#fully believe now that alan is one of those “taller than he looks” guys

[categoricalglitches]

This is so funny "Thomas" "Zane" even looks bigger than Alan just. By silhouette? Because of the hair. It's significantly more voluminous lmao

[thepatriotsandwe]

Preview: Week 15, at Pittsburgh

In what could likely decide the number one seed in the AFC playoffs, the 10-3 Patriots go into Pittsburgh to take on the 11-2 Steelers. The long discussed game is finally upon us, so let’s take a look at how the two teams match up, and we’ll make some inaccurate predictions along the way.

History

The Steelers are 3-10 when facing the Patriots going back to 2001 (playoff match ups included). Interestingly enough, if we’re looking at the franchise records as a whole, this will be the rubber match as the teams are tied 15-15 overall. 

The Patriots have simply been the Steelers’ kryptonite in recent years, and we have to look no further than January 22nd of this year to see how this story tends to play out (a 36-17 Pats victory to send them off to their fifth Super Bowl title). 

The Patriots are currently on a four game winning streak against the Steelers which reaches back to October 30th, 2011 in which the Pittsburgh squad defeated the Patriots 25-17. Prior to that, the Steelers won in 2008 against the Cassel-led Patriots. 

While history does not necessarily play a role in final results (just ask Belichick, who roasted a reporter asking why the Pats struggle in Miami), it’s still interesting to see just how dominate New England has been over their stiffest competition since the rise of the Brady-Belichick dynasty. Perhaps this will explain the endless paranoid theories hinted at by Mike Tomlin over the years. There is no team the Patriots are in the heads of more than the Steelers (but Buffalo is a close second).

Current Team Trends

This sure was a lot simpler before the Miami debacle. The Steelers obviously have a better record than the Patriots, but I struggle to say the team is trending in a better direction. They have absolutely struggled with teams that should not have even been a blip on Pittsburgh’s radar.

Since week 8, the Steelers have had only one game that was decided by more than five points. The teams faced over this span were the Lions (7-6), the Colts (3-11), the Titans (8-5), the Packers (7-6), the Bengals (5-8), and the Ravens (7-6). While the Pats haven’t exactly faced top talent either, they tend to be winning those games in a more showy fashion than the Steelers are.

Regardless, the Steelers haven’t dropped a game since week 5 in which they were blown out by Jacksonville. For the Patriots and the Steelers, this will be the first true challenge either team has faced in a long while, so it could be quite indicative of how these teams will fare as they enter the playoffs.

Key Players

In a new segment, we’re going to take a look at the three players for each team that I believe could make or break the contest.

We’ll start with Pittsburgh:

Le’Veon Bell - The Pats have struggled mightily in run defense in recent weeks, and this will be a monumental challenge to contain. Bell is also a factor in the passing game, and the Patriots have struggled at times (including last week) to make plays on running backs coming out of the backfield. A methodical tempo could keep the Patriots offense on the sidelines which may give Pittsburgh’s defense the respite they need.

Jesse James - Obviously a large amount of the focus on pass defense will be going to guys like Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster, but that could leave a relatively unknown target to go under the radar. James has the third most receptions on the team, and has hauled in 3 touchdowns on the season. Ben could look for the big bodied tight end in situation in which the Pats are doubling up on Brown.

Vince Williams - Due to the very unfortunate Ryan Shazier injury, the Steelers have a massive hole in the middle of their defense. Vince Williams is one of the linebackers that will be tasked with trying to right the ship. Last week against Baltimore, the Steelers run defense certainly struggled, and it’ll be up to Williams and the interior linebacker squad to try and keep a hungry Patriots offense as one dimensional as possible.

And now for New England:

Rob Gronkowski - Last week we saw this Patriots offense without their big man across the middle, and it sure wasn’t pretty. Gronk brings so much to the Patriots and allows other weapons to become open across the field. In addition, Gronk has proven critical in the majority of the Patriots recent victories of the Steelers, and Brady will be looking for him early and often in order to improve upon the dreadful third down conversion rating from last week.

Kyle Van Noy/Elandon Roberts - Van Noy’s status is currently up in the air, but one of these two linebackers will have a monolithic task of trying to keep Le’Veon Bell in check. Van Noy has been having a good season after rebounding from a slow start, but his injury has limited him severely in the Buffalo game, and taken him completely out of Miami. If Van Noy cannot go, I expect to see Roberts in coverage of Bell. Roberts has struggled at times this season in pass defense, so he’ll have to have a big day to keep the leading NFL receiving back in check.

