The first weekend in January might seem early to begin the 2019 event season in the muscle car hobby, but it seems to suit Mecum’s auction schedule quite well. The Silver Spur arena in Florida’s Osceola Heritage Park bridged the first two weekends of January with 10 days of sales. Hundreds of muscle cars were offered at this event, ranging from survivor-status machines and pristine restorations to drivers that were bought right. As always, this event helps provide a solid barometer for what is going on with market demand and values as we open the current year. Prices noted will include buyer’s premiums.

Snake Bit
By far the most exciting sales moment of the event was Friday’s offering of the legendary one-off 1967 Shelby Super Snake Mustang. The fastback had been constructed using a GT40-derived 427ci racing engine for Goodyear to use in research tire testing. It had eventually been sold for $5,000 to the public through a Shelby franchise dealer after the tire job was completed and the company had returned the special pony back to Shelby American for refreshing. Well preserved, this Ford has been lightly restored to its as-released-to-Goodyear condition, and the one-of-one supercar had previously established the top price for any Mustang, selling for $1 million at a Mecum event several years ago. With changes in the market during the ensuing time, could the Super Snake strike again? Oh, yeah.

Bidding climbed rapidly to $800,000, then $900,000, and the reserve came off as the $1-million threshold was crossed. Two bidders then went hard after it at $100,000 a pop, finally settling at hammer time to a monster $2.2 million.

Indeed, Shelbys were strong at the event, with a 1965-to-1966 G.T. 350 carryover model bringing home $440,000, and a documented 1967 G.T. 500 dealer demonstrator going to its next home thanks to $330,000. In all three cases, provenance and singular-example conditioning was key, factors that tend drive the top of every established field of collecting. It was remarked to me by one Shelby-experienced onlooker that Shelbys are unique among American builders, with an international appeal thanks to Carroll Shelby’s racing prowess, AC relationship, and personality. Literally all competition Shelby cars have pushed up in value over the years, and cars produced by Shelby American before Ford’s takeover of the franchise seem to hold a special appeal regardless, though the 1968-1970 models remain in solid demand as well.

COPOs and Hemis: Reality is Selling Cars
There is an adage about the skittishness of the stock market: When people sense it is unstable, it pushes up prices in other fields, including collectible cars. While the stock market has seen rapid gyrations during the past year, many still feel the fundamentals are solid, so money has remained there to an extent. For people who purchased top-dollar cars during the previous uncertainty, the current environment might, frankly, not be conducive to doubling your money like the past owner of the Super Snake did, and that fact is a result of market forces outside of the hobby.

Hemi E-body hardtops were all bidding up to somewhere under the $300,000 mark, and COPO Camaros were likewise. Selling prices were in the $160,000-$220,000 range here, with several nice cars changing hands and several others going home with their owners. The big exception was a beautiful ZL1 Camaro in silver, number 15 of the 69 built and once raced out of the Dick Harrell team stables by Jim Leatherman. It crossed the block late on Saturday to sell with a $495,000 final price. The top two Yenko sales were a Daytona Yellow 1969 Camaro automatic (one of 30 built) and a well-restored 1966 Yenko Stinger with a Phase III-style race engine, both at $220,000, the later at far over its estimate. Several other 1969 9561 COPOs were no-sales at $200,000-plus, with a 1969 SS/RS in Hugger Orange with houndstooth being our favorite.

Hemi B-bodies have also settled down, with a one-of-one loaded 1971 Hemi Charger in strong at $209,000 leading the pack. Engine expert Larry Shepard brought in his 4,200-mile, one-family 1971 Hemi Road Runner to see a $176,000 final sale, and a beautiful 1970 Hemi Coronet Super Bee, bronze four-speed with matched bronze bench-seat interior, brought $159,500, giving the market a real world price on these models when coupled to the $137,000 1970 R/T sale last year. And speaking of big Hemi cars, one of MCR’s mechanical alumni, the former Roy Badie Hemi GTX featured in the magazine’s very first supercar shootout during the 1980s, showed up here and hammered sold for $110,000. A number of other Hemi cars were under the $100,000 threshold, and some went into Mecum’s The Bid Goes On when block prices did not meet the expectation of sellers.

While these cars are considered blue chip models, we would say there does appear to be some softening in this area from the highs of previous years. While a quarter-million is never “pocket change,” for those who are well-heeled to play at this level, it is possible to buy some very good cars, keeping in mind that issues of provenance and condition are always the best indicators of future strength.

Fresh Air
While big-block Corvette roadsters led the pack among the big dollar post-1960 sales, there were a number of valuable convertibles among the 816 droptop examples here in Florida. Top bid for any muscle version was $375,000 for a remarkable Berger-sold 1970 Chevelle LS6, which was turned down by the seller. That put a 1970 ’Cuda, U-code 440-4BBL with factory A/C and elastomeric bumpers, in as the top muscle-era sale at $165,000. Of the 36 droptops whose price topped $100,000 and sold, four were GTOs, two were Mopars, one an LS6 Chevrolet, and one more a Shelby; the rest were not muscle cars, though a number of Bid Goes On cars hit the $170,000 mark or over.

There were also some excellent deals if you have been in the market for “fresh air” in the cockpit. Top deal in our opinion was a scarce yet solid 1970 Olds Cutlass Supreme Indy 500 pace car edition, believed to be a small-block, that sold for $27,500. A number of other 4-4-2s, Chevelles, and performance Mopar 440ci converts were sold for less than $75,000. Topping $100,000 were two of the aforementioned GTOs, both from the special BMF Collection that ran on Friday, one a black 1969 Ram Air IV at $132,000 and the other a green 1971 455 HO at $110,000.

This is a marketplace that is perhaps a little more mercurial at the moment, and if you have been wanting one, shopping could prove productive. There are deals out there. One noticeable car that did not sell was a real 1967 SS427 Impala, maroon with matched red interior and a rare L72/four-speed/console combination, which climbed to an even $100,000 before rolling away unsold. In this case, we can understand why that owner might have wanted to wait. A very nice piece.

Competition – Hesitation Kills
Tim Wellborn later joked his phone was ringing within moments after buying a 1971 Road Runner for $44,000. It was a Wedge-powered version in Petty Blue. With 43s on the doors and Richard Petty on the hammer in the announcing stand as it crossed the block, this display car from the Petty Garage was one of several vehicles from King Richard’s stables, which ranged from 1950s GMs to late-model machines, that sold at no reserve. If you want to buy a vintage race car, this is the season for it, as prices on factory specials and vintage racers alike are off of their highs of a decade ago. Top charger here was a documented 1964 Ford T-bolt that thundered to $247,500 on Saturday, while the top seller not considered among the “factory drag” models was the Chrisman Bros. legendary land speed car from 1954, which had raced up to a big $484,000 final total an hour later.

GM’s Other Guys and AMC
Buick sales were led off by a classic from the 1950s at over $250,000, with a GSX from the BMF collection hammering home to a $126,500 finale. A 1970 Stage 1 was hammered “Sold!” for $39,600 on Friday, while several others did not meet reserves. In the Olds category, the top seller in muscle was lot S240, which garnered $99,000 for a 1970 4-4-2 convertible. A 1969 H/O hit $90,200; and the top 10 in the Olds category overall were mainly convertibles, led again by a big 1950s-era model at close to a quarter-million. A 1967 4-4-2 on Wednesday was well-bought at $17,600, and several nice 350ci converts under $30,000 were sold as well.

Pontiac, on the other hand, led with muscle, with an unrestored Ram Air III 1969 Trans Am at $165,000, followed by 10 other Ponchos at more than $95,000. A bid of $140,250 moved a 1-of-14 four-speed, A/C-equipped 1970 Judge convertible to a new home, while $101,750 was paid for a 1971 455 HO hardtop. A number of buyers did hold their reserves, but $18,700 was the magic number for a rebuilt 1970 GTO during the first day of the event. We also felt $34,100 for a truly beautiful 1967 428ci Gran Prix convertible in red and white was money well spent. Pontiac remains one of the better marques to have solid interest over multiple years between 1960 and 1980; top of the 1970s TAs was a 1976 50th Anniversary model with excellent originality and provenance that sold on Thursday for $110,000.

Of the 3,500-plus cars here, just 15 were AMCs, with the top three sellers being a 1970 Rebel Machine at $67,100 and two 1969 SC/Ramblers that sold back-to-back on Friday for $44,000 apiece. This is one area where it appears demand is not driving pricing at present.

Mopes and Mercs
Of course, among the many muscle cars here were cars from Ford and Chrysler as well.  Of 120 Dodges with results, 77 sold and probably one of the event’s best buys was a final Sunday morning no-reserve 1964 Polara 500 convertible, a solid mild custom with a poly-type 318, that hammered sold for $7,700. Two 2018 Demons and a rare 1962 Max Wedge joined Dodge Hemi cars in the $100,000 Sold! Club before the weekend ended. For Plymouth fans, with 55 sold of 83 results showing, it was a tie between a 1965 426 Fury and a lightly-modified 1967 Barracuda tying at $15,950 that we thought were well-bought muscle. With the exception of the blue ’Cuda convertible already mentioned, only multi-carb models were over $100,000 in the Mayflower tribe, with six 426 Hemi cars joined by one M-code 1969 6BBL ’Runner and a 1961 Fury convertible with long-rams.

If FoMoCo blue is in your veins, there were more than 600 to choose from here. Muscle came on strong starting with the T-bolt, followed by a prototype 1970 Boss 429 King Cobra NASCAR special at $192,500. If we had been shopping bargains, it was a 427-powered 1967 Ranchero at $11,000 on the first day that would have been our pick. Of the Mercs, the 428 Cougar we featured on a Facebook post ended at $110,000, then a big drop to $40,700 for a modified 1964 K-code Cyclone hardtop. A second 289 model, a 1964 convertible, was our buy of the week at $12,100. Rare pre-1960 Mercury models were stronger than muscle-era stuff this year, and Ford street rods built right were also in the top 10 from Dearborn.

Conclusion
The year is young, and if any thing is certain for 2019, it is that nothing is set in stone. So long as the overall U.S. economy remains strong, Mecum and the other auction houses will continue to find new homes for cars of owners who want to sell. Moreover, there is no lack of buyers for either the rarest or the reasonably-priced vehicles. This modest level of adjustment is healthy for the hobby, and it will be interesting to see where things pan out as the year goes on.

The post $2.2 Million Shelby Super Snake Makes Headlines at 2019 Mecum Kissimmee Auction appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Now called the Grand National Roadster Show, it is the oldest hot rod car show in the world. This time let’s take a look at the psychedelic period of the 1970s, and the transition to some degree of normalcy during the 1980s. In 1973, the Roadster Show was put up for sale. Al and Mary Slonaker decided to retire to Arizona due to Al’s health issues. A trio of new show owners brought in the International Show Car Association, which caused the proverbial NorCal show car diehards to wonder what was going to happen to their beloved GNRS. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Into the 1970s the Roadster Show continued to grow. The quality of the vehicles, both show cars and street rods, also improved dramatically. The Slonakers, with the help of Bob and Rosemary Accosta, were able to attract and personally invite only the best vehicles. They spent the six months prior to the Roadster Shows yearly February opening scouring the other West Coast shows and rod runs looking for quality vehicles for the GNRS. That combination, along with a variety of daily-driver style hot rods and roadsters, kept the shows roots visible while showcasing the latest in creative custom show cars.

The year was 1964. A young street rodder from South San Francisco had an idea: sell an affordable Ford T-roadster in kit form that could be the platform for a budget-minded, home-built street rod. While his wife Sue filled mail orders for decals and tee shirts from a small office behind Champion Speed Shop, Andy Brizio and his buddy Pete Ogden began modifying the Dragmaster T-bucket chassis (Andy was a Dragmaster dealer) to create the Instant T. The kit sold for $595 and you could buy everything else needed to build an Instant T out of the Champion catalog, after Andy and engine builder Cub Barnett bought Champion from Jim McLennan. Did you ever wonder why so many of the first Andy’s Instant T cars had small-block Chevrolet engines with blowers? Credit that also to Cub Barnett.

In 1968, Andy entered Instant T number one in the Grand National Roadster Show to compete for the AMBR award. Originally dressed in purple metalflake it now sported a bright red livery. He didn’t win. Close friend and master painter Art Himsl told Andy, “Your car is too plain”. The red paint with pinstriping by Tommy the Greek covered a very nice, very drivable and very detailed street roadster that really didn’t stand out in a crowd. That began a two-year rebuild that would totally transform the look of the T roadster, and set the car show crowd in its proverbial ear.

The summer of 1967 brought nearly 100,000 outsiders, activists, and dreamers to San Francisco. These young people traveled from far and wide to join a community of artists, musicians and poets who would influence popular culture through music and art. They protested war with peace and love; and ushered in an era of greater connectivity. This gathering became known as the Summer of Love.

