Hot Rod Network

In the summer of 2018, the faithful dropped their collective jaws when a Yenko collector named Doug Perry revealed that after nine years of pursuit, he was fortunate to purchase a one-owner 1967 Yenko Camaro, rarest of the three years of production (1967 to 1969).

What was the story? How did this 1967 coupe, born to race, have such low miles? How well preserved was this car? Did it have its original 427?

MCR was quick on the trigger to publish the news (“The Leftover,” Oct. 2018; bit.ly/2qRdnd6). A little over a year later, in fall 2019, Arone Restoration in Homer City, Pennsylvania, finished the car, then Doug Perry gave us the exclusive opportunity to photograph what we believe is the lowest-mileage (7,257) Yenko Camaro extant, now restored to its 1967 glory.

The Camaro’s original owner, John Weaver of Greensburg, Pennsylvania (who in 1968 lived in Latrobe, a scant 57 miles from Yenko Chevrolet), repainted his Nantucket Blue Yenko red in October 1968, within six months of its build and purchase the previous spring. That’s why when Perry bought YS760 (YS for Yenko Serial number, 7 for 1967, and 60 for the 60th and last built for the model year), it had to be stripped to bare metal.

Doug Perry, the Camaro’s current owner, said he and the crew at Arone Restoration were “amazed” at the condition of the sheetmetal when the car was stripped. “We couldn’t believe it wasn’t rusty. It was virgin metal when we stripped it. And the guys were, like, shell-shocked because it’s been in the garage since 1973. Since it was in the garage it was in heat. It never got crusty.”

Weaver’s late purchase is a key to this car’s unusual build, perhaps more so than the car’s 7,257 original miles. One complements the other in a way that benefits history. How fortunate that one of the great Yenko builds of all time was saved in a heated garage since 1973!

The last Camaros without smog pumps were 1967 models built in Norwood, Ohio, the assembly plant of every Yenko. In contrast, every 1968 and 1969 Camaro would come with an Air Injector Reactor (AIR), consisting of a pump with a compressor and hoses.

Just 19 at the time, Weaver remembered Don Yenko telling him, “This is the last car that we can make that’s not going to have all this emission equipment.” Weaver also remembers that Don added, “And I just love these cars,” which we think referenced the 1967s as the last of the unshackled elite.

So, is this Yenko the last real muscle car, in a sense, meaning unfettered by power-robbing, tune-up-busting, emissions equipment?

Here is the Camaro as it was found in John Weaver’s garage, and as it was delivered to Frank Arone’s restoration shop in 2018.

It was with this enthusiasm, we believe, and not just as a salesman, that Don Yenko sold this very last 1967 Yenko Camaro in the spring of 1968. Don promoted this car, which shows in the highest sticker price ever tallied for a Yenko Camaro: $5,242.08.

Weaver was after a Yenko Camaro in March 1968. The sales person, Ron Lane, told him “They weren’t prepping them yet,” in reference to the upcoming 1968 edition of the car. So, Lane tried to sell him one of about 50 Z/28s on the new car lot.

Weaver had his mind set on a big-block. Don Yenko took over and told Weaver to “come around to the back lot,” where under a tarp, parked outside, was a leftover 1967 model that they had not yet converted.

At this time, Don Yenko was engineering his 1968 supercars. This car on the back lot gave him one more shot at producing a Yenko Camaro with no smog, and history reveals he produced a real Duesy. The Weavers had a 1965 SS Chevelle to trade in, for which Don gave them a whopping $2,050, perhaps an overture to help with the Camaro’s colossal price tag as the options kept adding up.

The engine in this SS/RS was originally a 325-horse 396. Yenko swapped out the 396 block for the 390-horse, 427 block, which was a Corvette motor (the 351 casting), featuring a larger bore and thus more cubic inches. The Yenko 427 build also got the Corvette crank and cam (still hydraulic); but otherwise, Yenko used the intake, carburetor, and accessories from the 396.

The car had an odd color combination, Nantucket Blue with a red Deluxe interior, a showy combination that collectors love today, but which may be why this Camaro had remained unsold into March 1968—and the reason for Weaver’s subsequent and ill-advised color change in October of that year. Nonetheless, kudos to the Weavers’ consent to most of Don Yenko’s build scheme, otherwise YS760 most likely would have never existed.

Yenko created a masterpiece of hot rod engineering, which in 1967 was invoiced brand new from Chevrolet, same as any other Yenko of the day, but more exotic, we believe, than any other Yenko that Don ever put together.

The hood has already been removed from this car, as well as the air cleaner. Don explained, “We needed some parts.”

“I said, ‘OK, but can you put a ’68 SS hood on there?’” Weaver recalls. “Don said yes, then tried to talk me into a fiberglass hood that is like one of those Corvette Stinger hoods.”

Too bad Weaver didn’t say yes to the Stinger, for this Yenko would have been an even wilder creation. But Weaver was already spending a ton, and he opted to save $150 on the Stinger hood and another $150 on one other Don Yenko suggestion, a fiberglass decklid spoiler. Alas, neither of these decisions served muscle car history, but a 19-year-old and his dad did save 300 bucks.

Dave McGaffee rebuilt the 427. Given its low miles it might have been fine, but Perry and restorer Frank Arone preferred to make sure of the engine’s integrity after so many years.

The lack of an air cleaner proved another example of turning a negative into a muscle car positive in the form of a 1968 SS hood (which Weaver liked much better) bumped up even more with a cowl plenum. It provided higher performance, of course, but also proved to be unique not just to the Yenko Camaro, but to the entire production run of 1967, 1968, and 1969 big-block Camaros. Only the Z/28 in this first-generation Camaro came with cowl induction.

Today, Doug Perry likes to bait Camaro cowl-induction gurus (apparently they exist) with the question of whether or not there is such a thing as a big-block cowl-plenum Camaro. When they say no, he likes to respond, “I have it in writing,” referencing the seven pages of paperwork that are part and parcel of this car’s provenance.

Why did Weaver let the car sit from 1973 to 2018? A girlfriend was occupying most of his time, and “car racing took a back seat.” In 1973, he moved from Latrobe to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and “blew the transmission,” which he did rebuild. However, the red paint started peeling, and Weaver said the car “needed to be redone.” He began disassembling the car, and pulled the seats to “clean things up a notch,” but just never had time to put it back together or repaint the body. As a result, the Yenko Camaro just sat, mileage frozen at 7,257, until Weaver finally decided to sell it to Perry.

“It has the original drivetrain from Yenko,” says Perry. “Most of those cars blew up everything. The original rearend from Yenko is there, the original trans is there, the original motor is there. All three components are dated to the car.” The Doug’s headers were a suggestion by Don Yenko that Weaver agreed to.

In today’s haute couture of vintage muscle cars, there are many other pre-1968 unshackled muscle cars, and some would be hotter, such as a 1967 L88 Corvette or a 1967 Shelby Cobra roadster. None were produced as late as YS760.

At a Glance
1967 Yenko Camaro
Owned by: Doug Perry
Restored by: Arone Restoration, Homer City, PA
Engine: 427ci/410hp V-8
Transmission: TH400 3-speed automatic
Rearend: GM 12-bolt with 3.73 gears and Positraction
Exterior color: Nantucket Blue
Interior: Red Deluxe vinyl
Wheels: 15×6 Rally
Tires: G70-15 Firestone Wide Oval Super Sports
Special parts: Yenko conversion YS760, cowl plenum air cleaner, power windows, fold-down rear seat AM/FM radio; original documentation (including registration and Protect-O-Plate) and keys; 7,257 original miles

Perry suspects Don Yenko special-ordered this Camaro, perhaps for his parents or a customer, because it has the Deluxe interior, a fold-down rear seat, tilt wheel, wood-rimmed steering wheel, electric windows, and AM/FM stereo with four speakers.

A Ride With Don Yenko
Because of its headers, John Weaver had trouble getting a state inspection sticker for his Yenko Camaro, except at Yenko Chevrolet. On his first visit for an inspection, he ran into Don Yenko.

“Don had seen me there, and he said, ‘How do you like the car? Can we go for a ride?’

“I said, ‘Sure.’”

He says, ‘Well, do you mind if I drive?’

“I said, ‘No, I don’t mind if you drive.’

“So we pull out of the dealership. The dealership is on a two-lane street, just on the outskirts of town, and he is going through the gears, squealing tires through every gear. We’re up over 100 mph, and [I thought], Jiminy Christmas, what are we getting into?

He said, ‘You know you’re lucky. This is the last car that we can make that’s not going to have all this emission equipment.’ He said, ‘I just love these cars.’”

The Yenko’s original Stewart-Warner tachometer was found in a box and is now back in the car.

This S-W gauge package also turned up in Weaver’s garage, and it, too, is back home in the Camaro.

The carpet was original and perfect, as were the seats, upholstery, door panels, and glass front and rear. Cleanup sufficed, and no restoration was necessary. The red seats are a collector’s dream today but apparently were unpopular in 1967.

This is a 1968 hood, which is stock on this 1967 Camaro. Why? Because that’s the way Yenko built and sold the car brand new. Other than the hood, the Camaro retained every piece of sheetmetal it came with from Norwood, Ohio.

Weaver did pay Yenko for this GM factory spoiler, which was added later and thus not on the invoice. Don offered Weaver his one-piece spoiler, which would have been a much more exotic choice.

The original wheels were gone, and they are super rare, a very early production wheel coded JK on the reverse side. Perry bit the bullet and paid $4,500 for a set of four.

Road Trip

Doug Perry thought it fitting to bring the Yenko Camaro and its original owner, John Weaver, to Keystone Raceway Park, where Weaver raced the car. That’s Weaver on the starting line for the first time in decades.

Along for our “Return to Keystone” are, from left to right: Dave McGaffee, Matt Lamer, Frank Arone, Doug Perry, Matt Barcazk, and John Weaver.

Weaver poses with trophies he won at Keystone Raceway Park in the Camaro’s glory days. Typically, drag racing winners got their pictures taken with trophy and car in this position.

In addition to the trophies, Weaver won Raceway jackets at Keystone. Perry holds up a red jacket, Weaver a blue one.

The old Yenko dealership building is still in Canonsburg, but the Yenko name is gone. The dealership moved to another location in town in 1972. Doug Perry wanted to bring the car home to Canonsburg, but due to rain, we left the car in the trailer.

Warren Dernoshek worked for Yenko Chevrolet in the 1960s and came out to tell us about the dealership.

The post 1967 Yenko Camaro Has Just Two Owners and 7,257 Miles appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Years ago, back when I was first becoming involved, a friend shared his personal opinion of magazine tech. “Magazines give just enough information to get someone in trouble,” he said. Of course I didn’t exactly agree. If that was today I’d have to point out that we’re into Part 7 of this ongoing series. It’s going longer than we first thought it would. That’s because it’s keepin’ pace with our 1955 Chevrolet second-series gapjob, which is also going longer than we first thought it would. At any rate, we think you’ll find the information is here, in detail. Now with that said, let’s go on and see if we can get ourselves in trouble anyway.

In our last installment, I’d convinced myself that I needed to see an honest example of a similar truck, so Mrs. Rotten and I took a drive. Just a short distance down the road we found a collection of outdoorsy-type 1955-1957 GMC trucks. Those were in the yard at Restorations Limited. One looked as though it had never been apart, so we took some pictures and measurements of factory gaps from the Oakland, California, assembly plant.

Remember this 7/32 hood-to-cowl gap from Part 5 or so? In other places a 3/16 gap looks better. Unfortunately, this hood is adjusted as far down and as far back as it’ll currently go. We could use a little extra travel—just an 1/8 inch or so.

Although it’s been helpful to see some old trucks, we’ve also gained an invaluable information resource. Restorations Limited proprietor, David Symcox, has firsthand experience with gapjobs like ours. We’ve been back to his shop. He’s been to our shop, too. If things go my own way, you just might get to meet him as Part 7 of our story unfolds.

