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Q ON THE COVER: Alex and Lucky supercharge the ChevHell.

Photo by Wes Allison

By John McGann

Struggle and Reward

@john.mcgann

That’s part of the appeal of our hobby. Cars offer us the pleasure and pain of life in a self contained microcosm. There are parts to wear out and inefficiencies to improve upon. There is a lot of hidden science in cars—electrical theory, ther modynamics, fluid dynamics, metallurgy, physics, and geometry. They offer us practical applications of the theoretic that we can test firsthand in real world set tings. All that is a fancy way of saying we can change stuff on our cars, then go for a drive to see if what we changed made it better or worse. That’s way more fun than any classroom session I can remember.

I bought a 2008 Sportster two years ago as a way to escape the drudgery of the pandemic. Within two months, it developed an oil leak. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. The leak was coming from the rocker boxes, H D’s parlance for what I’d call valve covers. Both cylinders started leaking in unison, as if on cue, leaving twin spots of oil on the floor underneath the thing. Never having worked on a Harley before, I dove in, replacing all the offending gaskets. The job is a little more complicated than replacing a valve cover gasket on a car, because the rocker arm assembly

needs to be removed to get to one of the gaskets, and you need to reset the valve adjustment during reassembly.

Not long after that, the clutch started dragging—it wouldn’t fully disengage, making downshifting problematic and making it difficult to find neutral. Never having replaced a motorcycle clutch before, I again dove in headfirst. Armed with a new clutch kit, I tackled that job in just a couple hours. It was easier than I anticipated. My biggest worry was having an oil leak at the primary drive cover once all the parts went back together, but I’m happy to report the floor underneath my motorcycle is drip free. The initial ride after each of those repairs were especially rewarding, not because they were epic road trips or heroic blasts through the Malibu canyon roads. Nope, it was the rewarding sense that I had restored order out of chaos. The same was true after the suspension changes in both of my pickups and after the drivetrain overhaul in my C10. New engine, new suspension, and new driving dynamics—all were made that much more enjoyable knowing that a couple friends and I had done the work our selves. It would not have been nearly as rewarding without the struggle. That’s the point. I hope I’m never without a project car (or motorcycle) to work on.

❱Life is about balance. As human beings, we feel most fulfilled when we ride that line between chaos and order. If there is too much chaos, life is miserable. Too much order, life becomes stale and stultified. We need that sense of accomplishment gained when we tackle a problem, thereby restoring order to chaos. If there’s no chaos, there’s no innovation. It’s the struggle that defines us and moves us forward in life.

Protect your escape with Progressive. Progressive knows that the best part of any event is leaving on your bike. That’s why we offer comprehensive and collision coverage for your bike and more. See if you could save by switching to America’s #1 motorcycle insurer.

YOUR BOSS’S RETIREMENT PARTY

EDITORIAL

Network Director Michael Galimi

Editor in Chief John McGann

Managing Editor Rusty Kurtz

Features Editor Timothy Bernsau

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Technical Editor Steven Rupp

Staff Editor Jordon Scott

Social Media Editor Cyril Soliman

Video Producer Kale Eickhof

HOT ROD Garage Hosts Lucky Costa Alex Taylor

Tech Center Manager Calin Head Contributors Wes Allison

JB Coppedge

Kevin DiOssi David Hakim Drew Hardin

James Henry Steve Kelley Mark Stielow Tony Thacker Walt Thurn William Walker Lyn Woodward

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20 Years Ago

December 2002: 98 pages, $3.99

HOT ROD’s editorial staff made its annual pick of the Top 10 Hot Rods of the Year, a process made bittersweet by the fact that this was the first such selection without Gray Baskerville, who passed away earlier in the year. The cover car was among the terrific 10: Mike Landi’s 1,150hp, 9 second, street driven ’55 Chevrolet 210, which Editor Ro McGonegal called “an immaculate study of conception and execu tion.” The rest of the Class of 2002 included Steve and Colette Sbelgio’s ’34 Ford, a modern take on Pete Chapouris’ California Kid; Frank Currie’s ’66 Shelby GT350, which he drove in the La Carrera Panameri cana; Romeo Furio’s “Dust’Ya” high tech Plymouth Duster; YearOne President Kevin King’s ’69 Camaro recreation; Chuck Mallett’s 220 mph ’97 Corvette; Jack Goodrich’s authentic ’65 Belvedere Super Stocker; the road racing ’67 Camaro built by Black & Decker engineer Dave Campbell; the ’49 Cadillac Sedanette lead sled owned by Ray and Nanci Urias; and John Tinberg’s altered wheelbase ’63 Nova. Elsewhere in the issue McGonegal examined GM’s 8.1L Vortec HP3 8100 crate engine, derived from the marine prod ucts side of GM’s business; and David Freiburger looked at the Merlin III big block from World Products to answer the question: “Should you buy or build your next Rat block?” Features in the issue included Freiburger’s account of how Tony Thacker and Jimmy Shine drove their roadster to Bonneville and ran 181 mph on pump gas; Tech Editor Steve Magnante’s look at a recreation of the Hurst Hairy Olds; a custom ’59 Buick LeSabre that Staff Editor Taylor Vlahos called “different, but not weird”; and coverage of the Monterey historic races and its celebration of 50 years of Corvette by freelancer Drew Hardin.

40 Years Ago

December 1982: 108 pages, $1.75

“If you’re tired of reindeer sweaters, argyle socks and paisley neckties under the Christmas tree, HOT ROD has a sure fire solution for you,” wrote Baskerville, introducing the cover story that promised “100+ Hot Gifts Under $100.” For the story, Editor Leonard “Claus” Emanuelson was photographed in full Santa gear sitting in Fred Badberg’s ’29 Model A roadster pickup and surrounded by parts that included a Competition Cams camshaft ($75), a California Custom Roadster reproduction ’32 grille shell ($95), GM A body traction bars from Lakewood ($50/pair), a Sears timing light ($45), Pete & Jake’s 4 bar batwings ($80/pair), a Bell Roadstar helmet (cheating a bit at $109.95), and even a pair of HOT ROD license plate frames—plate included—for $6. The main cover car was Greg Rea’s “Detail Freak” Pro Street ’68 Camaro, which had been “rebuilt using all new sheetmetal with brazed in body seams.” The cover shot, with the hood removed, revealed the Camaro’s shiny 6 71 blown 305 inch small block. Sharing the cover was Dale Earnhardt’s “New NASCAR Bullet!” The ’83 Thunderbird’s “swoopy sheetmetal” would “definitely give Ford a big advantage on the long track,” wrote Tech Editor Marlan Davis. This was the sec ond of two years Earnhardt spent racing on Bud Moore’s team. He had more success with this car than he did in the previous year’s Thunderbird, but he returned to Richard Childress Racing for 1984. Earnhardt, his daughter Kelley, and son Dale Jr. were featured in a full page ad for Wrangler Jeans, his major sponsor, opposite the issue’s table of contents. Davis also wrote about Ford’s “whole new heavy duty parts pro gram,” including a close look at Moore’s NASCAR 351.

60 Years Ago

D

1

HOT ROD devoted almost 13 pages to coverage of the 14th annual Bonneville National Speed Trials, not counting Eric Rickman’s striking cover image of Robert Markley’s 239 mph D/Lakester belly tank on the starting line. This was the first year the SCTA had an Unlimited class for jet propelled vehicles. Of the four entries, only Art Arfons in his Green Monster ran, and he set the fastest speed of the meet, plus the first Unlimited record, at 330.13 mph. Among the entries at Bonneville was New Zealander Burt Munro and his streamlined Indian motorcycle of “World’s Fastest Indian” fame. Two notable dragsters were profiled in the issue: the 1962 NHRA Nationals’ Top Eliminator, Mickey Thompson’s Pontiac powered rail driven by Jack Chrisman; and the Greer Black Prudhomme Top Fueler that had been featured on the cover of the November 1962 issue. While Keith Black built the G B P engine using a 392 inch ’57 Hemi, Thompson built a Hemi of his own, one with hemispherical chamber heads on an alloy Pontiac block. Chrisman beat Don Garlits in the gas only Nationals final with an e.t. of 8.76 seconds; the fuel swilling G B P car was capable of 8.09 second passes, noted author Don Francisco. The issue’s editorial well opened with Tech Editor Ray Brock introducing readers to Carroll Shelby’s Cobra, which mated the British AC Ace sports car with the 260ci V8 Ford made for the Fairlane. There were no firsthand driving impres sions of the car, but Brock did say the roadster, with “top West Coast driver Bill Krause” at the wheel, ran Riverside Raceway with lap times “just a few seconds slower than the fastest modified sports car record.”

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BEFORE THE WILD-WINGED DAYTONA THE CHARGER 500 WAS DODGE’S AERO WARRIOR

QThe news that 2023 would be the final year for the Dodge Charger and Challenger—as we know them, anyway—prompted us to go back into the archives and see what HOT ROD had to say about these muscle machines when they were new.

Turns out, not all that much. Each car received one road test in 1969, then the fuselage bodied Charger Super Bee was tested in 1971.

Feature Editor Steve Kelly basically yawned through his review of a 440 powered Challenger R/T coupe in “Brute Force” (Dec. ’69), though he placed a lot of the blame for its “disappointing performance” on the “extra hard previous use by who knows how many drivers.” And despite his “And Super it Is” headline (Feb. ’71) review of the Charger Super Bee, “the car’s per formance fell short of our expectations.” As with the Challenger, the fact that the Charger “had been handed around a bit before we got it,” was likely the reason for its sub par performance.

Kelly was much more enthusiastic about the Charger 500 he drove around Southern California—including stints at Riverside Raceway and OCIR—for “Showroom Racer” (Feb. ’69). The title alluded to the fact that the car was a homologation special; Dodge had to build a certain number to qualify its special aerodynamic improvements for use in NASCAR racing.

As he described them, “The grille, normally inset, is moved forward, flush with the leading edge of the frontal sheetmetal. This eliminates the air trap of regular Chargers. In back, the rear window is angled sharply and set in new metal stretched between the sailfins. Standard production Chargers have near vertical rear glass, set almost even with the rear seatback. With the 500 configuration, there’s a lot more room for a package tray, but almost none for a decklid. There is one, but it’s about as big as a glovebox door.”

The Charger 500 was available with a 375hp 440 as standard equipment or the optional 425hp Hemi. Kelly tested two Hemi versions, one with a four speed (until it was stolen), the other with an automatic. “Four speeds are nice, and generally a little quicker,” he said, “but the TorqueFlite’s the way to go on the street, and it’s certainly no slouch on the track (unless the track has bends in it, and then there’s no way an automatic will work there).”

He called the Charger “easily one of the best high speed stockers we’ve sampled.” He found the car’s handling and braking “good at all speeds,” though he wouldn’t want one without the optional front disc brakes, which “worked repeatedly in 100 plus mph to zero stops without complaint or loss of stopping power.” And not surprisingly for a car with aerodynamic aids, “the wind glides around this car so smoothly it hardly makes a sound.”

On Orange County’s dragstrip, the best the automatic equipped Charger could muster was a 13.80 at 105.01 mph. Open headers helped; the car’s 3.23 rearend didn’t. Apparently, Kelly had the stick shift Charger long enough to send it to Norm Thatcher for some strip upgrades, which included 4.10 gears with a limited slip and a recalibrated distributor “to 49 degrees total, all of which were at work by 2,500 rpm.” That car managed a 13.48 second e.t. at 109 mph.

Innovative as the Charger 500’s wind cheating tricks were, the car was out gunned in the 1969 NASCAR season by Ford’s Torino Talladega, which applied similar aerodynamic features to better effect. After just 392 exam ples of the Charger 500 were built, Dodge one upped the Talladega with the winged Charger Daytona, and Plymouth would also enter the aero fray with its Superbird. Exciting times. Waiting for an electric Dodge muscle car just isn’t quite the same.

BY DREW HARDIN PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC RICKMAN, STEVE KELLEY, PETERSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY ARCHIVE

MICHAEL GALIMI THE AUTHOR

One of the most unique events of the year is MotorTrend presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge, an event that shut down Woodward Avenue and took over the M1 Concourse on Saturday, August 13th in Pontiac, Michigan. The single-day event included legalstreet racing on Woodward Avenue, mayhem inside the M1 Concourse gates with Dodge, a midway, car show, and many of your favorite TV stars from MotorTrend’s original programming.

One of the most anticipated showdowns on Woodward Avenue was the Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match. Eight social media influencers duked it out for a chance to race against HOTRODGarage’s Alex Taylor and Lucky Costa. The influencer class winner will line up against Alex, who won last year’s competition, in a winner-takes-all drag race that went down on Saturday evening.

Dodge changes up the Influencer Grudge Race every year, and this year, the power brokers at Direct Connection shipped each contestant a Hellcat crate engine, six-speed manual transmission, and $10,000 to spend on parts and pieces to build a car for the competition.

The rules and stipulations sent Alex and her co-host, Lucky Costa, into overdrive as they decided their build

QThis was the state of the 1955 Savoy as the team headed into the final week of the build!

HRG’S SAVOY

would be covered through several episodes of HOT RODGarageon MotorTrend TV and MotorTrend+. With just six weeks to find and build a new ride, the team began brainstorming on a vehicle selection.

There were three basic stipulations, the first being it had to be a Dodge product as mandated by the grudge match rules. Next, Alex and Lucky knew they wanted a 1940s or 1950s vintage model that wasn’t normally associated with performance. And the third requirement was the vehicle needed a full frame, allowing them to unbolt the body so the team can add a purpose-built chassis under it.

Mike Pantaleo, executive producer of HOTROD Garage, explains, “We found a 1955 Plymouth Savoy that was somewhat local and the right price, in addition to fitting all of our requirements.” The car came complete with a sweet patina finish and low rust, and the team set the doomsday clock at four weeks until ship date.

The tight deadline meant they had to call in reinforcements, and the first one was to Dennis Taylor,

Alex’s dad, who just so happens to be a master fabricator, car builder, and gnarly drag racer. He booked a ticket to LA and prepared a mental task list for what would be a barn-burning adventure.

Once the original body was removed, the team began laying the framerails as a starting point, allowing them to build out the rest of the chassis. The studio secured a tube chassis kit; however, Dennis abandoned that idea, only relying on the pre-bent main hoop. He custom built the front suspension and frame, the 8.50-style cage, and rear bracing. It differs from the SFI 25.3 setup in the family’s 1955 Chevy, but Dennis told us the Savoy’s chassis can be upgraded to match the Chevy down the road.

