#small block gasser

[optimabatteries]

This ‘62 Chevy Nova Gasser was built by Tallant’s Hot Rod Shop​⁠ & features a small block 434 with a 6-71 blower producing 800 horsepower. Spotted at Cruisin the Coast 2022

[lxsolocam-blog]

1947 Mercury coupe gasser powered by a 279 cubic inch Chevy small block

[masterdonald101452]

FIRE Breathing Small Block! Gasser Heart Transplant Was Successful

[steampunkforever]

Thunder Road with Robert Mitchum is an interesting moment in car culture. For a good portion of American hotrod and muscle culture, the world really begins and ends with the cars of the mid 60s. Sure your fenders-off American grafitti hotrods and ratrods or your Two-Lane Blacktop gassers were all extant before the Barracuda, Mustang, and Coronet 400 (which is arguably the missing link between the age of gasser and age of muscle) hit the scene in the 60s. Yet you’ve got to consider that most of those hotrods and gassers really didn’t come into their own until the small block chevy revealed itself to be the perfect swap. I will not be entertaining comments from Flathead Ford V8 guys at this time. I digress, but Thunder Road is an interesting film inasmuch as it documents hotrodding and car culture from a specific period in American automotive history, largely before its golden era of the baby boom.

This shows my own bias as a scholar of the period in auto design between 1965 and 1975 (my deep passion for the Corvair should be counted as an outlier) but a lot of the same biases are wider spread in the culture. This makes the snapshot in time of Thunder Road that much more interesting, as it shows us what a real hotrod was back then, from before Big Block Mopars were pushed as drag cars from the factory.

Thunder Road captures the often overlooked awkward post-war understanding of automobiles as appliances (we can use the old molds, right?) and the crossover with the newly found appreciation for speed of a Wartime generation that spent the war years building, maintaining, repairing and abusing machinery built to go fast-- the mustang was allegedly named after the airplane, not the horse, after all.

As Noirs go, it was decent. Mitchum plays a beautiful tough guy, and the casting of his younger brother to play his character’s younger brother was quite good. I can definitely see some of the themes of familial ties, protectiveness, honor, and general scofflaw philosophies that would later make their way into lighter fair such as Smokey and the Bandit and the Dukes of Hazzard. As a Noir itself, the setting is probably one of the more intering ones I’ve seen for a standard Noir. The script was overall pretty tight and the film was lean and efficient, at least for the most part. Plus, who isn’t down for a moonshine narrative?

An interesting factoid about the film is the Springsteen song of the same name was based on the movie, despite Springsteen never having actually seen the film. Rather, he thought the poster looked cool and wrote the song about that.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

''Mr. Norm'' Kraus, the High Performance King, 1934 - 2021

From pump jockey to Dodge dynamo, a high-performance rags-to-riches story By Terry Shea from April 2012 issue of Muscle Machines In This Article Category: Muscle Cars [Editors note: Norm Kraus passed away on Friday, February 26, 2021 at the age of 87. This profile from 2012 sums up Mr. Norm's immense contribution to muscle car history.]Perhaps no one was responsible for more sales of Dodge performance vehicles during the muscle-car era than Norm Kraus, AKA Mr. Norm. As a co-owner of Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago from 1962 through 1977, his focus on high performance helped it become the biggest Dodge dealership in the world.Norm and his brother Len, his co-owner, got their start selling used cars as teenagers in the late 1940s from their father's gas station. Making just three cents per gallon pumping gas and cleaning windshields, they wanted something more. At the suggestion of a customer, "My brother and I went out and bought a bagel--a cheap car," recounts Norm. "We brought it back and put it in the corner of the gas station, cleaned it up and sold the car the next day and made $60 on it." With a steady business, the brothers broke through in the late 1950s when they sold a 1956 Chevy convertible with a V-8 and manual transmission. Paying by the character for a classified ad, they squeezed in "Call Mr. Norm," which soon became a signature for the business. But the car itself proved very popular. "The next morning," says Norm, "I must have had 25 calls. By 10 a.m., I had already delivered it. By 11, my brother, who was out buying cars, called me and I said, 'Do not buy a regular car again. Buy all four-speeds.' We got an education in performance from our customers. We got so well known in the Chicago area, that's when Dodge came in." In the fall of 1962, still with only a small office and no real showroom, Grand Spaulding Dodge opened. At just 28 years old, Norm Kraus was the youngest Dodge dealer in the country. "I think the first month we sold about 35 cars." Norm tells us. "From that day on, it was totally performance."As one of the first dealers to install a dynamometer, Grand Spaulding was able to properly tune their customers' cars, which were notoriously detuned from the factory. "The first 383 we put on our dyno registered 180hp," says Norm. "I said, 'What the hell is going on here? Let's set it up and see what she'll do.'" With a little work, they were able to get that 383 to make a reliable 325hp. Norm made a quick decision. "That's gonna be done on every car that goes out. Every high-performance customer is going to get a free dyno tune. When we sold a high-performance car, we had the car dyno'ed right in front of the customer." When a minor sponsorship one weekend turned into five sales by Wednesday, on Thursday Norm was ready to go racing. Not wanting to compete against his customers, he decided to build a match-race car. "Our first 1964 supercharged car," Norm says, "became one of the first Funny Cars in the country, because when we went out racing, we were running against all the gassers and the rails. There weren't any other Funny Cars to run." A 1965 ex-factory lightweight car allowed them to run well into the eights when the competition was in the nines, putting Mr. Norm on the map nationwide.With their booming performance business, Grand Spaulding was selling cars and parts all over the country. People from as far away as Alaska came to buy Mopars. Such was Norm's influence, he could single-handedly get Chrysler to produce a new model. When Chrysler said that a big-block Dart was impossible, Norm had his top mechanic stuff a 383 into one and he drove it to Detroit to prove it could be done; thus was born the Dart GTS. The following year, he asked Chrysler to build him a 440 Dart. They built 50 for him, which he was easily able to sell as the Dart GSS, for Grand Spaulding Sport.The Kraus brothers grew