This time, as promised, we’ll move ahead to frontend sheetmetal. Yes, for the second time. Before fenders go on, it would be best to get the hood squared up proper with the cowl. Remember the big ugly gap we had there? If we can get the rearward edge of the hood to settle in a little lower, maybe just an 1/8 inch, that gap might not look so bad. Additional body shims may do the trick, but here that wouldn’t be our first choice. At this point our new Brothers hood hinges are functioning smoothly, but if we have to, we’ll modify—whatever it takes to get the hood-to-cowl gap we’re after.

When fenders go on this time we’ll expect to do better. For those two places where the core support meets the frame we’ll experiment by adding shims, as necessary, to the reproduction rubber sandwiches. You know, those little round pads we purchased from Brothers.

We know from past experience that shims will do a lot to change the gap we’re focused on. Still, we’d rather not use shims here. Let’s take our shiny-new hinges to the vise. We’ll do our best to protect the finish as we exaggerate the adjustment slots.

Speakin’ of Brothers, what do we do when we suddenly discover that we need parts, now, and it’s Sunday? Thanks to aftermarket convenience, we’ve been gettin’ spoiled. So far, however, we’re not too spoiled to go outside and get all dirty. Mrs. Rotten and I still enjoy that sort of thing, so we’ll include an impromptu parts-huntin’ trip as part of our story, as we try to wrap up the preoperative part of the impending panel gapectomy.

By the end of this month’s marathon we should have doors, hood, and fenders aligned as well as we can get ’em. In some places, factory-provided adjustments and shims just might enable us to achieve the better-than-new gaps we’re after. In other places, we’ll be cutting, welding, and grinding, as we always knew we would.

As you’ve likely seen along the way, we’ve ended up working with a mixture of original and reproduction body panels. When a reproduction panel doesn’t fall right into place we humans may tend to blame it on the panel, or the panel’s manufacturer. It wouldn’t make sense for us to do that here. Just as it came from Brothers, our new left door has turned out to be the best-fittin’ panel on this truck.

We’ll continue to struggle with our new Brothers fender, as so far, its shape seems to differ from that of our previously crash-damaged hood. Now, I know what you might be thinkin’. Let’s not be too quick to cut. Before we jump to human conclusions, let’s have another look—at the hood!

Now, we’re not suggesting that all-new hood hinges need 1/8-inch-exaggerated slots. In this particular instance, we think it’s a good call. From the bottom drawer of our old file cabinet, this rat-tail bastard features an adjustable (hose clamp) file stop.

With the hood back on, let’s check our work. Although our hood-to-cowl gap’s width varies slightly, and although it’s still adjusted too wide, we now have the option to go lower than we’ll likely need to.

On the opposite side, however, the hood sits a half-tad higher. Further lengthening of slots won’t help, as required flat washers now interfere with downward hinge adjustment. In the end this might not matter, but for now I’d like this corner lower.

Here’s an old body shop trick. I learned it in the ’70s, but it was already an old trick then. Let’s ignore the horrible creaking sounds and push upward, here, on the open hood.

This looks better, but the hood still needs a little thumb push to settle in this low. Additional shims at the forward hood-to-hinge bolts will be the quick fix.

Toward the end of our last installment we noted different inner fender shapes. Damage isn’t obvious, but we now suspect the passenger-side panel is flattened.

When we had fenders on before, this panel put up a fight. The angle here is noticeably steeper than the other side’s.

Let’s finesse this into shape. Even after blasting with boulder-grit abrasive, the panel still has a memory. With one low blow it’s already reassuming its original inward arch.

After our gentle finessing, the inner panel is again secured by the fender. With bolts in their places, this might be a good time to level some lumps. How’d those get there?

Back on the outside of our front group we’re still sorting things out. Our driver side hood-to-fender gap is really bad. Let’s see what we can do with panel adjustments.

From the look of things, we should move the core support slightly toward the passenger side. We think we’ve got the adjustment room to do so.

When the cab was set down on new pads we took measurements to ensure it was square with the frame. Now let’s get the front group mounted square with the cab.

The core support is shimmed at the frame and held as fasteners are snugged. It stays put, but fenders don’t seem to follow so well. We’re just about to learn the reason why.

The gent on the right is Dave Symcox of Restorations Limited. Today he’s brought a sample of two pieces we may not have in our used parts inventory.

Braces like this one belong just below where fenders, inner fenders, and core support connect. We don’t have ’em. Brothers might, but it’s Sunday and we really need ’em now. Grab tools! Where’s my camera? We’re going for a drive.

Not far away, in an otherwise-nice neighborhood, we found this Chevy panel truck. We met the owner, purchased the needed bits, and got to wrenchin’ right there. By late afternoon Mrs. Rotten has some work in these.

With the missing braces acquired and installed, the fenders now stay put up top. So, here’s a good used gravel shield. It shouldn’t be this tough to wiggle into place. As it turns out, we’ve been overlooking something.

From Brothers, our new inner fender grommets are accurate reproductions, but they didn’t come with center spacers. We have one original, so we’re making more. Sometimes little things make big differences. These might help us fit that gravel shield.

Back in Part 3 we trued up a twisted hood, but we could only go so far on the table. Here on the truck we’ve magnetically affixed a sheet of posterboard. Now let’s pull a pattern for a side-to-side comparison.

According to our pattern, this side has a little hump but it’s not as far off as we first thought. For this gap to be so bad there must be other problems. We’ll look into those, but first things first.

Here, a nice tool takes a hit for the cause. With the hood’s front edge propped by a short chunk o’ wood, this multi-purpose spoon dolly almost fits the shape of the humped-up area. This is working, but by itself it’s not enough to correct our gap.

Earlier, our trued-up hood sat nicely on the table. Too bad it doesn’t fit in with fenders that way. With the hood gently twisted in traction let’s loosen up the X-brace, rethink, and readjust as necessary.

Afterward, this gap is still bad. But, we do see improvement. From here we can add shims on this side, between the core support and frame. Fenders should now follow the core support, so let’s also move it further toward the passenger side.

Uh-oh! Using a clamp and a ratchet strap we’ve got the core support in traction, but it’s not really moving. With an upper pad and washer removed, we see that it’s already moved as far as it can.

When this cab went on, measurements were taken and we were satisfied that it was mounted square with the twice-straightened frame. With ordinary hand tools and our Harbor Freight motorcycle jack, we must now make a minor adjustment.

Every now ’n’ then things go slicker than we expect. Up this high it took a bit o’ lumber, but positioned below the center of the floor, our jack is really working for us. With bolts loosened and a little weight off, the cab easily pivots on its pads.

The front group has pretty much followed the cab’s movement. The cab is retightened with core support bolts centered. We can now add shims, and/or move front sheetmetal. With that gain maybe we can further improve our hood-to-fender gaps.

So, our new fender is fittin’ in better now. To get this gap, we’ve added shims on this side, between the core support and frame. We’ve also shifted the core support further toward the passenger side and installed new rubber hood bumpers all around.

Passenger-side OE panels fit about the same. Up front the hood protrudes slightly on both sides. Our hood-to-cowl gap is currently set at 3/16. We’ll rethink that, and maybe split some differences. If things go our way here, there’ll be no fender surgery.

Our new door is fittin’ right in with its old surroundings, with an average gap of 3/16. The widest spot is 5/16, just aft of the door’s rear post. That’s a no-impact area where a thin application of filler would hold up just fine. On this side, there’ll be no door surgery.

On the opposite side, however, the OE door needs help. We’ve already jacked the ’jamb as much as we dare to. We’ll likely need to recreate these gaps all around. That’s a whole ’nother story—to be told in our next installment.

The post Fitment Fundamentals—Cutting appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Chip Foose is a truck guy. His first car was a 1956 Ford F-100 Big-Window that he still owns to this day. We used to see Chip’s root beer brown 1956 F-100 parked in front of his office back in the early ’90s when he was a designer for Hot Rods by Boyd. Chip was fresh out of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and his office walls were covered with concept illustrations that included a few Harley-Davidsons rebodied as a two-wheeled 1957 Chevy Bel Air, a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, and maybe even an early Ford Mustang.

That was when Boyd’s shop was a maze of industrial units collected one-by-one leading to the original free-standing building at 8400 Monroe in Stanton, California. It was something to see; the cement walls of neighboring tilt-up industrial units were concrete sawed open to mount steel man doors to provide a quicker route to the other sites on Monroe. At the back building in the row of units owned by custom painter Dick Vale there still might be the Oscar of CadZZilla on the wall. An Oscar is a full-scale illustration of a concept car being built into reality. Fans of the TV show Overhaulin’ will recollect the episode where Chip’s 1956 F-100 got the full Overhaulin’ treatment and came out of surgery with a passel of body mods and a glossy coating of Raven Black urethane.

In 2007 Chip was commissioned by the Ford Motor Company to lend some of his magic and design his vision of what a Ford F-150 FX2 Sport pickup should look like. The truck came out as the 2008 Foose F-150 and Chip got serial no. 1. Folks who have visited Foose Design at lunchtime when the shop is open to host tourists might recollect seeing Chip’s Foose F-150 parked in the driveway in front of the chain link fence surrounding the shop complex.

One day Street Rodder showed up to check out an ongoing project Chip was building for Wes Rydell and in place of Chip’s Foose F-150 he’d been driving for some years was a brand-new platinum silver Ford F-150 pickup. Chip had traded his Foose F-150 serial no. 1 in for a new truck. We’re not sure who influenced who, Chip and MotorTrend TV’s Wheeler Dealer Mike Brewer are good friends. The wheeling and dealing already started and it wasn’t long after that we saw Chip had traded the silver F-150 straight across for a really cherry 1967 Chevy C10 shortbed. That was when we met up with Chip at the bimonthly Sunday morning Enderle Center Show in Tustin, California. We spoke with Chip about the C10 a little bit and then he fired up the white Chevy and drove away. A Washington state resident ordered the 1967 C10 new.

It didn’t seem like more than a few weeks later we were at Chip’s shop covering for Street Rodder and the white 1967 C10 was blown apart into a million pieces. Chip explained the 327-inch V-8 the truck came with blew up. It just so happened Chip had a complete 1967 Camaro Z/28 engine in his inventory and a concept to build what the truck could have looked like if a COPO Z/28 pickup was an option.

Incredibly, the date-coded casting numbers on the 302-inch Z/28 engine indicate both blocks the 327 and the 302 left the foundry stamped only a few numbers apart. It makes sense without verifying facts we recollect the Z/28 302 engine was a 327 block with a 283 two-main crank. The 1967 Z/28 engine in Chip’s truck was blueprinted to factory stock specs by Bostick Racing Engines. As all early 302s the camshaft is a Corvette 30/30 and the heads are camelback Corvette as well. The exhaust system starts with a pair of Corvette 2.5-inch cast-iron ram horns and is silenced with a pair of MagnaFlow stainless steel mufflers. Carburetion is an OE 780-cfm Holley and the distributor a stock Z/28 Delco converted from points to PerTronix electronic ignition. The high-winding 302 reached 405 hp on the dyno.

The transmission is a Bowler TREMEC five-speed with a Centerforce clutch and shifted with a Hurst arm. A Powertrain Industries driveshaft connects the trans to a 12-bolt Chevy rearend with 3.08 gears and Positraction. We made several visits to keep up with Chip’s progress and from start to finish the C/28 project took a swift five months to complete. During one visit the C10 chassis was a complete roller, Chip had painted the cab and other parts were in the paint booth drying.