Malcolm Butler - Butler has faced off multiple times against Antonio Brown, and it’s yet to be seen whether or not he’ll be on him again this week. My guess is that he will be due to the size match ups (it makes more sense to put Gilmore on a taller, more physical receiver like JuJu or Bryant). It’s a tall order for a corner that has struggled at times this season, but Butler has been able to do just enough in previous games to keep the top NFL receiver from breaking games wide open.

Injuries

The Steelers will be without tight end Vance MacDonald. MacDonald will not likely be a major loss as he only has 9 receptions on the year.

Among those questionable are cornerbacks Joe Haden (who has been out multiple weeks with a leg injury) and Coty Sensabaugh who will likely be ready after fully participating in practice on Friday. JuJu Smith-Schuster is also questionable with a hamstring and was limited in practice.

Interestingly enough, the Steelers are the team with the fewest “questionable” players actually starting. Just 28% of their players with the questionable tag see the field. They have also only listed 18 players as questionable ass season long.

The Patriots have a different philosophy, as they have listed 76 players as questionable this season, with 63% of them playing that week.

The only Patriot declared out is Alan Branch after he was forced to leave last week’s contest with a knee injury. He did not participate all week. Among the question players are (deep breath): Trey Flowers, Kyle Van Noy, Eric Lee, Stephon Gilmore, David Harris, Chris Hogan, Brandon King, Matthew Slater, LaAdrian Waddle, and Deatrich Wise.

Signs are positive for Trey Flowers as he has reportedly made significant progress on his ribs injury and has practiced all week. Van Noy was also seen at practice for every session, but his status is a bit more nebulous. A couple of the players don’t seem to be a major concern such as Gilmore, Hogan, Slater, Wise, and Waddle after being active last week, but we’ll just have to wait and see who suits up.

In positive news, Brady was completely removed from the injury report and was a full participant in practice. In an interview earlier in the week, Brady mentioned his ankle injury was feeling much better than it did in previous weeks. With any hope, this will allow Brady to look more like the future Hall of Fame quarterback we’ve come to expect.

Predictions

Now for the segment of the show in which I get to be totally wrong. 

The Steelers have probably the greatest assortment of talent in the NFL on offense, and it astounds me to no end that this team isn’t blowing the doors off weak competition week-in and week-out.

I believe the Patriots defense is more talented than the Steelers defense (especially when missing Ryan Shazier), and that the Pats will have a much easier time moving down the field than Big Ben and company will.

On the offensive side, it’ll come down to two things for the Pats. How efficient will the running game be, and will the receivers find separation. The Dolphins played tight, cover-1 man all game long, and that coupled with leaky line play had the Patriots struggling to find any tempo. The reinstatement of Gronk should help mightily in this cause.

On defense, the Pats need to do what they’ve been doing all season long and limit their opposition to field goals. If the Steelers have a hard time getting into the end zone, it’ll be lights out for the Steel City. 

I anticipate a better showing by the Pats pass protection, and a more accurate and protective Tom Brady hurling the ball, and when Brady has time and the Pats aren’t turning the ball over, the New England team simply does not lose.

Final Score Prediction: Patriots 31 - Steelers 24

[itsworn]

Bruce Leven’s Gran Turismo–Winning 1951 Ford Coupe

It Took 60 Years to Do it, But Bruce Leven Now Has the Sports Rod He Wanted as a Kid

The notion that ordinary cars can become extraordinary is the basis for HOT ROD magazine and its readers. The model of the manufacturer as the creator went straight on its ear. The consumers—like you and me—are the ones calling the shots. Cars and their parts merely become our building blocks, spawning a feeding frenzy of would-be enthusiasts with a mantra: “One day I’m gonna.”

Bruce Leven can identify. “I wanted to build this car since I was 16,” he says. “I’m 78 now. I just fell in love with it.”

The car Bruce fell in love with 60 years ago is Ron Dunn’s 1950 Ford club coupe. That was the seed for this one, but to understand this car you have to understand that one.

Ron Dunn and his shoebox as Eric Rickman saw it in June 1957. Ron got the car as a gift from his parents. He drove almost directly from the dealership to the shop. The similarities are unmistakable, right down to the big wheel openings and the perimeter grille and roll pan.

Ron’s “Monte Carlo” (what he called it) owed a great deal of its fame to Dean Batchelor. Dean was as comfortable in a Ford as he was in a Ferrari. Case in point, when his stint ended at Hop Up—a decidedly hot roddy/custom car magazine—he slid right into the seat at Road & Track, which was very sporty. Years later he wrote a bunch of books about Ferraris and hot rods.

