If you’ve been lucky enough to attend hot rod shows for the last 30 years, you no doubt have seen trends come and go. Remember the first time you saw billet wheels? Remember when rat rods made their debut? So, after a while, you might start thinking you’ve seen everything there is. Then you go to the Mooneyes show in Yokohama, Japan, and you realize there’s a whole ‘nuther world out there!

The imagination, technique, and attention to detail are off the chart at the Mooneyes show, and you are guaranteed to see things you’ve never seen before. Now in its 27th year, the event is only one day long, with 600 or so motorcycles, a few hundred vehicles, and dozens of vendors, all efficiently laid out across the massive floor of the Yokohama Convention Center.

The morning starts with celebrity parade where invited guests slowly drive their rides down the main aisle that has rows of onlookers 10 people deep, all with their smartphones out and trained on the cars. In all, about 15,000 spectators filter in and out of the show over the nine hours it’s open. Every year certain types of vehicles are highlighted, and this year a special presentation of Chevy C10 trucks was made and, overall, we can’t remember ever seeing as many trucks of various makes and models than there were in this year’s show.

Among the invited guests (Mooneyes selectively picks vehicles and motorcycles to attend the show and places them in prominent spots in the hall) were Bill Ganahl and his crew from South City Hot Rods in Hayward, California, with their newest effort: a flag blue 1970 Chevy C10 built for Sean Provost. Parked nearby was Victor Sevilla’s 1959 Ford F-100 from Merced, California, which was painted a Pagan Gold by legendary customizer Gene Winfield.

Being based in Japan, you might think there were a lot of Asian vehicles in attendance, but that’s not true. A large percentage were American cars and trucks—a testament of just how far hot rodding has come. And, if you happen to like Knucklehead, Panhead, or just leaky old Shovelhead Harleys then this is the show for you. Dozens of each example were displayed, with some of the finest paint and graphics you’ll ever see (and some amazing engraving as well).

If the cars, trucks, and bikes wasn’t enough, a large portion of the floor was set aside for the International Alley where pinstripers, lifestyle clothing manufacturers, and graphic artists from all over the world had set up tables and were busy all day selling their wares. Throughout the day multiple bands (a generous mix of rockabilly and surf music) played on stage while hundreds lined up nearby for their chance to purchase the new Mooneyes shoes made exclusively for the show by Vans.

All in all, attending the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show might be a once-in-a-lifetime type of event but, one thing is for sure: you definitely won’t ever regret going!

The post 27th Annual Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

F-Body Elegance

In a world of Camaros, this one stands out. And of course it should, because Bob Schumacher doesn’t build boring cars. He and the team at Vintage Fabrication have churned out some truly amazing muscle cars and hot rods over the years, but this 1971 Camaro may be the feather in their cap.

The car’s owner, Gary Fish, came to Schumacher with a vision of a one-off Camaro, inspired by Dave Leisinger’s “The Professor” Camaro, built by Roger Burman. Fish wanted an uber-custom split bumper of the same caliber, and the hunt was on for the perfect canvas for the build.

At the Springfield, Missouri Street Machine Nationals, Schumacher found the perfect specimen. It was a ’71 Camaro, with an anemic 6-cylinder power plant, but a perfect, rust-free body. They brought it back to the shop, and before long, it was stripped down, anesthetized, and sent into surgery.

“It was a sin to cut the perfect floors out of it to drop [the body] over the Roadster Shop Elite chassis,” said Schumacher. “But it worth it! The handling and the ride are super!”

The bodywork was the biggest, most custom undertaking of the project with three sets of Dynacorn reproduction fenders required per side (2 outer fenders plus an inner fender) to achieve the 3in bow, necessary to clear the massive 285mm tires in style. The quarter panels were also stretched to tuck massive 345mm rubber. None of the body modifications are for looks alone, striking as they are. They are fully functional and allow the body to clear the tires across all steering and suspension travel. Even more impressive, there is no composite work in the car. Every panel is delicately crafted from steel, a painstaking process that took the team at Vintage Fabrication two years to complete. The finished, hand-sculpted body was sprayed in Axalta Klassik Silber (German for classic silver), a Porsche 918 factory color, by Carrender Collision.

With as much custom love as the Camaro shell received, the chassis needed to be equally esteemed in form and function. A Roadster Shop Elite Billet series chassis fit the bill perfectly and offered the performance envelope necessary for Fish and Schumacher’s combined vision. The chassis trucks under the Camaro, taking the stress off the factory unibody and adding a massive increase in rigidity and geometry improvement.

Filling out the chassis hardware lineup are Penske Racing double-adjustable coilovers, a Roadster Shop splined swaybar, custom billet-aluminum control arms, billet aluminum spindles, and a rack-and-pinion steering system. Braking is handled by equally capable Wilwood 14-inch rotors with six-piston calipers pressurized by dual Wilwood manual master cylinders. Rolling stock consists of Forgeline wheels spec’ing out at 18- by 10-inches front, and 18 by 20-inches rear. Michelin Pilot Sport rubber meets the road. The steamroller-sized wheels, according to Schumacher, were the starting point for the build and the car was built around them. The process delivered massive grip without any pesky tire rub.

With both the body and chassis boxes checked on the build sheet, it was time to install a drivetrain that would round out the package in an equally head-turning manner. The engine build began with a Chevrolet Performance LSX block with a 4.125in bore. Diamond pistons filled the holes, and a forged 4.00-inch crankshaft totaled displacement out at 427ci–a great number for any Chevrolet. Shawn Mercer of Mercer Machine handled machine work and assembly of the engine, which was topped with a set of PRC 260cc cylinder heads from Texas Speed, and stuffed with a Cam Motion hydraulic-roller cam. That recipe was one for serious power, but the team didn’t quit there. Upping the ante further are Nelson Racing Engines twin, 72mm mirror-image turbochargers that feed into a captivating Ozmo Engineering twin-plenum manifold. Twin Holley fuel pumps feed 80lb Daetschwerks injectors and the whole whizbang induction system is controlled by Holley Dominator EFI. Tuning was performed expertly by Robin Wright.

In fact, the EFI isn’t the only clever institution of electronics in the Camaro. Under the dash, it plays host to a full complement of traction control, boost control, a valet switch (disguised as a headlight switch), and several different tunes switchable via the Holley Digital Dash. Of course, there’s a solid sound system, by Pioneer Audio, providing cruising tuneage.

Backing up the potent engine is a Bowler 4L80E transmission with a 2,600-stall torque converter, its shifts augmented by a COMPUSHIFT paddle shift setup, mounted on the steering wheel.

Torque from the burly 4L80E is sent by means of an aluminum driveshaft to a Roadster Shop-designed independent rear suspension. The center section comes from Strange Engineering and uses 9inch Ford style gears (3.55:1 in this case) and the outer CV axles are based on C5 Corvette running gear. The shafts are uprated for the amount of grunt the engine can deliver and a Strange Engineering Posi ensures both tires serve their purpose admirably.

Inside, the car is as custom as the exterior would suggest. Recovered Recaro seats keep Fish’s hindquarters firmly planted in black leather and a custom rollbar keeps all occupants safe. A dash and console kit from Modern Interiors adds some new-age flare and much needed storage that ‘70s cars are notoriously lacking. Also included is air conditioning by Vintage Air, and a navigation system by Pioneer. All of the modern electronics are powered by a custom, hand-loomed wiring system by Ron Wright. The finishing touch is a start button, designed by Vintage Fabrication. It adds the perfect amount of supercar flare to what could be the ultimate exotic pony car.

The post Eat Your Heart Out Ferrari! This 1971 Camaro is the Only Exotic We Need appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

The Vintage Certification program celebrated its 19th year at the 10th Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in 2018. Wait, what? Steve Shauger, who serves as the administrator of the program, reminded us that it got its start at the GM Nationals in Carlisle in 1999 before moving to the inaugural MCACN show 10 years ago.

The Vintage Certification program at MCACN promotes preservation over restoration. As usual, there was a crop of fascinating and very well-preserved vehicles. “The team was quite impressed with the diversity,” says Shauger. “From a 1963 Z06 Corvette to a 1962 Impala to a Mercury Cougar, we had it all.”

While the unrestored cars were vastly different, the overall goal of their participation remained the same. Each was to be judged with a close eye on assembly-line condition and originality. “It’s not a beauty contest,” explains Shauger. “What we really want are cars that are virtually untouched.”

Each vehicle was inspected for several hours by a team of industry experts (13 in total this year), all with a keen eye towards seeing how much they had changed—or, preferably, not changed—since they left the factory. Each vehicle was given a score that corresponded to one of five levels of certification. Vintage Time Capsule is the most original, scoring 95 percent and above in all five reference areas (engine compartment, exterior body, interior body, underbody, and trunk). The remaining four levels are Legend (85 percent originality in all judged areas), Heritage (85 percent in four of the five areas), Legacy (85 percent in three of the five areas), and Reference (85 percent in any area).

“These special cars bring out a lot of information,” Shauger says. “The processes, factory finishes, and how they were assembled are things that all come to light and help provide key insight to the hobby.” Beyond being great references, each car packs a story and unique owner history.

If you have a car in original condition and are interested in having it take part in the Vintage Certification program at MCACN 2019 (November 23-24), learn more at vintagecertification.com.

1962 Impala SS—Legend
Owner: Chris Piscitello
Mileage: 19,329
Chris Piscitello is a self-proclaimed “409 nut,” having fallen in love with the model while riding around the Chicago suburbs in his dad’s white 1962 Chevy Bel Air. His dad bought the car from the local dealership, the legendary Nickey Chevrolet. “Going for rides with him was what really started my fascination with the ’62 Chevys,” he says, who loves the 409-equipped cars in particular. “They were the first muscle car, having a truck engine in a regular sedan.”

Piscitello is the third owner of this Honduras Maroon example, having purchased it just a month before the show. The car was sold new in New Jersey and stayed there until his ownership. It’s clear this classic wasn’t meant for mere cruising, with small details indicating it was destined for straight-line speed. “Windshield washers were an option but left off,” says Piscitello. “Whoever ordered it intended it to be raced on sunny days.”

It’s not mere speculation, as several first-place trophies from back in the day came with the car. “It’s like driving a rocket ship,” he says. “This is one of the most intact, unrestored, 409 convertibles in existence.”

1967 Chevy Chevelle SS L78—Heritage
Owner: Jeff Helms
Mileage: 57,695
This triple-black 1967 Chevy Chevelle was sold new at Nuzum-Cross Chevrolet in Newton, North Carolina, on July 21, 1967. It is just one of 612 equipped with an L78 396ci V-8. The original owner, Alexander Withers, loved it, as did his family, since it stayed with them up until July 2017, when they sold it to Jeff Helms. The car was also ordered with such things as a four-speed transmission, front and rear bumper guards, and deluxe seatbelts. All told, the car rang up at $3,491.04, with Withers trading in a 1966 Plymouth to complete the deal.

The car has racked up 57,695 miles, but despite the use, there was one item that stunned the judges when they looked underneath: a 100 percent complete and original exhaust system.

1969 Chevy Camaro Z28—Heritage
Owner: Mike Wheatley
Mileage: 31,426
Mike Wheatley’s Dusk Blue 1969 Camaro Z/28 was bought new from Ash Waller Chevrolet in Morrison, Illinois, by Wes Anderson. Anderson had just returned from his duties as a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam and considered the car a gift to himself. There was another cause for celebration: Anderson’s upcoming wedding.

“The military vet wanted the sportiest thing out there but passed on the Corvette because it didn’t have a back seat,” says Wheatley.

Anderson made the purchase on February 20, 1970. Being in his early 20s, he thoroughly enjoyed the hot ride, motoring to his new job at the Byron nuclear plant in Byron, Illinois. In December 1982, he decided to sell it, citing concerns over his son approaching driving age and the car’s “high performance nature.”

It was (and still is) a small world. The Camaro’s second owner worked at the same plant as Anderson, but he doesn’t recall ever seeing the car there. Instead, he found it in a local newspaper classified ad. He bought the car for $9,500, still bearing all original parts and paint and no modifications.

That’s just how Wheatley purchased it in March 2018, the only exception to its originality being the Goodyear tires that the second owner had installed in 1984. The car’s stellar, untouched condition garnered a score of more than 90 percent original condition from the judges.

The Camaro boasts some cool vintage stickers, including Anderson’s plant parking sticker. And no, it wasn’t glowing.

1969 Chevy Camaro RS/Z28—Legend
Owner: Mark Bulaw
Mileage: 49,036
When Tennessee resident Dean Gentry walked into Bill Gatton Chevrolet in Bristol in July 1969, he had his pick of two 1969 Camaro Z/28s. The young man used his budget, and his heart, to make the decision.

“The other car cost more than $4,000,” says Mark Bulaw, the Camaro’s current owner. “Dean was, and still is, a diehard University of Tennessee fan, so the orange and white campus colors were perfect.”

Like most Z/28 owners, Dean Gentry had a heavy right foot. He bolted on performance accessories like traction bars and a Hurst T-handle shifter. He racked up just over 49,000 miles before selling it to Bulaw.

“He was still driving it up to the last minute,” says Bulaw, who first saw the car in the spring of 2018 before purchasing it in October. “He had already put another 300 miles on it during those months. He just loved driving.”

Despite the use, the vehicle retains its originality, including never having had a brake job. “I’ve pulled the wheels, and you can still find thickness on the brake pads,” Bulaw points out. The shocks are original, and so is the trunk-mounted spare.

Another original touch (quite literally) are the “ghost” handprints on the underside of the hood. After the hood was painted at the Norwood factory, the assembly workers moved it to the car before the paint had fully dried, forever leaving their prints behind.

