Automedia.com - Performance Articles

Adjustable Shocks

Shock absorbers (or dampers, as some call them) are, in effect, hydraulic devices that resist chassis movement by passing oil through a set of orifices and valved passages. Inside an adjustable shock, manipulating the fluid movement through the valving of the shock changes the dampening characteristics. That means you can control how the suspension in your car or light truck functions (essentially fine tuning it for a given application). Many quality externally adjustable shocks are rather similar when it comes to adjustment. Once installed in the car, all changes are usually handled externally by way of the adjustment knob. After installation, the knobs on each of the shock absorber are accessible, either through the side of the spring (typical front applications) or on the body (typical rear applications)...

Tokyo Motor Show Highlights: 2009

For the better part of the past four decades, the Tokyo Motor Show, held each autumn in Chiba (east of Tokyo), has ranked among the foremost auto-industry events in the world. Then came the financial crisis of late 2008, threatening the future of American automakers and prompting the others to cut back sharply on costs...

Head First into Colorado's Mountains

It’s on purpose, you see. The lure draws that draws you in. The state of Colorado is equipped for some of the best off-roading in the world, including remote high-mountain trails and deep-wood access that’s just a day’s walk from anywhere. It might be replicated in other places, but it can’t be duplicated on this grand scale. In Colorado, adventure is everywhere...

Acura NSX Tuner

Even though the Acura nameplate is a dominant force in the tuner car scene, the best model ever built, the NSX, is often conspicuous by its absence. For two simple reasons: price and availability. Few were built during model years 1990-2005. Only in recent years have they become more affordable, thanks to dropping prices in the used car marketplace...

Hot August Nights '09

Swallows fly back to Capistrano every spring. Salmon swim upstream to the same spawning grounds. But where do cool cars and trucks go every summer? Well, for more than two decades, they’ve been flocking to Reno’s Hot August Nights...

The Smith Collection Museum of American Speed

It was a dreary November day in Lincoln, Nebraska. The dull architecture of the industrial park did nothing to heighten my expectations. I was being dragged to see the car collection of “Speedy” Bill Smith, owner of the Speedway Motors mail-order speed shop. From my time following sprint car racing, I knew Smith as an eccentric, often irritating, racecar owner. I was expecting nothing more than a few dusty dirt-track cars back in the corner of the warehouse...

2009 New York Auto Show

Any analysts looking for evidence of distress in the wake of depleted auto sales got a different picture at the New York Auto Show, held in mid-April. Even when the financial crisis was mentioned during automaker news conferences, it failed to cast much of a shadow on the presentation of new and redesigned models...

Off-Roading a Little Truck

We’ve been off-roading a first-generation Toyota Rav4 for about two years. Silly, yes, but effective. The first Rav4, for all its Japanese-spec weirdness (the back door is a monolith that opens in the wrong direction, narrow seats, odd dash, looks like a decapitated monkey’s head), has some well-considered parts and design. A limited-slip locker was an option for the rear. The all-wheel drive (from the Celica All-Trac parts bin), Rav4s with the five-speed have an optional locking center diff. The engine was the nigh indestructible Camry four, Toyota’s ubiquitous 3S-FE engine, and the platform, though Corolla-based, has an absurd amount of ground clearance (which can be augmented with a lift kit from Old Man Emu). Of course, it’s nearly naked beneath and you’ll need to find protection (Armor Craft built some). Then again, there are so many of these out there that wreck-diving for parts at the junkyard is a piece of cake...

The Flying Gaylords

When 14-year-old Tripp Gaylord needed a fire-resistant driver’s suit for his stock-car racing debut, he opened the closet in his family’s Colorado home. Hanging there were racing suits worn by grandpa Les, father Scott and big-brother Ryan. Unfortunately, there were all too big for the still-growing Tripp. Fortunately, far in the back was one that fit Tripp—a suit that had been worn by his mother, Donna. Since 1951, a Gaylord has been racing something. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the streak continue past 2151...

2009 Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT—Even before the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) was scheduled to open to journalists, industry shrinkage was evident. In the past, news conferences were scheduled for two full days and part of a third. This year, nearly everything would be over by mid-afternoon on the second day...

Coronado Speed Festival

For a long time, club racing and sports car racing was done on old air bases. It was an outgrowth of the large number of internationally traveled men after WWII, combined with a broad exposure to multiple nationalities and their products—fast cars and road racing, in this case. At the same time the American government (and the British government, by default) suddenly had a huge number of big cement runways and airfields all over the place that weren’t sending up bombers or fighters or cargo planes. The first SCCA race was held at an airbase in Iowa, in fact, and some of the best test facilities in Great Britain and the U.S. are old airbases. So? Let the boys race...

Paris Motor Show Goes Green

Paris—Every other year, auto journalists and industry leaders trot off to Paris for that city’s flamboyant automobile show. Paris alternates with Frankfurt (Germany) to present what most observers consider the paramount automobile exhibition in Europe. As before, this year’s Mondial de l’Automobile opened at the sprawling exposition center at Porte de Versailles, in the southern portion of Paris. Nine separate halls were filled to capacity with cars, light trucks, and related exhibits...

Marty Robbins: NASCAR Star, Country Music Legend

Imagine country music superstars Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn attempting to enter NASCAR's top series. It’s not as farfetched as it may seem: Both have considerable racing experience in Legends cars. Still, their chances of qualifying, much less leading a race, and scoring a top-10 finish approach zero...

Carburetor Spacers

Common consensus asserts that a carburetor spacer is a simple engine-tuning device, useable for only a select few applications, and they don’t produce much extra power either. Sweet and simple, however that might not be completely true. Certainly in many cases they can be used to change engine characteristics. But they can also be used to find measurable horsepower (more on that later). Here are the bare bones basics of how a spacer functions:..

Gasser Corvette Conversion

When Dave Glass decided to transform his classic ’62 Corvette into a Gasser-style racer, he knew the importance of not ruining the car, and making sure it would be possible to make it look original again if need be. After all, he’s been a Bloomington Gold judge for more than a dozen years, so he knows his way around a trim plate. Not only that, GM had him restore a ’53 Corvette to commemorate the millionth Corvette in 1992. He’s been working on Corvettes for more than 25 years at his shop, D&M Corvette Specialists...

Rolls-Royce Drop Head Coupe Tailgate Party

Certain special occasions you’ll remember all your life: first kiss, first wedding, first time a $445,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe (Brit for convertible) arrives in your drive...

Better Brake Performance

One area hot rodders, racers and custom car (and truck) builders tend to ignore is the brake master cylinder and, in particular, the actual brake pedal ratio. After all, it doesn’t make the car one bit quicker or faster, and if the thing eventually stops, why worry? Perhaps you should...

Custom Pontiac Solstice V8

When the Pontiac Solstice first came out, sports car enthusiasts went gaga over its alfresco treatment and crisp handling. The only downside was the subdued throttle response of the four-cylinder Ecotec powerplant. A turbocharged version was added to the lineup, but it's still fairly mild in the minds of many sports car fans raised on the likes of the Shelby Cobra and Sunbeam Tiger...

Track Day Preparation

Anyone with good credit can walk into any of several auto dealerships and drive out with a car boasting 500 or more horsepower, capable of covering a quartermile in about 11.5 seconds at 130 mph and reaching almost 200 mph. Where are they going to use more than a fraction of that potential without going to jail?..

Formula 1 Thinks Green

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) President Max Mosely says Formula 1 is on the "threshold of a technological leap forward" that will benefit the environment and the regular motorist. FIA (essentially, the governing body for motorsport events) recently banned (October 2007) any further development of F1 engines for 10 years. FIA is directing teams to focus on hybrid systems and other eco-friendly means of producing power. Mosely says the FIA has the opportunity to "nudge the sport in an ecologically and commercially appealing direction. FIA believes halting engine development and concentrating on hybrid and fuel-efficiency technology would translate to greener cars on the highways...

2007 L.A. Auto Show Faves

While the rest of the country is bolting up the storm windows and ordering heating oil for the coming winter deep freeze, Los Angeles stages a show centered around what defines the city at its core. The automobile has been an integral part of Los Angeles for decades. It is in these automobiles that many Angelenos find and express their identity. For 2007 the Los Angeles Auto Show recognized the changing energy needs of transportation for not only the residents of the city, but also for those of the world. The L.A. Auto Show conveyed that the automobile stands for a great deal more than getting from one place to the next. Residents of this great city have plenty of time to ponder this as they sit in traffic. Here are our 10 top picks from the show:..

Top 10 SEMA Wild Weird

In the lexicon of the car nut, SEMA is a noun. What it means is the biggest show of the year. Are you going to SEMA this year? Did you see that crazy [insert vehicle here] at SEMA? The talk never stops. This biggest car show on earth wasn't always this way. Back when SEMA was a collection of speed equipment manufacturers, the big show was smaller and had a different name. The original Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association has today grown to the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association. The new SEMA encompasses everything that goes onto or into a car or truck after it rolls off the assembly line. The bewildering number of vehicles multiplied by the different ways people like to customize, restore, or increase their velocity potential equals the enormity of SEMA. The 2007 SEMA show literally had something for more than everybody...

Best of France Italy

Car nuts who live in the Los Angeles or its environs are in the right place. At least one car show, auto race, swap meet, or burger joint hootenanny happens every weekend the year round. The self-service junkyards are open everyday. No matter which way one's crankshaft spins, there's always a social gathering based around the automobile. For those who enjoy French and Italian automobiles, there is no better get-together than the Best of France and Italy in Van Nuys, California...

1000-Mile Fuel Tank

Remember that movie "Mad Max," where a fresh-faced Mel Gibson had to fight for every last drop of fuel? Well, don't expect that scenario to happen anytime soon, despite dire predictions about dwindling reserves of crude. There's still a lot of oil in the ground, but the cost of mining those reserves will continue to rise, along with prices at the pump...

11 Intriguing Intros @ NY 2007

New York City is famous for a lot of things. Tourists and residents alike admire the architectural beauty of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. Travelers and commuters take in the grandeur of Grand Central Station. Diners revel in the ready availability of oven-fired pizza made the way it should be. New York City is the Big Apple—the city that never sleeps. Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs are also the city that never stops moving. Transportation is the key to the big city, and even though there are trains and buses of every size and shape, automobiles are no strangers to the hectic grid of New York City streets. Thousands of Ford Crown Victoria Taxi cabs can't be wrong. To that end, the New York International Auto Show wrapped up and rolled out the latest from the world of automobiles in a way no other place could...

11th Annual All ToyotaFest

The 2nd largest automaker in the world today had a tough sell when it first came to the United States. The first U.S.-bound Toyota, the beloved in Japan Toyopet, was not a huge success on American shores. Despite the lukewarm reception of the Toyopet, the company pressed on. Slowly but surely America embraced the vehicles to the point where Toyotas are now built right here in this country. Legions of loyal owners swear by the brand, known for its sturdy construction and almost uncanny ability to travel multiple hundreds of thousands of miles without complaint. To some of these fans, the Toyota goes far beyond just reliable transportation. For more than 11 years, the legions have gathered in Long Beach for the car show of car shows for the Toyota loyal—the All Toyotafest hosted by T.O.R.C., the Toyota Owner's and Restorers Club. With the 50th Anniversary of Toyota USA right around the corner, it was only fitting that a capacity crowd of both people and cars packed the lawn in the shadow of the Queen Mary on a sunny May Saturday...

2004 Pontiac GTO First Drive

Jim Wangers and a privileged group of only five GTO enthusiasts recently were hosted at the GM Proving Grounds at Milford, MI to drive the 2004 GTO and put it through it's paces. And guess what——Jim broke the car—but more on that later...

2005 "Hurst Edition" Chrysler 300C

The all-new 2005 Chrysler 300C is the four-door sedan to own. You can easily spot one on the road almost everyday. When "AutoWeek Magazine" recently polled its readers about which four-door sedan they most longed for, the clear winner was the all-new Chrysler 300C. The demand is so great at Chrysler dealerships that the wait for one is now more than three months. With its in-your-face American styling, and a 340-hp 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission turning the rear wheels, and priced no higher than $36,000.00 fully loaded, it's easy to understand...

2007 Chicago Auto Show Highlights

CHICAGO—Full-size trucks took the spotlight at Chicago's 2007 show, along with an enlarged Scion xB, which has lost its quirky boxiness while gaining plenty of power. Almost universally, automakers promised additional power for their 2008 models...

2007 Frankfurt Auto Show

Germany's version of an international auto show is largely similar to those same transportation parties that get thrown here in the United States. Stuff a heap of cars, trucks, and everything in-between in a huge convention center, add tons of lights, elaborate sets, curtains, covers, and flashing lights, and schedule dramatic premieres of production and concept cars punctuated by famous stars and quasi-celebrity alike. The difference between the Frankfurt and, say, the L.A. Auto Show is the reflection on the location in which the party is thrown...

