Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2009 i Hot Rod

HOT ROD MULUS PACKAGE It's cruel irony that the best time to buy a car almost always coincides with a time when you have no money. That hit home with me last weekend as I was attempting to sell my '65 Mustang. I really hate selling cars, since no matter how big a pain in the neck one might have been, I still grow attached to it like a new puppy and shed a tear watching it drive away with someone else's name on the title. There's a reason I buy them in the first place. They all have such potential, and the eagerness with which I fantasize about the project outcome is often overrun by a lack of time, money, or motivation to actually do anything with them. The…

THE FIRST COVER CAMARO In this issue we finally got to review the real '10 Camaros, which have strong styling ties to the '69 Camaro. Considering ' that our magazine has long been accused of being too Camaro heavy, we started to wonder when the first '69 appeared on HOT ROD's cover. A press photo of a '67 RS/SS convertible was shown as an inset photo on the Oct. '66 issue, and a '70 1/2'-model was on the Mar. '70 cover. '. But the first '69? Believe it or not, it was Aug. '78. Yep, HRM did not have a '69 Camaro on its cover until the cars had been out for almost 10 years. The one that got the honor was Carl Popp's blown street machine, seen here in…

After serving as the tow vehicle for Rick Kirk's '63 lightweight Galaxie back in the '60s, this '61 Econoline was garaged in 1973 and basically forgotten about for 25 years. It was too bad, since Rick had hot-rodded it back in the day with a Tri-power 406, lots of chrome, and what he says was one of the first pearl-white paint jobs in his part of Oklahoma. It became more of a showpiece than a tow piece, hence its hibernation away from the race scene. Then in 2004, Rick talked to the folks at Kicker about doing another show vehicle (he had done a few for them in the past) and mentioned that he had the Econo-line. Kicker's Dan Jobin says, “It sparked our interest. After moving the animal skeletons…

Factory-backed by the Plymouth Division in late 1964, Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin were no strangers to A/FX racing—they had been at the heart of it since 1962. But Buddy remembers that they were not ready for what Mopar had brewed for 1965 when they arrived in Detroit for a preview of their new Plymouth race car. “Frankly, that was unbelievable,” Buddy says. “A lot of mouths dropped open when we saw that first car. We had just come to Chrysler, and we could see the potential of the program, so it was pretty exciting for us” The factory had moved the front wheels and rear axle forward, creating among the first of the Funny Cars. Sox & Martin raced that car, named the Paper Tiger, five times a week.…

Finally. More than three years after the Camaro Concept first saw the light of day at the '06 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, we got our greasy hands on the real thing. Is our impatience showing? Actually, HOT ROD was given the opportunity to try all four powertrain combinations offered for the '10 model year on sale now: the 3.6L V-6 and 6.2L V-8 with manual and automatic transmissions—both of which are six-speeds. While the mid-March weather was cold and breezy—a shivery 34 degrees—and our driving was limited to the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan, we came away with some distinct impressions and solid test numbers. However, we are not going to continue teasing you the way Chevrolet, bless its heart, has been jerking all our…

There's a feeling of victory after destroying yourself to complete a project vehicle on short notice then jamming it cross-country and back. That was us last issue. Then there's the coming home and finding that same vehicle to be partially completed, road weary, and ignored after life moves on. That was us this month, but we decided to rescue our '74 Chevy C10 Muscle Truck from the doldrums, fix some of the loose ends, and find out what it would really run at the dragstrip. If you read last month, you know we took a beater, $1,500 Stepside and tossed in a carbureted GM Performance Parts LS6 crate engine. We've since recalled that we installed a cam in that engine years ago: It's a Crane custom hydraulic roller with 228/232…

LAST CHANCE TO PREREGISTER May 27—that's your last chance to preregister for the 15th anniversary HOT ROD Power Tour(r) presented by GM Performance Division. You can call 877/413-6515 or sign up online from the link found at www.HOTROD.com. But even if you cannot preregister, don't hesitate to make the trek. On-site registration will be available at all venues. For $80 you can register your car for multiple days; it's $25 for single-day car registration. Spectators are admitted free. Even with the economic challenges we're all facing, HOT ROD's long-standing relationship with GM Performance Division continues forward. “After many years as the presenting sponsor, General Motors Performance Division remains firmly committed to the HOT ROD Power Tour(r), and we look forward to hosting a stop at the General Motors Technical Center…