So what has this gathering of hippies and young protestors got to do with the Roadster Show? The Summer of Love in San Francisco was an event that spurned a cultural movement that would have a worldwide influence on young people. Many custom car owners and builders seized some of the hippie glamour or  psychedelic vibe. One definition of the word psychedelic actually hits home in the custom car world. It reads, ‘denoting or having an intense, vivid color or a swirling abstract pattern. synonyms: colorful, chromatic, multicolored, vivid, abstract’. Paint jobs on hot rods and vans became more psychedelic with wild graphics including murals and outrageous colors. Suddenly custom painters had a new palette of ideas from which to draw inspiration.

Evidently, the 1970 GNRS judges were also impressed with the new radical psychedelic look of the Brizio roadster. It was awarded the AMBR award in 1970. Extreme detailing, hidden wiring, a 4-71 blown and chromed small-block, all complemented with an outrageous 27 color, multi-ribbon Himsl paint job that blew everyone away. Credit for the design of the paint job was shared by Art Himsl and his wife Ellen.

The year 1972 began a transition period for the Roadster Show. Twenty-plus years had taken a toll on Al Slonakers’ health and the decision was made to sell the show. Midwest show promoter and well-known custom car builder Darryl Starbird flew to Scottsdale to meet with the Slonakers. In a recent discussion with this writer, Starbird remembered, “The terms and the price were agreed upon by both parties; before Al told me he needed the entire purchase price up front. I was doing 12 other shows in various parts of the country so start-up money was tight. I then contacted friend and street rodder Bill Roach, who owned the Budget Rent-A-Car franchise in Oakland. Bill told me that he would invest but only as a silent partner.”

A second meeting with the Slonakers resulted in Al throwing Darryl yet another curve ball. “Al insisted that the new owner or one of the new owners be a show promoter from Northern California. Slonaker suggested that I contact Harold Bagdasarian, producer of the Sacramento Autorama.”said Darryl. Harold Bagdasarian, or Baggie as he was known to the NorCal car community, agreed to be the third partner but he had no time to be other than a silent one. He told Starbird that he was devoting full time to his lighting business. After a short time, Bagdasarian surprised Darryl when he suddenly sold his lighting business and told Starbird he was now a working partner. Darryl added, “Baggie was a very vocal working partner. Roach then became a referee, a position he was not comfortable with.”

“After a year, Bill (Roach) sold out his share, half to me and half to Baggie”. The next 14 years were not easy on either of the partners. Starbird wanted to expand the show to include the main arena floor of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, as well as adding live entertainment, more cars, celebrities and a new judging system (more on this later). This formula had worked very well for Starbird in the Midwest. Baggie was not totally sold on some of the ideas.

Darryl continues, “On the advice of my lawyer, I attempted to sell my half of the show to Baggie, at a fair price while knowing that he could not meet my price”. Don Tognotti, a local Sacramento speed shop owner and friend of Bagdasarian, entered the picture. “Tognotti bought my half of the show at the price that I quoted to Baggie, and I was out. I loved the show and was very sad that it worked out the way it did.” To this day, Darryl Starbird, at the young age of 84, and his wife Donna still produce very successful annual car shows in the Midwest.

After celebrating its 25^th anniversary in 1973, the 1974 Grand National Roadster show opened its doors with new owners, new judging rules and a lot of controversy. The International Show Car Association, or I.S.C.A, was formed in 1963 to act as the sanctioning body for the competition at custom car and hot rod shows, while actually not producing any of the indoor shows itself. Its purpose was to oversee the competition at each event, supervise the judging staff, keep track of exhibitor points, and manage the Show Car series championship.

Today, I.S.C.A.-sanctioned events are produced throughout the United States, from coast to coast, and in parts of Canada. With over 350 classifications, the competition covers just about any type of vehicle including: hot rods, customs, trucks, street machines/competition cars, sports cars, sport compacts, bikes and restored vehicles.

So how did this new association with a nationwide governing body affect the Grand National Roadster Show? In the February 1974 issue of Rod Action magazine, this writer and RA Editor, the late LeRoi “Tex” Smith, broached the subject of the new Grand National Roadster Show. Since one of the shows’ new owners was Darryl Starbird, whose Midwest shows were already part of the I.S.C.A. family, bringing the GNRS into the mix seemed only natural. This did not sit well with the NorCal show community. For example, the new rules classified roadster pickups as roadsters, but touring cars were not roadsters. There were many more classes in the I.S.C.A’s program which made it difficult for many show entrants to find the right fit for their entry. Accusations of empty engine blocks, questionable driveability and a mantra of if it don’t go, chrome it abounded. The GNRS had a history of being a showcase for NorCal builders to display new ideas and innovation in street driven custom vehicles. Receiving judging points for the amount of chrome on a car drew the ire of many West Coast rodders.

So what has happened since the GNRS became an I.S.C.A. show? This writer has been a GNRS regular since 1962, missing only a couple of shows during the 1980s. As with any significant annual event/competition, changes are inevitable, both good and bad. The GNRS has had its share of highs and lows. More significant is the fact that it has survived. Like street rodding it is not always about the cars. It is about the people, from the folks that buy tickets every year, to builders that select the GNRS to debut their latest creations. And speaking of creations the 1970s also had its share of wild, radical and totally outlandish show only machines.

So when did all of these show-only machines start to appear on the car show scene? As described by Pat Ganahl in his beautiful 2001 hard-cover book, The American Custom Car, Dan Woods Milk Truck was probably the first of these vehicles. Built in Woods home garage, the truck was inspired by a model car kit and meant to be driven regularly. In reality the truck was later traded for a T-bucket roadster and swallowed up by the show car scene.

The silliness of these cars continued through the 1970s, with vehicle names like the Sex Machine, the Barber Shop Car, built by Joe Bailon, the Turnpike Hauler, the Futurista 3-wheeler, the Fire Bug VW and the Coke Machine. Many of these vehicles were, and still are, contracted and toured by California Show Cars, a company started by Jay Ohrberg and Bob Reisner. Cars like the Munster Coach and Dragula, both from The Munsters TV show, were toured by George Barris. In all cases these vehicles added a special bonus to the rod shows in which they appeared, which in no doubt helped the promoters gate receipts.

And finally, let’s take a moment to talk about those vehicles that the GNRS was named for. During the 1950s and 1960s, those in the hot rod show circles could not stop talking about Al Slonakers monster nine-foot trophy awarded to Americas Most Beautiful Roadster. From the crowning of the first AMBR in 1950, a baby blue track roadster owned by William Niekamp, to the award-winning stylized T-roadster of San Jose’s Joe Wilhelm in 1968, the AMBR winners from the first two decades of the National Roadster Show were mostly practical, street driven examples of the hot rod roadster hobby. There were exceptions of course, like Bob Reisner’s twin-engine Invader and Tex Smith’s futuristic XR-6.

The 1970s AMBR winners continued the drive-em theme, headed by Andy Brizio driving his AMBR winning roadster from the show floor some 2,000 miles to Peoria, Illinois, for the inaugural NSRA Street Rod Nationals. The first touring cars to win the AMBR also helped drive home the build them and drive them theme, Jim Vassers 1914 Ford Model T Phaeton in 1974 and Bob Sbarbaros 1923 T Phaeton. The 1970s also saw the third roadster win the AMBR twice, in the form of Lonnie Gilbertsons 1923 Ford roadster pickup from Oregon. Gilbertson won in 1971 and returned in 1975 to win again, after a complete update including a new paint job with Oregon themed murals.

The 1970’s came to a close. The return of the contemporary street roadster made the diehards happy. The GNRS management surprised many with an influx of custom boats, vans and motorcycles on the show floor. Where did boats and motorcycles come from? The fact is that Bagdasarian and Starbird had negotiated more floor space in the Coliseum complex, including the main arena and the arenas upper concourse. This almost doubled the floor space of the original garage floor plus added gobs of natural window light.

As reflected by writer Andy Southard, Jr, in his book, The Oakland Roadster Show, the 1980s became The Renaissance Years at the GNRS. Thanks to builders like Joe Bailon, John D’Agostino and Richard Zocchi, street customs began making a comeback, reviving the appeal of the 1940s lead sled by introducing a modern vibe. Street customs led the way with changes to the Detroit models that made diehard custom guys say, why didn’t Detroit do that. Bumpers got sliced and tucked in close to the body. Richard Zocchi was an innovator in areas like flared rocker panels. John D’Agostino even took the roof of a ’56 Lincoln Premier and chopped it 5 inches in the front and seven inches at the rear. It honestly looked like he took a roof off of another car and mounted it backwards on the Lincoln. Wild. Street customs were on their way back.

When it came to street rods, and roadsters in particular, the Renaissance roared into the 1980s with a series on meticulously hand fabricated pieces of rolling automotive art. John Corno of Portland, Oregon, returned from his 1972 rear engine AMBR winner to win a second time with a 1928 hiboy roadster fabricated by metal craftsmen Steve Davis and John Buttera. In 1981, Don Thelan built Fresnos John Siroonian another AMBR hiboy, this car powered by a supercharged Gurney-Westlake. These two cars set the bar for the decade to come, with the emergence of new young builders like Boyd Coddington, Chuck Lombardo, Ron Covell, Roy Brizio and Ermie Immerso. Words like ultra-detail and smooth metalwork became the norm. And they all had to run. The spirit of the roaring roadsters had returned to the GNRS in spades. SRM

(Editor’s Note: A big thank you to Darryl and Donna Starbird, Rudy Perez, Hot Rod Magazine, Andy Southard, Jr, Pat Ganahl, Rod Powell, Tom Cutino and Andy and Sue Brizio for their help with the details of this important piece of hot rod history.)

The post History of the Grand National Roadster Show…1970s appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Project Malibu ST: Steering Committee

Steering is usually an afterthought when building a project car. In our last MalibuST installment we assembled the UMI Performance Stage 3.5 handling kit and Wilwood brakes. If we left the 38-year-old steering alone, it would significantly limit the car’s potential. A performance handling car requires precise steering, and in this installment, we upgrade the G-body steering system for $1,600 and zero fabrication.

Our combination of parts includes a Turn One Steering Saginaw 600 steering box (PN: T12BASE; $799.00), Turn One Steering C5/C6 Power Steering Pump with billet pulley and upgraded AN fitting (PN: T40Y, TUR7, TUR12; $470.00), Classic Performance Products inner tie rods and center link (PN: DS909, ES2034L; $148.00), Red Line Oil power steering fluid (PN: 30404; $11.95), and UMI Performance Bump Steer Kit (PN: 3060; $179.99). This combination of parts results in improved adjustability, overall better performance, and a total of $1,607.94.

A basic G-body rack-and-pinion conversion retails for as little as $1,600 and requires some fabrication skills. Instead, we opted to retain the OE front-steer steering-box layout for its ease of installation and the ability to build a more performance-oriented steering system for the same dollar amount. The G-body never featured a rack-and-pinion, so some steering experts stress the difficulty in matching the perfect rack for the car.

“You can do it, but you’re stuck with whatever the rack-and-pinion is,” says Jeff ‘Junior’ Roethlisberger, VP of operations at Turn One Steering. “You only have a small window to adjust, but with a steering box you can adjust the feel and ratio without spending thousands.”

Our new Vortech LS-Swap supercharger system requires a Corvette C5/C6 front accessory drive and matching power steering pump. Rather than sourcing an OEM pump for a rebuild ($160 new, plus $150 rebuild service), we opted for a new Turn One Steering C5/C6 pump, which comes custom built to match our needs.

The UMI Performance bump-steer kit includes everything we need to adjust bump steer on the stock G-body steering system. The science behind bump steer can be complicated. When you hit a bump, and the wheels turn without your input, that’s bump steer, and it’s bad. Bump steer is a change in toe during wheel travel. “For manufacturers, packaging is a priority, not optimizing bump steer,” said UMI Performance’s performance engineer, Ramey Womer. Bump steer often becomes worse when you lower ride height or increase caster, two things we did in our last installment.

Bump steer geometry is illustrated in the following way: if you face the front of the car and draw invisible lines through each individual suspension pivot point, they meet at the car’s instant center. This complex theory is reserved for chassis builders. Ideally, your steering arm should move on the same plane/angle as the suspension’s instant center, during wheel travel. What a bump-steer kit does is allows you to adjust the steering rod-end height to best match the lower control arm’s originally geometry, making this complex theory simple for you and me. It’s the best method of fixing most of the bump steer trouble, next to redesigning the chassis. You can read more on the science of bump steer here, and here.