3D Carbon 2005 Mustang GT

The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) Show is held over four days each year in early November, and it's one of the most significant auto shows in the world. Eye-candy for the enthusiast, with well over 1,500 cars and light trucks beautifully displayed, the SEMA Show features professionally modified, new factory vehicles from every automaker...

700R4 Shift Kit

You aren't shifting for yourself anymore: The discerning rodder has equipped himself with a real 4-speed overdrive automatic. This isn't a slushbox either, it's the true hi-po GM 700R4 factory unit, supplied in Vettes, Camaros, Caprice police cars and lots of trucks. Swap kits are available in magazines and on the web for retrofitting a GM 700R4 into all sorts of cars and trucks. There's only one problem.....

9th Annual SevenStock

No other automobile manufacturer has remained more faithful to the rotary engine than Mazda. The company was not the first to embrace the Wankel rotary powerplant, but was the first to manufacture a truly viable production rotary engine—and is the only manufacturer still shoehorning the light yet powerful unit into production cars. To that end, it seemed only fitting that Mazda was host to the 9th Annual SevenStock, overwhelming Mazda USA HQ in sheer rotary madness. Hundreds of rotary powered machines old and new descended upon Irvine, California for the largest single-day gathering of rotaries in the entire world...

Adjustable Shocks

If you have a skinny-tired door-slammer (a legal stocker or a small-tired bracket car, for example), you probably don't have much adjustability in the suspension. Unfortunately, these applications really need suspension tuning. In simple terms, a car without a big-tire "crutch" responds favorably to adjustable shock absorbers...

Affordable Mods You Can Make

If you're a car guy or gal you may already have the very common yet unfortunately incurable performance affliction. Be it new or old, big or small, car, truck, minivan, or even an SUV, you can't leave well enough alone. You want your ride to go faster, handle better, stop quicker, sound cooler, and look better than it did when it left the factory—and you'll get it there by any means possible. Like the old saying goes: Speed is just a matter of money—how much do you want to spend?..

Aftermarket Airflow Sensors

The laws of physics concerning engine performance are constant—stuff more air and fuel into the engine and draw more exhaust out and you'll increase power. Years ago, hot rodders would simply install a larger carburetor and a set of exhaust headers for a nice gain in performance. With electronic fuel injection, you can now cram more air into an engine by replacing the restrictive OE mass-airflow sensor with a high-airflow aftermarket model. The benefits are 20 or more extra horsepower and much quicker throttle response. Best of all, it takes only a few hand tools and about 30 minutes to make the change...

Aftermarket Oil Pans

Generally speaking, bolt-on high-performance hardware is simple to install. In many cases, bolt-ons add extra bang. While most people immediately think of parts like intake manifolds, carbs, EFI systems, headers and cat-back exhausts, lesser-known parts can also add power...

Air Springs Install

An air spring suspension on a chassis can serve a wide variety of purposes, depending on the type of system. Some of the first air spring suspensions were developed about 50 years ago as an insert for a car's factory coil springs. These units later appeared on a large number of NASCAR racing cars, and also on motorhomes, ambulances and street rods. For this particular article, we'll show the applications for pickup trucks and SUVs...

An American on the Road to Formula 1

While NASCAR continues to be one of—if not the—most popular sports for Americans (and the United States provides one of the biggest racing markets in the world), Formula 1 has eluded the U.S., both for fans and professional drivers. For reasons ranging from tradition and training to capital and community, all of this may be starting to change as the first American in 10 years is approaching the closed road of open wheels...

Anatomy of the Musclecar

Editor's Note: Co-creator of the Pontiac GTO and several other Pontiac specialty cars, Jim Wangers, also known as the "Godfather of the GTO," helped establish the "musclecar" of the Sixties to its rightful niche in the history of American car marketing. As Pontiac's marketing man, Wangers was there, helping to steer Pontiac down the road of success during American musclecar glory days of the '60s and '70s...

Automotive Terms Explained

"What's a carburetor—" My teenager's question shocked me. Didn't he learn anything from all that time he spends on car websites? Then it struck me: He was an infant when the last carbureted new car was sold in the U.S. To him, carburetors are ancient technology, like flintlock muskets and Windows 98. When something's dead, it's dead. Here are definitions for commonly used automotive terms that confused him (and probably a lot of others, too.), and that everyone might like to understand...

Avoiding the Spin Cycle

Fans of racing series featuring front-wheel-drive cars often observe a strange phenomenon—cars bump together during close racing, sending one into what seems certain to be the spin cycle. But suddenly, the spinner's rotation stops before the car goes beyond perpendicular to race direction—a point far beyond any hope of recovery for a rear-drive car. Then the car whips back to the correct heading and resumes the fray, likely with the intention of allowing the instigator to enjoy the same maneuver...

Balance Tires

Tire vibration can be extremely annoying. Tire dealers and car dealers wage a constant battle to provide the customer with a smooth ride. Balancing equipment technology has come a long way and tire technicians are better trained, but for some reason replacement tires never seem to have that same new-car smoothness. Even new cars suffer from road vibration. In some cases, it is severe enough that new car dealers have to take back a new vehicle or suffer the consequences of an unhappy customer. It's not just a tire imbalance problem...

Beginning Drifting

Think drifting looks cool? Then you've got to do it from behind the wheel. Performed with precision, drifting makes you feel like a driving demigod. Passengers will disagree: They'll swear you're Zeus...

Belt Drives Vs. Timing Chains

Many performance enthusiasts (especially those on tight budgets), base their selection of engine components simply on cost—do I buy a $75 timing chain or an $800 belt-drive kit? True, both the chain and belt drive rotate the camshaft, but that's really where the similarity ends...

Better Braking

Performance brakes might sound like an oxymoron—like jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly or happy Monday. "Performance" conjures up images of impressive forward motion, the ability to go from 0 -60 in jaw-dropping time. "Brakes," not so much. If brakes start to squeal, or we realize we're overshooting our target in the effort to stop, just slap in a new set of pads and off we go, right? So why explore the possibility of brake upgrades, whether that exploration takes the form of high-performance pads or the whole package—pads, rotor and calipers?..

Beyond NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

There's a whole lot more to stock car racing than just the NASCAR Sprint Cup. And we're not only referring to NASCAR's other two national series. THOUSANDS of other stock car championships—nobody knows the exact number—are contested all across North America every year. These include the fairly well known such as the ARCA Series, regional favorites like the Modified Super DIRT Series, as well as obscure single-track championships contested by a dozen cars...

Big Brake Upgrade

Out of all the upgrades and accessories on the market, one of the most practical items is one that you can't readily see—a front brake upgrade. Okay, maybe it won't turn heads like a new grille or faux woody treatment, but adding high-quality aftermarket brakes can greatly enhance your driving experience, especially if you have any bent toward performance...

Big Sky's the Limit - Custom F150

The Ford F-150 is the world's best selling vehicle with well over 800,000 sales in 2003. As a result, the F-150 accounts for a good part of the profit generated by the world's second largest automaker. When Ford decided to completely redesign and re-engineer the F-150 for the 2004 model year, this all-new full-size pickup truck had to be a winner to continue the success. The '04 F-150 is larger and heavier, with more contemporary styling, and the interior is roomier, more like a luxury sedan...

Billy Gibbons' Slampala

If you were a rock star, what kind of car would you drive? Anyone you want! And that's exactly the choice of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, "that little ol' band from Texas." Seen in his music videos and magazine features, Gibbons' cars and motorcycles are very well known—Cadzzilla, Kopperhed, Eliminator, Hogzilla, Pearl Necklace and so on. Of course, most of these street rods and custom bikes are so extreme they're only for display. So, what are his daily drivers? Good question, because even though they're a bit more practical, don't expect the ordinary...

Blower Bolt-On

More grunt is a good thing, especially when you're trying to climb a steep grade. To get more torque on tap, bolting on a blower is relatively simple. It can provide a significant increase in power—usually on the order of 35 to 45 percent, depending on boost level, temperature, elevation and engine condition. In fact, one manufacturer claims that its centrifugal supercharger kit for 1999-2002 GM small-block V-8s produces an increase of more than 63 horsepower and 70 lb.-ft. of torque; another company touts that its Ford Triton V-10 kit provides a 125-hp increase at 4,600 rpm and more than 80 lb.-ft. of torque starting at only 3,000 rpm. In both cases, the torque peaks at about 1,000 rpm lower than the stock engine. That's right where you want it for hauling a heavy load or getting up a tough grade...

BMW 5 Series Rally Race

"Do you prefer to drive several hours rather than fly commercially? Does a sign that says 'Twisty Road Next 60 Miles' prompt you to speed up just a little? Do you have an all-time favorite road?" Such were the questions asked by BMW's invitation to automotive media to participate in its May 2007 BMW 5 Series Rally, Las Vegas to Monterey—"the long way."..

Bracket-Racer Frontend Upgrade

Owners of the current-generation Camaros/Firebirds know that these vehicles are corner-burners par excellence. But for those whose passions lean toward the straight and narrow, we researched how to make an F-car hook up better using aftermarket front bushings...

Brake Upgrade - Tech Tips

When you modify your vehicle with custom wheels and performance tires, you may need to upgrade your brakes at the same time. Stock brakes work fine with the factory rims and rubber, but as soon as you go up in size, the leverage on the wheel increases, and the vehicle's center of gravity changes as well, both of which impact braking effectiveness. Also, if the tires are stickier, your standard brakes may not be able to take advantage of the increased adhesion. Conversely, if you upgrade the brakes without improving the rubber that meets the road, you may not see a big difference in stopping ability. That's because brakes aren't really what stop your vehicle—tires do. What brakes do is slow the rotation of the wheels and tires...

Building The Ultimate 750 Holley 3310

Over the past 25 years, Holley has probably sold millions of 750 cfm vacuum secondary (#3310) carburetors. I know because I've personally purchased more than twenty 3310s for various cars over the past 25 years and written thousands of car features on vehicles equipped with the ol' standby. It's without a doubt the most universal carb ever built for the performance aftermarket. The same is true for Holley's 650 cfm (#4777) and 750 cfm (#4779) double pumpers. It's hard to find an application where they won't perform well...

Building The Ultimate 750 Holley 3310

Camaro Cherry-Picking

Owning a 1993-2002 LT1-powered Camaro or Firebird is a beautiful thing. Working on the engine isn't always. The wiring, plumbing and fuel-delivery systems are straightforward enough. The major stumbling block is the lengthy windshield cowl, which intrudes heavily into the available workspace. But, with a bit of good old-fashioned hot-rodding ingenuity, effectively working around the cowl obstruction is possible—until you have to remove the engine...

Camaro: 35 Years of Performance

Summer, 1964. GM Design Vice President William L. "Bill" Mitchell is holding forth to a group of young engineers. "When will GM have an answer for the Mustang," he is asked...

Camaro: 35 Years of Performance 3rd 4th Generations

Can-Am Racing

When the Can-Am racing series petered out in 1974, it left a vacuum in the road-racing world. The thundering McLarens, Lolas, Chaparrals and Porsches had provided some of the most thrilling racing anywhere in the world, and the sound of a full grid of 700 hp behemoths was a serious assault on the senses...

Can-Am Racing History

Thundering V-8s, featherweight chassis and huge wings to hold it all on the ground—what's not to like? Although this might sound like a description of a modern sprint car race, similar performance packages once reigned supreme on road racing tracks. From 1966 to 1974, muscular monsters from Chaparral, McLaren, Lola and Porsche ruled the tracks of Canada and America, fittingly named the Can-Am Championship...

Carroll Shelby and His Cars

Hailing the father of American high-performance automobiles, the Petersen Automotive Museum recently opened a new exhibit entitled Carroll Shelby: A Life in the Fast Lane. Ranging from rare, race-winning Cobras to the first Dodge Viper and Shelby Series I, this astounding collection of benchmark vehicles spans five decades to represent Shelby's life-long passion for automotive excellence. Examples of every significant vehicle raced, built or directly influenced by Carroll Shelby are on display, along with little-known archival materials documenting his colorful career...

CART Driving 101

Do you ever imagine being behind the wheel of a powerful open-wheeled racecar envisioning yourself as a would-be Mario Andretti or Al Unser Jr.? You may be surprised to learn how easy your dream can come true...

Champ Car Chassis Change-Up

A series in serious need of revival is what one could have described the Champ Car Atlantic Championship as just a few months ago. The engine supplier that had paced the series for many years left for other motorsports pastures, and the cars that competed within the program were getting old...