[theoldiebutgoodie]

1955 Chevrolet Wagon - Shortened - Street Freak UNITED STATES - APRIL 18: 1973 Chevrolet Wagon - Shortened - Street Freak. Street Freaks are radically restyled street rods. This is a pint-sized 1956 Chevrolet Wagon with extremely shortened wheelbase, fuel-injected small block engine, gasser-style front fascia with deleted bumper and grill. (Photo by Mike Brenner/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Images)

[laurajanesessions-ad715]

Phase 21: Pouring & De-Moulding

Fig. 1 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) A,B & D

With the jacket bolted together around the core I began to prepare the silicone which would be poured into the mould.

As I have previously discussed (in my post Cleaning Out The Jacket), the weight of the plastiline used for the sculpt corresponds with the amount of silicone needed to fill the mould.

The plastiline weighed 4.135kg

In order to allow for some wastage, I mixed up 4.5kg of silicone.

I weighed out the following into three clean buckets:

Part A = 1250g

Part B = 1250g

Deadener = 2000g (@ 80%)*

* if using cap plastic to encapsulate the silicone then deaden to 80%. If not then deaden to 60%

and measured out 22.5g of Retarder (@ 0.5%) into a clean cup.

I added a combination of liquid pigment (flesh, white, red, yellow and blue) and flocking (red, blue and yellow) to all three buckets to create the correct skin tone (fig. 1) and mixed well to ensure constancy across the three.

I mixed Parts A, B and the Deadener into the same bucket, added the retarder and mixed thoroughly. 

Fig. 2 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-gassing

Once the silicone, retarder and deadener were throughly mixed, I placed the bucket into the de-gasser to removed the air from the mix (fig. 2).

Fig. 3 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) Funnel

Once the air bubbles had been removed, I poured the silicone into the funnel from a height (fig.3). This method of pouring is called gravity feeding. 

As the silicone runs down the pip into the mould, the funnel slowly empties. I kept adding silicone into the funnel to ensure there was sufficient silicone to fill the mould.

As the silicone oozed out of the bleed holes, I blocked them using wet clay. Once the level of the silicone in the pipe stopped dropping, the mould was full so, after ensuring all the bleed holes were plugged and there were no leaks, I left it to cure.

Fig. 4 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulding

A few hours later when I was certain the silicone had cured, I unbolted the mould and began to open up the jacket.

Using a chisel, wooden tongue depressors and a hammer I gradually prised the two halves of the jacket apart, taking care not to let the tools get too close to the silicone inside.

After quite some time I managed to release the jacket and pull off the back half (fig. 4). 

Fig. 5 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulded Front Profile

It took a significant amount of brute strength (from two people) to release the front half however eventually she came free (fig. 5).

Fig. 6 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulded Rear Profile

Overall I was please with how well the cowl had come out of the mould. There was potential for a lot of areas to catch when de-moulding or not fill adequately due to the nature of the design however there were no areas which couldn't be easily rectified or patched with a little pros-aide cream or silicone gel.

I had encapsulated the silicone in cap plastic and there was a reasonable amount along the centre seam (fig. 6) but that would be rectified at the next stage of the process.

Fig. 7 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) Powdering

I brushed over the surface of the cowl with talc to remove the stickiness and removed the excess. I then proceeded to gradually lift small areas of the cowl away from the core, powdering the underside as I went (fig. 7) to prevent it sticking to itself (particularly along the edges). Once the whole underside was released from the core and well powdered I could remove the cowl from the core.

References:

Fig. 1 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) A,B & D

Fig. 2 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) Degassing

Fig. 3 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) Funnel

Fig. 4 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulding

Fig. 5 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulded Front Profile

Fig. 6 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) De-Moulded Rear Profile

Fig. 7 - Sessions, L,J. (2021) Powdering

[rollinmetalart]

What do you get when you mate a fiberglass MG TC body, a Gasser chassis and a blown small block Chevy?  Something truly frightening.  L.A. Roadsters Father’s Day, Pomona, CA.

[charleshamillton]

These 1960s Race Car Classified Ads From The Back Of National Dragster Will Make You Smile AND Cry – Awesome Stuff

I have a pretty decent collection of old drag racing books, magazines, and newspapers. It gets bolstered every now and again by my friend Mike Williams who provides me with “treasures” when I run into him at the drags. One such care package inspired this peek into the back pages of old National Dragster drag papers from the 1967 and 1968 to see what guys were selling and how much it was selling for. The cars that are for sale tell a story about evolution and change in the sport. Looking at the prices of the car and using today as a reference point, you’ll burst into tears. Obviously, the value of a buck in 1967/1968 is different than it is today, but the prices still make us smile.

ROLL ON DOWN THE PAGE TO TAKE A WALK INTO HISTORY THROUGH THE BACK PAGES OF SOME LATER 1960s NATIONAL DRAGSTERS –

Here we begin with a pretty awesome ad for a package deal we’d die to have today. A fully worked 1963 426ci Max Wedge Plymouth and the Ford ramp truck used to haul it around. There’s no price listed on this one but the car is worth huge money today. The ramp truck less so, but they are in demand for nostalgia racers.

