Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2008 i Hot Rod

WALLY PARKS, 1913-2007 The first time I met Wally Parks, he sat down for a few minutes with Gray Baskerville and me as we ate buffet during Bonneville Speed Week in 1992. I shook his hand, and as he and Gray chatted, I sat with the silence of respect and awe, just as many fans have done over the years. Later, in 2002, I’d become the Editor-in-Chief of HOT ROD and received a neatly typed letter from Wally on NHRA letterhead, roasting me for a factual error we’d made in the magazine. Wally’s pointed memos were themselves historic and—as National Dragster Editor Phil Burgess pointed out in his tribute to Wally—you really hadn’t arrived as a journalist until you were on the receiving end of one. I was, a lot.…

THE GOLDENROD AND A BARN FIND The article on Goldenrod in the November issue is terrific. I especially like the way the contributions of people like Gary Garcia, Roger Marble, Pete Dawson, and others were called out. Mike Cook’s comments are right on the money, and the photos are great. I do have one small quibble, though. It was not John Cobb’s record that Bob Summers broke—it was Donald Campbell’s. Donald (son of Sir Malcolm) ran 403.135 mph on Lake Eyre in Australia on July 17, 1964. He broke the record Cobb had held. Of course, Craig Breedlove had already gone 407-plus in his first jet car in August 1963, but Donald Campbell had the wheeldriven record. Campbell was later killed attempting to break his own water speed record. Ironically,…

NASCAR-STUFFED ‘55 PLYMOUTH Living in Ridgeway, Virginia, about 10 miles from the Martinsville Speedway, and having a son who is an engineer for Chrysler in its Nextel Cup and truck engine program seems to have rubbed off on Rick Talbot. His ‘55 Plymouth project will sport a “race-seasoned” 358ci R5/P7 Dodge Craftsman Truck/Busch engine that’s been detuned for the street with JE 9.75:1 forged pistons and a reground Comp cam. Even in its tamed state, the engine dyno’d at 628 hp at 7,600 rpm and 482 lb-ft at 6,200 rpm. The handbuilt chassis is a 2x4-inch, 0.188-wall perimeter frame with a center structure of 2x3-inch, 0.125-wall tubing. Front suspension is C4 Vette, and the rear is an Art Morrison triangulated four-bar. It’s all going together in Rick’s home garage, where…

When we brought the hammer down on a group of 14 Mopar low-deck intakes in the Dec. ‘07 issue of HOT ROD, some trends were clearly defined, while other aspects of the results left us hungry for more information. Using a warmed-over solid-lifter 383 Mopar big-block breathing through stock heads as our test engine, we could definitively identify the characteristic differences between manifold types—with predictable results. As might be expected, the dual-planes all showed a tilt to favor the low-end portion of the power curve, while the single-plane intakes showed a slight advantage at the top of the rpm range. What was lacking was separation between specific intakes, with the spread between them ending up pretty thin. With just 450 hp and 5,800 rpm, there was not enough airflow demand…

60 YEARS OF HOT ROD As you have probably already noticed, this issue marks the 60th birthday of HOT ROD magazine. This whole year will be a celebration with some really interesting historical features and profiles that you’ll enjoy, but the bigger news is that we’re worki ng with NHRA to create a 60th Anniversary exhibit at the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. It’ll open on Wednesday, December 5, 2007, and will run for six months. In addition to a ton of old photos, antifacts, and memorabilia will be a gathering of historical cars, including Ed Iskenderian’s T, the Caballo de Hierro, Tommy Ivo’s four-engine car, and a whole bunch more you’ll want to check out. Go to www.museum.nhra.com for more info, and make plans now. POWER TOUR®…

Readers were diggin’ the “Barn Finds” stories we did in the October and November issues, and thankfully they heeded our call for more. Keep ‘em coming, since we’re planning on another big section in a future issue. Make sure to supply good prints and/or high-res digital photos. And for everyone who sent us the link to all those cars in the barn in Portugal, thanks. We were all hot and bothered over that too … until we learned it was a complete hoax. Do a Google search for barn+cars+Portugal and you’ll see what we’re talking about.—RoB Kinnan NEAR THE BARN No, they aren’t in the barn, but they are near the barn. I can’t tell you where this is, but it’s north of the Rio Grande, south of the Great…