Checking Compression Ratio

Car magazines throw around compression ratio numbers like 9.0:1 and 12.5:1 as though everyone knew what they were talking about. For those who don't understand what compression ratio is, it's simply the total volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber above the piston at the bottom of its travel (referred to as bottom dead center [BDC]), divided by the combustion chamber volume above the piston at top dead center (TDC). It sounds simple enough, although most people who build their engines never actually check the compression ratio to know for sure...

Checking Valve-To-Piston Clearance

Building a high-performance engine with various speed parts is tricky business. If you follow the basic engine building rules (measuring every part to ensure they meet specs, trial-assembling the engine to check clearances), you shouldn't have any problems. One of the most critical clearances that should be physically checked is valve-to-piston clearance. Many first-time engine builders think that they can calculate the amount of valve clearance by knowing how high the piston is in the bore at top dead center and the total lift at the valve. Well, it just doesn't work that way. You won't know if the valve notches in the pistons are in the right place and exactly how everything will mesh unless you go through the process. Put clay on the top of the pistons, install the cylinder heads and valvetrain, and rotate the engine through a complete cycle (two complete revolutions)...

Choosing Rod Ends

In a companion article, we outline the various types of rod ends (a.k.a. spherical bearings). These bearings are used for a variety of industrial and aircraft applications as well as for certain automotive systems. Because rod ends are typically used in performance/competition vehicles, choosing the right end for the intended job is vital. Here are some of the practical considerations...

Chris Titus Talks Cars

Chris Titus, star of the Fox TV series that bears his name, is a case of art imitating life—and vice versa. The premise of his manic, whacked-out show revolves around his real-life passion for fast cars. Here's one entertainer who cut his teeth not only on the standup comedy stage, but also under the chassis of his '56 Chevy...

Club Racing

Every year, tens of thousands of amateur drivers compete in hundreds of "club racing" events from New Hampshire to Hawaii, Florida to Washington, British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Save for the most knowledgeable, few race fans have heard of the obscure road-racing circuits on which they compete: Bremerton, Thunderhill, Spring Mountain, Shannonville, Grattan, Waterford, St. Eustache, La Junta, Mountain View, MidAmerica, Pueblo, Kershaw, Cabaniss, Second Creek, BeaveRun, Mission, Gimli, Gingerman. Occasionally, club races are held on big-name tracks such as Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta and Lime Rock, but for every Road America, there is a Roebling Road and an Arroyo Seco...

Coddington's Boydster II

Boyd Coddington is known for creating an astounding range of celebrity hot rods, such as Led Zephyr, Che'Zoom, and CadZZilla owned by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Yet, how many people ever get to experience these cars, other than taking snapshots at a car show or museum? The price of building these heavily customized cars is stratospheric. For instance, the original Boydster, which won the prestigious Oakland Roadster Show in 1996, sold to Bob Petersen for a whopping $260,000 (and now is on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles). Well, you don't have to crash the museum gates to drive a legendary Boyd Coddington hot rod, because he now offers a reasonable facsimile of this showstopper as either a turnkey car or a component package...

Colorado Rock - Custom Chevy Colorado

Chevy compact truck enthusiasts were a little disappointed when the much anticipated S-10 replacement, Colorado, arrived at Chevy dealerships. The new Colorado was better in every way but only a little longer and wider than the S-10. Nothing new in styling was obvious because the Colorado copies the design cues of the bigger, full-size Chevy Silverado. Chevy engineers took the 275-hp 4.2 liter, inline 6-cylinder engine from the Trailblazer and cut off the end cylinder to make a 3.5-liter inline five pumping out just 220 hp. They should have left the inline 6 alone...

Corvette Conundrums

While some people characterize Corvette enthusiasts as aging hot rodders over-reacting to middle age, here's an exception to that perception. Jeff Gooss is just short of 30, still in his prime. So while the intense orange hue of his C5 looks like a brilliant sunset, he's not settling down for the evening of his life. It's 6:00 a.m. and this Vette is a wake-up call...

Crate Engine Carburetor

Chevy's ZZ 350 crate motor is a hot-outta-da-box setup for anyone building a hot rod, street machine or even a custom truck. This brand spankin' new small-block is capable of producing about 345 horsepower—at a price many can afford...

Creating the Cadillanche

Professional basketball players need some really good moves, both on and off the court. Take Henry Turner, for instance, who played for the Sacramento Kings in the '90s, and later teamed up with fellow player LaSalle Thompson to form T&T Motorsports, a high-profile customizer of cars and trucks. This firm is known for some really unusual double-fakes, such as creating the Humm de Ville, an H2 with an Escalade body conversion. The company has also put an Escalade nose on a '01 Silverado X-Cab pickup...

Cruise the Gold Camp Road

It was difficult not to feel like an engineer, piloting my new-age locomotive along long-been-gone tracks as I fell into Colorado Springs. The route was far from straight, but in form with the needs of the steam locomotives that engendered it, kept relatively level, with a consistent grade dropping eastward. The trail is called Gold Camp Road, itself on the 30-mile railbed of the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad's Gold Belt Line, and is passable in the most innocuous family transportation...

Custom 1998 Chevy S-10

Just as you can't judge a music CD by its cover, you can't tell right off what's different about Gil Luna, Jr.'s 1998 Chevy S-10. Sure it's been slammed and shaved, but you might be surprised by what's underneath that somber black exterior. Inside are enough thumpin' audio components to rock the house right off its foundation...

Custom Datsun 240Z

Looking back at the Datsun 240Z, its place in sports car history as a genuine classic collectible is clear. Yet the benefit of 20/20 hindsight has also motivated a number of Z-car owners to rewrite the record books...

Customized 2004 GMC Denali XL

Las Vegas casinos pamper and spoil their high-roller guests to the extremes. In the competitive world of attracting these well-heeled gamblers to their venues, owners of these hotels/casinos offer free air transportation to and from the city, free premium accommodations, free dining, free tickets to popular shows, and now the keys to premium vehicles that most wealthy players are accustomed to. These "high-stakes" gamblers need only bet a certain preset amount of hours per day, leaving them time to cruise the Strip and other interesting areas around Las Vegas in the finest rides possible...

D1GP Drifting Showdown 2005

It was just a few short years ago that the first-ever D1GP brought their unique brand of sideways-driving, tires-smoking, engines-screaming action to U.S. soil, and left a sold out crowd at Irwindale Speedway in California clamoring for more. In the time between that first exhibition event and the present day, the popularity of drifting has exploded here in the United States. Drifting continues to gain momentum in both series competition and on the lifestyle side. As a result, the D1GP which isn't the only game in town anymore came back into town this fall to settle which driver had the most impressive drift-driving skills as it hosted the All Star Exhibition Match...

D1GP Professional Drift Series

By 11:00 am a sold-out crowd packed Irwindale Raceway in Irwindale, California, for the season opener of the D1GP Professional Drift Series—and they were not to be disappointed. The D1GP had come from Japan for the first real battle of the series and the first ever season opener on U.S. soil...

Detroit Auto Show Wrap

General Motors kicked off the third and final day of the North American International Auto Show press preview days. Having won two coveted automotive industry awards for the Chevrolet Silverado and the Saturn Aura, GM also holds the top spot as the largest automaker in the world. If the company continues to unveil stunning new products like the Aura, CTS and Malibu it may well retain that top position...

Differential Gears: The Optimum Choice

Everyone who tinkers with cars knows the phrase "higher numerically, but lower" when referring to ring-and-pinion axle gears. But what does this really mean?..

DIY Catch Cans

On the legendary Shelby Cobra, there was a pretty crude term for it. The graphic yet accurate name was "puke tank" because it collected what this sports car's hot V-8 coughed up during hard competition. Even though technology has come a long way since the heyday of the Cobra, many track events require all cars to have what we now more politely refer to as a catch can. On the Cobra it was designed to capture fluids emanating from the engine, but it can also be useful on the radiator, transmission or differential, not merely for keeping the car clean but, more important, to prevent the track from getting slippery...

Downpipe Install

If you're one of the lucky ones who drive around with a turbo or two huffing exhaust into horsepower with the stomp of a foot, then you already know performance is what puts a smile on your face. More performance is always welcome, especially if it doesn't come at the cost of anything else. As you may well know, a great number of performance upgrades come with a price tag. Payment may be in the form of lost mileage, increased engine wear, overheating or similar loss of drivability, and so on. Payment may also take a big chunk out of your wallet...

Dream Cruising a Rolls-Royce Phantom

Say Rolls Royce offers you a weekend loan of a $350K Phantom, one of the most rare and exclusive new cars on the planet. What would you do?..

Drifting

About a dozen years ago in Japan, street racers began trying a new type of driving called drifting. Instead of straight-line drag racing, they began throwing their cars into tight turns while mashing the throttle to kick the rear end loose. Great prowess and finesse were required to keep the cars right on the edge between control and disaster, so they wouldn't fly off the narrow streets of Tokyo. The drivers didn't always succeed...

Dunlop Drivers Cup

Two laps into my four-lap ATV (a.k.a. "quad") timed run, it's clear that the rear brakes are useless. I step on the pedal and nothing! "Probably jammed with mud," I think to myself. Three laps in, I'm going fairly well despite that: downhill past the start/finish, left around a tree, through the big puddle, right, left, up the big hill, hard left, then left again to the steep downhill...

EA Sports Infiniti QX56 UGV, or, Ultimate Gaming Vehicle

In old-school slang, the term "ice" referred to diamonds, among other things. For automotive buffs, though, it has another meaning: "In Car Entertainment." Considering the price tag of the systems being installed into these rolling media centers, they're becoming almost as valuable as precious stones...

Easy Exhaust Upgrades

Performance enthusiasts know that one of the best ways to increase horsepower—especially in computer-controlled vehicles—is with a less-restrictive exhaust system. Because any components downstream of the catalytic converter are legally fair game for modification, the automotive aftermarket has a cottage industry in so-called cat-back (muffler and tailpipe) exhaust systems. Across the board, these products are intended to improve both engine performance and exhaust sound compared to stock...

Easy Import Exhaust Upgrade

Back in the day, changing the exhaust system on your vehicle usually involved a trip to the muffler shop, a torch and a welder. Getting underneath your car at home and doing that kind of job was out of the question. With the advent of cat-back exhaust systems a few years back, getting that new rumble from under your vehicle has actually gotten easier...

Electronic Fuel Injection

Imagine you're looking over the shoulder of an early pioneer of the computer industry. He's sweating over thousands of cathode-ray tubes all spaghetti-wired together, trying to cobble up a contraption that the simplest laptop PCs now outperform on giga-fold scale. Then you whisper in his ear, "You know, some day you'll see this sort of machine controlling the engine of every new car." The bespectacled engineer would probably have you hauled off by a security guard and thrown in the loony bin—yet that is exactly what has come to pass...

European Concept Cars

Hot hatches. Turbo-diesel sedans. Micro-MPVs. Let's not forget WRC homologation specials, too. How come being in So Cal, the self-proclaimed "center of the automotive universe," actually LIMITS the amount of truly cool and astounding vehicles we can see? Why don't WE have really cool micro-cars that are just right for you, me, and an iguana named Quincy? Well, if we can't have them, at least we can lust after them. In no particular order, here are some fab cars we'll never see...

Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valves Explained

Under certain temperature conditions inside a running engine, nitrogen and oxygen combine to form sky-darkening nasties known as nitrogen oxides, or NOx. These compounds combine with other tailpipe crud known as hydrocarbons and, presto, smog—the kind of air that can be seen. One way to help an engine reduce these smog-forming gases is to recirculate spent exhaust back into the engine by way of the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system...

Exhaust Header Upgrade Install - Part I

The Jeep Wrangler has wonderful off-road capabilities, but it has at least one area in particular that could be improved: the exhaust system. Replacing the constrictive stock system with high-flow headers is done not merely to gain more power, though picking up some more ponies is a welcome benefit. The stock headers also tend to crack over time, despite the use of accordion-style expansion joints in the primary tubes...

Exhaust Header Upgrade and Install - Part II

As shown in Part 1, the stock headers on the Jeep Wrangler can stand for some improvement in both flow and durability. To maximize the performance gains of aftermarket headers, a cat-back exhaust system should be installed as well. You should see as much as a 25-hp increase using both components together. It doesn't make sense to increase the flow at one end of the tubing and leave the other constricted. To work effectively, the entire exhaust system needs to flow better...

Exhaust Tips and Tricks

Exhaust tips are one of those items that bridge the gap between the two worlds of automotive performance and visual style. What makes exhaust tips unique is that along with adding a visual finishing touch to the exhaust system and vehicle, they also provide an aural punctuation. The shape and construction of the exhaust tips affect the overall tone of the exhaust note, and can affect exhaust flow as well. The other aspect of exhaust tips is that like a set of wheels, they are an entirely subjective finishing touch to the exhaust system of a car, truck, SUV, or station wagon...