  Dig this injected, Ford hi-riser powered Altered Coupe that can also run B/Dragster depending on your mood (or who showed up in that class for the weekend). We love the list of parts and pieces on the car and the fact that it shows that guy were still running all different kinds of motors. An injected FE engine must have sounded wicked with lots of cam and compression through the zoomies.

  We live in an era where everyone wants to build a gasser, but the lines of what a gasser actually should be are being blurred by cars that kind of, sort of look like they should but aren’t really true to the history of the class. THIS is what a small block gasser of the era looked like and was equipped with. This car was setup to run a small block, backed by a four speed. So cool.

HO-LEEE CRAP. The LAST automatic Hemi Barracuda from the famed 1968 run for sale in this ad. Who has this car today?

Same paper and ANOTHER Hemi Dart for sale! While that car is super interesting and cool, it is the Ford engine that is the star of the show here. Why? The thing is setup with one of the awesome and incredibly rare (even for that time) Latham axial superchargers. There were only about 100 of them built ever and they are wild looking with carbs sticking off the sides of the blower case rather than on top. Good luck ever seeing one in person. We never have.

You knew we’d get to the haulers and here we are. This 1965 D200 truck has a 426 wedge, seating for six, a utility body, and air conditioning. The seller claims that this is one of six trucks Dodge built as you see it sitting here. Not a ramp truck, this mother was built to tow and we’d kill to own it today.

Here’s the ramp truck and it is another Dodge. This is a beefier D-400 truck which also has the four door cab. The seller lists it as a V8 so we’re not sure if it is a 426 wedge or maybe the 361ci engine that was more common in trucks and stuff. A four speed manual transmission and a two speed rear end meant that no hill was too steep for this rig to slug up. Sadly, the car was not part of the deal.

  Mike Kuhl had lived and raced in California for three years when this ad was placed to sell his dragster. Undoubtedly he was selling this one because there was new pipe coming. Kuhl is a drag racing hall of famer and is one of the great mechanical minds that the sport has known. From his days racing with Steve Carbone to his most successful years with Carol Olson, he’s been everywhere and done everything. You could have bought his car for $1400!

Dick Arons stands as one of the best engine builders and drivers of his era. He ran a series of Berger Chevrolet sponsored cars and later teamed up with Wally Booth and the Booth/Arons team was known from coast to coast as an operation that could hang with the best of them. The car being sold in this ad won the 1967 Super Stock Nationals which were held at Cecil County Dragway in Maryland. Those races were some of the most glorious ever for the class.

  Gary Cochran had a great career and this car was one of his cooler pieces. Built by Ray Standhoff of Bellflower Automotive, the car had an injected 390 in it before going to this Howard Rapp built 427 and really picking up the pace. Call him and make an offer!

  Here’s another gasser for sale and another example of what the majority of gassers were. Set up for a small block engine (a 289 Ford!) and packing good brakes, a finished interior, an aluminum firewall, and high tech coil over shocks, this thing is awesome.

  We love this ad for a AA/FD because of the strong claim that it has never been beaten in match race competition and that it has won more races at “tough Southwest Raceway” than any other car. Is this chassis still floating around somewhere? Does anyone know where it is?

  AN ORIGINAL 1962 ALUMINUM CATALINA FOR $1,395! By the time this ad was up, the Poncho was just an “old race car” and who could have predicted what it would be worth someday? Who has it now?

We don’t even have to add anything to this one. Turbonique powered go-kart. TURBONIQUE POWERED GO KART! The add for the largely forgotten “D” Dart below it is cool too. Dodge built a run of Darts specifically designed to attack the D-stock class. Pretty cool and really rare.

  The post These 1960s Race Car Classified Ads From The Back Of National Dragster Will Make You Smile AND Cry – Awesome Stuff appeared first on BangShift.com.

These 1960s Race Car Classified Ads From The Back Of National Dragster Will Make You Smile AND Cry – Awesome Stuff syndicated from https://cashcarsremovalwrecker.wordpress.com

[masterdonald101452]

FIRE Breathing Small Block! Gasser Heart Transplant Was Successful

[thecardaddy]

1957 Chevrolet 210 - $35,495.00

1957 Chevrolet 210 Gasser, Satin Black Paint, 4 Speed Muncie Transmission, 350 Small Block, Comp Cam, Speedway Front Axle, Disc brakes, Radar Wheels,New Wiring Harness, New Floors & Trunk, New Steering Box Quick Ratio, Electric Cutouts on Exhaust, Runs & Drives Good. Please Note The Following **Vehicle Location is at our clients home and Not In Cadillac, Michigan. **We do have a showroom with about 25 cars that is by appointment only **Please Call First and talk to one of our reps at 231-468-2809 EXT 1 ** FREE Consignment Visit Our Site Today Easy To List Your Vehicle and Get it Sold in Record Time. from Cardaddy.com https://www.cardaddy.com/vehicles/vehicle/1957-chevrolet-210-cadillac-michigan-18740097

[sheltierv]

October 18th, Lewisburg wv

Left our site early as we have a long drive. Took us340 to I81 and then I64. Windy but manageable and the roads are actually in pretty good shape. 81 is packed with trucks but most don't take 64 and very few cars on it as well. Pretty country as we weave through and over lots of mountains. We get to Lewisburg before 2pm and the address they post is several blocks before the fairgrounds. We finally find the grounds and end up at a back gate and then wind our way to the office.