The opening weeks were spent dealing with COVID-19. First, Lucky was infected and missed the first 10 days of the build. He would return after the required quarantine period, only to have the pandemic rear its ugly head at the start of week three. Several members of the cast and crew, including Alex and Dennis, tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately,

QCredit goes to Balto Performance for their flexibility in getting the Savoy, which arrived a day late, on the dyno; but the results were worth the wait.

QJenna Homen of Jenna Paints hand painted all the graphics while Povi Pullinen is credited with the design work.

the symptoms were mild, but the set was shut down, forcing the group to move off-site. Work continued in what became known as Quarantine Garage, with only the infected members allowed to work together.

The lack of tools and time began to take its toll on the crew, doubting they were going to meet the deadline that was just two weeks away. It looked bleak until their luck turned around when Gregg Petersen, longtime friend of Dennis, got locked out of a family cruise when he, too, tested positive for COVID-19. Hailing from Orange County, just an hour south of the MotorTrend headquarters, Gregg had two weeks cleared on his schedule, and he was legally allowed to mix with the other infected team members. The bonus: Gregg is well-versed at working with sheetmetal, and he jumped right in building wheel tubs, floors, and other interior panels.

The makeshift safe space allowed the project to keep moving along, as challenging as it was, but they persevered thanks to the tireless efforts by the production assistants who kept the parts for the Savoy

coming in for Alex, Dennis, and Gregg to install.

By the fourth week of production, the group returned to HOT ROD magazine headquarters, their regular filming location, and the mad thrash began to knock off the remaining few dozen chores. At this point, the Hellcat engine and six-speed transmission were installed in the fresh chassis, the Aeromotive fuel system plumbed, and the Dodge Direct Connection wiring harness fastened into place. The team even installed a Nitrous Outlet throttle body plate nitrous kit in case the competition was getting close. Lucky handled the tedious tasks of running brake lines and wiring. He would bleed the Strange Engineering brakes while Alex began downloading the Dodgesupplied software. Resting in the wings of the shop were Pro Mod style wheels with fresh Hoosier slicks, while the front runners were wrapped in DOT rubber.

Day by day, the list got shorter until it was time to fire up the machine, not the final task but a monumental one that reenergized the group. That came on Thursday night, some 36 hours before the scheduled

“We found a 1955 Plymouth Savoy that was somewhat local and the right price, in addition to fitting all of our requirements.”

pick-up time. It might have looked promising from social media posts, but the car was far from being ready for its ride across the country.

The team burnt up the next 24 hours with more prep work, and by Friday night, they strapped the Savoy to the rollers at Balto Performance. Initial warm-up runs were cut short when the hydraulic throwout bearing seal began leaking. Dennis, Alex, Mike, and Gregg continued to prep the vehicle while they waited for the spare parts—doors were mounted, the trunk secured, trans tunnel completed, chassis scaled and adjusted, and they even swapped a tire when a brand-new Hoosier slick got cut by accident.

The transporter was delayed a day, and the team finally got to run the Savoy on the dyno. The results were worth the wait: 988 rwhp and slightly over 1,000 lb-ft of torque from an E85-burning Hellcat engine with a little hit of nitrous oxide.

The car was loaded up and shipped across country where it met the Taylor family for final tweaks and a day at the drag strip. Thanks to Tom Bailey’s Sick Test and Tune sessions at Milan Dragway, Alex got a chance to let the clutch out. Right off the trailer the Savoy hung the wheels like an NHRA Super Stocker. A last minute shifter modification, which saw Dennis welding his spanner wrench to the Hurst short-throw shifter base, enabled Alex to grab gears with confidence.

Two days later was the big street race at Roadkill Nights, a field of eight influencers was whittled down to just one and that racer had to face Alex for the undisputed Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match title. Sitting in the right lane was Westen Champlin and it was over from the start, Alex got the jump on the starting line and never looked back. She became a back-to-back Grudge Match champion at Roadkill Nights, prompting us to ask: Is there an influencer that can beat Alex Taylor in 2023?

QHellcrate Redeye 6.2L Supercharged Crate Hemi and engine control unit were supplied to Lucky and Alex as well as eight other influencers. It produces 807hp but with E85 fuel, custom tuning, and a shot of nitrous, the HOTRODGaragecrew coaxed 988 rwhp from the crate engine.

PROJECT CARS

Why We Do What We Do

JOHN MCGANN

hiletalkingonthephonewithafriendlastweek,thetopicofTVand YouTube automotivebuildshowscameup.What’stheformulatosuccess?Myplain-spoken friendputitverysimply,“Itseemstomethatpeoplejustwanttoseecarsbeing workedon.” Inotherwords,thewrench-throwing,“we’regonnalosetheshop” dramaisn’tnecessaryandoftendistractsanddetractsfromtheoverallpresentation.

HOTRODandothercar-themedmagazines andwebsiteshaveexistedforsolongforthesame reason.Peopleliketolookatcars;peopleliketo seecarsbeingworkedon.Whateverthereason instructionalorinspirational theformulaworks. Severalyearsago,MotorTrendGroupstartedan automotivestreamingservicethathasattracted upwardof800,000paidsubscribers.Latelastyear, wereturnedto YouTubewithtwooriginalshows: CarCraftVideoand 4x4Garage.

Considering I hadbeenonstaffwith CarCraft

Sources

Aldan American; 310.834.7478; aldanamerican.com

American Powertrain; 931.646.4836; americanpowertrain.com

ARP; 800.826.3045; arp bolts.com

Baer; 602.233.1411; baer.com

Centerforce; 928.771.8422; centerforce.com

Dakota Digital; 605.332.6513; dakotadigital.com

Duralast; 800.288.6966; duralastparts.com

E3; 904.567.5994; e3sparkplugs.com

for12years, I wasrecruitedtobepartofthat endeavor,andithasbeenalotoffuntorelaunch thebrandinavideoformat. CarCraftand 4x4 GarageshowsliveonMotorTrend’s YouTube channel,soyoureallyshouldgosubscribe.So far,we’veproducednineepisodesof CarCraft coveringthebuildofthreedifferentcars.Weare currently nishingafourthcarthisyearandhave threemorebuildscon rmedfor2023.Hereisa quickrecapofthethreecarsfeaturedsofaranda previewofourfourthbuild,too.

Edelbrock Group; 888.799.1135; edelbrock.com

Hawk Performance; 800.542.0972; hawkperformance.com

Heidts; 800.841.8188; heidts.com

Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com LSe90; lse90.com

McLeod Racing; 714.630.2764; mcleodracing.com

Mickey Thompson; 330.928.9092; mickeythompsontires.com

Peak/Old World Industries; 800.323.5440; owi.com

QA1; 952.985.5675; qa1.net

Quick Performance; 515.232.0126; quickperformance.com

Radium Engineering; 503.783.8850; radiumauto.com

Stewart Warner; 800.676.1837; stewartwarner.com

Tremec; 800.401.9866; tremec.com Wilwood; 805.388.1188; wilwood.com

Yukon Gear & Axle; 888.905.5044; yukongear.com

❱1972 Dodge Challenger

Webeganour rstbuildinlate2019at Ian Johnson’sDigitalLugstudiosinMt.Pleasant, Tennessee,anditwasanambitiousstartourseries. Wetooka’72Challenger,refurbishedthedrivetrain,andalsogaveitnewsuspensionandbrakes alongtheway.Thestock (andnon-running) 440 and 727 TorqueFlitecombinationwasswapped foramodernGen III HemiHellcrateengineand Tremec’snewTKX ve-speedmanual.

Changingoutthecarburetedbig-blockforthe newfuel-injectedHemirequiredmajorupgrades tothefuelsystemandwiring.WepickedHolley’s DominatorECMtoruntheengineandplumbed inacompletelynewfuelsystemwithHolley’s drop-infuelmoduleandEarl’slinesand ttings.

Underneaththecar,AmericanPowertrain’sTKX vespeednestledcomfortablyinthetransmissiontunnel; the twassnug,buttherewerenoclearanceproblems. Weslippedadual-discCenterforceclutchassemblyin betweenthetwotomakesureeachoneofourengine’s prodigioustorquesmaketheirwaytotherearwheels. Acustomdriveshaftbridgedthedistancebetween thetransandourcustomFord9-inchrearaxlehousingfromCurriethatweassembledwithcomponents from YukonGear.

Wereplacedthestockfrontandrearsuspension withAJE’scoiloversuspension. Itreplacesthefront torsionbarsandrearleafspringswithride-height adjustableAldanAmericancoilovershocks. Upfront isadouble-wishbonecontrolarmsetup,andoutback isafour-linkwithaPanhardbar. Indoingthis,we werealsoabletoconverttoarack-and-pinionsteeringsystem. Insidethecar,wecompletedthemanual transmissionswapwithasetofpedalsfromAmerican Powertrain.Theyalsosuppliedthehydraulicthrowout bearingandplumbingfromthemastercylindertothe bellhousing.

❱2007 BMW 330i

When I rstheardthepitchonthiscar, I wasdubious. Yes,LSengineswapsinforeigncarsareextremely popular,but I hadbeenthinkingofsomethingmore alongthelinesofaNissan240SX Allmydoubts evaporatedwhen I heardhowcheaplythese3Series BMW’ssellfor.Theownerofthis2007 330ipaid $5,000forit,andwitheverytriptotheshop,hewas rewardedwitha$1,000repairbill,atleast.Atsome pointitjustmakessensetoclearouttheexpensive-torepairstockdrivetrainandslideinacheap,plentiful, provenLSengine.Thedecisionbecomeseasierwhen you ndoutcompanieslikeLSe90.comhaveallthe ancillarycomponentsneededtoputanAmerican V8intoBMW’sE90generation3Series (modelyear 2005-2011).Hellyeah,let’sswapthisthing!

Intheshop, I wasjoinedbyRyanShand,co-owner ofEuroMotive,ashopinCharlottesville,Virginia, thatspecializesinGermancarrepair.Hewasthe brainsbehindthisoperation,helpingremovethe stock2.5Linline-sixandautomatictransmission, thenpreppingthefuelsystemandwiringharnessto accepttheinbound6.0LLSengineandT-56Magnumsix-speedtransmission.Weupgradedthestock fuelsystemwithapumpfromRadiumandswapped thesuspensioncomponentswithpartsfromBMW’s high-performanceM3.

Our6.0-literenginewaspurchasedfromeBay MotorsandhadcomeoutofaChevyvan.We changedthecylinderheadstoarebuiltsetofcathedralportheadsfromRockAutoandinstalledanew CompcamandVVT-deletekit.Holley’sTerminator X enginemanagementsystemgotthenodforthisbuild, andLSe90.commakesacoolCAN-to-Holleyadapter thatallowstheBMW’sstockinstrumentclusterto communicatewiththeTerminatorECM.Ourgauges, HVACsystem,anddashcontrolsworklikestock.

WeinstalledaMcLeodclutchassemblyontheback ofourengine,andthetransmissionshiftsassmooth asbutter.LSe90.com’sadaptormotormountsand installkitplacedtheLSandT56intheperfectspotto installtheshifterthroughthestockconsole.Thepedalscamefromamanualtransmission3Seriesofthe samegeneration,sotheyboltedrightin.Wegavethe caraseriousbrakingupgradewithallnewpadsand rotorsfromHawkPerformance.Thecarstopswith authoritywithzerofade,evenafterseveralhardstops. You’llneedgoodbrakesaftera6.0Lswap,because thenewfoundpowerisaddictive.Thecarisajoyto drive solidandsmoothdowntheroad. Itcarvesthe cornerslikeaGinsuknife,andit’ssocoolhearinga bigV8inplaceofthestock I-6.

❱1967 Mustang

Thisonefeelslikeatypical CarCraftbuildbecause thestoryisfamiliar.Our1967 Mustangwasrescued fromajunkyardbecausethemanagercouldn’tbring himselftocrushthisbare-bonesPonythatsomeone hadscrapped. Itisalow-optioncoupethathadan inlinesix-cylinderenginewithathree-speedmanual transmission. Itleakedsomuchfluidthatthecar hadrustproofeditselfovertime,andtherefore,its sheetmetalwasverywellpreserved. CarCraftVideo co-host KevinTetzsnatchedthiscarfromtheclutches ofthecrusherandbroughtitto Ian Johnson’sshopfor anoverhaul.

Totallystockandreadyforsomeperformanceparts, weditchedtheMustang’sfrontandrearsuspensionfor newcomponentsfromHeidts.Thefrontendwasthe recipientofaMustang II kit,andthereargotHeidts fourlinkandPanhardbarandcoilovershocks.Wealso replacedthestockaxlewithanew9-inchfromQuick Performance.Thepunydrumbrakeswerereplaced withafour-wheeldiscbrakekitfromBaer.

ThatcardeservesaV8,sowedroppedinaused351 Windsorthat Kevinboughtfromafriend.Webacked itupwithaT-5 ve-speedmanualtransmissionthat Kevinfoundinthetrunk.Wedebatedthenotionof carburetororfuelinjectionandultimatelydecided toinstallHolley’splug-and-playSniperthrottle-body fuel-injectionsystem.WealsoaddedanewDakota Digitalinstrumentpaneltothestockgaugecluster.

1986 Buick Regal

Here’sasneakpeekatourlatestbuild thiscool 1986BuickRegalwearetransformingintoarowdy street/stripcar.WorkingwithQA1,westartedoffat theirheadquarters inSt.Paul,Minnesota.Thefront andrearsuspensionswerereplacedwithQA1’stubular upperandlowerA-arms,reartrailingarms,andtheir triple-adjustableMOD-seriescoilovershocks.After that,weinstalledWilwoodDynalitedragracingbrakes onbothends.AllthatplusasetofskinnyfrontrunnersandMickeyThompson275dragradialsoutback seriouslychangedtheattitudeofourstodgyG-body.

Fromthere,theBuicktrekkedtoCoolHandCustomsinMadison,Wisconsin,whereowners (and husband/wifeteam) EJ andAmyFitzpatrickhavebeen workingfeverishlyonthecar.Theyremovedthestock 307 OldsmobileengineandTH-2004Rtransmission andmathedouttheinstallofaGen III Hemiwitha TCI 4L80Eautomatic.Theenginethatwillbeinstalled isa392Hemithatwe’reupgradingwithcylinderheads fromEdelbrock.Ofcourse,wewantmorepower thanthat,sowe’realsoinstallingEdelbrock’sE-Force superchargerontopofthoseheads.Theyalsoinstalled a6-pointrollbar,modi edthestockgastankwithnew Holleyfuelpumpsandallnewfuellines.Theengine alsoneededcustomplumbingtoamodi edS197 Mustangradiatorandmountingandplumbingthe heatexchangerandtransmissioncooler.EJ alsomade

acustompaneltomountanewsetofStewartWarner gauges,andCoryHolmesflewintowirethecar,thinningoutandintegratingthefactoryharnesswithour newHolleyTerminatorMax X ECM,thenewgauge sendingunits,andournewly-addedsafetyequipment.