1969 Mercury Cougar XR7—Time Capsule
Owner: Gary Riley
Mileage: 6,466
This Medium Gold Metallic 1969 Mercury Cougar XR7 was bought by a guy who purchased the luxury coupe and a brand-new Ford truck, all on the same day. The transaction happened at Kumpf Lincoln-Mercury in Denver. The comfy big cat wasn’t cheap, ringing up at more than $5,000. And while cushy, it wasn’t enjoyed all that often. The culprit was a narrow driveway.

“The owner had a single-car garage and driveway,” explains Gary Riley, the Cougar’s current owner. “To drive it, he had to move the truck to the street and then, when he returned home, park the Cougar and put the truck back on the driveway.” It was too much of a hassle, so the Cougar sat often. That explains the ultralow odometer reading.

When the original owner passed in the 1980s, the Merc was handed down to his daughter. She longed to keep it, but lo and behold, a similar situation arose. She, too, had a single-car garage. As much as she wanted to keep dad’s ride covered, she finally grew tired of digging out her daily driver for snowy, winter duties.

A family friend bought it from her in 1988, and then in March of this year, they offered it to Riley. It was part of a package deal, coming with two other Cougars. “To get this one I had to buy all three,” he says.

It was worth the deal, as the judges were more than impressed with this car’s condition, especially the bare metal items. “The welds on the motor mounts look like they were made yesterday,” says Riley.

1969 Oldsmobile Hurst Olds—Heritage
Owner: Guy Fillinger
Mileage: 77,890
A mere 912 Hurst/Olds hardtops were made in 1969, and only 315 came with air conditioning. Surprisingly, Guy Fillinger has owned not one but two of the latter. He has his brother, Jeff, to thank for finding both.

Guy’s first Hurst/Olds came about in his junior year of high school in 1972. His brother came home excited to share that Ducas Oldsmobile, not far from the family home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, had a used one in the showroom. Both boys loved Olds, thanks to their dad, Don, who was a parts manager for the brand at Krause Oldsmobile in nearby Milwaukee.

“I drove that car everywhere,” recalls Guy, who frequently took it to watch the drag races at Byron Dragway and Great Lakes Dragaway. He never raced it, at least officially. “With 3.23 gears and A/C, it wasn’t as quick as the cars with the 3.90s.”

That didn’t stop him from romping on the gas during some stoplight-to-stoplight action or cruising to his senior year of school.

After a few years of motoring bliss, he sold it to buy a pickup in 1977. Decades passed, but when Jeff tipped him off again in 2011 about another Hurst/Olds for sale, Guy had to have it. This example, made in the third week of May, was sold new at Biddulph Oldsmobile in Glendale, Arizona, on June 14, 1969. Given the hot, arid climate, it makes sense that the original owner, a Bob Thayer from Phoenix, wanted A/C.

The judges came away particularly impressed with the underside of the vehicle. “Bob must have stayed on paved roads for most of his driving,” says Guy. “There’s not one chip anywhere.”

1970 Chevy Chevelle LS6—Legend
Owner: Brandon White
Mileage: 30,798
Whoever ordered this 1970 Chevy Chevelle new had quite an usual request. They wanted the asphalt-pounding 454ci LS6, but paired it with a highway-friendly open 3.31 rearend. “Who would get a high-performance car like this and not check off the 4.10 Posi?” Brandon White asks with a laugh. He is the coupe’s current owner. A lifelong Chevelle enthusiast, he has owned it for two years.

Bill Davidson Chevrolet in Elkin, North Carolina, handled the order, and the three-owner car stayed in the state for most of its life. The interior was one of the cleanest the judges had ever seen, without any signs of fading, split seams, or burn marks. The tires were original, and two-thirds of the exhaust was, too.

The Desert Sand Chevelle was pretty well equipped, coming with additional components like an AM radio with a stereo eight-track player and the interior gauge package.

1970 Dodge Challenger RT-SE—Legacy
Owner: David Goss
Mileage: 18,968

Hogue & Hall Auto Outlet in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, had high hopes for this 1970 Dodge Challenger RT-SE. It was ordered with every available option, from pedal dress-ups ($5.45) to dual rear speakers ($25.90) and color-keyed pushbutton seatbelt buckles (part of the Seat Belt Group, $13.75).

Whoever it was on the eager sales staff that placed the order couldn’t leave well enough alone, tinkering and toying with the final outcome. The chrome gas filler gas cap was deleted. And while the SE would have included leather seats, they were swapped for cloth and vinyl coverings. The final price tag rang up at $4,992.55 for the purple cruiser. While the dealership was anxious to see what kind of customer would spring for the cool decked-out machine, such a customer never came. The dealership went bankrupt shortly after receiving the car, sending the Challenger to a liquidation sale.

There, the Dodge caught the attention of Laverne Davis of Bethany, Oklahoma, who purchased it. “The car hadn’t been treated great,” explains David Goss, the Challenger’s current owner.

The mistreatment stopped once Davis got it home. For the most part, it was his wife who drove the car. The well-cared-for classic stayed with the family long enough for the couple’s son, Ken, to get some wheel time, too.

Ken and his wife, Patty, came to MCACN to see Dad’s car in person, the first time in years. He also shared some fond memories with Goss. “He took his driver’s license test in the car,” Goss tells us. “He also confessed that he and his buddies would sneak the car out, and on more than one occasion they rolled it silently out of the garage at late hours.”

1970 Plymouth Road Runner 440 Six Pack—Reference
Owner: Dr. Eric Van Damia
Mileage: 5,083
When Eric Van Damia came across a spotty online listing for a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner 440 Six Pack, there wasn’t much to go on, but he jumped anyway. The gamble paid off. The car had been sold new at Don Jordan Chrysler in Beechwood, Ohio, to an employee of Premier Automotive, a parts supplier in Cleveland that made interior plastic components for all of the Big Three automakers. “His niece told me he always had multiple cars at one time,” says Van Damia. Apparently, the Plymouth was personally delivered to his home, and he drove it for several years.

In 1974, it was parked in the man’s one-stall garage. When his health took a turn for the worse in 2016, it was moved down the block to his niece’s one-stall garage. That’s where it sat, surrounded by old freezers and covered in raccoon tracks and dirt, until Van Damia discovered it in April 2018.

“I knew it was special,” he recalls. “But it wasn’t until I got it home that I realized how special.” All kinds of original pieces were discovered, including the paper instructions on the visor on how to remove the key from the ignition lock and both broadcast sheets.

After a proper and much more thorough inspection of the B5 Bright Blue Metallic muscle car, the judges uncovered more. They found such things as 1969 and 1970 brackets for the front sway bar, and also the motor’s index card. The Road Runner graphic on the driver-side front fender is an oddity: “It looks like someone snapped his hair off and then put it on, but backwards,” says Van Damia.

With just 5,083 miles showing on the odometer, the judges attest this may be the lowest-mileage Road Runner on the planet.

The post Original, Low-Mileage Muscle Cars Certified at the 2018 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Paint and Stripe Colors Not Recommended by Oldsmobile, Plus Other Interesting Finds at the 2018 Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals

So another Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals has come and gone. Did you make it to Chicago? Or what was your excuse this time? Not intending to bust your chops, but if Valhalla exists for muscle cars, it’s in Chi-Town. Yet this is where MCR comes in—we bring the show to you!

This was the second year that yours truly was given the opportunity to give a prize to a notable car. Trying to be objective and pick a vehicle on merits beyond the bright lights or red paint, my fancy was captured by Randy Miles’ 1970 Cutlass S with the W-31 package. Yes, the MSU Project W-31 guys (Project W-31: A Hands-On Lesson in Drag Racing for a Group of Michigan State University Engineering Students) were part of the Ram Rod & W-31 Invitational display, and I co-officiated their two presentations over the weekend. And I happened to own a similar Oldsmobile for 29 years. Nonetheless, the impetus for my selection was a recent article you might recall within these pages on paint and trim combinations (The Bottom End, “It Ain’t Easy Being Green,” Dec. 2018).

Miles’ car is Sebring Yellow with gold stripes and top, a unique combination. Looking at Oldsmobile’s paint stripe recommendations in Oldsmobile’s 1970 Product Information Manual (dated June 1969, as production details were being finalized), black or white stripes were the recommended colors for Sebring Yellow; gold stripes were available but not recommended with this color. Interestingly, both the gold interior and top were recommended colors for Sebring Yellow. Yet in the Salesmen’s Prices, Equipment, Colors & Trim, Specifications booklet (January 1, 1970, printing), gold stripes were an available pairing with Sebring Yellow.

There were other cool cars at MCACN, of course. Here are some that tugged at my sleeve for one reason or another.

1964 Studebaker Commander R3
Aside from Pontiac, arguably no other brand embraced performance like Studebaker. With many speed records under its belt and several R-series performance engines available for the Lark, Gran Turismo Hawk, and Avanti, Studebaker had the bases covered. The problem was it was too little too late, as Studebaker phased out the R-series engines (and U.S. production) by the end of December 1963. With 4.55 gears, air induction, and transistorized ignition, this Commander was the only Lark built with the R3 335hp 304.5 engine.

1969 Hurst/Olds Prototype
Everybody knows the 1969 Hurst/Olds is among the wildest muscle cars ever produced, but the prototype was even wilder: gold stripe running through the backlight, a center brake light, pop art graphics on the hoodscoops and spoiler. And oh, that spoiler! With end caps that curved onto the rear fenders, the prototype (restored by Level One Restorers for the Brothers Collection) was a boisterous sight, but thankfully Hurst toned it down a bit. The pop art graphics later gravitated to the SC/Rambler.

1970 AMC Javelin
In these pages you usually find a 1970 Mark Donohue Javelin, with the regular Javelin or SST often ignored. The SST was more deluxe and popular, but the base Javelin with the 325hp 390 has rarity on its side, as only 123 were built. Note that this Bittersweet Orange example was not ordered with the Go Package, so it lacks the ram-air hood.

1971 Plymouth Rapid Transit Caravan Duster 340
Steve Juliano is famous for his assemblage of Mopar show cars and dealership promotional material. At MCACN was a three-car display of 1970-1971 Plymouth show cars from the Rapid Transit Caravan. The 1971 Road Runner was perhaps the most wow-worthy, but the paint job on this 1971 Duster is just so nice! Juliano passed away several weeks before MCACN; an asset to the hobby, he will be missed.

1972 Dodge Charger Rallye
The 1972-1974 Rallye was the successor to the Charger R/T and Super Bee. An interesting distinction from the 1971 duo was that the Rallye package was available on either the Charger hardtop or coupe, with the latter looking exactly the same aside from having fixed rear quarter-windows. Out of 460 U.S.-spec Rallye coupes, only 39 were built with the 280hp 440 Magnum like this Barn Finds example.

1972 Buick GSX
Plenty of you know about the 1970 GSX in Apollo White or Saturn Yellow. Some of you may know that another 124 were built in 1971, but few know that 44 were built in 1972. Any Buick color was available, with the 350, 455, and Stage 1 available as engines. Twenty-four were built with the latter, with two having a four-speed like this one.

The post The Bottom End: Interesting Finds at the 2018 Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

The Original Venice Crew refers to a small group of fabricators, race car drivers, and builders who set out to change the automotive world. They won championships, the 24 hours of Le Mans, and they made their leaders name synonymous with greatness. They were Carroll Shelby’s original employees at his first race shop, which operated in Venice, California from 1962 to 1967. Among Shelby’s first workers was a team of talented drivers including Ken Miles and Bob Bondurant, famous aerodynamicist Peter Brock, designer of the Cobra Daytona, and world-class race car fabricator Phil Remington. Apprenticing underneath these greats were 17 and 18-year-old mechanics who had a background in performance and racing. The cars they built would become legendary and are worth millions today. One of those cars was the 1965 Ford Mustang G.T. 350 Competition Model.

When Ford Motor Company partnered with Shelby American in 1964 to work on the Ford GT40 Le Mans program, they sent the new Mustang to be transformed into a race car because Lee Iacocca wanted it to have a performance reputation; Carroll Shelby at the time believed that the Mustangs was a secretary’s car. The V8 equipped K-code mustangs, sat parked at Shelby’s shop at Venice nose to tail, but many did not want to work on them. Housed in the same building were Ford GT40s, Cobras, Daytonas, and the new King Cobra, the plain white Mustangs looked pedestrian by comparison. “Some said why are we working on Mustangs when we have 427 Cobras?” Jim Marietta, Shelby mechanic (1964-1965), recalls in a recent interview.

No matter, Ford and Shelby had big plans for the seemingly plain ponycars. The Mustangs would be perfected in road racing competition. Shelby put together a race team, led by project manager Chuck Cantwell who drove the car alongside test drivers Miles and Bondurant. Marietta and Peter Bryant were assigned as mechanics, and Ted Sutton was the crew chief.

The car they worked on was called the G.T. 350 Competition, car number 5R002 or “002”. It was fitted with plexiglass side and rear windows. Brock designed a rear window that was curved on both sides with a slot at the top for air to escape, and rear fenders that were hand flared. The test drivers developed the car on-track at Riverside and Willow Springs International Raceways in California, and they reported back to Cantwell on improvements that needed to be made. Every trip to the track led to new changes, and as Marietta says, the car was constantly changing from week to week.

Car number 5R002 was entirely handmade, and its development occurred over months, even while Shelby American transitioned to a new location at 7501 West Imperial Highway near Los Angeles International Airport. Miles and Bondurant gave feedback to Cantwell, he told the young mechanics what changes needed to be made, and they set out how to implement those modifications. Marietta was tasked with flaring the fenders and coming up with a way to make the windows go up and down.

