Sometimes the weirdest fads from rodding’s past repeat themselves. Back in the late-1960s hot rodders building early cars such as Model Ts, As, and 1932 Fords went through the “resto-rod” phase where rare components such as a luggage rack or flying greyhound hood ornament were a highly prized part for one’s car. Adhering closely to the way Henry Ford built them, but pitching the banger or flathead for late-model drivetrains, air conditioning, and cruise control was the trend – and it lasted through most of the 1970s. Today the trend has reared its head again, but with a twist. This time it’s rare vintage speed equipment and original parts instead of lesser repro parts that is driving the latest phase of building old hot rods. It’s an arcane passion exemplified no better than in Cory and Ashley Taulbert’s chopped Deuce 5-window coupe.
The full-fendered 5-window has been built in a traditional manner, but Cory and Ashley have painstakingly sought out only the most select of select parts. Hailing from Clarkston, Michigan, Corey is an Assistant Performance Variant Manager at GM, having helped in the development of most of the high performance parts found on any manner of ZL1 Camaros, and ATS-V and CTS-V Caddys. It’s a good gig for a hot rodder, even one with a passion for past performance.
Ashley rolled up her sleeves to assist Cory, and if that sounds like “the little woman made sandwiches while Cory labored in the garage burning the midnight oil” it’s not that way at all. Ash is the daughter of Dan Webb, out of Burton, Michigan, who has hand-built a series of more complex hot rods over the last few decades. Look him up if you care to see some of the most dynamic builds ever. She grew up with all aspects of hot rodding and knows as much as anyone plying the roadster roundups or vintage swap meets. Together, they have built a number of Deuces including their black highboy roadster and the chassis under the 2016 America’s Most Beautiful roadster of Darryl and Teri Hollenbeck. Their skills and passion for old Fords runs deep.
Starting with a mildly hopped up coupe found in Austin, Texas two years ago, Cory knew he wanted vintage GM power, as he was getting a bit nervous showing up at the GM employee car shows with his roadster under Ford power. He wanted a vintage 1957 Corvette 283ci, 270hp dual-quad engine, that featured all of the arcane pieces like matching dual carbs, stock linkage, intake, one-year-only 9-finned valve covers, 1957 block, and so on. He wanted the old coupe to look like a late-1950s hot rod that had its flathead pitched in favor of the latest and greatest Corvette power of the day. The exhaust manifolds are Speedway items, smoothed off, that mimic the original rams horn castings. The 327 crank was cut down at the counter weights as these early blocks can’t normally fit a 327 crank. Cory cheated by using the Power Pack fuel injection heads as the one-year-only dual-quad heads are hyper-expensive, as you can imagine.
Cory says the small-block begs for high revs, but the stock 3-speed isn’t conducive to high speeds so there may be an upgrade in the future to experience all that the Corvette engine has to offer. In the manner that they would have pulled off this conversion in that hypothetical 1957 time period, a 1939 top loader, closed driveshaft, and 1940 rear end converted to a Halibrand quick change would not have caused so much as a second glance it was so common in 1950s hot rods. This combo was standard hot rod fare, and is what’s found under the coupe.
Cory and Ash gathered up the pieces for their coupe caper, and then started in. The original plan was to keep the top stock. But with the wood and steel-frame seat assembly they made to sit nice and low, they thought it looked kind of silly with the driver sunk down into the coupe and all of that top above as seen from the street, so a top chop was performed with the aid of Bill Ganahl. Together they whacked 3 ¼-inches up front, and 2 7/8-inches in the back for a nicely wedged slice. The windshield was laid back, and after chopping the window frames they were sent out for some chrome.
Cory and Ash, with help from Cory’s dad, worked nights and weekends getting the body in shape before Cory shot the 1940 Ford Mandarin Maroon low gloss paint, making up a temporary paint booth inside of their garage. With the exception of the repro’ running boards, all of the outside panels including the 25-louver hood, gas tank, and frame horn covers are from 1932. Even the rear spreader bar is an original from Ford for use with luggage racks—the only spreader bar Ford made without a provision for a spare tire mount.
The frame is an unboxed stock 1932 with riveted original K-member. The front end is a dropped “heavy 1932” axle with 1940 Ford brakes, un-split wishbones, and 1950s Ford, F-1 truck steering that was cut up to adapt the stock 1932 mounting arrangement. Besides the quickie, the rear end was adapted for slide-in, 8-inch Ford axles and later Ford drums.
