Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2011 i Hot Rod

FOR THE LOVE OF FRED I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m writing this from the back seat of a Chevrolet Traverse while Finnegan and video guy Scott Roon are doing their best spastic driving to make me sick while I type. The SUV was loaned to us by GM Performance Division, and we’re on the ’11 HOT ROD Power Tour®, somewhere in rural Georgia, breaking most traffic laws in an attempt to get to Montgomery Motorsports Park for day three of the Power Tour®. I’m in this situation because we decided to throw all our eggs in the Power Tour® basket and make nearly this entire issue about stories we generated on Tour®. While that may seem like a sell-out, allow me to explain. Every year, when…

INDY 500, 1964 As we go to press, the Indy 500 just reached its 100th anniversary (see Roddin’ At Random, page 15), so it seemed appropriate to dig through the archives and find a cool shot from Indy’s past. This was the start of the ’64 race, and it’s significant for several reasons. First, the Mustang had just debuted to enormous fanfare and was selected to pace the race. Second, A.J. Foyt scored his second Indy 500 win in the last front-engine roadster (the No. 1 Watson/Offy in the third row) to ever win at the Speedway. That green and yellow No. 6 car in front is the Lotus/Ford belonging to Jimmy Clark, who would go on to win the next year. The third from the back is Dave MacDonald…

We’ve spent more time with Raybestos Brakes’ Josh Russell at a race track than away from one—both competing and watching—so it came as no shock when he told us the new sweepstakes car he was putting together for the company was going to be a race car. Yes, it’ll be street-legal but more at home tearing up road courses and dragstrips. As with the Hollywood Hot Rods-built ’32 roadster pickup (Feb. ’11 issue), which was presented to the 2010 sweepstakes winner at this year’s Indy 500, he skimped neither on parts nor talent, this time enlisting Kevin Tully and Chad Hill at Hot Rod Chassis & Cycle (HRCC) in Addison, Illinois, for the latest project—a bad-to-the-bone ’64 GTO. “I wanted to build a car to celebrate Raybestos’ heritage in racing,…

Earning a paycheck to live the hot rod lifestyle is a great gig, but we aren’t the only ones who feel like we’re getting away with something when we show up for work each day. Bob Ashton of Utica, Michigan, is equally enamored with his job, which requires attending car shows to promote his own event, the popular Muscle Cars and Corvette Nationals. MCACN caters exclusively to numbers-matching, cubic-dollar cars that people love to drool over while debating their history. The scene is intense and as serious as a heart attack. The judging sheet for each car has a 1,000-point scale. You don’t show up with a first-gen Camaro unless you’re invited, and that coveted invitation doesn’t come unless your car has a COPO code or a name like Baldwin…

A car’s either got it or it doesn’t. It’s the one thing that, done right, can make a beater bitchin’; done wrong, it can turn beauty to blight. Yeah, stance. How a car sits. It’s that know-it-when-you-see-it correctness of attitude, be it the way a car hunkers over its tires or how tall a straight-axle stands. It’s all about nuance in the suspension and wheel/tire selection. For this story, we picked five cars that, to our palates, had it down tight. We’ve seen rides far more wicked than these, of course. But, consider that these cars are all driven, and three really perform in the twisties. From what these guys claim, they’ve got no tire rubbing, short steering angles, or muffler dragging. And while Power Tour® was visited by plenty…

BATTLE OF THE HERO CARS Your eyes aren’t deceiving you; we got together clones of the most iconic movie/television cars ever Dukes of Hazzard’s General Lee Charger and the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am—and pitted them head to head. The opinions on which car is cooler, which show was better, and what characters were more entertaining are fairly evenly split among our Facebook friends. You can read all about it and witness our insane fun in the heart of Redneckville—next month. You can almost hear the Dixie horn over Burt’s laugh now. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE NOV. ’11 ISSUE OF HOT ROD MAGAZINE On sale September 13, 2011 Meanwhile, Get Your Car Fix at HOTROD.com Facebook.com/HotRodMag And YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine HOT ROD (ISSN 0018-6031), October 2011; Vol. 64,…

THE REACH OF HOT ROD I’ve worked for Petersen Publishing, some investment group no one really knows the name of, Emap, Primedia, and Source Interlink Media—all from right here at HOT ROD. We’ve been through the wringer, and I’m the loudest critic in the entire joint, so this is unlikely enthusiasm from me: Things are really good right now. Yeah, we’ve been through a bankruptcy, but the management guys tell us we’re way ahead of the payoff, and HOT ROD is in investment mode. For years, the brand’s editorial staff was myself, Rob Kinnan, Marlan Davis, and Bill McGuire. As of today, we’ve added the lovely Mike Finnegan, the tragically International Scout-owning Clint Stringfellow as videographer, Truckin’ magazine refugee Brandan Gillogly as our online editor, and newcomer Jesse Kiser as…

There is no way to truly capture it or prepare for it. We’ve tried for 17 years straight—and newbies still walk away stunned, unprepared for the sights and sounds of hot rods hitting the road every morning for seven days straight, rolling 1,600-plus miles, and stopping nightly to disgorge their human cargo into massive cruise scenes that degenerate into parties, sucking dry every hotel bar and masticating every steak in a 10-block radius. Folks may have never before experienced becoming pals at first sight, as they instantly bond with like-minded gearheads and/or witness utter strangers stop everything to help them through roadside anguish. Guys probably never expected to walk among the likes of Mario Andretti, Vic Edelbrock, and Chip Foose through the valleys of small-town America and to the landmarks…

