Project Cars Garage

Fads come and go. Other blips in the culture of hot rodding have lasting impact. This story is loaded with both of those as seen in the actions, words, and products of many hero builders and manufacturers. HOT ROD is in the unique position of knowing those guys and therefore getting hooked in to a number of facets of the marketplace. We are always considering what the next big thing may be, or even the cool little things, and we take note of what’s hot. When we report on those trends, as we have done here, some readers think we are trying to cram styles and products down their throats. Back off that notion and take this for what it is-an industry overview of what’s going on right now. The story is an implement of entertainment and edification loaded with concepts to accept or reject at your personal whim. HOT ROD is the flagpole, these ideas are the flags, and you get to decide if you’re saluting or not. Simple as that.

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Hot Rodding Trends – New Tech That Will Change Car Building In 2010 – Hot Rod Magazine

California Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, born in South Central Los Angeles, is the second youngest of nine children. As a young man living in a single-parent home, he witnessed firsthand the struggles of working families and the opportunities a good education provides. Passionate about education, he was an elementary school teacher in East Los Angeles for more than 10 years and was involved with the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. In addition to working diligently on education, health care and family issues, he is focused on making the roads a safer place through measures that oppose illegal street racing.inline_mediumwraptextright26875649/thehistoryof/hrdp_1002w_tony_mendoza_street_racing_interviewhrdp_1002w_04+tony_mendoza+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Tony Mendoza – California Legislator Fighting Illegal Street Racing – Hot Rod Magazine

In the staging lanes during the National Hot Rod Association’s season finale, a gray-eyed, silver-haired, salt-and-pepper-mustachioed race car driver is methodically gathering up his safety garb and preparing himself for an imminent nitro-powered blast down the Pomona, California, raceway in his 8,000hp Top Fuel car. The man is Chris Socrates Karamesines, and he has been going through variations of this dragstrip ritual for almost 60 years.inline_mediumwraptextrightDespite minimal financing, The Greek continues to go quicker and faster in his Strange Engineering Chizler: At Pomona in 2009, he recorded a top end speed of 308 mph.27894832/thehistoryof/hrdp_1003_chris_karamesineshrdp_1003_02+chris_karamesines+top_fuel_car.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Chris Karamesines – The Golden Greek Is Still Going In NHRA Top Fuel- Hot Rod Magazine

“He’s the best,” said Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Thani as Alan walked past him toward his race trailer at February’s Winternationals in Pomona, California. Though cleverly disguised in NHRA native garb (a T-shirt, ball cap, baggy jeans, short ponytail, and eyes glazed over from nitro fumes), the twenty-something Qatari sheikh was that weekend’s main topic of pit talk. He grabbed Alan away from Don Schumacher Racing by offering enough bucks (good guesses are in the $3 million range) to start a two-car team in partnership with him.inline_mediumwraptextrightAll Alan’s race cars have been perfectly turned out. But carrying minimal sponsorship, the maroon Al-Anabi Top Fueler may be the most beautiful yet.26301647/thehistoryof/hrdp_1002_alan_johnsonhrdp_1002_04+alan_johnson+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Alan Johnson – Profiling The Best Drag Race Crew Chief Of Our Time – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Alan Johnson – Profiling The Best Drag Race Crew Chief Of Our Time – Hot Rod Magazine

Today’s NHRA National Event-level drag racing scene is a marvel of organization, promotion, and competition, with big money involved and huge shows. But getting to that point took more than 50 years of hard work by dedicated and underfunded people who went racing for the excitement of building a fast car and beating the other guy. One of the names at the top of any conversation revolving around the influencers of the early days of drag racing is Tommy Ivo, known better as TV Tommy.