THE MAKEOVER ISSUE In my comeback column last month I mentioned that a few changes to the magazine were on the way Well, you're holding 'em. This month we've introduced tune-ups that are not nearly as drastic as when we did a complete relaunch of HOT ROD with the July '04 issue, but it's been five years since then and it felt like time for a mild port and polish. What'll most strike you about this issue is that it's got more cars featured than you've seen in a single issue of HRM in many, many years. We created an entirely new section of the magazine called, plainly enough, Hot Rods. We take the definition of that term as liberally as our forefathers intended it and plan to sprinkle the…

This is the first installment of the new Hot Rods section of the mag, where we'll feature more cars per issue than we have over the past five years. Know of a great ride that should be here? Got killer photos of cars in action along with details about them? Tip us off: email HOTROD@hotrod. com or mail to HOT ROD Hot Rods, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Lately we've been hanging with Brent Hajek and his Fords at Bonneville and the Winternationals. We also had a chance to watch him do big, 7,000-rpm burnouts with this car, which is the one and only Bob Tasca-built '69 Super Boss. Starting with Ford's preproduction Boss 429 Mustang serial No. KK#1214, Tasca upgraded it with a 494ci, all-aluminum Can-Am race…

In 1969 a talented European race car technician named Robert Solorzano found himself pondering a purchase that most of his coworkers considered ludicrous: an American muscle car. Though constantly surrounded by some of the continent's finest high-strung and expensive race cars from Ferrari, Lola, and Jaguar, Robert couldn't help gravitating back toward the cars he'd lusted after in his youth. Robert was born and raised stateside and cut his teeth building and tuning Fords, Chevys, and Dodges. His talent scored him a job offer full of promise— provided he was willing to relocate to Europe. For a while, he did fine, adjusting to the banshee shriek of 12 tiny cylinders versus the deep, primal percussion only eight big bores can provide, but the often overly complex and finicky engines left…

The '10 Shelby GT500 is better than the '07 to '09 version in pretty much every way It's faster, handles better, gets better fuel mileage, and is more comfortable. How do we know? Because we got to drive one on the twisty mountain roads through California's wine country one day, then beat the snot out of it at Sears Point—sorry—Infineon Raceway in Sonoma the next. As we did with the Camaro test, let's get right to the quarter-mile numbers. Our testing was done on the car's production tires (the latest Goodyear F1 supercar tires, sized 285/35ZR19 in the rear) on Infineon's completely unprepped dragstrip, and with a stout 15-to-20-mph head wind. Traction was nonexistent, so keeping out of wheelspin was impossible in the first three gears. Judicious pedaling to get…

Developed by an international A-team of GM engineers and then refined by Lotus Engineering, the DOHC four-cylinder Ecotec is considered by the General to be the small-block Chevy of four-cylinders. A true worldclass engine design, Ecotecs use an aluminum block and head and so far have been offered in displacements ranging from 1.8 liters to 2.4 liters. Although the vast majority of Ecotecs are normally aspirated with cast bottom ends, special high-performance supercharged and turbocharged variants have been produced with forged rotating components. So far, the hottest U.S. version is the 2.0L LNF first introduced in 2007. The 9.2:1, 2.0L motor is rated at 260 hp and 260 lb-ft, thanks to a turbocharger, direct injection, and a variable valve-timing valvetrain. There are few nonstock parts available for this latest evolution,…

900+ HP 4STB TRANS FB Performance Transmissions 800/769-1118 www.fbperformance.com The guys at FB have been hard at work making the near-bulletproof 4STB even more indestructible; it's now rated standard at 900 hp and 750 Ib-ft. It's also more versatile than ever, since it can be retrofitted to nearly every production motor, including LS1s, any Hemi, Ford FEs, and Mod motors to name a few. Plus, there are two choices of gearsets: standard 2.40, 1.47, 1.00, 0.67 and the optional 2.84, 1.56, 1.00 and 0.71. Yup, it holds all that power and you get overdrive. If you need even more, upgrades are available to take the holding power even higher. FB says it's been successfully used in 3,500-pound cars with 1,050 hp. Price: Starting at $2,700.00 LEGEND SERIES WHEELS Center Line…