EJ alsoneededtomodifythetransmissiontunnel toaccommodatetheextraheftofthenewfour-speed slushbox,andintheprocess,hebuiltaplatformto mounttheTCI Outlawratchetingshifter.Asthisis written,wearehopingtohavetheRegalatoneofour eventsthisyear. It’scomingdowntothewire,soyou’ll havetolookforthevideosonMotorTrend’s YouTube channeltoseeifwemadeit.

WewishtothankDuralast,DakotaDigital,andE3; companiesthathavehelpeduswithallourbuildsthis year.We’veuseddozensofDuralastpartswhenever weneededanewstarter,waterpump,brakecomponents youknow,allthoselast-minuteorunexpected thingsthatsendyouonapartsstoreruninthemiddle ofaproject.DakotaDigitalgaugeshavegoneinto mostofourbuildsthisyear,andwe’veusedE3spark plugs,wires,coilsandeventheirbrand-newlithium batteriesinourbuilds.ThankstoARPwhohelped uslaunchthiswholeendeavor.Wehopeyoulike Car Craft’snewformatandstaytunedformorebuilds nextyear.

HOT ROD STAFF JOHN MCGANN & COURTESY OF THE BUILDERS

A collection of in-progress by pro builders that are both inspirational and aspirational.

Lucky Costa’s 1966 Chevelle

You’veseenitonTV,you’veseenitonMotorTrend+,you’veseenitonthe coverof CarCraft,onsocialmedia,andatvariouseventsinSouthern Californiaandthesurroundingstates.LuckyCosta’s’66Chevellehas beenthere,donethat.He’sownedthecarsince2012,andhe’sconstantly changingandre ningit.Atthetimeitwasin CarCraft,Lucky’sChevelle waspoweredbyajunkyard6.0LenginewithausedT56six-speedand ChassisworkscontrolarmsandVarishockcoilovers.

Intheinterveningyears,LuckyaddedaMagnusonsupercharger,upgradedthetwopistonBaerbrakesforsexysix-pistoncalipersupfrontandasetoffour-pistoncalipers ontherear,withdrilledrotorsallaround.HealsoinstalledRidetech’sfullcoilover suspension,optingfortheirHQseriestriple-adjustableshocksintheprocess.TheT56 transmissionwasupgradedtoRocklandStandardGear’sTranzillaversionoftheT56, andforawhile,herowedthegearswithanS1sequentialshifter.

Mostrecently,Luckyreplacedthetired6.0LenginewithafreshLS3thatsportedan upgradedcamandAFR’sCNC-portedMongoosecylinderheads.Afterdrivingitfor

afewmonths,Luckydecidedthattheengine’soutputof nearly500hptothewheelswasstillalittletootame.A superchargerguyatheart,whentheopportunitytoadd boosttothisalready-potentLS3presenteditself,Lucky jumpedatthechance.

Season10of HOTRODGaragewelcomedAlex TaylorasLucky’snewco-host,andoneoftheirearly projectsasateamwastoaddaVortechsuperchargerto Lucky’sLS3.WiththeaidofaHolleyMid-Riseintake manifoldthatsandwichesachargecoolerfromTick Performance,thissetuphasthepotentialforsigni cant powergains.Wejoinedthemintheshoptograbsome picturesoftheinstall,whichisnearlycompleteasthisis written.Theenginestartsandruns;itjustneedsabitof tuningandasessiononthechassisdyno,thentheplanis forAlexandLuckytoraceeachotherin HRG’s1,000hp turbochargedCapricepolicecar.Wewillcoverthe superchargerinstallinalaterissue,soyouwon’twantto missthat. Youshouldalsowatchtheepisodewhenitairs ontheMotorTrend+apptohearallthosesweetsuperchargersounds.

Dirty Bird1957 Ford Custom Je Norwell

Automotiveillustrator JeffNorwell saidhehasbuiltseveral1932Fords andModelA’sinhishomeshop andwantedsomethingalittledifferenttodrive.Hecallshis1957 FordCustom“DirtyBird,”andsaidthatit wasinspiredbyoldmoonshine-runnercars. It’sbeingbuiltwithfactoryFordpartsfrom itsday,includingapolicesuspensionpackage (heavy-dutyshocksandsixleafspringsversus four),tractionsbars,astouterswaybar,anda tighter1958steeringbox.TheFordFEengine tslikeagloveandisnowfedbyacomplete andunusednewoldstocktri-powerinductionsetuptoppedbyrebuiltcarbsfroma 428engine.Theshortyexhaustmanifolds arefroma427.Electricexhaustcutoutswere addedtothepipes.ThetransmissionisaTop Loaderfour-speed. Jeffmodi edtheFord Customhoodbycuttingaparta1957 Thunderbirdhoodandtransplantingthescoop. Whendone,thecarwillrollonblack15-inch steeliesfroma’56Ford nishedoffwithdog dishcaps.Theinteriorwillbeaustere no radio,butportsforplugginginaniPhone. Thegoalistoblenda“stealthyandevillooking”personalitywiththelookandstyle ofacarthatahotrodderfrom50-plusyears agowouldhavebuilt.

Coyote ’32 1932 Ford Coupe Nitro Manufacturing

Danand JuneTimmonswereatthe 2022GoodguysshowinColumbus, Ohio,wheretheir ZZ4-powered1932

FordcoupewonaBuilder’sChoice Award.BackatDan’sShop,Nitro ManufacturinginMooresville,North Carolina,anotherDeucecoupeisintheworks. ThisonealsobelongstoDan.Hiscustomers’cars takeprecedenceontheshopschedule,butDanis makingprogressonhispersonalproject.Histaste runstowardtraditionalstyling,soweexpectthis coupetobeloadedwithtraditionallooks buthis talentisforfabrication,soweexpectsomecool surprisestoo.Thecustom-builtchassiswillreflect thetraditionalside.AmericanStamping1932

Ford’railshavebeenbeefedupwithacustom centersection.Suspensionpartsarefromtheoldschoolcatalog,withquarter-ellipticspringsanda tubeaxleinfrontandfullleafspringsanda9-inch rearendintheback.The berglassreproduction bodyfeaturesaclassicthree-inchchop.Oldmeets newintheenginecompartment,whereDanis plantingaFordCoyotemodularenginebackedup withasix-speedtransmission.Thegoalisto nish thecoupeintimefornextyear’sindoorshows, followedbyappearancesatoutdoorevents.After that somelong-distancedriving.“Therearea million’32soutthere,”Dantoldus.“I wantpeople toremembermine.”

Thinkingdifferentlyisoneofthethingsthatresultsinsuccessfulhot rodsandisalsowhyRosevilleRod & Customhasbeenasuccessful hotrodshop.A’32coupeisnotanunusualprojectchoice,butmany ofthechoicesbeingmadeonthisDeuceareoutoftheordinary. Thevisionwasforacarthatcoulddriveacrosstownoracrossthe countrywhilelookinglikeitcouldhavebeendrivenacrossthesalt asanoldBonnevilleracerfromthe’50s.Rosevillelikestraditionalstyleelements,provenbythecoupe’s3-inchchop,laid-backwindshield,andclassichot rodundercarriage.TheBrizioStreetRods’32FordchassisfeaturesaPete & JakesSuperBellfrontaxleandhairpins.OthercomponentsincludetheWinters quick-changerearend,Alan Johnson Kinmont-stylediscbrakes,andTrackmasterSchroeder-stylesteeringbox.The16-inchE-TWheelswithknock-offs arewrappedwithskinnypiecrusttires.The302ciGMCinline-sixenginewitha Howard12-portheadcontinuesthetheme.PlanscallforHilbornfuelinjection convertedtoEFI The’35ChevygrilleshellgoesalongwiththeGM“Jimmy6” enginechoice.Bensaysthat’35Chevyheadlightsandtaillights,andassorted GMinteriorcomponentswillcontinuethetheme,distinguishthecoupe,and shakeupBlueOvalpurists.Lookforthecoupeontheshowcircuitby2024.

Strictly Brute1972 Camaro

The Tin Man’s Garage

Thequestionansweredbythiswildlyreworked1972Camarois: Howclosecanyougettobuildingaracecar,butkeepitsafeand streetable?ThecarownercameintoTheTinMan’sGaragein Sycamore, Illinois,forsomeminormods,butBrianLimbergand hiscrewjumpedonitlikelionsonanantelope.Thefrontclip isweldedinplaceandtheinnerfendersandcageareweldedtothebody inunibodyfashion.TheengineisaChevy454big-blockequippedwith Hilborninjection,setbackabout veinches.Therelocationallowsfora large,angledradiatorandtwinfans.Thehot-roddedhoodwasdesigned forhotairtoescape,whilecoolairentersthroughtheturnsignalopenings andcontinuesovertheinnerfendersonthewaytotheengine. Inside,the Recaroseatsaremovedback,convertingthecartoatwo-seater,andsurroundedbycopiousquantitiesofsheetmetalfabrication.Thedashhasbeen removed;thefloatinggaugepanelismountedonthecage.TiltonRacing providedthepedalbox.WhatcategoryofhotroddoestheradicalCamaro fallunder?“Strictlybrute”isthetermtheTinMan’sfabricatorsuseto describeitandsodowe.Expectitsdebutsometimein2023.

T For Teen 1927 Ford Model T

Pete Flaven, Kayleigh McEvoy,Jim McEvoy

ThePinetree JamboreeinWinterport, Maine,isanostalgiadragracefor flathead-enginedhotrods. Kayleigh, ayoungthird-generationhotrod enthusiast,cametothe2021event asaspectator.Bythelastday,afteraone-hour drivinglessoninthe’32roadsterownedby eventco-promoter,PeteFlaven,the14-yearoldwasmakingrunsonthedragstrip.And bythatevening,Pete, Kayleigh,and Kayleigh’s dad Jimweretalkingaboutbuildingacarfor her.Thatcar arear-engine1927 ModelT roadsterfromPete’sshop hadonceracedon theCaliforniadrylakesandwasracedbythe TornadoscarclubattheRaceofGentlemen. Nowit’sbeingrebuiltforitsnewdriver.The Tbody,witharepro’32grilleshell,sitsona ModelAframewitha’39Ford X-member. Peteisusingalotofthepartsthathehason hand,includingtheModelAfrontspring andModelTrearspring,’34frontaxle,F-100 steeringbox,’39pedals,and’47 juicebrakes. Thecurrent,front-mountedflatheadisaFord 8RTtruckenginewith8BAheads,anOffenhauser2x2intake,andrebuiltStromberg97 carbs.Oncephotosstartedappearingonsocial media,peoplefromallovertheworldstarted sendingpartstosupporttheproject.

One In a Million 1934 Plymouth Sedan

Roseville Rod & Custom

AccordingtoChryslerhistory,theonemillionthPlymouthtorolloffthe factoryassemblylinewasa1934four-doorsedan.Afteritsappearance attheChicagoWorld’sFair,thatcarwaspurchasedbyaMrs.Miller fromCalifornia. It’sdoubtfulthatMrs.Millermadeanyhotrodmods tohersedan. Inthe88yearssince,veryfew’34Plymouthsedanshave beenhotrodded,butRosevilleRod & CustominRoseville,California,isdoing justthat.ThisPlymouthisbeingbuiltforawomanwhoapproachedBen York andhisteamaboutbuildingauniqueluxuryhotrodthatwouldrideandperform,butalsohaveroomforfamilyandfriends.Thebodyremainsessentially stocklooking,but ne-tuned,withbumperstucked,seamsperfected,andsheetmetalmassageduntilit’slaser-beamstraight. Eventhe18-inchEvodwheelsand fabricatedhubcapswillbedesignedtoresemblestock’34Plymouthwheels.The tributetotraditionendsintheenginedepartment,wheretheGMLS4hasbeen builtwithaone-offinductionsystemcompletewithacustom-builtmanifold andAutotrendEFI injection.Rosevillefabricatedtheaircleanerstoretainsome vintageflavor,differentfromanythingelseoutthere.A4L70Etransmission backsuptheengine.RosevilleRod & CustomisworkingtogetthePlymouth nishedforanappearanceatthe2023GrandNationalRoadsterShow.

In2020,TheTinMan’sGaragewon theprestigiousAlSlonakerAward withacoachbuilt1936Willys pickup.NowBrianLimbergand hiscrewattheSycamore, Illinois, shopareworkingonanothertruck thatwillbegettingsomebigattention whenthey’redone.This1938GMC caboverprojectstartedwithacabthat hadbelongedtotheowner’sfather,and aconceptsketchdrawnbyTravisHighlander,plusavisiontoturnthetruck intosomethingmorestreamlinedand modernthaneveroriginallyimagined.

AGSI MachineandFabricationchassis servesasthefoundationforthisjumbo hotrod.Theframewasmodi edto t

apairofmassiveProStreet-stylereartires rollingon20-inchBudnikwheels.Thecab sheetmetalwasmodi edalongthebelt moldingtoflowintothe16-gaugesheetmetalofthehugecustombedfeaturinga 1-inchthickwoodfloor.Aremovablefloor panelprovidesaccesstotheLS3crateengine

underneath,whichalsodropsfrombelow ifnecessary.Twoaluminumrampsslidein andoutofchannelsbeneaththebedfloor, perfectforloadingagolfcartorATV.Plenty oftie-downpointsandtwobellyboxesare furtherevidencethatthisbeastisbeingbuilt tobeused.

Cone-Carving ’Bird 1955 Ford Thunderbird

Roseville Rod & Custom

The Roseville Rod & Custom customer who ownes the Plymouth sedan has a sister who is an equallyenthusiastic hot rodder with the same goals for her own hot rod. She wants a car that looks good and will handle well on the street. The difference is that the sister is obviously not concerned about lots of room or about hauling lots of friends, since her in-the-works ride is a 1955 Thunderbird. The body is original with a few minor mods none that will distract from the T-bird’s lines or make it look out-of-date in the years to come. Paint color is yet to be decided. The body rides on a Roadster Shop chassis with full independent suspension and big 14-inch Baer brakes behind the 18-inch custom wheels to be provided by Evod. The Ford in this Ford is a 5.0-liter Coyote crate engine from Ford Performance Parts, which looks right at home between the front fenders. The Aluminator version of the Coyote features high-performance pistons and rods. A Tremec ve-speed is the transmission choice. Start looking for the Coyote-packed Thunderbird in 2023 or 2024, possibly at the Grand National Roadster Show, out on the street, or slinging its way around an autocross course, which is one of the owner’s intentions with the car.

eXoMod

Modern Hellcat Muscle

Thedancewedoashotrodderstypicallygoeslikethis:We ndaclassiccar, stripitdowntothebarebody,andthen rebuildittosuitourown,oftenmodernizedvision.WithaProTouring-or restomod-typebuild,thatincludesaddingahighpowermodernEFI engine,modernbrakes (often withABSonthenicerbuilds),andamenitieslike airconditioningandarockin’audiosystem. In essence,theclassiclinesoftheoldbodyarekept, andthenewestperformanceandcruisingtechnologyaregraftedtoit. It’stime-consumingand expensive,butitgivesusthelookwewantalong withmodernperformance.