Mike Curtis machined the wheels that mimic Halibrand Sebring knock-offs, with offsets patterned after 1940 Ford steel wheels so Cory could use his heavy front axle without having to narrow it. The Dow-7 mock finish is a ceramic coating handled by Russ Meeks out of Portland. 500-525 x 15 bias-ply Firestones run up front and 700 x 15’s in the rear ride nicely up inside of the original fenders.
Since they found success with the paint, our dynamic duo tackled the upholstery, using a used sewing machine to fashion a black tuck ‘N roll interior. The gauges are curved glass Stewart Warner units that haven’t been made in decades. Cory filled a stock dash and then drilled it out for the gauges. An original sprint car steering wheel tops the stock column, held by a stock Deuce column drop that Cory lengthened one-inch for a bit lower steering position.
The coupe currently has 5,600 miles on it, mostly racked up driving the car to Texas in the rain, snow, and even ice this past April. The Taulberts say it rides nicely for being so low. Cory did C-notch the rear for axle clearance, but up front the leaf spring is far enough away from the frame that no cutting was necessary. They plan on performing some small tweaks and changes over the winter, because this is both a driver and a keeper.
It’s interesting to conclude that if the Taulberts could do the work themselves to keep the cost down they did, but that when it came to stepping up for just the right part like the carburetors, wheels, or gauges, they did not hesitate to spend some dough.
It’s all about having a plan, then blending the right components, colors, and coolness to create a coupe that both visually, and on the road, makes no compromises. This is state-of-the-art hot rod building in 2016.
If it sits right, and looks nasty, it’s just about perfect. Cory and Ashley’s chopped 5-window Deuce coupe looks like it could almost be from any era, making it timeless as opposed to trendy—but there’s a definite trend that’s going on here.Cory doing some last minute cleanup on his 5600-mile coupe. Driven to Austin, Texas, from their Detroit suburb digs, the coupe will continue to pile on the miles with 1957 Corvette dual-quad engine and 1939 Ford top loader. Wheels are modern interpretations of Halibrand Sebring knock-offs.If you’re a GM engineer, you’ve at least got to have some Chevy love, and Cory’s 283 dual-quad Corvette engine features the period correct carbs, intake, linkage, and those 9-fin valve covers. Speedway rams horn exhaust has been smoothed off to better mimic original Vette castings.Both Cory and Ashley took a turn at sewing up the black tuck ‘n roll interior at home with a used industrial machine. Results are impressive for first-time attempt. Stock gauge panel was filled then punched for vintage round-glass Stewart-Warner gauges, another hard-to-find item found on the Taulbert’s coupe.I-beam is the sought after “heavy Deuce” axle kept to stock width, with 1940 Ford drum brakes. The coupe sits low, but the frame was not notched for the leaf spring, and rides great.Steering is from a mid-1950s F-1 Ford, a standard hot rod conversion from the 1950s and 1960s. Cory went one step further by cutting off the cast mounting flange and adapted stock 1932 3-bolt flange setup for cleaner install.A Model A front crossmember was modified by welding on 1932 engine mount pads, then 1932 flathead cast engine mounts were used, which almost perfectly bolt to the 283 block—how’s that for a simple install?Again, straight up 1950s hot rod components have been used like this 1940 rear axle with a Halibrand quickie and later 8-inch Ford axles and drum brakes. The rear of the frame was C-notched for added axle clearance from low stance.A better shot of the gauge panel and the vintage 4-spoke sprint car steering wheel. When it’s dark and the gauges are lit it’s an impressive combo.Cory fabb’d the stainless license frame for the yellow California plates. Traditional mounting between 1939 tear drop tail lights makes up the classic Deuce coupe rear.Cory and Ash are sticklers for just the right parts, and are proud of their luggage rack spreader bar, which was the only factory spreader bar without a mount for a spare tire. These little cast tabs are part of the cast iron ends that tie into a center tube construction for a stout luggage rack support, though none will be needed.The Dow-7-like gold coating is actually a ceramic coating supplied by longtime Portland builder Russ Meeks, who provides this service today. The original coating was how Halibrands were finished back in the day, and is quite a popular look all of these decades later.
If you’re not participating in HOT ROD’s Drag Week, one of the best activities for enthusiasts is to pick your favorite class of racecars and follow along to see how they fare day by day. Especially those classes with a friend or family member participating, or for those eyeing a spot for the future, you get closer to the action and can Monday quarterback from your own computer. There are so many classes and subsets for the 350 or so cars participating that we’ll break down each of the classes in the simplest of terms below. Our breakdown basics give you a quickie class overview aided by a sample car or two to give you a visual takeaway. For a concise breakdown of all of the rules governing Drag Week check out the complete rules HERE. Pick your favorite, then watch our live coverage starting September 11, 2016—just don’t get caught.