PROFILE: ED KOERNER, HOT RIDER While Ed Cole is often named as the father of the small-block Chevy V-8, we know the real story is a little more complicated than that. In truth, dozens of key people worked to bring the engine to life. Engine development is an even more complicated and collaborative business today than it was 50 years ago, but among those who continued the small-block’s evolution and then launched its successor, the LS1 V-8, we can find Ed Cole’s modern-day counterparts. For example, there’s Ed Koerner: engineer, engine guy supreme, and ranking GM executive. Also, drag racer and hot rodder. Ed began his career at General Motors in 1969 as an engine lab technician at Oldsmobile in Lansing, Michigan, working full time while pursuing his engineering degree…

CRUISING WITH THE PHARAOHS The coolest thing about working for HOT ROD is not all the great venues we get to visit. It’s not even the fabulous cars we get to drive. No, the greatest part of this gig is the opportunity to hang out with and celebrate our heros. The original rodfathers of Toledo, Ohio, were the Pharaohs, and recently the car club celebrated its 50th anniversary along with the 70th birthday of founding member David Janas. Members and friends of the club joined the reunion from as far away as California, and HOT ROD was invited to tag along. The Pharaohs Custom Car and Engine Club was formed with the support of Larry Ernst, a well-to-do Toledo priest whose earthly passion was customizing. The ’51 Chevy he commissioned…

Guys who eschew the norm are cool, but the ones who tap-dance all over it and bring a sense of style and nastiness to uncommon cars are our Dare to Be Different heros. Just about everything has been drag raced at some point, but the elite club of cars that have been prepped for severe road racing is much more selective. All the more reason to break out of the routine of expected platforms and create something new, we say. But there is a delicate balance to strike when treading into that territory. A phantom car is cool and is a great way to let your imagination run wild, but it has to give off the right hard-core vibe or it’s just another poser. When we first happened upon this…

SAVE THE SALT…

We’ve said it before (a lot), but it bears repeating: Bench Racing is your section of the magazine, the place where you can be heard, show off your car, vent about something that irritates you, or tell readers cool old stories highlighted with neat photos of days gone by. We get a ton of mail every month, both electronic and the old-fashioned kind, but one thing that doesn’t seem to be sinking in with a lot of folks is that when you send digital photos, they need to be shot at high resolution. Set the camera to its highest setting and you’ll be good to go. And finally, Lawrence Kuhn from New York, stop it. Seriously.—Rob Kinnan WHAT A DAY This letter is to prove that the first storyteller hasn’t…

TWO’S BETTER THAN ONE Twin-engine dragster • Marc Rexroad Oakland, NE Marc actually designed, built, and painted this ludicrous 185-inch-wheelbase, twin-454ci Chevy-powered slingshot in his garage. It’s not spot-on ’60s correct, especially since it’s swilling E85, but Marc spent hours researching and poring over photos to make sure it had the right feel. Sadly, safety specs will likely keep him from letting it all hang out at the track—but not from having a little part-throttle fun. TURBO HUDSON ’46 Hudson Super Six • Rudy Bennett • El Paso, TX This Super Six is Rudy’s daily driver with a lazy stock flathead-six engine. To help it get out of its own way, Rudy fabbed an exhaust and induction system to pipe in a TO4 turbo from a carb’d Buick Regal. The…

FLOWMASTER’S NEW COMPANY We alluded to it in the Speed Parts Hall of Fame story in last month’s HOT ROD, and here’s the official word. To celebrate Flowmaster’s 25th anniversary, owner Ray Flugger is bringing back his original company name, Hushpower. Flowmaster released a small line of Hushpower mufflers a few years ago, but now it has grown into a stand-alone brand, based in Hayden, Idaho. Hushpowers, which are totally different internally from the Flowmasters we’re used to, already have a name in racing circles as the official muffler of the Diesel Hot Rod Association (DHRA) and the spec muffler for the USAC C.R.A. Sprint Car Series. Hushpower also has a line for everything from musclecars to ATVs. With Flowmaster’s marketing savvy, watch for them to start hitting the streets…

100 ROBERT WILLIAMS ’32 FORD This seemed like a good idea. At first. Then we got into (he actual machinations ol selecting 100 top cars that were worthyol HOT ROD’s 60th anniversary issue. We made list after list, anticipating every possible rant that could come from any direction. There would be no escaping a certain level of wrath, but in the end, we justified our actions by picking cars based on a very specific criterion. In a word: influence. The cars we’ chose had to make a difference to the gearhead hobby, the racing spoil or the people in them. They had to be trend starters or fad killers, landmarks ol style, or shepherds of technology that put a bend in the road of hot rodding. To narrow the scope,…