Butwhatifyoudidittheotherwayaround?This wouldbewhereyoutookamodernperformance carandaddedbodypanelstoreplicatetheclassiclines.Thisisn’tanewidea,buttobehonestwe haven’tlovedtheresultsinthepast.Theproblem

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isthatmoderncarshavemoderndimensions andstructuresthatdon’talwaysplaynicewiththe linesofourclassics.Thisisespeciallytruearound thewindshieldandA-pillars.Forexample,we rememberacompanythatwastryingtomakeaC5 CorvettelooklikeavintageC2’Vette,butthewindshieldareajustkilleditsincetheC5’sA-pillarswere waytoosweptbackforaerodynamics. Itjustlooked wrong.Wehadyettoseeoneoftheseretro ed modernmusclecarsdonewheretheproportions wereright,oratleastcloseenoughtostilllookgood.

Thatwasuntilwespiedthecreationsfrom eXoModCreations. ItwastheirC68Carbon build (aclevercodefor1968Charger) anditactuallylookedlikeavintageDodgeCharger! Now, we’renotsayingit’sanexactcopy,butitcertainly capturesthesoulofa’68-’70Chargerthat’sbeen givena21st-centurymakeover. Yougetallthe modernperformanceandtechofanewDodge Hellcat (707 hp) orevenaHellcatRedeye (807 hp) withthevintagevibeofits’60s-eraancestor. TheyarealsocurrentlyofferingtheC69Carbon, whichisreskinnedincarbon bertolooklikea 1969Charger.

eXoModCreationsowesathankyouto Dodgeformakingthispossible. Yousee,theC68 CarbonChargeristhesamelengthasabonestock1968Charger. Italsohastheexactsame wheelbase! Addinthatthewindshieldrakeisn’t nearlyasextremeassomecars,suchasCamaros andCorvettes,andyouendupwithproportionsthatarecloseenoughtowork.Onearea thatchanges,though,isthecar’swidth,sincethe eXoModC68Carbonisatruewidebody.Thisis

donewiththequarter-panelsandfendersinstead ofthefenderflaresusedonamodernwidebody Dodge.Theresultofallthisbody-swapvoodoo isamodernDodgeHellcatthathasthelookofa vintageChargerwiththerightproportionssothat youreyedoesn’tdismissitallassomesortofbaitand-switchdeal.

AstheysaidinthatoldGinsuknifeinfomercial, “Butwait there’smore!” Yousee,thenewbody panelsaren’tstampedsteel,they’recarbon ber.This meansthenewretro-modernMoparis400pounds lighterthanafactoryHellcatChallenger! The weightlossisakintofreehorsepowerforanalready stupid-fastcar.Oh,andthebody-panelswapretains Dodge’spowertrainwarranty.

TheinterioroftheeXoModcarsstayspretty stockexceptforbetter, Italianleatherfortheseats. Allthehigh-techoptionsfoundonanewHellcat arestillthere,soyouhaveheatedandcooledseats, launchcontrol,andsafetystufflikeairbagsand backupsensors.

eXoModisn’tstoppingwithChargers.Other classicMoparsaregettingthereskinned-in-carbon treatmentaswell.TheD71isstyledafterthe1971 DodgeDemon,andwehavetosaytherendering lookskickass.Thisride,limitedtojust25vehicles, shouldbedonearoundthesummerof2023.Likeall theeXoModcars,therearetonsofcolor,wheel,and trimoptions.

Wantsomethingwilder?HowaboutaHellcat reskinnedtolooklikea1969ChargerDaytona? Yep, bignose,bigcarbon- berwing,andtonsofattitude. TheyarecurrentlybuildingthisDaytonaandhope tohaveitondisplayatNovember’sMCACNevent

inChicago.AlltheeXoModconversionsrollon high-endForgelinewheels.Eventheserollers,which looklikevintagesteelies,areinfact20-inchbillet Forgelinewheels!

Nowthisisn’taninexpensiveproposition,but whatisthesedays?Considerthecostoftakinga 1968Chargerandbuildingitintoeverythingthe 2022Hellcatis.Allthecomfort,allthepower, allthemodernsuspensionparts,flush-mounted glass,andlatesttechnology.Abuildlikethat wouldbehundredsofthousandsofdollarsand takeaneternitytogetdone.eXoModcanconvert yourexistingChallenger (allthewaybacktoa 2011R/Tmodelyear) for$275K andhaveitbuilt, painted,andontheroadinaround8weeks! They alsosellcompletecars,customizedtoyourtastes, startingat$400K forthe 707hpHellcator$450K forthe807hpRedeye!

Forusmeremortals,nearlyhalfamillionbucks fallsintofantasyland,butyoucouldeasilyspend thatmuch,andmorethanlikelymore,adding alltheHellcatgutsandcarbon bertoavintage Mopar,andstillnotendupwithacarcapableof reliablymakingcross-countrydrives.Thiscardrives likeanewHellcatbecause,inessence,itisanew Hellcat. Inshort,thisisjustanotherwaytoskinthe proverbialfeline;awaytogetthoseclassic-carlines welovealongwiththemodernkickassperformance we’vebecomeaccustomedto.Towindow-shop ortoplaceanorder,checkouttheirwebsiteat www.exomodcarbon.com. Ifyou’reatthe2022 SEMAshowinVegas,lookforbooth24995in theHotRodAlley,whereanewpurplecarthat’s justbeing nishedupwillbeondisplay.

Unlikely Trans AmMashup 1978 Firebird

Translammed

From the wonderfully creative minds at TredWear the same guys who built Scraptona and Project Tarantula comes a bit of fan ction made real. Translammed is the ultimate what-if answer to a question no one knew they had: What would Bo Darville have raced in the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona? With help from the Burdettes (in the form of another bet), Bo converted the 1977 Trans Am he used for the transcontinental beer run into a GTX-class race car to compete against the indomitable Porsche 935s of the era. The Burdettes bet the Bandit that if he set the fastest lap of the race, they would cover not just the cost of running in the 1981 Camel GT 24 Hour Pepsi Challenge, but an entire season of racing Translammed.

In reality, Michael Hunt and Lee Clayton at TredWear were looking to build a comfortable driver and their initial thought was, “Vette Kart with style.” Starting with a C5 Z06 in 2019, the search for a suitable body donor led to a 1978 Firebird, and then the imaginations started running wild with daydreams of Burt Reynolds battling it out with Porsches on Daytona’s banked turns.

The Firebird body was shortened ve inches through the doors and T-tops (which still function), and the wide body is a combination of repopped rear quarters, and a cut-up one-piece drag racing front clip. Of course, the LS6 and C5 chassis received a host of performance goodies from the usual suspects: Holley, Aldan American, HP Tuners, and such. The imaginary race-car-madereal may have comfortable seats and most of the Corvette’s interior hiding under the awesome custom graphics and gold roll-cage, but coming in at just 3,100 pounds means Translammed has the go to back up all the show.

THE 1973 HURST PONTIAC GRAND AM THAT NEVER WAS.

eanTobinhadonlythebroadeststrokesofaplanwhenhe walkedintoaDodgedealershipin1989,buthesensedhis lifewasabouttochangeinabigway.DidhebuyaDodge? Nope.Notevenclose.“I wasdrivingdownVanNuys Boulevard. I sawthecaroutofthecornerofmyeyeand immediatelydida U-turn. Itwasonthefrontline,and I wentstraightforit. I knewtheGrandAm. I’moneofthose

geeks. I knewithadtobeonlya400ora455,that’salltheymadeit in. I knewiftheemblemsaid ‘7.4Litres’thenithadtobea455.”

A GRAN TheERnursefromMissionViejo,California,was25atthetime whenhe’dbeendrivingthroughtownonanothertask.Heexperiencedapowerfulflashbacktothemid-1970s toatimeinStaten Island,New York,whenhewasabout10.Someoneinhisboyhood neighborhoodhada1973PontiacGrandAm.“I fellinlovewithitas

DER AM

JOHNNY HUNKINS

soon as I saw it,” says Sean wistfully. He was just a boy and couldn’t act on his automotive fantasy at the time, but the dormant psychological seed planted all those years ago suddenly sprouted to life, triggered by the random spotting of the mint 1973 Pontiac Grand Am for sale for $3,300 on the front row of a Southern California Dodge dealership.

“I had to buy it and I’ve owned it ever since. I basically restored the car myself,” says Tobin, hesitating before admitting “I didn’t paint it,

A GRANDER AM

andthefabricationonthechassisandstuff whichishighlymodied wasdonebyCambraSpeedShopinthecityofOrange.”Still, thefeatisimpressiveenoughwithouthavingtobecomeajourneymaninbothbodyworkandfabrication.Perhapsthemostprescient skillofall,however,wasbeingabletorecognizeatthetimethatthe 1973PontiacGrandAm aColonnade-styleGMA-body would becomesosoughtafter,andatatimewhenguysSean’sagewere infatuatedwith IROCCamaros,TurboBuicks,and5LiterFox-body Mustangs. Itwas,andremains,theroadalmostnevertraveled.

Atotalof34,445PontiacGrandAmswerebuiltin1973,asmallishnumberconsideringover 7 millionColonnadeA-bodieswere producedintotalbetween1973and1977,yetitwasthemostbuilt duringthecar’sthree-yearproductionrunfrom1973to1975.“I lovethiscarsomuchbecauseit’sveryunique,”saysTobin.“Nobody elsehasone,youdon’tseethematothershows,anditgetsalotof attentionjustbecauseit’ssuchanoddballcar.”Thestandardengine

wasa170hp400ciV8butitcouldbeoptionedallthewayuptoa 250hp455ciV8.Thecar’soriginal455ciPontiacwasnoslouchfor itsday,andSeanusedhis455forthe rst25yearshehadit,butit wasnomatchfor21stcenturyperformance.Today,Sean’sGrand AmfeaturesabuiltLS7 withCNC-portedBrodixheads,ahydraulic rollercamfromEnginePowerSystems,portedMSDAtomicAir ForceintakeandaMamoported90mmthrottlebody.Seanstitched ittogetherwithaGME38ECU,Speartechharness,andGMsensors. AllthisputsSean’sGrandAmcomfortablyinthe550-600hprange.

Thoughafour-speedmanualwasofferedon400ci-equipped GrandAmsin1973and1974,onlyaTurbo400three-speedslushboxwasofferedbehindthe455.Asanold-schoolgearhead,Sean wantedtoselecthisowncogs,andinstalledaTremecT-56six-speed box. InfrontofthetransmissionisaMcLeodRSTdual-discclutch assemblyandaftofitisthestock10-bolt8.5-inchrearendwithToms forgedaxles,anEatonposi,and3.73:1gears.Thenear-totalchange-

overofthedrivetrainwouldputSean’s1973GrandAminC6 Z06 Corvetteterritory,sotheplanwouldalsocallforsimilarupgradesto thechassis,suspension,tirepackage,andbrakes.

Asoneofthe rstmass-producedOEchassisevertobedesigned bycomputer (GMcalledthenewmid-sizedA-bodysuspensionRTS, forRadialTunedSuspension),afull-scalerevisionofthe1973PontiacGrandAmchassiswasnotcalledfor. Instead,SeanhadCambria SpeedShopboxandseam-weldtheframe,reinforcingthecrossbars andhavingitallpowdercoated.Allfourcornerswereconvertedto QA1double-adjustablecoilovershocks,andGlobalWestcontrol armsreplacedthestockunitsupfront.

UnliketheColonnadeA-body’sRTSchassis,themalaise-era brakesweredecidedlylame.Theoriginalsingle-pistonfrontdisc brakeswereupgradedtoWilwoodAerosix-pistoncaliperson 14.25-inchSpec37 rotors,andthereardrumsleapfroggedtoWilwoodFNSLfour-pistoncaliperswith13-inchSpec37 rotors.These

capablebindersactonupsizedNittoNT05tires (275/35R19,front; 305/35R19,rear) mountedonModulareC1three-piecealloywheels.

Wetakeforgrantedtheentiregenreoftoday’sluxuryperformancevehicles,butin1973,thePontiacGrandAmwassomewhatofaunicorn.ThenameGrandAmwasaportmanteauof thenamesTransAm (Pontiac’sponycar) andtheGrandPrix (Pontiac’sluxurycoupe) inferringtheperformanceoftheformer andtheluxuryofthelatter. ItwasconceivedbyPontiactocombat anewcropofEuropeanperformers,speci callyfromBMWand Mercedes,butwithincomingregulationsfor5-mphbumpersit wouldpresentachallengefordesignershopingtopenagorgeous shape,aprerequisiteforsuchacar.

Theanswercameintheformofaflexibleurethanebumper,or “Endura,”asPontiaccalledit.Thisallowedthefederally-mandated 5-mphbumperstobevisuallyintegratedintotheflowinglinesofthe body,producingashapefarmoreappealingandforward-looking

thanothercarsofitsday.Thewind-cheatingshapeofthe1973 PontiacGrandAmwasaheadofitstimeandstillturnsheads,and thoughbody-integratedbumpersarenow derigueur,thestyling wouldneedamodernupdatetolegitimatelysitattheperformance luxurytableinthemodernera.

Originally,Sean’s1973PontiacGrandAmhadawhitevinyltop, whitepaint,whitewalltires,Rallye II wheels,andablackinterior. Asidefromthenewrollingstockandlowerstancealreadymentioned,theColonnadeA-bodyhasbeentreatedtoacoatofBMW DoningtonGrey,onceagainbyCambriaSpeedShop.Butwhat’s arguablymoststrikingofallisTobin’ssubtleincorporationofa HurstPerformancemotifacrosstheexteriorandinteriorofthe GrandAm.HurstPerformanceproducedseveralboutiquemodels duringtheera,includingtheAMCSC

Rambler

HurstneverbuiltaspecialtyGrandAmin1973oranyotheryear.