Exhaust X-Pipes

It's a proven fact that joining the exhaust pipes of multi-cylinder engines improves power and torque over a broad rpm range. A "tuned" set of exhaust headers (with pipes of calculated diameter and length) actually assists sequential firing cylinders to scavenge spent exhaust gases, making room in the cylinder for an undiluted, fresh charge of fuel and air. The velocity of exhaust gases in one header tube causes a low-pressure area in an adjacent tube, literally sucking the exhaust out of that cylinder. The more cylinders, the greater the effect. The late and great Smokey Yunick built several eight-into-one header collector systems that showed increased power on the dyno. Unfortunately, such a system is virtually impossible to package on a typical sedan type of vehicle...

Exotic Stalker

For those with a taste for the unique, merely purchasing a limited-production exotic car is not rarified enough. Just ask Jim Michaud about his latest piece of rolling art, the Stalker. This project reflects a lifetime of technical expertise in customizing and shows just how much one can transform a basic car simply by using ordinary materials...

Fender Trimming

Whether they're on a lowered street machine or a new SUV, bigger-than-stock tires generally look better. They can also improve the vehicle's performance. Wider treads put more rubber in contact with the road for better handling. Taller tires raise ground clearance, and larger sidewall area usually means more tire flex and a softer ride...

Ferrari 360 Modena Test Drive

What's it like to test-drive a 560-hp, twin-supercharged Ferrari 360 Modena at 200-plus mph—on a public road? And more important, what do you say to the Highway Patrol if you're caught?..

Fetching the Racecar

It had been proposed that I assist a friend in his effort to build a production-based rally car. This friend was behind the proposal. I had not danced around his need, but freelance automotive journalists are not typically well funded, which made me typical at least in that regard. What I do have to offer, though, are my access, contacts, network of well-prepared friends and time. Freelancers generally have a remarkable fluidity of schedule; and, although none of that time is "free," it is available. So the friend's question was answered, if he wanted what I had...

Fetching the Racecar, Part 2

Outbound to Phoenix (Tempe, actually) was a piece of cake—350 miles, about 2/3 a tank (at $80 a fill, it had better last at least one leg), one BP check and seven million incredibly dead bugs. We chewed through 10 CDs, too. Doug left a live Sinatra disc in the six-changer, but we needed something sportier: I'd brought Amon Tobin, Clutch, The Melvins, Kyuss, Horton Heat, Novadriver, Led Zep, Failure; and Eli had Bowie and a batch of other stuff that kept making me sleepy. Driver's choice...

Finding My Toolbox

It's not every day that the well of your needs lay before you, poised to divest itself of the specific what you want. So who the heck is Craig of craigslist fame anyway? Spell it without caps and punctuation—an online miasma of everything you could want and much more than no one could bear to have, too excellent a resource for finding the exact plug for the leak in your dike. Frozen in time, at that moment my plug was a toolbox...

Flying Low, Truck Style

Performance fantasies come in all sizes and shapes, from superbikes to supercars. And then there are muscle trucks. Imagine driving an 1,100-horse, twin-turbo sport pickup with 1,400 pound-feet of frame-twisting torque. And not just in a blinding blast through the quarter mile, but on a cross-country run. This was no feverish dream, but one adrenalin-pumping, palm-sweating, muscle-aching ride for two incredible days...

Foose Coupe Revealed

With the constant media barrage of car, truck, and motorcycle building articles or television shows, it's easy to become numb to it all. After seeing the ninth ready-made crate engine dropped into an engine bay or the umpteenth employee argument over some glued on gee-gaw, the eyes can glaze over with boredom. Not yawning then becomes that much more difficult. About the same time one is about an inch or less away from deciding to pack it in on cars and take up model trains or stamp collecting comes along something so astounding as to completely restore enthusiasm for the fine art of building custom automobiles. A recent trip down to Foose Design world headquarters and then onto the Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters was such an event. At the end of the day we left filled with enough wonder to repel even the worst automotive kryptonite back into outer space for a long time...

Ford Explorer NBX - Mountain Drive

With a few days in Colorado Springs behind us, several pounds heavier and a little less enamored with turkey, my girlfriend and I scooted west and north on State Route 24 toward Wilkerson Pass. It was a bright and absurdly crisp morning. We passed 67 South just west of Woodland Park, upon which a few miles would have us in Cripple Creek, a backwoods gold production boomtown from the early 1900s. Edging north toward Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, the cozy Explorer (outside thermometer: 12F) was then pointed up 9 North. We stopped ourselves to take a meander through sadly commercialized downtown Breck, a puzzle of real estate offices, souvenirs storefronts and overpriced "mountain" cuisine. You can still find the history here, and it's worth looking, but it'll take a few hours with a bulldozer scraping away T-shirts and silly hats. Don't even ask about the housing prices. Now depressed, Interstate 70 led us west, right to the front door of Copper Mountain. This was a happier moment...

Ford F150 FX4 Offroad

Every so often a new vehicle manufacturer comes up with a special version that makes you wonder if it's just a marketing hook with vinyl stickers and fancy badging designed to generate some extra excitement about an otherwise plain-vanilla production offering. Thankfully, that's not always the case. Since the Ford F-150 FX4 Off-Road edition has been a popular seller lately, we thought we'd find out whether the FX4 is merely a marketing ploy or something of real use on the trail...

Ford GT40 Replica

Looking at Ford's latest supercar, the GT, its ancestry is obvious. Although taller and heavier than the original GT40, the GT is clearly from the same end of the gene pool. Yet its mission is primarily on the street—mean streets, to be sure, but creature comforts such as air conditioning would rarely be found on a pure track car. In contrast, the earliest versions of the GT40 were built essentially for Gran Turismo racing, hence the GT moniker, especially at Le Mans where 200 mph on the Mulsanne straight was the norm...

Future Racing Stars

Most racing stars of 2020 are competing right now. Most of the rest will start racing as soon as they're potty trained...

Future Vehicle Concepts

DETROIT—Auto-show visitors love concept cars, and the automakers know it. Also known as "show cars," these beautifully crafted vehicles capture the imagination, delivering visions of stimulating motoring in the near future...

Garage Upgrades

Look at any home improvement or lawn and garden publication today, and you'll find numerous pages on garage upgrades and accessories designed to create the ultimate nesting place for both vehicle and human. It's true. Many garages have become an extended expression of one's individuality and skill in home design and all can be achieved with a little imagination, considerable patience and a fairly accommodating bank account. Probably need to add in an accommodating spouse as well...

Gear Splitter Install

Having a few extra gears at your disposal can come in very handy. For instance, many drivers have likely experienced the following scenario on a steep hill: You're cruising along at a comfortable speed, right at the optimum spot for maximum engine torque. Then a slow-moving semi or RV pulls out in front of you, forcing you to lift off the throttle. Now that you've lost your momentum, you have two choices: To get back up to speed, you might try running a heavy throttle and high rpm, resulting in poor fuel efficiency. Or if you ease off the throttle and drop the revs, that may lug the engine, which can cause premature wear...

Goodguys VRA 7th Pomona Nitro Nationals

Under the hot, late-June California sun and into the cool night air, the Goodguys Vintage Racing Association 7th Pomona Nitro Nationals was drag racing at its best. Over the course of two days and nights, more than 400 dragsters, funny cars, hot rods, and street machines did battle until the thunder of the last engine echoed off the tower and into the Southern California darkness...

GT Live Hosts First-Ever JGTC Race in U.S.

At the very root of the Japanese Grand Touring Car series philosophy is the goal to bring the fans of tuned cars out to the track. On a windy weekend in December at California Speedway in Fontana, California, out to the track they came. Nearly 50,000 faithful turned out to show their support for the first-ever visit of the popular Japanese series on U.S. soil. The JGTC All-Stars had come to do battle here under the umbrella of the GT Live event...

Guide To Rocker Arms

Rocker arms can cost power, lots of it in some cases. Typically, a factory rocker arm's ratio is less than advertised. For example, many stock Chevy small-block rockers "check" at between 1.4:1 and 1.47:1—few attain the advertised number of 1.5:1. No big deal? Not quite. If the cam has a lobe lift of .300", multiplying by the advertised rocker ratio of 1.5:1 gives the engine a theoretical valve lift of .450". If the stock rockers only have a ratio of 1.4:1, then the real valve lift is actually .420"...

Gurney and Riverside

No driver and no track were ever as closely linked as Dan Gurney and Riverside. He won five NASCAR races there, including four in a row, from 1963 to 1966, and again in '68. He ran the Indy Eagle in the Rex Mays events and dominated. His favorite racing number, 48, was borrowed from Les Richter, who ran Riverside for years and had worn 48 in his playing days with the LA Rams. If there was a big-bore event at Riverside, Gurney was in it...

HEI Ignition Upgrade

Virtually all GM V-8 engines from the mid-'70s up to the distributor-less era of the '90s were equipped with HEI distributors. The HEI is an elegant design incorporating an electronic ignition module, magnetic trigger device and ignition coil into a single assembly. It delivered a hot spark for easy starting and long spark plug life. In fact, it could fire plugs with up to .060-inch gaps at low rpm. However, performance enthusiasts replaced HEIs with traditional ignition systems because the stock HEI didn't perform well above 5,000 rpm...

High and Mighty Custom Jeep Grand Cherokee

Think about the most challenging terrains on the planet: Rubicon, Dakar, the deserts of Baja, Australia's Outback. Places that pit man and machine against some of the most hostile environments you can imagine. What vehicle would you want for this sort of off-road adventure?..

High Mountain Colorado

I shoved the transfer case into Four-Low and was moving at a horse-cart's pace, which was oddly appropriate. This blistering 5-mph action wouldn't last, though, as the trail reached a narrow section with a solid rock base, tilted about 20 degrees to the right—downhill. What was a rough but functional two-rut hardpan on the side of a nondescript Colorado mountain had come to a spot where, though chipped and chiseled away, the slab of rock beneath remained, and imperiled truck and driver both. The rock was positioned to send the truck either sliding or rolling downhill, depending on how I screwed up. The only reassuring detail was that the exposed portion of the slab was clear and free of debris, loose gravel or ice. I hoped the OEM tires would stick enough for an easy creep across, and took a line as close to the inside of the 50-degree slope as reasonable. The truck inched forward close to the mountain's face, creeping marginally uphill. Two minutes later, period—in which I don't believe I took a breath—the tires returned to the relative security of loose gravel and the two-rut. 1500 feet-vertical to go...

High Mountain Descent

Lest I bore you with tales of spectacular scenery and cool old stuff, the Cinnamon Pass trail grew steadily more entertaining as I rolled beyond the ghost town of Animas Forks. At this point, I'd eclipsed the 11,370-foot mark and the Animas River, again, scrambling up a series of mild switchbacks along the canyon face in an easterly direction. Past the second switchback of this climb is where I encountered the big less-than-level rock I wrote about in the first part of my trek. Beyond that, there weren't too many hair-raising slices of trail to be concerned with...

High Performance Front End Rebuild

As a vehicle's bushings, balljoints and other frontend components wear, wheel alignment becomes increasingly sketchier. Refurbishing these parts offers several advantages: For one, alignment can be returned to spec, so tires will last longer. Ride and handling also improve. Replacing the soft parts in your front end is the automotive equivalent of curing arthritis, comparable to putting new tendons and ligaments between bones...

High Rise Construction

Setting up a vehicle for going off-road is like playing with dominoes. Tip over one, and suddenly you've got a whole lineup of things to handle. Going to bigger tires is a good example. When you throw on a set of 33- or 35-inch knobbies, you should plan on lifting the suspension. And that's just the beginning. You also may need to trim the fenders, along with changing the gear ratio in the axles and adding air lockers—and those projects turn into another game of dominoes altogether...

High Rise Construction

Holley Carburetor Tuning

One of the most botched, most misunderstood and most befuddling parts of the Holley carburetor is the accelerator pump circuit. Performance is a game of winners and losers; and, if your car dies, bogs or stumbles as you wind through the gears, you're gonna lose. A poorly tuned pump circuit can do that and can also be dangerous—especially when you have to pull out into traffic. Why, then, do carburetor experts tell us that fine-tuning a Holley accelerator pump circuit is easy?..

Holley Power-Valve Blowout Protection

Holley carburetors have been the mainstay of high-performance engines for more than 40 years. In fact, they're still standard equipment for Winston Cup cars as well as for the most powerful carbureted engines of all, NHRA Pro Stock. In spite of the continuous improvement that attends race programs, the Holley carburetor has escaped major change. It seems that Holley designers got it right the first time, and now only minor refinements are being incorporated. If you've worked on or tuned Holley's 2300 (two-barrel), 4150s, or 4500s, you'll be right at home making this simple modification outlined below...