“My job was to cut the plexiglass and fit them to the window frames”, says Marietta. “I came up with the idea for straps to pull up the windows. I was also one of the first guys to flare a rear fender. In the picture of 002 coming back to the shop after testing at Riverside, the grey stripe was primer. My method was to use a muffler gun to cut the piece out, then use a rose bud [torch] and a body spoon to flare the fenders. It was a crude method—a hot rodder’s way of doing it”.

Ford also developed an independent rear suspension to make the car handle even better. Marietta became the mechanic for the IRS. He worked underneath Ford Engineer Bud Ellis who came from Detroit each week to work on the suspension. Marietta recalls Ellis giving tasks as he left on Thursdays- things like figure out a way to work on the IRS alignment.

Although the Mustangs were changing in performance, they were still plain white cars, and the job of making them unique was left to Brock. He made new part designs to the body that would aid in its aerodynamics. One of those aids was a new front fascia design that directed airflow to radiators and coolers. He also came up with the paint scheme that became iconic- the blue stripes.

The G.T. 350 got its stripes because Brock idealized Briggs Cunningham and his iconic Le Mans cars when he was younger. “The American colors in Le Mans in 1963 were white with blue stripes. I emulated that,” says Brock. Ford asked Brock if he could make the Mustang look like a race car. Brock told the Ford executives, “We’ll we can do these new aerodynamic body parts  for X amount [of money] or we can do these stripes”. He says Ford choose not to do the new parts because of cost, and they were initially skeptical about the stripes because they thought no one would want to drive around in a car that looked like a skunk. Ford eventually agreed, so the white Mustangs got blue stripes.

Shelby’s team massaged and modified the G.T.350 Competition “into the B production killer that it became”, says Brock. The G.T. 350 Competition became the national Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) B-production champion in dominating fashion, winning in 1965, ‘66, and ’67. Car 5R002 won the 1965 Championship with Jerry Titus behind the wheel.

“Some of the knowledge and techniques that were used in developing the race car filtered down to the production street cars”, says Marietta. Initially, only one G.T.350 model was planned for sale: the G.T. 350S, which was a street model that had “bolt-ons, intake manifolds, Cobra aluminum oil pan, removed rear seats. In addition, the quarter panel vents were replaced with windows, and for a while—override bars (traction bars), which then went to underbars” says Marietta.

The Competition was not meant for sale. Marietta explained, “the first R’s were just for Shelby, but then he decided to sell them as copies of 002 for customers. They were for sale for everyday people, and it sold for $5,595.”

The Competition model dropped all creature comforts for the singular focus of going faster around a race track. It had no interior, glove box, radio, heater, or any personal amenities. “Anything that had any significant weight was removed,” says Marietta. However, the IRS never made it to the production cars due to costs.

In total, 562 G.T. 350’s were sold, with 506 being the 1965 G.T. 350S models, while only 36 G.T. 350 Competition models were made. There was a 37th G.T. 350 Competition model that was made, but Shelby gave it to the parts department as a gift. The G.T. 350 Competitions were only sold in 1965, with some carryovers being sold as 1966 models.

Over the years, the Competition model became known as the G.T. 350R. It took on that moniker in the ‘70s as shorthand, long after the car was out of production.

Decades passed, and the old crew disbanded. Shelby enthusiast Bob Shaw started organizing annual reunions to celebrate the original Shelby employees. For twenty years, he has held these events that brought together the old staff to reminisce on the cars they built and the championships that they won. A few years ago, Marietta pitched the idea of building another Mustang as a way to revive the camaraderie that existed among the workers.

Jim Marietta led the team, and Ted Sutton and Peter Brock joined. They sourced two 1965 K-code cars and started building them in Brock’s shop, Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) in Las Vegas. Their plan was to make two more Competition models just like 002. The rules for the cars were that anything from the original prototype could be used, regardless if it made it on to production versions. However, it had to be something that was planned or tested on the original 1964 prototype car. This is the fortunate technicality that allows the independent rear suspension and Peter Brock’s body modifications to be included.

The two cars were stripped and sent out for media blasting. They came back bare, and the crew reprised their old roles as fabricators. Brock worked on implementing his front bumper design. A mold was made from an original G.T. 350’s front fascia, and a plug was made that had air ducts and a molded bumper that were angled to allowed airflow to be directed to the radiator and oil coolers. “Sutton drew out and hand fabricated the rear brake ducts. He started with chalk, drawing on Brock’s shop floor,” says Marietta. “He also helped fit the rear window, among other tasks. He is a master fabricator.” Likewise, Marietta took on his old job of cutting plexiglass and fitting them to the side window frames. He made the pull-up straps that he designed 50 years earlier and cut and hand formed the rear fenders, only this time with modern tools—no muffler gun.

A 289 block that is bored and stroked to 331 cubic inches was lowered into the car’s engine bay. “The engine puts out 450 horsepower on an engine dyno,” says Marietta. It’s mated to an aluminum-alloy Toploader transmission.

One slight change that might not be apparent is the rear window—it is more of a correction than a modification. The production windows were not built exactly to Brock’s specifications. They had a hump that was never in the design. The hump killed the aerodynamics of the window, preventing it from creating a low-pressure area that sucked air out of the car. Now, under Brock’s discerning eye, he could make sure that the windows were made exactly the way that he intended them to be 50 years ago.

Other members joined in on the homecoming builds, “The plenum and gas guard were handmade by one of the original Venice Shelby employees”, says Marietta.

The sister cars were identical twins except for the rear suspension. One car ran a 9-inch rear end, while the other ran a recreation of the Ford-developed IRS. The original 1963 Ford blueprints for the IRS were found, and original suspension parts were donated to help the team construct the elusive suspension.

The cars were painted in Wimbledon White with two blue stripes running over the top of the car’s body. Both Mustangs wear number 98 in a blue roundel that harkens back to the car that started it all 50 years before: the legendary 5R002 that Ken Miles drove to victory in Green Valley and the car that Jerry Titus drove to the 1965 SCCA championship. The lowercase “i” identifies which car is equipped with the IRS.

Once the OVC unveiled the new Competition models to the public, they were flooded with invitations to show the cars at prestigious events like Monterey’s Carmel by the Sea Concours and The Quail, and events as far away as Lillehammer, Norway to lead the 4^th  of July parade before traveling to France to drive a lap around Le Mans. At every location, people asked the same question that they asked Shelby when they saw the original Competition car, “Can I have one, and how much?”

The OVC crew had no plans for selling the cars, but after so much demand, they looked into what it would take to build the car as a limited production run. Marietta applied to Ford Motor Company to have the cars be officially licensed. He received approval at an in-person meeting with Ford executives on the condition that he meets their demanding standards and requirements. After Ford’s approval, he approached Shelby American and got their consent as well. Shelby American asked where they would be built; Marietta had a few locations in mind, but Neil Cummings, Co-Chairman of Shelby American, offered the warehouse portion of their Gardena, California location as the home of OVC’s Mustangs.

Today, original 1965 K-code mustangs are transformed into continuation 1965 G.T. 350 Competition models. The old crew still works on each car, fabricating parts and flaring fenders; however, they are now the masters teaching new young apprentices, fabricators, mechanics and welders. They teach them in the car fabrication methods that they used back in 1964 and ’65.

Only 36 Continuation 1965 G.T.350 Competition cars will be built. They are selling at $250,000 and can be equipped with either a solid rear axle or the IRS.

Despite the small run of cars, it looks like the fun will not stop anytime soon. When we visited OVC’s shop, two gleaming Cobras were rolled in. Marietta explained, “these are Superformace cars that the OVC crew are going to finish, installing the 427 engine and transmissions. It’s a new option that Superformance is offering its customers”. How fitting, being that Ted Sutton was the first person to stuff a 427 into a Cobra—Carrol Shelby even signed a picture saying “Thanks for the 1st 427!” It looks like the guys at OVC will be busy for a while.

The post Shelby’s Original Venice Crew Revives History. appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

I hope that the world is treating you kindly and that the scales of justice are balanced in all of your endeavors. Remember what Rocky said, “Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.” So if you if you want it, go out and get it. Don’t sideline yourself by blaming others, it’s your car and you’re driving.

Sorry, I just watched Rocky Balboa last night and as you all know, I tend to follow the shiniest objects. So, let’s talk about carz, shall we…

I doubt very much that when Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote, “Save The Last Dance For Me,” they had a 1974 Barracuda in mind. Equally, it’s doubtful that when Ben E. King sang lead vocals with the drifters on that single in August of 1960 that he had a car in mind either. Only car nuts like myself would connect those dots. But, before you judge, I’m probably not the only one out there in Mopar land who tries to repurpose song lyrics to support my love of the Pentastar. Wait … am I?

OK, off with the radio and onto the article. I want to talk about the Plymouth Barracuda and the changes it experienced and later suffered. Beginning with the introduction of the E-Body in 1970 to its final curtain call in 1974.

As most of you know, the E-Body Barracuda was produced from 1970 until midyear 1974. The 1970 and 1971 are considered the most collectible of all those model years. Primarily because those were the only two years you could get the great options that made these cars so desirable, such as big-block engines, convertible tops, multi-carburetor induction, and, of course, the legendary 426 Hemi.

Now, this is where my Philly cheesesteak–eating friend, Tony D’Agostino of Tony’s Mopar Parts, in conspiratorial efforts with my producers, would chime in with an annoying pop up in the show and call me out. Something like “Tony D’Agostino interrupts this message to point out that Mark ‘The Ice Man’ Worman, is wrong. The big-block wasn’t an option on the 1970 and 1971 ’Cuda models. The 383 Super Commando was standard on these cars …” Or something biting like that, but back to my point.

Yes, our hypothetically interrupting Tony, would technically be correct. The 383 Super Commando (E63) was indeed, standard equipment in all ’Cuda models (BS23 and BS27) cars in ’70 and ’71. My point is, in 1972 you could no longer get a big block anything, in a Barracuda or ‘Cuda. For that matter its sister, the Challenger (or Challenger R/T) was also deprived of the mighty wedge engines.

Just as swiftly as the wild options and colors drifted onto the scene in 1969 (1970 model cars began production on August 1, 1969), they blew away in the wind, leaving behind a legacy that would truly stand the test of time. And why, you may ask. Well, that’s a long story … but I can give you the Reader’s Digest version.

Higher fuel costs, emerging emission equipment technology, and higher insurance premiums are the main reasons that production of high horsepower, poor fuel economy cars, began declining in 1972. The fact is, young adults were being hurt or killed, behind the wheel of these high-performance, lightweight muscle cars. It didn’t take the insurance companies long to begin rating the muscle cars according to engine and model. This is probably why the 340 Challenger in 1970 wasn’t an R/T model, but rather it featured an “A66” package. This somehow snuck the high-winding small-block under the radar of the pony counters.

Gas prices increased dramatically in 1973 due to an oil embargo placed on the United States by OPEC. The U.S. wasn’t the only nation hit. OPEC was targeting any nation that was thought to support Israel during the Yom Kippur War. When the embargo ended in 1974, oil had gone from $3 per barrel to almost $12 per barrel worldwide. U.S. prices were quite a bit higher. Just to give you an idea of the impact, at the end of 1973 the U.S. was importing about 6.2 million barrels of oil every day.

Now we could dive deeper into the politics of this and talk about tariffs, quotas, and price ceilings, and how the decline in U.S. oil production increased the reliance on foreign oil. Then how that segued into creating a perfect storm for what’s now called the “first oil shock,” but let’s not get mired in late ’60s/early ’70s politics — we’re here for the cars.

So, when you consider the hike in insurance rates, teen accidents, and high fuel costs, the manufacturers (most of them) had no choice but to eliminate temptation by switching gears to a more modest (nice way of putting it) muscle car. And although “modest muscle car” is nicely alliterative, it’s something of an oxymoron, but I digress.

Let’s get back on track and take a comparative look at the dramatic changes in available options between the introductory model ’Cuda in 1970 and its less than rousing denouement in 1974.

That, my friends, is a partial list of the losses suffered by 1974 on the E-Bodies. When you consider that the great hi-impact colors of 1970 and 1971 were also long gone by 1972, it’s no wonder that Plymouth pulled the plug on the Barracuda midyear, in December of 1972 — a sad end to an incredible beginning. As T.S. Eliot may have said (had he been a Mopar fan), they went out “not with a bang but a whimper.”

I leave you with these production statistics. Take note, if you own a real BS23*4, you do have a pretty rare car. Hopefully, one day the market will recognize them for their rarity over their desirability.

As the song goes: “So don’t forget who’s taking you home / Or in whose arms you’re gonna be / So darling save the last dance for me.”

Thanks for reading! I look forward to more Mopar Muscle musings next month. Until then, drive safely and appreciate the liquid dinosaur in your gas tanks.

Mark Worman

The post Greetings from The Grave: Keep on Dancing appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Who says Green Bay, Wisconsin only has football? Well, they better think again since this 1966 Shelby G.T. 350H was purchased at a car show at Lambeau Field. At the home of the legendary Green Bay Packers, Keith Champine purchased the car when he was in his teens in 1976 and he couldn’t believe what he had found. This Shelby G.T. 350H was a Hertz rental and came with a classic 289 power plant, but this one was cranking out 306 horses after a reworking from the guys at Shelby American. Feeding the 289 was a 715 CFM road racing carburetor made by Holley and this combination had been proven on the race track. The gold stripes running down the length of the body were a dead giveaway of this car’s history as a participant in the Hertz rent-a-racer program. One thousand Shelby G.T. 350-H’s were available for rent at just seventeen dollars a day and seventeen cents per mile. At age 25, as a member of the Hertz Sports Car club, young drivers could rent these awesome machines since most young car enthusiasts still could not afford to purchase such a powerful ride. Unfortunately, the program ended up grinding to a halt because of extensive repairs that had to be made after renters took these cars to the race track and did not go easy on them. So, it’s safe to say that Keith Champine is not going to let just anyone get behind the wheel of his cherished former Hertz rental G.T. 350H. So don’t think that football tickets are the only buy at a famous NFL stadium. If you have a fierce Ford that you’d like to submit for our weekly feature, email Kendra at cruisinwithkendra@gmail.com.