FortheHursttreatment,SeancontactedBilletBadgesofRamona, California,tocarveouttheOE-lookfenderbadgesfrombilletaluminum,orderedaHurstshifterandfloormatsfromHolley,thenhad Auto InteriorsofMissionViejo,California,stitchtheHurstembroideryonapairofrepurposedseatsSeanscavengedfroma2011 HondaCRZ TheHursttreatmentisjustboldenoughtowarranta righteousheadnodfromonlookerswithoutlookinglikeamateur nightattheburgershop.

1969

,Chrysler

Sean’s 1973 Pontiac Grand Am is a roadmap for how many of today’s best home-built hot rods are built; Sean served essentially as his own speed shop, contracting out jobs too specialized or that required unique skill sets (paint, fabrication, upholstery) while performing the lion’s share of grunt work, like disassembly, parts cataloging, cleaning, plumbing, and reassembly, in his home garage over a four-year period between 2014 and 2018.

Whilethereisnothingnewabout thisapproach,whatismostrefreshingisSean’seyeforhittingjustthe rightaestheticnote,whichspeaks toalevelofsophisticationusually reservedforcontemporaryOE specialeditionsfromthelikesof Roush,Shelby,orSaleen.

Nowthatthe rstpartofSean’s GrandAmjourneyiscomplete,he hasstartedonparttwo,whichistosay it’stimetoenjoythefruitsofhishard work.Thatprocessbeganthispast Januarywithawinattheprestigious GrandNationalRoadsterShowin PomonaintheMildHardtop/Sedan ’70-’79class,butthat’sjustastart.“I wanttotakeittothetrackanddosome dragracingwithit,”enthusedSean.“I’d lovetodoatrackdaywiththecar,a littleautocrossingaswell,becausethe suspension’ssetupforallofthat.”

AtatimewhenAmerica’shealth-care workersarestrainedtothemax,we thinklifebehindthewheelofthis1973 PontiacGrandAmisawell-deserved reward.ToSeanTobinandallthecountry’sfrontlinehealth-careworkers:We hopeyouhavethetimeandpeaceof mindtoenjoythedrive!

Saintly

Volvo’s factory race team builds an versionultra-high-performance of the iconic P1800

emplar,SimonTemplar.Nope doesn’thavethesameringas007,yetsomehow RogerMooremanagedtomakebothcharactersoozecool.GrantedConnerygot thebetterendofthecardealwithhisBond’sAstonMartinDB5,butMoorestill scoredwithasubmariningLotusEspritandTemplar’sVolvoP1800hedroveinthe televisionshow TheSaint.

Cutto2022,andweopenonaCeruleanBlueP1800streakingthroughmorning’s rstlight. It’safarcryfromtheoriginalcarthatMoorewouldhavedriven,butCyan RacinghasreimaginedthisSwedishclassicthatSimonTemplarwouldsurelyhavebeenexcited todrive.Buildingcustomercarstosupportaracinghabitremainsalong-standingtraditionin theautomotiveindustry.TheteamatCyanRacing,establishedin1996andresponsibleforstartingVolvo’sPolestarracingprogram,arelocatedattheeasy-to- ndbutharder-to-pronounce intersectionofGammagatanandFrölundagataninasouthernsuburbofGothenburg,Sweden.

LYN WOODWARD WES ALLISON

.

SAINTLY

Your$700,000purchaseoftheir rstfundraising effort,theVolvoP1800Cyan,willhelp.

InspiredbythelikesofSinger,GuntherWerks,and evenShelbyAmerican,Cyanlookednofurtherthan theirownbackyardwhenitcametopickingthecar. Designersoriginallyvotedforthecompanytostart withtheVolvo140,withitscleanlines,butthemore iconicP1800wonout.

TurnthekeyoverandCyan’sP1800startsupwith con dence,themodernVolvofourcylindergrumbles inalowtenor,thewhirofitsturboaddingahighpitch tothemelody.Fromtheenginenotealone,thisP1800 hintsthatitmightdriveabitsportierthantheoriginal 2+2,frontengine,RWDtouringcardidinitstime.

Thisparticularmodelisashowcar,something toselltheirideaviavariousandsundryautomotive journalistssuchasmyself. Itstraddlesthelinebetween trackanimalandroad-lovingGT.Putinyourorder, andyoucanpushitasfarasyoulike,thoughaccordingtoHansBaath,GeneralManagerofCarsforCyan, thisisasfarascustomerswilllikelygo.“Anymore anditwouldbetoobumpyontheroadandnotfun todrive.”Ownerswilllikelywanttokeepthedriving experienceinthefatpartofthefuncurve.

Thecamberisn’tsoaggressivehere,only1.6 degrees,andwithits18-inchcenter-lockwheels wrappedinMercedesspecPirellis,245supfrontand 265sintherear,youcanpushitquitefarwithout fearoflosingtherearend.Don’twanttherollcage? Noproblem.Wanttotonedowntheexhaustnoise? That’s ne,too.

“Mostpeoplechangegearstooearly,”saidBaath, which I de nitelydidrightoutofthegate,so I sheepishlydownshiftedthemetaldoglegsix-speedshifter toThirdgearandletherripacrossthewideturns ofAngelesCrestHighway,just24milesfromLos Angeles.There’splentyofroomtoplayastheengine redlinesat 7,700rpm.

“TheP1800cameatthesametimeastheCobra andthe911,andthenyouwouldhavethought, ‘that’s acoolcar,’butwhenitcametopowerandhandling itreallywasnot,”Baathsays.TheoriginalP1800only made130hpatitsmostpowerful.

SAINTLY

Withmyfootonthefloor,evenThirdwasn’t enoughfortheCyan’s420horsestoshowoff,because the425lb-ftoftorquedoesn’tcomeinearlyontherev bandlikemostmodernturbos.Rather,it’smapped likeanaturallyaspiratedengineanddeliverstorque linearly,meaningthemoreyoupushthepedal,the morepoweryouget,justlikea’60scar.“Ifyoudon’t givearacedrivertorquelinearly,theyhateyou,”Baath says.Atonly2,100pounds,that420numbermakes forapotentpower-to-weightratio,whichallgets stoppedeffectivelybyAPRacingbrakes.

“Thinkofthisasthe’60sperfected,noABS,no powerbrakes,notractioncontrol,”Baathexplains. Cyanjuicedthesteeringwheelwithasmidgeof powerassist,andit’sjustenoughtogetthefrontend torespondquicklywithoutmakingyoufeelasthough you’reworkingsohardforit.Thebackenddutifully followssuitthankstohelpfromthosestickyPirellis. Cominguptoanotherturn, I bunglemygearselectionandBaathlaughs.“I dothattoo,yes,”hecommiseratesinhisSwedish-accentedEnglish,“That’s thedoglegproblem,sometimesit’slike,wheream I?”However,evenwithmydrivererror,thisP1800 dolesoutgodlikeforgiveness.Wewerehavingsucha

goodtimedrivingandtalkingthatwegotlostinthe streetsofWrightwoodattheendoftheCrest.GPS didn’tworkhere,soweretracedoursteps.“It’snot half-assed.Thisisfully-assed,”afellowjournalistsaid ofhisP1800experience. I couldn’thaveagreedmore as I keptdriving.

Lestyouthinktheyaredestroyingmint-condition classics,Baathassuredmethatheandhispalssource bodiesfromsalvagecarsthatarefarbeyondrescueand mostlyrustedout (becauseSweden).Originally,there were49,000P1800smadebetween1961and1973, whenproductionended.ThereissolittleCyankeeps fromtheoriginalbodythattheycanusethesaddest examplesoutthere,sothereisnoneedtofeelbad.

AccordingtoBaath,torsionalrigidityoftheoriginalchassiswasmoreorlesszero,sotheyuseall-new strongersteeltostiffenuptheframe.Everythingin blueiscarbon ber.Thebodyissuperstiff,sothe suspensionmustbetoughenoughtohandleit,hence replacingtheoriginalliverearaxlewithadoublewishbonesetup. Inall,Cyanreplacesmorethan 70 percentoftheoriginalcar.Theyreinforcetheweld pointsin30placeswherethecarbon- berbody adheresdirectlytotheframeandupgradetheengine

SAINTLY

mounts.Sixcarbonpanelscoverthechassisintotal, and I challengeyouto ndaseamanywhere.Allthe chromebitsaremilledbilletaluminum,fromtheexteriortrimpiecestotheinterior nishes.So,what’sstill original?Thehandbrakethatsitsontheleftsideof thedriver’sseat,thehoodlatch,theswitchgearforthe limitedHVACcontrols,andthewindshieldwipers.

Thedirect-injectioninlinefour-cylinderturbois thesameasyou’dgetinaVolvoyou’dbuytoday,an engineVolvostartedmakingin2014.Cyanstarted developingitwithVolvoin2010,sotheyknowtheir wayarounditandcantuneithoweveryouandyour $700,000wouldlike.Tobetterresembletheoriginal car,Cyantuckstheturbounderneaththeblockand removesthevariablecamsforthatlineartorque.

“PAAAAA!”That’sthenoiseBaathmakeswhen I getituptoredline.Thegearsarelongandshifts smooth.Thiscarfeelsperfectlyangeliconaroadwith wide,sweepingturns.Thisisn’tacaryouputintoone gearanddrive.Rather,yourowthroughSecond,Third andFourthliberallytofeelthechassiscomposingitself.

Thereisnoonesizehere;everythingiscustomizablefromthebrakebalancebar,tocamberandcaster,

toanti-rollbars,springrates,andshocks. Itcanbe setupforanythingfromhard-coreracingtogetting icecreamontheweekends.Materialsintheinterior canaccommodateanytasteaswell. Ifcustomershave anyatall,they’llchosetherecycledcharcoalgreyfelt Cyanusedonthisshowcar.Thetoggleswitchesare machinedmetalandfeelsolidinyourhands,justlike a’60scar.

Visibilityisnotasbadasinmanymoderncars, butofcourseyouhavenosafetyfeaturesofwhichto speak,sodriverbeware.Thankfullynumbersareuniversal,becausethegaugesareallinSwedishunlessthe customerasksforthemotherwise.

When I askwhat’snext,Baathpauses.“Alotof customerswanttheES (shootingbrake),”hesays.The C30isanotheronetheywant,whichwouldmake senseforCyansinceitwasthe rstPolestarcarthey evermadewithVolvo.ForBaath,itwouldbethe240 turbo,butthemarketisultimatelywhatwilldictate what,ifanything,comesnext.Currently,thereare vecustomerP1800Cyansintheworks.Andthis heavenlyVolvosuperstarwilldoquitenicelyfornow, thankyouverymuch.Hallelujah.

Rare 1968 Z/28 saved from a field after 43 years!

verynowandagainwecomeacrossabarnor eld nd that’sextraspecial onethathasbeencarefullytucked awayfromtimeandisstillinpristinecondition. Thisisn’tthatstory,butwhatthiscarlacks conditionitmorethanmakesupforin rarityandcoolness.Meeta1968 Z/28 Camarothatiscurrentlybeingsaved fromtheravagesoftime.Buthowdid thisrarepieceofCamarohistorycome to nditselfabandonedinadamp eldtobeviolatedbyMotherNatureforoverfourdecades?

Well,forthatstoryweneedtohitupthecar’s currentowner, JBCoppedge.Ashetoldus,“The rstownerdidn’thavethecarlongand,inlate1969, endeduptradingitinfora1969Novafour-speedcar. I’mnotsurewhenthesecondownerboughtthecar, whenhegotit,ithadawarranty-replacementCE9B302engine underthehood.Whileheownedittheheadswerereplacedwitha setof492angle-plugheads,andheaddedaHurstshifteralongwith

Z IN THE FIELD

theideaofowningareal Z/28,butwiththepricesofcarstoday, I didn’tthink I wouldevergetone. I waslookingfortheperfectprojectcarhighandlow,lookingalloverdifferentstatesonCraigslist andFacebookmarketplace,when I sawthisbeautiful1968 Z/28 UU paintcodeLeMansBlueCamarolistedinPennsylvaniaandjustfell inlovewithit. I showedittomyfather,BradCoppedge,andaftera fewdaystalkingaboutit,wedecidedtoloadupandgogetit.

MacConnellownsasmall,coollittlecarlotcalledMacConnell’s ServiceCenter.OnAugust19th,2019,rightbeforemidnight, I was pullingintotheparkinglotofMacConnell’sServiceCenter. I went widetopullintohislotandasmallcarwithoutlightsontriedtoget aroundmeandhitmytruckandtraileras I pulledin. I tookoffa lotofthefrontendandsomelightsonthecarthathitme,butonly brokeoffsomeplasticonmyrunningboard.Afterdealingwiththat, I metwithMacConnell. I tookaquickpeekatthecar,paidhim, andgotallthepaperwork.At9a.m.thenextmorning, I wasbackat

MacConnell’slottoloadupthecarand I gottomeetFardone.Not onlydidwebuyaveryrarecar,butwealsomadefriendswithtwoof thebestguysyoucouldevermeet.We’restillincontacttoday,and I hopetogobacktohangoutwiththemsoon.”

“Twodayslater,wegotthe Z/28backtoClaremore,Oklahoma, wherewe’velivedsince1979. I thenstartedonthepaperworktrail. I orderedtheNCRSdocumentwhere I wasabletogettheshipping dateandwhatdealershipsoldthecar.Afterspendingtimeonthe phonewiththatdealership, I couldn’tgetanyfurther. I endedup postingonaPennsylvania rst-genCamaropageaboutthestory.A gentlemannamed JeffBoonesawthepostandletmeknowhe’sin thesametownastheoriginaldealershipandknewsomepeoplewho workthere.Hespentanafternoonlookingandwasableto ndthe dealershipinvoice! Thenhelookedupthepersonwhoboughtthe carandwasabletogettwopicturesofthebeautiful1968 Z/28when itwasnewfromthe rstowner,”recalledCoppedge.

“Inthelasttwoyears, I’vebeenbuyingoriginalpartsforthecar todoacompleterestorationonit.NOSquarters,tail,grille,fenders,andsoon. I amtryingveryhardtokeepasmuchofitas I can withrealGMparts. I evenfoundanNOST.I.distributorwithall thecomponentsandalike-newGMcross-ram,veri edbyWayne GuinnwithGuinnEngineering,datedonemonthbeforethecarwas built. I gotthecross-ramfromTomCudeyro.Cudeyrohasdealtwith manycross-ramsovertheyears,andhe’sspentalotoftimehelping me. I’llbedoingmostoftheworkmyselfwiththehelpofmyfather. Hehasbeenworkingon’56Chevysaslongas I canremember,and he’sthereason I wantedthecross-ramforthiscar. Ifitwasn’tforhim, mydreamcarwouldnotbehere. I’llalsobelettingmyyoungson, JoshuaDavis,helpmewiththerestoration. Joshualovesthenewer modernmusclecarsbuthastakenabiglikingtothis1968 Z/28.He lovestotalkaboutitandalwayswantstohelpwiththeproject.”