A few weeks later Chip’s C/28 was completed and on its way to SEMA. Every detail Chip incorporated into the C/28 to emulate a factory build is exacting right down to issuing a SPID (service parts identification)—a listing of all the options equipped on a GM vehicle printed on a sticker inside the glovebox door. The handling package is a combination of Hotchkis sway bars and Classic Performance Products components with four Master Power Brakes discs paying tribute to the rare Camaro JL8 four-wheel disc brake option.

The factory original-style orange Hound’s-tooth cloth upholstery is a kit from The Truck Shop, custom upholstered by Alfredo Carcamo of Al’s Garage. Chip pointed out how he sprayed single-stage BASF paint over every original spot weld and mass production detail to replicate OE bodywork and paint. For the custom touches, or should we say included with the optional C/28 package, Chip pulled the grille back, lowered the turn-signals, and reworked 1967 Camaro bumpers to fit custom front and rear gravel pans.

It’s always interesting to swing by Foose Design to see what Chip and his craftsmen are working on. We asked Chip where the C/28 was, and ever the wheeler dealer Chip replied it was gone; he’s driving a new Ford F-150. It turned out a friend of Chip wanted the C/28 bad enough that he threw in two engines to sweeten the deal: an Offenhauser and a Duesenberg. The Duesy mill is headed under the hood of Chip’s latest coachbuilding adventure monikered the “Foosenberg,” a stretched 1932 Ford inspired by the Franklin Hershey–designed alloy-topped Murphy coupe.

1967 Chevy C10
Chip Foose
CHASSIS
Frame: C10
Rearend / Ratio: 12-bolt / 3.08
Rear Suspension: CPP
Rear Brakes: Master Power disc
Front Suspension: CPP 2-inch drop spindles
Front Brakes: Master Power disc
Front Wheels: Foose C/28 18×8
Rear Wheels: Foose C/28 18×10
Front Tires: Pirelli PZero 245/45-18
Rear Tires: Pirelli PZero 275/45-18

DRIVETRAIN
Engine: 1967 Z/28 302
Heads: Camelback
Valve Covers: OE
Radiator: OE
Fan: Deep-groove pulleys
Headers: Ram horn manifolds
Exhaust / Mufflers: Stainless steel MagnaFlow
Transmission: Bowler TREMEC five-speed
Shifter: Hurst

BODY
Style: Fleetside
Fenders: OE
Hood: OE
Grille: OE
Bed by: Josh Kamholz
Paint: BASF
Paint Type / Color: Appliance white
Headlights / Taillights: T3 / OE

INTERIOR
Dashboard: OE
Gauges: OE
Steering Wheel: 1967 Camaro
Steering Column: OE
Seats: OE
Upholstery by: Al’s Garage Truck Shop
Material / Color: Hound’s-tooth / Orange
Carpet / Color: Loop pile / Orange, later black
Air Conditioning: OE
Stereo: ARC Audio
Wiring: OE

The post Chip Foose’s C/28 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Mustang Girl Monday

Kate Hagen’s father was a die-hard Chevy guy, so she grew up around Camaros, Chevelles, El Caminos, and all that stuff, so the first car she remembers noticing was a 1996 Camaro. She said, “around that same point, I remember seeing the Mustang logo, and well, don’t all girls love that running horse? I spent my summers on a ranch in Colorado with some amazing Arabians, and I had horse fever. Then, I found out that the Mustang was actually insipired by the P51, the jaunty little plane I loved watching at all the airshows my dad took me to, and much to his horror, I became a Mustang girl.”

Kate’s first wrench-turning experience was on a ’99 Cobra drag car that was owned by an aquaintence that showed up at the drag strip Kate and her high school boyfriend frequented, saying, “Eventually we started helping him—unloading the car, checking tire pressure, holding the camcorder, etc. Joe, the car’s owner, became like a second father to me. He taught me how to install gears and a diff, got me my first full-time job in a machine shop, and was a mentor and guide throughout college. He’s like a father to me. And it all started with a Mustang.”

Kate continued, “While in college, thanks to a few lucrative internships, I was able to afford my first Mustang—a 2000 GT in the ultra-rare Bright Atlantic Blue. I had discovered the color in a magazine article, and spent months trying to track one down. The closest I found was in Germany, of all places. I had all but given up when, on a chance trip to pick up some fried chicken, I spotted one in the parking lot of a Park and Sell a half mile from my apartment. It took some persuasion, but I managed to secure financing and made her mine. I was so nervous I made my then-boyfriend drive it home, because I wasn’t sure I could manage the manual transmission, having only had two or three lessons in my life to that point. So naturally, the first thing I ever did with that car was take it to a drag strip. I raced it in any way I could throughout college, working my way from the drag strip to autocross and eventually ending up tracking it around Texas World Speedway (RIP).”

After graduation, Kate moved to Houston and started doing “real work” and making a “real salary” and sold her “beloved little track car,” even though it was freshly paid off. She really regrets that, saying, “Ladies, NEVER let a man talk you into doing something you don’t want to do! Lucky for me, the man I bought it from was keen on buying it back, so I knew it went to a good home, for a little while. Then it got sold off and I kind of lost track of it for years. In the meantime, I went through car after car, trying to find one I could connect with. I bought a Competition Orange Boss 302, but after eight months fighting with dealers over various transmission issues, I traded it in on a CTS-V wagon. While an awesome car to say you owned, we never really bonded and I traded it off again. Eventually I ended up, quite accidentally, in another Mustang, a 2012 GT500 in no-nonsense white. That car and I have been everywhere, man. With its creature comforts, decent mileage, and photogenic silhouette, it became my road tripper.”

Kate and her white GT500 have been to 23 states and 1 Canadian Province, countless National Parks, Forests, and monuments, adding, “coast to coast and top to bottom, we lived the phrase See America. From California to Maryland, the Rio Grande to Vancouver. Eventually I’d like to drive her across all 50 states, and I’m almost halfway there.”

But then she got the call asking if she wanted her old blue Mustang back. “The friend I’d sold my blue car to contacted me out of the blue (ha!) and asked if there was any way I could buy it back. He’d been contacted by its current owner, but wasn’t in the position to buy at the time, and between the two of us, we basically have joint custody of the car. I cleared out my savings and drove down to get her. The years hadn’t been terribly kind. She has electrical issues, the interior is disintegrating, she needs a paint job, and the motor ate itself idling in my driveway. But I have big plans to bring her back, pro-touring style, and I know I’ll never let her go again.”

“And then, a couple years after that, while I was visiting Joe back in my hometown, well. Remember that old ’99 Cobra I wrenched on in high school? He gave it to me. He was no longer able to wrench on it or drive it to its potential (with a dog box, even I have trouble with it lol). After it sat for eight years with a blown clutch, we stabbed a trans back in it, loaded it up, and I dragged it to its new home on the far side of the state. I’ve been working on getting that back on a track for the past year and hope to have it racing next season some time.”

So that’s the story of Kate and her three Mustangs, going back about 20 years!

The post Mustang Girl Monday appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Mike Pearlman’s 1966 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 “El Toro Verde” Led the Way to the Baja 1000

More Off-Road Stories from Elana Scherr!
What It’s Like to Win the Baja 1000
Meyers Manx: Everything You Need to Know

Mike Pearlman is giggling, and pretty soon, I’m giggling too. Not polite chuckles, real giggling, like the kind that starts with one kid in the back of the room and rolls out like fog until the whole class is laughing. Only Mike isn’t a kid, he’s a 70-year-old man and we aren’t in a schoolroom, we’re in a 1966 Toyota Land Cruiser named “El Toro Verde,” The Green Bull. We’re not laughing for any good reason, the FJ40 is just really fun, but as Mike tells me the story of the green bull, I learn that it’s not just fun, it’s downright legendary in the off-road racing world.

We were on a personal tour, starting in the now heavily built-up San Fernando Valley, and climbing a mountain—a paved one, over to Malibu, headed to a restaurant right up against the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, Mike pointed out his old high school and some of the neighborhoods that used to be open land, where he and his friends would take their Jeeps and GMC trucks—and in Mike’s case, a roughed-up Toyota—and spray rooster tails of dust in the desert.

“I feel like a I’m back in high school,” Mike shouted at me over the high revving complaints of a Chevy small-block backed by 4.10 gears, and the whine and clash of the BTB Products three-speed. “Only, it would be muddier. It never looked this good back when I was in school.” Mike has owned this V8-swapped Toyota since the late 1960s, when he was just a kid in Tarzana, California, skipping class to go off-roading in the golden foothills, back before the suburbs crept out and devoured them. “We didn’t call it off-roading then,” he said. “It was just ‘Jeeping,’ or ‘Fire Roading,’ and it wasn’t as cool as hot rodding. I mean, the girls weren’t lining up to ride in the Land Cruiser if there was somebody with a sporty roadster around, but I still think we had more fun.”

Cool or not, the same modifications that made hot rods faster and better-looking were starting to be applied to desert and dune-runners too, and folks were swapping out smaller engines in favor of V8s, and specialty tires designed for rough terrain were starting to become available. Hang with me, all this—the beach café, the dirt roads, the Toyota—fits together in the end, and adds up to a little off-road event you might have heard of, a race called the Baja 1000.

In the early 1960s, a few brave souls would load up with water, food, and fuel, and head into Mexico from San Diego, down along a narrow spit of land called the Baja Peninsula. It’s a beautiful landscape, even now a drive full of surprises, but in the 1960s with no phones, few maps, and little more than the occasional fishing town, it really was a wilderness. Off-road racing started with single timed runs, first Dave Ekins on a Honda motorcycle, and later Bruce Meyers and Ted Mangels in a Meyers Manx buggy. Mike Pearlman’s dad, Ed Pearlman, was among these bold—or as Bruce Meyers would say, drunk—adventurers who wanted to match themselves against a stopwatch and the desert.

Ed’s record-breaker of choice was a 1966 Toyota FJ40—the very same one that was making me and Mike giggle on our drive. Ed’s co-driver was Dick Cepek, a pioneer in off-road tire technology. It was a pairing that couldn’t fail, but of course Baja likes to make things difficult, so after pretty much every mechanical difficulty you could imagine, Pearlman and Cepek made it to the end of the peninsula, although the only thing they didn’t break was the record. Ed is quoted as saying he came up with the idea for Baja 1000 during that drive, since he had plenty of time to lie on his back and think while they wired up suspension parts and patched holes.

Pearlman and Cepek came home and started brainstorming how to organize a race down in Baja. “They needed a rule-book,” Mike said. “They called the organizer of the National Road Race Association [NRRA] for help, and those guys said they ought to come up with a name first.” While kicking around ideas Mike remembers pointing out that it wasn’t any kind of road racing. “I said, ‘We aren’t going to be on the roads,’ so Dad stuck ‘Off,’ in the NRRA name, and it just stayed.” The National Off Road Racing Association (NORRA) was born. NORRA ran the Mexican 1000 in Baja until it was briefly taken over by a local promotor in 1973, then became the Mickey Thompson-run SCORE Baja 1000 in 1975.

Mike inherited the green FJ40 in the later 1960s, but his dad still used it occasionally to scout courses for the Mexican 1000 races, as well as other off-road events in Vegas and California. “Dad always named his cars, and this was ‘El Toro Verde,’ although it was orange by the time I got it.” The engine swap from six-cylinder to Chevrolet 327 had been done at the dealer back in 1966, a fairly common upgrade on the Toyotas. “They’d even cover it under warranty,” Mike said. They might not have covered it if they knew what El Toro Verde was being used for. It would regularly get commandeered for pre-running duties, and Mike still gets made when he remembers loaning it to actor Steve McQueen before the 1968 Stardust 7-11.

“We were in Vegas, and Dad told me Steve wanted to prerun the course, and could they use the Toyota? Well of course I was thrilled! Steve McQueen wanted to drive my truck! He brought it back with the air cleaner in the back seat, filthy, all choked up with sand in the carb, and then gave me the weakest handshake I’ve ever experienced. I’ve hated him ever since.”