Honda Civic CRX Dragster

When Honda first introduced the Civic, who would have thought that it would become the darling of sport compact enthusiasts? It's the Gen Y version of a '57 Chevy, the blank slate for a host of performance and appearance mods. Taking this trend to its (il)logical conclusion, can you imagine flogging a Civic dragster with a puny 1.8-liter engine so it runs through the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds at 116 mph? For comparison, that's in the same league as the legendary Shelby Cobra stuffed with a 500-hp 427-cube, big-block V-8!..

Hot Rod Secrets

Anybody who's handled a hot rod project knows it's no walk on the drag strip. Often it starts out with high hopes and big dreams that come crashing to the pavement as the costs of restoring and modifying old, original sheetmetal rapidly spiral upward. Or even if your rod project uses late-model components, things just don't go together as quickly or simply as expected. And so it sits, gathering dust in the garage, awaiting an infusion of time, money and, perhaps most important, skill...

Hot Rods and Boba

Thing about a good cruise is the regulars—when they're not so regular...

Hot Rods Today

Today, the term "hot rod" has many a different interpretation. Let's call those interpretations "factions." And within each faction, there are subcategories...

Humm DeVille

Swapping body parts from one vehicle to another is nothing new. Remember those VW Beetles fitted with a toothy Rolls Royce grille? A variety of transplant operations have been attempted over the years, with varying degrees of success. Some seem comical (like the Brit-style Beetle), while others look like a formal design concept that might have made it to market...

Import Cold Air Intake Install

An engine is often compared to an air pump in that air is ingested, burned and exhausted. Well, human beings function anatomically much the same way. You inhale air, it enriches your lifeblood and then you breathe out the spent air (now carbon dioxide). Like you, if you restrict airflow to the engine it will struggle to perform at maximum capacity. Likewise, hot air is less effective than cool due to the density and oxygen content difference. Thus, plenty of cool, dense air promotes maximum performance from your engine as well as, uh, the engine inside of you...

In Memory of John DeLorean

John DeLorean was the best automobile man I ever worked with...

Install Adjustable Camber Plates

Most passenger car suspensions are built with comfort and quiet, no-surprises operation in mind. Engineers weigh road handling and performance against acceptable tire wear when they design suspensions for passenger cars. The good majority of the motoring public drives their cars about with little thought of pushing the limits of tire adhesion. For these reasons, factory suspension adjustments are usually kept within the context of average, everyday driving. If you happen to be one of the road-going hooligans who enjoys a run or two up the canyons on a weekend, tossing your car around autocross cones, or running around a road course—then adding suspension adjustability can be the answer to improved handling. Adjustable camber plates are part of the improved handling equation...

Installing Auxiliary Lights

Vehicles intended for off-road or inclement-weather use can often benefit from auxiliary lighting. Stock headlights are fine for normal city and highway driving, but people who drive in foggy conditions, explore off-pavement trails in the deep wilderness or participate in weekend rallies are safer seeing more of the road and its surroundings than factory lighting can illuminate. In effect, auxiliary lighting can improve safety and driving enjoyment. A well-rounded (so to speak) variety of auxiliary lighting is available. The actual lights come in different sizes and intensity as well as pricing...

Installing Underdrive Power Pulleys

Production vehicles are designed with a large safety factor. Automotive engineers have no idea if the vehicle they design will be used in Phoenix, Arizona or Juno, Alaska, so items such as cooling and heating systems are overkill. That's good news for performance enthusiasts, who can turn this excess capacity into measureable rear-wheel horsepower gains with a little "engenuity."..

Intense Integra

Body mods are practically a requirement for sport compact enthusiasts. If you haven't added some ground effects, then you might as well stay home on cruise night. If you take that mindset to its logical extreme, you end up with the custom-molded conversion shown here. Owner Scott King didn't spend just a weekend bolting on a body kit, but seven months' worth of shaping to create this wide-body '94 Acura Integra...

Intense Integra

Iridium Spark Plugs

Spark plugs get no respect! In fact, a lot of performance enthusiasts don't give them a second thought. They spend thousands of dollars building the ultimate performance engine then simply screw in whatever plugs the local auto parts store has in stock. The perception is that spark plugs are the lowest-tech components in the modern internal-combustion engine...

IRL and CART

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war..."..

Japanese Classic Car Show

While the '57 Chevy and the '32 Ford have long been the staples of classic car shows around the U.S., time nonetheless marches on. As hard as it may be to believe for those stuck in the past, certain Eighties cars are now considered classics or, in more modern nomenclature, "old schools." In the case of classic Japanese cars, the few little gems there are here in this country from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, ironically vastly outnumber those in their country of origin...

KN Cold Air Intake Install How to

Performance is a lustful thing for car enthusiasts. For true "car guys," there's no such thing as "enough." Take the '99 Tahoe Limited, for example. It's a nicely appointed sport-utility vehicle with plenty of power for the highway—for some people. Anyone who's interested in performance will soon notice that the off-the-line jump could be better, and the engine seems a bit flat when you stomp on the gas...

Landrunner Jeep Conversion

Every Jeep Wrangler owner knows the problem of upgrading to larger-than-stock off-road tires. Not only do they throw a lot of mud on the sides and into the cabin—even if you gain fender flares—but you may also need to install a lift kit to add enough fender clearance. The new Landrunner Jeep conversion addresses those problems with an innovative approach. Instead of lifting the vehicle, this body conversion has much taller fenders, which maintains the vehicle's stock CG (center of gravity) for better stability, which is also enhanced by the wider stance of the off-road tires. In addition, these Hummer-esque integrated fenders do a better job of deflecting mud and debris...

Learn to Drive!

What do you want from a high-performance driving school? Do you long to steer down the same pavement as racing superstars? Are you looking for a thrill you'll remember the rest of your life? Or do you wish to raise your driving skill to match that new performance car? Maybe you'd just like to learn how to dodge redlight runners and pass those driving-skill pop quizzes called black ice. Regardless, there's a high-performance driving school to fit your needs...

Lightning Strikes Thunderbird

No Thunderbird enthusiast will ever forget that famous scene in "American Graffiti" where a mysterious, platinum blonde Suzanne Somers coyly smiled from behind the wheel of a porthole T-Bird. It's one of those images that indelibly mark the personality of the car. That sort of celebrity association can be a huge asset, but it has its drawbacks, too...

Lingenfelters Leap

Collaboration between traditional antagonists John Lingenfelter and the Dodge Viper ranks with Arab-Israeli peace in our time. Lingenfelter is the tuner who has systematically provided Corvettes with extra speed and vitality for the past 13 years. The advent of the Viper eight years ago intensified that activity. Since then, Decatur, Indiana-based Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE) has devoted a major share of its waking hours to finding ways to skin Vipers. Lingenfelter's leap from vanquishing to nurturing snakes is a sure sign that the golden era of remarkable road-going performance is still thriving. What Lingenfelter has wrought is a truly evil Viper with 580 horsepower at the rear wheels. It does zero-to-sixty in three seconds flat. In case you're into gs, that's an average acceleration of 0.94g—nearly a horizontal free-fall. Lingenfelter explained that his customers are at the root of this particular evil...

Little Big-Block V-8

For all the excitement of driving a musclecar or street rod fitted with a thundering, 427-cubic-inch, big-block V-8, there's something you ought to know—a small-block V-8 has the lightning strike. Legendary Cobra racers such as Bob Bondurant preferred the less weighty 351-cube Ford because it provided better balance on a road course. Even Carroll Shelby admitted that the only reason he used the behemoth 427 was because the Ford brass wanted to promote it...

Lowering Your Truck

Lowering your GMC or Chevy CK1500 can be a simple project that you can do at home without exotic tools or a Swiss bank account. We followed along while the experts at Sport Trucks by Dean installed 2-inch shorter front coil springs and a rear shackle and hanger kit from Bell Tech to lower the rear of this Y2K model four inches. These parts are available mail order and, with a normal complement of hand tools, can be installed in a day or less...

Lowering Your Truck

Magnum Force

Are you ready for a ride on the wild side in the 2005 PWG Dodge Magnum "Magnum Force"? Magnum Force is Performance West Group's (PWG) red-hot interpretation of Dodge's new sport wagon. Drawing inspiration from its race-bred relative, the Dodge Viper GTS/R concept, Magnum Force features a dramatic restyling package and paint scheme that matches its heart-stopping good looks with heart-pounding performance...

Magnum Force

Mini-Tubbing

A production car with a stock body never has large enough rear wheelwells for a performance enthusiast. There just isn't any room for fitting wider tires. To make room for some fat meats, you'll have to expand the wheelwells using a process called "mini-tubbing." (The reason it's called "mini" is because they're smaller than those giant wheel tubs that replace the rear seat.)..

Mitsubishi Owners Day Celebration

Anyone who has ever owned a Mitsubishi knows of the power of the three-diamond brand. Over the years, the engineers and brain trust at Mitsubishi have churned out some of the most interesting, tough, innovative, and performance-oriented vehicles on the planet. Some of these vehicles were so far ahead of the curve as to be out in front of their time; unfortunately, slightly too far ahead to be fully appreciated by the majority of the motor going public at large when they were on the market...

Mopar 440 Bottom End Buildup

Even though Hemi is the current buzzword for musclecar enthusiasts, Mopar's 440 engine is also a significant big-block V8. It was introduced in 1966, the same year the 426 engine was replaced by the same-displacement, legendary 426 Hemi "elephant engine," and found its way into both luxury and performance vehicles...

More Production Previews from NAIAS 2007

2007 marks not only the 100th anniversary of the Detroit Auto Show but also the 19th year that the show has held the "International" title, competing with the likes of Frankfurt, Geneva and London. There were far fewer foreign cars on the showroom floor 19 years ago than today. The open and liberal market in the United States has allowed the influx of automobiles from all over the world to be sold provided they meet required safety and emissions regulations. And that's not a bad thing...

Motorcraft Carburetor Rebuild

The Motorcraft 2100-D two-barrel carburetor was ubiquitous on Ford small-block V-8s throughout the Sixties. Appearing as early as 1957 in Ford and Mercury cars (including Edsels), the 2100-D later handled aspirational duties for (among others) Fairlanes, Mustangs, Meteors, Galaxies, Comets, Cougars, station wagons, and pickups. This two-barrel even made its way onto 1968-69 AMC 290- and 343cid engines...

Mountaineering in a Ford Explorer

Ask yourself a question: Is it more important to be prepared for the unexpected or to be good at dealing with it? Does all the pre-thought and sensible effectiveness turn to butter when you melt at the first sign of disaster? Is the most level-headed amongst us useless in a snowstorm if no one brought gloves? This equation may be one whose answer is intangible. Will preparation plus crisis skills equal up to whatever Murphy's law might throw at you. Do you need less preparation? More skill? A shovel? How about the importance of having the right truck?..

MPH 2005

When was the last time you went to an auto show and were handed a pair of 3D glasses? Well that's exactly what spectators got when they walked in to London's Earls Court on November 20th. Make no mistake; this is not your typical car show. It is a spectacular theatrical event where the cars are the actors, paired with an automotive gallery showcasing luxury cars, classics, and every type of extravagant supercar available in the world. Welcome to MPH '05...

Muscle Car Rewiring

Muscle cars' popularity never wanes. But as the Sixties become more distant, the high-horsepower cars produced in that era continue to deteriorate. Hot rodders are forever updating and upgrading mechanical components, but they shouldn't overlook the electrical system. In fact, totally rewiring a muscle car with an aftermarket kit can improve both performance and safety: Old, brittle wires can crack or fray and produce sparks, which can ignite an electrical fire. Also, electrical components such as headlights perform best when the wires allow more voltage to flow to them...

Mustang Chassis Upgrade

Owners of late-'60s and early-'70s Mustangs know all too well both the bright spots and blemishes of these highly popular sports cars. They're strong on styling, speed and affordability. However, their suspension, steering and braking weren't particularly noteworthy. Engineering has come a long way in the last few decades, and the automotive aftermarket has developed a wide range of upgrades and retrofits for the Mustang's antiquated chassis design. If you own or are thinking of buying a vintage Mustang (or other related Ford models such as the Cougar, Comet, Fairlane, Falcon, Maverick, and so forth), here's a brief rundown of suspension changes you can make to modernize your pony car. Many of these are from Total Control Products, a company that built the stunt cars for the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" (particularly Eleanor, the flying Shelby GT500)...

Mustang Engine Swap

Engine swaps have always been a favorite trick of hot-rodders, but plugging in a 16-valve Cobra engine, Ford's 4.6-liter dual-overhead-cam modular engine, presents a whole new type of challenge. Complicating matters is that the Cobra 4.6 is taller and wider than most small-block V-8s. However, the issue really comes down to a small, computerized key...

Mustang Live Buildup, Part 1

Going to car shows to check out the latest rides is a favorite American pastime, but how often do you see anything more than static displays of shiny new vehicles? What if you could see a stock Mustang being modified into a high-performance street machine right on the show floor?..