Parts

The post Malibu G-body Steering Upgrade for the Street and Track appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

You’ve really got to go, if you haven’t yet. Inaugurated in 1950, the Grand National Roadster Show (touted as the longest continuously running hot rod show in the world) oozes with hot rod history. We should thank Al Slonaker and his wife Mary for creating this institution, originally held in Northern California. John Buck took over ownership in 2004, moving the three-day event farther south to Pomona. That first year in SoCal was a success with 300 vehicles put on exhibit.
Fast-forward 15 years. The 2019 GNRS gathered 500 eclectic cars set in seven buildings, plus another 500 outside (mainly on Saturday) as part of the Drive-In display. Many HRD readers started their visit with the Suede Palace, a hall devoted to traditional rods and customs. Across the way, Building No. 9 hosted Ford Model As in all their shapes and forms: antique hot rods, former GRNS winners, NHRA and SCTA record holders, and so on. It was a sight to behold, thanks to 80-plus vehicles tantalizing the crowd, and worthy of a story in its own right, which will appear in our July 2019 issue.
Stretching for more than an eighth-mile, Building No. 4 welcomed dozens of pros in the industry, as well as the highly anticipated exhibit of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) competitors, their owners vying to put their name on the 9-plus-foot-tall award. Fourteen cars entered the field, with George Poteet ultimately coming out on top with his 1936 Ford roadster (check out our May 2019 issue for further details). The name sounds familiar? George is the man behind the wheel of Speed Demon, the 450-plus-mph, piston-driven Bonneville record holder. And like many GNRS visitors, he lives and breathes hot rods.

Miret’s Morphine
Both hot rods and customs have shared the Suede Palace’s Best of Show award over the years. For 2019, a custom came out on top, specifically Morphine, a colorful 1950s-styled ’54 Chevy owned by Roger Miret. Punk music fans might recognize the name, as he’s the vocalist for the band Agnostic Front. Based on the East Coast, he is also one of the founders of the Rumblers Car Club.

Best Hot Rod
Saturday’s Suede Palace award ceremony celebrated Portland, Oregon’s Mike Collman, the winner of the Best Hot Rod trophy with his ’31 Ford Model A. We dig the 1960s show car influence of this suicide-doored coupe, from the angel hair surrounding it to the white interior and accents.

A Ford Trio
Behind that sextet of carbs, a trio of 1920s hot rod Fords: Reyes Rangle’s 390ci Cad-powered ’29, Vic Hager’s flathead-powered ’28, and Louis Stands’ ’27 Model T.

Survivor
Houston Percival unearthed quite a survivor: a ’30 Ford Tudor parked in a Winters, California, barn since 1952. While the body remains all stock, the nicely patina’d sedan runs a 239ci flathead bolted to a BorgWarner T5 gearbox for comfortable cruising speed.

Lakes Tribute
This great display pays homage to Al Jerauld and William Grosvenor, who raced the Jerauld’s Speed Equipment ’32 Ford at El Mirage dry lake. Incidentally, the photo on the board dates back to 1950. Bill Verhulst assembled a tribute to the 313C roadster, using a twin-carb’d flathead and a ’39 Ford transmission.

Searching
Current owner John Barnes is still searching for additional historical info about his three-window ’32 Ford. So far, it appears that the heavily chopped coupe had been drag raced in Pomona around 1951-1954 before being channeled and fitted with an aerodynamic nosepiece.

Tulsa Roadster
Designer and engineer Jackie Howerton teamed with builder Steve Moal to create the Howerton-Moal Tulsa Roadster for customer Bill Grimsley. The deeply channeled and Corvette-motivated ’32 Ford was a strong AMBR contender, looking excellent with Sid Chavers upholstery and shiny chrome pieces by Sherms Plating.

Tweety
Many had their eyes on Jim Govro’s channeled ’32 Ford roadster in the AMBR competition. Tweety Bird is a genuine survivor and was featured in HOT ROD, Nov. 1958. The Austin, Texas, resident created the car in 1951, though he ultimately contracted Rex Rod & Chassis to restore it in time for the GNRS, complete with a 331ci Cadillac V8 assembled by Keith Tardel.

Old and New
All the way from Tennessee, Ann and Andrew Bower joined the AMBR field with their topless ’32 Ford, built by Dan Kerbo at Kerbo’s Kustom Klassics. While the body is fresh from Brookville, most everything else remains vintage: Deuce frame, 276ci Mercury flathead, ’39 Ford Top Loader with Lincoln Zephyr gears, Halibrand quick-change, and so on.

Lena Mae
California tinkerer Ryan Rivers undoubtedly entered the most unusual vehicle in the AMBR battle, a 1924 Buick Model 24-Six-45 named Lena Mae. Under that antique appearance hides a bunch of interesting pieces, including a ’52 263ci Buick straight-eight hooked to a 700R4 transmission. And let’s not forget the 1923 Reo top chopped 8 inches. Rivers additionally crafted several of the car’s parts: radiator shell and trim, valve covers, dashboard, intake and exhaust manifolds, wheels, and more.

Most Beautiful
And the AMBR trophy goes to… George Poteet of Memphis and his ’36 Ford. The well-known collector, hot rodder, and Bonneville racer worked with Eric Peratt at Pinkee’s Rod Shop on this roadster and modified it with lengthened doors, recontoured front fenders, a stretched cockpit, and more. This ambitious project also required 350 CNC-machined custom components.

Model A Display
Building No. 9 celebrated Ford’s 1928-1931 offerings (aka Model As), including drag and lakes record holders, AMBR winners (eight of them), historic hot rods, custom cars, and traditional rods. Circle City Hot Rods helped Brett Miller build this ’31 Model A, fitted with a ’50 Ford flathead, a C4 transmission, and a ’36 Ford rearend. Pete Santini and Dennis Ricklefs applied the perfect paint and pinstripes, respectively.

Evolved
“Hot Rod Survivor” says the board. Indeed, this ’29 Model A was built in 1948 by Bill Coleman as a flathead-powered lakes racer and street roadster. It even reached 120 mph at El Mirage in 1949. The roadster evolved over the years, welcoming stock fenders and a 303ci Olds engine around 1955. A full restoration that included a Chevy small-block took place in 1978. Jim and Wendy Hartman have been the caretakers of the relic since 1999.

Elvis Co-Star
Tom Leonardo displayed his ’29 Model A, originally built by John Athan in 1937 using a $7 roadster body and a $5.50 Deuce chassis. It also participated in one of the last El Mirage races before WWII, where it ran 108 mph. Years later, it appeared in the movie Loving You, driven by a young Elvis Presley.

Tilt
Russ Meeks designed and built this Model A for John Corno between 1970 and 1972. That year, he won the AMBR competition, wowing the judges with a tilt body (lengthened 4 inches) that covered a ’68 Olds Toronado V8. More alterations came in 1986, such as the handbuilt stainless steel chassis. Oregon residents Roman and Judy Baszniak currently own the famous roadster.

Sport Coupe
Chip Starr of Portland, Oregon, is the proud caretaker of this time capsule, featured in Rod & Custom magazine back in July 1963. Then belonging to Robert and Richard Souza, the unusual ’29 sport coupe relied on a “warmed up” 286ci ’50 Merc V8 equipped with Edmunds heads, an Edelbrock triple-carb manifold, and a Joe Hunt magneto.

Four Ever
Clark Crump put his Model A coupe on exhibit in the Four Ever Four Cylinder Club booth. Bob Kehoe, a respected Bonneville 200 MPH Club member, owned the vehicle for years. He bought it as a stocker in 1998 before hopping up the four-banger with an overhead conversion.

Record A
Multiple lake racers sprinkled Building No. 9, such as the Holmes, Kugel & McGinnis ’29 A built in 1975. A 258ci twin-turbocharged and Hilborn fuel-injected SBC pushed the lakester to set the E-Blown Fuel Roadster record at 245 mph.

History Lesson
Also scattered throughout Building No. 9 were icons of hot rodding, three of which are visible in this one image: In the foreground is the Bill NieKamp roadster, which won the very first AMBR trophy. On the right edge of the frame is the Ala Kart, which won the AMBR twice in a row in 1958 and 1959 and sold millions of plastic model kits for AMT. Just visible in the back is Jim “Jake” Jacobs’ rolling collage of a tub.

Limelighter
The “village” outside the Suede Palace welcomed a group of handsome cars. Between the Packard sedan and the red ’41 Buick, check out Bud Millard’s Limelighter, a ’58 Chevy made by Bill Cushenberry for Frank Gould. It won Best Custom at the 1964 Winternationals. Oz’s Kustoms restored the chopped coupe to its former glory.

Fresh
Less than a week before the GNRS, Eric Justus’ Deuce was still in a thousand pieces, the paint barely dry on the (real) body. The latter came from an older “smoothy” street rod project; but Justus and his friends brought it back to 1932 specs, even redrilling holes where the factory put them. We plan to feature the car in Hot Rod Deluxe in the future.

Untouched
This Olds-powered three-window Deuce had a ton of people talking, for good reason. It has remained untouched since Julian Alvarez bought it in 1973. He found it in Huntington Beach, California, where it had been parked for 10 years. It retains all its early 1960s hot rod attributes: metallic paint over a chopped top, louvers, chromed steel wheels, and so on.

Rocket
The majority of the vendors invaded the large Building No. 4. Ross Racing Engines displayed Bob Gratton’s five-window ’32 Ford built by Hilton Hot Rods. Lack of a hood allowed the crowd to admire the supercharged Olds Rocket V8 assembled by Ross.

Bare Ford
Artist Coby Gewertz designed his ’34 Ford with Tim Conder before entrusting South City Rod & Custom with the construction. Notice the altered front fenders and seriously set-back 331ci Chrysler Hemi. Gewertz got the Halibrand magnesium wheels from his dad, an ex–Funny Car racer.

Forty Custom
Neat ’40 Buick, eh? Owned by Steve Pierce, the coupe features a ton of custom alterations: ’39 Ford headlights, modified hood, chopped top (4 inches in front and 5.5 in back), molded rear fenders, ’41 Cadillac bumpers, and rare Lyon hubcaps that nicely complement the Washington Blue paint.

Kandy Devil
The GNRS brings enthusiasts from all over the world. Tristan Louwaars of Tristan Kustomizing, Holland, poses proudly with the Kandy Devil, an SBC-powered ’53 Chevy he built for Vincent Wolfs (of Belgium). Their adventure proved a bit stressful, as the car only cleared U.S. Customs the day before the show opened!

Tribute Poncho
Now the property of John D’Agostino, the ex–Richard Zocchi chopped ’62 Pontiac looked its best in Building No. 5, which was dedicated to custom cars. Zocchi built the 389-powered Grand Prix in 2002 as a tribute to an identical model (restyled by Gene Winfield) he owned in 1962.

Swoopy
Glenn McElroy’s Speedliner took inspiration from the renowned Norman E. Timbs Buick, which was destroyed in Malibu’s wildfires last November. Marcel and Luc Deley’s talented hands crafted the swoopy aluminum body on McElroy’s rear-engine two-seater.

Mooney
Based on a ’25 Ford roadster, the Mooney-Simpkins Special was built in 1949 by Fay Mooney Sr. of Bakersfield, California, a year before winning its class at the Oakland Roadster Show. Motivated by a 270ci GMC engine, the dirt track racer also appeared in HOT ROD, Jan. 1950. Paul Mooney has taken ownership.

The post Suede Palace, Model A Display and More Traditional Highlights from the 2019 Grand National Roadster Show appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

For the third year in a row, Roadkill’s Zip Tie Drags presented by FiTech was held at Tucson Dragway, and while this event is not exactly known for show-quality cars, we thought we’d give you a look inside the show and shine section anyway. Shiny cars are a bit of a rarity at Zip-Tie Drags, which generally attracts a gaggle of interesting machines that could probably give you tetanus just by looking at them. So picking awards at a show like this involves a certain amount of creativity as the usual judging criteria goes straight out the window, but that just makes it all even more fun!

Some of the awards handed out included “The 70s Called—They Want Their Van Back” title, “The Longest Wheel Studs Ever” award, one simply titled “POWER WAGON!!!,” and several more equally entertaining and 100 percent made-up-on-the-spot categories. Roadkill has never been about show quality cars, but rather about getting what you have running and driving while forgoing all the pretty details in order to get out and make some memories. Sure we like shiny stuff plenty, but we will always be advocates of getting out and driving your junk no matter what it looks like. So take a look through this gallery from the Zip-Tie Drags show and shine and see which ride is your favorite!

The post Roadkill Rides from the Zip-Tie Drags Show and Shine appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

When it comes to bolting a truck together in five days, it helps to have a formula, of sorts. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Thankfully, lead tech Jason Scudellari and his righthand man Christian Arriero have done enough of these builds that the 40-hour imposition has little to no effect on their abilities to get in and get things done. With the cameras rolling, the guys hit the ground first thing Monday morning and by Friday’s end are usually roasting the tires off the latest Week to Wicked build. We hope this week’s episode will be the same!