Volunteers are parking everyone and there are already a few dozen rigs here. The direct us to a grass area and we back in. 10 inches of back slope! So we ask for another place. 8.5 inches of back slope but we try to level and the rear sinks further down in the soft grass and we cannot level. We have smaller gassers near us and a tag just pulling in. The parking guys are pissed at us but we are not going to put slides out in this condition. Next they move us to a pavement area and just walk away. The site is a transition of 2 roads so it is not level at all eith 9 inches. Now we are frustrated so we decide to select our own site. While doing it, the head guy comes over and we explain that we just want a level site. He is very nice and offers us the other side which is level and our rear wheels are on pavement. The 4th time is the charm! As we are finishing setting up the tag from the grass shows up and tell us they could not get level. By the end of the day we have 4 neighbors that suffered the same problem. They really need to reserve the grass area for lighter, smaller rigs and not play the roulette game.

Anyway we are here nice small city in the mountains. Fall colors are just starting here. Doubt they will peak while we are here.

[itsworn]

TROG Brings Street Racing to Drag Racing’s SoCal Birthplace

Back in 2012, a small drag-oriented event held on the East Coast called the Race of Gentlemen (TROG) shook the hot rod scene. Although it gathered only 15 hot rods and 15 motorcycles, it still captured the imagination of gearheads the world over. It was organized on the beach and featured aesthetics reminiscent of faded pictures glued in a 1950s photo album.

Over the years, other TROGs have come and gone, including one in 2016 that tread the sand of Pismo Beach, California (unfortunately plagued by stormy weather). Promoter Mel Stultz and his crew traveled back home afterwards, thinking another race was unlikely to take place on the West Coast. Yet, surprisingly, officials from the scenic city of Santa Barbara contacted Stultz in 2018 and asked him to have an event in town! They made it clear racing on the sand would not be an option, but how about using a street along the beach?

Willys Window: Hot Rod Ranch’s Gil Muro provided this unique perspective of Santa Barbara’s staging lanes through the tinted Plexiglas of his survivor Willys Gasser. Photo: Gil Muro

Stultz loved the idea, and so was born the TROG Santa Barbara Drags. He came to town with the support (and members) of his club, the Oilers, which had been established in Carlsbad, California, in 1947 and was revived a few years ago. The Oilers, with help from local enthusiasts, transformed Cabrillo Boulevard in front of Santa Barbara’s Hilton Beachfront Resort into an eighth-mile dragstrip, where 30 motorcycles and 70 pre-1935 cars entered grudge matches, with no trophy spoiling the fun. As a bonus, an exhibit called Customs by the Sea welcomed a selection of fantastic pre-1959 traditional custom cars.

Want to see more TROG action this year? The city of Wildwood, New Jersey, will have another can’t-miss sand-slinging event on October 4-6.

First in Line: Jimmy White, the owner of Circle City Hot Rods in Orange, California, hasn’t driven his well-known ’31 Model A much in recent years, but he decided to get it ready for the event. This old hot rod, found in Riverside, California, runs a nasty 334ci Hemi equipped with a 6×2 Weiand manifold. It had the honor of making the first pass of the day with Muro’s Willys, the cover car for our latest Gasser-themed issue (“Willys Fever,” May 2019).

Ex-Stocker: Roseville, California’s Jim Luke bought a 100 percent stock ’29 Model A, right down to its mechanical brakes. It had been restored decades ago. Over the course of a year he morphed it into this jalopy, keeping the original rails but installing ’40s hot rod specifics: juice brakes, a ’39 Ford gearbox, a 21-stud flathead, Sharp heads, a Thickstun intake manifold, an Isky cam . . .

Another Bird: We showed you Lynn Bird’s blue ’32 Ford three-window coupe back in March 2019 (“Distinctive Deuce”). Always the tinkerer, his latest endeavor is this great-looking ’25 Model T. It is motivated by a ’49 Mercury flathead that’s assembled with Offenhauser heads and an Edmunds intake. The body sits on heavily modified ’34 Chevy framerails. Bird won most of his races.

Raging Orange: One of the fastest cars running the eighth-mile, the historic Orange Crate (now owned by Steve Gilligan) wowed the crowd with its good looks and performance. Brothers Bob and Terry Tindle bought the ’32 Ford Tudor already chopped in 1959 and went on to transform it into a fast strip contender. It features a tilt body along with a Hilborn-injected 417ci Olds motor with a Potvin blower.

Bad to the Bones: Rolling Bones member Dick Deluna drives and races his ’34 Ford five-window (which has been chopped 6 inches) all over the nation. Check out the unusual grille from a Canadian Cockshutt tractor. Behind it resides a ’49 8BA flathead now displacing 284 ci. It received Stromberg carbs, Navarro heads, an Offenhauser two-carb manifold, and a Vertex magneto.

Heavy Chop: Back from making a pass, this is Tom McIntyre’s ’32 three-window Ford from the Rolling Bones crew. It performed well, courtesy of a ’54 Dodge Ram Hemi bolted to a five-speed ’box for long-distance journeys. The coupe additionally uses a Halibrand quick-change and an aluminum bellypan.

Pretty Penny: Alex Carlos struggled a bit to see the flagman behind the wheel of his chopped Penny Hemi Model T. Spectators loved the car’s track antics, watching as it flew down the eighth-mile thanks to a 354ci Hemi fed by a Weiand intake manifold and six carbs. A four-speed BorgWarner transmission gets the power to the ground.

Sushi and Louis: Team Throttle Racing from Japan entered the field with this (near lane) narrowed modified driven by TROG regular Atsushi “Sushi” Yasui. Behind it sits Louis Stands’ 1927 Ford roadster equipped with a 327ci powerplant from a ’63 Corvette.