Mustang Live Buildup, Part 2

With the suspension and brakes upgraded on this Mustang Live Buildup, we're now ready to get into the engine and body mods...

NASCAR Terminology

Even longtime NASCAR fans are regularly confused by racing terms tossed around by drivers, crew chiefs, and TV reporters. Here's part of the problem: Those expressions must first be translated from the original Piedmont drawl or 'Bama twang. In addition, few fans have driven a car to its true limits, much less attempted to adjust suspension. While it's one thing to not comprehend pit reporters, it's an entirely different matter when your racing knowledge is challenged by the owner of the NASCAR team. It's even worse when you hope to race his car. "What's the difference between 'push' and 'loose'—" It wasn't a question, but rather an accusation...

NHRA Sport Compact Drags

Drag racing in the purest form has been around as long as two drivers wanted to race each other from start to finish. Along with being a straight-line challenge of speed, drag racing has always been a test of driver skill and machine prowess. In the early days of the sport, young hot rodders drove their "gow jobs" out onto the dry lakebeds of Southern California not only to race but also to test their skill as mechanics and backyard engineers...

Nitro-Huffing Time Machines

Nitromethane, or CH3NO2, can be used in a number of different ways, such as a component in dyes, and in the manufacture of antacids. Boring. Nitromethane can also be used in the manufacture of resins to make plastic snowglobes for tourists to take home from winter attractions. Slightly more exciting, but no barnburner...

Nitrous Oxide

Forcing more air into your engine so it burns more fuel is the basic concept behind superchargers and turbochargers. Another way to achieve this type of power boost is to change the actual content of the air charge. That's what happens when you add nitrous oxide, similar to the gas used by dentists to dull your senses. When injected into your engine, however, the effect is anything but dull. That's because it raises the oxygen concentration of the air from a typical figure of 20 percent (at sea level, less at higher altitudes) to a much higher level, so the engine can burn more fuel and produce more power...

Off-Road Inspiration

A lot of engineering goes into making a vehicle capable off-road. Four-wheel-drive systems, differential locks, suspensions, tires, and even body designs must be optimized to make a vehicle able to crawl over rocks, climb steep hills, and slog through mud. But in the course of normal driving, very little of that capability is ever tapped. Jeep, Hummer, Porsche, and Land Rover offer company-sponsored off-roading opportunities to let customers know just how capable their products are. The offerings range from driving schools to family-oriented weekend festivals...

Off-Road Racing

Going off-road in a four-wheel-drive vehicle can be a wonderful adventure, a relatively easy way to experience remote destinations and spectacular scenery. Nobody would ever confuse it, though, with the simplicity of heading to your local convenience store. Driving off the pavement demands some careful preparation and unique driving skills. If you get stranded out there, calling for a tow truck makes about as much sense as trying to order a pizza for delivery...

Off-Road Tire Tech, Part 1

Strangely enough, when you buy a rugged new 4x4 from a dealer, often the tire installed by the vehicle manufacturer is for street use. Designated as a "P" (for passenger, not pavement) rated tire, it's installed because most of the driving done on any truck or SUV is on asphalt. Truth be told, for many 4x4 owners, a typical off-road excursion might consist of driving illegally across the median strip of an interstate. So manufacturers consider the actual use of the vehicle, not the "climbing Mt. Everest" images conjured up by commercials...

Off-Road Tire Tech, Part 2

Just as a good tracker can tell a lot from a trail of footprints, the tread design of a tire reveals much about its traits. You don't have to be Tonto, though, to figure out what the trail signs mean. Tire manufacturers make a wide range of truck and SUV tires designed for specific types of terrain. (See Part I of this feature for details on sizing, performance and suspension issues.) For instance, if you have an "asphalt four-wheeler," you can choose a tire design that works best on pavement such as one with an all-season tread pattern. All-season tires are designed for the average four-wheeler whose vehicle spends 95 percent of the time on-road and the other five percent on dirt or gravel roads...

One Crazy Cooper S

Most of us will probably never drive a MINI Cooper as seen in the recent action movie, "The Italian Job," where the cars flew out of giant drainpipe as if they'd been shot from a cannon. No matter, because you can still experience the thrills of stunt-level performance, thanks to Mini Mania, a company that has been tuning both earlier and later models of the Mini Coopers for decades...

Open Track Madness

Waking up at 4:00 a.m. is never fun, even for this. This was track time at Buttonwillow Raceway, courtesy of the Sixth-Annual Hotchkis On Track Day, held annually in the spring. Attended by a varied selection of road-course nutters, reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. A large contingent of the vehicles on the track are of the domestic musclecar persuasion, long a stalwart customer base for Hotchkis' suspension goodies, but over the past two years the company has been spinning out a growing selection of sport-import hardware. High-zoot performance suspension bits for the Subaru WRX, Acura RSX, Celica GTS, Honda Civic Si, Acura Integra, etc, have earned the import division at Hotchkis (hotchkistuning.com) growing sport compact creds...

Optimize Your Air Flow

A typical automobile engine is an amazing combination of reliability, efficiency and power, especially when you consider that the manufacturer designed it to be as inexpensive and quick to assemble as possible. That doesn't mean you can't optimize its performance with a few race-engine tricks, however. Simple gasket-matching (the first step in a comprehensive porting job) corrects one of the main mass-production flaws, and just might give you that extra airflow you've been looking for! All you'll need are a few new gaskets, a marker and a die-grinder with an appropriately shaped carbide burr. The work can be done anytime, but is most convenient when you already have the engine disassembled to replace a blown head gasket or have valve work performed...

Performance Air Filters

Spring is the perfect time to reclaim your vehicle from the ravages of winter and to prepare for some carefree summer road trips. One of the first places to start is with your vehicle's filters. Winter typically brings lots of cold temperatures, rain, snow (in some areas) and strong winds. All are tough on air and oil filters. When moisture from condensation finds its way into your engine's air inlet system, the O.E. paper air filter can lose its shape and much of its filtering ability. Paper air filters restrict airflow to your engine, can quickly become clogged with dirt, and require frequent replacement. Worse yet, areas with blowing dust can cut an air filter's useful life in half...

Performance Brakes

If the time has come for you to R&R the brakes on your car, stop and think. How much can you improve the performance of the original setup? Will substituting high-performance aftermarket parts for the factory-replacement pieces make a big difference?..

Performance Dampers

Original-equipment engine parts are designed to operate at factory-output levels. As engine builders and tuners increase power output, many stock components can't handle the increased stress...

Performance Exhaust Headers

If you think of your vehicle's engine as basically a big pump, the need for free-flowing exhausts becomes obvious. Air in, air out—that's what it's all about...

Performance Mods for Sport Compacts

SEMA's International Auto Salon in Long Beach, California, is a glitzy and glamorous showcase for everything you might need or want to bolt onto a compact tuner car. We highlighted some cool new stuff for show earlier, and now here are some hot goodies for go...

Performance Pushrods

In most engines, pushrods are pushrods. But in a high-performance application, hidden power could be lurking in the valvetrain. To find out how much power, we discussed pushrods with a few "name" engine builders. The consensus: A bent pushrod or two can cost between 5 and 15 (or even more) horsepower on a street engine, depending upon the camshaft specifications. On a race engine, the power loss can be even more significant. Just as important, some power can be gained by reducing the overall weight of the pushrod, but without sacrificing pushrod stiffness...

Performance Racing Glossary of Terms

You've probably heard these obscure words bandied about at every car event. Old-time hot rodders have a language all their own and it's embarrassing to keep asking what they mean (nobody wants to be known as a rookie). Of course, there are thousands of engineering terms, slang expressions and abbreviations that you will learn over the years, but here are a few of the most common performance terms used by the fast-car crowd. Get familiar with them, and you'll be bench racing with hot rodders as quick as a 426 Hemi in the quarter. Just read on and you'll understand (in case you don't already)...

Performance Racing Industry Trade Show

Motorsports is a big business. It employs thousands upon thousands of people throughout the world and has an enormous economic impact on the cities and communities where races are held...

Performance Torque Converter Install

Many car enthusiasts believe that the path to better performance is through engine modifications. The problem is that engine modifications often don't work out exactly as you hope. Modifying a daily driver's engine can be tricky business, sacrificing one benefit in favor of another: low-end torque for top-end horsepower, fuel economy for acceleration, or even worse, reliability for that newfound performance...

Performance Trends

Just when you think you've spotted the next new trend, something comes along that takes you off in an entirely new direction. Just look at the big Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show in Las Vegas, a mecca for performance prognosticators who wander endlessly among the 1,800 booths packed with auto parts and tools of every description. Of course, many suppliers are trim and truck companies with glowing lights, pounding stereos or bike racks for SUVs, but the serious go-fast companies were in the majority at the November, 2003 show; yet, their dizzying array of products makes trying to figure out where the car hobby is headed a tough challenge...

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

Not that long ago, racing was filled with stories of incredibly skilled but under-funded mechanics who resurrected an older race car, built a powerhouse of an engine using a block from an old school bus, and dragged the combination to Indy or Daytona or Watkins Glen on an open trailer behind an old pickup. Then was plugged-in a hungry, talented driver—often the mechanic WAS the driver—and the team made the Big Show...

Placebo Performance

"Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highways and drive themselves to death with huge cars."—Hunter S. Thompson..

Pontiac Drag Days

Ever since Bunkie Knudsen took the reins as general manager of the Pontiac Motor Division, Pontiacs and racing have gone together like chocolate and peanut butter. For Pontiac enthusiasts in Southern California, things were no different. The Southland had a great assemblage of famous names like Mickey Thompson, Jess Tyree and many more locally recognized professionals and amateurs flying the Pontiac banner over their race teams. Still there was something missing, something that the growing population of Pontiac hobbyists needed...

Porsche Cayenne Turbo

When Porsche's Cayenne first came out, initial reactions were mixed. Sure, it lives up to Porsche's reputation for superb performance, even in off-road conditions, which is not the company's forte. On the other hand, some observers, especially Porsche purists, have remarked that it looked like a 911 with a lifted suspension, creating an ungainly crossbreed (or crossover, to use a more polite expression)...

Porting WRX TGVs at Home

It's old-fashioned tuning, hammer and chisel stuff akin to hacking off the mufflers and running around uncorked for every horse it could provide. It's new tech, counting on the computer to accommodate the details of modded hardware and not seeing the subterfuge of emissions alterations and missing parts. It's trial and error, chasing one part with another and another to keep ahead of the OEM's prescription...

Ragen '40 Ford

Rock stars don't always live on the road, but some have a love for it, especially if they own one really righteous street rod, like guitar bassist Michael Anthony of the rock group Van Halen. He bangs out a whole different kind of beat in his private life, the kind heard from the exhaust pipes of his Ragen '40...

Ram Interstate Rated Head

There's a saying among pickup owners that every car wants to be a truck when it grows up. And what does a pickup become? Well, a big rig, of course. At least that's part of the idea behind the tow-tractor treatment of this Dodge Ram 3500 Mega Cab. Dubbed the "Interstate Rated" Ram by its creator, Performance West Group, the name was inspired by Dodge's legendary Job Rated Trucks...

Rampagin' Ram 2500 Crew-Cab

What a concept: stuff a 5.7-liter Hemi engine into a work-a-day, crew-cab 2500-series Dodge Ram and you've got the makings of a rig that hauls more than grass. Next, bolt on some massive 26-inch wheels and a cargo-bed full of aftermarket goodies, and you'll be stylin'. Finally, add a twin-screw supercharger, and now you've got a fire-breathing monster on your hands...

Rear Brace Installation

There are many ways to improve the handling characteristics of your car. Unfortunately, most of those ways involve very complicated suspension work. Tools like spring compressors, air wrenches and a hydraulic lift are obviously pricey—and doing it on your garage floor will probably not be much fun nor is it very safe...

Riverside Raceway: The Hot Tarmac

The stories Riverside had. Was it one of the local motels where the rental car of "Stroker Ace" went into the swimming pool? If you left the track and took Highway 60 east toward Palm Springs instead of west back to Los Angeles, after just a few miles the road wound through a California canyon with a series of hellacious up-and-down curves. More than one racecar went through a late Saturday-night test run through that canyon. But probably the primary Saturday night activity took place in the Presidential piano bar, off the lobby of the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside where, as one old-timer put it, the racing crowd "hung out and earned hangovers."..

Riverside Remembered

To those who raced there and watched there, and today drive by there on the way for a weekend in Palm Springs, Riverside Raceway is fondly remembered. Not because it was a nice place to go or be. It may have possessed greatness, but it most certainly did not offer hospitality. Carved out of a rocky, dry, hot, and mean spot of ground that at the time didn't seem any good for much of anything else but a racetrack, and is today covered with shopping malls, tract houses and fast-food joints, Riverside never gave an inch. To any racer, that was part of its undeniable appeal...