Despite the hard use by handsome actors, the FJ40 survived, and stayed in the Pearlman family. Around 2000, Mike decided to restore it, with a few personal touches. Instead of the dusty 327 Chevy, the hood now straps down over a 400hp GM crate engine backed by a manual three-speed. The transfer case and 4.11 gears are by Transaxle Engineering and it all rolls on Method 15-inch wheels wearing Yokohama Geolander tires. The rollbars are another connection to Baja history, Baja 1000 champ Curt LeDuc built the ’cage. The Mastercraft adjustable seats and harnesses, Deist window nets, Lowrance GPS, PCI radio, push to talk Satellite radio and redone gauges would have impressed Ed Pearlman back when race navigation was a hand drawn map rubber banded to your leg.

While in the truck, I noticed the louvers on the hood were asymmetrical, running forward on one side and point back on the other. I asked Mike about it and he started laughing again. “In high school once I didn’t latch the hood and it flew open and put a big dent across the side. I took it to this old drunk metal-working guy in the valley to see what he could do to fix it.” The body man said louvers could camouflage the dent. When Mike came to pick it up, he pointed out that the louvers didn’t match and the fabricator told him he could take it as is or get the hell out. “It was Von Dutch [Kenny Howard]. I guess the die he used to punch them wasn’t deep enough to work from either side, and he didn’t want to bother turning it around.”

At the end of our drive, we got lunch at Paradise Cove, and I promised that fits in the story too. Paradise Cove was used as the shoot location for the 1970s detective show “Rockford Files,” which starred James Garner. James Garner was a regular participant in the Baja 1000. It’s the race that connects everything, and this is the truck that started it all.

The post How a Chevy-Swapped Toyota FJ40 Started the Baja 1000 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Hollywood’s version of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans is high-revving, but not torquey

The most evocative racing scenes in Ford v Ferrari don’t happen on track. In one, Christian Bale—playing Shelby test driver Ken Miles—is alone in the Shelby American shop. His teammates are in France, and he’s been left off the driving crew, despite having done the lion’s share of testing on the GT40—which by the way, isn’t what happened in real life, but I’ll save those complaints for later. The radio is on to the race, and Miles is wrenching under a car and muttering instructions to the drivers overseas as they push his cars too hard, and blow up gearboxes one by one. Headlights from the busy airport right outside the open shop door sweep across the bay and send shadow profiles of the GT40 racing across the back wall. It’s lonely and romantic, as is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Even though Le Mans is famous for violence and drama, its true challenge lies in endurance, in long stretches of driving in the dark, where your only sense of the competition is headlights and shadows. So good scene, that.

The other great racing moment is also Bale’s, when Miles is talking his son Peter through the Le Mans circuit on a hand-drawn course map. He drags his finger along the Mulsanne Straight, through the esses, and across the finish line. “That’s the first three and half minutes,” he says. “Then you do it again for the next 24 hours.” That’s not an exact quote, but you get the idea. It was intense and poetic and like the shadow scene, gave some idea of the focus that is required to drive at Le Mans, certainly better than earlier in the movie when Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby goes on a long expository rant about what it takes to win there. Ford Vs Ferrari suffers a bit from long expository rants, but I guess the concern is that a non-motorsports audience wouldn’t understand the stakes without a primer.

When the movie physically gets on track, it loses some of the poetry of the home scenes. The racing sequences are fine—the cars look cool, the landscape whips by, the stunt drivers duck and weave—but they are cartoony, not helped by the long closeups on the drivers’ gritted teeth and grimy faces. It’s more like a Speed Racer still, with big globs of animated sweat hovering around the drivers’ faces and the same side window shot of them glowering at each other every time they pass. To reference another cartoon, you know how Maggie Simpson hates the baby with the unibrow? Well that, but Maggie is Ken Miles and unibrow baby is in a Ferrari.

“Ah, but it’s not a documentary, it’s a fictionalized retelling, it’s a character study,” says absolutely everyone in every review and comment section. Well, fine, but the real story is better. The real characters are better. I think it’s time we stopped saying, “Oh, but Hollywood just needed to make the story more mainstream so they took out all the nuance and made it about some genius loner and a rebel and an evil enemy and now it’s better.” It’s not better! It’s simplistic and cliched and I’m bored with it.

It isn’t about the small things–I can forgive a later model Corvette hood in a race scene set in 1963. No, actually, I can’t, but I understand that most people could. Movies are always going to mess up those details. One of the friends I saw it with is a costume designer, and the Corvettes didn’t bother her, but a pair of anti-glare sunglasses sure did. “They didn’t have that tech back then,” she said with an eyeroll. Girl, they’re upshifting twice halfway down the straightaway, I feel your pain. I could have ignored all the anachronisms and even the weird decision to completely skip Shelby’s relationship with Ford prior to 1965, if only the writing had been better. The dialogue. Oh lord. It’s like someone put car words into an AI program and handed the results to the actors. They do the best they can, but how much can you really sell a line like, “I like the smell of wet gasoline?” The conversations are mostly a series of one-liners followed by an exploding car. I could get the same thing from Elvis Presley’s Spinout, only the soundtrack would be better.

So, should you skip it? No! No, go see it, because the cars are pretty, and the story of Ken Miles deserves to be told, even in a modified form. Go see it, and enjoy the good sounds and the rush of speed, and then come home and watch the actual race broadcast and read up on Pete Brock and Phil Remington and Leo Beebe and learn about the real people and how much more complicated and interesting they were, and all the incredible technical innovation they contributed to racing in the 1960s. If the movie does well, maybe they’ll make more car racing movies, and if they make more, eventually they’ll make a really good one. In the meantime, if Ford Vs. Ferrari gets more people interested in classic cars, engineering, and motorsports, that’s worth a matinee ticket.

The post Ford v Ferrari Movie Review: More Speed Racer Than Shelby Racing appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

The first step is installing full-length Fox-body Mustang subframe connectors from Maximum Motorsports to our 1990 LX hatchback.

This week begins the fourth Week To Wicked project for the Mustang group in our Santa Ana (CA) Tech Center, and this time we’re turning the wrenches on a 1990 Mustang LX hatchback belonging to our own Mark Houlahan.

The body work, Cervinis four-piece body kit, and House of Kolors Kandy Brandywine were done in Florida before being shipped to our shop in California, and we all marveled at the quality of Dean Santiago’s (Spike’s Performance & Refinishing) paint skills. The first order of business today was to push the car onto the 4-post drive-on lift and install the Maximum Motorsports (maximummotorsports.com) full-length subframe connectors. We used the drive-on lift so that the car would be sitting on its tires with zero frame or chassis flex as the connectors were installed. These are weld-on subframe connectors for maximum rigidity, and we had to pull out the mashed stock frame rails in a few places to get a good fit. Watch the floor jacks Houlahan!

Once the subframe connectors were welded in place, the entire stock suspension will be removed to make room for Maximum Motorsports’ K-member and complete front and rear suspension, including a torque arm for the rear. But before we removed the stock K-member, we yanked the original engine from the car (it has had three engines but the stock one went back in years ago), while the Maximum Motorsports guys began prep on the Moser rearend, attaching the torque arm prior to the new rear going into place.

We got part-way through the suspension installation before calling it a day. Tomorrow we’ll (hopefully) finish off the suspension bits and get started on the rest of the car, including the Ford Performance Parts X2302E 302ci crate engine and Performance Automatic (performanceautomatic.com) 4R70W transmission. In reality, we’ll probably have to wait until Wednesday to drop the engine and trans into place, as the suspension takes time to install properly and perform a rough set-up on.

Once the suspension and drivetrain are handled, we’ll move inside and up top to finish off the interior with TMI Products (tmiproducts.com) seats and other pieces, bolt up the wheels and tires, and finish the million other tiny tasks that any build like this requires. Then finally, sometime on Friday, we’ll add fluids, cross our fingers, turn the key and make this baby bark. Then it’s burnout time!

Stay tuned all this week as we continue the thrash here in Santa Ana making a 1990 Mustang LX hatch truly wicked!

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#keepitclean #keepitclassic #covercraft #carharttseatcovers #TheNewTraditional
#e3sparkplugs, #E3ProMod, #E3borntoburn, #whatareyourunning
#EatonPerformance #DetroitTruetrac #Eaton
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#EnergySuspension, #HyperFlex, #PerformancePolyurethane
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The post Week to Wicked Day 1: Installing Fox-Body Subframe Connectors from Maximum Motorsports appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Poser to Driver

A long and winding road yielded a 1955 Chevy Bel Air that was built to be driven

Longtime hot rodder John Barkley spent literal decades (over three) working in the magazine business and even longer than that playing with cars. He’s owned 175 different vehicles since he was a teenager, so to say John is a car nerd would be a bit of an understatement. After being in the industry and toying around with cars for that long, John’s got a pretty good idea of what he likes, and he like classic muscle cars.

Recently, he’s been all about Tri-Five Chevys. “I like the Tri-Fives because there is so much energy in the Tri-Five marketplace right now,” John said as we chatted over the phone. One of his most prized possessions is a 1957 Chevy with a history about as long as John’s. He raced the car back in the 1960s and the car has been on the cover of many magazines, dating all the way back to the July 1968 issue of Car Craft. At long last, John found the ’57 at the 2002 Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, then actually bought the car back when it was at the Tri-Five Nationals in 2016. We could go on, but that’s a story for another time. The Tri-Five we’re here to talk about today is yet another gem; this one is a 1955 Chevy Bel Air.

This story dates back to 2011, when John—now retired—was working with the magazines. As he tells it, “I was looking for a muscle car and I was walking down the hallway by Brian Brennan’s office and he called me in.” (You might recognize that name as Brian has been the editor of Street Rodder for years and is also currently in charge of Vette). As it turned out, Brian called John into his office because he had a lead on a 1966 Chevelle Malibu for sale. After seeing photos of the car, John decided to buy it. In the process, he found out that the owner of the Chevelle had a ’55 Chevy for sale, too. John stuck with the purchase of the Chevelle but tipped-off industry friend and owner of Classic Performance Products (CPP) Jim Ries, who jumped at the opportunity to buy the Tri-Five Chevy.

Fast forward to 2014, Jim reached out to John about buying that 1966 Chevelle from him to build it up and compete in the Super Chevy Muscle Car Challenge. “I told him I would only sell it if I got something else I could drive,” John recalled. The 1955 Bel Air Jim had purchased when John got the Chevelle was still sitting at CPP and, although it was a complete restoration, it wasn’t driveable. “The wiring was done by someone who just shouldn’t have done wiring,” John told us, but they ended up making a deal anyway. John wasted no time and sent the ’55 over to MotorTrend Tech Center Manager Jason Scudellari who got the Chevy up and running in his spare time by installing a complete wiring kit from American Autowire.

With the Bel Air in good working order, John finally had the chance to drive it. That only lasted a few months because, while the car was a nice frame-off restoration, it was a bit of a poser. “The ’55 came with an anemic 396 big-block and a four-speed; it was just made to look cool,” John told us. Continuing on, he said, “It wasn’t fast and didn’t have overdrive, but I had a fresh 388 that was sitting in my garage and a fresh 700-R4 TCI transmission,” which he ended up swapping into the Tri-Five.

You might be thinking to yourself, “A 388 small-block? What’s that?” The engine started life as a 1971 350ci small-block, but has since been converted to a 383 stroker with an additional 0.080-inch longer stroke from small journal rods. The engine itself had quite the long history, being used for many magazine tech stories and existing in different configurations. In its current state, the 388 was machined and assembled by Vrbancic Brothers Racing in Ontario, California, for a Chevy High Performance tech story where it made 460 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 460 lb-ft of torque at 4,200 rpm on the dyno.

