Tabla de contenidos para February 2023 en Hot Rod

Tom Bailey and engine builder and co-pilot Steve Morris both agree—this is the most brutal HOT ROD Drag Week they’ve ever completed as Bailey secured his fifth Unlimited title with a 6.58 average in a rain-shortened week. This week was supposed to be a 5-second affair, but it turned into a fight for street car survival for Bailey and Morris in Sick Seconds 2.0, a 1969 Camaro that is purpose-built for drag-and-drive events. It looked promising when Bailey rifled off a 6.03 at 249 mph in the opening round at World Wide Technology Raceway. However, a post-run evaluation proved to be costly. The Steve Morris Racing SMX billet engine had pinched a piston ring. The engine was healthy enough to make the drive to Indianapolis and he limped it into…

HOT ROD Garage co-host Alex Taylor and Sweden’s Michael Westberg are the latest to join a list that includes legends such as Larry Larsen, Tom Bailey, Jeff Lutz, Joe Barry, Mikael Borggren, and many more. The rules are simple: Any competitor that runs over 200 mph (only after Day One) and completes Drag Week is eligible for entry into the prestigious club. Alex Taylor drove the family’s 1955 Chevy 210 to a high speed of 203.12 on Wednesday during the stop at Byron Dragway. She was competing in the Ultimate Iron class, which requires a 3,000-pound minimum weight, and lightweight body components are limited to bumpers, hoods, decklids, rear hatches, fenders, and doors. The body must also retain the factory profile and strictly prohibits any cutting or chopping. Last year,…

Going fast on stock suspension and small tires has been the cool thing to do at these types of street car events since they went mainstream 30 years ago in Memphis. Today, those types of cars live in the Super Street grouping. The chassis and body modifications must adhere to a strict set of rules, and the powerplant under the hood places the vehicle in one of two categories: small-block or big-block. The class shed its naturally aspirated divisions, as those went into the All Motor class for 2022. The Super Street Small-Block class had a lot of chatter going into the event with a bunch of Mustangs making some noise. In the end, Kyle Bemount took the podium with his 2000 Pontiac Firebird. The co-owner of Scram Speed set…

Much of the attention Drag Week gets is from the on-track action, but the real test of the cars and their drivers comes on the road. Cars built for maximum acceleration and minimal run time tend to do very poorly when asked to idle in traffic, cruise down the interstate, and navigate long distances. Cooling systems are taxed, valvetrain and fuel pumps are pushed to the limit, and the drivers’ nerves are frayed from the constant thrum of loud exhaust, cramped interiors, and long hours behind the wheel. This year’s drive was no different. Totaling almost exactly 900 miles, our journey took us from St. Louis, to Indianapolis, then on to Byron and Cordova, Illinois, finally ending up back in St. Louis. The longest stretch was the 287-mile drive between…

The Mustang Cobra Jet has a history of dominating the dragstrip since 1968, and the modern program continues that tradition. So, when Ford revealed the 2024 Mustang and announced its intention to compete in IMSA, WEC, and Le Mans with a GT3-spec race car, we asked, “What about a Cobra Jet model?” The question made a few unnamed insiders a little uncomfortable, so we took it upon ourselves to give the Mustang community a vision of what the 2024 Mustang Cobra Jet could be. Our imaginations didn’t have to run too wild—the graphics are the iconic Cobra Jet snake on the rear quarter-panels, and the wheel/tire package is carried over from the 50th Anniversary 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet. These renderings leave us with little doubt that Ford should be forging…

This is the fourth build in our Car Craft Video series, a project that started nearly one year ago. We resurrected a long-running print title, Car Craft, and relaunched it as a video build series that runs on YouTube. Our first build was a 1972 Challenger that we swapped a Gen III Hemi into. From there, we took on another LS swap, this time it was a 6.0L truck engine into a 2008 BMW 3 Series wagon. After that, we built a ’67 Mustang coupe that we rescued from the junkyard. We got that running and driving with a fresh 351 Windsor and a T5 transmission. That brings us up to our current build, a GM G-body. The concept for this build started over dinner at a restaurant near QA1’s…

There are approximately a dozen different drag-and-drive-type events around the world and one of the longest-running competitions is Sweden’s Street Week. We’ve seen several Swedish racers make the trip across the pond for the eBay Motors Powers HOT ROD Drag Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, so a strong Swedish presence pre-pandemic wasn’t unusual. The latest to do so is Michael Westberg and his turbocharged S10. The S10 captured Sweden’s Street Week Max Outlaw wins in 2019 and 2021 and has run a best of 6.62 at over 200 mph, fast enough for him and his team to take aim at Drag Week for the first time. They shipped the truck to the United States leaving it with longtime friend and noted small-tire racer Mikael Borggren. You might recognize Mikael…