Asforthe1968 Z/28,itstrimtagdateis07C,whichwouldbethe thirdweekof Julyin1968.Productionof’68sstoppedinthe fth week,sothisisoneofthelast’68smade.TheCamarowasshippedto A.W.TroutmaninPennsylvaniaon July16,1968,andsoldon July27. The Z/28hadallthestandardoptionslikea302small-block,Muncie four-speed,frontdiscbrakes,whitestripes,andarearspoiler.Other thanthat,itwaslowoption,withnocenterconsole,tach,orgauge pack.Oddly,it’soneofonly697 examplesthathadfactorypower steering.Thetrunkstillheldtheoriginaljackaswellasadate-correct spare.Thecarlooksroughinthepictures,butCoppedgetoldusthat it’sactuallyprettysolid,andtheframerailsareingreatshape.

WejustlovethatthisrarepieceofChevroletandCamarohistorywassavedfromrottingawayinthewoodsandwillbeproperly restoredtoitsformerglory.Whenit’sdone,we’llbeheretoshoota fullfeatureonit.

RoadkillNightstakesoverWoodwardAvenue.

ortheseventhstraightyear,RoadkillNightsPoweredbyDodgerockedover 40,000fanswithstreetracingonWoodwardAvenue,amassiveshowandshine, andanassortmentofexcitingDodgedisplaysofpowerandperformance.The M1ConcourseinPontiac,Michigan,onceagainhostedtheuniqueevent,which alsoservedastheuno cialkickofftotheWoodwardDreamCruise.

DodgebroughtacollectionofSRTChallengerandChargervehiclesfor“thrill rides”ontheskidpadandroadcourse.Newfor2022wastheadditionofanoffroadcoursethathadthe 702hpRAM1500TRX trucksgivingjoyridesforfans. Professionaldriversracedoveratabletopjumpandhitthecurvesinthemakeshiftracecourse,showingthecapabilitiesoftheTRX truck.

TheMotorTrendeventteamtookoverastretchofthefamedWoodwardAvenuethatsits infrontoftheM1Concourseandconverteditintoadragstrip.Ateamoftrackspecialists spentallnightinstallingsafetybarriersandpreparingthesurfaceforthehigh-poweredstreet racers.Thegroupeveninstalledatimingsystemtodeterminetheeightquickestcarsforeach oftheSmallTireandBigTiregroups.

AmajorattractionwasthehighlyanticipatedDodgeDirectConnectionGrudgeRacethat broughtineightinfluencerstodukeitoutforaspotinthelaneoppositelastyear’schampion, AlexTaylor.Readhowthatwentdownelsewhereinthisissue.

QA wide range of cars, from late-model Dodge muscle cars to 6-second-capable street cars, came to run on the makeshift dragstrip.

RACING

MICHAEL GALIMI KEVIN DIOSSI

QThere was no shortage of thrills on the skidpad, with pro drivers pushing SRT Challengers and Chargers through turns with fans in the passenger seats.

IntheSmallTireclass,MikaelBorggrendrovehis waytovictoryinhisuniquestreetcarknownsimply astheVolvofromDragWeek.Mikaelreliesonan LSenginewithagiganticturbochargertopowerhis Volvowagon,whichnormallyrunsinthehigh6sat over200mphonapreppeddragstrip! PerennialBig Tireracer JoeBarryandhisson, Joey,wereflawless withtheirpopular“Creamsicle,”a1956Chevywith atwin-turbobig-blockChevyengine.Theycaptured theBigTireclasswinandpocketedacheckfor$5,000 fortheirefforts.

Inadditiontotheactiononthedragstripand Dodgethrill-ridecourses,MotorTrendbroughtoutits starsfromthehitTVseries, Roadkill AlexandLucky linkedupwiththe Roadkillcrew,DavidFreiburger, MikeFinnegan,SteveDulcich,DavidNewburn,and FasterwithFinnegan’sMikeCottento lma Roadkill episodeliveon-site! Thegroupofsevencompeted inaburnoutcontestusingvehiclesfromavarietyof shows.Whowon? You’llhavetotuneintoMotorTrendTVortheMotorTrend+appto ndout.

Planningisalreadyunderwayforthenextyear’s RoadkillNights,aslegalstreetracing,TVstars, andDodgeexcitementwillonceagaintakeover WoodwardAvenueinthesummerof2023.

QJoe and Joey Barry dominated the Big Tire class with their well-known 1956 Chevy, which features a twin-turbocharged combination. They’re veterans of HOT ROD Drag Week and have run in the 6s at over 200 mph.

QMotorTrend built an o -road course so RAM could showcase its 1500 TRX truck’s capabilities, especially its ability to handle big jumps!

TIRE SHREDDER

Enginespeggedatredlineandmanytires destroyedatLSFestWest2022.

JOHN MCGANN

othing draws a crowd at a car show like a burnout contest, and Holley’s LS Fest doesn’t disappoint. Over the years, Holley has reformatted its LS Fests, both East and West, to include an Australian-style burnout contest spinning cars in a wide-open space rather than a static burnout with the car strapped to a steel plate.

This year’s LS Fest West happened at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the show continues to grow larger every year. Seemingly everywhere you looked, someone was burning off a set of tires. There were multiple burnout contests and sideshow events throughout the weekend. That plus simultaneous drifting and drag racing around the facility meant that the skies above the speedway were lled with a near-constant plume of tire smoke. Here’s a collection of some of our favorite burnout pictures from the weekend.

01 The result of DSR’s collaboration with key partners (we’ll dive into those in a moment) is the first of what we hope are more crate engines like this. The DSR 1150 is a turnkey drop in crate engine that runs on 93 octane pump gas and puts out 1,150 peak hp at 6,500 rpm and 974 lb ft of torque at 5,200 rpm, at an introductory price of $37,950. As a point of refer ence, Mopar’s 1,000hp Hellephant crate engine (when it’s available) is $29,995. A little farther down the road, and in keeping with the 1,000 plus horsepower theme, the Chevrolet Performance ZZ 632 (an old school carbureted big block Chevy) lands at an MSRP of $37,758 (once again, when available). In the Ford universe, Custom Crate Engines offers a super charged 1,000hp version of Ford’s new 7.3 liter Godzilla engine at $38,870, so this price territory is well traveled for crate engines over 1,000 hp.

02 The point person who got the ball rolling on the DSR 1150 is Chad Osier, the president of Don Schumacher Racing. Osier’s vision for the 426ci Hemi crate engine was a logical exten sion of DSR’s involvement in NHRA’s

Factory Stock Showdown Series. For background, FSS is an amplification of NHRA’s Stock Eliminator classes, where OE manufacturers compete head to head with current production vehicles that have current production based V8 engines—or, in Mopar speak, Drag Pak Challengers. While the NHRA strives for parity between brands, which limits some aspects of construction, it also plunges race teams deep into the inner workings of current production car engine platforms, and this is the key to the DSR 1150’s development. Osier had reached out to Drag Pak crew chief AJ Berge to investigate such a crate engine program, and to his relief, AJ told Osier, “I got it figured out already.” Berge had completed R&D work on such a program as part of his regular business running Hemituner Perfor mance, an outfit we first introduced you to while drag testing the Dream Giveaway Garage 1,000hp HellScat in 2017.

03 At Hemituner Performance, Berge was a customer of Billy Briggs, a Michigan based drag engine builder with 20 years of experience in Pro Mod

and NHRA Super Stock. Briggs had worked with Hemituners on Berge’s personal third gen Hemi race car, as well as some customer cars, so putting together a Hemi crate engine program on the bleeding edge was less about R&D and more about how to do it at scale. To that point, Mopar was already funneling parts into DSR to support the Drag Pak effort, so getting bulk quantities of high nickel content 392 BGE blocks and bare Hellcat cyl inder heads—the bulwark of the DSR 1150—would be the first and biggest obstacle to overcome. With Briggs building the short blocks in Michigan, Berge and the Hemituners crew on Long Island, New York, would do the valvetrain and cylinder heads, then perform the DSR 1150’s final assembly with a Whipple Gen 5 supercharger and dyno tune. Let’s look under the hood of the DSR 1150 crate engine to see what makes it tick.

04 Assembly for the DSR 1150 Hemi crate engine begins at Motorcity Speed in Commerce Charter Town ship, Michigan, with a brand new high nickel content 392 BGE block. The 392 BGE block is currently the

basis for two Stellantis production engines: the Dodge SRT series of 6.2 liter Hellcat engines (the Hellcat, Demon, Redeye, Super Stock, Ram/ TRX) and the Ram 392 Hemi. (The medium duty 392 Apache Hemi in the Dodge Scat Pack, 392 Jeep Wrangler, and Mopar 392 crate engine program has a taller water jacket and is cast with gray iron.) In short, the 392 BGE block is the strongest engine block cur rently offered in a domestic production vehicle and can comfortably contain the pressure for up to 1,600 hp.

05 Billy Briggs at Motorcity Speed assembles each DSR 1150 short block by hand using components from a variety of sources. A 4.050 inch stroke, forged Compstar crankshaft is com bined with Callies Ultra H beam forged rods and 2618 forged billet 9.8:1 Gibtec pistons (Hellcat sized 4.100 inch bore) for the magic 426 cubic inch number. Not shown in this shot is ARP’s main stud kit—a mandatory Hemi upgrade at this power level. The forged Callies H beam rods are a major step up from the powdered metal rods found in the Hellcat, as are the 2618 billet Gibtec pistons.

06 The simplicity of assembling a short block belies the many checks and machining operations that go into each DSR 1150 short block assembly. The block must be blueprinted—the process of checking specifications such as deck height, flatness, bore diam eter, mains, and wall thickness—and brought to spec before being assem bled. Blower specific ring gapping, cylinder torque plate honing, speccing rod bearing clearances, and torquing the main and rod caps is precision work that can’t be rushed.

07 Next stop for the DSR 1150 short block assembly is Hemituner Performance on Long Island, New York, where it will meet the capable hands of DSR Drag Pak crew chief AJ Berge.

08 One of the first operations per formed by AJ is to modify a new Hell cat timing cover to accommodate the diameter of an ATI Super Damper that has an integral blower pulley. Here, AJ makes a small cut to a gusset cast into the cover using a Bridgeport mill.

09 The next order of business is to assemble the cylinder heads, which employ stock Hellcat stainless steel valves (2.14/1.65 inches). It’s worth noting that even at 1,150 hp, the stock Hellcat/BGE/Apache Hemi cylinder head is capable of prodigious flow without any porting whatsoever. Box stock, the BGE/Hellcat heads flow around 350 cfm (at 0.600 inch of valve lift), about the same as a heavily worked, CNC ported rec port LS head. Score one for mother Mopar. Hemitun ers does some minor port work and performs a high end valve job.

10 Of note in this photo is the dual purpose nature of the BGE/Hellcat cylinder head. The intake port deck can be drilled at the plant with one of two sets of intake manifold holes. This head has been drilled for the Hellcat’s supercharger intake, but you can see the undrilled bosses for the BGE truck intake manifold that are more inboard (lower). Both the 392 BGE truck and the Hellcat Hemi share the same cylin der head castings.

11 AJ assembles each DSR 1150 cylinder head by hand using the best compo nents, which include nitrided 1500 Series beehive valve springs, retainers, and spring seats from PSI. PSI’s valve kit is one we’re familiar with; the 1515 kit used in the DSR 1150 specs to 140 lbs at the seat (1.950 inches installed height) and 405 lbs (1.30 inches height) with 0.075 inch coil bind clearance.

12 As co crew chief on a trio of super charged Don Schumacher Racing Drag Pak Challengers, AJ knows a few things about third gen Hemi camshafts for blown engines. He told us the DSR 1150’s Comp Cams sourced custom hydraulic roller camshaft specs at 0.612 inch lift with 234/242 degrees duration (at 0.050 inch lift).

13 The Hellcat/BGE engine family uses variable valve timing (VVT), but this feature must be locked out by a Comp Cams kit (part No. 5760) when using a camshaft with this amount of duration and overlap.

14 A set of ARP head studs (part No. 244 4300) provides the clamping load needed for a blown combination mak ing between 14 and 16 pounds of boost. Stock cylinder head bolts are torque to yield type and are limited in their clamp load and shouldn’t be reused even in a stock Hellcat rebuild.

15 AJ swears by the stock Hellcat head gaskets on the DSR 1150 and we can’t argue. In the inset photo on the right is a durability dyno test at the Stellantis Tech Center where we witnessed stock Hellcat head gaskets being tested at full torque load with coolant at minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and no leaks or failures occurred—note the white frost covering all the bare metal parts and pipes. The Hemi uses a stepped torque sequence, and AJ likes to allow sufficient time between steps to let the gaskets settle (unload). Then he installs the rocker arm assemblies before proceeding to the final stage of torque.

16 Large camshafts, machining opera tions, and non stock components often stack up to alter pushrod length, and here AJ is using a pushrod length checking tool in a special fixture (basi cally a single cylinder rocker setup) to obtain a correct length. AJ reports that of the pushrod manufacturers, Manton is the outfit with the fastest turnaround on the third gen Hemi stuff. Note the high quality retainers and spring seats which come with the PSI 1500 Series springs.

17 Arriving at the right pushrod length is more important as power goes up. A pushrod that’s too long or too short will cause geometry problems on the tip of the valve. The idea is for the rocker tip to sweep the center of the valve and for the sweep width on the tip to be as narrow as possible. It’s also important to verify that your pushrods are all the same; there is normally about a 0.015 inch margin of error in length. Here AJ checks a pushrod’s length on his checking tool.

18 Before bolting on the Gen 5 Whipple 3.0L blower assembly, AJ installs the top row of ARP head bolt studs with an

Allen wrench prior to torquing the nuts. These studs are smaller in diameter and shorter than the ones adjacent to the cylinder bores. These aren’t critical for cylinder sealing but do keep oil leaks to a minimum.

19 The DSR 1150 uses a Whipple Gen 5 supercharger with three liters of displacement to build between 14 and 16 pounds of boost, but this unit is not the same Hemi unit sold by Whipple in kit form. The airflow requirements of the DSR 1150 demand more flow under 7,000 rpm, so the housing and rotor pack are customized by Whipple for Hemituners and DSR. A 112mm drive by wire throttle body is included. Hemituner Performance does sell a Whipple Gen 5 3.0L kit, but this is a different assembly than the one on the DSR 1150.