It achieved those numbers via a long list of stout performance parts. Some of the highlights include a Scat crankshaft and rods along with JE pistons, which, paired with a set of RHS heads, combine to give the engine a 10:1 compression ratio. A stout Lunati hydraulic roller camshaft takes full advantage of the high-flowing heads, along with a Weiand Warrior dual-plane intake manifold. To top it all off, John opted for an electronically choked, 850-cfm Rochester Quadrajet put together by Carb Shop in Ontario, California, because he loves their reliability and efficiency compared to other carburetors he’s used. Other key aspects of the small-block include a PerTronix Flame-Thrower electronic distributor providing the spark and an Aeromotive 340 in-tank fuel pump to deliver the juice. A set of Doug’s Headers 1 5/8-inch Tri-Y headers feed into a custom 2 1/2-inch exhaust system with Flowmaster 50 Series mufflers to evacuate the spent gases.

The engine is cooled using a Weiand water pump and a fancy radiator and fan setup from Mattson’s, which brings us to the next chapter in the buildup of the 1955 Bel Air. John purchased the Mattson’s system and enlisted the help of yet another longtime magazine crony, Kev Elliot, who now runs his own hot rod shop, Kev’s Rod & Custom in La Habra, California, to do the install. John dropped the ’55 Chevy off at Kev’s then took off for vacation. When he returned, though, he didn’t come back to a finished car. Instead, John came back to find Kev almost in tears telling him the Tri-Five’s throttle had stuck, which caused him to crash it into another parked car at his shop. Ouch! They came to the conclusion that blood was on both of their hands (John hadn’t installed the Lokar throttle cable quite right) and settled on a deal to get the car repaired. Color-matching the Chevy’s original black paint would have been near impossible so Kev ended up re-spraying the whole car in a Mercedes black from Axalta. According to John, “The time Kev spent on the car blocking it and gapping it turned out way nicer than before he crashed it.” Another positive that came out of the ordeal was that Kev had a 1955 Chevy OEM front clip stored at his shop that he ended up using for John’s Chevy, replacing the reproduction sheetmetal that was on the car from its previous restoration. Then a grille and front and rear bumpers were sourced from Danchuk and fitted to the newly refreshed body.

The buildup of John’s ’55 didn’t stop there, though. Shortly after, Jim from CPP reached out again, but this time he wasn’t looking to buy the car back, he was looking to use it to showcase some of CPP’s latest parts. “Jim wanted to shoot video of a Tri-Five so I sent it over to him and after a couple months he threw his whole catalog at it,” said John. They pulled the frame off the car, removed and smoothed the bellhousing frame horns, installed their engine side mounts and rear transmission crossmember along with rear upper shock mount then had the whole frame powdercoated. Then they fitted the Bel Air with an all-new Ford 9-inch rearend from Currie Enterprises complete with a limited-slip differential and 3.50:1 gears to turn the Chevy into a solid highway cruiser.

As for the suspension and brakes, Jim had his guys install their tubular control arms up front along with their 2-inch drop spindles and a set of adjustable QA1 coilovers. The rear got a set of CPP’s 2-inch lowering springs and their shocks. To finish it off, they installed their disc brake kit with 11-inch rotors front and back.

Over the 11-inch discs are mounted one of John’s favorite things about the car: the wheels. They are a set of Rocket Racing Wheels Igniter series measuring 15×7 and 15×8 wrapped in classic Cooper Cobra rubber. What makes the wheels so unique is their Halibrand-look coating, which David Coker from Rocket Racing Wheels had just finished perfecting after working at it for three years.

Inside the ’55 it’s all about driver comfort. Back when Kev had the car, he modified the factory front bench seat to accommodate John’s 6-foot-4-inch frame. The car was sent over to The Art of Sound in Upland, California, for a stereo system, complete with Bluetooth head unit from Classic Auto Sound. A tilt steering column from CPP lives below the AutoMeter gauge cluster and on it is mounted a custom ’55 Chevy steering wheel that has been downsized. Finally, to truly make the Chevy a car John would be comfortable driving whenever and wherever, the car was outfitted with a complete climate control system from Vintage Air.

Speaking of driving whenever and wherever, John has put over 9,000 miles on the car since he purchased it. One of the longest trips was 900 miles from Southern California, where he used to live, up to his current hometown of Sisters, Oregon. “To me,” John begins, “the strength of the car is the driveability of the car; the usability of the car. It’s been on a trailer a couple of times but it’s not meant for a trailer, it’s meant to drive.”

The post This 1955 Chevy Bel Air was Transformed From Poser to Driver appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Removing the Ties that Bind

Installing a Maximum Motorsports Torque Arm for Improved Traction and Handling

Ford’s rear suspension design criteria on the new-for-1979 Mustang was likely: 1) Keep the rear axle between the fenders, and 2) Do it cheap.

While the four-link suspension on 1979-2004 Mustangs fulfilled its mission admirably, there’s a lot of room for improvement. The main issue is the rear upper control arms, which have two jobs. Under acceleration, they transmit torque from the rear axle to the chassis. And in corners, they keep the axle centered between the frame rails.

Here are the final pieces of the puzzle to eliminate the bind from our Mustang’s rear suspension, including torque arm, crossmember, rear springs, and hardware.

Without getting into the geometrical weeds, problems arise when the rear upper control arms do both jobs at once—like, accelerating out of a turn. The geometry doesn’t work out, and the rear suspension binds, making handling inconsistent. The Mustang can transition from plowing through a turn to spinning out in a split second.

Here’s where Maximum Motorsports’ torque arm comes in. When combined with their Panhard bar, the torque arm replaces the rear upper control arms for a bind-free rear suspension where each component can do its job independently: the Panhard bar locates the axle laterally, the torque arm transmits torque to the chassis, and the lower control arms deliver forward thrust. The result is a Mustang rear suspension that delivers higher, more predictable grip.

For our 1999 Mustang, we chose Maximum Motorsports’ Standard Duty torque arm.

The subject for this install is a 1999 Mustang GT. Already equipped with MM’s Panhard bar and lower control arms, the final piece of our rear suspension puzzle was the torque arm. We drove over to Gear Driven Automotive in Northridge California where shop owner Saul Gutierrez handled the installation.

With the upper control arms removed and the torque arm installed, we could feel in the first few miles of driving that the rear suspension was a lot “freer.” Even with the stiffer rear springs used in conjunction with the torque arm, the car rode smoother and put down the power around corners dramatically better.

The torque arm installation and removing the upper control arms frees up the rear suspension so much that stiffer rear springs are recommended.

Shod with a fresh seat of sticky Falken Azenis RT615K meats, we can’t wait to try out the new rear suspension at the track and around an autocross course.

This crossmember ties the front of the torque arm to the subframe connectors to transmit rear axle torque directly to the chassis.

Gutierrez began the torque arm installation process by removing the rear axle vibration damper. It’s no longer needed with the torque arm.

Next, the cat-back exhaust was disconnected and moved out of the way.

Then, Gutierrez mocked up the torque arm installation to set the location of the torque arm crossmember.

Note how the torque arm attaches to the rear axle and shims are used to set the pinion angle.

The front of the torque arm uses a polyurethane bushing that Gutierrez lubricated with the included grease.

Gutierrez also lubricated the crossmember’s receiver tube with the included grease.

Next, they held up the torque arm crossmember in the needed location between the subframe connectors.

Weld-on tabs are included to attach the torque are crossmember to the subframe connectors.

With the tabs in place, Gutierrez marked the areas to be welded with a marker.

After removing the crossmember, Gutierrez sanded off the powder coating from the subframe connectors in the weld areas.

Gutierrez welded the tabs in place to the subframe connectors.

With the tabs welded, Gutierrez painted the welded areas and installed the torque arm subframe.

Once the subframe was installed and the pinion angle set, Gutierrez tightened up all the hardware to spec.

The torque arm makes the upper control arms useless, so Gutierrez removed them.

Next, Gutierrez removed the rear springs and lubricated the rear control arm bushing with the spare grease.

Gutierrez installed the stiffer, torque-arm-specific rear springs.

With Maximum Motorsports’ torque arm, the upper control arms and axle vibration damper are no longer needed.

With the Maximum Motorsports torque arm, our rear suspension rides better and puts the power down much better.

Rolling Stock

To get the most from the Maximum Motorsports rear suspension, we needed to up our wheel and tire game.

The saying “where the rubber meets the road” is illustrative of how critical tires are to performance. We chose Falken’s competition-focused Azenis RT615K tires sized 275/35 up front and 295/40 in the rear. We should mention that this is a pretty big tire and we had to use a fender roller tool to make it work. Another option is to use 275/35 on all corners.

We needed a stiff, lightweight wheel to transmit the grip of the Falken tires to the chassis, and TSW’s Interlagos wheels do it in style. 18 x 8.5 fronts and 18 x 10.5 rears that are finished in sliver with a mirror cut face fill out our wheel wells nicely.

The TSW Interlagos wheels feature TSW’s “Rotary Forged Technology.” The rotary forging process draws the inner rim of a cast blank over a mandrel at high speed and pressure. The result is a denser, stiffer wheel rim that’s lighter than a comparable fully cast wheel.

To secure our TSW/Falken combo, we also ordered up a set of Monster Lugs (PN 33004B). These are open-ended for stud engagement and feature a ½-inch x 20 thread pitch with a 19 Hex thin-wall lug nut to fit most small bolt holes.

The post Installing a Maximum Motorsports Torque Arm for Improved Traction and Handling appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Did you know that the sounds captured on the set of Fast & Furious aren’t necessarily the same sounds that end up on film? Foley, named for the technique’s inventor, Jack Foley, is the term used for a soundtrack or tracks that are added after the film is shot, during post-production, or just post. This is especially true for car movies, where most of the action is shot outside in an environment full of noise pollution. Formosa Group is a studio in Los Angeles—HOT ROD visited the Santa Monica location—that adds the vehicle noises to films you are familiar with. If you have seen Mad Max: Fury Road, the John Wick movies, or anything from the Fast & Furious franchise, you have seen, or more accurately heard, their work.

Their most recent car-guy–oriented movie is Hobbs & Shaw, a F&F spinoff that is loaded with Dwayne Johnson– and Jason Statham–level car abuse. To add as much authenticity as possible, the team at Formosa Group tries to use the actual cars used in the shoot, or a car of the same general make and model. Short of that, they might use a track from an existing sound library or even create the sounds in the studio. The creation of the soundtrack takes anywhere from 7 to 13 months recording two cars per day. The recordings are done off set, at a remote site far away from exterior noises or traffic; not easy in a city like Los Angeles. Vehicle sounds in the library can come from anywhere, natural sounds, artificial sounds created using non-automotive props, or sometimes unique motor and chassis combinations are sourced online.

We had the opportunity to spend a Friday with part of the crew from the Hobbs & Shaw production. Mark Stoeckinger, Paul Aulicino, and Charlie Campagna were willing to show us how the process works. We pulled Project X, our beloved 1957 Chevy, out of the HOT ROD garage to use as a movie prop, had the guys record its sounds on location, then went back to the studio to lay them on some Volkswagen SUV b-roll. The VW four-door utility blob never sounded better.

The post How the Formosa Group Created the Car Soundtrack for the Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw Feature Film appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

When Chevrolet introduced its ponycar Camaro in the fall of 1966, it devised a game plan with the mindset of bringing Chevy power and performance to the masses in a compact, but sporty, package, a recipe that still works today. This concept will never go out of style, as it’s a proven winner on the showroom floors of dealerships across this great nation. That’s why the Camaro is still alive and kickin’ today.

Doug Murphy from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, grew up loving Chevy’s F-body and was well aware of his favorite car’s pedigree. “I always had a 1969 Camaro. Since I turned 16 I’ve bought, hot rodded, and drove 1969 Camaros. It’s my passion. I think I’ve had probably 15 or 16 of them,” he says. Yes, this Chevy performance fanatic never met a first-gen Camaro he didn’t like.