Little Zip: A recent Craigslist find, this 1927 T owned by Reno, Nevada, resident Rory Forbes appeared to have been a California circle track racer as far back as 1949. On the dash resides a plaque stating, “Participant NHRA National Drags-1959 Detroit, Mich.” The roadster hasn’t changed much in the last 60 years, still featuring its Joe Bailon paint and Tommy the Greek striping.

Hot Rod Lady: Diana Branch owns both a colorful ’29 Ford roadster and this ’32 Tudor, running a Studebaker V8 bored to 299 ci, a Chevy five-speed transmission, and a Chevy ’57 rearend. The sedan’s good looks should be attributed to the 4 1/2-inch chop and 5-inch channel. The Glacier Blue Chrysler metallic paint does not hurt either.

Stude Study: Traveling with his wife Diana, Tom Branch joined the mayhem with his real steel ’32 Ford showcasing a 304ci ’63 Studebaker V8, hopped up with four Stromberg carbs. Fabian Valdez at Vintage Hammer Garage helped build the roadster, which is fitted with ’50 Pontiac taillights, 15×4 and 15×8.5 American Racing mags, and Inglewood slicks in the back.

The British Are Coming: These 1960s-styled Deuces are owned by two U.K. expatriates. In the near lane is Nostalgia Ranch’s Jay Dean with his 331ci Cad V8 five-window coupe, chopped 3 1/2 inches. In the far lane is Dice Magazine’s Dean Micetich with his three-window, which was painted in 1964. It relies on a ’55 Cad motor and ’57 Olds rearend. Dean dropped the driveshaft during this run, but got it fixed to participate again later!

Spirit of ’47: We introduced you to Paul Gommi in HRD’s Sept. 2018 issue (“The Way We Were”). The competitive racer brought his supercharged ’32 Ford roadster, which was built in 1947 and ran 129 mph at El Mirage shortly after. All eyes were on Gommi, who won his class at the 2018 RPM Nationals, but issues with the flathead’s block didn’t allow him to perform as well as expected.

Local Racers: The Hanssen family are the caretakers of these two racers built by Willis Baldwin of Santa Barbara. On the left is the ’49 Baldwin Special, and on the right, the bare aluminum C/Mod ’51 Baldwin Special used from 1954 until 1957 in SCCA competition. The ’49 Special runs a ’46 Merc flathead with a full-race Clay Smith cam, Edelbrock heads, and triple Strombergs; the ’51 Special is also powered by a Merc flathead, this one fitted with Ardun heads.

Welcome Back: It was good to see Gene Winfield in Santa Barbara, looking none the worse for wear after his European ordeal last year. He was attending a car show in Finland in September when he broke his hip in a bad fall. During recovery, he came down with pneumonia; that and other health complications made it impossible for him to fly commercially back to the States. A GoFundMe page set up to get him home reached its goal in just a few days, and he was back in the U.S. by late October.

Colorado Rods: The Lucky Tramps Car Club out of Colorado presented a couple of fine rides driven by an equally fine couple. Brooke Dolan drove the Deuce coupe with S.Co.T. supercharged flathead power and Navarro heads, while husband Daniel competed with a ’34 five-window Ford with a flathead V8, too.

Fun T Time: Tegan Hammond had a ton of fun racing the Hammond family’s ’27 Ford roadster. The powerplant of choice is a rare 1927 HAL double-overhead-cam four-cylinder. By the next decade, few utilized that engine, as it had been surpassed by Ford’s flathead V8.

Grandpa’s Headers: The exhaust on the banger engine in Jenny Boostrom’s ’23 Model T roadster was fabricated by Jesse Belond, grandson of famed exhaust maker Sandy Belond, using a vintage photo they found as reference. So far it’s the only one, but Jesse hopes to make more, “trying to keep Grandpa’s name out there.” Arch Gratz built the motor with a rare Thomas intake and head, and two Stromberg 81 carbs. Clayton’s Hot Rods in Santa Cruz, California, put the car together, which Jesse bought for Jenny as a Christmas present.

Barnes’ Find: A ’32 Ford coupe with the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands National Park in the background—what’s not to like? The chopped Deuce belonging to John Barnes had been drag raced around 1951-1954. Lack of hood allowed spectators to admire the supercharged flathead V8 with Fenton heads.

Lake Refugee: Racing against Daniel Shircliff’s orange A is “Hudson Joe” Buffardi’s ’29 Ford roadster, prepared with an uncommon ’49 337ci Lincoln flathead. It is fed by dual Merc side-draft carbs on an Edmunds intake and runs a Potvin cam and Mallory dual-point ignition. It seems that the car raced at El Mirage in the 1950s through the mid 1960s. When Buffardi bought it in 2004 it was “just a body.” He fabricated the hood, nose, and grille. Notice the neat aircraft-inspired exhaust system.

Wheeler’s Wheels: David Wheeler is a regular racer, having competed at the TROG Pismo race and the 2018 RPM Nationals (see our Mar. 2019 issue). He made a handful of passes with his stout Model T.

As the Flag Drops: Tom Franzi of Germany is ready to hammer the throttle of his Model A, which was built in the mid- to late-1950s. He bought it about a week before the race. Seemingly painted metalflake in the 1960s, the 6-inch-channeled roadster with sectioned ’32 grille received a ’56 324ci Olds Rocket V8 at some point.

Harley Alley: The event wasn’t only about cars, as 30 vintage bikes made a ton of passes all day long. Incidentally, Harley-Davidson was a major sponsor of the Santa Barbara Drags.