Photo Gallery: TV Tommy IVO – Hot Rod Magazine

You know you dig it. For nearly three years we’ve been hearing from fortysomethings about secret cravings for blowers, tunnel-rams, raised-white letters, Cragars, and even (gasp!) graphics. It’s the predictable, “back when I was in high school” scenario. But then the rebel twentysomethings started to catch on to it, spellbound by the concept of wheels as small in diameter as, say, 15s and awestruck by the power-hungry carbon footprint of dual quads atop an 8-71. So call us harbingers of ghastly retrogaudiness, but we’ll go ahead and say it: ’70s and ’80s street machine style is back.inline_mediumwraptextrightThis is the one photo of the bunch that we hijacked from Car Craft, since that mag really had its finger on the pulse in the street machine heyday. We love all three of these cars from the ‘78 Car Craft Street Machine Nationals, and the engine in the foreground is the inspiration for our Crusher Camaro makeover. Also note the cable-drive Moroso tach. The red car sports the then-hip, now-unthinkable velour interior. The graphics on the Challenger are great and almost justify the hood-mounted gauges.26729908/thehistoryof/hrdp_0912_70s_80s_musclecarshrdp_0912_03+70s_and_80s_musclecars.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: ’70s And ’80s Musclecars – Cars Of The Street Machine Era – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: ’70s And ’80s Musclecars – Cars Of The Street Machine Era – Hot Rod Magazine

On September 16, 1947, Great Britain’s John Cobb established a 394.196-mph land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in his Railton Mobil Special. He overshadowed that achievement the very same day with an astounding 403.135-mph one-way blast that marked the first-ever penetration of the 400-mph mark by a wheel-driven vehicle.inline_mediumwraptextright25705340/thehistoryof/hrdp_0503_burkland_family_race_teamhrdp_0503_01+burkland_family_land_speed_racing_team+.jpgTrue

Photo Gallery: Burkland Family Race Team – Piston Land Speed Record-Breaking Family – Hot Rod Magazine

This isn’t intended to be a sad story. And if you were looking for a handy metaphor for the current problems facing the Detroit Three, you won’t find one here. The auto plants depicted here ceased production decades ago, some more than half a century ago, long before the most recent troubles. They were shut down and abandoned in the greatest days of the Motor City, when it was the world’s largest producer of automobiles and the keystone of the greatest industrial power the world has ever seen. This is a simple look back, nothing more.

Photo Gallery: Motor City Monuments – Touring The Ruins Of Detroit’s Auto Industry – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Motor City Monuments – Touring The Ruins Of Detroit’s Auto Industry – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Bill Passes in California to Resolve Hot Rod Titling – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Fritz Kayl – Inside The OEs – Roddin’ At Random – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Gas Attacks – A History Of – Hot Rod Magazine

Tracing the life of hot-rodding pioneer Ak Miller is sort of like watching a Speed Channel version of Forrest Gump. If something important happened in rodding history, Ak was there. Lakes racing? Yep, before World War II and as the SCTA’s first postwar president. Bonneville? He worked alongside Wally Parks and Bob Petersen to plan the first speed trials on the Salt in 1949. Drag racing? Ak was the NHRA’s first vice president when the association was formed in 1951. Street racing? Ak did his fair share in the day, often humbling flathead-powered iron with a sleeper Chevy roadster packing a Buick straight-eight. Road racing? HOT ROD made legendary his exploits in the Carrera Panamericana road races and on Pikes Peak. Factory performance? For 10 years, Ak worked for Ford as a performance consultant, touring the country with hot-car displays and doing the dirty-fingernail development work that stymied Dearborn engineers.

Photo Gallery: The Best Hot Rodder in the World: Ak Miller – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: The Best Hot Rodder in the World: Ak Miller – Hot Rod Magazine

So Freiburger and I were sitting with Art Director Edwin Alpanian designing this month’s cover, agonizing over the most effective verbiage for the blurbs, all three of us randomly throwing out suggestions. At one point, while noodling a blurb for the inset photo of Liz Miles, I blurted, “She Streeter.” Freiburger looked at me and just said, “Leslie Reynolds.”

Photo Gallery: 1955 Chevy – Leslie Reynolds – Hot Rod Magazine

Since the ’60s, a number of rails have run air-cooled Volkswagen engines as well. Dave Kawell had already posted the first sub-8-second pass (7.96 to be precise) in 1983, and performances have improved tremendously since then. The turbocharged digger campaigned by the VW Paradise team (San Marcos, California) currently holds the world record, thanks to a 6.53/209-mph pass. As far as we know, this is the fastest four-cylinder dragster in the world. Now keep in mind that most stock Beetle engines make between 30 and 50 hp, while the VW Paradise beast delivers 1,300 hp from a flat-four (with aftermarket case) that displaces 2,854 cc or 174 ci. That’s 7.5 hp/ci from a four-cylinder, whose basic design harks back to the 1930s.

Photo Gallery: Volkswagen – Small And Mighty – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Volkswagen – Small And Mighty – Hot Rod Magazine