The post Fierce Ford Friday: Keith Champine’s 1966 Shelby GT 350H appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

We’ve become enamored with resurrecting used NASCAR parts for street use [https://www.hotrod.com/articles/score-used-nascar-parts-cheap/], and this road-weathered 1965 Malibu provides a beautiful example of the potential that hand-me-down stock car parts provide. Second-hand NASCAR parts make up every piece of its suspension and drivetrain, including its screaming 10,000rpm, 14.5:1 compression SB2 small-block.

Dean Noseworthy, 57, of Mooresville, North Carolina, purchased this car nearly 20 years ago for $6,500. With original vintage steel, a modern engine, and homemade chassis, the car was built in the traditional manner that honors the sum of its NASCAR parts. “I raced years ago when I was 15,” said Dean whose dad raced an asphalt Super Late Model. “Then I got married and had a family, so I took a break.”

You may assume a street-driven NASCAR engine has to be heavily detuned in order to drive on the street—quite the opposite here. Gibbons Motorsports of Mooresville, NC, helped Dean develop a NASCAR small-block with more torque than the actual racecars, as a street car doesn’t have to follow a rule book. The 410ci engine made 688 lb-ft of torque at the flywheel.

This version of the car started five years ago when Dean decided to return to his racing roots. He began collecting parts from used NASCAR parts houses (like Hendrick Raced Parts and SRI Performance) as well as local auctions. He fabricated parts and worked closely with Gibbons Motorsports for roughly ten months developing their version of an SB2.

On the car’s first and only top-speed event—a standing half-mile—it ran an impressive 170 mph. Now Dean wants more, with plans to attend Bonneville with friend Bob Keselowski, who smashed the stock-car land-speed racing record last year (271.846 mph).

The Malibu has a sheepish street appearance with a wolf lurking underneath. It’s far from a street car, but it is street-driven and road legal, making it the perfect car for us to love. Loud, brash, anti-social, politically incorrect—all the things we admire in a car, making it right as rain in our book.

Dean was excited at the high torque output, which they’ll need to punch through the air at a place like Bonneville. Dean, satisfied with the final product, only worries about finding the time and resources to run all the tracks he wants with the Malibu. He got back into racing a couple of years ago, now campaigning an open-wheel, dirt-modified car most summers.

“I’ve always had racing in my blood. You never get rid of it,” said Dean. “It seems like if you start with it, you only take a break, it never goes away.”

Tech Notes
Who: Dean Noseworthy
What: 1965 Malibu
Where: Mooresville, NC

Engine: Some engine builders consider the 327ci SB2 the best traditional small-block available. Its high-revving character allows builders to make reliable 900-plus horsepower naturally aspirated. The small-block generation 2 (SB2), as it’s formally known, replaced the original Chevrolet NASCAR small-block in 2001. The SB2’s current replacement, the R07 (2007 debut), departs from the traditional design, leaving the SB2 the last remaining true small-block.

Gibbons Motorsports doesn’t have a rulebook to adhere to, so they took the design and made it better. They started by upping the cubes to 410 ci on a bare block (the SB2 was limited to 327 ci), with a 4.155-inch bore and 3.75-inch stroke.

King Cranks in Denver, North Carolina, helped develop a one-off crank for the engine, with Carrillo H-beam rods and CP pistons with a 4.5cc dish. The ultra-lightweight crankshaft uses a unique combination of small Toyota main bearings. The resulting 14.5:1 compression ratio is higher than the 12:1 rulebook limit. The custom Comp roller cam with a .740-/.750-inch lift and 266/276 degrees duration features roller bearings and a Jesel belt drive. The valvetrain also includes Jesel .937 lifters, rockers, titanium retainers, and PSI double-springs.

An MSD blaster coil and MSD 6AL box feed power to an MSD Ford-style distributor. A Holley 850 double-pumper supplies fuel through an Edelbrock Victor SB2 Spider intake.

The SB2’s oiling technology keeps it alive for continuous high-rpm operation. An external, belt-driven oil pump with a dry sump oil reservoir resides in the trunk, and circulates 16 quarts of oil through the system. The valve covers also feature oil squirters to cool the valve springs.

Custom-built headers dump into 3.5-inch collectors and Schoenfeld connection mufflers. The pipes then dump into a tri-y design into a Cup-style slash-cut, rectangle-shaped boom tube, which exits behind the passenger door. The engine made an impressive 854 hp at 7,200 rpm and 688 lb-ft of torque at 6200 rpm.

Drivetrain: The SB2’s lightweight internals result in high-revving power. This lack of rotating mass means the driver needs talent and patience to get the skinny 7.25-inch clutch engaged without stalling or smoking the tires. The used road-course combo of G-Force 4-speed transmission and 10.5-inch flywheel shifts easily without the clutch. Unlike the SB2, the G-Force currently runs in the Cup series, meaning they hold their value on the used market.

A Ford 9-inch locker with 31-spline axles features a 4.22:1 final drive ratio. (A Ford 9-inch locker is much easier to find on the used market!) A custom aluminum driveshaft measures 4.5-inches.

Chassis: Dean and a friend built a 2×4 steel frame on a frame table while the Malibu remained intact. Dean pulled the schematics of the original frame and welded pedestals in place. The final chassis design is that of a stock car.

Dean built the double-wishbone front suspension with used tubular upper A-arms mounted on multiple slugs welded to the top of the frame. The optional slugs allow different positions of the upper A-arm for adjusting caster.

More precision was desired than a typical racecar, so Dean opted for Penske coilovers in place of OE-type shocks and springs. He simply welded mounting brackets to the lower arms beside the balljoint.  The Malibu retains its original rear-steer design with a 12:01 ratio box. The final suspension settings are .5 degrees of camber, 8 degrees of caster, and 1/4-inch toe in.

Out back you’ll find a custom-built four-link rear suspension with coilovers. It also features an adjustable Panhard bar. The Malibu weighs 3,200 pounds with driver, 100 pounds lighter than a Cup car.

Interior: Dean left himself open to the possibility of competing in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge, which awards points for radio and full interior. (He did adhere to at least one rule book!) The factory dash houses new AutoMeter gauges and a removable radio. The original steering column features a quick-release Momo steering wheel.

Procar by Scat racing seats and 5-point harnesses sit in front of the original rear bench. The NASCAR-certified steel roll cage (.090-inch diameter wall thickness) was custom built inside the car after the body swap.

Exterior: With all the road-weathered dents and dings, car show spectators are often surprised to learn that the body never served time on a stock car circuit. The otherwise stock body features a front and rear spoiler. Dean handmade the splitter starting with one from a Cup car, then fabricating an aluminum sheet to connect it to the Malibu’s original bumper.  The rear spoiler is a simple piece of bent aluminum painted black with stock car supports.

Brakes: NASCAR-spec Wilwood brakes accompany the NASCAR spindles. They feature 12.12-inch rotors all the way around with six pistons up front and four in the rear. The brakes are designed to fit inside steel 15-inch NASCAR rims.

Wheels/Tires: The 15-inch Aero steel wheels are common on stock cars. These are wrapped in road-legal, white-lettered BFGoodrich 245/60R15 radials.

The post 1965 Chevrolet Malibu: Street Car on the Outside, NASCAR on the Inside! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

1985-’96 Corvette

What it is: C4 disc brake upgrade

Why you care: In their day, the brakes on the fourth-generation Corvette were fine for the power level, but with power and speed getting easier by the day, not so much anymore! Wilwood’s Superlite 4R rear big brake kits for 1988-’96 C4 Corvettes (and cars cobbled from C4 parts!) offer two configurations for high-capacity braking on the street, slalom, or track. The OE brakes are replaced with four-piston SL4R calipers and 12.88-inch diameter rotors [https://wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitsProdRear?itemno=140-14883-DR&year=1994&make=Chevrolet&model=Corvette&option=C-4+w%2f+STD+Brake+Option+12%22+Front+Rotor]. Kits are also available with an MC4 mechanical parking brake caliper.

Flexlines and parking brake cables specific to the C4 are available for all production chassis Corvettes. Universal cable kits and flexlines are available for custom builds using an adapted C4 Corvette suspension. Wilwood’s SL4R rear kits provide complete matching style, performance and balance when used with Wilwood front big brake kits.

How much: MSRP starts at $1,791.93

Learn more: Wilwood Disc Brakes; 805-388-1188; www.wilwood.com

1955-’57 Chevy

What It Is: Tri-Five handles

Why you care: Classic Industries’ reproduction outer door handles for 1955-’57 Tri-Five Chevy [https://www.classicindustries.com/product/tf400417b.html] will have your Bowtie looking great in no time! It doesn’t matter what Tri-Five you own, they’ve got you covered with fitment for two-door hardtop/convertible, four-door hardtop, two- and four-door sedan, and four-door sedan/hardtop models. Each set is accurately contoured to fit like the originals and feature factory correct style buttons with a quality chrome-plated finish for a lustrous bright shine. Sold in sets only. Mounting hardware included.

Part No.:           Description:
TF400417B        two-door hardtop/convertible (restorer’s choice)
TF400414B        four-door hardtop (restorer’s choice)
TF400415          two- and four-door sedan (restorer’s choice)
TF400416          four-door sedan (restorer’s choice)
TF400414B        four-door hardtop (restorer’s choice)
TF400417A        two-door hardtop/convertible (standard replacement)
TF400414A        four-door hardtop (standard replacement)

How much: $96.99 (pair)

Learn more: Classic Industries; 855/357-2787; www.classicindustries.com

Please Be Seated

What it is: Corbeau DFX seats

Why you care: The all new Corbeau DFX [https://corbeau.com/dfx.html] is a fixed back seat that will fit in almost any vehicle—including classic muscle cars—with Corbeau custom brackets. The DFX seat is available with a black cloth face and carbon fiber vinyl back, and comes with either black or white piping. A black vinyl version is also available.

How much: street price $299 (each)

Learn more: Corbeau; 801/255-3737; www.corbeau.com

Sportsman Racing

What it is: AFR SBC Intake

Why you care: Does the world really need another single-plane, small-block Chevy, 23-degree race manifold? If it’s like AFR’s new Eliminator 4811, then yes! [https://www.airflowresearch.com/sbc-eliminator-race-23-single-plane-aluminum-intake-manifold/] Designed for use on competition SBC engines operating from 3,500-8,000 rpm, packs lots of race-oriented features, such as custom coolant outlets, a 5.5-inch tall 4150-style carb pad, smooth as-cast flow surfaces, and extra bungs for efi or NOS—all while being compatible with standard intake port cylinder heads and made in the USA!

How much: $332

Learn more: Air Flow Research; 877/235-4466; www.airflowresearch.com

Strong, Silent Type

What it is: Aeromotive Trifekta Pump

Why you care: Aeromotive’s new Phantom Trifekta fuel pump kit

[https://www.aeromotiveinc.com/product/trifekta-phantom-in-tank-kit/] is designed to extend the patented Phantom technology into the realm of ultra-high horsepower street/strip applications. Equipped with triple 450lph, E85-friendly Walbro pumps, the Trifekta supports staged pump control to reduce recycling and improve continuous duty capability. The Trifekta is ready to feed blown EFI applications making a whopping 1,650 hp on E85 and as much as 2,400 hp on gas. The Trifekta takes full advantage of its Phantom heritage with incredibly easy installation in virtually any tank from 6- to 11-inches deep, and is known for its quiet, continuous-duty capability.

How much: $1,282.26

Find out more: Aeromotive; 913/647-7300; www.Aeromotiveinc.com

G-Body Heaven!

What it is: Monte Carlo /Malibu heater control cable

Why you care: “GM discontinued this cable many years ago, leaving G-body owners unable to change the amount of heat coming through the vents,” says Justin Cote, vice president of Dixie Restoration Depot. “Factory cables often freeze up, or the clip that snaps into the heater box breaks, preventing movement of the heater valve,” he adds. Dixie Restoration Depot’s aftermarket heater control cable for ’78-’88 GM intermediate G-body models runs from the heater valve under the dash to the heater control assembly.

How much: $39.95

Learn more: Dixie Restoration Depot; 877/243-4943; www.DixieRestorationDepot.com

The post 6 New Speed Parts For Car Crafters! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

It all starts somewhere; the long, winding road leading you into automotive high performance. One of the truly magical decades to grow up in certainly had to have been the ’60s for countless reasons. Dragstrips were packed with the wildest Funny Cars and Gassers, muscle cars were taking over the streets, and toymakers were churning out some of the coolest creations to capture the attention of every youngster. For Paul DeFilippo of Needham, Massachusetts, experiencing it all not only caught his attention, it lured him in while surrounded by hopped-up cars.

From building kit models at the kitchen table to frequenting New England Dragway with his friends on a regular basis, it’s easy to see the path he was rolling on. Nothing caught his attention more, however, than one particularly wicked 1969 Chevelle packing a healthy 427ci big-block as it tore up the gears ripping a path through his neighborhood on a regular basis. As the years passed he gained a specific fascination with traditional hot rods, their aggressive looks and extreme power to weight ratios especially with cars packing superchargers.