Unlimited
This is for the big guns where, within certain general Drag Week parameters for all participants, you can truly “run what ya brung.” This is a one class- only with no subsets within the class. You don’t have to worry about compliance, again, as long as your car falls within the general rules governing all participants.
David Schroeder had a tough time in 2015, but his twin-turbo monster machine Corvette has a reputation to uphold, so expect crazy quarter-mile times in the insane Unlimited class.
Ultimate Iron
Basically Ultimate Iron is for tube-chassis cars, but with OE-original bodies. Only hoods, bumpers, decklids or trunk lids can be of fiberglass or carbon fiber. No top chops, pinching or sloping front sheetmetal, or altered wheelbases are allowed, to maintain the integrity of how the car looked from the factory. A 3000-pound minimum keeps things from getting too crazy in this one class-only category.
2015 class winner Bryant Goldstone astounds all by plying the highways while laying down a 6.954 et Drag Week average. The jammin’ Javelin runs a twin-turbo Ultra Tech 572ci big block Chevy with ported Edelbrock Victor heads.
Pro-Street
Pro-Street N/A Pro Street Power-Adder
The cars in this category are back halved and are also allowed to have a front-clip kit, but must retain most of its OE frame. Stock firewalls, dashes and floors are required, so engine setbacks are not allowed. The only body mods allowed are stretched rear wheel openings for tire clearance. This category also sets a 3000-pound weight limit, and has two classes—one for naturally aspirated, and a second class for power adders that include the use of nitrous, supercharging, turbocharging, or a combo of some or all of these.
After a full day of passes on Day 4 of the 2015 Drag Week Henry DiYanni ambles his Camaro to Gateway Motorsports Park for the final Drag Week haul. Speaking of haul, DiYanni ran a best of 11.374 at 123.70 but these times could not overcome problems on Day 1.
Modified
Modified Small Block N/A Modified Big Block N/A Modified Small Block Power-Adder Modified Big Block Power-Adder
Similar to the Pro Street category, Modified gives a little more latitude with modifications, like a more Spartan interior without mandating stock dashboard or rear seats. However, the driver still cannot be set back nor can the combined weight of driver and car dip below the 3000-pound threshold. All of the other rules that govern the Pro Street group can be found in the Modified category, which has both a N/A and power adder class.
Bob Parson’s 8-second, E85 gulping Ford Lightening pickup runs in the Small Block Power Adder class, and gets 9mpg on the highways to boot.Small block Power Adder Mustang belongs to Peter Johnson, who came in 2nd in the Modified class with an average 8.226 at 174.626mph. On a couple of passes he got very close to the 7s.
Super Street
Super Street Small-Block N/A Super Street Big-Block N/A Super Street Small-Block Power-Adder Super Street Big-Block Power-Adder
For small-tire cars, this is a more open group than the closely related Street Race category. The rules get restrictive at the rear where the stock frame must be intact and rear suspension alterations must use stock pickup points, so no narrowed/tubbed rears are allowed. All non-stock suspensions like four-links and ladder bars are prohibited. Coil-overs can be substituted for stock coil spring rear suspensions. This category contains four classes for both small- and big-blocks, and N/A or power-adder configurations.
Shane McClelland’s “Crusty Nova” is a staple of Drag Week. He runs a Dart LS Next hybrid of LS top end and Gen 1 small block bottom end, rated at 400ci. Twin 67mm turbos blow through two 65mm GM throttle bodies. Shane’s 2014 Drag Week average was 8.469et.With a N/A small block Camaro, Matt Bunal for the most part ran consistent mid-12s throughout 2015 Drag Week with an average 12.658 at 109.632mph for his average.In the big block N/A class is the 455 Buick-powered GS of Mark Covey who swears he’ll never drive anything that isn’t Buick powered. His average time for 2015 Drag Week was 10.313 at an average 128.658 running T/A Performance heads and a Crower solid-roller cam.
Street Race
Street Race Small-Block N/A Street Race Big-Block N/A Street Race Small-Block Power-Adder
Many say that Street Race is the most restrictive of the Drag Week classes. ETs are capped at 8.50 in the quarter, with a breakout resulting in disqualification or a bump over to the Super Street category. Only OE body panels are allowed with the exception of hoods and bumpers. Front strut conversions, front clips, rear coilovers, and Lenco-type transmissions are all verboten. Again, the 3000-pound minimum weight limit applies to Street Race.
