September 2021

Hot Rod

Oriented to High Performance, Personalized Cars and the Sport of Hot-Rodding

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Hot Rod
Performance Group Director Douglas R. Glad Editor-in-Chief John McGann Managing Editor Rusty Kurtz Features Editor Timothy Bernsau Technical Editor Johnny Hunkins Technical Editor Steven Rupp Staff Editor Jordon Scott Social Media Editor Cyril Solima
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The Bitter Pill
@john.mcgann This is a tough one to write. Remember in last month’s column when I described damage sustained to the Number 8 cylinder in the small-block I had just dropped into my ’67 C10? I had just changed the accelerator pump nozzle, then all hell
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The HOT ROD Archives
For those who follow the careers of certain people in the magazine business, this issue is noteworthy because it marks the beginning of David Freiburger’s tenure as editor-in-chief of HOT ROD. David took the reins from former EIC, Ro McGonegal, who m
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Vintage Blown 1965 Chevy II “Funny” car That Was Serious Business
As Drew Hardin recalled, “Back in 1964, the term Funny Car wasn’t capitalized and was usually surrounded by quotation marks, because the cars those words described had altered wheelbases that made them look ‘funny.’ Steve Bovan from Blair’s Speed Sho
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Full Immersion Experience
“The art of building a car knows no color,” said actor/comedian Kevin Hart in an exclusive interview with HOT ROD in anticipation of the new show, Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew. His words are true and that’s a fact I’ve witnessed over my nearly two de
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John “Burgandee” Clausell
LS3/4L80E Upgrades: • Magnuson TVS2300 Supercharger • Concept One Accessory Drive • Wilwood Brakes: 6-piston calipers, 14-inch rotors • Hooker Blackheart exhaust Trivia: John calls the car Elmo. “Every time I hit the gas; I giggle like Tickle Me Elmo
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Ron “Boss” Everline
289/three-speed automatic Upgrades: • 425 hp 347 stroker custom built by Engine Factory • Sniper EFI • Be Cool radiator • New top Trivia: When he first got it, the car was very unreliable. There was a draw on the battery, it overheated, often wouldn’
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Will “Spank” Horton
396/4L60E Upgrades: • Chevrolet Performance LS3 crate engine, 525HP • Sniper EFI • Be Cool radiator with dual electric fans • Wiring fixes Trivia: Spank is Kevin’s oldest friend of the group. They grew up together in Philadelphia.
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Joey Wells
1200 cc/4-speed Upgrades: • Powerhaus 2300cc engine • Upgraded transmission • Suspension rebuild • Disc brake conversion • New steering box Trivia: “I only took the car on the freeway once, and it was scary,” says Joey. The alignment was off, the sus
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Harry Ratchford
502/4L80E • Ron Davis Radiator • Wilwood Brakes • Schott Wheels • Carpet and upholstery by Gabe’s Custom Interiors Upgrades: It didn’t need much since it was the most modified car from the beginning. For the show, it was dyno tuned at New Era Perform
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The Experience
■ The show chronicles the journey of the Plastic Cup Boyz as they immersed themselves into classic car culture. As Harry explained to us, “When we first went to Cars and Coffee, we experienced all the different cars and cultures that were there—Lowri
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Kevin Hart
Coyote 5.0L/10R80 Upgrades: None needed! It’s good to go. Trivia: The Mustang is one of more than 20 classic and exotic cars Kevin owns. During production of the show, he won a 1959 Corvette at Barrett-Jackson with a bid of $825,000. Earlier this yea
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Simple Sexy Style
Remember the good old days when cars came straight from the factory with actual style? You know, back when the highways of America were lined with sweeping rooflines and oh so much chrome? Not like today where almost every automobile looks like a glo
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Make It Funky!
On April 1, 1970, American Motors Corporation introduced the AMC Gremlin, arguably the first American subcompact car on the market. While it was homely to look at and derpy to love, it sold nearly 30,000 copies in its first year and stayed the death
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Field Stripped
Why do great cars get parked outside for decades? The answer is the same for John Graham as it is for anyone. “I was gonna fix it up, like everybody else does, put bigger brakes on it,” he says. “So many things got in the way. It never happened.” Gra
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Week To Wicked
❱ By now, we’ve done nearly a dozen of these Week To Wicked builds, and while we’ve fine-tuned the process, the task of putting together a car in just a week is still a daunting challenge. Believe it or not, in all of those previous builds, the proje
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Mighty mini
❱ When he’s not busy co-hosting the video series Engine Masters, Steve Brulé is in charge of the day-to-day operations at Westech Performance Group in Mira Loma, California. In that capacity, Steve sees a huge variety of engines. When one catches his
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Info At A Glance
❱ One of the first upgrades any hot rodder does is to the car or truck’s gauges. Why? Well, to be blunt, it’s because in most cases the classic factory gauges are woefully lacking when it comes to providing useful information. Typically, factory gaug
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Project Car Update
❱ Pure Vision Design, in Simi Valley, California, is approximately halfway through the build of a 1972 Plymouth Scamp, and we’ve been following its progress. The complete drivetrain is installed and the crew at Pure Vision is now in the process of re
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Fashionable Accessory
❱ Technology has changed a lot since the small-block Chevy was first introduced in the 1955 model year, and we enthusiasts have been able to reap the benefits of innovations applied to this engine family over the last 60 years. One of those innovatio
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Those Times I Failed Horribly
@davidfreiburger ❱ A couple months ago I took one of journalism’s greatest risks: I wrote a column listing a number of people I’d met who had since passed away, and of course, one of them had not. Charlie Henry remains alive and well, though Larry He
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Retro Cool
❱ It was 1993, the Petersen Publishing offices were moving from our old headquarters at 8490 Sunset Boulevard to a big new building on Wilshire Boulevard, and, understandably, organized chaos ensued. I was executive editor at HOT ROD, and everyone in

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