senior VP and group publisher), has been appointed the new chairman of the SEMA Political Action Committee (PAC). The SEMA PAC brings together the resources of its members and the industry to form a larger cumulative voice on Capitol Hill. A strong and effective SEMA PAC is a crucial resource to help elect candidates who recognize the important role the specialty equipment industry plays in the economy and who are willing to work with SEMA on the issues that affect its members. In other words, they’re fighting for all hot rodders. HOW THEY MAKE IT: AIR RIDE SHOCKWAVE “We had to invent the product, and then we…

Car features are one of the mainstays of this magazine—its backbone—and we strive to show you the top cars, trucks, and whatever from around the country and sometimes from well outside the U S of A. To stay current and show cars before the other magazines do, we often photograph them as soon as they’re done—before the teething problems that come with any new car build have been sorted out and before the tires have turned any real road miles. For obvious reasons, builders and owners are not usually really keen on the idea of us beating their cars around a racetrack or down a dragstrip in the name of a feature. And because of that, we often can’t get an impression of how good the car is as a…

“We haven’t put it on a dyno, but math for the e.t., mph, and weight tells us it’s making around 3,500 hp,” racer Tim Lynch tells us. Tim’s Boss, Eric Dillard (who co-owns Pro Line Racing Engines with Doug Patton) added, “It consumes enough fuel to support that number.” We didn’t actually do the math, but we won’t question their claim on the horsepower for two reasons: Lynch has a timeslip for 6.53 at 231 mph in a 3,050-pound Outlaw 10.5 car, and we’ve seen the size of both turbos he feeds the 620ci Ford with. Home Depot sells smaller tree chippers. Let’s put this in perspective: NHRA Pro Stock cars, typically considered the fastest stock bodied door-slammers, tip the scales 700 pounds lighter at 2,350 (with driver) and use…

EXACT CHASS IS WEIGHT Intercomp 800/328-3336 www.intercompracing.com That’s what you’ll get with Intercomp’s new Percent Weigh system, since it allows more accurate overall chassis setup by displaying all percentages to 100th of a percent while showing both the weights and percentages on the same screen. Weigh screens are viewed on an Intercomp handheld display and can be downloaded to Intercomp’s Race Car Management Software for accurate data-logging and long-term data management. The technology is standard on all SW888, SW888LE, and SW8.8K Wireless ProScales as well as the SW777 and SW8.8K Professional Scale systems and SW650R1 Quik Weigh Scales. Price: $1,395-$5,995 CORBEAU RETRACTABLE HARNESS Corbeau Seats 801/255-3737 www.corbeau.com The Corbeau three-point retractable harness belts are unique because they’re designed to be functional and comfortable even on a daily basis. The belts…

BOYD CODDINGTON, 1944 – 2008 WEEKEND SCHEDULE Date Time Theme Saturday, May 3 9:30 a.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. CT, 7:30 a.m. MT, 6:30 a.m. PT Big Dog Garage Saturday, May 10 9:30 a.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. CT, 7:30 a.m. MT, 6:30 a.m. PT Nineteen ’28 Saturday, May 17 9:30 a.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. CT, 7:30 a.m. MT, 6:30 a.m. PT New Old Goat Saturday, May 24 9:30 a.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. CT, 7:30 a.m. MT, 6:30 a.m. PT Mothers’ ProPane Consult your local schedule for weekday airings. Visit www.HOTROD.com for previews and complete up-to-date airdates. All times subject to change. Consult your local listings for updates. HOT ROD TV: COOKING WITH GAS Join us on SPEED Channel on May 24 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, as we revisit Mothers ProPane, the…