20 Years Ago
September 2003: 114 pages, $3.99
he “Big-Inch Small-Blocks” cover blurb was supported by three stories inside. Editor Ro McGonegal (who was about to move to magazine) wrote about the buildup of a 450ci LS-based C5R race block that he could plant in his ’66 Biscayne project. Since it was going into a street car, McGonegal was more interested in torque than horsepower; he was rewarded on the dyno with 557 lb-ft editor and new HRM Senior Editor Matthew King presented a 454-inch, 610hp small-block from Bill Mitchell’s Hardcore Products that King called a “drive-it-to-the-track-with-slicks-in-the-trunk kind of engine.” With it in a ’71 Nova, King ran the Irwindale eighth-mile quick enough to get booted off for lack of a rollbar. Rounding out the package was a ’66 Fairlane packing a 440ci small-block good for 547 hp and 11-second e.t.’s. Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger called the cover car “Drag Touring,” as the YearOne project mixed a “drag racy” 540-inch World Products BBC with Power Tour-worthy suspension mods. It was on the Tour, in fact, where Wes Allison shot the cover image. Former Editor Pat Ganahl dipped into his vintage photo collection for a look at the “Lost Dragstrips of Southern California,” and Freiburger got nostalgic in a different way with his report from the 25th HOT ROD Super Nationals.
