Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2005 i Hot Rod

YOU’VE TURNED OUR HOUSEHOLD UPSIDE DOWN My wife Holly and I have canned our former plans to build yet another small-block Chevy for our ’65 Chevy II hardtop in favor of a cool, retro inspired 250 inline-six. All of this springs from your June ’05 “Joy of Six” article. Since reading that well-thought-out approach, we have been making friends in the inline world and have found there are a lot of closet inliners out there. Our big desire is to convert our newly acquired ’74 250-inch L6 to turbocharged glory for a street-driven car. We will back this up with the venerable 350 turbohydro with a Lokar floor shifter. Times are a changing, what with gas prices going up, up, up, and we think a turbocharged 250 inline will bring…

1967 ROCKET POWERED! Here’s proof of the truth-is-stranger than-fiction bolt-on that probably led to all the Darwin Award urban legends of today: the Turbonique Drag Axle. We wrote about this rocket-powered bolton in the March ’04 HOT ROD but only recently came across this shot of the Ohio-based Rauth & Venetti Pegasus Mustang ripping a 160-plus mile-per hour pass at the ’67 HOT ROD Magazine Drags at California’s Riverside Raceway [you can see the shadow S from the famous top-end bridge there). Dig the exhaust plume from the 130-pound, 60,000-rpm, 850hp Turbonique Drag Axle. Burning a pressurized mixture of Thermolene [n propyl nitrate), nitrogen, and oxygen, the insane speed of the turbine output shaft was tamed to 7,250 rpm by an 8.3:1 reduction gearbox then fed to the quick-change rear…

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS So we were standing on the starting line of US 131 when reader Jim Owen hunted us down: “Dude, you’ve gotta see this!” And we did. Just a few miles west of the track in the outback of Michigan was Jim Byerly and his almost totally self-built AA/Blown Fuel Streamliner for Bonneville. Byerly, who ran jet dragsters in the ’60s, hasn’t been to the Salt in many years, and when we asked why he didn’t start easier with a lower-class car, he answered, “Something like this takes time, and I don’t have enough, so I might as well go all the way the first time.” Guess so. He’s also completely fabricated a complex trailer for the ’liner, and he built his own engine dyno that utilizes…

It’s been a solid year. The industry, the readers, and the restoration market came totally unglued when the October ’04 issue of HOT ROD hit the stands with a cover story announcing that an all-new, all-steel replacement body for ’69 Camaros would be available through Dynacorn Classic Bodies. Unfortunately, General Motors hit the roof, and everything screeched to a halt. Cease and desist orders flew, and there were a few moments when it even looked like the HOT ROD 1 project car, built with the second all-new body, would not be allowed to be displayed at the SEMA trade show in November last year. It was ultimately unveiled there, but in a far corner of the show, and with all the Camaro badges removed. Photos of the car circled the…

Call it our single concession to Pro Touring, but we wanted to be able to drive HOT ROD 1 hard in more than just a straight line. Even with a heavy Rat motor over the nose, we have a few ideas about putting this car to use in at least one open track event (though lack of a ’cage may prove to be a problem), so we knew the suspension would need much more than just stock replacement parts. And when it comes to early Camaro handling, one of the companies that has made a big splash with the Pro Touring crowd is Detroit Speed & Engineering (DSE). Kyle and Stacy Tucker’s suspension company, which caters primarily to early Camaros, recently moved from The Motor City to the woods of…

So far our special section has covered the history, the parts, and the construction details of HOT ROD 1,the first all-new ’69 Camaro built since 1969. Sometimes magazine project cars get finished and have all the snazzy photographs taken, and that’s it no performance numbers, no legitimate driving impressions, nothing on the problems that always come up when you build a car from scratch … nothing. We planned to be thorough this time, to put this car through the full paces, both over the road and on the dragstrip, but we only met the first goal. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The HOT ROD staff first saw the finished car at the ’04 SEMA Show. As we were pushing Freiburger’s Bonneville Camaro into the ballroom for the Primedia party…

"I’ll never build another car that I won’t drive—I don’t care how rare it is. If you’re scared to drive it, there’s no reason to own it."—Steve Atwell No—literally. Kids bawled, some screaming, as we left the drive-in with 426 inches of uncorked Super Stock Hemi acting like a fuel burning time warp to the days of power that these crumb-snatchers will never understand. They may need therapy, but at least their instinctive reaction reflected how, 41 years ago, Chrysler planned to make the competition drop its ice cream. DaimlerChrysler’s current marketing efforts have gone pretty far to make sure you know the Hemi legacy, starting with the fact that the 426 Hemi was introduced at the Daytona 500 in February 1964, where it finished in the top four spots.…

ALL-TERRAIN GO-KART Yerf-Dog 662/495-2534 www.yerf-dog.com For kids who have outgrown their Big Wheels, Yerf-Dog offers a line of all-terrain go-karts. That means you won’t have to make one yourself with an old lawn-mower engine anymore. It’s built from rugged steel tubing and hits 28 mph by virtue of a 6.5hp Tecumseh engine [a two-year warranty is included). Each corner is independently suspended with coilovers, and a torque converter lets youngsters learn the finer points of vehicle control without having to fiddle with a clutch. Bench seating for two features 13-point restraints, and there are padded bars and a bright yellow flag for added safety. For even more peace of mind, karts meet ASTM and AFKA standards. RACK-AND-PINION UPGRADE Unisteer 330/425-9080 www.unisteer.com You lucky stiffs out there who have first-gen Camaros…