This time around, the guys are working with LMC Truck to build a 1972 Chevy C10 as the giveaway vehicle for the 2019 C10 Nationals. Powered by a 502ci big-block from Gandrud Chevrolet, the truck will ride on a full complement of Classic Performance Products (CPP) suspension components. Restoration and stock replacement parts will naturally be provided by LMC Truck, among a few trick items from their truck catalog. Oversized American Racing cast aluminum wheels shod in Falken tires will put the power to the pavement. An American Autowire harness will provide the necessary information to the Dakota Digital gauges, while a Holley Terminator Stealth EFI provides the fuel and controls the spark of the Rat motor. An Eddie Motorsports Raven S-Drive will handle the accessory drive responsibilities, also providing the necessary hydraulic pressure for the CPP HydraStop braking system. Spent gases will flow through a set of Hedman Hedders and out a pair of Hedman Turbo Mufflers. Up front, a four-core brass/copper radiator from U.S. Radiator will keep the temps low while an Old Air A/C system will keep the cab and its occupants nice and cool. Brightwork courtesy of LMC Truck and LED lighting from United Pacific ensure the hard work of painter James Miller and his team at Sparkburn Hot Rods doesn’t go unnoticed. Energy Suspension high-performance polyurethane mounts have been utilized throughout the build to ensure the truck handles, performs, and rides to its fullest potential.

With the formalities out of the way, it’s time to follow along as I proceed to get in the way while Jason, Christian, and the CPP team build the LMC Truck C10 Nationals Week to Wicked Giveaway Truck. Don’t forget to check out www.c10nationals.com for information on how to win this truck, and for registration information regarding the show May 3-4 at the Texas Motor Speedway. Check out the full build episode at www.classictrucks.com! CT

Day One: Teardown and Suspension Installation
With the truck freshly painted and most of the interior in place, thanks to the hard work of James Miller and his team at Sparkburn Hot Rods, the Week to Wicked crew, with the help of the guys from CPP, roll the truck into the Classic Trucks Tech Center to kick off the week.

First things first, the old suspension needs to come out to make room for the CPP brakes, steering, and suspension components. Up front, we used a CPP coilover conversion kit, coupled with their tubular control arms and dropped spindles. Outback, a new 9-inch rearend was slid in place, hanging off new CPP trailing arms and sprung like the front, on coilovers. The amount of drop planned for the C10 also required a CPP C-notch kit to be installed on the rear framerails, as well as their dropped crossmember, which locates the front trailing arm mount more suited for a lowered truck.

Day Two: Big Brakes, Bent Lines, and a Bled System
Tuesday morning came fast and with it a laundry list of things to tackle on the truck. Thankfully, the guys from CPP got on the brakes, installing their big binders at all four corners to give our giveaway truck maximum stopping potential.

Meanwhile, the Hydra-Stop system was starting to come together, with the installation of the master cylinder and CPP power steering box. A CPP tilt steering column was also added in case the lucky owner of the truck turns out to be 6 foot 8 and needs a little space.

By Tuesday afternoon, we had the brakes lines ran, the Hydra-Stop lines made, and the front and rear sway bars installed as the CPP crew worked in tandem to bleed the brake system.
Day Three: Big-Blocks and Fuel
Wednesday morning came and went while Jason and I prepped the 500hp Gandrud Chevrolet ZZ502 big-block. This included the installation of an Eddie Motorsports Raven Series S-Drive front accessory kit and Holley’s Terminator Stealth EFI system. A pair of Hedman Hedders were also installed, long tubes at first, which got swapped out once the engine was installed due to ground clearance issues on our slammed C10. A set of Hedman mid-length headers did the trick the second time around.

While we were preparing the engine, Christian was hard at work on the trans, installing the torque converter on the Gandrud Chevrolet 4L85-E four-speed overdrive. We opted to use a Connect and Cruise package from Gandrud to ensure the big-block and modern trans work together effortlessly.

Dropping the engine in its place for the final time, CPP motor mounts were used to mate it to the C10 frame before the truck was raised and the 4L85-E transmission lifted in place. Once the mating of the drivetrain was complete, the driveshaft length was measured and the info sent off to the local driveshaft shop.

Back on the ground, or close to it, we began plumbing the Holley fuel system and running al the necessary wires to control the transmission, fuel system, and other ancillary electrical components.

Day Four: Fuel, Fire, and a Wanting Desire (for some sleep!)
By the time Thursday morning rolled around, we were all starting to feel a little worse for wear, thanks to the previous couple late nights. Nothing that a little coffee and the anticipation of firing the truck up later this afternoon wouldn’t fix, however!

With the drivetrain in place, work continued toward the end-of-day goal to fire the truck. That meant finalizing the Holley fuel system and connecting all the necessary plumbing to the U.S. Radiator and Old Air Products A/C system. Wiring of the Holley EFI ECU and the GM trans computer also needed to be completed. In fact, the entire truck still needed to be wired, which meant it was time to bust out the American Autowire harness and start making connections. To say we had our hands full would be an understatement.

Wheels arrived shortly after lunch, courtesy of Wheel Pros and American Racing. To fill those big wheelwells, we opted to go with a set of VN507 Rodder wheels, 20x8s up front and 20x10s in the back. After a quick testfit to ensure everything clears and looks good, the wheels were sent out to be wrapped in Falken Azenis FK510 tires, 245/40ZR20s in the front and 285/35ZR20s in the rear.

Inside the cab, the Dakota Digital RTX gauge was installed and mated to the big-block and American Autowire harness. At the opposite end of the dash, an Old Air Products Hurricane A/C system was installed to keep both driver and passenger comfortable.

Work commenced into the early evening on day four until it was finally time to kick the tires and light fires. And light they did! The big-block fired up after a couple initial rotations, with the Holley EFI fueling the fire. Satisfied that we were well on our way to a successful Day Five completion, we called it at a day around 10 p.m., having put in a full 14 hours.
Day Five: Of Loose Ends and Rain Storms
Heading into the last day of our five-day build, the laundry list seemed to grow and grow. Wiring continued, while the Hedman exhaust system was welded up. Wheels and tires were mounted and the truck was set on the ground for the first time. All in attendance agreed that the stance was perfect, so back up in the air it went so the crew could continue working.

All the brightwork from LMC Truck had been previously installed at Sparkburn’s shop, save for the lights. For that end, LED components from United Pacific were utilized throughout, from the taillights, side markers, dome light, and the front turn signals.

By late afternoon on Friday, it seemed like we were just about wrapped up, which meant it was time for a burnout! Having let Jason scrub the tires clean the last couple Week to Wicked builds, I decided it was my turn to burn. Unfortunately, as we neared the zero hour, the sky was consistently getting darker and darker. In Southern California, this usually means that nightfall is coming soon, but at 3:30 in the afternoon, dark skies means something totally different: rain. And rain it did!

So, instead of the usual, giant, smoky burnout, I hopped in the driver seat and with my little buddy sitting opposite, we left the shop, drove around the building and then headed right back inside. With the rain flooding the parking lot up to the C10’s quarter-panels and visibility near zero, it just didn’t seem like the time to shakedown a brand-new truck.

And so, a dramatic, but rather anticlimactic end to another five-day Week to Wicked build was in the books.

The post 2018 LMC Truck C10 Nationals Week to Wicked C10 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

As told to Richard Truesdell by Dave and Cathey Barth, photos by Dave and Cathey Barth, and Jane Bell

West to East: Seattle, WA, to Robbins, IA (2,400 miles)

The post David and Cathey’s Excellent Mopar Adventure (Part 3) appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

The state of California currently enforces a law in which any vehicle 1976 and later must adhere to a “vehicle inspection and maintenance check (smog check)” every two years. This has prevented auto enthusiasts and aftermarket parts manufacturers from readily modifying later model cars, as the cost of CARB-approved engine swaps or the development of emissions-legal parts can be cost-prohibitive. Recently introduced California Assembly Bill 210 proposes to amend Section 44011 of the Health and Safety Code relating to vehicular air pollution by bumping the smog exemption year to 1983.

Though this bill is only being introduced, if it becomes law, it would open up eight more years of sought-after cars and trucks for enthusiasts to modify. Show your support for this bill by heading over to the SEMA Action Network and contacting lawmakers! To read the bill in its entirety, keep scrolling.

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill No. 210

Introduced by Assembly Member Voepel
January 14, 2019

An act to amend Section 44011 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to vehicular air pollution.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 210, as introduced, Voepel. Smog check: exemption.

Existing law establishes a motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (smog check) program that is administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The smog check program requires inspection of motor vehicles upon initial registration, biennially upon renewal of registration, upon transfer of ownership, and in certain other circumstances. Existing law exempts specified vehicles from being inspected biennially upon renewal of registration, including, among others, all motor vehicles manufactured prior to the 1976 model-year and all diesel-powered vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,001 pounds or greater.

This bill instead would exempt from the smog check program all motor vehicles manufactured prior to the 1983 model-year and all diesel-powered vehicles manufactured prior to the 1983 model-year with a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,001 pounds or greater.

DIGEST KEY

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal Committee: yes   Local Program: no

BILL TEXT

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1.

Section 44011 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

44011.

(a) All motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines that are registered within an area designated for program coverage shall be required biennially to obtain a certificate of compliance or noncompliance, except for the following:

(1) All motorcycles until the department, pursuant to Section 44012, implements test procedures applicable to motorcycles.

(2) All motor vehicles that have been issued a certificate of compliance or noncompliance or a repair cost waiver upon a change of ownership or initial registration in this state during the preceding six months.

(3) All motor vehicles manufactured prior to the 1976 1983 model-year.

(4) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), all motor vehicles four or less model-years old.

(B) (i) Beginning January 1, 2005, all motor vehicles six or less model-years old, unless the state board finds that providing an exception for these vehicles will prohibit the state from meeting the requirements of Section 176(c) of the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 7401 et seq.) or the state’s commitments with respect to the state implementation plan required by the federal Clean Air Act.

(ii) Notwithstanding clause (i), beginning January 1, 2019, all motor vehicles eight or less model-years old, unless the state board finds that providing an exception for these vehicles will prohibit the state from meeting the requirements of Section 176(c) of the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 7401 et seq.) or the state’s commitments with respect to the state implementation plan required by the federal Clean Air Act.

(iii) Clause (ii) does not apply to a motor vehicle that is seven model-years old in year 2018 for which a certificate of compliance has been obtained.

(C) All motor vehicles excepted by this paragraph shall be subject to testing and to certification requirements as determined by the department, if any of the following apply:

(i) The department determines through remote sensing activities or other means that there is a substantial probability that the vehicle has a tampered emission control system or would fail for other cause a smog check test as specified in Section 44012.

(ii) The vehicle was previously registered outside this state and is undergoing initial registration in this state.

(iii) The vehicle is being registered as a specially constructed vehicle.

(iv) The vehicle has been selected for testing pursuant to Section 44014.7 or any other provision of this chapter authorizing out-of-cycle testing.

(D) This paragraph does not apply to diesel-powered vehicles.

(5) In addition to the vehicles exempted pursuant to paragraph (4), any motor vehicle or class of motor vehicles exempted pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 44024.5. It is the intent of the Legislature that the department, pursuant to the authority granted by this paragraph, exempt at least 15 percent of the lowest emitting motor vehicles from the biennial smog check inspection.

(6) All motor vehicles that the department determines would present prohibitive inspection or repair problems.

(7) Any vehicle registered to the owner of a fleet licensed pursuant to Section 44020 if the vehicle is garaged exclusively outside the area included in program coverage, and is not primarily operated inside the area included in program coverage.

(8) (A) All diesel-powered vehicles manufactured prior to the 1998 model-year.

(B) All diesel-powered vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,501 to 10,000 pounds, inclusive, until the department, in consultation with the state board, pursuant to Section 44012, implements test procedures applicable to these vehicles.

(C) All diesel-powered vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight rating from 10,001 pounds to 14,000 pounds, inclusive, until the state board and the Department of Motor Vehicles determine the best method for identifying these vehicles, and until the department, in consultation with the state board, pursuant to Section 44012, implements test procedures applicable to these vehicles.

(D) All diesel-powered vehicles manufactured prior to the 1983 model-year and that have a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,001 pounds or greater.

(b) Vehicles designated for program coverage in enhanced areas shall be required to obtain inspections from appropriate smog check stations operating in enhanced areas.

(c) For purposes of subdivision (a), a collector motor vehicle, as defined in Section 259 of the Vehicle Code, is exempt from those portions of the test required by subdivision (f) of Section 44012 if the collector motor vehicle meets all of the following criteria:

(1) Submission of proof that the motor vehicle is insured as a collector motor vehicle, as shall be required by regulation of the bureau.

(2) The motor vehicle is at least 35 model-years old.

(3) The motor vehicle complies with the exhaust emissions standards for that motor vehicle’s class and model-year as prescribed by the department, and the motor vehicle passes a functional inspection of the fuel cap and a visual inspection for liquid fuel leaks.

The post Pre-1983 Vehicles could be SMOG EXEMPT in California! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Two 1987 Buick Grand Nationals, identical except for their mileage and sequential VINs, have completed their incredible journey from decades in storage to the auction block at the 2019 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale.