Back then he was also good friends with Valley Custom’s Neil Emory. Neil’s son, Gary, recalls, “Dean would pick up Dad, and they’d go to lunch talking about whatever car Dean was testing at the time.” And the sports cars he brought were different to the core, which influenced Ron’s car.

Europe taxed on displacement, so cars there had smaller engines. Smaller engines meant smaller bodies, which required higher roof lines to fit occupants. Neil and Clay approximated those proportions by removing a 5-inch band from the perimeter of the body of Ron’s coupe—think of it as chopping the body rather than the top. (Neither the idea nor the process was original; Edsel Ford had his people do the same thing to a Zephyr to make the original Continental—its name and shape inspired by the cars Edsel saw on “The Continent,” aka Europe). A 1957 revision made Ron’s more like a sports car, with a mesh grille, roll pans, and delicate nerf bars front and rear. The Monte Carlo name was no stretch; this was a European-inspired car.

Lincoln’s 368 was the second-biggest engine made in 1956, making it appropriate for a period-influenced sports car. It’s also physically massive, requiring a custom pan and belt driven oil pump to fit in the slimmed-down shoebox. Dan Brewer at Shaver Racing Engines coaxed more than a horse-per-cube from it, a respectable ratio for the age the car represents.

Ron’s car wasn’t fast with a stock flathead six engine that appealed mostly to grandfathers and fleet operators at best. But particularly after the 1957 rehash, the car had the spirit of being a hot rod, as some people believed the movement was progressing.

Bruce’s car isn’t a clone. Part of the “one day I’m gonna” mandate says you’ll bring to bear your own experiences and interests. And Bruce’s experiences and interests are wholeheartedly in sports cars—starting with a Porsche RSR in the 1970s, a purchase that led to IMSA, Trans-Am, and even IndyCar racing.

Stock dashes get a bit bulky in a sectioned car, not to mention the shape kind of limits options, so Lindsey Butler and Justin Messer built this one entirely from scratch. Touching upon his sports-car roots, Bruce chose a Nardi wheel.

He chose Wicked Fabrication in Auburn, Washington, to execute the project on his recently found 1951 club coupe.

Sectioning is the defining element of the car, but since this is an homage more than a clone, the team took a different approach. Guided by Bruce and Craig, Adam Hart and Josh “Pappy” Green sliced the body in two, slid the upper half into the bottom, and crept up to the ideal amount (which works out to a band 2-1/2 inches wide removed at the back to about 5-1/2 inches out of the front

Some modifications sometimes invite more work. “All of a sudden, the top looked like it had a big bulge in it,” Bruce recalls. So Lindsey Butler and Pappy thinned the crown 1-1/2 inches, a process called pancaking. This opened the door for another modification that fits the sports-car theme. Trimming the skin made it too narrow to fit the top, so it was cut down the middle and then the sides welded in place, which left a gap down the middle of the top. They filled that gap with a skin from a shoebox sedan with a longer roof, so now the rear section followed a more gradual curve and floated off the back of the roof. “That was an opportunity,” Bruce says. “The ’58 Impala had a fake vent in the roof because sports cars like the Mercedes Gullwing had a real one.

Craig built up an inner lip in one side of a 1951 grille surround with plastic body filler to create a new grille shape. After scanning, he tuned it in CAD and mirrored it to create the rest of the grille, which was machined from 6061 aluminum. The hood straps pay homage to European racecar construction.

After rust repairs and sectioning, all that remained of the front fenders were their tops. The chin and tail each got a pan, and Craig made up a grille border like the revised Monte Carlo. He reshaped a 1951 grille surround slightly, had it scanned and mirrored to make a perimeter, and then Dick St. John machined it from aluminum. “Bruce wanted to take some of the peak out of the hood,” Craig explains. By the time they would have finished, they could have made a new hood from aluminum more easily, which is what they did.

Early in the transformation the car got a new Art Morrison chassis located just around the corner from Wicked. One of Bruce’s mandates was independent rear suspension. “When we were racing, there was a guy who ran a Jaguar sedan with an IRS setup and a quick-change centersection,” he recalls. “That really stuck with me.”

Designing any suspension from scratch is no walk in the park, but as luck would have it, the guy who cast the reproduction NOVI IndyCar wheels—Ray Franklin at Vintage Engineering—happened to know how to set up IRS. “We used Thunderbird uprights, but built the rest of the suspension from scratch,” Craig says. With the wheels in place and the car at its final stance, the Wicked crew set about making the wheel openings round, but with a hint of a flare.