“Well, there were other cars as well,” he admits. “There was a Corvette, a 1968 Firebird, and a killer LS6 Chevelle. Everybody thought I was going to kill myself with that last one. But I proved them wrong.”

Doug Murphy had a great starting point when he decided to restore this particular Camaro, as not one of the body panels needed to be replaced. Yes, this is a 100 percent original sheetmetal car, now bathed in a fresh coat of its original Azure Turquoise color.

Even though he strayed on occasion, Murphy would always end up going back to F-bodies, even after that last Chevelle. “I went back fulltime to the ’69s and never looked back,” he says.

Out of all the cars he’s scored over the years, there was one Camaro that really did it for him, a car he just couldn’t believe he found, and by accident.

Concealed Camaro
It all started like a typical day back in 1990. “I had Wednesdays off, so I usually scanned the local Auto Trader newspaper classifieds on Tuesday night, looking for deals on cars. That way I could spend my day off doing what I loved, hunting down cool muscle rides.”

And there it was. “In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette there was an ad that read simply, ‘1969 Camaro for sale. Best offer.’ I called and set up a meeting the next day. The owner couldn’t give me any more details over the phone, which didn’t give me confidence.” So he and his dog hightailed out the next morning in his pickup to a town 40 miles away.

“When I got there, he told me the car was stashed in a garage under the house. He then said that it was his son’s car, who had passed away. The car had been sitting since 1972.” When Murphy reached the car, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I saw the 396 badges right away. Then I noticed that it was an SS/RS.” After further inspection, it certainly looked like a time capsule, except for the side pipes installed by the original and only owner.

Here’s how the hidden Camaro looked right after Murphy bought it and cleaned it off.

The father was in his 70s and was now willing to part with his son’s car. “I’m taking bids if you’re interested,” he said. Murphy wasn’t thrilled with that, as he was ready to make a fair cash offer. However he did what the owner asked and gave him a written bid on a piece of paper. It was for $5,500, and he sealed it in a white envelope he was given. “To be fair, do you know that this is a rare car?” Murphy told him, being as honest as possible. The owner shrugged.

Realizing that Murphy was being an honorable player here, the owner opened the bid from the only other party to show up. “His bid’s higher. It’s $6,000,” said the owner. Murphy increased his bid to $6,500. However, the owner wanted to give it more time, and Murphy left without the prized Camaro.

Over the next week, Murphy called the owner to find the bidding had gone up to $10,000, which Murphy felt was still a fair price for the car. After some prodding over the phone, the owner relented and made a verbal deal with Murphy to buy the car. With that news, he made plans to pick up the Camaro.

Though the big-block had been dormant for almost two decades, Murphy managed to get it running and put it back on the street. From there, all the engine needed was to be freshened up to make it a reliable runner. As you can see, it’s very presentable and is as original as a 51,000-mile L35 396 can be.

However, the good news was short-lived. He got a call from the owner stating that his other son now wanted the car. Murphy went back to the garage and confronted the owner and his son. The son told him he wanted to restore the car, which led Murphy to interrogate him. “Are you a mechanic? Have you ever worked on a car? You think you can do it? It’s not cheap if you can’t do some of it.” Knowing Murphy was making sense, the father stepped in and told him to take the car. “I called my buddy with a flatbed and told him to get here quick.”

Cash Camaro
What Murphy bought was an original SS/RS Camaro that still had its factory Azure Turquoise paint and black Deluxe 712-code interior, both of which were in good shape. Under the hood was an L35 396/325hp big-block, rowed by a Muncie M21 four-speed. The BU-code 12-bolt Posi rearend had 3.73 gears. On the corners were the original 14×7 Rally wheels which were wrapped in four flat tires. The car stood with 51,000 miles on the odometer.

Murphy immediately went to work on the Camaro, getting it running and installing four fresh tires. He drove it that way, but soon found out he could not pass Pennsylvania State inspection with the side pipes the way they were. “So I pulled off the pipes and put a basic exhaust system on it for the time being while I drove it locally,” he says.

The Camaro’s born-with Deluxe vinyl code-712 interior was in excellent shape and just needed a good cleaning to bring it back to life. Check out the extremely rare and original console-mounted eight-track tape deck between the seats.

After three years, Murphy decided it was time to bring the car back to its former glory. He wheeled it into the garage and dismantled it. Amazingly enough, the body was in excellent shape and needed no new panels. “I then sent it to my friend Jim Erny’s shop, where we finished the bodywork, and he painted it the original color.” While that was going on, the L35 was freshened up, and the transmission was rebuilt by Hoss’s Gear Shop in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.

Once the body was finished, it was sent over to Joe Swezey and Brian Henderson at Super Car Workshop. “Brian and Joe are friends of mine and know every nut and bolt on these Chevys,” says Murphy. The three of them dug in and started putting this Bowtie puzzle back together. The guys walked Murphy through the process, helping out where needed. Some things were easier than others, but overall the process went smoothly.

It helps when you begin with a sound starting point. Many of the parts on this SS/RS Camaro were in good enough shape to reuse. The interior was near perfect and really only needed a good cleaning to make it look fresh. Other pieces just needed a light restoration to match the fresh exterior. Overall, Murphy’s Camaro’s restoration went smoothly due to the fact that it was all there, and was kept in good shape.

To keep it looking stock, Murphy cleaned up the original 14×7 Rally wheels and shod them in Kelsey repop F70-14 Goodyear Polyglas rubber.

Once finished, the car was treated with kid gloves. “I take it out on occasion to some of the big shows,” Murphy says. “I’m not that proud to admit it’s a trailer queen now, but I’m fine with that. I’ll always have a hot rod to tweak and drive out on the streets, so no need to beat on this one.” For now it sits between his 1996 SS Camaro and a project 1968 Camaro in his garage. “One thing’s for certain: I’ll never part with it.”

We don’t blame you.

At a Glance
1969 Camaro SS396
Owned by: Doug Murphy
Restored by: Owner; Super Car Workshop, Latrobe, PA; Jim Erny
Engine: 396ci/325hp L35 V-8
Transmission: Muncie M21 4-speed manual
Rearend: Chevy BU-code 12-bolt with 3.73 gears and Positraction
Exterior color: Azure Turquoise
Interior: Deluxe black vinyl bucket seat
Wheels: 14×7 Rally
Tires: F70-14 Kelsey reproduction Goodyear Polyglas
Special parts: Rally Sport equipment, 8-track player, X22 options

Great care was taken to make sure the underside looked as good as the top. The correct stock exhaust from Gardner was installed to duplicate both the look and sound of the original.

When Murphy first saw the Camaro, one of the first giveaways that it was something special was the SS hood and its ice-tray inserts.

The post 51,000-Mile 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS396 was Parked in 1972 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Admittedly, I’ve never been much of a Chevy guy. None of the cars that caught my eye as a kid were Bowties. I’ll admit that when I began to fancy finned chariots, 1957 Chevys were kinda cool, but Caddys were the epitome of style . . . until Virgil Exner captured my heart when I was 11 or so.

When I started Brandywine High, all the motorheads owned primer-gray Chevys and had absolutely no interest in Brand X (which I grew to learn was a pretty common characteristic to the Bowtie Brigade). Those guys had no competition in the parking lot from Mopar or Ford folks, although things got interesting when Mark Malan showed up with a GS 455.

Wilmington, Delaware (perhaps the only place in America to feature Frank Zappa graffiti), I called home till I was 16. Its proximity to Philly (if not D.C. and NYC) gave Wilmington a dose of city slicker to go along with the state’s “Small Wonder” status. Hence, Delaware was a fine car-spotting place for a car-curious kid, especially along the rural parts on the way to Rehoboth. Locally, however, the cars that piqued my interest were varied, like the 1955 Buick sitting in front of the Arden Montessori, or the trio of cars in a backyard on Wilson Road: a trashed 1967 Shelby Mustang, 1969 Road Runner driver, and a certain white/red Cyclone Spoiler that, when rotated, revealed a NASCAR-inspired nose.

My neighbors, whose family owned a Pontiac dealership in Elmer, New Jersey, were responsible for my eventual Poncho corruption. I suspect a psychologist would say they made an imprint on me. The Smiths never had hot cars in their driveway, but it was a time when Trans Am popularity was still coasting on Smokey and the Bandit fumes. As a result, this 6-year-old pestered his mom to buy a Pontiac, in her case 1979 LeMans wagon from Union Park Pontiac.

So when I evolved from fins to muscle, I fell for the GTO Judge. It may have been the Pop Art thing that pulled me in, especially since I was listening to music from that era on WMMR. When I caught a glimpse of my first Judge blasting down Route 202, I begged my mom to catch up to the woman driving it. Several months later a Judge appeared for sale in the newspaper. I immediately called and, yes, it was that lady. For a few years she tolerated phone calls from an eager kid without a driver’s license.

Indeed, for all the breadth of Chevrolets on the streets, Wilmington had plenty of GTOs to distract me. Some guy in Green Acres (his name was Jim, according to nearby graffiti) owned a dark fuchsia 1969 GTO. In the same neighborhood was a gorgeous burgundy 1968 GTO ragtop with wheel covers, likely in the hands of the original owner. Almost daily I’d see a 1970 Goat at a service station at the intersection of Foulk and Wilson Roads.

Dan Martinez initially painted his 1968 4-4-2 orange, but a recent restoration went close to its original color.

Twenty years later a guy named Roger Wydler posted on a Pontiac forum bragging how he traveled to Wilmington and drove back to Florida in a Pepper Green Ram Air IV. Same car? But the car I knew had no decals on the hood scoops to signify the round-port engine, so where did this GTO come from? I picked up a copy of Hemmings and called the former owner, Phil Lavelle: “Was this the car at the gas station?” Seems that he never replaced the decals after a repaint, so I never knew the most desirable of GTOs was within reach.

Fast-forward 15 years. I was at a show at Maple Grove Raceway when I saw a Grenada Gold GTO with Delaware plates. I asked the owner if it was originally from Shipley Road and had wheel covers, which he affirmed. I touched on my past and mentioned other GTOs from the area, including a 1969 model owned by a guy named Jim.

“Oh, he’s my brother!”

That’s when I realized I was talking with Mike Hostler, who was the drummer in a family friend’s band (Solitude, a metal band popular along the East Coast in the 1990s). I mentioned the green Goat and he said, “Yeah, we all knew it was a Ram Air IV!” I guess my youth had kept me in the dark.

Dan Martinez was Solitude’s guitarist, and our families were tight. His mom was the original owner of a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, so when Dan was 15, he bought a 1968 4-4-2. He got it running and even scored some under-the-bumper scoops from a junkyard. Every time I visited his brother Pablo, Dan supplied me with magazines that schooled me on the charms of the cars from Lansing. When I was 15 and spotted a 4-4-2 W-30 convertible in the classifieds, I knew the right questions to ask because of Dan.

I owned that Olds for almost 30 years. Still have yet to own a GTO. And today, I’m more open-minded towards Chevys, though I’m glad I didn’t succumb to the“groupthink of the Bowtie kind.

The post Coming of Age as a Not-a-Chevy Muscle Car Guy appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Pontiac’s Little White Lie and Two Formulas for Success

Steve Magnante is the host of Roadkill’s Junkyard Gold! The latest episode is now streaming, and subscriptions to the MotorTrend App start at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year after a 14-day free trial offer.