As this issue goes to press, we’re days away from leaving for HOT ROD’s Drag Week and just starting to wade through the mail on the Pump Gas Drags coverage from the September issue. It’s a nice comparison. The main negatives we hear about PGD is that some guys think we picked the wrong vehicles to compete, they want the car owners to drive, and they say we should do away with the three-run average. There’s even a few who totally missed the point about not allowing wheelie bars next year, as in 2006, not 2005. To everyone who wrote in to say they could have won the event had we just allowed them to compete, all I have to say is that we better see you at Drag Week.…

COBALT SS GOES RACING The splash Ford Racing has made this season in the Grand American road racing series with its FR500C Mustangs has been well-reported in the press, including by this magazine [see “Boy Racer,” July ’05), but another factory-supported effort has enjoyed similar success in Grand Am Cup without nearly as much fanfare. Chevrolet’s Cobalt SS Supercharged, a product of GM’s Performance Division, has quietly amassed three victories in the series’ ST class, where it competes against BMW 330s, Mazda RX-8s, and Acura RSXs, including its most recent win at the Emco Gears 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last August. The latest win was particularly well-timed, as GM invited a group of writers to drive stock Cobalt SS coupes on the track at Mid-Ohio a few days…

NITRO IN THE STREETS Front-engine ’60s fuel cars will always be cool and attract a crowd, but load one up with some nitromethane and light it off on a public street, and you’ve got the makings of a riot. The city of Escondido, California, gave Vintage Racer Expositions the green light to fire up nine Cacklefest slingshots at Cruisin’ Grand, a regular Friday night cruise scene on Grand Avenue that brings many of Southern California’s finest rods to the town’s revitalized downtown area. Bill Pitts, owner of the Winkel, Trapp, Fuller “Magicar,” worked with city officials and local sponsors to create an arena big enough to provide for mock push starts, push backs, and a big screen to show action shots of what these fuelers looked like in action back…

Back in the November ’02 HOT ROD, we ran the story on the return of the legendary ZL1 to General Motors. The original was an all aluminum 427 Rat motor that found its way under far too few Camaros (69 total) and Corvettes (only 2). Back in 1969,this engine was factory rated at 430 gross horsepower but legitimately made 600 with nothing more than a set of headers. If you own one of these engines today, you can probably trade it for a good-sized chunk of property with a nice two story house and a barn in most states. As with anything that good, the ZL1 was short-lived and quickly became part of hot-rodding lore—until 30 years later when GM Performance Parts decided to resurrect the aluminum-engine-block tooling and cast…

If you thought staring at the mass of parts that comes with a Cobra kit car was daunting, you ain’t seen nothing like the jumble of big and little stuff required to build a complete ’69 Camaro from scratch. And as for what to do first … oh man, where do you start? Such was the task taken on by Jim Barber and his A-list group of folks at Classic Auto Restoration Service (CARS) in Mooresville, North Carolina. Barber is a subcontractor to Dynacorn Classic Bodies, and he takes all the new sheet metal and assembles it into a complete shell of a ’69 Camaro convertible. His shop also offers an award-winning musclecar restoration. When news of the all-new Camaro bodies broke, we of course jumped on it and got…

NEW CENTRIFUGAL BLOWER PG.120 The Danish-designed Rotrex supercharger takes a new look at the centrifugal huffers with a different-style transmission and claims of turbo efficiency with big blower boost. You’ll need two of them to feed a big motor right now, and there aren’t nearly as many complete kits as the others, but that’s supposedly going to change soon. 740HP PONTIAC ON PUMP GAS PG.124 What happens when you put together a 505-inch Indian and load it with pump gas? How’s 740 hp grab ya? Freiburger follows along as Andy Mitchell builds the engine, runs it on the pump, and then sticks it in his ’72 Ventura and runs 10-flat at the track. JUNKYARD JEWEL FORD 302 PG.132 Here’s one of those back-to-the-basics tech stories that anyone can relate to.…

K&N ’05 MUSTANG FIPK As the OEs continue to extrapolate maximum power from late-model engines, the aftermarket really needs to step up its game to survive. Over the thousands of R&D hours K&N has spent developing air filters, it usually had good luck improving upon the restrictive airboxes that have historically choked Ford vehicles. However, with the new ’05 Mustang producing 300 hp from just 281 ci of SOHC displacement, is there still more to be had with the common filter swap? To find out, we soldiered through hours of Southern California’s vast desert wasteland to K&N to check out its just-released Fuel Injection Performance Kit [FIPK for short) for the ’05 Mustang GT. A project being built in conjunction with several Primedia magazines for Toyo Tires, our bonestock Mustang…