There’s always a game-changing moment to influence you for a potential a build and for Paul it was a Dave Bell illustration of a nasty 1934 Ford five-window coupe he found decades ago in STREET RODDER. The car had a hard chop, blown V-8, and a cranked-down stance inspiring him to begin the search for a suitable body to bring it to life. Building a hot rod is a journey that can take quite a bit of time as life moves forward. For Paul it all started when he found a local ad for a 1934 Ford five-window body. The old steel shell had seen far better days, especially since it was missing its firewall, was rotted in numerous areas, and filled with bullet holes. Somehow through all the flaws he saw the perfect base for the car to rise since it had an evil chop mimicking the Dave Bell illustration. A deal was made and it was hauled home to lay down a plan.

For a rock-solid base Paul contacted TCI Engineering for one of their complete, fully boxed chassis featuring custom crossmembers. Out back a Currie Enterprises Hot Rod 9-inch rear was packed with 3.55 gears spinning 31-spline axles. It’s suspended in place by a TCI Engineering four-link with matching antiroll bar, Panhard bar, and adjustable coilover shocks. Up front a 4-inch dropped Super Bell axle meets Chevy spindles combined with Pete & Jakes tube shocks, transverse spring, and TCI Engineering four-link. When the need to drop anchor hits, a Wilwood Engineering dual master pushes fluid through steel lines to matching discs up front, complemented by Ford drums out back. It all meets the street on a set of 15-inch American Racing Torq Thrust D rims wearing Hoosier rubber.

If you want to make a statement, nothing speaks louder than a blown 355ci V-8 from Big Al’s Toy Box. The stout small-block features a four-bolt main base filled with a steel crank linked to H-beam rods wearing forged aluminum SRP pistons all urged by a Comp Cams stick. Up top plenty of power comes from a pair of Dart Iron Eagle heads with the final punch delivered through a Littlefield 6-71 supercharger fed by a pair of Demon 850-cfm carbs crowned by a BDS scoop. An MSD ignition lights the fire with spent gases dumping though a set of custom-fabbed zoomies. It’s all good for a solid 560 hp on the dyno with power moving through a Richmond five-speed to a custom driveshaft.

Bringing the tattered body back to life was a major feat. Paul called on his good friends Butch and Rodney Rintala to work their fabrication skills on it. To start, they replaced the floors, subrails, and trunk with freshly struck steel and continued on by installing a modified factory firewall. The nasty 6-inch chop was finessed while also fabricating a custom grille complimented by a custom rear roll pan with frenched license plate housing. Once completed the duo metal finished the body to perfection and set all the gaps. Butch then loaded his spray gun with plenty of PPG black and laid down a mile-deep coating of vibe.

The business office received plenty of attention, starting with the factory dash and garnish moldings being hydrostatic-dipped in bird’s-eye maple by Fluid-Grafix of Hampstead, New Hampshire. The dash was then filled with custom dials from Aurora to monitor the vitals. A LeCarra banjo-style wheel mounted to an ididit tilt column carves the course while a Hurst stick pulls gears and Vintage Air adds a cool breeze. New England Trim of Shrewsbury covered a bench from Wise Guy’s with yards of Cadillac White leather along with crafting matching panels and completing it all with plush taupe carpeting. Paul wanted to be sure to thank his girlfriend, Jena Holland, for her continued support throughout the build. This is one Street Shaker making it known on the streets and we dig it! SRM

The post This 1934 Ford Packs a 560hp Punch appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Question:

I love your magazine, and all of the how-to articles I find fascinating. Well, here is my question. I am finding a rust-colored powder in my fuel filter bowl and in the bottom of the carburetor. It looks like rust but I can’t understand where the rust is coming from. How could the rust or any sediment get past the fuel filter? I hope you have some ideas.

I noticed a loss of power on acceleration that led me to this problem, and there are air bubbles in the glass fuel bowl when the engine is running, but no fuel leaks. Is this normal or part of an underlying problem?
Thanks for your help,

Jacob

Answer:
Jacob, there are several problems that can be caused by a restricted fuel filter. The glass bowl fuel filters have a few additional problems the inline fuel filters don’t have.
In a glass bowl fuel filter, the fuel enters the bowl through the center hole in the top of the filter housing and exits through a different opening on the top of the housing.
The fuel filter element must seal tightly against the top of the fuel filter housing for all of the fuel to pass through the filter correctly. If the filter is not seated correctly the fuel could possibly bypass the filter, and small bits of sediment could also go out through any small gap.

There are several different fuel filter configurations so be sure and get the correct filter for your application. The filters come in different sizes and some filters have a large upper paper housing with small holes around the outside. Certain original filters used a stone-like element with an integral sealing gasket at the top.

When changing the fuel filter, install the fuel filter first and then the rubber gasket. Place the rubber gasket on the rim of the bowl and push it up into the housing and tighten the bowl screw. Be sure to check for any fuel leaks.

Getting air bubbles in the fuel bowl while the engine is running is usually caused from the gas boiling. A small amount of air bubbles are nothing to be concerned about, but if you have large bubbles or a large quantity of bubbles, the most common causes are listed below.

A low fuel vapor point. Check for a fuel line being too close to a heat source as this can cause the fuel to boil. Inspect to see if the fuel line is too close to the exhaust pipe or if the fuel line coming out of the fuel pump to the fuel filter is pressed against the exhaust manifold.

Check for air being introduced into the fuel. Inspect for a leak such as a cracked rubber fuel line or a loose fuel clamp.

The rust in the bottom of your fuel bowl is most likely caused from a rusty fuel tank. Today’s fuels containing ethanol blends can cause corrosion inside of your fuel tank, fuel lines, your carburetor or fuel-injection system.

The key problem is that ethanol absorbs water from the atmosphere. Fuel with 10 percent ethanol can absorbs up to 50 times more water than standard gasoline. Older gas tanks that are found in many classic cars vent to the atmosphere, this increases the probability that moisture will be absorbed into the gas tank at a rapid pace.

The end result of water in the fuel is phase separation, this means that the fuel separates into two layers: a layer of gasoline mixed with a little ethanol on top and a thinner layer on the bottom consisting of water mixed with most of the ethanol.

Water in the bottom of the fuel tank and inside the fuel lines will cause corrosion and rust, and the solvent properties of the ethanol will loosen and the resulting debris will end up in your fuel bowl or worse in your carburetor or fuel-injection system.

Well, Jacob, I hope this helps. And remember, buying non-ethanol fuel will assist with not having this problem in the future. Also, the complete glass bowl assembly with filter is available from several Corvette restoration parts houses if you find yours will not seal or has become corroded. Vette

The post Repairing Glass Bowl Fuel Filters appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Half a lifetime of owning and tending to a farm is hard work—so we are told—and not everyone that puts in the years is rewarded in the same capacity. For Derek Eisenbeisz and his wife, Eileen, though, keeping their noses to the proverbial grindstone did pay off. How they decided to make use of their positive financial situation was part investment and part dream fulfillment. Yup, you guessed it, they bought a Corvette.

But not just any Corvette; Eisenbeisz had this planned years in advance. He needed a 1958-’60 C1 Corvette because, “It’s an iconic body style that’s so sought after,” and he wouldn’t have it any other way. The specific car that Eisenbeisz ended up with was a 1960 model that was somewhat of a barn find. A good friend of his had it sitting around for about a decade, waiting for a restoration to begin that he just never got around to. The Corvette was all there and not in the worst of conditions, but it had been completely blown apart in preparation of the restoration.

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After purchasing the Corvette, Eisenbeisz sent the ’60 over to a shop not too far from his home in Bowdle, South Dakota. You could say that things went south and he ended up cancelling the build—which is a story for another day—and taking the car back home. Eisenbeisz’s search for another builder was short lived as a friend quickly recommended Paul Atkins Interiors in Hanceville, Alabama. Now, in case you haven’t put two and two together, Alabama is no stone’s throw away from South Dakota, but at this point that wasn’t going to stop Eisenbeisz from having his dream Corvette built. He got in touch with Paul Atkins and began working out how the Corvette would be built. “The Eisenbeisz’s vision was a car that handled and drove like a new one but looked vintage to that year,” Atkins recalled. But, getting all the details worked out took time. Lots of time. The process included regular phone calls, renderings of the Corvette and even a handful of trips to Paul Atkins Interiors, which is 1,300 miles each way for Eisenbeisz.

The basis of the Corvette restomod build ended up being a complete tube chassis from SRIII Motorsports. The custom chassis utilizes C4-style independent front and rear suspension with JRi coilover shocks and forged aluminum control arms. An upgraded Dana 60 differential with a 3.42 rear gear and limited-slip was chosen to ensure reliability and durability considering the big power they would be throwing at it. The final piece of the chassis was a set of Wilwood disc brakes with six-piston calipers at all four corners.
As for the big power mentioned, that would be thanks to a supercharged, 650-horsepower LT4 crate engine from Chevrolet Performance. “So many builds are one of one,” Eisenbeisz told us in regards to mechanical components, and he didn’t want that. He said the plan here was to use as many factory parts as possible, “So down the road when we need a part it’s not mixed and matched.” That way, they can just run down to their local Chevy dealer instead of bringing the car 1,300 miles back to Atkins’ shop for an otherwise easy fix.

OK, continuing on with the juicy powertrain details. Paul Atkins Interiors fabricated a complete exhaust system out of mandrel-bent tubing from the Chevrolet Performance exhaust manifolds all the way back to a pair of Borla mufflers. Behind the LT4, Eisenbeisz didn’t want a lazy old automatic, so instead a TREMEC six-speed was chosen to send power back to the Dana 60 rearend.

As for the exterior of the Corvette, the goal was to keep things looking classy. That meant a mile-deep PPG Victory Red paintjob done at Paul Atkins Interiors and a tasteful amount of chrome done by Dan’s Polishing and Chrome in Adamsville, Tennessee. But before all that, the fiberglass body got a complete makeover. According to Eisenbeisz, “The rear fenders were widened to accommodate wider tires and the front was widened to match.” Both bumpers were then tucked and the factory tiger-tooth grille was replaced by a one-piece molding and then set further into the front of the C1. “A lot of people can’t tell the difference,” said Eisenbeisz, “but the people that know what to look for love it.”

Another detail that not everyone is guaranteed to notice are the badges. “Z060” they read, detonating the combination of the modern Z06 powerplant under the hood and the model year (’60) of the Corvette. The final piece of the puzzle to wrap up the exterior of the car and translate all the modern suspension and power to usable performance are the wheels and tires. The wheels chosen were a staggered set of Schott Velocity rollers measuring 19×8 in the front and 20×10 in the rear. Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 225/40R19 and 275/35R20 tires make sure all that power gets to the ground and stays there.

Transitioning to the interior of Eisenbeisz’s 1960 Corvette it was all about combining the classic C1 style with modern tech like climate control and a killer stereo system. Speaking of which, the Corvette was fitted with Vintage Air’s Gen IV climate control system. Then, in went a Clarion head unit paired with Rockford Fosgate and Hertz Mille Pro series speakers boosted by a Kenwood five-channel amplifier. Another standout piece of tech included custom Dakota Digital VHX gauges made specifically for Paul Atkins Interiors. Finally, the whole cabin was covered in Lipstick Red leather and carpeted to match. Finally, a 14-inch steering wheel from Billet Specialties’ D-Shaped Collection was installed to compete the look. Paul Atkins Interiors certainly lived up to their name with the design and execution inside cabin of Eisenbeisz’s Corvette.

Before they knew it, the two-year build process was completed and the Z060 was headed back home to their farm in South Dakota. The Corvette has spent the last two summers cruising the wide-open expanses surrounding the Eisenbeisz’s hometown and wowing the crowds at local car shows. While this little Corvette might have humble roots living in the daydreams of a rural farmer, its stunning good looks and brutal LT4 power mean it’s far from it. Vette

The post Cultivating the Perfect 1960 Corvette Restomod appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Most car enthusiasts have a sentimental first-car story, all of which have a few commonalities: it needed work and was cheap, dirty, and perfect. There is also a good chance that it ignited a burning desire for the automobile and, for some reason or another, we all wish we still had it. My first car was a 1987 Honda CRX Si that I bought from a friend of my father at the ripe age of 12 for $1.

When we got there to take a look at it, the gravity of the situation became real. Cats were living in it, the paint was totally faded, hard-to-find plastics were broken or missing, and it barely ran. After brushing away some fur and biohazards, we put a battery in it to see if it would fire. After a whole can of starting fluid and removing the clogged fuel filter, it coughed back to life with coolant and oil leaks aplenty.

The day we got the car home, my dad and I tore into it. Within hours, the interior was gutted and vacuumed, broken panels were tossed, and crusty old hoses and wiring were stripped from the engine bay. Every Saturday for the next few months, we were out in the garage removing and replacing countless pieces until we finally fired up the car and it ran like a top. Though I didn’t have my license yet, I learned to drive a manual transmission in it, and we had tons of fun zipping it around like a go-kart.

The post My First Car: Cheap, Dirty, Perfect. appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

With multiple car shows every weekend, Florida auto enthusiasts have lots to choose from. However there are a few events that always make it on the “must attend” list. The Fall Turkey Run is the largest club-sponsored event in the state and everyone visits during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. The infield of the Daytona International Speedway is always packed, typically hosting more than 5,000 vehicles on display, painted every color of the rainbow and customized in every way imaginable. It’s a treat to simply wander the rows since you are certain to find something new at every turn. The event is also famous for the huge collection of swap meet vendors, making it easy to find that elusive part for your restoration project back home. Lots of folks also use the show as an opportunity to acquire a new addition to the family garage. Sellers had more than 100,000 folks wandering by examining the merchandise and buyers had more than 1,500 vehicles to choose from. Lots of vehicles changed hands over the weekend with something for every taste and budget. But that’s just the beginning.