Chris McNeeley’s 1965 Chevelle looked like a show car, but ran in the mid-10s all week with a naturally aspirated big block with an average 10.734 at 125.494mph. He said he was adding nitrous for 2016. He’ll have to get into the high-8s to be competitive in the Power Adder class of Street Race.
Gasser
A/Gas B/Gas
Harkening back to the 1960s, the Gasser category endeavors to retain the flavor and feel of the Gasser wars, with restrictions that limit the style of lettering, hood scoops, and even limiting the use of front A-arms to either stock, or completely replaced by a straight axle—no Mustang II-type front ends allowed. Only 8-71 or smaller superchargers can be used for power adder, but no turbos or nitrous. B/Gas rules are more lenient making for a more affordable class in this fun category.
Mike Cox’s Henry J has run this class every year, sometimes completing Drag Week and sometimes not. Cox came in second last year with a 9.968 average. Motivation comes from a 555ci big block Chevy with Dart Platinum heads, Quick Fuel 1050-cfm Q-Series carb and Comp billet solid-roller cam.
Hot Rod
Restricted to American cars built between 1928 and 1948, this is a single class-category, which allows for fender and hood removal as one of its unique characteristics. Chopped or sectioned cars are allowed, but wings, spoilers or air dams are not, to help retain the look of street vehicles. Electronic fuel injection is not allowed, nor are power adders, and engine cubic inch displacement must stay below 555ci. However, you can run mechanical injection. Other unique restrictions are allowing only cast intakes—no sheetmetal fab’d units, and no aluminum engine blocks.
The 1937 Ford Tudor of Herb Hirshfield was no slouch running in the low-11s on numerous days, ending with a best average quarter mile time of 11.71 at an average MPH of 122.552.The winner last year in this class was Thomas Ciancitto and his 1937 Ford Pickup, with an average time of 10.274 in the quarter at 133.572mph, but on the last day he clipped off a 10-even, so getting into the 9s is a distinct possibility with this big block, dry sump beauty.
Street Machine Eliminator Format
This unique Drag Week category is based on an Open Comp format, so your five-day average elapsed time determines a qualifying position in a 32-car Sportsman ladder bracket on the last day of Drag Week. Your average determines your dial-in, and breakout and first-or-worst rules apply. If you stick around for the final day, it’s possibly the most exciting racing of the week, and worth watching—even for participants.
Last month we ran the story of “Cream Puff”, the Allison V12-powered marathon boat from the 1960s that HOT ROD Magazine sponsored, and owner John Fell restored. It will be featured in our December 2016 issue, and while finishing the issue fires ravaging southern and central California were eating up thousands of acres a day. Cream Puff is stored at, and plies Lake Nacimiento, located between San Jose and Los Angeles. Fell and son Jake drove out to the lake during the height of what was labeled the “Chimney Fire” as it closed in on Lake Nacimiento residents, and rescued personal and valuable items from their second home.
They then towed their three boats, one of which is Cream Puff, out into a marshy and somewhat dry portion of the receding lake, backing the trailers as far as they could into the goo, then retreated back to So Cal. The next day the fire leveled their house, in what neighbors said took under 20 minutes from first embers to complete destruction. Cream Puff and its tow garage mates, sitting outside on the mucky shoreline, made it through without so much as an ember burn.
Now John and Jake have to figure out how they’ll get the boats out of guck that is up past the trailer axles. But that’s a good dilemma under the circumstances.
90-year-old Michael “Blackie” Gejeian, a racing and show promoting legend from Fresno, California has died. A five-time NASCAR dirt track champion, Blackie is best remembered as being part of the Fresno “Armenian Mafia” that included Richard Peters and Charles Kirkorian, who changed the face of showcars and car shows with their string of Oakland Roadster Show winners in the 1950s. In 1953 Blackie entered the Oakland Roadster Show with his black and channeled 1926 Ford roadster with a completely chrome undercarriage. He would manually tip the car on its side numerous times throughout the show to expose that undercarriage, naming the car Shish-Kabob for the continual rotation each day.
Making improvements to the roadster each year thereafter, he won the coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) crown in 1955. Customizer George Barris once said, “The boys from Fresno demanded their cars be as nice underneath as they were on top.” Barris knew because he built the Ala Kart 1928 roadster pickup for Richard Peters that won the 1958 and 1959 AMBR. For that first show Blackie and Peters “borrowed” a full-length mirror from the Oakland Coliseum Woman’s bathroom to put under the Ala Kart to show off the immaculate undercarriage. Kirkorian unveiled his “Emperor” 1929 roadster at the 1960 Grand National roadster Show (GNRS), winning the AMBR that year.