Rock Star - Custom Jeep Liberty

Nobody would ever claim that turning a Jeep Liberty into a hard-edged rock crawler is a walk in the park. That's largely because unlike most trucks and many SUVs with a body-on-frame construction, the Liberty's unibody chassis is more car-like and requires some substantial reinforcement. And replacing the front suspension with a straight axle isn't exactly a weekend bolt-on project, either. Yet, just like a veteran off-roader facing some gnarly boulders, Scott Frary of Tractech viewed these mountains of modifications as mere molehills. He did realize, though, that the going might get a bit rough...

Roll Bar Basics

Turning a sports car on its lid is not something any enthusiast expects to happen, but you should be prepared for the worst. Damaging your ego or your pride-and-joy is one thing, but more serious is the potential for personal injury. Adding to the danger is the fact that many sports cars are stuck with 1960s technology when it comes to safety considerations. Modern production cars have crumple zones, airbags, rollover protection and built-in side beams to prevent intrusion...

Roll Bar Construction

When fabricating your own roll bar, first consider that bars must be shaped on a special bender that does not wrinkle, kink or "neck down" the tubing in the bend area. A muffler shop bender will produce a bend with a curved area of a smaller diameter than the rest of the tube—and this is not legal with any racing group. It is also not legal to heat the tube and bend it. All bending must be done "cold." The radius of each bend is important, as too tight a radius will weaken the bend. The radius should be at least 3 1/2-times the diameter of the tubing...

Romancing Supermodels

Driving someone else's racecar is like romancing a supermodel. Just to get a chance to begin a conversation you'll have to be determined and assertive without being obstinate or aggressive. To move beyond that requires daring and innovation, but you can't be brazen or wacky. The difference is indistinguishable...

Roots Side-Mount Supercharger

It's hard to beat the look of a traditional Roots-type supercharger, that big shiny housing often seen bristling out of the hood of a hot rod. But the size and conspicuousness of this type of blower is also a drawback. Not everybody wants to cut a hole in the hood to get all that extra horsepower. For a stealthier look, you can go the side-mount route, as seen being installed on this 5.3-liter Vortec engine in a '03 Chevy Suburban...

Roush Stage III Mustang

Although his name will be on the car, Jack Roush says he had about as much to do with the development of the Roush Stage III Mustang as he did with the birth of his first child. "I was there for the engagement, for the romance," Roush says, but then his wife (in the case of the child) and his engineers (in the case of the car) did the heavy labor...

Shifter Upgrade

When people first started modifying their manual transmissions years ago, it was basically just a matter of looks. Aftermarket shifters gleamed with chrome and big T-handles that did little to shorten the shift distance or speed with which it could be accomplished. Aftermarket shifters came of age with the advent of the 5.0 Mustang and its long-throw, rubber-bushed, factory shifter...

Sleeper Silverado

Back in the musclecar era, Chevy produced a whole slew of big-V8, rear-drive road cars, such as the Nova, Camaro and Impala. Not all were conspicuous about their performance potential, however. One in particular, the '70 Chevelle SS 454 had a "stripe delete" option. The lack of any body markings made this popular sedan-on-steroids a real sleeper, a Q-ship that bared its gun barrels only when challenged at the stoplight...

Snow Then Sand in a New F-150 Part 1

Some of the best stuff happens on unplanned adventures. Ray called. "Dude, let's go riding this week." He was thinking Snow Summit—in the Big Bear area above San Bernardino. Good snow this year. Not a bad idea. Weekday riding is the cat's meow when it comes to dodging traffic in L.A.'s commuter nightmare, too. Multi-Bonus...

Snow Then Sand in a New F-150 Part 2

Two days later I got another call. "Justin, we're doing the weekend out past Gordon's Well. You wanna come—"..

So You Want to be a Racecar Driver?

You can become a race driver. It's easy. It doesn't (have to) take a lot of money. Mechanical experience isn't required and on-the-job training will be provided. I started racing on a very moderate salary. I had no formal training in auto mechanics and I wound up running in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and NASCAR Southwest Tour against the likes of Michele Alboreto and Jeff Gordon...

Speed at Salt Flats

For some sexagenarians, salt can be healthy. Just ask John Maffucci. Even at the age of 60, he's not one to avoid a high-sodium diet. Back in 2003, he hit 178.998 miles per hour in his 2003 Cobra on the Bonneville Salt Flats, but vowed to return and break 200 mph. Looking to shake the salt some more, in August of 2004 he broke the double-century mark with a speed 203.231 mph...

Speed of Light: Shift Light Install

There are those happy to go through life letting the planetary gears, lockup clutches, vacuum modulators, and associated computers of an automatic transmission do the gear shifting for them. And there are those who believe this is a pity...

Sport Compact Appearance Add-Ons

It's hardly a secret that the hottest segment of the car market right now is sport compacts, like those seen in last summer's movie hit "The Fast and the Furious." No surprise, then, that bolt-on items for these pocket rockets are in huge demand. According to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which has tracked this niche since 1997, retail product sales topped $1.5 billion in 2001...

Sport Compact Scene

The popularity of high-performance compact cars, also known as "sport compacts" and "tuner cars," has surprised many industry experts who'd thought it was a fad that would pass in a flash. They said the cars weren't distinctive and the cost of modifications was too high for a young audience. But the movement has confounded the critics and continues to gain adherents around the world...

Sprint Cars

What do Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have in common? Sprint cars and the closely related midgets and Silver Crown cars. Along with Dave Blaney, Ken Schrader, Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss, A.J. Fike, and others, they've honed their craft and attracted the attention of NASCAR owners with their exploits in these overpowered, under-tired, brutal, spectacular, dirt-slingin' beasts...

Spyker C8

The Spyker is an enigma. On one hand, it's a basic, down-to-earth sports car, thankfully bereft of modern electronic gimmickry that too often comes between the driver and the driving experience. No traction control, no launch control, no irritating paddle shifters, no power brakes or even the option of an automatic transmission. A proven, off-the-shelf Audi V-8 pumping out around 400 hp propels the C8 along at an impressive, if not earth-shattering by supercar standards, rate. Ease of service at a reasonable price sets it apart from most exotica, and the distinctive baroque styling shouts "exotic sports car" without looking Italian in the process. The little Dutch sports car has much to commend it, if, on the other hand, you can just get around the $260,000 base price...

SSE MINI Cooper S

"Austin Powers" fans could hardly miss that sporty entrance made by the Mini Cooper bedecked with a Union Jack paint scheme. But for performance enthusiasts, the real spy secret to be uncovered is how to pull more performance out of this half-pint. Yes, the factory performance crew has done a pretty good job with the Mini S upgrade, bumping the output of the 1.6-liter transverse four from a puttering 115 ponies to a supercharged 163 hp...

SST Expedition

What do Ford and an MVP pro basketball player have in common? The new Shaq SST, an upfitted Expedition designed to add more sport to the fullsize sport-utility. This limited-production vehicle is available through 30 selected Ford dealers starting in December 2001...

Stock Car Racing

NASCAR Winston (soon to be Nextel) Cup is the 500-pound gorilla of American auto racing. But there are thousands of other stock car championships. These range from the well-known NASCAR Busch series, to regional cult classics such as the Advance Auto Parts Modified Super DIRT Series, to obscure single-track championships contested by a dozen cars. In addition to Winston/Nextel Cup, NASCAR itself has another 10 series, plus its Dodge Weekly Racing Series, which sanctions races at 75 tracks...

Strut Tower Brace

The best kinds of performance modifications are those that are simple and inexpensive. While it's easy to get lost on the costly road to squeezing more horsepower out of an engine, another and often more effective route to take is to improve handling and put existing horsepower to better use. Horsepower that goes up in smoke or causes uncontrollable handling while driving in anything other than a straight line is all show and no go. One of the easiest ways to tighten up vehicle suspension performance and handling is with a strut tower bar. Performance cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution come from the factory with a strut tower bar. Chances are good a strut tower brace is available from the aftermarket if your car didn't come so equipped. A good example of this availability is the Cusco strut tower bar for the 1982 Toyota Starlet shown here...

Supercars at Art Center

Pasadena, CA—Under sunny skies and warm temperatures, more than 2,500 automotive enthusiasts were treated to up-close and personal viewings of over 150 stunning examples of superb automotive design and engineering at Art Center College of Design's 4th annual showcase of some of the world's finest automobile designs and the visionary designers who created them. Present at the event were supercars from all eras, from a 1914 Ford Model T Touring car, all the way to the latest, a 2004 Porsche Carrera GT Spyder...

Supercharged Corvette Z06

Corvette owners can get a little greedy. Consider the Corvette Z06. Although the 2001 model already had more horses than the Kentucky Derby, for the following year the hoofbeats pounded even harder, increasing from 385 to 405 horses for 2002. Now, as if that weren't enough, you can order a supercharged Z06 from Mecham Design, Performance. Before going into detail on all the other features of the Mecham limited-edition DuMans package, let's cut to the chase: Just how many more horses are we talking here?..

Supercharged Gas Huffer

Ever since early hot rodders took their cues from World War II fighter planes and adopted belt-driven forced induction as a proven way to generate more power from less engine, the supercharger has earned its place in the American pantheon of power. The image of a bug catcher intake raking up over the hood atop a roots-style supercharger has firmly established itself in the visual lexicon of automotive performance...

Supercharged Mercury Mountaineer

SUVs are roomy, practical, versatile, and—fast? Consider the supercharged Silver Streak shown here. It started life as a Mercury Mountaineer, certainly a capable vehicle, but hardly our first choice for high-performance thrills. Great for climbing mountains, but not for dropping the hammer on the drag strip. That shimmering, quicksilver Spectraflair paint on this modified SUV is more than just for looks, though. The Silver Streak lives up to its name, thanks to a Kenne Bell twin-screw blower, reportedly the first one ever installed on a Mountaineer...

Supercharged Toyota Matrix

While Toyota's Matrix is a competent enough vehicle with a sporty flair, it's by no means a hard-nosed sport compact. This versatile wagon does a number of things well, but would hardly be our first pick for a leading role in "The Fast and the Furious."..

Supercharging Your Engine

What hot rodders learned from the big bad wolf: If you huff and you puff, you'll produce more horsepower. Well, maybe not quite, but you get the idea. Think of your engine's pistons and cylinders as basically a pump. To run, it inhales big lungs-full of air spiked with some flammable gasoline vapor (the ideal ratio is 14.7:1). The more air that can be sucked in, the more fuel that can be burned, and the more power this fast-revving pump under your hood can crank out...

Superformance Mk III Sport Replicar

How old were you in 1965? If you were between 12 and 28, we know what you lusted after, and it wasn't Racquel Welch. Okay, maybe it was Racquel, but you also longed for a Shelby Cobra...

Suspension Mods

Whether you're trying to raise or lower your vehicle's suspension, the basic idea is simple, but how you accomplish it is not. Changing the ride height covers everything from springs to shocks to spindles—and more. Several different products are available for almost any imaginable application, but every vehicle is different, so it's difficult to compile a list of lifting and lowering parts that covers them all. Instead, we'll provide a broad overview of these different applications, and the how they can impact your vehicle's ride and handling...

SUV Upgrades

Ever check out those surprising "Before and After" pictures in muscle magazines? The Charles Atlas transformation is invariably startling, almost unbelievable. Now imagine that degree of change for your stock SUV, giving it a stronger physique. Installing bolt-on parts is not that difficult nor necessarily expensive, but the resulting change can be astonishing. "It's all about putting personality back into your personal transportation—it's not a toaster after all," points out Larry Weiner of Performance West Group, a company that specializes in creating trend-setting show cars and trucks...

TBI Fuel Injection Conversion

General Motors introduced TBI—throttle body fuel injection—in the mid-1980s. This story shows how to adapt TBI fuel injection to any small-block Chevy. While fuel injection scares many shade-tree mechanics, it shouldn't. It's not as complex as you think, and the benefits are surely worth the trouble to figure it all out. To prove our point, we recently converted a '48 Ford sedan running a 4-barrel-fed 327 small-block to TBI using stock GM parts and a wiring harness from Painless Performance. A brave new world beckons...

The Beck 550 Spyder - Porsche or Pretender?

Critics chatter endlessly about art imitating life, and vice versa, but how do they view an imitation that's even more popular than the authentic item? The Beck Spyder is one of those rare examples of a replica becoming worthy in its own right, nearly as respected as the original Porsche 550 it sought to emulate...

The Crate Engine

Building a project vehicle is challenge enough without having to wrench on the engine, too. No surprise, then, of the increasing popularity of crate engines. These aren't just stock replacement engines, however, because the automotive aftermarket provides specialized high-performance packages with less weight and more power...