20 Another DSR 1150 crate engine is ready to ship! We’re told by Don Schumacher Racing that the first 10 out of an initial batch of 20 have been sold. If you’re looking for the ultimate turnkey Hemi crate engine, one of these gems could be what your project craves, but you better move fast!

Engine type: Gen 3 Hemi

Displacement: 426ci (7 liters)

Power: 1,150 hp at 6,500 rpm

Torque: 974 lb ft at 5,200 rpm Boost: 14 to 16 psi

Bore: 4.100 inches

Stroke: 4.050 inches

Block: production Hellcat/BGE, thick wall, high nickel cast iron

Cylinder heads: production Hellcat/BGE with upgraded components

Compression ratio: 9.8:1

Camshaft: hydraulic roller, 0.612 inch lift, 234/242 degrees duration (0.050 inch lift)

Supercharger: proprietary DSR Whipple Gen 5 3.0L

Oiling: stock Hellcat pump, production Hellcat front sump 7.5 quart pan

Fuel requirement: 93 octane Cost: $37,950

Holley Performance Products; 866.464.6553; holley.com Tremec Corporation; 800.401.9866; tremec.com

BLOCK

(P LATE ) PARTY

Machining skills and diligent checking of partsprevented expensive damage down the road.

TONY THACKER

❱I was recently hanging at Rick “Speed” Lefever’s shop in Pomona, California. Rick, who has no shingle, just a door in a nondescript wall, is the most amaz ing fabricator, and there appears to be no task he can’t turn his hands to. One day he’s building race cars, the next he’s mending airplanes, so there is always something interesting to see. However, this was a new one on me—something I had never seen before.

Rick was counseling the marriage of a Ford engine and a Tremec five speed transmission that had been assembled elsewhere and were said to be ready to be installed and delivered to the customer. Unfortunately, when Rick decided to perform a fit check to make sure that every thing was correctly aligned, he found that nothing, in fact, was correctly aligned.

Let’s be clear, this is not a typical situa tion. Many companies sell block plates all day long without a problem. In this case, however, there were reasons for correcting the existing plate, rather than just throwing it away and buying a new one. Here’s how Rick put the fix in.

The block plate, also known as a separa tor or spacer plate, is a steel plate that goes between the engine and the bellhousing. It is there to ensure perfect alignment between the starter Bendix drive and the flywheel ring gear. It also serves to align the bellhousing and transmission input shaft

to the crank. Misalignment of those components, especially of the transmission input to the crankshaft, can cause serious damage or catastrophic failure of the transmission in high horsepower or competition applications. Most racing organizations require a block plate, and they should therefore meet SFI safety requirements if you intend to go racing.

Surprisingly, none of the components were in alignment, and Rick had to separate the trans from the bellhousing and the bellhousing from the block plate. He was then able to measure the boss, or register, on the trans and the hole in the bellhousing. There’s supposed to be a maximum of 0.005 inch offset to the crank centerline, but here it was 0.400 inch (nearly ½ inch)! Also, for some unknown reason, the locating hole in the block plate for the starter had been hogged out and was no longer locating the starter properly. To be blunt, it was a mess and required a complete rebuild.

You’d be right in thinking this operation was way over the top, but if you’re serious about your build, especially if you intend to do any racing, you’d best know the right way to do it.

QThe gold Iridite plate surrounding the flywheel is the block plate. This brand is unknown. Good block plates are available from Holley and have a much more precise fit.

QHere’s how the assembled engine and Tremec five-speed arrived bolted together with a block plate between the bellhousing and the block. Unfortunately, it was all out of alignment.

QThe block plate is supposed to be complete and not have that large half-moon-shaped hole above the crankshaft. Also, the opening around the starter boss should be a complete circle, not elliptical as shown.

QHere is a close-up of the starter bolted to the block plate. The block plate is supposed to precisely locate the starter, which should be centered within the opening.

QThe hole in the bellhousing is supposed to be a snug fit on the register boss of the transmission with only 0.005-inch clearance.

QRick repaired the block plate by filling in the half-moon-shaped hole and replacing the material cut from around the starter hole.

QHere, the register boss on the Tremec was 0.400 inch, almost ½-inch smaller than the hole in the bellhousing, enabling the trans to walk about.

QThe engagement between the starter Bendix and the ring gear is supposed to be 0.040 inch. Careful alignment of the starter is critical.

QOnce the block plate had been repaired, Rick installed it on the block then bolted the flywheel in place. He then placed a dial indicator on the face of the flywheel.

QAfter installing the bellhousing, Rick turned the engine over and took readings of the position of the hole in the bellhousing. It was found to be 0.003-inch o set.

QBecause the register boss on the Tremec was 0.400-inch too small, Rick machined a spacer to take up the slack.

QHe then welded the spacer ring to the bellhousing and machined to the correct 0.005-inch tolerance for the transmission register boss. Note that the surface of the bellhousing had been machined to make it perfectly square to the block plate.

QDespite all his careful machining, Rick found the trans was still 0.010-inch o set and therefore ordered a set of o set dowels. The max recommended o set is 0.005 inch, but that does vary slightly per application.

KING FOR A DAY

We join the 9-second club at Radford’s drag racing school.

❱Infatuation is a state of mind most hot rodders are familiar with. An idea enters the consciousness and holds you hostage until something breaks—your bank account, your family harmony, or your work/life balance. You’re flirting with a difficult and dangerous equilibrium between supreme emotional payoff and utter financial destruction, and Dodge’s mic drop 840hp Dodge Demon illuminates this addictive fascination in a microcosm.

Only 3,300 of these ultimate muscle cars were built in its single year of production in 2018—ancient history at this point. The Demon’s arsenal of high performance goodies is tantalizing: 840 horsepower, factory issued drag radials, launch control, power chiller, torque reserve, line lock, trans brake, and, at the top of the pile, active drag suspension. It’s a street legal race car with a bona fide 9 second pedigree. At its inception, Dodge ran a 9.65/140 e.t. with the SRT Demon right off the trailer and got the NHRA to officially mark the occasion by immediately banning it from competition. The Demon is one fast mother, and if you want one now, plan to dish out upwards of $200,000. Yeah, we know. Dagger to the heart.

JOHNNY HUNKINS WILLIAM WALKER

Fast cars often find themselves in specialized rental fleets; every metropolis has at least one place where you can rent a Lambo or a Ferrari for the day. It costs thousands, and one can come away with a feeling of frustration—sitting in bumper to bumper traffic with an 800hp exotic on the Vegas strip or Hol lywood’s Sunset Boulevard is hardly what you envisioned for the thousands of dollars you put on your Amex card. Yet for many, it is as close as they’ll ever come to being a “heavy hitter.” But what if there was a more fulfilling way to enjoy your automotive moment in the sun? Something more satisfying with longer lasting implications—like joining the 9 second club?

The Radford Racing School in Phoenix offers such an option. For around $3,000, you’ll spend hours behind the wheel of a low mileage Dodge Demon, and they’ll be on the dragstrip, a quarter mile at a time. Thinking about renting an exotic on your next vacation? Why not rent the car, the instructor, and the track for the same amount, and get a 9 second street car competition license from the NHRA at the same time? Radford’s SRT Demon drag racing school has those with an intractable addiction to speed covered, and it’s a good bang for the buck as far as these things go.

To be clear, we’re not cavalier about dropping thousands on a day trip. That’s not small money to most people, including us, but if you’ve chosen to live your life around hot rods at even a modest level of participation, you’d have to seriously consider Radford’s Demon drag racing school as one of the best stories you’ll ever tell your grandkids around the campfire years from now. For most Radford students, it will be the one and only time they’ll ever get to thrash a Dodge Demon unfettered on the track in its natural environment and come away with a hard won 9 second timeslip. This is primo bucket list stuff.

Radford’s drag curriculum is one day in length (including a catered lunch) and

is divided into four parts: classroom instruction, car control exercises, Demon/ dragstrip intro, and quarter mile runs. The Radford program is designed to get any student up to speed in a hurry regardless of experience, instilling confidence in each person’s ability as they become increasingly familiar with the Demon’s capabilities and limitations. Many students choose to bring their spouse, friend, or family member to watch, take notes, take photos, and provide moral support—so you’ll be getting a lot of fun for your dollar at Radford. If you listen closely to drag racing instructors Josh Edwards and Chuck Sundstrom you may even come away with your 9 second hero card—an NHRA 9 second street car competition license.

We arrived at Radford Racing School in Phoenix in a 2021 Dodge Super Stock—the closest thing you can currently get to a Dodge Demon. Beyond the normal Radford drag racing experience, we also got to sample the Super Stock with the Demon back to back. Which one is quicker? You’ll need to read that story online to find out, but short of giving things away, we spent a ton of time drag testing both cars with mind blowing results.

The Radford Racing School is located on the grounds of Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, a facility that offers quarter mile drag racing, autocrossing, road course racing, defensive driver training, and even drag boat racing. During summer hours, Radford’s drag racing class is offered in the evening, with students showing up around 4 p.m. and completing all portions by 11 p.m. Upon arrival, students check in at Radford’s main adminis trative building, which contains the classrooms and pro shop.

We met with Radford sales manager, Tommy Anderson, who is the person you’ll likely talk to when you initially book your drag racing class. Since our old helmet had expired, Tommy helped us select a new one. Class participants must have a Snell rated helmet for the drag racing school and Radford’s pro shop has them in every size at a great price. Students can bring their own, or buy one from Radford, but health precautions no longer allow the school to loan helmets. Students enrolled in the class will also need to wear long pants, an NHRA requirement for all drivers.

Once all the students arrive, they’re spirited away to one of Radford’s classrooms, where a lot of baseline information is given on the facility, its history, the lay out of the SRT Dodge Demon, and its capabilities and features. Here, instructor Chuck Sundstrom is advising students about the importance of safety and some of the cool things they’re about to see and do.

Much of what Radford does to prepare for its students is done behind the scenes in the voluminous garage area. Besides the drag racing course, Radford offers courses in defensive driving, carting, and road course work. For new Dodge SRT customers, Rad ford also holds the SRT Experience, a free one day hangout paid for by Dodge. Dodge SRT Redeyes are used for the road course class, and Demons for the drag class.

Maintaining a fleet of high performance Dodge vehicles like the Scat Pack, SRT Redeye, and SRT Demon is costly. These cars are run hard every day on the track and need constant maintenance to stay in tip top condition. This little honey hole is where Radford keeps all its new performance tires.

Another storeroom contains boxes of brake rotors and pads stacked to the ceiling. Tires, rotors, and pads are considered consumable items, and each one of Radford’s school cars is maintained daily by an army of technicians. Radford is not secretive about the ongoing efforts to keep its fleet in running condi tion, and it was comforting to know that these cars, though driven hard, are loved and well maintained by the staff. Students are encouraged to check things out and ask questions.

After classroom instruction, Radford students head to the paddock, where Chuck and Josh intro duce the star of the show: the 2018 Dodge SRT Demon. Here Chuck spells out some of the special features of the Demon that we’ll use later in the evening. Chuck and Josh have spent the last four years exploring the Demon’s limits and developing a curriculum that gets students running these cars at their full potential in short order.

Radford is not secretive about the ongoing efforts to keep its fleet in running condition, and it was comforting to know that these cars, though driven hard, are loved and well maintained by the staff.

Radford covers a ton of ground to prepare students for a run in the 840hp beast. Nothing about a student’s initial knowledge is taken for granted, includ ing how to properly fasten a four point harness. Students come to Radford with a mixture of excitement and a healthy dose of fear, which is expected and understandable. By the time students get behind the wheel, most of the fear has evaporated, thanks to the quality of instruction.

Before students hit the dragstrip in mind bending fury, each of them will become intimately familiar with car control techniques, as demonstrated in the

school’s pair of specially prepared training cars. The auxiliary outrigger wheels are triggered by the instructor from the passenger seat and lift either the front or rear tires by a small amount. This induces oversteer or understeer, forcing students to correct the driving line with steering input. Drag racing has no turns, so you’d think it wouldn’t make a difference, but it often involves a sudden loss of traction and a subsequent change in direction. Skidpad training like this is extremely helpful in developing good reflexes for the inevitable loss of traction down the quarter mile.

There’s nothing like a full on burnout to get you familiarized with the power of an SRT Dodge Demon, and that’s exactly what students start out with at Radford. The Demon is equipped from the factory with drag radials and line lock control, both designed to increase traction in a drag racing environment. Here, an instructor goes one on one with a student to walk him through set ting up the line lock control and performing a proper stationary burnout and roll out. The learning might seem like slow going, but each learning segment builds on the prior one so that when the big moment comes, operation of the Demon will be automatic.

Radford’s van normally helps students in the road course class learn the driving line, but at the drag racing school it is used to familiarize students with the different parts of the drag strip, like timer lights, finish line, and turn offs. All the important “dos” and “don’ts” are covered, like not crossing over into the opposite lane, and looking straight down the track to avoid the wall or cen terline. No aspect of drag racing is taken for granted by Radford—they go over everything so that even the most inexperienced student is on the same footing before a single pass is made down the quarter mile.

Before students graduate to making their first full track pass in a Demon, it’s time for one more round of classroom learning, this time on the starting line. Here, instructor Chuck Sundstrom reviews details on burnout, staging, track safety, and launch technique, interspersing fun details about the history of Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park and racing in the Phoe nix area. We also got one of the best lectures ever on the invention and development of spray on traction compounds. By this time, students were clamoring to drive the Demons.

After an initial “getting acquainted” period, where students received in car instruction for doing burnouts and launches at the top end of the track, we finally got the chance to make some student only, eighth mile passes to get familiar with the Demon’s on track handling. By this time, the sun had set on Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park and the temperature had started to cool from the day’s high of 113 degrees. The festivities ended at 11 p.m., after students had made four eighth mile passes followed by four quarter mile passes.

The Radford school staff does not instruct novice students on the use of the Demon’s trans brake; the use of the launch control feature, however, was explained and implemented by students at specific times during the instruction period. Sixteen students in eight Demons made a total of 64 passes. Of these, launch control worked correctly for maybe half a dozen. There is no middle ground with launch control; for us students, it worked like a charm 10 percent of the time but was a disaster the rest of the time.

After making four eighth mile runs, the Radford instructors let the class loose on the full quarter mile. By then, students were familiar enough with the Dodge Demon to feel comfortable at 130 mph through the top end of the track. Quarter mile times quickly dropped from the 12s and 11s into the 10s, and eventu ally a handful of 9 second timeslips—all achieved with the foot brake, using the Demon’s exclusive 100 octane, 840hp tune and without using the trans brake, cooldown chiller, or race skinny front tires.