We’re snooping for Pontiac oddities at Turner’s Auto Wrecking (Fresno, California) and L&L Classic Auto (Wendell, Idaho). At Turner’s, a 1963 LeMans discovery triggered memories of a dinner conversation I had with Pontiac expert Tom DeMauro (then-editor of Pontiac High Performance magazine) about 20 years ago. He told me how when Pontiac needed a smaller V-8 than its 389 and 421 for the new-for-1963 Tempest/LeMans senior compacts, it turned to GMC’s 336 truck engine, calling it a 326 and giving buyers 10 extra cubes they didn’t know were there. I didn’t believe it, but Tom’s an expert on this stuff, and we found one.

In 1961 and 1962, Pontiac Tempest brand managers had a problem. Though Pontiac’s 194.5ci, half-a-389-V-8 Indy 4 was offered with up to 166 hp with a single four-barrel carburetor, too many buyers wanted the smoothness of the optional Buick-sourced 190hp 215 V-8. With its exotic die-cast aluminum block and heads, the $261 price tag left very little profit margin. It is said Pontiac lost money every time the 215 was specified by a customer. So, for 1963, Pontiac replaced the aluminum 215 with a 336. A result of GMC’s use of Pontiac V-8 engines in the late ’50s, the 336 shared its 3.750-inch stroke with the 389, but with a reduced bore from 4.062 to 3.780 inches. For Tempest duty, a single Rochester 4-Jet carburetor and dual exhaust delivered a sizzling 260 hp for a mere $167, a $94 savings versus the 1962 aluminum 215 V-8, but with 70 added horsepower. What a bargain, right? So even though their grille emblems read 326 ci, every 1963 Tempest V-8 actually packed a 336-incher just like this one.

And at L&L Classic Auto, I encountered a pair of bright red Pontiacs that also sent me back in time to the late 1970s when I was a 13-year-old kid. As a budding car freak, I remember seeing brand-new Pontiac Firebird and Sunbird Formulas on the street and digging their vivid graphics—even though I was fully aware that their detuned V-8s could barely spin the rear tires. But today, nostalgic collectors are seeking these cars and paying surprising sums at auction. Let’s dig in!

Groovy Factoids

If the Pontiac Sunbird Formula gives older readers 1970s flashbacks, how about the souped-up H-bodies conjured by other GM divisions? Anyone remember the Olds Starfire SX Firenza, or Chevy’s Monza Spyder? And how about the Buick Skyhawk’s Road Hawk and Night Hawk body graphics packages, which reflected light at night? The sad truth is most of these sticker supercars came standard with GM’s lame 85hp 2.5L four-banger. Buyers had to kick in extra bucks for the Buick-sourced 3.8L V-6 or Chevy-sourced 262 and 305 V-8s.
An all-time H-car high point—and low point—was reached simultaneously in 1975 when Chevy Monzas sold in California and certain high-altitude areas were built with Chevy’s comparatively huge 350 small-block V-8. Casual observers presumed Corvette-like performance. They were wrong. Thanks to severe detuning and lean two-barrel carburetion, Chevrolet managed to neuter the 350 down to 125 hp—15 less than the smaller 305 V-8 that replaced the 350 in 1976. They were dark days indeed.
Chevrolet didn’t get its own version of the Buick, Olds, Pontiac senior compact platform—or did it? To save money, the rear-engine Chevy Corvair uses many of the same firewall, front wheelhouse, cowl, floor, and rear chassis stampings as its front-engine Buick/Olds/Pontiac cousins. The complete front suspension “cage” is also virtually interchangeable between Corvair and Special/F85/Tempest vehicles. As for Chevy’s 1962 Nova, there is no relationship between it and the other GM compacts, including Corvair.
One of the ways GM differentiated the Buick/Olds/Pontiac senior compacts from each other was through wheelhub and rim diameter/tire size. Pontiac Tempests came standard with five-lug hubs and 15-inch rims. Oldsmobile F85, Cutlass, and even the high-performance Jetfire were equipped with four-lug hubs and 13-inch rims. Also sporting four-lug hubs and 13-inch rims/tires were Buick Special and Chevy’s Corvair.

The post Rare Junkyard Find: One-Year Only 1963 Pontiac Tempest with a 336ci V-8 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Hindsight

Mickey Thompson’s Bonneville Mustangs

In July 1968 Mickey Thompson and his crew took three 1969 Mustang Mach 1s (built in late 1967/early 1968, making them among the first ’69s built) to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The mission was to set as many national and international endurance records in production cars as possible. Ford provided the cars and engines; Mickey set up a 10-mile oval course and convinced Hot Rod Publisher Ray Brock and Sports Car Graphic’s Editor Bob Ottum to co-drive and do the story. For the full story on it, check out the October 1968 Hot Rod issue, or later, the December 2008 issue with an update. The yellow car was the “hero car,” running C Class (183-305ci) with a Tunnel Port 302, driven mainly by Danny Ongais. The plan was to set the 24-hour record, but bad salt and minor breakage issues made them stop at 500 miles. But by then they had set every C Class FIA record except for the 24-hour one.

They went back a few months later when there was better salt, and the yellow car ran the full 24 hours with an average speed of 157 mph (remember, that includes multiple pit stops, so it was going much faster than that). The blue car (with its NASCAR Tunnel Port 427 now blown and injected) set 27 B Class (303-488ci) records on the straight course, with a best of 188.812 mph in the flying kilometer on the straight course. After the team was done, they had racked up an astonishing 295 speed and endurance records. Ford collector Brent Hayek now owns the blue car, and the other two have vanished over the years. Rumors are that the red car was raced and wrecked by Bobby Allison at some point.

In Eric Rickman’s photo from left to right are: Mickey Thompson, Bob Ottum, Ray Brock, and Danny “On the Gas” Ongais.

The post Mickey Thompson’s Bonneville Mustangs: 295 Records! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Finishing up the Maximum Motorsports rear suspension with torque arm and getting ready to drop the engine and transmission into place

Check out Day 1 here!

When we left off last night in our Week To Wicked 1990 Mustang LX Sport project, we had just removed the stock engine and transmission and installed most of the Maximum Motorsports suspension. After dinner and a night’s sleep, we came back to the shop today to finish installing the rear suspension. Last night, we got the Moser rearend (with an Eaton Performance Truetrac and 3.73:1 Street Series ring and pinion) “staged” in place with the torque arm attached, so this morning was dominated with the completion of the rear suspension. The torque arm is bolted to the rearend housing at the back and a crossmember welded to the subframe connectors up front. Because not everyone that installs the subframe connectors opts for the torque arm, the front arm mounting brackets are not pre-welded to the connectors, so once the rear is in place and the torque arm is located, mounting tabs are welded to the subframe connectors for the torque arm crossmember. The panhard bar and sway bar were also installed in the rear.

Maximum is providing the complete front and rear suspension setup, which includes a front K-member, control arms, sway bar, and Koni coilover struts, with EBC brake rotor and pads, and North Race Cars calipers, and at the close of Day 2 everything was installed and ready to go. While work under the car was progressing, the Ford Performance Parts crate motor was being dressed with accessories, Vortech V-3 Si supercharger, lower intake manifold, and injectors with fuel rails. The evening of Day 2 ended when Jason and Christian lifted the stock fuel tank back into place after installing and plumbing the new Aeromotive 340 in-tank pump.

When we return tomorrow, it’s time to stab in the Ford Performance Parts engine and Performance Automatic 4R70W transmission, at which point the Mustang will start looking like a complete car again. Thursday will see us turn our attention to the interior, and Friday will be spent finishing up loose ends, adding fluids, and firing the beast back to life. Keep coming back and see how we do!

The post Week to Wicked Day 2: Finishing up the Maximum Motorsports Rear Suspension appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Any Ford muscle car enthusiast with even the slightest knowledge of drag racing history will recognize the name Dick Brannan. Brannan’s racing success in his Romy Hammes–sponsored 1962 406/405hp Galaxie led to his being hired by Ford in 1962 to direct its drag racing program. During his 10-year career with Ford, Brannan brought Ford drag racing from the doldrums in the early 1960s to the pinnacles of success and respect in the Super Stock and Funny Car wars of the 1960s and 1970s.

Brannan was an excellent driver and brilliant innovator. As early as 1963, he had essentially invented the line-lock when he incorporated Studebaker’s Hill Holder mechanism for drag racing. His innovations abounded. As Brannan would say, “It was not about changing one thing; it was about changing 30 things.”

Brannan founded the Ford Drag Team, sponsored by Ford Motor Company, in late 1963. Under Brannan’s leadership, Ford provided the cars and racing components that would result in the successes of legendary Ford racers such as Phil Bonner, Hubert Platt, Dyno Don Nicholson, Gas Rhonda, Butch Leal, Les Ritchey, Mickey Thompson, Al Joniec, and yes, even Brannan himself.

The Ford Fairlane 500 owned by Keith Blasius is one of 22 built in 1968 with the 428 Cobra Jet engine and C6 automatic. The original Presidential Blue paint looks great on the Formal Roof version of the Fairlane. The 1968 Ford dealer brochure has the SportsRoof as weighing 14 pounds more than the Formal Roof.

Brannan raced his 1963 1/2 427/425hp Galaxie to 65 wins and 22 track records. He was heavily involved in the development of the 1964 427 Thunderbolt, the Le Mans–winning GT40, and countless Super Stockers, Funny Cars, and high-performance production vehicles. In the later 1960s, Brannan opened Dick Brannan Ford in Carlisle, Indiana, which by his own description was more of a Ford Performance outlet store than a standard new car dealership.

Fast-forward to 1991. Ford employee and enthusiast Keith Blasius was on the hunt for a high-performance Mustang. He stumbled across an ad in a local paper for a 1968 Fairlane in Novi, Michigan, that turned out to be in drag car trim. The car had 289 emblems but was powered by a tired 428 Cobra Jet race motor. The car had all the markings of a big-block swap in a small-block car, until he noticed the R in the VIN. That changed everything.

The fact that the R-code Fairlane 500 was sold new at Dick Brannan Ford was a big plus. Although the owner claimed it was a real-deal R-code 428 Cobra Jet, Keith still had his suspicions. “To be honest, at the time, I didn’t even know that Ford had made a 1968 428 Cobra Jet 428 Fairlane.”

The 428 Cobra Jet engine featured a 4.13-inch bore and a 3.984 -inch stroke. The externally balanced engine had a stout 10.6:1 compression ratio. A 735-cfm Holley four-barrel carburetor fed the beast. The R-code Cobra Jet’s factory rating of 335 hp was bogus, exactly 10 hp more than the 390ci boat anchor. In reality, the 428 Cobra Jet was producing about 400 hp.

Originally an automatic car, it had been converted to a four-speed manual transmission. The trunk housed twin electric fuel pumps and a battery. Keith held off purchasing the Fairlane and began to research it. He checked with six Ford buddies as to the legitimacy of the 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane. Three of them said buy it, three of them said Ford never made an R-code Fairlane 500 in 1968. One of his Ford brethren said simply, “It’s an R-code. Buy it.”

Keith decided to take a chance and paid $3,500 for the car. He drove the Fairlane home, open headers and all. When he pulled in the driveway, his lovely wife was checking out the new arrival. The small carburetor fire that ignited at shutdown did not make a good first impression, but she learned to love the Fairlane with the big 428 Cobra Jet engine.

When we spoke to him, Brannan confirmed that he had ordered two 1968 428 Cobra Jet Fairlanes with the intentions of drag racing them. However, plans changed. After the two Fairlanes arrived, Brannan and others at Ford decided that they were going to campaign the 428 Cobra Jet engines in the 1968 Mustang.

Hoodpins were not factory issue on the 1968 Fairlane 500, but they were retained from its drag racing days for safety purposes.

“We felt like we were spinning our wheels with the heavier Fairlane,” Brannan says. “The Mustang was a sales hit, it was popular with the younger crowd, and it was lighter. We all agreed that we needed to go with the 428 Mustang in order to be truly competitive for the 1968 season. So we put all our racing efforts into the Mustang.”