Wayne’s World: This nice lineup of healthy motors is led by a not-so-common Wayne head-equipped 235ci Chevy six motivating Cedric Meeks’ ’34 Ford coupe. Cedric is the son of Russ Meeks, who won the Grand National Roadster Show’s AMBR award in 1972 with his well-known tilt-body, rear-engined Model A roadster.

Bronze Flame: Lars Mapstead is just the third owner of the Bronze Flame, a real-deal survivor of 1950s hot rodding that still wears its original lacquer flamed paint job over a steel (not aluminum) track nose fabricated by Sam Barris. Original owner Ed Donato raced the car at the lakes and the Santa Ana drags before putting it in storage for some five decades. The car is no museum piece, as Mapstead has run it at the RPM Nationals and the TROG beach race in New Jersey.

By the Sea: TROG Santa Barbara wasn’t only about hot rods. The Hilton’s rotunda also the terrific Customs by the Sea exhibit. It actually called for additional vehicles to be displayed on site, but regulations forced promoters to park a bunch of cars on the other side of the wall, facing the ocean. The two ’36 Fords belong to Alan Windard (Throttlers CC, Salt Lake City) and Jon Fisher (Burbank Choppers CC).

Refined ’50s: It was great to see two of the most elegant chopped customs built in recent years. Scott Roberts’ 1954 Mercury (foreground) cruises thanks to a 292ci Y-block. It features a bunch of traditional alterations: shaved door handles, frenched headlights, rounded corners on the hood and doors, and more. It kept company with Kelly and Mark Skipper’s ’51 Ford with ’53 Chevy teeth.

Buick Beauty: Steve Pierce selected what some might consider an unlikely candidate for a custom project, a ’40 Buick coupe. Among the most noticeable modifications: a top chopped 4 inches in front and 5 1/2 in the back, ’39 Ford headlights, and ’41 Cad bumpers. The color is reminiscent of Ford’s famous Washington Blue.

Grapevine Redux: Back in the day, spray gun extraordinaire Larry Watson prowled the boulevards of Kustomland in a ’50 Chevy that was first painted black and silver. He later resprayed the car in lavender, which is when it acquired the name Grapevine. John Denich owns this clone built with accuracy in mind, from the ’55 Olds headlight rings and side trim to the ’53 Chevy grille and ’54 Merc taillights.

Deuce Duo: The Burbank Choppers Car Club had a handful of rides on site, including this pair of Deuces. Jack Carroll drove the painted example to Santa Barbara. The 5-inch-chopped body shell sits on a chassis assembled by Lynn Bird. Unlike Carroll’s coupe, Deron Wright’s 283ci three-window (right) wasn’t channeled. He also drives it with five-spoke mags compatible with a 1960s hot rod appearance.

The 1,000-Mile Trip: Yep, Daniel Shircliff traveled in his daily driven Model A from Phoenix for the weekend, adding a thousand miles to the odometer. His Craigslist find was apparently built around 1961-1962 and last driven in the 1970s.

Antique Vibe: Blessed by beautiful weather, the staging lanes remained packed all day long. With 70 cars registered, each participant had the opportunity to make several runs. Palm trees as far as the eye can see contributed to the fantastic vibe of this inaugural get-together which, we hope, will return to the West Coast in 2020.

The post TROG Brings Street Racing to Drag Racing’s SoCal Birthplace appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/trog-brings-street-racing-drag-racings-socal-birthplace/ via IFTTT

[motorsporthq]

2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD Tech: Seven Pub-Ammo Bullet(Point)s

2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD Tech: Seven Pub-Ammo Bullet(Point)s

It may be the year of the pig in China, but in the U.S. it’s the year of the heavy-duty pickup. Ram yanked the silk off its 2500/3500 models at the Detroit show, GMC and Ford followed a few weeks later (being coy about some of their numbers), and now it’s Chevy‘s turn. Here are seven rounds of “pub ammo” to arm you for your next barroom session of big-truck smack-talking.

Small Block Gasser

[robertkstone]

2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD Tech: Seven Pub-Ammo Bullet(Point)s

It may be the year of the pig in China, but in the U.S. it’s the year of the heavy-duty pickup. Ram yanked the silk off its 2500/3500 models at the Detroit show, GMC and Ford followed a few weeks later (being coy about some of their numbers), and now it’s Chevy’s turn. Here are seven rounds of “pub ammo” to arm you for your next barroom session of big-truck smack-talking.

Read our 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD First Look right here!

Small Block Gasser

On paper this new engine looks kind of like a light-duty 6.2-liter that’s been stroked from 92 to 98mm, but it features numerous structural enhancements. The biggie is replacing aluminum in the block with gray cast iron. The crankshaft is made of forged steel and the connecting rods forged of powdered metal. Stronger “hyper-eutectic” pistons deliver 10.8:1 compression (down from 11.5:1 in the light-duty’s 6.2), and direct fuel injection is used. The camshaft supports fixed-overlap variable valve timing, but (at least for now), there’s no cylinder deactivation system. A 28.0-inch cooling fan, up by 2.5 inches from before—is driven by a larger 1-inch-diameter water pump shaft (interestingly, Chevy claims no 12-volt electric fan is powerful enough).

6L Duramax Diesel

Most alterations made to the diesel involve recalibrating it to work with the new 10-speed automatic, but there have been a few reinforcements to enable the 52-percent bump in towing. The cylinder-head gaskets are strengthened, the oil cooler gets 19 cooling plates (five more than before), and the turbocharger is reconfigured to enable 14 percent more “Jake Brake” engine braking. A new after-run feature allows the engine to restart and remain running for up to 15 minutes after the driver switches off and locks the truck in order to fully cool down following a particularly rigorous drive.