Need a special gift for someone on your list? Check out the arts and fashion booths. Bring the kids for a close-up look at the 1966 Batmobile, the Bat Cycle, and the Bat Copter. Swing by The Mecum Mobile Experience for a taste of a modern automobile auction. Hops and Hoods offered taste testing of more than 30 different craft beers. Take a chance on this year’s raffle car, a 1934 Ford roadster complete with a 350 Chevrolet motor and automatic transmission. Proceeds go to charity. Finish the day across the street at One Daytona to enjoy Turkey Run Nights, games, prizes, and the Magic Lights display. Get more information about both the spring and fall events at www.turkeyrun.com.

The post The 45th Annual Daytona Turkey Run appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Chevrolet built 22,229 Corvettes in 1964—8,304 coupes and 13,925 roadsters. Even after accounting for over a half a century’s worth of losses to collision, theft, and attrition, there are still plenty left today to satisfy restorers and customizers alike. Better yet, when we use the term “customizer” in 2019, we’re mostly talking about resto-modders, a.k.a. folks who tastefully retain and respect the external appearance, but go wild under the skin with chassis, suspension, interior comfort, brakes, and driveline upgrades.

But it wasn’t so long ago when customizers (often spelled with a “k”) turned the equation around, grafting hideous fiberglass wings, scoops, flares, and spoilers on the plastic body while leaving everything mechanical alone. Sadly, the result was often clownish and gaudy. But times and tastes have changed since they locked up Manual Noriega.

So, as much as we all love and respect a perfectly restored 1964 Rochester fuelie (1,325 built) or N03 “tanker” coupe (the 36-gallon fuel tank appealed to endurance road racers who didn’t have to stop as often to refuel), the plain truth remains, the rest of the Corvette herd is ripe for upgrading.

In stock trim, 1964 Corvettes just don’t drive as well as they look. Few vintage cars do. Though diehards don’t mind carburetors with manual choke cables, or drum brakes that put you in the next lane when stabbed, the core of the classic car audience has been spoiled by the new car experience. Today’s auction block results prove most buyers will pay much more for a nicely resto-modded Corvette (or Tri-Five Chevy, Baby T-Bird, 1965-’73 Mustang, GTO, etc.) than a concourse correct relic sitting on skinny 6.70-15 white walls.

Thanks to the fact GM used the same basic underpinnings on all C2 and C3 Corvettes built from 1963 through 1982, a thriving aftermarket has evolved to add modern upgrades beneath the skin of any vintage Corvette. Sure, some purists may cringe, but happily most of what’s done to these cars is reversible. In this story, let’s examine how Josh and Eric Buzzell of NextGen Performance in Spencer, Massachusetts brought a 1964 Sting Ray roadster into the 21^st century with some basic—but much needed—modifications.

Tech Notes
Who: Josh and Eric Buzzell, NextGen Performance
What: 1964 Chevy Corvette
Where: Spencer, MA

Engine: The Corvette initially arrived at NextGen Performance with a mild 327 (that’s an old school 5.3L for any metric fans), but it wouldn’t last long. A 2008 was a good year for standard Corvette power plants; the base 6.0 liter / 364 cube LS2 grew into the 6.2 liter / 374 cube LS3, thanks to a factory 0.060 inch overbore (from 4.00 to 4.060), 10.7:1 compression, 42-lb/hr. fuel injectors, rectangular-shaped intake ports, hollow intake valve stems, and more. In bone-stock trim, the LS3 delivers 430 horsepower and 424 lb-ft of torque. Best of all, its all-aluminum construction slashes 50 pounds off the Corvette’s nose compared to the outgoing iron mouse. More good news is the fact the stock Corvette front dress fits the 1964 frame and engine bay without mods. The only deviation was elimination of the power steering system and AC.

Induction: The new-for-2008 Corvette LS3 induction system included a fresh intake manifold design capable of flowing 365 cfm with no modifications. For comparison, before the 2008 revamp, the best Corvette intake manifold was the 320cfm unit found atop the 2001-’04 LS6. By the way, this “best of” statement covers Corvette intake manifolds all the way back to the first triple-Rochester side-draft carburetor unit of 1953 as well as the high-rise Winters Foundry goodies of the L88 era. We truly are living in the “good old days” right now! To package the K&N conical air filter away from radiator heat and the upper radiator hose, NextGen’s Eric Buzzell fabricated a nifty aluminum gooseneck from three sections of tube. He says: “Air inlet temperature tumbles from over 180 degrees to the same temperature the driver is breathing.” This cooler air is denser and best for performance. The stock 2008 throttle body was retained. On SMG Motoring’s Dynojet chassis dyno, the red ’64 roadster delivered 351 horsepower at 5,450 rpm and 375.13 lb-ft at 4,500 rpm.

Transmission: Though not indicated by codes presented on the body tag, clues suggest this car was born with a manual transmission. The 3-speed manual was still standard Corvette fare right through the 1969 model run, and this feature car was upgraded from a wide-ratio M20 Muncie to a brand new Tremec TKO600 5-speed manual with overdrive and a 525-hp rated Street Comp clutch kit. Using a complete kit from Hurst Driveline with a Hurst Sidewinder II shift handle conversion assured trouble-free installation. Until the 1984 arrival of the Doug Nash-supplied 4+3 manual transmission option, no Corvette came from GM with overdrive.

Rearend: The 1964 Corvette offered axle ratios of 3.08, 3.36, 3.55, 3.70, 4.11, and 4.56:1, with 3.36:1 being most popular (installed on 8,338 out of 22,229 cars). Not surprisingly, the feature car has the 3.36:1 setup, which was refreshed with new bearings and a rebuilt Positraction unit. About that Posi, before Positraction became standard equipment in 1970, Corvette buyers paid an extra $43.05 for the pleasure of smoking both rear tires. In 1964, Posi was a very popular option with 18,279 out of 22,229 buyers asking for it. Of course that means 3,950 1964 Corvettes were “one wheel wonders..

Chassis / Suspension: The original 1964 frame was in excellent condition and required only a cleaning before being powder coated black by Central Connecticut Coatings of Hartford, CT. The stock Sting Ray suspension was a radical departure when introduced in 1963. Up front, Corvette finally got away from the king pin suspension used since 1953. Lacking anti-dive geometry, the king pin setup hurt road course handling and was high on Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov’s list of fixes. The new-for-’63 front suspension featured ball joints (Chevy passenger cars got them in 1955) and stamped control arms from the full-size (Impala, Biscayne) parts bin. Out back, Duntov’s wish for independent rear suspension (IRS) was also granted—but with compromises. The heavy transverse leaf spring weighed anywhere from 44 to 60 pounds, depending on which suspension option was chosen. A fix in the form of a nifty 8-lb. plastic spring arrived in 1981—a little late to have much effect on Corvette’s racing legacy. All of the factory stuff was replaced in favor of a Ridetech coilover system for 1963-’67 Corvettes. With four-corner coilover shocks and rugged tubular / bridge girder control arms with a rear Muscle Bar, the bolt-in system offers superior handling with less flex and mass than stock.

Brakes: Many Corvette fans forget that four-wheel disc brakes didn’t arrive until 1965. Before that, all Corvettes used 11-inch drums all the way around. Borrowed from the full-size Chevy parts bin, they were prone to fade in competition settings which led to a series of fixes involving air ducts, backing-plate scoops, metallic shoes, and finned iron drums. None of it begins to compare to the four-corner Wilwood disc brake conversion kit installed by NextGen. With drilled rotors and six-piston / four-piston (F/R) calipers at each wheel, Duntov would have loved it.

Exhaust: The Corvette’s first factory installed N14 side mount exhaust system – that’s side pipes to you and me – wasn’t offered until 1965 for an extra $134.50. And they were not popular. Only 759 of the 23,564 Corvettes built in ’65 got them. But in the years since, they’ve become a popular add-on. Already present when the car arrived at NextGen Performance, the guys decided to retain them to let the LS3 exhale a little better. They’re fed by the stock cast iron LS3 manifolds. Before the 1965 arrival of side pipes, 1963-’68 Corvette order forms listed the N11“off road exhaust system”. These are not side pipes, but rather a louder system with larger tubing and low restriction mufflers. The N11 setup ran the entire length of the car and exited in the usual spot through the rear valance panel.

Wheels/Tires: Weld Racing worked with NextGen Performance to adapt Weld’s new 18-inch Miramar wheel design for C2 applications. The 18×7 and 18×8 (F/R) wheels are offset 4.5 and 5.25 inches (F/R) to clear suspension and brake obstructions. If you like the Miramar design and want them for your 1963-’67 Sting Ray, thank Weld Racing and NextGen Performance for sizing them to fit. Tires are Nitto NT-05’s 235/40R-18 and 245/40R-18 Nitto NT-05’s.

Paint / Body: NextGen Performance specializes in mechanical makeovers, that’s why they chose a Corvette that was already wearing an excellent Torch Red paint job. The only external modification was switching the 427 hood medallions for LS3 emblems. That said, the Buzzell Brothers spent countless hours masking the body to protect it from harm during wrenching. All underbody surfaces were coated with matte black. Fresh chrome reproduction bumpers were sourced from Classic Industries.

Interior: The stock interior was augmented by a Dakota Digital instrument cluster packing VHX gauges, including an 8,000rpm tachometer and 160mph speedometer. In the old days, sidewalk spies deciphered Corvette tachometer redlines to glean clues on engine potency. Solid-lifter mills red-lined over six grand, tame-juice lifter mills went to five grand. The stock U69 Delco AM-FM radio was a popular option and was installed in 20,934 of the 22,229 Corvettes built in ’64. At $176.50, the radio cost $68.90 more than the hottest non-fuelie 327, the 365 horsepower L76 with solid lifters and a Holley 4-barrel ($107.60). Where were peoples’ priorities?

The post Modernized Classics: 1964 Corvette Daily Driver With LS Power appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

The modern Ford automatic transmission market has always been a step behind its competition from the General. The Fox-body Mustang fanatics suffered through the lethargic AOD era, followed by the AOD-E, which was marginally better. The 4R70W, which debuted in the Lincoln Mark VIII and was carried over to the Modular generation of Mustangs, had been a step in the right direction, but only when the aftermarket got involved in a complete rebuild. Sure, Ford produced the robust 4R100 that was found in heavy-duty trucks and the Gen 2 Lightning, but its strength came with girth, making it less than ideal to swap into most cars.

The Ford world rejoiced in 2005, however, with the introduction of the 5R55S, an automatic transmission that changed the landscape and made an auto-equipped Mustang a worthy purchase. But as good as the 5R55S was, lurking in the wings was the 6R80 that first appeared in Ford SUV and truck models in 2009 and made its way into the Mustang line-up in 2011 as they shifted to the Coyote 5.0 powerplant.

The 6R80 is a six-speed automatic, and, nearly a decade after its introduction, the transmission was a game-changer in both off-the-showroom floor as well as the swap world. It offers lock up capabilities in any of the forward gears and features a towing/haul selection to help with towing and engine braking for truck applications. In the Mustang, a 6R80-equipped 2011-2017 Mustang GT will typically outperform a manual-transmission equipped Mustangs of the same years on the drag strip.

For a market that was dominated by stick-wielding Mustang junkies, technology has changed the game dramatically. A lot of credit belongs with the gear ratios, beginning with the 4.17:1 First gear. The steep First helps get the heavier Mustang model off the starting line quickly. The ratio drops off to 2.34:1 (Second), 1.52:1 (Third), 1.14:1 (Fourth), 0.86:1 (Fifth), and 0.69:1 (Sixth). There is no traditional 1:1 ratio before Overdrive, which might sound odd, but in this situation, it works rather well. Some tuners use it to their advantage, and some combinations have the car being run out in Fourth gear, while other scenarios the transmission will go into Fifth to complete the quarter-mile.

While its virtues in the 2011-2017 Mustangs are well documented, we wanted to check the real world for 6R80 use in non-OEM applications. The aftermarket is ramped up and rolling strong as big transmission companies like Hughes Performance are cranking out 6R80 builds nearly weekly. Looking at the Mustang-only drag racing scene, we see several 7-second cars, and recently, the aftermarket has introduced billet internals for big power builds.

We tagged along with Drag Week competitor Mike Jovanis as he put the finishing touches on a new street car, a 1989 Mustang LX that he has nicknamed “Almond Joy” due to the unique factory body color. He dropped a Coyote 5.0 under the hood—complete with a VMP Gen 2R supercharger—and began to look for an Overdrive solution. “I really wanted to keep this car all-Ford, so getting a 4L80 or 4L60 wasn’t really an option,” said Jovanis. “The car has a Ford Performance wiring harness, so to add a 6R80 and be able to control it through the ECU is pretty easy.”

Jovanis bought a take-out transmission from a 2015 F-150 for $700 and decided to test fit it before committing to the project. The transmission slipped into the tunnel rather easily, prompting him to start doing more research, which revealed the swap is very common with a lot of aftermarket support for it.