Ford would eventually build 50 1968 1/2 Cobra Jet Mustangs. They debuted at the 1968 NHRA Winternationals. In storybook fashion, one of those Cobra Jet Mustangs, piloted by Al Joniec, ended up winning Super Stock Eliminator at the event.

Ford was vindicated in its decision to race the Mustangs. The two 428 Cobra Jet Fairlanes, meanwhile, originally slated for big-time drag racing, were sold by the Brannan dealership. Had that not taken place, Keith Blasius might have been driving an old 428 Cobra Jet Mustang for the past 28 years, and what fun would that be?

When Blasius first went to look at the Fairlane 500, it had 289 emblems on the front fenders. The emblem swap might have been an attempt to retain sleeper status, but no solid explanation exists.

When asked about whether the 428 engine is original to his car, Keith says, “Well, here’s the deal on the engine. The car has a 1969 428 block, so it is not the original engine. I asked Mr. Brannan at the 2000 Fairlane Nationals if he remembered anything about either car, and whether either of them had engine problems. He seemed to remember that one of his two 1968 428 Fairlanes had received a replacement engine about a year after being sold, but he wasn’t able to say that for certain. So that’s all I have been able to find out about the engine.”

The 1968 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane is an awesome muscle car by today’s standards, but something of a jilted bride left standing at the altar when the pretty boy Mustang came along and stole the show. However, Keith Blasius doesn’t mind that scenario at all, as it led to him enjoying his Fairlane for 28 years of Blue Oval driving pleasure.

The factory blue cloth/blue vinyl interior is about as pedestrian as it gets. When Blasius returned the car to factory specs, he fudged slightly by adding the 1968 gauge cluster with the in-dash 6,000-rpm tachometer.

At a Glance
1968 Fairlane 500 428 Cobra Jet
Owned by: Keith Blasius, Ocqueoc, MI
Restored by: Owner
Engine: 428ci/335hp Cobra Jet V-8
Transmission: C6 3-speed automatic
Rearend: 9-inch with 3.50 gears
Exterior Color: Presidential Blue
Interior: Blue cloth/vinyl bench seat
Wheels: 14×7 steel
Tires: P215/70R14 BFGoodrich Radial T/A

When Blasius spoke to Dick Brannan at the Fairlane Nationals in 2000, Brannan kindly signed the glove compartment. He also recalled his dealership selling two 1968 Fairlane 500 cars with the 428 Cobra Jet engine.

One of Blasius’s Ford buddies also owns a 1968 Fairlane R-code car. That car also has the R in the dash VIN plate sitting slightly higher than the other characters. A second VIN plate, with the R in the fifth position, is attached to the driver door. Ford did collectors a huge favor in providing confirmation of originality.

The dog dish hubcaps and body-color steel wheels create the sleeper/bare-bones persona.

Return Road
When Keith Blasius bought this 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane 500 in 1991, it was set up as a drag car, complete with a tired 428 motor, a messed-up interior, and about 25,000 miles on the odometer. The car sported all original panels and its original paint. The engine was believed to have been a dealer replacement done in 1969.

Blasius set about returning the car to factory original condition. He wisely decided to retain the original paint. The 428 was removed and built to original specifications. Original seats, steering column, and mechanical components were either replaced or restored. In a very short time, Blasius’ R-code 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane 500 was hitting the local car shows, cruise nights, and pure stock drag races.

Dick Brannan on the Cobra Jet’s Development
“Ford was tired of all the expensive stuff we were doing in our racing program, so we developed the 428 engine. Even though the 428 engine is only 1 cubic inch more than the 427, it is very different animal from that 427 SOHC Cammer motor. The 428 engine was designed with new features, including a completely different bore and stroke, in order to create wider applications. It turned out that the 428 had both great drag racing potential and excellent compatibility with an automatic transmission for production cars.”

The Fairlane 500 in 1991. It had been sitting for a time, but Blasius got it running. With open headers blaring, he drove it home.

While it was originally a column-shift automatic car, a Top Loader four-speed manual transmission had been installed. The high-back buckets were pirated from a slightly newer Mercury Cyclone. Blasius located factory 1968 Fairlane seats and a factory steering column with the original column shifter

Blasius pulled the 428 Cobra Jet engine and rebuilt it to stock specs. Note the cast-iron headers. A C6 transmission with a correct cast-iron tailshaft was located, detailed, and installed.

Years of life as a drag car took its toll on the engine compartment and undercarriage. The engine compartment and suspension components were restored to stock condition.

Once the car was back in its proper condition, Blasius took it to local shows and races. He is seen here at the 2001 Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race at Stanton, Michigan, where he ran a 13.79 at 101.9 mph, “beating a Hemi” in the process. Attaboy.

The post 1968 Ford Fairlane 428 Cobra Jet is a 1-of-22 Sleeper appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

More Truck Barn Finds!
1950 Chevy Truck Found, Gets 496 Chevy Implant
1957 Chevy Stepside Pickup Truck

This 1952 Ford F-1 pickup has been parked behind the farmer’s barn for some time.

There were five cars in the farmer’s driveway, but no answer to my knock at the door. I walked over and shot several photos and was on my way in about 5 minutes. Luckily, there was no farm “guard” dog! This vehicle is located near Berning Springs, Michigan.

The post Behind the Barn: 1952 Ford F-1 Pickup appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

You asked for it, we delivered: Season 1 of Top Gear is now exclusively available on the MotorTrend App, the only subscription streaming service dedicated entirely to the motoring world! Sign up for a free trial to start binge watching right now!

For a couple of months now, the MotorTrend App has been the digital home to Top Gear, one of the greatest automotive entertainment shows of all time. The one hitch, however, was that the series began in season 2. That wasn’t a bad place to start—the first episode features cooking a pedestrian commuter car with a jet-powered Funny Car—but the lack of a first season left our inner perfectionist alter-ego shorting out like wet electronics.

The wait is now over; right now exclusively on the MotorTrend App, you can stream season 1 of Top Gear! In its infancy, the production was much smaller, and instead of a huge audience huddled around the hosts, it looks more like a few window shoppers strolling through a mall. In the introduction, though, the show’s co-host, Jeremy Clarkson, puts it well: “This is a car program. There will be no cushions, will be no rag rolling. No one will sing, and at the end of the series, no one will have a recording contract.” It certainly is an epic spiel for such a small production, but like any of your other favorite show on MotorTrend—such as Roadkill, HOT ROD Garage, Roadkill’s Junkyard Gold, and Engine Masters—you’ve got to start somewhere.

It may not be familiar as the Top Gear you know and love, because season 1 predates the iconic Clarkson, Hammond, and May trio. Clarkson and Hammond host sans–James May alongside automotive journalist Jason Dawe. Go binge season 1 now to see what you’ve been missing!

The post Exlusive! Season 1 of Top Gear Now Available appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

Straight Line Spotlight

Black From the Brink
Michigan’s Ricardo LaCosta displayed true grit and desire prior to the debut of his impressive 1978 Malibu. LaCosta, who works at GM’s Global Service Operations (Lake Orion, Michigan) as a global empowerment manager, was truly tested after he crashed his previous race car: a record-holding, turbocharged Buick Regal. Following that accident and a regrouping period, LaCosta acquired the Malibu from the Philadelphia area after a winning bid on eBay. He took the car to “Lil John” Cross (LJ Race Cars) who did all the car’s tubing and rollcage construction. After experimenting with a couple of engine programs, LaCosta settled on an LS7 by Barry Walker (Airflo Technologies, Fort Lauderdale, Florida), which features a stock crank, rods, and heads; a FAST LSX intake; and a turbocharger. LaCosta races primarily within NMCA and clicks off mid 10-second e.t.’s in the Street King class. LaCosta Motorsports, which features deep family dedication, plans to upgrade the car for next season to a newer and more powerful (1,500+ hp) LSX engine combination.

A Top-Notch S-10
Connecticut’s David Miller scored a career highlight during the summer of 2019 when he won his first ever NHRA national event title racing his Top Sportsman Chevy S-10. For Miller, whose reputation within the northeast U.S. as a race car chassis builder and painter is exemplary, that final outcome during the NHRA New England Nationals was very rewarding. Originally built back in 2011, Miller’s S-10 is 100-percent self-assembled. The S-10 was purpose-built for TS racing—not a converted Pro Stock Truck—and is naturally aspirated, not nitrous injected. David runs a 781ci big-block from Sunset Performance, and the truck tips the scales at 2,385 pounds and is 6.7-second, 200+ mph capable. David reports that while campaigning a truck-bodied machine within the swift TS class may be considered somewhat unorthodox, he likes the visibility advantage that the body style offers. Miller’s involvement in drag racing is deep and multifaceted, and includes racing a Pro Stock car (2018) as well as the involvement of his wife, Becky, and son Brandon, who drive in Top Dragster and Junior Dragster, respectively.

Deep South Dedication
The father-and-son team of Ricky and Richard Pennington race what is truly a showstopping and meticulously prepped 1969 Chevelle owned by Thomas Bills. Based out of Birmingham, Alabama, this Chevelle is an original SS 396 car with a numbers-matching 12-bolt rearend assembly. The team reports the car had originally been built for ISCA circuit racing by Kurt Freeman during the late 1990s before changing hands a few times, then receiving upgrades to eventually become a certified 8.50 drag racing vehicle. The car features a new DR525 sealed LS engine, a changeover that happened with help from Marty Morris at Scoggin Dickey Chevrolet. Initially, the team competed in NMCA Chevrolet Performance Stock (CPS), a heads-up class, amongst a sea of Camaros, but has since evolved to the LME Street King Eliminator (an index class). Ricky’s reputation as a driver is notable, too, which includes winning two NMCA championship titles so far. The team includes valued moral support from wives Tiffany (Ricky) and Lee (Rick) as well as associate backing from Mickey Thompson, VP Fuels, and Chevrolet Performance.

Corvette Collector
When Calvin Starcher shows up at the dragstrip with his 1968 Corvette, race fans are really just seeing part of the story. Starcher, who lives in La Plata, Maryland, along with his wife, is the owner of Capital Air Filter and runs this great-looking Corvette (that features a 15-year-old paintjob by Anassis Auto Body) mostly on the East Coast. From his home racetrack at Maryland International Raceway, Starcher reports this Corvette has a deep history. It’s an original 427 car that’s been a drag racer since 1970 and has seen four previous owners. Starcher runs a 565ci Reher-Morrison engine rated at 1,000 hp and races the car primarily within index classes, either Super Street (10.90) or Super Gas (9.90). This ’68 is one of four Corvettes he owns. He has two Corvette Super Stockers (’68 and ’69 models) as well as a 1967 Corvette roadster within his toy box.

The post Sportsman Drag Racers Grab the Spotlight in the Quarter-Mile appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

See Coverage from the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational
All the Chevys that Competed in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge

The Optima Ultimate Street Car series has become increasingly diverse over the years. From Detroit muscle, to small displacement, boosted imports and even electric cars, there’s something for every enthusiast. For the second year in a row, Mike DuSold and his homegrown 1967 Chevy Camaro took the title of Optima Batteries Ultimate Street Car against a field of stiff competition from Vipers, C7 Corvettes, GTRs and others.

Walking through Optima Alley at the 2019 SEMA Show is the perfect way to see each competitor’s solution to building a car for max handling, while still remaining drivable on the street. With a lack of limitations on vehicle choice, and a generally low cost of operation (depending on how hardcore your car is), ingenuity is directly related to the cars built for competiton. The different classes equalize the competition for cars with less power and different construction but that doesn’t stop participants from designing and combining all manners of aerodynamic splitters, canards, and air damns to help their machines grip autocross courses and race tracks across America.

The post Gallery! The Fastest Pro Touring Cars from the 2019 SEMA Show appeared first on Hot Rod Network.