GM/Allison 10-Speed

This transmission is built by GM, and the design leverages the same arrangement of planetary gears, clutches, and brakes as the one jointly developed by GM and Ford. But the development and durability testing was all handled by Allison Transmissions, which specializes in automatics for ultra-heavy-duty commercial and defense vehicles. As such, this transmission may have ended up a wee bit too strong (and possibly too expensive) for use with the gas engine. Relative to the Silverado 1500’s 10-speed, the Allison’s first two ratios are 3 to 4 percent taller; the rest are very close, and the overall ratio spread is 7.20 versus 7.34.

6L90 6-Speed

Gas-powered HDs get the same six ratios you’ll find in the 1500’s 6L80 transmission, but the torque converter is strengthened. It borrows technology from the diesel converters, and each of the transmission’s internal multi-plate clutch packs adds the clamping force of one extra friction and steel plate.

4-Auto Transfer Case Mode

Just like the 1500s, the HD can be programmed to engage its 4-Hi mode when wheel-slip is detected, reverting to 2-Hi mode when traction is regained. This potentially saves some fuel during normal running and also prevents the axle-bind that results when making sharper turns with the front and rear axles locked together in 4-Hi mode. Some transfer case internals had to be reinforced to make this feature possible on the new HDs.

Driveline Beef

GM claims its trucks can deliver all 910 lb-ft of peak diesel torque to the ground in first and second gears thanks to such reinforcements as a new 5-inch-diameter aluminum one-piece drive shaft (up from 3.5 inches and two pieces). The largest available ring gear in a 1500 (11.5 inches) is now the smallest HD one, and a 12.0-inch gear shoulders the load in max-towing-spec trucks. There’s an extra frame crossmember, and the crossmembers that support the fifth-wheel/gooseneck hitches are redesigned to be lighter and stronger. The corrosion protection is also improved to outlast the typical 12-year ownership period, with the primed and painted frame being dipped in a new wax-based material and with key fasteners getting new coatings that prevent corrosion where they join parts.

Unitized Cab/Nose

The T1-generation HD assembly process needed a major rethink because of the newly unitized cab and front end. Much of the equipment that mounts to the firewall, engine, or front of a pickup truck chassis is typically installed after the “marriage” of the cab and chassis but before the fenders, hood, and front radiator-support structure get bolted on. This new generation integrates all those parts, rendering the engine compartment largely inaccessible after the “marriage,” so those operations all had to be moved upstream on either the body or chassis side. The benefit is improved fit/finish and body rigidity.

IFTTT

[jonathanbelloblog]

America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show

POMONA, California — When Al Slonaker organized an Oakland-based car show in 1949, he just wanted to showcase all the new car models for returning WWII soldiers. Local car clubs took up some of the extra space, but then he saw all those young folks walk right past the new machines and straight to the hopped-up and chopped down hot rods and customs. The following year, Slonaker ditched the dealers and the Grand National Roadster Show was born.

Like all babies, it’s grown and moved away to a new home, but it continues to host one of the most coveted awards in custom car building—America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR). Fans of American car culture come from all over the world to show and to see the show.

John Buck brought the Roadster Show to the Pomona Fairplex in 2003. Under his care it has expanded from three buildings to nine, plus outside displays. “The show is kid and family friendly. We get pinstripers, cackle cars, bands, bikes, trucks, lowriders; all the representatives of American car culture are here.”

In the “Suede Palace,” you can pick up rockabilly accessories while admiring high-nosed “Gasser” race cars and paintjobs so ornate they’d make Michelangelo wish he’d had metalflake and a spraygun for the Sistine ceiling. In a building across the way, rare musclecars represent the highlights of the horsepower wars, with multiple carburetors hiding under flashy hood graphics, ready for a run down Woodward Ave. Other buildings house dry-lakes racers, etched and pinstriped cruisers, and a charming collection of micro-cars, three of which could fit in a lowrider Impala’s trunk.

The stars of the show are in Building 4, where the 15 hopeful AMBR winners hover around their roadsters, polishing and dusting until a brain surgeon would say, “Dude, it’s clean enough.” This is a big deal. People spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars—sometimes millions—to bring a car up to the level of AMBR competition. Judging takes days and can be controversial.

“This isn’t a question of restoration or historical accuracy,” former HOT ROD staffer—and former AMBR judge, Thom Taylor told us. “This is the Most Beautiful. It’s very subjective. Just being technically impressive isn’t enough.”

A stroll through the entrants is both technically and aesthetically impressive. Most of the cars are ’32 Fords—the quintessential roadster—but any pre-1937 American car with a removable roof, no sideglass, and a removable windshield is eligible. This year a lone 1936 Cadillac stands out amongst the Fords. It’s the color of the last gasp of light before nightfall, a gloaming blue with fenders like a distant mountain range. You expect to see the moon rise above them. “It’s easiest to win with a ’32,” Taylor told us. “It’s established. Judges know what to look for.”

Rick Dore has taken a risk bringing the Cad, but it isn’t unheard of for an unusual model to take top prize. In 2017, a Troy Ladd-built Packard packed up the trophy.

The engine bays are as much of a show as the car exteriors, with rare performance modifications like the Ardun OHV hemi-head conversion.

Near the stage, owner/builder Brian Cruz out of Texas dusts off the small block Chevy in an Easter-pastel blue ’32 Ford. Next to him is Scott Helliesen’s lipstick-red ’32, one side panel lifted like a bird’s wing offering a glimpse at the Ford flathead inside. Engines in the roadsters run the gamut from early flathead Fords to a modern 4.6-liter Northstar.