As you may have read in the May 2018 issue of Hot Rod magazine, buddies Shawn Mathews and William Avila came across these two GNs after a friend tipped them off to a Craigslist ad offering the cars for sale (story). They traveled to a storage facility in the western panhandle of Oklahoma to find two dusty but well-preserved Grand Nationals that had been locked up for some 30 years. Their VINs were just one number apart, and they both showed very low mileage—834 miles on one, 592 on the other.

The guys took them home, cleaned them up, and brought them to Scottsdale, where they were offered for sale as a single lot at no reserve. Kristina “GN Gal” Richards caught up with the guys for a video interview a day before the cars crossed the block.

The post “Twinz” Barn-Find 1987 Buick Grand Nationals Sell at the 2019 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

It’s the final countdown to the Hoonigan’s Kall Out Kings faceoff between their own Jon Chase and Roadkill’s Mike Finnegan. This Chevy vs. Chevy and beard vs. beard brawl is going down at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California on February 8^th and 9^th. Are men and machines ready to leave it all on the drag strip, or have they succumbed to catastrophic mishaps forcing them to throw caution to the wind and leave mechanical guts all over starting line? Click here to get caught up on the antics.

Since our last update, things have been a little crazy with Mike Finnegan. If you follow him on social media, you’ll see that he and buddies Mike Cotton and David Newbern have been road tripping to the West Coast with Blasphemi stuffed in the back of the new-to-Finnegan square-body ramp-truck. For the past couple days, they’ve been stuck in Lake Havasu City, Arizona at Merlin’s Old School Garage trying to nurse the car through some follies on the dyno.

After making an insane 1,045 hp power run in the wee hours of Monday morning, they woke up to a hydro-locked engine. With scrambling in full effect, the heads were sent off to be pressure tested and the head gaskets were attended to. According to an Instagram post, the heads have been on and off the engine twice, and oil was changed seven times in 24 hours to no avail. The Hemi was still making milkshakes. The trio got to Pomona this morning with the engine in Blasphemi now full of Block Seal in a final attempt to race Jon Chase and the Hoonigans.

Meanwhile, for the last week in the Hoonigan camp, things haven’t been much easier. After the most painful rod-knock occurred before making chassis dyno hits at Accelerated Racing Solutions, Jon Chase’s Tri 5 by Fire went in for emergency surgery. They yanked the, built, boosted, sprayed, and now-wounded 5.3L out of the car and snaked a 6.0L from a wrecking yard. All of the speed parts from the 5.3 were transplanted to the junkyard dog, and the whole combo was dropped in the car.

We spoke with Jon a couple of days ago, and it was confirmed that the high-mile 6.0L was going to the dyno, despite him getting his hands on a punched out LSX 427 block. Two days ago, HOT ROD staffer Jacob Davis spotted Chase and the Tri 5 in the Irwindale area after doing some test passes and it sounds like he’s all ready to go this weekend!

If you want to see the showdown and meet the guys from Roadkill in person at the NHRA Winternationals, click here for 25% off ticket prices or enter the promo code ROADKILL here.

The post Blasphemi vs. Tri Five by Fire Kall out Kings UPDATE! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

NASCAR Nova

The story of this weather-worn Nova reads like a series of vintage hot-rodding short stories. Fabricator Greg Turner built this Nova like the racecars of yesteryear with hard work, talent, the help of friends, and little money. It took him 15 years, working for race teams during the day and reworking their used, unwanted parts at night.

Under the factory original patina is the heart of a NASCAR Xfinity series racecar, with an 18-degree 358ci small-block capable of 10,000 rpm. The chassis mimics that of an Xfinity car too but now sits on skinnies and Mickey Thompson slicks. What’s more poetic is Greg is a fabricator at Petty’s Garage, a team which once took a break from dominating NASCAR to take on drag racing in the early ’70s.

The mixing of motorsports makes perfect sense in central North Carolina, a countryside filled with racetracks both round and straight alike. Before Petty’s Garage, Greg worked at Bill Davis Racing, “It was pretty cool to talk hot rod stuff at the break truck with some of the best race engine builders in the world,” said Greg. “I befriended some of the most talented fabricators, cylinder head builders, intake manifold guys, carburetor guys…”

Greg acquired the Nova in that dream-like scenario: A one-owner, only driven by a little old lady to Church on Sundays and Bingo on Thursday night. After months of persistence, Greg purchased her 6-cylinder Nova for $3,500. The most basic offering Chevrolet provided at the time, with rubber mats instead of carpet. Over the next 15 years, Greg built the Nova piece by piece in the small garage beside his house. He’d refurbish many parts the team no longer needed, long before used-parts warehouses took over the job of disposing of yesterday’s race hardware.

It’s easy to miss all of the intricate fabrication, but once you get underneath, it’s easy to recognize Greg’s talent.

Tech Notes
Who: Greg Turner
What: 1971 Chevrolet Nova
Where: Sophia, North Carolina

Engine
The real deal 358ci NASCAR Xfinity Series engine (known as the Busch Series at the time) retired from its racecar duties in the mid-’90s. When Bill Davis switched from Ford to Pontiac, they traded parts with Penske. One day while searching through a warehouse at work, Greg found this engine covered in dust and Penske markings. It originally powered one of Ward Burton’s race cars.

It was rebuilt mostly original, with the 18-quart dry-sump oiling system and 4.150 x 3.31 bore and stroke. It’s a Chevrolet Bowtie block with a Winberg billet crank, Lentz 6.125 rods, and JE flat-top pistons. A variety of Greg’s friends performed the machining work.

The 46cc, 18-degree Chevrolet heads were ported by Reher Morrison and feature titanium valves. Greg guesses the Comp Cam solid cam has .700-degrees of lift and .280-degrees of duration at 0.050. The valvetrain features roller bearings and a Jesel belt drive, Crower .937 lifters, and W+W shaft mounted 1.65 rockers with Pac valve springs.

“It’s made to run wide open all the time,” said Greg, and so far, it’s held up well on the street. Greg shifts just shy of the 8,000 rpm redline, but he says the engine is capable of 9,000-10,000 rpms, but it’s unnecessary for his use.

The used 1 7/8-inch long-tube headers were modified to work in the Nova. The 3-inch oval tube pipes keep ground clearance a non-issue with dual Flowmaster mufflers which dump in front of the rear axle.

Greg was able to break in the engine on the Petty’s Garage engine dyno, and without any tuning, it made 548 hp at 7,000 rpm.

Fueling
Under the hood of the Nova, it’s more colorful than the outside of a stickered-up Cup car. The large -10 AN fuel fittings came from one of Roy Hill’s Pro Mod drag cars. With a 12:1 compression the car surprisingly runs fine on pump gas, but Greg typically runs a 50/50 mix of 110-octane race gas and 93-octane pump gas. He sometimes runs leftover barrels of NASCAR approved Sunoco E15, but that’s only during race season.

Drivetrain
The 358 sends power through a used NASCAR four-speed, with a McLeod clutch and homemade hydraulic system. Greg worked extensively to create a clutch system which functioned adequately but didn’t require an extra hole in the firewall. With straight cut gears, Greg says, “it’s loud but very fun.” Out back is a stockcar’s former Ford 9-inch housing shortened with equal-length tubes and 31-spline axles, as that’s what most circle track cars run.

Wheels & Tires
Weld Pro-Star aluminum wheels are all around with skinny 4x15s in the front and 10x15s in the back, wrapped in 315/60R15 Mickey Thompson Drag Radials.

Chassis
From afar, Greg’s Nova appears to be a clean driver, but when you look underneath, you’ll find great metalworking and chassis design. “All of the suspension points are based on a Busch-series car, but with original Nova mounting points,” said Greg who built it all at home without a lift.

Greg worked to retain all of the Nova’s originality. He ran tubular frame rails (like long sub-frame connectors) from the front clip to the rear frame rails in front of the axle. There are only two welds on the chassis to the new subframe. Otherwise, the front clip still unbolts like factory. He also designed a two-piece ladder bar to prevent floorboard modifications. “Just something I came up with, it’s simple,” said Greg.

The post This 1971 “NASCAR” Chevy Nova Sits on Used Circle-Track Parts appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

www.semasan.com/legislative-alerts/california/california-bill-exempt-pre-1983-vehicles-emissions-inspections

Car lovers of the world California needs your help… There is nothing on this planet that brings people of all nationalities and races together better than the love of classic cars, so we are making this a World plea.

We learned firsthand at STREET RODDER when Facebook recruited the Motor Trend Group in 2016 to help promote Facebook Live it doesn’t matter where in the world, what religion, or the color of a person’s skin is they love California car culture.

People that aren’t California residents can’t vote, but they can help to spread the word to California politicians they would like to see them support A.B.210 a new bill introduced by California Assemblyman Randy Voepel of the 71^st District.

In short A.B. 210 has been introduced to exempt motor vehicles prior to the 1983 model year from emissions inspection requirement. Current law requires the biennial testing of all 1976 and newer model-year vehicles. The bill awaits consideration by the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The next time you watch a video of a car collection, museum, or car culture get together anywhere in the world you will spot vehicles with California plates, and this isn’t limited to American cars as California has received the bulk of collectible European and Japanese car production since shortly after WWII.

There’s a big reason California cars have long been the desire of car collectors and enthusiasts worldwide it’s because of California’s climate and their lack of rust.

Please follow this link to SEMA SAN and learn more about what you can do to help put A.B. 210 into law. www.semasan.com/legislative-alerts/california/california-bill-exempt-pre-1983-vehicles-emissions-inspections

The post Help California A.B.210 to Exempt Pre-1983 Cars from Smog Test appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

It took Mark Stornant nearly 20 years to get his 1969 Charger R/T on the road—and just the blink of an eye for it to be wiped out almost entirely. In the fall of 2016, while Mark and his son Tyler were heading home on the last drive of the season, the beautiful R4 Bright Red Mopar was sideswiped by a pickup truck trying to overtake a slow-moving semi-truck on a narrow two-lane road. He crossed double yellow lines, putting the truck on the same parcel of pavement as the Charger.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the collision, but the driver’s side of Mark’s car looked much like the Charger in Bullitt after it rubbed sheetmetal with Steve McQueen’s Mustang and got smacked around by those roadside guardrails. The crash didn’t send Mark’s car careening into a gas station as in the movie, but plenty of damage was done, leaving him to nearly start over on car that had been a labor of love for his family.

It started back in 1992, when Mark bought it from the second owner. He paid $3,500 for the Charger, a real XS29L-code R/T with the A33 Track Pack, which included a 3.54-geard Dana 60 rear axle and Hemi four-speed transmission. The original owners were reportedly a pair of twins who used the Track Pack as intended on the dragstrip.

At some point the rear wheel studs sheared off on one of the axles with predictable results that included, among other things, body damage when the quarter-panel crashed onto the tarmac. And that was before the twins blew the original engine. The car was unceremoniously pushed into a carport and left exposed to the unforgiving Michigan climate for the next 13 years or so.

In that time a number of the original, hard-to-find front-end parts were stripped off the car. The second owner got the car running, replacing the original engine with a date-code-correct service replacement block and a mildly built short-block. He also replaced the front-end sheetmetal and added a 1968 Charger grille because used 1969 grilles were already in short supply in the 1980s and repros weren’t even a glint in OER’s eye.

“The guy ended up respraying the car red, but it was a quick-and-dirty job,” says Mark. “It was clear the replacement body panels were green because of the lousy or nonexistent prep work, and the quarter-panel damage was never addressed. They just sprayed over the dents.”

Not Bad for the Rust Belt

“It was a runner, but far from a driver,” says Mark. “But I’d loved 1969 Chargers since I was young, and I could see the potential in this one. The rust wasn’t as bad is it could have been for a Michigan car.”

For B-bodies of that vintage, anything less than complete, corrosion-induced structural collapse was not “that bad” in the Rust Belt. There were a couple of holes in the floorboard and some expected rust spots on exterior panels, but all those years spent in the carport absolutely dissolved the trunk floor.

Work and family obligations prevented Mark from diving into the restoration for the next seven years or so, but he used the time to accumulate as many parts as possible. The car was less than 30 years old at the time, so there were still some good used and even N.O.S. parts out there, including a pair of N.O.S. front fenders, an N.O.S. hood, and a good used grille.

Around 2000, work on the car commenced in a meaningful way, with friend Randy Oswald tackling the major bodywork, including hanging new quarter-panels, and John Schultz, who led the way on the mechanical side. A rotisserie was constructed for the unitized chassis, and the team did their best with early repro sheetmetal and making due with used or restored original parts when reproductions weren’t available.

“A lot of that early repopped sheetmetal wasn’t great,” says Mark. “The trunk floor panel, for example, didn’t have the drain holes stamped in it, so we had to do that and other things. That was just the state of the industry at the time.”

Mark had worked in a body shop before beginning a career with his regional water and light utility, and he took on the task of block-sanding and painting the car himself, while another friend, Doug Jones, helped revamp the black vinyl interior with new upholstery, a new headliner, and new carpet. Mark himself restored the instrument panel.