Take a cue from Tim Grillot: Be a hot rodder, and build one at home. Seriously. Pick up your tools and start wrenchin’—don’t just ferry your project from one shop to the next and sign a check after the paint dries. Save your sanity and get personally involved in your hot rod’s destiny. Get dirty, take a chemical bath, and spill some blood. Put in some skin, get burned, lose money, throw tools, get lost, find your way, cry when no one’s looking, and celebrate like a freak with a blowtorch and a Molotov cocktail when your vision is realized with your own hands. That is hot rodding. Tim is a badass, a ninja with a TIG welder, and the consummate do-it-yourselfer. By day he manages projects for an industrial…

Randy Nelson just scratched one more item from his bucket list: He finished the entire HOT ROD Power Tour® in his ’23 Ford roadster. The tour ended in Michigan, but he kept on truckin’ heading to the East Coast to finish off one helluva vacation with his family Power Tour® was its usual, casually brutal self, challenging hot rodders with long miles between stops and oppressive heat and humidity mixed in with a few downpours here and there to keep things spicy. The retired firefighter from Umatilla, Florida, motored through it all with a smile on his face. The smile might have come from all the attention the No. 6 car received. The roadster is the latest in a long line of Randy’s project cars, and it was built from…

Speed and style—the cornerstones of a lifestyle that drives every hot rodder to turn a wrench on his car. Whether we are rockin’ a junkyard 305 or a tunnel-port 427, we have to accessorize and modify for more power and attention. Nailing the right look and sound while maintaining reliability isn’t easy, especially in a car that actually sees road miles. Most achieve one or the other, but it’s rare to perfect the formula of speed and pure sex appeal when redesigning an engine compartment. And this is why Power Tour® is so cool. It separates real street cars from lawn ornaments and puts them prominently on display in a traveling circus for thousands to witness. We tracked down four orb-scorching muscle cars during various stops on the ’11 Tour®…

FLYWEIGHT CAMARO BODY PANELS Classic Industries 800/854-1280 ClassicIndustries.com According to Classic Industries, the front bumper, header panel, valance, cowl-induction hood, fenders, decklid, and rear bumper of a ’69 Camaro together weigh 180 pounds. Classic’s new aluminum replacement panels weigh just 72 pounds total. That’s a 108-pound weight savings, and the parts will never rust. The company says the lightweight parts offer an identical appearance to OEM steel body panels, even on the underside. The panel sets are available in your choice of anodized or EDP coating and with either a 2-inch or 4-inch cowl hood. Price: Starting at $2,999.00 KUGEL SHOCK MOCK-UPS Kugel Komponents 562/691-7006 KugelKomponents.com Mocking up any fabrication project before ordering the parts always lessens the chance of screwing things up and getting stuck with stuff you don’t…

RUNWAY RACING IS A RUNAWAY HIT What began in late 2009 as a twofold experiment to return drag racing to the greater Fresno, California, area while generating restoration funds for a WWII airbase is succeeding beyond the wildest dreams of rookie promoter Rocky Phillips. His second annual Fresno Dragway Reunion at Eagle Field doubled in size, attracting 177 pre-’74 race entries, nearly as many street-driven hot rods, more than 2,000 paying spectators, and countless kids (admitted free through age 13). Nobody seemed to mind an absence of electronic starting and timing systems, class eliminations, prizes, or creature comforts. In fact, a single afternoon is no longer sufficient to accommodate the demand for track time, in spite of tireless efforts by 90 volunteers. The hours will be extended next year, assures…

GET LOTS MORE PHOTO AND VIDEO! Power Tour® had more coverage this year than ever, and you can see thousands of extra photos at the Power Tour® page on HOTROD.com. You can also scan this QR code with your smartphone to see some of the extras at Inside.HOTROD.com. For video footage, check out YouTube.com/HotRodMag, and while you’re there, subscribe for free to see videos even before the mag goes into print. SECRET SOCIETY Even bedraggled Power Tour’ veterans were unprepared for the jawdropping tour of the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan. Opened in 1924, it’s the first dedicated testing facility in the U.S. This exclusive opportunity was granted only to the M Long Haulers* for their special last-day party. Our friends at GM Performance Division slashed miles of…

There’s an unfortunate irony in the fact that the cover car for our “Built, Not Bought” issue was, um, bought. However, current owner Dennis Strayer in Michigan picked it up from Bob “Bleed” Merkt—then in Wisconsin, now in Austin, Texas—who did pound together this rod from scratch. There’s really no other way to build a retro ride and have it stand proud, because even with today’s nostalgia craze, there are no out-of-the-box frames with the perfect pinch, kick, and Z—there are no chopped bodies in original steel or suicide front suspensions with ’40 Ford juice brakes. Even when a rod like this carries the de rigueur three-pot small-block Chevy, the grimy old intake says, “Hi, I scrounged the swap meets.” And while you can buy plenty of vintage-hotroddy geegaws and…

See and hear this car in action in a HOT ROD video by scanning this QR code with your smartphone, by visiting Inside.HotRod.com, or by searching YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel (it’s free), you will get to see HOT ROD video features even before the companion stories are released in the magazine.…

There’s an almost zero chance you can hurt your car on an autocross. Unless you forgot to tighten the lug nuts or add oil after the last time you drained it, an autocross is pretty easy on a car—easier than making a full-throttle blast down the quarter-mile, and there’s far less chance of going on your roof like you can on a road course. With that out of the way, there’s no reason to sit on the sidelines of an autocross and watch others do it without lining up for your own shot at killing little orange cones. It’s easy, cheap, and very quickly gets addictive, and unless you’re a total moron, you won’t look like an idiot in the process. This story will give you the basics of what…