There are no rules governing the powerplants aside from one: the car must drive past the judges on the way into the show. Proof of functionality can be spotted in the heat discoloration on chromed headers, a light gold at the bends that won’t polish away. It’s a point of pride.

While nobody will spill the winner before the awards, everyone has a favorite. Before we even see it, we’ve already heard about Dana and Marge Elrod’s 1936 Ford.

How you display is as important as what you display at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.

“It looks so mean,” said Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design, an LA-based custom shop. “It’s hard to make a car look intimidating when it’s up in the air on a plinth, but they did it.”

“We really wanted this car to scream ‘hot rod’,” Dana Elrod told us when we approached him. We’d say it doesn’t scream so much as growl with Clint Eastwood-worthy menace. Strope was right—the Elrod car, built by Nebraska customizer Dale Boesch, is downright mobster. The rear has been shortened, the front reworked, it’s lowered and leaned out and black as an eclipse. If you could see all the seams in the metalwork it would look like Frankenstein’s monster, but you can’t see them. Nary a ripple mars its glossy clearcoat. A 392 Hemi with intake stacks and cloth wires offers a pop of chrome and color. Boesch and the Elrods worked on the car for 11 years.

Rare muscle cars filled an entire hall, including the 1963 split-window Corvette originally built by Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick and restored by collector Tom McIntyre.

“I started with a decklid and two doors,” said Elrod. “Somewhere along the way we started thinking about this show.”

Displays around the cars are as varied as the engine choices. A billet-and-black ’32 Ford built by Alan Johnson sits on a simple grey carpet with a reflective Lexan sign pronouncing its key specs. Next to it, surrounded by stanchions made of exotic overhead cam heads is the dark blue ’34 Ford of Pete Aardema.

“If the piston matches the head you can use the head,” Aardema told us as if just anyone should have thought of topping a stroked Donovan big block Chevrolet with a Porsche 928 DOHC head. Aardema has made a living out of customized engine combos and his roadster didn’t have any problem meeting the run requirement. “It’s got 10,000 miles on it. Won four different slalom events. Easily.”

The Martin Special, a 1931 Ford built by Scott Kanoski at Hot Rods and Hobbies for David Martin took home the 2018 AMBR award. The car features a lot of contemporary touches, like an emphasis on handling and a minimum of chrome.

Competition for Aardema’s mileage can be found across the way, in the Martin Special display. Another dark blue Ford, David Martin’s 1931 highboy has bragging rights too. Built to drive, the roadster was entered by Martin in the Nevada Silver State Classic Challenge, running for an average of more than 100 mph over the course. That’s a lot of bugs in the teeth. Like the Elrod car, the Martin Special was a buzz in the crowd long before the judging.

One of the reasons that the AMBR contestants can have such active backstories is that unlike the Detroit-based Ridler award, which requires that the entrants be never before seen brand-new builds, AMBR rules only specify that the car has not been in a judged competition. This means that entrants can be old builds, restored builds, and rescued historically important cars.

LA car collector Bruce Meyer brought out the nickel-trimmed and appropriately named “Nickel Roadster,” which was originally built in 1993 but never formally judged. Dan Hostetter built his copper 1927 Ford based off drawings from 1955. The fiberglass and paint show the handwork more than the highly worked steel cars around it, but its creativity and joy-of-machine might sum up the original spirit of car customizing better than any of its less-wavy brethren.

Custom builder Steve Strope told us that he comes to the Grand National show to catch up with his friends and fellow customizers. “It’s not about promoting the shop, it’s about camaraderie, about getting right under a car with someone like Troy (Trepanier) just to admire what he did with the rear suspension.”

If the AMBR trophy was given for pure spirit, though, no car would be more deserving than James Bobowski’s 1929 track-nosed “Eddie Dye Roadster.” Built nearly 70 years ago, the roadster was sold, disassembled, and nearly forgotten. Through hard work and persistence, the original rounded front clip was found and reunited, and all the missing details were replaced or recreated. It’s a great example of design and community.

We didn’t envy the judges the task of choosing a winner. Every one of the 15 contestants offered an interesting engine choice, a great nod to history, or an astounding example of metalwork and design, and man, those paintjobs. Cosmetics companies should come here to scout nail polish ideas.

“This is the highest quality across the board that you’ll see at any show,” said Illinois-based builder Troy Trepanier. He should know, his shop, Rad Rides By Troy, worked on the AMBR-winning car in 2014. “It’s California. It’s in the culture here to understand this stuff. They get it.” He smiles and leans back against the car he brought, not to enter, just to show. “We come to show ‘em we can build cars in the Midwest too.”

In the end, the Martin Special was named America’s Best Roadster for 2018. There may have been a few disappointed builders, but it was a solid choice, one that represents an ongoing change in contemporary hot rodding away from “trailer queens” built just for show and towards cars that really hit the road, just like the early hot-rodders would have wanted.

Displays in the Roadster show weren’t all big American machines. A corral of microcars featured such cuties as this Goggomobil Dart from Australia.

Along with the vehicles, the most famous names in hot-rodding strolled the halls. We barely entered the first building before we were face-to-face with Gene Winfield, an LA-car customizer so influential there is a paint technique named the “Winfield Fade.”

The coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy stands more than 9-feet tall. In the early days of the show, winners would drive away with it sticking out of their roadsters and return it the next year. Today winners get a smaller version to keep.

The post America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Crowned At 2018 Grand National Roadster Show appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

from Performance Junk Blogger Feed 4 http://ift.tt/2nqIff4 via IFTTT