Jovanis works with Hughes Performance with his “fast” car, a 7-second Drag Week / NMRA True Street Mustang, so it was only natural for him to call them first. The plan was to ship the transmission to Hughes to get freshened and upgraded. The company added a 300M billet intermediate shaft, Raybestos GZ-series friction plates, and brand-new Ford steel plates. Hughes then utilized a Sonnax Zip kit that includes o-ringed internal end plug kit, pressure regulator sleeve, valvebody accumulator piston and spring kit, clutch-A control boost valve and sleeve kit, and replacement solenoid o-rings. The Sonnax kit’s components work together to prevent pressure loss with the mainline, solenoid regulator, reverse, clutch control, and solenoid apply circuits.

In addition to the aftermarket parts, Hughes Performance replaced and/or ugraded the wear items where applicable. The final step in the rebuild was a dyno testing of the transmission in-house dyno at the Hughes Performance facility. Every transmission is thoroughly tested and verified before shipping to customers. This particular build is rated at 1,300 hp, offering quite a bit of security when it comes to durability in this application.

“I have a supercharged setup that should easily make over 600 rwhp, having the upgrades offers piece of mind. I can install the transmission and not have any concerns with durability,” Jovanis confessed. A Hughes Pro Series billet torque converter was spec’d for this setup due to the excessive low-end grunt from the Eaton TVS-based supercharger system. Hughes has 33 different stators with nine fin angle options for this particular 6R80 Pro Series torque converter, giving the team plenty of choices to tailor-fit the converter to a wide-variety of applications. The Pro Series converter that Hughes Performance built for Almond Joy will maximize performance on track and offer the proper coupling characteristics, efficiency, and part-throttle response for an enjoyable street experience.

A number of mail-order parts makes the swap into a Fox-body Mustang possible, and it all starts with the Stifflers cross-member. Known for chassis and suspension upgrades, Stifflers designed their crossmember to use bolt-in mounting brackets and Jovanis ended up welding them to the UPR frame connectors for added rigidity. It comes with a specially designed polyurethane bushing that allows proper driveline angle.

Adding a big, clunky shifter from a late-model Mustang or F-150 isn’t the easiest option for Fox-body owners. Additionally, there aren’t many options for aftermarket shifters, so Jovanis sought a solution to retain the factory AOD shifter—adding a sleeper and mundane look the interior. Power by the Hour is a well known in the Mustang world and the shop has been a leader in 6R80 performance for many years. They offer a shifter-stop bracket that allows limited movement from the shift lever so it engages only Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Drive The company also provided the transmission oil pan cooler fittings for use with a stand-alone transmission cooler.

GForce Performance Engineering was tasked with building the custom driveshaft—this car measures 52-inches from the face of the 6R80 transmission to the Strange 1350 pinion yoke. Due to the output, Jesse Powell of GForce Performance Engineering suggested a 3.5-inch diameter aluminum driveshaft instead of a 4-inch diameter that they do for higher output combinations.

The only hiccup in the 6R80 swap was the collector on the driver’s side; a problem we anticipated because there currently isn’t a set of headers that fit around a 6R80. The collector needed to be angled slightly to clear the transmission shift-linkage, a small bump in the road but one that you should be aware of. A custom X-pipe was built and sits tight against the floorboard and doesn’t interfere with the Stifflers cross-member. As a side note, we used an F-150 transmission, but if you source one from a Mustang, the shift-linkage will be different than this installation.

At press time, Jovanis was putting the finishing touches on the car before it will be strapped down to the chassis dyno and tuned up. In an effort to remain 100% Ford, enthusiasts have a durable and easy-to-install option when it comes time to selecting an Overdrive style transmission.

The post How to Swap a 6R80 Transmission into a Fox-Body Mustang appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

After a short period of ownership of your new Challenger, Charger, Ram, or an SRT version of the Durango, Grand Cherokee, or Wrangler, a decision was made that the horsepower the 5.7L or 6.4L Hemi was putting to the ground was no longer enough to satisfy the never-ending quest for more power. To increase the output of the Hemi, all options were considered, such as upgrading the heads and camshaft, adding nitrous, installing a turbocharger, or even mounting a supercharger. After carefully studying the benefits and drawbacks of each power adder, it was determined a centrifugal supercharger would provide greater performance than a head/cam swap, be available all the time unlike the constant bottle filling required for nitrous, would fit into the engine bay and look like a factory installation rather than an aftermarket add-on like a turbocharger, and the centrifugal supercharger would provide more effective output than a turbocharger when run on pump gasoline. A call was placed to ATI ProCharger for one of their High Output (HO) Intercooled System, which included an air-to-air intercooler. This supercharger kit was designed to work with stock compression pistons (which our 2018 Challenger has) and a fuel octane rating of 91 or higher.

Why did we select ProCharger? ProCharger was the only choice when it came to a 100 percent complete, bolt-on supercharger installation. They have been the leading aftermarket supercharger manufacturer for 25 years, and their products are some of the best engineered, reliable, and powerful on the market. The ProCharger line is USA engineered and built to provide excellent power/pound of boost for a multitude of applications, including not only late-model V-8s, but trucks, SUVs, compacts, motorcycles, and various marine applications. The ProCharger supercharger comes with an air-to-air intercooler that helps keep the charge air temperatures at a minimum for maximum power. Lastly, there’s a warranty with each supercharger system.

Before the installation of the ProCharger began, our stock 2018 Challenger with a 6.4L Hemi was strapped to a Mustang dyno to evaluate the rear-wheel horsepower and torque. With the engine and drivetrain up to operating temperature, a run from 3,100 to 6,200 rpm was performed. The numbers were impressive for a stock, off-the-showroom floor vehicle. We made several more baseline runs, and all the runs were very similar in performance output and consistency; the best run resulted in a peak of 426 rear-wheel horsepower at 6,200 rpm, and the torque peaked at 404 lb-ft at 4,300 rpm. Pleased with the results, we moved the Challenger to a four-post drive on vehicle lift, so the stock component removal could begin.

Prior to starting the removal process, we familiarized ourselves with the kit. With dozens of parts in the kit and a thick installation guide, it looked like a daunting undertaking, but with good planning and patience, the installation progressed smoothly. Following the steps of the installation guide, we ensured that no fuel pressure was in the fuel rails before they were removed by pulling the 20-amp fuse No. 6 or relay 46 (depending upon model year — both located in the trunk) to disable the voltage to the fuel pump, and the engine was turned over for 15 seconds to bleed off the fuel pressure. After the pressure was relieved, the negative battery cable was disconnected. We removed the engine covers, unclipped the wiring harnesses from each fuel injector, and pulled the injectors and rails from the intake manifold. Each injector was removed from its fuel rail and new injectors supplied with the kit were installed. The new injectors with the fuel rails were reinstalled into the intake manifold.

The manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP) was removed from the intake manifold. A MAP adapter was threaded into the intake manifold, and a new supplied MAP sensor was installed on the MAP adapter. A fresh set of plugs (16) that were one step colder were gapped to .035 inch and torqued into each cylinder (two plugs per cylinder). The intake air temperature sensor (IAT) was removed from the engine. The positive crankcase valve (PCV) hose was freed from the airbox assembly, and with the unthreading of a bolt and the band clamp on the airbox housing, the airbox was pulled from the engine bay. While in the engine bay area, the radiator cavity covers (black airflow dams) were detached from the radiator support. If the vehicle had been equipped with a shaker hood, several additional steps would’ve been required to remove the airbox from the car.

The Challenger was raised so we could gain access to the under-chassis body cladding. There were three lower front fenderwell panel fasteners that were removed per side. The back cladding required unthreading of four fasteners to free it from the chassis. Following the removal of the back cladding, the removal of 11 additional fasteners released the front cladding from the Challenger. With everything that attached to the exterior of the fascia removed from the top and bottom sides, we had to dive deeper into the fenderwells and into the area around the air conditioning condenser to remove more clips, rivets, and fasteners to remove the fascia. While we were removing the various fasteners, we disconnected the wiring harness to the fascia, thus eliminating the need to unplug each turn signal and fog lamp separately. When we were sure we had every fastener removed, we taped the front edge of the fenders of the Challenger with several layers of 2-inch masking tape to protect the paint. Each side of the fascia was unsnapped, and the fascia was gently pulled straight forward off the Challenger. With the fascia placed on a pair of fender covers on the floor, we proceeded to remove plastic radiator shrouding and ducting from around the condenser and radiator. The serpentine belt and tensioner were removed, and lastly the horns were disconnected from the harness and removed. The horn brackets were set aside and wouldn’t be reused for the supercharger installation.

At this point, we moved to the cooling system of the Challenger. We removed the coolant reservoir cap, drained the coolant from the radiator, removed the coolant lines from the reservoir, and removed the reservoir from the engine bay. The reservoir wouldn’t be reused for the installation of the supercharger. Once the reservoir was removed, we removed the radiator bracket located on the driver side of the radiator. We still had more components to loosen or remove to get to the harmonic balancer. There was a radiator cradle, radiator trim, electric fan connectors, and several fasteners that had to be removed. The fan shroud was pushed up from below slightly, tilted to the rear of the Challenger, and then lowered out from the bottom of the engine bay. As the cradle and fasteners were removed, a jackstand was required to hold the radiator in its approximate location.

With just enough clearance between the harmonic balancer and the radiator, we backed off the factory harmonic balancer bolt and prepared the balancer for a dowel pin. We secured the supplied drill jig with a bolt and washer into the balancer bolt threads in the crankshaft, and we used a 90-degree drill with a drill bit in the jig to locate a small hole in the crankshaft and the balancer. A stainless steel dowel pin slipped into the drilled hole to engage the outer diameter of the crankshaft to the inner diameter of the balancer. The harmonic balancer bolt was reinstalled and torqued to specifications. Pinning the balancer was necessary because the factory doesn’t include a keyway and key, and the load on the belt and harmonic balancer pulley would be greatly increased by the supercharger, which could cause the pulley to slip on the crankshaft.

After the dowel pin was installed, the radiator fans were reinstalled and the support cradle was reattached along with all the mounting fasteners. A pair of aluminum intercooler brackets was installed onto the radiator support. Once the brackets were installed, the intercooler was guided behind the steel bumper of the chassis and in front of the condenser, where it was secured with several bolts to the intercooler brackets. Both horns were mounted on their new relocation support and attached to the passenger-side intercooler bracket. The harness was rerouted and connected to the horns.

In the engine bay, the four throttle body bolts were removed from the intake manifold as were the two idler bracket bolts and the two timing cover bolts just under the idler bracket. A standoff bracket was installed in the location, where the idler bracket had been. The factory tensioner with an idler pulley added to the assembly was installed in its normal position on the engine with the tensioner pointing downward. A sub bracket was installed, and the ribbed idler was reinstalled onto the sub bracket. The factory belt was routed as laid out in the instructions. After orienting all the brackets, spacers, and bolts, the main bracket was installed onto the engine. The ProCharger head unit (supercharger) was filled with the supplied bottles of supercharger oil via the fill plug/dipstick port, and the head unit was installed onto the main bracket. Two 8-rib idler pulleys were installed on to the main bracket, the supercharger belt was installed, and the belt was tensioned via a screw-jack belt tensioner attached to the main bracket and the tensioner assembly.

The task of routing all the ducting for the supercharger proceeded well. First, the throttle body was reinstalled onto the intake manifold. A 4-inch coupler was run from the intercooler to the air plenum and then from the plenum to the throttle body via a 45 degree 3.5-inch rubber elbow, which was all held together by clamps. The IAT was installed into the threaded bung in the air plenum. A series of silicone rubber elbows and tubes were plumbed from the bottom of the intercooler to the ProCharger supercharger. The Proflow surge system was installed between the intercooler and the supercharger. Just like the other tubes on the intercooler, the tubes and elbows were held together with clamps provided in the kit. To guarantee clean air entered the supercharger, a formed plastic ductwork was affixed to the supercharger, and at the other end, a conical-shaped air filter was installed. The PCV hose that was removed during disassembly was cut to length and slipped onto a barbed fitting, extending from the plastic ductwork.

The new coolant reservoir was installed on the opposite side of the Hemi from the stock location. One factory coolant fitting elbow was reversed (pointed toward the passenger side) in its factory hose, and the hoses were rerouted to the new location of the reservoir. The petcock in the radiator was returned to the closed position, and we filled the system and the reservoir to the full cold level designated on the new reservoir.

We were on the home stretch with our installation. Before the fascia went back on the Challenger, we had to attach the ambient air temp sensor to the intercooler bracket near the horns with zip ties, and two fascia deflectors had to be removed to allow the intercooler and the fascia to fit together properly. The fascia was carefully remounted, and the fasteners and clips were reinstalled. The electrical connection to the fascia was reattached, and both underside cladding panels were secured to the chassis. Lastly, the radiator cavity corners were snapped back into place.

We did a once-over of the installation to verify a component, fastener, trim panel, or anything else was not left loose or was out of place. Once we determined everything looked good, the negative cable was reattached to the battery, and the fuel pump fuse or relay was reinstalled (if it had not been previously). We started the 6.4L and listened for any abnormal noises or noticeable shaking from the engine. After a warm-up cycle, the engine was shut off, and after cooling, the fluid levels were all checked.

Regardless of which kit was purchased, the engine will require a new tune to be uploaded to the PCM before the engine can be run. We had a custom tune uploaded to the PCM (ProCharger will provide the custom tune on your PCM), and with that, we were ready for some additional dyno runs. With more than a quarter tank of 93-octane fuel in the tank, and a fuel pressure gauge connected to the fuel rail to verify the fuel pressure remained between 55 and 60 psi, we ran the Hemi from 3,100 to 6,400 rpm several times. Just like the baseline runs, the runs were consistent and repeatable, but unlike the baseline runs, the 7 psi of boost pushed the numbers up greatly. The engine torque increased to 502 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm, and the engine horsepower jumped to 601 hp at 6400 rpm. The engine horsepower was still increasing when the rev limiter was engaged at 6,400 rpm. The torque increased 98 lb-ft over stock, and even better, the torque with the ProCharger supercharger was higher at all points of the run than the peak torque of the baseline. The horsepower increase was an incredible 175 hp on pump gas at the rear wheels.