The fuel tank is basically a shell for an ATL bladder. The small box on the left houses the battery, and the kit on the right has a bag of tools and knock-off mallet. The Wicked crew made the strap hardware and Miller made the straps.

“I didn’t want it to just look like a sports car,” Bruce admits. “I wanted it to have enough power to back it up.” He chose a highly unlikely powerplant: a Lincoln 368ci Y-block, a term coined by Ford referring to its fully skirted V8 engines of the 1950s. Dan Brewer at Shaver Racing Engines built the engine. It has the goods: polished and nitrided crank, Carillo H-beam connecting rods (that measure a whopping 7.063 inches!), and JE pistons, oversized 0.03 inch for 373 ci of displacement. The 368 heads have large valves, so Dan replaced them with stainless Manleys. By virtue of a 75cc chamber, the compression remains low at just shy of 9:1.

This engine wasn’t easy to fit, either. “It’s 3 inches taller than a big-block Chevy,” Craig says. “And, oh boy, is it heavy!” The shallower engine compartment meant mounting the engine low requiring a custom pan, which Dan Olson built. What’s more, the oil pump interfered with the crossmember (FoMoCo Y-blocks are side-oilers). “So we did an external pump belt-driven like a dry-sump pump, although single stage,” Dan clarifies.

The top end wasn’t any easier. The stock Lincoln manifolds mount the carburetor below the ports—a no-go performance-wise. “In the ’50s Mercury went to Daytona for speed runs,” Bruce says. In a nutshell, famed race-car builder Bill Stroppe lopped the windshield frame off a 1957 convertible and hired famed Sprint Car builder Eddie Kuzma to craft a canopy of sorts. He then built a thumper of an engine, hiring Hilborn to build an injector among other things. “Hilborn made four sets of those injectors,” Bruce says. “I found a guy with a Lincoln injection who wanted to trade it for a welding machine! So I bought that thing.”

Dan sent the injector back to Hilborn for new shafts and a general rebuild. He also converted it to use a FAST ECU, but rather than weld bungs for the injectors, he made a system to hide it all, making tall blocks that mount between the injector manifold and the heads, carving them out for ports, then machining pockets adjacent to these ports. “The injectors mount inside those finned blocks so you can’t see them,” he says.

The relatively low compression and smallish ports dictated modest cam specs (224 degrees duration at 0.05- and 0.448-inch lift). Despite this mild tune, the engine made a respectable 389 lb-ft of torque at 2,800 rpm and 375 hp just shy of 5,000 rpm—not exactly a barnburner, but up to the popular horsepower-per-cube performance mandate when this engine was new.

With the individual components complete, the car went to Byers Custom and Restoration. Alan Donald, Howie Davis, Jered Lobbin, and owner Jon Byers prepped the body. The colors come from a 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL, likely Modegrau (exterior) and Aschblau (interior). “We couldn’t use the old color codes because they don’t translate to modern paints,” Jon says. “But it just so happens that the codes cross-reference real closely to two modern Porsche colors.” Those are Grauschwarz (exterior) and possibly Graphite Blue, and Jon applied both in PPG DBC.

Adam Hart formed the simple, sports-car-inspired bucket seats. Tony Miller from Stitches Custom Auto Upholstery in Poulsbo, Washington, trimmed them in a combination of antiqued leather. The 2-inch latch-and-link hasps harken to military-surplus harnesses, yet accommodate passenger-car webbing.

Tony Miller and Tom Bidle at Stitches Custom Upholstery in Poulsbo, Washington, tag-teamed the cockpit. They used a combination of Denim Blue and Tracker Brown distressed leathers for the seats, and an Irish Cream distressed leather for the headliner. They also made the hood straps. The floor wears tan German square-weave carpet.

Bruce Leven’s sectioned shoebox does a number of things more than looking good. For one, it fulfills the sports-car promise that Ron Dunn’s car made so many years ago. For another, it bridges a generational gap; Sony’s Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the company’s flagship driving game Gran Turismo, dubbed it Best of Show at SEMA’s 2016 event in Las Vegas. The award includes induction into the game’s future editions, where it will be exposed to future generations.

Most important in a global sense, it makes good on this premise that we build upon the work of others. At the very least, it gives us hope that someone, somewhere, still looks at cars like this and thinks, “One day I’m gonna.”

Hilborn produced injectors for Bill Stroppe’s 1957 Mercury “Mermaid” Daytona program. One of Bruce’s friends found this one, a lucky proposition, as Hilborn made only four and he needed one to clear the lower hood line. Hilborn rebuilt this one and Dan Brewer set it up to run electronically with a FAST ECU.