The term Pro Street means different things to different people. Nearly 40 years ago, it became a popular build style on the cruisin’ and car show circuits with a typical over-the-top ’80s flair. As HOT ROD introduced its Fastest Street Car competition in 1992, the focus shifted from the showgrounds to the dragstrip. For Drag Week, the concept continues, and the rules require mostly-steel cars that are factory appearing and carry big rear tires. It is broken into two classes, one for nearly unlimited power-adder combinations and another for naturally aspirated. The Pro Street Power Adder class saw New York’s Glen Hunter, Jr. take another category victory with his gorgeous 1956 Chevy. The twin-turbocharged combination is normally a bottom-7-second player on drag-and-drive competitions, however traction issues kept his four-day average…

New for 2022 is the All Motor category, which combines the two former Super Street Naturally Aspirated divisions with the Modified Naturally Aspirated class, creating a single, small-tire arena that has two divisions, Small-Block and Big-Block. All eyes were on Jason Tabscott in All Motor Small-Block with his iconic 1970 Chevy Camaro, a car he’s used to win multiple Drag Week competitions. In fact, the Indiana native almost didn’t even make it this year when an engine issue was found during the initial start-up. A rally on social media helped secure the parts needed to fix a rare problem, and Tabscott spent several sleepless nights making repairs. The effort was worth it as he completed the win, earning another victory, and did so with career-best performances. Tabscott’s 8.6969 average came…

The Spirit of Drag Week Award goes to the driver that best exemplifies the spirit of the event. But what is the spirit of an event like Drag Week? Is it Tom Bailey pulling two all-nighters in a row to stay in competition? Or Bryant Goldstone literally blowing his own door off during his record-setting, career-best pass just one year after crashing and almost deciding to stop racing for good? Yes. The Spirit of Drag Week is also the desire to get out there and participate, no matter what; the willingness to help another racer out, despite not having any backup for yourself; the gumption to sleep in the back of a pickup truck because that was the only way to afford taking more than a week off from work…

The notion of built versus bought is a contentious subject that can lead to heated debates in the car community. Either way, Bob and Preston Folkestad, the father-and-son team at Creative Werks, have taken the built side to a new level. Their 1988 Mustang GT was built around Ford’s new 7.3-liter Godzilla engine, and Foxzilla, as they call it, has morphed into a monster worthy of the name. They use this radical car as a test bed for developing parts for this new engine platform. Along the way, they have utilized the talent of local experts in the Des Moines, Iowa, area and sought feedback from the racing community the Folkestads have been a part of for many years. They started with a $1,000 rusted-out Mustang, and within 10 months…

People have been racing on the beach more or less since the invention of the automobile. The Race of Gentlemen, the event that relaunched modern beach racing in 2012, can trace its origins back to 1905 and a 1-mile race in Cape May, New Jersey, that included Louis Chevrolet and Henry Ford. While Cape May was regarded as the “finest racing beach” in the world, The Race of Gentlemen relocated from Asbury Park to nearby Wildwood for its flatter, wider beaches and legendary boardwalk. Over in the UK, there was Pendine, and in Denmark, Danes got their start on August 23, 1919, when Sven Simmelkær organized the first Danish event, but only after Fanø beach had been cleared of World War I mines. In 1923, driving his famous Bluebird, Sir…

We love sexy, big-power engines as much as anyone, but many of us need to work with real-world budgets that preclude building 1,000hp mills. Still, if you shop right and realize how much fun 500 hp can be, you can end up with a killer engine at a reasonable price. Such is the case with this 383ci small-block Chevy that Engine Masters’ Steve Brule recently tested. Sources Aeromotive; 913.647.7300; aeromotiveinc.com Air Flow Research; 661.257.8124; airflowresearch.com Comp Cams; 800.999.0853; compcams.com Eagle Specialty Products; 662.796.7373; eaglerod.com Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com Lucas Oil; 800.342.2512; lucasoil.com MSD; 866.464.6553; holley.com Nitrous Outlet; 254.848.4300; nitrousoutlet.com Summit Racing; 800.230.3030; summitracing.com SuperFlow Dynamometers; 262.252.4301; superflow.com Weiand; 866.464.6553; holley.com Westech Performance Group; 951.685.4767; westechperformance.com…

There are a lot of things that factor into the decision of what picture goes on the cover of the magazine. You’d think that the best picture of the issue automatically gets the cover, but that’s rarely the case. A magazine cover is as much a marketing piece as it is a piece of art. You need to hook the reader’s attention, get them to pick the magazine off the newsstand, want it enough to buy it, and eventually become a subscriber. A cover picture needs to tell the story visually, as well as complement the words we put with it. This year, we’re running two different cover pictures, depending on how you get HOT ROD. Tom Bailey’s Camaro is on the newsstand version, while subscribers get a picture of…