The Double-Flared Brake Line

The double-flare hydraulic-line fitting is undoubtedly the most common type of connection used in automobile braking systems today, followed by the bubble flare found on many European vehicles. Compared to single-flare connections sometimes used on fuel or coolant lines, the double flare is more substantial structurally and can withstand far greater operating pressures. Where the do-it-yourself enthusiast is concerned, double-flaring tools are more expensive than single-flaring devices and can be difficult to use. Your braking system is not something to take lightly, however, so do whatever it takes to get the job done right...

The Golden Years of Drag Racing

It started out as a wild activity practiced by hoodlums in hopped-up cars, but over the course of a few decades, drag racing would ultimately transform itself into one of the world's most popular motorsports. Drag races after World War II were held on military runways, growing out of speed runs (sanctioned and otherwise) on California's dry lakes. Many recognize Goleta Air Base north of Santa Barbara, California as the site of the first organized drag race in 1949. These early drag strips were temporary facilities with no safety barriers or grandstands—just pavement, people and fast cars. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch early racers run 10-second elapsed times (E.T.s) on the measured quarter-mile—a distance chosen because it was about the length of a city block. Most cars were driven to the track or towed to the races on open trailers. Corporate sponsorship and glistening transporter trucks were far in the unimaginable future...

The Low-Down on Lowering

Anyone who watches car and truck building shows on TV knows that customizing vehicles is a snap. In TV land, custom and aftermarket parts always fit right, never require grinding, welding, fabricating, or a dozen trips to the hardware store to find specialty fasteners on a Sunday. TV is great like that. Reality, on the other hand, is a bit of a different story...

The Original Rat Fink

Few car cult figures are as renowned as Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Born in Beverly Hills in 1932, Roth came of age in post-war Southern California, the cultural epicenter of hot rodding. During the 1960s, Roth was a celebrity, a larger-than-life character with a beatnik beard who spoke in hep-cat lingo and was always hamming it up for the camera. More than his contemporaries Von Dutch and the Barris brothers Sam and George, Roth grasped the marketing potential of the trappings of the custom car counterculture and understood how to promote them to teenagers...

The Road to Formula 1

To some outsiders, every single-seat, winged, open-wheel racer is a "Formula 1 car." That's like saying everyone with a bat and glove is a "major leaguer," even if the player's shoulder patch says "Little League." The confusion continues: I once spoke to a novice driver who thought he was racing a Formula 4, rather than the Formula Ford he was actually wheeling...

The Zen of Using Used Parts

It's with great pleasure that we can report our successes with used parts. We still need new parts retailers for everything else, but the coolest junk just might be found online, in a buddy's garage or hiding in a wrecked such-and-such that somebody parted out. Reach deep into this miasma of availability and you too can find a few of the extra-cool whatevers you need, perhaps used but still useful...

Throttle-Body Spacers

Many mechanics consider throttle-body fuel injection to be simply a computerized carburetor. Unlike the more-sophisticated multiport-injection (MPI) setups (which squirt fuel directly into the combustion cylinder), throttle-body injection (TBI) pulsates gas into the intake manifold and lets the fuel get sucked into the cylinders. Because TBI is less precise than MPI, same-sized engines that have the cruder of the two systems usually produce less power. The good news is that the automotive aftermarket offers a few at-home tricks for increasing TBI power...

Top 10 Easy Performance Projects

You want to modify your ride. There are tons of easy performance enhancements you can make that will take up just a small part of your time. Think about it-only two or three hours after work or a over a lazy Saturday. Installing creativity-impaired bolt-on performance is like falling out of a tree: anyone can do it and you always know where you'll wind up...

Top Speed Testing

I used to believe top-speed testing would be automotive nirvana. But that was before I started driving for a major car magazine. Instead, pushing a car to its terminal velocity is like kissing a Rottweiler—dangerous but not all that rewarding. Turning a fast lap on a road-racing course or making a pass on an oval track is much more fulfilling. When things go right during top-speed testing little driving skill is needed. However, if things go wrong at 200 mph even the skill of a top NASCAR or Indy car driver might not help...

Top Ten Sport Compact Performance Projects

Want to build a fast ride? The import and sport compact aftermarket has developed a huge number of performance parts for you, from fuel pumps to full-length snorkels, ignition equipment to injectors, intakes and exhaust and everything in between. Don't worry if you're not so smart with a wrench—most of these parts are easy to install yourself, or there are plenty of professionals out there who can do it for you. The crucial fact is that you've decided to make a change for the faster. This isn't about decal engineering, and it isn't a bunch of fiberglass or urethane. It's about power and speed...

Torque Rules! Horsepower is King!

Want to start an argument with a gearhead? Say that horsepower is more important than torque. Or that torque is more important than horsepower. The resulting fact-free emotionalism, random shouting, and absence of listening will be rivaled by little this side of "discussions" regarding Roe v. Wade. To paraphrase the great philosopher Jeff Foxworthy: "If you can argue about torque and horsepower for more than an hour, you might be a gearhead."..

Transmission Temperature Gauge

Much of automotive technology deals with heat-dissipation—high temperatures are one of the most common causes of parts failures. In automatic transmissions, excessive heat often foreshadows an expensive rebuild. Vehicles prone to boiling their automatic transmission fluid (ATF) include those that carry heavy loads, tow trailers (particularly uphill in warm weather) or compete in weekend motorsports...

Turbo Exhaust Headers

The beauty of a turbocharger is that it makes use of wasted energy thrown away by the engine, the pulses and pressures of the exhaust gasses. The exhaust flow spins a turbine wheel that shares an axleshaft with an air compressor. Once their rotation comes up to a certain speed, pressure or boost builds up in the manifold. This pressurized intake charge rushes into the cylinders and "overfills" them, producing more torque and horsepower. Sounds simple enough, but given a turbocharger's dependence on the exhaust system, it's obvious that the headers feeding it merit some close attention...

Turbo-Diesel Dodge Dually

Have you ever dreamed of driving a big rig, a diesel-powered 18-wheeler with enough grunt to yank down a condemned condo? Problem is, a commercial-duty truck lacks posh and refinement, let alone the fact that they're only good for hauling stuff. If you want to have your torque and eat it, too, get in line for a ticket to ride on the Cannonball Express. This one-ton Dodge Dually knows that too much is just right. We're talking heavy-duty diesel here, plus all the trimmings...

Turbocharger Tech

It's amazing just how long turbos have been in existence. The first design drawings for a diesel engine turbocharger were patented in 1905 by Buchi, a Swiss engineer and inventor. He knew he could increase the output or torque of the engine dramatically simply by increasing the airflow and fuel into the cylinders...

Turbocharging Basics

There are proven ways to generate more horsepower with any given engine. One way is to make the engine bigger. While this is the most obvious path, it also has its disadvantages, painfully evident while filling up the fuel tank. Another way is to increase the volumetric efficiency of the engine, and spin the heck out of it in order to get more fuel and air into the cylinders. This is a fine way to go about making more power, but usually involves spending a pile of money on connecting rods, pistons, and cylinder head work. Also, the strains placed upon these various parts are increased along with the rpm...

Turkey Run 1: So Cal to Durango to Seattle

Apparently Idaho State Troopers weren't concerned that I was too busy for a ticket. "Yeah, baby, I'm running a little behind. Well, getting out of Durango took some time. Ralph was feeling sociable and I wanted to see Judy before I left. Yeah, oh, uh, hmmm, let me call you back—I'm being pulled over."..

Turkey Run 2: So Cal to Durango to Seattle

Somewhere west of Gallup a house fell on my car. Part of a house, actually, an upper part. Shingles. If you've never done roofing, let me assure you that asphalt shingles are not small. Each individual shingle is a part of a larger sheet, weighing 20 or 30 lbs. and wholly composed of tar and reinforcing fibers, and impregnated with nasty bits of crushed gravel...

Twin-Screw Blower Upgrade on an F150

Nobody would ever argue that Ford's supercharged F-150 Lightning doesn't have plenty of juice. If you compare the outputs of a naturally aspirated 5.4-liter SOHC Triton V-8 versus the blown version in the Lightning, the difference is, well, shocking. The base powerplant churns out 260 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque, but when Ford SVT engineers bolt on a Eaton GEN IV blower, it turns up the jolt to 380 hp at 4,750 rpm and 450 lb.-ft. of torque (both measured at the flywheel). Problem is, power-hungry Lightning owners are insatiable. In addition to craving more horses on a daily basis, they want to be able to dial up the boost at will for runs at the track. That's where a twin-screw supercharger delivers...

Twin-Screw Supercharging

Not all superchargers are alike, and each type requires a different installation procedure. For those not familiar with the technology, a supercharger is essentially a pump that forces more air into an engine, allowing it to burn more fuel and make more power. Bolting on a blower gives you the most bang-for-the-buck of any engine upgrade on the aftermarket. Superchargers come in three basic varieties: centrifugal, Roots, and twin-screw...

Understanding NASCAR

Many new fans wonder what is "stock" about a NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car. Even long-time fans may not know how stock cars are built. And few new fans know the roots of stock car racing. Read on and learn the answers...

Understanding NASCAR: Mid-Race Adjustments

What separates winners from losers in NASCAR? One answer: mid-race adjustments. During a NASCAR Cup Series race, it's not unusual for fast cars to slide to the back while others gain speed. The difference: changes made during pit stops. (Also: changes not made and the wrong changes.) This fine-tuning—which, once the green flies, is limited to tire pressure, wedge, track bar height, spring rubbers, tape, and brake bias—can turn an evil-handling car into a lap-leader, or keep a fast car at the front despite evolving track conditions...

Unloading the Parts Shelf

The project started simple—we just wanted to hang out in the garage, drink a few beers (still no fridge in the garage, though) and do a little wrenching. We could work on the Mustang or the WRX, on new garage lighting or the old lawnmower, anything about doing something in the garage. First stop was the Parts Shelf. At that point, simple went out the window...

Updating Induction Systems with EFI

Feeding fuel to a hot rod requires not only solid science, but also a sense of style. Since the induction system sits right on top of the engine, it's the first thing everybody notices when you open the hood. If it doesn't look cool, most hot rodders could care less how well it works. So when it comes to installing a modern electronic fuel injection (EFI) system, half the battle is making it visually pleasing...

USAC Midgets @ Irwindale

Southern California's Irwindale Speedway recently held a special USAC Midget race that offered the highest purse for a regular season event...

Valvespring Selection

The pattern is almost always the same: You're in the pits and fire up the engine. It sounds fine. You wing the throttle. It still sounds fine. It's time to idle over to the staging lanes and wait your turn. When the time comes to make the pass, you're confident: The motor pulls aggressively until the tach sweeps past 5,500 rpm. Then all hell breaks loose. The engine begins to pop, bang, and miss. The problem gets worse as you row through the gears. Disgusted, you click it off. The thing won't pull within 2,000 rpm of redline—and it's getting progressively worse. So bad, in fact, that it seems to pick up when you back off the gas. Now what? The ignition system is right on the money and you're absolutely positive that the fuel system is in good shape. Welcome to the curse of the poppet valve engine...

Wally Parks: Motorsports Visionary

Any drag race fan who got the opportunity to meet Wally Parks should have thanked him. Although Parks did not invent drag racing, he did found the National Hot Rod Association in 1951 while serving as editor of Robert E. Petersen's budding Hot Rod magazine. He said he formed NHRA as a way to promote drag racing and to give fellow hot rodders a place to race other than on city streets. This monumental task, Parks humbly said, was one he couldn't have tackled without the dedicated people who shared his early vision. The tall, deep-voiced Parks said he's always shied away from being called drag racing's chairman emeritus, a title many feel he'll always deserve.
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We Have Lift-Off!

With the recent success of the movie Dust to Glory, a gritty portrayal of the legendary Baja 1000, interest in off-road racing is more popular than ever. The in-vehicle sequences of the Trophy Truck class are some of the most intense, leading many to wonder what it's really like to ride in one. Although words can't do it justice, imagine a rig powered by a NASCAR engine with a ride as soft as a wet sponge, and road conditions rougher than the back of an alligator...

Wheel Cylinder Rebuild

The easy way to visualize the difference between disc and drum brakes is that a disc brake pinches and a drum brake pushes. The disc brake caliper forces a pair of brake pads to pinch a rotating disc. The drum brake wheel cylinder pushes a pair of brake shoes out against the inside of the spinning steel drum. Both methods will scrub speed away via turning friction into heat. The key to all this speed slowing action is uncompressible hydraulic brake fluid. A foot on the brake pedal pushes this fluid up against sealed pistons inside the calipers and wheel cylinders. The problem is that brake fluid attracts moisture by its very nature of being hygroscopic. This moisture eats into the steel of the caliper or wheel cylinder and the hydraulic seal is lost. Brake failure can be the result...