CAMAROTHANKS Project cars like the HOT ROD 1 Camaro could never happen without the help of several unsung heros, so allow us this time to sing the praises of the latest, Chris Petris. Chris is the owner of Corvette Clinic (www.corvetteclinicinc.com) in Sanford, Florida, and a frequent contributor to our sister title Corvette Fever, and he went the distance to help us sort out some fine-tuning issues with HOT ROD 1. Read all about it next month. Thanks Chris, we owe you one! VINTAGE DRAG PHOTOS! Last month we warned you that it was coming, and now, as of November 1, you can go to your local newsstand and buy HOT ROD’s Where It All Began: Drag Racing of the ’50s, ’60s, a nd ’70s. This 100-page mag is loaded…

DUMPING THE 283 ’57 Chevy Nomad Curtis and Bennie Lacy Pleasant Grove, AL Tri-Five Chevys dominate our Readers’ Rides mailbox by a significant margin, but Curtis’ Nomad really stands out. Granted the 283 was a great motor during its day, but Curtis yanked it out in favor of an LSI from an ’02 Corvette. It mates to a 4L60E overdrive trans that spins a Posi rearend out of a late-model Camaro. Contrasting the yellow paint is a set of 17-inch Billet Specialties wheels. LOYALTY ’68 Ford Galaxie Franklin Fitzgerald Green Bay, WI Franklin’s had opportunities to make some good money off his Galaxie, but he’s stayed loyal to it for the past 37 years. He says it’s one of just 1,855 XL-GT two-door fastbacks built that year. A week after…

AETC MOVES TO ORLANDO You can’t consider yourself hard-core if you’ve never been to the Advanced Engineering Technical Conference (AETC). This is a technical conference attended by everyone from top-level engine builders to the average Joe, and the speakers are some of the best and brightest engineers, engine builders, race team members, and teachers in the country. The good news is that anyone can attend, so you really need to check it out. For the past 15 years, the AETC has been held in Colorado Springs, but this year it moves to Orlando to kick off the PRI Show. The dates for the AETC are November 27-30, and it’s held at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. This year’s speakers include Tom Cress (Lingenfelter Performance Engineering), racer and engine builder Billy…

Since it appeared as our cover story in the October ’04 issue, the all-new Camaro bodies have been a huge deal. If you were at last year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas, you got a chance to see the very first complete body built into HOT ROD 1, a running, driving, Rally Green ’69 Camaro convertible. Daily we get e-mails and phone calls asking what happened to the bodies and where people can buy them, but we couldn’t give the whole scoop until now. The bad news is it took a year of paying lawyers to get us to this point, but the good news is that all-new Camaro convertible bodies are in stock, you can finally buy one (for less than you’d think), and a hardtop version is coming…

Say what you will about how a properly built automatic is quicker at the dragstrip, but it’s just far more manly to shift for yourself, especially when you have the torque-management problems that come with a 500-plus pound-foot big-block. When it comes to driving fun, there’s no replacement for a stick, and when you have the appetite of454 ci sucking today’s ridiculously expensive fuel, an overdrive in that manual tranny is a really good idea too. Thankfully, overdrive manuals are everywhere these days, and so are kits to install them with a minimum of cutting in everything from street rods to late model Dodge trucks. Of course, the early Camaro is the darling of the aftermarket swap scene, and one of the most complete, hassle-free transmission-swap kits you can get…

It’s done. We drove it, we beat on it, and it stayed together. We’re talking about the Factory Five Roadster we built last month (and the engine the month before that), and the little car is a brutal handful in the best possible way. First a little back story. Over a year ago, HOT ROD got together with Factory Five Racing to build one of its Roadster kits. They don’t call them Cobras, since that can create legal tension between Ford, Carroll Shelby, and any of the other principals that claim to have ownership of the word Cobra. So the FFR car is called the Roadster, even if everybody out of litigation’s reach calls it a Cobra. The FFR Roadster is unique in that it uses a bunch of parts…

Has your hot rod been naughty or nice? Either way, we’re here to help this Christmas season. If your car has been a bad boy, drop us a line and we’ll try to prescribe the proper regimen to put it back on the straight and narrow. And if it’s been nice, why not treat it to another gleaming stocking-stuffer? We’ll help recommend the best part or combination for giving your ride some holiday cheer—all right in these pages as space permits. When e-mailing, make sure to include “Pit Stop” in the subject line and put your real full name and hometown or military unit, base, or ship in the message. If you have quality digital photos of the car or problem, and if they’re at least 300 dpi at 4x4…

VINTAGE CARNAGE If you love vintage road race cars, this one hurts to look at. It happened in July at the Brian Redman International Challenge, put on by the Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association (VSCDA) at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. There were 58 vintage Trans-Am and B,’"Production cars racing, and this carnage happened on the first lap just past the start/finish line. Estimates put the damage costs at over a million dollars, but none of the 21 drivers involved were seriously injured. The most seriously bashed car seems to be the No. 6 ’69 Camaro driven by Steve MacDonald of Woodinville, Washington, but check out the white ’69 Trans Am that appears to be completely off the ground. We spot two mid-year Corvettes, two C3 Vettes, another early…