There is no middle ground with launch control; for us students,it workedlike a charm 10 percent of the time but was a disaster the rest of the time.

Among the students breaking into the 9s was the author, with a last minute 9.72 at 130 mph. This was achieved without using the launch control and was performed in 95 degree air at 5,000 feet density alti tude. We had the rear tires set at 16 psi and bumped in shallow with the engine against the torque con verter at around 1,200 rpm.

Exhilarated after a day of seat time in the Dodge Demon, our adrenalin was still running high at 11:30 p.m. when all the students reconvened in the classroom for a few parting words from Radford instructors Chuck Sundstrom and Josh Edwards. This is when students received their certificate of graduation. Some students in the class also popped into the 9 second club allowing them to apply for a 9 second NHRA Level 6 street car competition license. Ours is in the mail!

ORIGINATORINNOVATOR

❱It was the early 1990s, and a new guy at General Motors named Mark Stielow had an idea for a car build. At that time, Stielow had messed with Mus tangs, AMXs, and even MGBs, but he found that first gen Camaros looked, drove, and just worked better than anything he had worked with before. His first Camaro was a white (black vinyl top) 1969 RS that had 50,000 miles on the odometer. He stuffed a Doug Nash five speed in it and had fun. Maybe a bit too much fun—that car left the equation after trying to clear a patch of trees. As Stielow stated, “I was only bruised and unhappy. The Camaro was totaled but proved its strength and safety as it protected me.”

In 1991, Stielow, while working at the GM Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona, bought a non running 1969 Camaro that he saw in AutoTradermagazine (life was harder before the Internet took off). The ride was located on reservation land and

had a dead 427 big block under the hood backed by a TH400 trans and a 12 bolt with 4.11 gears. He had the Camaro towed to the parking lot of an Embassy Suites hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the manager was nice enough to let him work on it at night when he was done over at GM. Stielow was going to drive the car back to Detroit, but after he got it running and experienced the joys of 4.11 gears with no overdrive, he found a way to ship it back East.

“Once it was back in Michigan, we stripped the car down and sold off the extra parts I didn’t need. The rolling chas sis was towed to Rolla, Missouri, to have an eight point cage built by Neil Castle. Once the cage was done, it came back to Michigan for paint and assembly. Our goal with the car was to race it in the One Lap of America race in 1993,” recalled Stielow.

The One Lap of America (OLA) race is a grueling weeklong event where cars

STEVEN RUPP MARK STIELOW & THE AUTHOR

compete in various types of racing and, much like HOT ROD’s Drag Week, must drive from venue to venue—no trailer queens, although you can pull a trailer for tools and such. The event incorporates road course, autocross, drag racing, and other chal lenges to really test the cars and their drivers. For the 1993 race, Stielow partnered up with his good friend and fellow GM newbie, Kyle Tucker, who would later go on to form Detroit Speed and Engineering, another big player in the Pro Touring movement.

At this time, “The White Car” was fielding a 406 inch iron small block with Phase 6 aluminum heads and an Edelbrock EFI system. For brakes, Stielow sourced a full set of 1991 Corvette ZR1 brakes and did the necessary voodoo to graft them to the Camaro. Fun fact: When Stielow started with GM, it was in the Motorsports division where he did cool stuff like help create the 1988 Camaro 1LE. Later he was a development designer for various aftermarket companies such as Gale Banks and Summit Racing before returning to GM, where he still works today as director of Motorsports Competition Engineering. At this point, the Camaro was running Ronal wheels and Mark had worked to improve the Camaro’s front geometry, including reengineered spindles that were 1.5 inches taller and utilized the Corvette’s 12.88 inch rotors. The Recaro seats were scavenged from an old Mustang pace car and recovered in Houndstooth.

Stielow and Tucker were doing great at the 1993 OLA race when tragedy struck at Michigan Interna tional Speedway. It was the last venue of the week, and the team was near the top of the field when a high pressure fuel line at the back of the car let go starting a fire with Tucker behind the wheel. The safety crew got the fire out quickly, but the car was done and unable to finish the event. The Camaro did prove to Stielow, and everyone else, that a modded Camaro could be competitive in a serious event like OLA and still be a great street car. The only people

happy about the fire were some racers from Mopar Actionwho, in poor taste, poked fun in their editorial at the Camaro’s bad luck. The fire let them win the Vintage American class, but that wouldn’t be the case the next year.

The Camaro was now on the radar and was invited by Jeff Smith to compete in CarCraftmagazine’s Real Street Eliminator (RSE) competition. The catch was that the team only had a few weeks to fix the fire damage. Stielow got swamped at work, so the heavy lifting went to Tucker as the car was fixed, repainted, and tuned for the event.

No fire this time, and sure enough, the Camaro came in first at CarCraft’s 1993 RSE. The Camaro was showing it was a force to be reckoned with, and its performance earned it a spot on HOT ROD magazine’s top 10 list for that year. Stielow also met John Lingenfelter and, along with Jeff Smith, came up with a weight saving engine idea for the 1994 OLA race. In a testament to Tri Tip being a streetcar, it was the only entrant to arrive at the event under its own power and not on a trailer. Stielow and Tucker drove the Camaro from Michigan to St. Louis for RSE, raced, then drove it back.

Stielow worked with Marlan Davis on the new all aluminum 400 inch Bowtie small block for Car Craft. The aluminum Chevy race block was filled with Crower rods and their Ultralight crank (10 pounds less than a standard crank) along with a set of custom Wiseco pistons. The solid roller Comp cam specced out at 236/244 duration with 0.586 inch lift and a 110 LSA. Timing is controlled by a Jesel belt system, and the Lingenfelter mill was good to 7,000 rpm. Topping the solid roller long block was a pair of fully ported 220cc AFR heads. It makes for a rock solid 10.8:1 compression pump gas engine capable of

running 11.90 at 120 mph in the quarter, on street tires and through the mu ers. Compare that to the old iron block engine that ran 12.84 at 110.82 mph at CarCraft’s RSE event. Best of all, the new engine knocked 110 pounds off the front of the car. An all aluminum 500 plus horsepower EFI small block? Yep—and years before the LS1 showed up.

After the fire in ’93, Stielow was pulling out all the stops for the 1994 One Lap race, and that meant dropping weight off the car. The engine got him a third of the way to his goal of ditching 300 pounds, and more weight was saved by moving to a fiberglass hood and new 17 inch Fikse wheels. The plan worked, and Stielow’s Camaro won the Vin tage American class and came in Sixth Place overall. Sixth overall was a huge accomplishment for the “old” Chevy, but Stielow wasn’t done yet. Oh—the MoparActionguys who mocked Stielow’s previous fire were there, but they weren’t so lucky this year

and went down in proverbial flames to the Camaro.

For 1995, Stielow teamed up with IMSA driver Stu Hayner for Brock Yates’ 1995 One Lap race, where the Camaro once again owned the Vintage American class and managed a very impressive Fourth Place overall finish. This despite some brake issues that were eventually remedied with better pads. Stielow had made his point that with the right parts and some proper engineering, these cars could do every thing and still be great street cars. On a side note, they were the highest finishing non factory backed competitor that year.

Why Tri Tip? Well, funny you should ask. In the early days it was just called The White Car, and after winning One Lap it was called “The White Won,” but it was a 1993 HOT ROD story written by Cole Quinnell and photographed by David Frieburger that gave it the Tri Tip name. The story was titled “Tri Tip: Mark Stielow’s Real World Chevy Sizzles with Flavor” and

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the “tri” part was because it was great on the street, the dragstrip, and the road course. Get it? In any event the name stuck.

Mark loves the build process and decided to sell the car after the 1995 victory. He had picked up a 1967 big block car that would become the famous Red Witch build. The ’69 Tri Tip Camaro was sold to Jonathan Hallenbeck from Waterville, Maine. He got tired of it being called “Stielow’s car” and added dark blue rally stripes to the Camaro along with a Fuel Safe fuel cell and a decent sized stereo system, but he did still track the car now and again.

The fuel cell says race car while the stereo says street car. We guess that sums up Stielow’s builds the best—balanced cars that blend street car man ners with race bred tech. Stielow would be the first to tell you he didn’t set out to start a new trend. In fact, there were other cars moving in the direction of bridging the gap between street and road race. Pro Touring was an older muscle car that could do every thing superbly. A ’60s car with, at the time, ’90s tech nology; as Jeff Smith defined it, “Killer acceleration, brutal brakes, and corner bending capability com bined with cross country comfort.” Something that could hit the dragstrip, the autocross, or drive three states over for a show: a jack of all trades. Tri Tip set the stage, and in a 1998 issue of ChevyHighPerfor mance, Jeff Smith officially launched the movement. As for the actual term, one day Smith told Stielow

that this new class of car needed a name so it could be rallied around in the magazine, and after some thought Stielow came up with the term Pro Touring. So, although some will argue what car was the first Pro Touring car, we would say it’s Tri Tip since Stielow coined the phrase based on the cars he was building, with Tri Tip being his patient zero.

After a few years, Hallenbeck sold the car to Don Page, who had Detroit Speed (back when they were still near Detroit) mess with the engine and add Autometer gauges to the car. Page also had the car repainted without the blue stripes. In 2001,

Jeff Hyosaka from Salinas, California, bought the car and owned it all the way to 2019. Along with his mechanic, David Pozzi, Hyosaka kept the car running, with a focus on smooth cruising, although it did hit Laguna Seca at least once. The electronics for the EFI system were removed by Pozzi and replaced with an ECU from FAST, and other small drivability changes were made. Hyosaka also moved to 18 inch Forgeline wheels, but for the most part the car kept its vintage vibe. The engine was rebuilt by Top of the Hill Performance where the displacement went up to 406 inches and the power went up to 610 hp at

6,700 rpm and 521 lb ft of torque at 5,500 rpm. At this point the car was running a Tremec Viper spec T 56 six speed transmission.

In 2008, HOT ROD magazine picked Tri Tip as one of its Top 100 Most Influential Cars of All Time, rank ing it Number 44 for kicking ass, and setting the Pro Touring/g Machine trend in motion.

We mentioned Red Witch, but after that car, Stielow continued to churn out a string of Camaro builds (and one Malibu), each one more badass than the one before. Red Devil, Jackass, Mayhem, Hellfire, Gunner— the list goes on, since he’s built well over a dozen by now.

This is where I get to go all Deadpool and break the fourth wall of editorial. It was 2019 at the SEMA show, and I was between projects at the time. While walking the endless rows, I arrived at the Lingenfelter booth and what did I see but Tri Tip on display! It turned out that Hyosaka had sold the car to MS Classic Cars in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and it was being offered in a no reserve Hemmings auction. I hadn’t seen the car in years and was a fan of Stielow’s work. The bidding really wasn’t that high at $50,000, which seemed like a deal for such a solid 1969 Camaro with a great back story. So, I put in a bid. Personally, I thought it would outbid my wallet, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the car. For one, I was worried some moron would buy it and do an LS swap or some other

sacrilege, but I also thought I could update the car without losing the essence of what the car was. Over the decades, things had been changed on the car, but the driveline was still there along with the suspension. How could we bring the car to 2020 standards and keep the soul of Stielow’s build intact?

Well, I won the auction, and before long Tri Tip was in my garage. The engine bay was a marvel of well engineered, all business Chevy goodness. The solid roller small block was as good as any LS I could stuff in there, so it was staying put, with very minor tweaks planned. MS Classic Cars did a great job detail ing the underside and adding a few bits of billet like the Ring Brother’s hinges and a set of Clayton pedals. They also added a billet Wilwood brake master since the GM

master was leaking. Another area I refused to touch was the factory subframe and overall look of the car.

The interior was a bit worn, but I had a plan there as well that would hopefully update it a bit yet keep the vintage One Lap vibe. I would operate on the “What would Stielow do?” philosophy—what he would have done with some of the better parts available today.

Since I live in North Carolina, it only made sense to take the car to Kyle Tucker at Detroit Speed to do the transformation. But that rebuilding of Tri Tip is another story for another day. What’s important is that the white Camaro that helped launch what we currently call Pro Touring is getting a much needed makeover and, as Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.

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Remembering Pat Ganahl

RIP, Pat Ganahl.

Hot rodding historian, author, and former HOT ROD Editor Pat Ganahl passed away Friday, August 19, while racing his restored Ike Iacono dragster at a nostalgia drag racing event in Washington state.

Ganahl’s five year tenure at HOT ROD in the 1980s represented a fairly small part of his lifelong involvement with cars and lengthy career writing thorough, knowledge able, and deeply researched stories about hot rods, custom cars, and their history.

He landed his first automotive writ ing job at StreetRoddermagazine in 1973, joined the HOT ROD staff in 1983 (after a brief detour at Sunsetmaga zine), and revived Rod&Custommag azine in 1988. After leaving Petersen Publishing, he helped Steve Coonan in

the early days of TheRodder’sJournal and would continue to write long form historical articles until his “retirement.” Even then, he couldn’t stop sharing his tales of rodding history (as well as his voluminous collection of vintage photographs), so he started a website, Pat Ganahl’s Rod and Custom. While producing all those magazine articles, Ganahl found the time to write some 20 books on subjects that ranged from supercharging to Von Dutch.

His time at HOT ROD may have been short, but Ganahl produced some memorable articles, including the cover story “Can They Outlaw Hot Rodding?” (Oct. ’84) about how emissions laws were affecting modified cars; the first of the “Hack” stories, “Caddy Hack,” in 1987, to prove with a reciprocating saw that making a car lighter would make it faster; and the first “Swimsuit Issue” in April 1987, which was intended to be a one time April Fools’ spoof of the SportsIllustratedswimsuit issues but became a surprise hit on the news stand and spawned annual bathing suit issues for years to come.

Clockwise: 01 Ganahl got into the spirit of the first swimsuit issue in April 1987 by donning swim trunks and posing with his ’56 Ford pickup for his editorial column photo. 02 Ganahl visits with Tom Medley, HOT ROD’s first employee, at the 65th anniversary show. 03 Ganahl in his Ike Iacono dragster. The GMC-powered rail appeared on the January 1959 cover.

The Iacono dragster—HOT ROD’s January 1959 cover car—was one of many of Ganahl’s project cars, which also included a Cadillac powered ’32 roadster, a Hemi powered Altered, and the first car he worked on as a teenager, his grandfather’s ’48 Chevrolet.

Our thoughts are with his wife, Anna, and son Bill.

Drew

Photos Petersen Publishing Archives