The car boasts a number of period day-two mods, including a vintage Stewart-Warner tachometer lashed to the steering column, the same kind Mopar legend Dick Landy used. Stornant’s wife, Lori, found it in a milk crate at a swap meet more than 20 years ago.

“I’d been looking for that very model myself for years,” says Mark. “And she pulled it out of the crate and simply said, ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’”

More apparent than the tach, which is wired into the dashboard to illuminate and dim with the gauges, are the vintage 15-inch Torq-Thrust wheels.

He says, “That was another thing I’d been looking for for a long time. I wanted the wider, 8.5-inch-wide rear wheels to fill out the fenders, and saw them on a 1964 Chrysler Newport, which was parked near a water-main break that was being repaired by my utility crew.”

Mark approached the owner later and purchased the wheels, then spent about 25 hours per rim to restore them. Up front, 15x7s roll on G70-15 Polyglas reproduction tires; in the rear, the coveted 15×8.5 wheels are wrapped in L60 rubber.

Mark also added a set of new, but period-correct, Gabriel HiJackers air shocks to ensure adequate quarter-panel clearance, giving the car the tough stance that was as popular on the boulevard in the 1970s as yellow slapper bars and snorkel hoodscoops.

And as was the case back then, the strong stance provides additional clearance for a deep-sump oil pan protruding beneath the K-member.

“It was on the car when I bought it, and I thought it was a great holdover from the era,” says Mark. “With the wheels, it just looks right.”

The stout short-block to which the oil pan is attached is filled with a forged crankshaft (undercut 0.010 inch), forged pistons bored 0.030 over, and a Comp Cams’ Purple Power PP292H hydraulic flat-tappet camshaft, with 0.509/0/509-inch lift, 292/299 degrees duration, and a tight 108 lobe separation angle that gives the RB big-block a head-turning lope.

The engine is finished off with an Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold and Edelbrock carb, TTI long-tube headers—although Mark admits a set of period, white Hooker headers would look better—and an electronic ignition conversion. An electronic distributor was also added to support the tach drive. Mark modified the pulley arrangement with a Hemi crank pulley and other minor changes that give the drive system a more uniform appearance.

He says, “Typically, it looks like something’s missing in the system when there’s no air conditioning or power steering, because there are pulley grooves with no belts. This arrangement makes the front of the engine look more complete.”

Seamless Repairs

The Charger finally hit the road again in 2010, and Mark and his family enjoyed it for the next six years, until that fateful day in November 2016.

“It was devastating,” he says. “We had spent so much time on the car and, just like that, it all changed.”

Fortunately, the car was properly insured. Hagerty, the underwriter, deemed the Charger repairable, per the policy’s Guaranteed Value coverage. It would pay up to 75 percent of the agreed value to make the car whole again. Mark’s next step was finding a shop to do the repairs.

The search led to Wing’s Auto Art in Ionia, Michigan, where Nyle Wing has specialized in muscle car restorations for the better part of three decades. He was initially cautious about the project, as such a job clashed with his shop’s standard process of complete, tear-down restos. He took the job, which involved replacing all the driver-side sheetmetal and painting only about half of the car. That meant the paint job would involve painstaking color-matching for a seamless blend.

“The result was nothing short of perfect,” says Mark. “It’s impossible to tell the car has been only partially repainted. The blending is completely invisible, and I couldn’t have been happier when I saw the car after it was completed.”

If the car were a Cougar, this is probably the place in the story where we’d make a joke about the cat having used up two of its nine lives. That wordplay doesn’t work so well with a Charger. We could also give a brief sermon about the importance of properly insuring your muscle car, but we’ll skip all that to focus on the fact that this vintage Charger R/T is back among the living and Mark is back behind the wheel.

Here’s to hoping that R4 Bright Red paint doesn’t need anything more than an occasional microfiber wipe-down from here on out.

 At a Glance
1969 Charger R/T
Owned by: Mark and Lori Stornant
Restored by: Restored initially by the owner and Randy Oswald, John Schultz, and Doug Jones; collision repair by Wing’s Auto Art, Ionia, MI
Engine: 440ci/375hp Magnum V-8
Transmission: New Process A-833 4-speed manual
Rearend: Dana 60 with 3.54 gears and Sure Grip
Interior: Black vinyl bucket seat with center console
Wheels: 15×7 front, 15×8.5 rear American Racing Torq-Thrust
Tires: G70-15 front, L60-15 rear Goodyear Polyglas reproduction
Special parts: A33 Track Pack (Hemi 4-speed, Dana 60 with 3.54 gears, Hurst shifter, 7-blade cooling fan, 26-inch radiator with shroud), Edelbrock intake and carburetor, TTI headers

Grim to Great

The post 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Revived After Near Disaster appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

It takes a lot to raise our eyebrows at a first-generation Camaro. We’re not haters of the pony car icon, we’re just a little burned out, ok? That makes this car all the more special. Because it’s not only a first-gen-‘er, it’s a 1969 model–the most done, then re-done Camaro on the planet. Yet, against all odds, we looked, and then couldn’t stop looking.

The team at Detroit Speed, Inc. did it again. They created a car the bridges the gap between timeless Chevy muscle and late-model elegance, and does it in a way that would have the most expensive and sophisticated autobahn missiles green with envy.

The latest creation from the suspension-specialists-turned-hot-rod-house is called Tux. Built for Stuart Adams, the team was given three words and one guiding statement to inspire the build. The words were, “1969, Performance, and Eloquent,” and Adams’ words of wisdom were “Build a Camaro like you’ve always wanted.”

The project began with a green 1969 Camaro powered by Chevy’s debatably-worst small-block engine ever, a lowly 307 backed by a Powerglide transmission–truly the essence of slow. It was accented, according to Tucker, by the “ugliest hubcaps you could pick as an option.” However, despite its laundry list of colors, smells, and weirdo options, it was a survivor car that hadn’t been modified and was in need of–if not deserving of– a high caliber build.

Adams did a few burnouts and made a few dragstrip passes at Mooresville dragstrip before the car was towed back to Detroit Speed headquarters and torn down.

The car was disassembled to its smallest bits and reborn from the ashes with styling nods and mechanical updates pulled from Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and even–Ford. Countless hours were spent with hammer, dolly, and welder modifying just about every body panel, beginning with a hand-fabricated sheetmetal floor and transmission tunnel to hold the T56 transmission. The ironwork continued on to a belly pan, rocker panels with integrated jacking posts, then outward to the front and rear spoilers and bumpers, narrowed and peaked to fit the body lines. When the team ran out of things to smooth and perfect by hand, they let the digitized touch of a CNC machine hog out custom bezels for headlights, taillights, and many other aesthetic interior bits. When the relentless reshaping and bodywork was finished, the car was sprayed in flawless PPG Black paint.

What you can see of the car is breathtaking. What you can’t see, even more so. The car’s roofline is a sleek 47 inches, which in itself doesn’t seem that impossible. However, Detroit Speed doesn’t build cars that don’t handle. With that short of a ride height, full suspension travel was still obligatory. Suddenly, that 47 inches sounds borderline subterranean. This meant, many, many changes were made to the body, such as reshaping the rear window glass and mechanicals to accommodate the larger, raised inner fenders which, of course, were hand made. An easier solution would have been fixing the window in place, but easy is– well–too easy, and that was quickly ruled out.

The level of fanatical attention to detail even carries into the most minute aspects of the car, such as the fasteners which are all custom, polished,stainless steel by ARP. Hundreds of custom bolts were made to keep a consistent look to the car. The trim is also 100 percent custom handmade, of course. Unlike the slip-together brightwork of a factory Camaro, which blends aluminum, stainless, and chrome, TUX has a continuous cladding of one-piece chrome trim, built by Detroit Speed and dipped by Advanced Plating. The drip rails bolt on to the car, and the windshield is framed with one-piece fabricated aluminum trim.

Aesthetically it’s unreal, but function is what really elevates this Camaro beyond resto-mod normalcy. Close the door and BMW power door pull latches clamp down, sealing the weatherstripping like a Swiss vault. The car is awash in bespoke engineering and hand-crafted subtlety, and the theme continues under hood.

The engine is a supercharged, LS–keep reading it gets better–built by Kurt Urban Performance that’s been treated to a masterful vintage-‘ification. It’s not so much playing the “new-dressed-as old” card as it is gently nudging onlookers to imagine what if the first gen Camaro never faded out. What sort of orange and chrome clad muscle mill would be under the hood if it was still rolling off assembly lines today? It would look like this.

Polished fasteners and stainless accents continue to abound while the engine is framed by custom headers built in-house. Again, what draws the eye is just as impressive as what doesn’t. Hidden hood hinges tucked behind a false firewall gently lift and lower the hood while a machined air intake routes air to the engine, its subtle, factory-esque appearance not detracting from the engines’ palpable draw.

Building a pony car to go toe-to-toe with the best of Bavaria requires performance hardware as equally jaw-dropping as the car’s curb appeal. Up front is a Detroit Speed sub-frame with hydro-formed rails, while the back was treated to a Quadra-link suspension system with a 9-inch–style rear end. Braking is handled by Baer mono-block 6R calipers clamping giant, 15-inch rotors. Rolling stock consists of custom Forgeline wheels measuring 19×10-inches front and 20×12-inches in the rear. Michelin Pilot Sport rubber with shaved sidewalls measures 275mm wide in the front and a massive 335mm in the rear.

The next-level experience continues on the inside as well. A one-off center console is flanked by Porsche grab handles and a custom interior by M&M Hot Rod interiors incorporates Recaro seats, Classic Instruments gauges and roll-cage wrapped seamlessly throughout.

The car has racked up a series of wins already, including a Goodguys 2018 Street Machine of the Year award, Street Rodders’ Triple Crown, a Battle of the Builders trophy, and most recently, a Masters of Motors Best Appearing award. All the trophies, fanfare, and turned heads are a mounting pile of evidence that there are new ways, ideas, and executions to prolong the coolness of the unsinkable ’69 Camaro. Tux is proof positive.

The post Detroit Speed’s TUX is Proof There is Room In Our Hearts for Another ‘69 Camaro appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Jim Mercurio grew up on a healthy diet of all things Mopar, which was fed to him on a daily basis by his immediate family. His good ’ol dad was a lover of all things Chrysler and proudly toured through town with his Hemi-powered ’57 DeSoto. Jim’s older brother, Art, was more in tune with the current times; his track-tested 340-powered Duster was his main steed and he commanded it with an iron fist, using it to passionately patrol the local streets.

Jim spent his hot rod–infused childhood mimicking his family and his idols. His time was spent building model hot rods, playing with his bevvy of mini cast cars, and modifying his bicycle into a wild garage-based custom. But mostly, he enjoyed hanging out with his older brother, who at 10 years his senior was already on the road and infused into the world of choice muscle cars.

It was in Art’s mighty Duster that Jim would often ride shotgun. Jaunts were made to the track, the local parts stores, and to Jefferies Garden State Motors — a Chrysler dealership just a short ride from their home in Collingswood, New Jersey.  There, Art would source the performance parts he needed to help keep the A-Body performing above and beyond the Brand X cars out on the streets.

’Cudascovery
On a hot summer day in 1970 Jim jumped in the Duster with Art and took a ride over to Jefferies to pick up an order of speed parts for the A-Body. Once there, Jim split up with his big brother and went along his own way, looking for action only a 10-year old could find. He quickly found the showroom, which was stuffed full of the 1970s’ hottest Plymouth rides. “I remember it like it was yesterday; there was a Road Runner, a Duster, and this stunning 340 motivated Rallye Red ’Cuda ragtop,” says Jim.

Jim was in heaven to say the least. Instinctively, he headed right for the drop-top ride. Not seeing a problem, he opened up the big E-Body driver door, snuck in, and made himself cozy in the bucket seat. “I then reached over and started playing with the shifter, pretending to put it through the gears,” admits Jim. It didn’t last long before his brother found him and extracted the youngster pronto. “I’m gonna own a car like this one day,” Jim told his brother.

The story would’ve been over right there, but something that can only be described as a case of Mopar magic happened two weeks later. On his way home from school, Jim passed a neighbor’s house, just three blocks away, a house that he delivered papers to. In the driveway was not just any new ’Cuda, but the ’Cuda convertible he had just gotten up close and personal with day’s prior. “I couldn’t believe it; I really didn’t think I’d see that car again,” he said.

It was certainly a shock to see the car out on the street just steps away from his home. So now Jim had the pleasure of seeing his favorite car on a daily basis. Whether it was on his typical school commute or his local paper route, the car was always visible to him. “It was this man’s daily driver for three years and was driven often,” Jim states.

After a few years of ownership, the ’Cuda got driven less and less, spending more time out in the driveway. Then finally, about five years into its life, the drop-top was parked on the side of the house for the foreseeable future. It was in that spot where the car would sit dormant as the owner found himself another new ride to do his daily chores with.