While he was covering the 1955 Bonneville National Speed Trials, Petersen Publishing photographer Bob D’Olivo ran across Gary Guinn’s yellow ’33 Ford coupe. The car’s proportions and Von Dutch pinstriping made it outstanding in its own right, but what really caught D’Olivo’s eye—and assured the car of a feature story—was its engine. “On the uptake among engine-swap circles is the new Chevy V8,” read the opening to “Chevord,” the coupe’s feature in the January 1956 HRM. Even at this early stage of the small-block’s development, what made the swap attractive was the engine’s output relative to its size. “Small in outward dimensions (almost identical in weight and size to the Ford flathead),” the Chevy V8 was “capable of high-power output despite its comparatively low displacement of 265 cubic inches.” The…

The Ultimate Iron category has grown into a fan favorite for good reason: The vehicles fit a genre that is quite popular and very relatable to enthusiasts around the world. This year it was all eyes on HOT ROD Garage co-host Alex Taylor and the ultra-quick Bryant Goldstone. Each brought a unique steed to the party. Taylor was wheeling the family’s 1955 Chevy 210, complete with patina and an expertly crafted chassis under the mostly steel body. Goldstone sat behind the wheel of his refurbished 1973 AMC Javelin. We call it “refurbished” because Goldstone put the car on its lid during the 2021 running of HOT ROD Drag Week, prompting a completely new skin and updated chassis. The repairs took a full year, and he made his first runs since…

We’d be remiss if we didn’t admit that we had Mikael Borggren as the favorite to win this year’s Modified category. How could we not, after his strong performance last year, followed by finishing Sick Week with a 6.91 average, and nabbing the Small Tire victory at Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge earlier this year? But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as Borggren struggled with traction in the turbo-LS-powered Volvo wagon. Borggren’s issues left the door open for Brent Sinclair and his flawless 1999 Chevy Camaro, which operates out of the Hargett Automotive & Performance shop. He posted solid 7.60-7.70 runs all week long, and his quickest hit was a 7.63 at 181 mph during the Indy stop on Drag Week 2022. His final four-day average worked out to…

Street Race has the tightest rules of all Drag Week categories, and it does not permit any timeslip faster than 8.500 seconds due to the disallowance of a Funny Car cage. That cap has turned Street Race into one of the most exciting and challenging classes on tour over the years. There are four Street Race categories, separated by big- or small-block, and naturally aspirated or power-adder—all running on 11.5-inch, or narrower, tires. Street Race Small-Block Power-Adder always generates the most buzz and this year was no exception as the top three cars finished within 0.020 seconds of each other. In fact, the top seven competitors all had a timeslip that was 8.520 or quicker (with 8.500 hard stop) and it was the consistency that separated the top three finishers…

In what’s become a Drag Week tradition, photographer Wes Allison spends a portion of his time shooting portraits of the competitors during HOT ROD Drag Week. In these pictures, you see the tension, drama, fatigue, and elation that comes from competing in an event like this. We always have a dedicated group of racers who run in Drag Week—you can’t participate in an event like this without being totally committed. The week puts racers through a range of emotions and the long days can put a strain on the heartiest competitor. Here, Wes expertly captures all of that through a series of portraits. Study the pictures and you can almost feel the drama yourself.…

Some might call it evolution while others might argue adaptation, but either way, today’s classic trucks are nothing like they were envisioned to be when built over 50 years ago. Back then, trucks like the Chevy C10 or its GMC cousin were designed and built by GM to work hard, haul cargo, and generally lead a tough life before being parked out back and replaced with a new truck. Some older trucks did get hot-rodded, but it’s a relatively recent phenomenon that has these classic trucks of the ’60s and ’70s being made over into corner-carving muscle trucks. Such is the case of Danny Cartwright’s 1968 GMC truck, which is being used in a way never envisioned by the engineers who designed it. Cartwright has had many 1967-1972 trucks over…

It is hard to dispute the popularity of swapping an LS small-block into a Fox Mustang, no matter how much it hurts the faithful Blue Oval enthusiast. There are, however, plenty of all-blue engine-swap options available that can power your beloved Fox-body ponycar. One of the most popular is adding a Coyote 5.0 to the beloved third-generation performance vehicle, as evidenced by the turnout at cruise nights and dragstrips across the country and the burgeoning aftermarket support for this swap. WHY THE COYOTE 5.0? The Coyote 5.0 engine is a popular choice for a variety of reasons, from junkyard availability to the fact that it’s an easy and affordable way to add big power to your street car. If you’ve been living off the grid for the last decade, here…

It is widely known that diesel engine oils contain more zinc (ZDDP) than regular passenger car motor oils, but does that make a diesel engine oil (HD) a good choice for hot rods or race cars? To answer that question, we need to understand the other differences between diesel oils, passenger car oils, and high-performance oils. Let’s talk about zinc. When we say zinc in reference to motor oil, we are referring to the compound zinc dialkyldithiophosphates. That’s hard to say or spell, so we just call it zinc or ZDDP. Either way, it is a powerful anti-wear additive and antioxidant. However, not all ZDDP is the same. What? Yep, those brilliant chemists at the oil companies can fine-tune the way ZDDP works in the engine. That might sound weird,…