If you’re looking for triple-digit increases in torque and horsepower for your late-model Hemi, it’s time to step up to a ProCharger supercharger. The performance numbers provided are excellent, while maintaining decent fuel mileage and civilized street manners on 91 or greater octane fuel. If your engine is already modified or the horsepower gain of the HO Intercooled System doesn’t meet your needs, ProCharger offers an intercooled Stage II supercharger system that’ll elevate the performance numbers of your Hemi into rarefied air. For a boost in your Hemi’s output, give the reps a call about which ProCharger supercharger system will best fit your needs.

Are you looking for more power for your 2018 6.4L Hemi? Is 600-plus horsepower not enough satisfy you? ProCharger has increased the power levels with the Stage II Dedicated Drive System and tuner kit for the 6.4L (392) Hemi. The installation of the ProCharger Stage II supercharger can push the horsepower to 800, 900, 1,000, or even over 1,200. The ProCharger Stage II includes an eight-rib dedicated drive system to provide maximum belt wrap to control belt slippage and a race intercooler upgrade. The HO bracket system fits ProCharger head units up to the F-1A-94 without the need to modify your car. Just like the HO system, the Stage II system if a fully turn key complete system that includes a fuel system and the benefits of a handheld tuner. If your Challenger has a Shaker hood, don’t worry, ProCharger has a system for your needs; your Shaker hood will remain in place and will bring in the much-desired cool air. Contact ProCharger for more information about the 2018 Stage II offerings.

The post Installing a ProCharger Supercharger on a Late-Model 6.4L Hemi appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

We discovered this Model A parked in the back of a barn, past the cows on one side, with cats snuggled against the old windows for warmth. It was covered in the patina that only comes from decades of sitting. The doors were off and the wheels had no tires, but all of its parts were still there, scattered around the barn. Even the four-cylinder engine looked as though it could spring to life with a little gas and some love.

The post Model A uncovered in a barn, sitting for decades appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

I’ll be honest, prior to this year, I wasn’t a fan of the Engine Masters Challenge. I had never been to the contest and wouldn’t have planned on going prior to joining HOT ROD. To me, it seemed to be theoretical exercise played out on a dyno stand. I wasn’t alone in that opinion; I’ve heard words to that effect from other people, too. Statements like, “You don’t race dynos!” echo from critics of an event like this or many of the engine tests we do on a dyno. Yes, that’s true, of course, but in the case of parts testing, an engine-dyno article is much more expeditious than testing the part(s) in a car at the track. It’s also a lot less expensive for us.

Maybe the problem is in the messaging. Engine Masters is like the ultimate parts-testing forum. It’s about wringing out as much power as you can from a certain engine family. This year’s two Y-blocks were a good case in point. Not at all familiar with this engine, I had to do a little research. Introduced in 1954 as a replacement to the Flathead, the first Y-block measured 239 ci and made just 130 hp. Mercury’s version debuted the following year; it displaced 265 inches, had a 7.5:1 compression ratio, and made 161 hp. Ultimately determined to be displacement limited, Ford superseded the Y-block with the FE series of big-blocks and the Windsor small-blocks. It’s a big lump of iron that couldn’t easily grow much bigger than the 312 ci it ended up at in 1956, where crosstown rivals Chevrolet and Chrysler could eventually make their small-blocks 50 to 70 ci bigger in a package that was smaller and lighter.

Looking at the Y-block in this context, it’s a marvel that Ted Eaton and Joe Craine were able to make 537 hp and 566 hp with the engines they brought to the competition. The fact that both blew head gaskets at those power levels shows how much they taxed the architecture of an engine that was never intended to be this big (403 ci and 375 ci, respectively) or make anywhere near as much power. The engineering spirit to extract every ounce of power out of an engine is what the naysayers should be paying attention to.

No, you can’t race on dynos, but by the same token, very few people would ever put a Y-block in a serious race car, either. Ted Eaton said his customers are all people with cars or trucks that originally came with a Y-block. So the next question is how many 1956 Thunderbird owners want a 500hp Y-block? Not many, I suspect, but I have no doubt they all appreciate that Ted or Joe could build them one if they wanted.

The post Shop Talk: The Engine Masters Challenge appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

There is no angel hair at Back To The 50’s. No velvet ropes and stanchions. No carpeted display areas or mirrors. Nobody goes home with a 3-foot-long cardboard check for $10,000 in prize money. In fact, there are no awards, trophies, plaques, or prizes at Back To The 50’s. There are street rods and street rodders—more of them than at any other enclosed event in America. In 2018, approximately 12,000 cars and trucks rolled into the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 45th annual party in St. Paul.

All those participants, combined with the commercial vendors, the Sunday swap meet crowd, and all those spectators, guarantee that for three days every summer, Back To The 50’s is basically the third largest city in Minnesota.

Back To The 50’s is not strictly limited to street rods. The show also welcomes customs, classic trucks, sports cars, Gassers, street cruisers, exotic cars, and a few that defy categories—as long as they are of 1964 and earlier vintage.

The 1964 cars and trucks that make up the newest participating vehicles were only 10 years old when the MSRA held the very first Back To The 50’s show back in 1974 in a shopping center parking lot. That premiere event, with approximately 150 vehicles, is a familiar part of Minnesota street rodding history now. It didn’t take long for the show to outgrow its original venue.

STREET RODDER was there in 2018, as we are every year, to take in all the fun and enjoy the cars, in addition to finding 10 outstanding rides for the Painless Performance Products/STREET RODDER Top 100 program and one Blue Oval vehicle for the Best Ford In A Ford program. Back To The 50’s is also a popular location for the STREET RODDER Road Tour every year.

Sunday Swap Meet
The swap meet is a one-day-only part of Back To The 50’s. For sellers, it’s a chance to unload some unfinished—or unstarted—project cars. For buyers, it’s a chance to find parts for a homebuilt project, or to find something they didn’t know they were looking for until they saw it on a table or on a trailer. For us, it’s a chance to see potential rods of the future. We hope the raw material in these photos will be finished cars someday, displayed at shows and driven on the street.

See much more swap meet treasure at hotrod.com/articles/back-50s-2018-swap-meet.

STREET RODDER Best Ford In A Ford
A Coyote-Powered, Homebuilt, Factory Five 1933 Roadster

When it comes to choosing Ford power for his street rod, Greg Root, our Best Ford in a Ford winner from Back To The 50’s, didn’t need persuading. Greg, from Lake Elmo, Minnesota, worked for Ford and Roush building prototype vehicles. His Factory Five 1933 Ford replica is the most recent of many Ford-powered FoMoCo vehicles he’s built and driven.

We encountered Greg’s Coyote-running roadster next to the Ford Performance Parts rig. With its pearl white ’glass body, contemporary wheel and tire combination, race-inspired cockpit, and modular engine, it’s a modern interpretation of a classic hot rod.

Greg likes Factory Five’s offerings and originally intended to build a 427 Cobra reproduction. Instead, he decided on the 1933 Hot Rod, which has a little more room inside. He said the styling and the fact that you don’t see many of them around, is part of the appeal.

Along with the body, Greg used Factory Five’s chassis setup, featuring a tubular frame, A-arm and coilover independent front suspension, and three-link rear suspension with coilovers. The Ford 8.8-inch rear with 3.86:1 gears and brakes came from a 1989 Mustang. Wide 255- and 305-series ZR-rated Nitto tires roll on 18- and 20-inch Super Nova 5 wheels from American Racing—complementing the contemporary classic theme of the roadster.

The interior features Factory Five’s race bucket seats and banjo-style steering wheel on an ididit column. Greg built the center console and dash and added the Racepak digital instrument display, push-button ignition switch, Vintage Air controls and louvers, USB ports, and Pioneer Mixtrax AV receiver.

Greg pulled the Ford 5.0L Coyote and six-speed from a 2014 Mustang. Troy Knutson fabricated custom mounts to perch the engine and transmission on the Factory Five ’rails, and DP Performance used SCT Performance tuning hardware to get the engine running perfectly. An active online community of Factory Five owners helped with suggestions when questions came up.

Greg enjoys showing and driving the roadster—but what he enjoys even more is turning wrenches in his basement shop. His mind is already onto the next project car. Maybe a GT40. Maybe with a Coyote engine. Definitely Ford in a Ford.

See more of Greg Root’s Factory Five 1933 Ford at hotrod.com/articles/2018-back-50s-best-ford-ford.

Painless Performance Products Presents STREET RODDER Top 100
Tech Tip:
EFI Injectors
If you have acquired an engine that has sat for 6 months or longer, be sure to remove the injectors and have them tested before attempting to start the engine, as the reformulated fuels of today will cause the injector solenoids to stick closed.

1932 Ford Roadster | Dennis Van Kleek & Kay Larson | Vadnais Heights, MN

Dennis Van Kleek and Kay Larson wanted a timeless, unique Deuce, and this Dearborn Deuce roadster, built by Jim Petrykowski at Metal Fab, is it. Tangerine Pearl paint, dark tan custom upholstery, and Budnik wheels enhance the appearance. A carbed 351W engine supplies power. The car has covered 24,000 miles across 19 states. Vintage Air and Classic Instruments add to the success of those road trips.

1950 Mercury coupe | Les & Sue Severin | Hutchinson, MN

Les Severin found his Merc in a junkyard 36 years ago. Inspired by the famous Bettencourt Merc from the ’50s, its custom cues include the healthy chop, radiused corners, 1951 Merc front bumper, 1953 Kaiser rear bumper guard, 1951 Kaiser grille, vinyl tuck ’n’ roll, and wide whites on Wheelsmith wheels. The paint is Oriental Blue paint over white. The engine is a 4V 455 Olds.

1941 Willys coupe | Mike Hughes | Faribault, MN

A Willys Gasser is the car everyone wants, Mike Hughes says. His is packed with a blown 410ci Hemi. Mickey Thompson rubber rolls on 15-inch five-spokes. The vintage drag race interior features fiberglass buckets, a Grant steering wheel, and Stewart-Warner gauges. Creative Metal and Vescio’s Restoration participated in the project. House Of Kolor provided the Candy Red paint.

1947 Chevy Fleetline | Wayne & Pat Hassemer | Bloomer, WI

Wayne Hassemer bought three rusting Chevys to create this metallic green beauty. Custom mods include Frenched headlights, V-butted windshield, shaved sheetmetal, and a relocated “foot scraper” plate. A Demon carb tops the Chevy 406 small-block. Interior features VDO gauges, a Premier stereo, and lot of Ultraleather. The 15-year build was interrupted by family life, but now it’s driving time.

1949 International pickup | Joseph Ackerley | Forest Lake, MN

This International sat in a Minnesota body shop for 20 years before being built in Joseph Ackerley’s home shop. He shaved the door handles and driprails, welded the hood into a single piece, and added a Chevy box. A 383 stroker Chevy is fed by a Demon carburetor. Tan leather and vinyl complements all that Viper Red paint. VDO gauges and a Pioneer audio system are cab upgrades.

1947 Cadillac convertible | Jack DeJoy | Prior Lake, MN

Jack DeJoy built the 1947 Cadillac he had always wanted with a pancaked hood, filled cowl, shaved handles, and bright paint. The owner-designed interior wears leather-covered seats facing a 1949 Cadillac dash. It’s a Cadillac underhood, too, with a 500ci injected engine. Colorado Custom wheels are wrapped in Hankook radials. Impressive work from this 80-year-old street rodder.

1959 Chevy Impala | Kyle Severin | Alexandria, MN

The Crown Sapphire 1959 Impala was stock and partially restored before Kyle Severin rebuilt it as a ’60s-inspired restomod cruiser. The original-looking interior is updated with Vintage Air A/C, Dakota Digital gauges, and modern audio components. The tri-power 409 is packed with plenty of hi-po internals. Chrome reverse Wheelsmith wheels are matched with Diamond Back whitewalls.

1932 Ford pickup | Mac McCullough | Wayzata, MN

Mac McCullough’s truck was original, numbers-matching, rust-free, and had been apart for years when he began building it into a ’60s-style hot rod. A Corvette 327/365 engine with camel hump heads features Porter mufflers to maintain the vintage-style Mac wanted. The interior is distinguished by a pleated vinyl–covered bench, an original 1932 steering wheel, and Classic Instruments gauges.

1964 Chevy C10 | Stack Calhoun | Forest Lake, MN

Nuff Sedd Customs honored Stack Calhoun’s request to build something “timeless” and “classy;” ’70s-era C10 olive green paint and cherry bedwood add to the exterior appeal. Two-tone pleated vinyl covers the bench seat. A 450hp 355 Chevy moves the C10 down the road at 2,000 rpm at 75 mph with the A/C and stereo blasting. “It sounds like a muscle car but drives like a Cadillac,” Stack says.

1934 Ford Fordor Sedan | Gary & Lisa Beskau | Hastings, MN

Gary and Lisa Beskau commissioned their son-in-law Greg Spakow of Master Blastings, to undertake the frame-off rebuild of their Fordor. Body mods include one-piece front fenders and running boards, filled roof, and hood louvers—and Cinnamon Candy paint over copper. Suede and leather bench seats fill the interior. A 450hp Chevy 350 is dressed up with an Edelbrock air cleaner and valve covers.

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