Jim kept an eye on the car for the next year, checking on any movement. Then, one day he spotted the owner outside putting a battery in the car. Having a “business” relationship with him as the kid who supplied his daily paper, Jim figured he’d strike up a conversation. Jim asked what he was doing. The man replied, “I’m getting it started so I can put it in the want ads.” With that, Jim immediately stepped up without a second for thought and said, “Oh no, you’re not … I’m going to buy it from you!”

The man was taken aback, but listened to the now 16-year-old Jim make his pitch for ownership. “How much you want?” Jim asked. “300 bucks,” the man replied. Jim raced home and grabbed his dad and told him about the car. Pop was all in on the purchase, and even talked the owner down to $290 for his son. So with that, Jim emptied his bank account, grabbed the title, and drove his new prize home the three blocks back to the house.

’Cuda Gras
What Jim bought was an interesting ride to say the least. The ’Cuda was built with a 340 and rowed by a three-speed transmission. No power anything, but it did come with a Rallye dash, 15-inch Rallye wheels, and 11-inch drum brakes at the corners. It ran poorly at the time, so Jim made a plan. To get it street ready quickly, Jim decided to infuse it with big-block power. He pulled the smoking 340, and added the drivetrain from a local ’68 Road Runner to the mix. Still not legal to drive, the young gun would have to wait it out till New Jersey gave him the authority to hit the streets once he turned 17 a few months later.

After passing his driver’s test in the beefy, all-manual-drive big-block drop-top, life changed dramatically for Jim. Now unleashed and road-ready, Jim did what his brother had done 10 years before, and took his new car to the street and the track. Atco Raceway was close by, and the four-speed drop-top found its way down the quarter-mile. The powered-up street car did well, posting consistent 11-second runs on the well-known South Jersey strip.

But there was more. Living so close to the “City of Brotherly Love,” Jim and his ’Cuda also made their way to world-famous Front Street, where the Philadelphia locals took their muscle rides to street race without a fear of getting caught. It was the ’70s and street machines were living life around every corner, just waiting for a chance to pounce on unsuspecting victims.

This ride was Jim’s daily driver for the better part of five years, including his last two years of high school. Soon Jim decided to mix it up and bought new rides to commute to work with. Luckily, Jim did what he loved, working for Chrysler at a local dealership. He set the ’Cuda aside for the time being, but it never went far from his thoughts.

Being a skilled engine builder, he was often asked to build powerplants for local cars. After working on a 340 for a local client and test-driving the man’s Dart, he knew he had to get the car back on the road. Luckily, he had the knowledge and skills to do that.

So after seven years of storage, Jim got to work on the ’Cuda, bringing back its 340 power. He installed things he’d have wanted on his car if he bought it new, like an original shaker hood, an OEM rear wing, six-barrel induction, and elastomeric bumpers. Disc brakes from a ’73 ’Cuda were added up front, an AAR rear sway bar out back, and 3.91 gears in the rear. He rebuilt the body with all NOS sheetmetal he scored at places like Carlisle, and then had Misha Auto Body in Mount Holly, New Jersey, baste his ride in Chrsyler’s brand-new Viper Red paint.

There the E-Body would go on to win awards and accolades at Chryslers at Carlisle and even scored a feature showing on Daddy Don Garlits TV show, Inside Drag Racing, filmed at Raceway Park in Englishtown. Jim loved ripping up the local streets with the healthy small-block power, and enjoyed the nimbleness of his reborn small-block ’Cuda. The car was even part of his nuptials just after it was finished.

’Cudaphant
Jim would continue to drive it that way till 2013 when he decided he really did need more power under that shaker. He had always admired the FE5 Rallye Red Hemi convertible press car, one of the only 14 Hemi-powered drop-tops produced by Chrysler in 1970, and knew the ’Cuda needed a power surge that only an Elephant motor could muster up. He did his research and decided that Jim Gosselin of Gozzy Mopar would handle the duties of building him an over-the-top Hemi powerplant.

The Hemi started out as a 528 World Products block, and was built up with Mopar Performance aluminum heads, along with an Edelbrock dual-quad intake topped with a pair of Edelbrock 800-cfm carbs. The car has stock cast-iron manifolds and a stock exhaust. It uses an MSD ignition for spark. All this power is rowed by a modified Hemi four-speed transmission, built by Passon Performance. This feeds a Dana rear with an Eton Truetrac posi and 4:10 gears, which twist Strangle axles.

The Cragars that Jim put on in the ’70s are now back on the car and shod with 27×10.5x15LT Hoosier Quick Time Pros out back. Up front, 215/75/15 Pro Track Competition tires keep this ride pointed in the right direction. SuperStock springs out back give the ride just enough rake to signal to onlookers that this ’Cuda means business out on the street.

Today, Jim can’t be happier with his ride. It’s been nearly a 50-year journey with this ’Cuda, from the time he first laid eyes on it to the car being his hopped-up getaway vehicle on any given weekend. It’s a bond between machine and man that’s solidified through the decades. “Driving this car is never boring and is a time machine back to my youth,” he says. “It always brings me back to the first day I sat behind the wheel.”

Fast Facts
Jim Mercurio
’70 Hemi ’Cuda convertible

ENGINE
TYPE: 528 Gen 2 hemi
BORE x STROKE: 4.50 x 4.150
BLOCK: World Products 528
ROTATING ASSEMBLY: Forged steel crank, Eagle H-beam rods
CYLINDER HEADS: Mopar Performance aluminum heads
COMPRESSION: 10.7:1
CAMSHAFT: Comp Cams hydraulic roller
VALVETRAIN: roller rockers
INDUCTION: Edelbrock tunnel-port dual-quad intake, two Edelbrock 800 cfm carburetors
OILING SYSTEM: stock
EXHAUST: stock manifolds with TTi stainless exhaust
IGNITION: stock distributor with MSD 7AL ignition box
COOLING: stock radiator
FUEL: Holley high-pressure mechanical pump
OUTPUT: 696 hp
ENGINE BUILT BY: Gosselin Automotive (Stockbridge, MA)

DRIVETRAIN
TRANSMISSION: Passon Performance Hemi box four-speed with Centerforce dual-disc clutch
SHIFTER: Hurst Comp Plus
STEERING: stock manual
FRONT BRAKES: stock disc
REAR BRAKES: stock 11-inch drum
REAR: Dana 60 with Eaton Trutrac 4.30 gears

INTERIOR
SEATS: stock vinyl buckets
INSTRUMENTS: Rallye gauges
WIRING: stock

WHEELS & TIRES
WHEELS: 15×6 (front) and 15×8 (rear) Cragar
TIRES: 215/75/15 Pro Track Competition (front) and 27×10.5x15LT Hoosier Quick Time Pros (rear)

The post Lifelong Mopar Fanatic Scores a Plymouth Barracuda He Picked Out When He Was Ten Years Old appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Don’t Come Unhinged!

Installing doors and hinges seems simple enough. After all, the work can be done with basic hand tools. Removing and installing the door is easy, but it’s when you get into the adjustments that the simple stuff ends, and it can get complicated. Our project is a 1969 Camaro RS that is undergoing a total restoration. We’re replacing many of the body panels on the car including the passenger-side quarter panel, the driver’s door, and the door hinges.

Because we need to replace the passenger-side quarter panel, it’s essential that the passenger door line up correctly before the quarter panel is removed. This door will be the main reference for lining up the new quarter panel. The original factory panel gaps on these cars were horrible. Plus, years of torque and gravity have caused the cars to sag. Adjusting the door gaps on an older vehicle is an exercise in patience and finesse.

Try to have a helper when removing and installing the door. You can do it on your own, especially if the door doesn’t have the glass, regulator, or hardware in place. Our 1969 Camaro doors are bare of any window assemblies and are easy for one person to handle. You can also use a floor jack to help with the door.

Start by taking a close look at the existing door gaps and measure them. Also note how far the door tilts in or out. Take photos so you can refer to them later. If the fenders are in place, remove them. Work on one side at a time. Have a panel stand or saw horses ready for the door being removed. Using a pencil, draw a line along the top edge of each hinge on the body of the car. This will be used for reference only. The new hinge will likely end up in a different position.

Once the door is off the car and on the panel stand, draw a line around each hinge on the door and remove them. To access the bolts on the lower hinge, use a long screwdriver or pry bar to open and close the hinge. To help the bolts move freely, use a tap to chase and clean the bolt holes on the door and body. You’ll be making many fine adjustments, so having clean threads makes it easier to turn the bolts. Clean the bolts using a wire wheel. We had to make some adjustments to one of the new NPD hinges by opening up one of the mounting holes. Now install the new hinges on the door. Don’t tighten the bolts down all the way. The bolts are only snugged—just secure enough to hold the hinges in place once the door is installed.

If the door striker is in place, remove it. You don’t want the striker supporting the door. Make sure the door alignment is correct, then install the striker and adjust it to fit the door alignment. That way the striker won’t pop the door up or down.

Put the door into position on the car. Lean into the door to hold it in place and thread in the top two bolts of the top hinge. Then install the bottom hinge bolts. Line up the hinges on the old reference lines and snug down the bolts. Tighten them enough to hold the door in place, but not cranked down. The bolts need to be free enough to loosen with one or two turns.

Door alignment is all about minute adjustments. There are four adjustments on a car door. Up and down, forward and back, the horizontal tilt, and vertical tilt. These are made by moving each side of the hinges. The hinge has two sides or flanges: the flange that attaches to the door and the flange that attaches to the body. These are equally important. The hinge-to-body flange will move the door back and forth. It also changes the vertical up and down positioning and controls the horizontal angle of the door. The hinge-to-door flange allows slight up and down fine tuning, but it primarily controls the vertical tilt adjustment: tilting the door in or out at the top and bottom.

The door is always adjusted to the quarter panel and rocker because those are fixed. The fenders will be adjusted to the door. Start by making the bottom of the door parallel to the rocker. Then work on the quarter panel to door gap. Check the tilt of the door and adjust it to be flush with the surrounding surfaces. You’ll be going back and forth, adjusting and readjusting the hinges. Move the door one way, move it back, then fine tune. The changes will get smaller and smaller. Be patient! Expect to spend the better part of a day working on the gaps.

If installing a new door shell, the process is almost identical. We compared the new Dynacorn door to the old one, checking the measurements. Leave the old hinges on the old door for use as a reference for the hinge location on the new door. To position the hinges on the new door, loosely attach them to the door. Next, move them up and down, forward and back, finding the center. Snug them down and install the door on the car. Repeat the alignment procedures.

For our Camaro project, we’re looking for the doors to line up with the existing quarter panels. The doors need to have a uniform gap along the rear and bottom edges.  After the front subframe, radiator support, and fenders are installed, we’ll adjust fender-to-door gap. Any flaws or uneven edges on the panels will be taken care of during the bodywork phase.

Materials

How-To: Straighten a Door Edge

When to Paint a Hinge
Some new hinges come in black powdercoat, while others are unfinished raw metal. If you have bare metal hinges, clean them of any oils before working with them. If you’re only replacing the hinges on a finished painted car, go ahead and paint the new hinges before replacing them. But if you’re doing a restoration and the car is not painted, leave the hinges in bare metal. That door will be coming off the car again. Paint the new hinges when you’re ready to install the door for the final time, but make sure to scribe lines after fitting the door to mark the final hinge location.

To Shim or Not to Shim
Try to get a proper door alignment without using shims. Shims are the very last resort as once you place the shims in one spot, you’ll most likely have to add shims to other mounting places.

Adjustment Trick for Painted Hinges
If the hinges are painted and you need to make slight changes after the door-to-body hinge flanges are almost fully tightened, use a block of wood. Place the wood against the hinge and tap it to move the hinge without loosening the bolts. Put a cloth between the wood and the hinge to give the paint even more protection.

I want to see the previous story on this 1969 Camaro where the dash panel was replaced. Take me there! 

The post Don’t Come Unhinged! How to Adjust Door Gaps on a 1969 Camaro appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Back in May of 2018 Hoonigan’s own Jon Chase called out Roadkill’s Mike Finnegan for a Tri-Five gasser shootout. That meant he was picking a fight with one of the baddest Tri-Fives around, Blasphemi, a Hemi-swapped 1955 Chevy done up Two-Lane Blacktop style as a straight-axle gasser that just so happens to have a 528ci, blown, all-aluminum Hemi under the front nose. At this point in time Jon’s car was simply a running and driving 1955 Chevy with a simple straight-axle setup and a tired, old small block Chevy under the hood—so he certainly had his work cut out for him if he was going to be competitive, but there’s nothing like a strict deadline to make you finish (or in this case start) a long awaited project.

The website servers nearly caught on fire as fans from both sides begged for the shootout to take place, and much to everyone’s elation Finnegan answered the call and plans began to set up this grudge race of epic proportions. Working with the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association), the two decided to run the race at the NHRA season-opener called the Winter Nationals in Pomona, California. So Jon got to work on his car, swapping in a Magnuson supercharged LSX with a shot of nitrous just for good measure, as well as getting the car up to snuff for NHRA tech. Meanwhile Mike went and ran HOT ROD Drag Week, nearly winning his class and laying down a blistering 8.97 second run on the final day before blowing up his engine for the third time on the following run.