Rather than spoil the vintage vibe by exposing the injectors, Dan machined risers that house them—they have pockets adjacent to the ports. And because the factory Lincoln rocker covers are a thing of beauty, he machined them to match.

Josh “Pappy” Green made the inner fender panels and Adam Hart fabricated these inserts. The louvers don’t match any existing dies—Adam cut and hammered them manually. Hand-bucked rivets hold the insert in place.

The engine spins an alternator, Saginaw power-steering pump, and an oil pump, three things not available then or now for the Lincoln Y-block, so the Wicked crew made one-off brackets. The expansion tank likely came from a Ford FE and corresponds with a crossover tube, a necessary component because the Hilborn injector lacks the feature.

Extensive body reshaping meant making the core support and associated structures from scratch. Pappy built it in the likeness of race-car construction using flared-hole dies to add lightness.

Classic Instruments fashioned a set of gauges in the likeness of vintage Jaeger pieces. Dick St. John machined the housings and Lindsey Butler made the brackets.

Ian Dunn wired the car with period-style, cloth-covered wire from American Autowire, but instead of fuses he used circuit breakers. Again, Dick St. John and Lindsey Butler made the housing and bracket.

Even with an S-10 tail stock, the Borg-Warner T5 puts the shifter far forward for a sports car. Adam knew there was a better way to move it back, and he came up with this pantograph mechanism that puts the shifter within reach.

The pedal assembly started as Wilwood, but all that remains are the pedal arms and cylinders. The Wicked crew fabricated a new bracket and a repeater-arm setup that fits the tight confines between the engine and chassis.

In the weight-saving spirit of race-car construction, Bruce specified thin plastic windows and insisted on eliminating the regulators. That meant an alternate means of securing the windows in the up position, which Adam obliged with cabinet latches.

More than saving weight, eliminating the windows also meant opening the door in the way that most grand-touring cars were entered in the 1950s. Also in touring-car style, the pull strap doubles as the latch release. The door top extends the dash shape.

The exterior door buttons also evoke the image of 1950s sports cars. Ian Dunn built these around Mazda mechanisms then machined the main ring, and shaped a piece for the little finger pull, welding the two together.

Most Americans won’t recognize semaphores, but they were the default turn signals on European cars into the 1960s, making them perfect for this car’s theme. These particular ones came from a Volkswagen Beetle.

Kirk Brown, aka Crafty B Nostalgic Speed, makes fuel fillers. Adam recessed the body for it. Note the polished trim piece around the perimeter.

The roof vent was a creative and appropriate way to solve a problem. Pancaking the skin left a big gap down the middle. They used a sedan roof skin that’s longer and has a less-pronounced crown.

Bruce says he liked the idea of the 1951 trim spear, but not its bulk, so Jeffrey Gibson machined a thinner spear and bezel. Adam recessed it into the body.

The wheels resemble the ones Halibrand cast for Novi’s Indy car in the 1950s. These 15×5-1/2 and 15x7s are the first that Ray Franklin at Vintage Engineering cast in their likeness. They’re authentic down to the magnesium alloy and Dow 7 coating.

Ray Franklin consulted on the independent rear suspension. It runs a Speedway Engineering centersection with Porsche 930 CV joints, gun-drilled axles, and late-model Thunderbird uprights.

The fuel tank is basically a shell for an ATL bladder. The small box on the left houses the battery, and the kit on the right has a bag of tools and knock-off mallet. The Wicked crew made the strap hardware and Miller made the straps.

The FAST system Dan Brewer set up with the Hilborn gear relies on the distributor for the engine-speed signal. A real magneto won’t work, so he used one of Joe Hunt’s mag-look distributors. Oddly enough, the one from Ford’s Y-block fits.

Back in old grand-touring days it was common to swap plugs mid-race, and teams often made plug holders for the engine compartment. Few were as trick as this one carved from aluminum.

The hood would’ve required so many individual custom panels that the work justified making a new one from scratch in aluminum.

Dies don’t exist to do these louvers, so just as he did for the inner-fender panels, Adam formed these manually.

Mounting switches overhead keeps them out of the way yet close enough to reach. Lindsey Butler made the surround and Ian Dunn made the switch plate itself.

Adam fabricated the pop-out window frames. He also fabricated the latches, patterning them from the ones Volkswagen used on the Beetle.

The post Bruce Leven’s Gran Turismo–Winning 1951 Ford Coupe appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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