HOT ROD'S 5TH TOP SPEED CHALLENGE? Since 2005, HOT ROD has annually visited Maxton, North Carolina, to join the East Coast Timing Association for its season-opening event. Entrants race the standing mile, some in an attempt to win an HRM jacket for the highest speeds in the Street classes and others in a quest for a personal best. This year, Bob Self in his Ford GT (shown finally ran 200,000 mph after three years of trying. In the HRM Challenge, we had a winner with the fastest top speed ever in our event. SEE THIS AND MUCH MORE IN THE AUG. '09 HOT ROD MAGAZINE On Sale June 16, 2009 Meanwhile, Get Your Car Fix at HOTROD.com…

SEND STUFF IN: EMAIL: HOTROD@HOTROD.com MAIL: HOT ROD, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 PHOTO REQUIREMENTS: Minimum size 1,600 by 1,200 pixels MESSAGE BOARD: HOTROD.com FUELER COLLISION The March Meet in Bakersfield, California, is consistently one of our favorite hangs of the year, mostly because it's the place to be to watch old-time front-engine Fuel diggers and vintage-bodied Funny Cars give it hell like they did back in the day. This year's Meet was the first of the '09 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series and it started off with a bang, literally, when the first pair of FEDs left the line on Friday. At about the eighth-mile cone, Dan Horan Sr.'s digger (right) crossed the centerline and hit the car of Mike Chrisman, who was making his first-ever official…

John Denski, or Johnny Rotten, out of Motor City drives stuff like a KB Hemi in a T Altered and a Drag Radial-class Mustang, so when his wife, Laura, and daughter, Katie, needed a Woodward Dream Cruise ride, it had to be extreme. A '63 Chevy II with a 427, a Doug Nash five-speed, and a straight axle seems to work, and the car's coming-out party was the social event of the early '09 hot rodding season. It was even on the local Fox news. It's hard to miss in Hugger Orange.…

Our friend DeWayne Ashmead is a serious student of the automobile. He really, really likes cars, and he knows his stuff. A connoisseur, you can truly say, he owns around 50 cars, currently ranging from a '12 Metz roadster to a '93 Cadillac Allante. Ashmead can quote chapter and verse on the technical features and historical significance of every piece in his collection, but we think we may have identified his favorite. When HOT ROD approached Ashmead to do a story on the car featured here, he sent us a 12-page historical paper followed up by a binder 3 inches thick that includes every word ever published about the vehicle. Ashmead's fascination with this car is easy to understand. We share it. The car you see here is easily one…

At the '09 Detroit Autorama, one question buzzed through the capacity crowd: Why didn't Troy Trepanier's latest build, the '56 Chrysler 300B just completed for Roger and Nancy Ritzow, win the Ridler Award? Are the judges blind? Hey, someone wake their Seeing Eye dogs. The committee didn't even select the car as one of the Great 8 finalists. What, are they crazy? The simple answer is that as wondrous and flawless as his latest creation is, Troy didn't qualify for the Great 8 or the Ridler Award, since he chose to display the chassis at a show in Columbus last year. Troy's attitude toward the Ridler, for now at least, is been there, done that. “Not being arrogant in the least, but I think we have already demonstrated we can…

A drag racing took hold across the country in the late '50s and early '60s, there was one category the NHRA had no idea how to handle: the Stock classes. Since the whole purpose of hot rodding is modification, and the more the better, stock cars didn't fit the template. In these early years, the NHRA viewed its Stock classes as strictly entry-level competition for beginners who would quickly graduate to modifieds, and HOT ROD seldom even bothered to publish the results. The Stockers were the show-fillers, the redheaded stepchildren of the drag racing scene. But there was a whole group of drag racers that didn't approach the stock classes that way at all. No, these people were serious about drag racing with production automobiles. They took the NHRAs system…

We hear it all the time: “You shouldn't run nitrous on a dual-plane intake manifold.” But it's our job to ask why. We did, then we tested it, and the results are right here for your perusal. We've heard three reasons why guys claim you should not use a plate-type nitrous system sandwiched between the carburetor and a dual-plane manifold. The first is that the raised half of the plenum is too close to the spray bars, so the nitrous and fuel will bounce off the intake floor. The second claim is that cylinder-to-cylinder distribution is so poor with a dual-plane that you don't want to run the risk of one cylinder running lean during nitrous operation. Of course, the third reason is guys say you just can't make the…