Mike and his crew went through the engine and got the car back together with some pretty serious changes including a host of fuel system modifications and some pretty serious chassis improvements before loading the car up and heading West in his newly acquired, 38-foot-long ramp truck with no real testing on either it or the car tucked safely inside. After what was supposed to be a quick dyno session at Horsepower Connection with tuner Brian Macy in Lake Havasu City, Arizona turned into a four day ordeal when the coolant refused to stop getting friendly with the oil, they decided to run the car with no water in it at all to prevent making milkshakes in the oil pan and laid down a whopping 1,070 horsepower at the rear tire running on ethanol, which luckily helped keep the engine cool.

All the while, Jon Chase and the crew at Hoonigan were thrashing to get his car finished in time after they ran into a host of issues with their LSX racing engine. They ended up swapping in a junkyard fresh 5.3L engine with a hope and a prayer that it wouldn’t oil down the NHRA’s track right before the Top Fuelers were slated to head down the very same strip. Somehow Finnegan’s crew beat them to Pomona despite having to come all the way from Georgia and actually managed to get some test hits in on Thursday before the first round of the contest was to take place the following day. On the first pass the rear tires hooked up hard causing the nose of the car to go sky high as Mike rode a wheelie down the track before the nose came down and bounced right back up again. Luckily the car went dead straight and despite the chute being jostled loose when the car came down from the second wheelie the car was otherwise unharmed and the team got Blasphemi ready for another pass.

Somehow Mike, accompanied by crew members David Newbern, Mike Cotton, Merlon Johnson, and Brian Macy, ended up being the last car to roll through the staging lanes and onto the historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona as the sun was setting over the end of the track. They had pulled some timing out of the car on the launch in hopes of keeping the front wheels down and getting a solid run down the strip. As Mike staged the car the first bulb lit, then the second, the lights dropped, the tree went green, and he dumped the clutch. Blasphemi lurched forward, shaking the tires for just a fraction of a second, but then taking off like a rocket towards the end of the strip belching fire on every shift as Mike rowed through the gears. Nobody in the place knew it because the boards had been turned off to keep his time a secret, but Mike had just run his fastest pass yet, laying down a 8.689 second run at a whopping 160.48 miles per hour shattering his previous best time by almost a full three-tenths!

The guys kept that number to themselves so as to not demoralize the Hoonigan team who were busy working on Jon’s car in the pits, but knew they were in a good position going into the following day’s first round of competition with Blasphemi set on kill. You’ll just have to wait and read all about that in the next installment of the Hoonigan vs. Roadkill, Jon Chase vs. Mike Finnegan showdown!

The post Mike Finnegan Runs Best E.T. Ever in Blasphemi Before Racing Hoonigan! (Wheelie Video) appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

On Saturday February 9^th, two legends of professional drag racing: Terry Vance and Doug Herbert, celebrated a charitable donation of $1 million dollars to Herbert’s non-profit organization Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe (B.R.A.K.E.S.). The two met at the starting line of the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California during the NHRA Winternationals half-time break to announce Vance’s donation to Herbert’s organization.

Vance is a 14-time national motorcycle drag racing champion and team owner and co-founder of the winning motorcycle team Vance & Hines, and Herbert is a multi-time NHRA Top Fuel champion and the founder of B.R.A.K.E.S, an organization he started in 2008 after a tragic car accident killed his sons Jon and James. It is a free teen-driver’s safety clinic that tours the country giving teens the knowledge they need to be more aware drivers on public roads.

“Terry and I have been friends for years, and we have a lot in common,” said Herbert. “Besides loving racing, driving and riding, we’re also parents, and we both recognize that protecting our kids and setting them up for success in life is the single greatest accomplishment you can ever aspire to. Thanks to Terry’s generosity, the charity that I founded to honor my sons is going to help a lot more teens and parents nationwide.”

Vance and his two sons recently attended one of the B.R.A.K.E.S. seminars had this to say about the program,

“As a parent, every time your kid goes out the door, especially if they’re getting into a car, you want to know that you’ve done everything in your power to help them get back home safe. B.R.A.K.E.S. training does that. It gives teens skills and knowledge that we all know they’ll need on the street, and it stresses the importance of making good decisions to avoid trouble in the first place. I think every teen should go through B.R.A.K.E.S. That’s why my wife and I are making this donation to help Doug’s program keep expanding and saving lives, and we hope to inspire others to do the same.”

B.R.A.K.E.S. and their highly trained staff of law-enforcement officers and race, and stunt drivers have educated over 34,000 teens and their families from 45 states and five countries and could be coming to a city near you. To find out more, click the link below to read the full story of Doug and the program and head to www.putonthebrakes.com.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/nhra-legend-doug-herbert-teaches-defensive-driving-teens-free/

The post NHRA Drag Racing Legends Doug Herbert and Terry Vance Celebrate a $1,000,000 Donation to B.R.A.K.E.S. appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

On this Muscle Monday, Kendra visits with Mike Spina as he unloads his 1970 AMC AMX to display it at the 2018 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals. This was Mike’s first car. He bought it as a teenager, and as you’ll see in the video it played a big role in his eventual choice of careers. Mike parked his beloved AMC in 1985, so there was more than 30 years of dirt and grime to clean off of it prior to putting it in the show’s Original & Long-Term Owner’s Invitational.

Watch this space every two weeks for Muscle Monday videos! Next time Kendra chats with Tweed Vorhees about a very special 1968 Oldsmobile.

The post Muscle Monday: Cruisin’ With Kendra and Mike Spina’s 1970 AMC AMX at MCACN appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

After months of anticipation since Hoonigan’s Jon Chase called out Roadkill’s Mike Finnegan for a gasser vs. gasser showdown at the NHRA Winter Nationals, the weekend finally arrived and Jon’s Tri 5 by Fire and Mike’s Blasphemi rolled into the parking lot of Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to get ready for an epic grudge race. Neither team was without issues. Mike Finnegan and his crew members David Newbern and Mike Cotton had road tripped across the country with Blasphemi in the back of his new ramp truck, but after the dyno session at Horsepower Connection in Lake Havasu City, Arizona with tuner Brian Macy as well as Merlon Johnson and Steve Darnell from WelderUp Vegas turned into a four day debacle they had to resort to running the car sans coolant to keep from making a coolant and oil slurry in the motor. Luckily, they had just cobbled together a new fuel system that allowed the car to run on E85, which both made more power, putting down a whopping 1,070 horspower at the rear tire, and helped to keep the now bone-dry engine a little cooler during runs.

With Blasphemi set on kill, team Finnegan managed to make a couple test hits (Click here to see how that went) on Thursday as Jon Chase and team Hoonigan thrashed on their car in the pits to get it ready. Jon’s car was also plagued with issues leading up to the day, and after hurting their Magnuson-supercharged and nitrous equipped race engine only a few days before the event, they were forced to swap in a junkyard fresh 5.3L LS while their LSX was rebuilt by the guys at CPR Engines. Things were definitely shaping up to be interesting as both teams quietly discussed strategies to edge out their competition, and with the stakes being public shaming by way of beard shaving, neither competitor wanted to take that loss.

On race day with Blasphemi prepped and ready, Mike and his crew jumped over to the Hoonigan pit and started helping get things wrapped up on the Tri 5 by Fire, proving that real racers are willing to help their opponents in order to get an honest run at them down the strip. With both cars put together enough to go racing, they were called to the staging lanes to line up in front of thousands of fans for the first round of a best two out of three battle of the beards. Jon was having issues with his line lock and opted to drive around the water box, forgoing a burnout while Mike in Blasphemi unleashed the music of our people as he ripped a massive burnout before rolling his car into the beams. As the lights dropped both cars lurched forward, and while Jon technically had the faster reaction time, it was Mike who pulled ahead, taking Jon to “Gapplebees” when the Tri 5 by Fire bogged on the line. Blasphemi managed to run a 9.1 second pass pulling the chute and coasting for the last hundred or so feet of the run while Jon ran a 13.5 second pass in his car.

With the first round in the books and a solid win in the bag for team Finnegan, Jon knew they needed to make some serious changes in order to have any chance of staying in the competition. Lucky for them, CPR Engines had just delivered their refreshed LSX and with the engine still quite warm from their previous run, a large number of hands descended on the car as they ripped the junkyard engine from between the front frame rails. With the help from some mechanics from Ken Block’s own rally team, they had the old engine out and on the ground in less than thirty minutes and started swapping over all the necessary parts to the race engine. Meanwhile in Finnegan’s pit they were celebrating and spending time with fans as the car seemed to be functioning perfectly.

Just a couple hours later and Jon’s Tri 5 by Fire now had a much more serious power plant under the hood. They loaded it up to get dyno-tuned at Accelerated Racing Solutions as team Finnegan put Blasphemi away without servicing the car that evening. Round one had been fairly definitive, but with so many changes being made there was really no way to know what round two on Saturday would bring. Would the new engine in Jon’s car have enough power to rival Blasphemi? Would their chassis setup even be able to put the power down? Or would Mike’s car live up to its reputation as a breaker of speed parts and give up round two due to a failure? We’re pretty sure neither driver slept very well that night with the consequences of what the next day might bring for their facial hair haunting their dreams.

We awoke to a dreary and rainy morning at the track, but despite the weather, team Hoonigan was in high spirits after their engine swap and seemed fairly confident they had something for Blasphemi that day. After the rain subsided both teams prepped their cars for the second and possibly final round of the race as fans young and old gawked at the spectacle before them. With noon fast approaching, the NHRA officials called the cars to the lanes just as Mike went to spin his engine over for the first time that day. At that point, Blasphemi’s starter decided to expire. After a trying a few quick fixes to no avail, they were forced to tow the car to the starting line, hoping the golf cart had enough guts to pull-start the massive Hemi under the hood. Anxiety was high and the members of team Hoonigan looked on like vultures circling a kill, but after years of experience with whimsical repairs on Roadkill Finnegan didn’t seem all that bothered.

Then it was time. Everything had to go just right for Mike and his team. They had never attempted to pull start his car, and with no cooling system, they had to do it at just the right moment so the car wouldn’t have to idle too long and risk overheating the engine. Jon had it easy, simply firing up his machine and cruising to the starting line as Mike and his crew pulled Blasphemi up to speed before he released the clutch and started turning the engine over. It took what felt like an eternity, but after about fifty feet, the 528ci Hemi roared to life as everyone from Hoonigan swore under their breath. It looked like we had ourselves a race!

Blasphemi rolled into the water box and after a brief hesitation as Mike struggled to get it into gear, he ripped a glorious burnout in front of tens of thousands of fans that had filled the grand stands. Jon then laid down a short burnout before rolling up to the line for a do-or-die pass that would decide the fate of his beard. The cars staged, the lights dropped, and it was the Tri 5 by Fire that jumped to an early lead as Blasphemi bogged severely off the line, but just a couple hundred feet into the run, Jon’s clutch failed, leaving him with only first gear, allowing Mike to run him down and leave him in the dust despite laying down one of the worst passes he’s ever made in Blasphemi. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Mike cruised to victory with an 11.2 second run as Jon coasted through the clocks with a 20.6 giving team Finnegan a clean, two-round sweep as the cars stopped in front of the stage at the top end of the track.

Hilariously the NHRA had set up a barber’s chair which Jon sank down into to await the shearing of his beard as Mike and his crew were awarded an impressive handmade trophy for their win. They interviewed an awestruck Finnegan who stated, “I have a horrible relationship with this car — it’s the most unreliable gasser ever — but for once it lasted long enough to win something, and for that, I’m thankful. I thank the NHRA because, never in my wildest dreams would I have ever think I would be on this drag strip in front of this crowd.”

At this point Jon began to say his farewells to his facial hair telling everyone, “I’ve had this beard for ten years!” It was Jon’s own mother who stepped up for the first cut, taking a section right out of the middle as everyone laughed and Jon cried a little inside. Then Mike was handed the clippers, and adding a little insult to injury took a couple swipes for himself before jumping in his car for a parade lap in front of the packed grandstands. It was a moment we’re sure Mike will never forget as thousands of fans cheered while Top Fuel cars blew by on the strip while he rolled down the return road at the NHRA Winter Nationals standing out the door of a car he built with his own two hands.

All in all, it was a great weekend for the competitors and the fans alike. Although Jon lost his beard in the end, he got to race his car down the strip at an NHRA event in front of countless people. Even though he ended up with a cold chin, it’s hard to say anyone’s a loser in that situation. Be sure to click through the gallery to see all the photos of the action and be sure to stay tuned for even more coverage of the Kall Out Kings showdown.

The post Blasphemi and Tri 5 By Fire: A Hoonigan Vs. Roadkill Showdown (100+ Photos) appeared first on Hot Rod Network.