Blackie has been a huge proponent of the Grand National roadster Show, and has attended every day of every year since its inception in 1949. He was the promoter for the Clovis Speedway from 1960 to 1980, and also owner of Fresno Dragway for 18 years. Fresno Dragway was known for its crazy four Top Fuel dragsters racing down the strip at the same time in the mid-1960s. For decades Blackie has held an invitation-only Autorama car show in Fresno, which became a highly prestigious event for participants. He gave up holding the show upon retirement following the 2010 show. A plaque honoring Blackie was placed outside of the Fresno Convention Center in 2009, and earlier this year a bronze statue of Blackie was unveiled at the Fresno County Historical Museum. Blackie was a character and hot rod ambassador, and will be greatly missed.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
One thing you can depend on each year at Drag Week is the freak streak that runs through many a Drag Week participant. The 2016 edition is no exception with weird cars, combos and components combining for a glorious mix of good, bad and badder. Of course we applaud and encourage such madness, from Aussie oddballs to LS engines masquerading as Hemis and for the first time at Drag Week a nitro-powered car—as in Nitromethane. Pop. Juice. The Can. You know. So rifle through our freaks gallery and see if you can spot which creep car will tip the can at the 2026 HOT ROD Drag Week brought to by Gear Vendors.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
We are awash in Gassers at the 2016 HOT ROD Drag Week presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive. Well, maybe not awash, but we’ve got a lot more than last year’s Drag Week and we’ve got the gallery for your perusal to prove it, along with some Hot Rod class participants too. We’re geeked that the Gasser class has found such a receptive group willing to thrash and bash their, in some cases, tender sheetmetal at half-a-dozen tracks and over 1000 miles of highways and byways over the next week. Check out some of the oldies in the Hot Rod group, and we’ll add more images of the week’s gonzo Gassers as stuff happens.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
Looking for a light, cheap, newer platform to build a Drag Week hauler, Steve Trance out of Jupiter, Florida, looked at Camaros and Mustangs, and walked away thinking the Mustang was lighter, with lots of room for turbos. But he’s more of a Chevy guy, having run and built NASCAR Winston Cup engines for Chevy back in the 1980s, and wanted to step up beyond the 1979 Malibu he brought to the 2012 Drag Week, in the Super Street N/A class. Besides weight, there’s a ton of parts for the Cobra Jet guys, so making a Drag Week pounder is almost like building a kit. The Mustang, a salvage title 2005 V6 with lots of flood damage but a sound car overall, was his choice. He also liked the factory blue that meant no paint and body costs and hassles. Steve stripped it down to a bare shell in February 2016, then sold the powertrain for the original cost of the whole car, netting him into the car for zero-dollars.
Starting in back, he used a TRZ and BMR suspension kit with the nice anti-roll bar setup. A Cobra Jet 4.75 9-inch from S&W Racecars finished off the rear. Trance is singing about the AJE front cradle, which takes care of steering, suspension, and also making an LS Chevy a bolt-in proposition. Yes, Trance chose an LS for power. Back to the cradle, stock spindles bolt to AJE lower control arms, with Strange adjustable shocks and disc brakes. A stock power rack bolts right into it, and the stock GM pump works well with the Ford rack. A BMR spring package finished off the easy, peasy front end.
Trance went with a shortie Powerglide for its weight advantage and the horsepower advantage as the ‘Glide takes less to scoot. Converter is a 5700-stall FTI. The Gear Vendors unit makes up for the 2-speed shorty. The stock Ford cooling system was adapted to the Chevy including the stock V6 radiator.
The engine began with an LS3 block with a 13:1 compression ratio, which works well with the E85—no pings from the rather stout compression. 4-inch stroke and 4.07-inch bore comes out to 416ci. Trance used Eagle rods and crank with Wiseco pistons. LS9 cylinder heads were ported through the GMMP service Chevy provides. Hollow titanium valves, and high-ratio rockers work with the short-travel hydraulic lifters. A Comp Cams cam spec’d for Trance’s valvetrain bumps things along. All of this engine goodness dynos at 700hp, with 5500 peak torque.
Wolf Racecraft makes cage kits, and will miter then for a few extra bucks, which Trance then had welded in by a certified welder. Certification is 8.50et. A Summit 15-gallon tank and Airmotive fuel pump takes care of the E85.
A Ron Francis street rod wiring harness was patched into the Mustang, with the fuse block housed where the passenger air bag used to be. Trance eliminated all of the body controls except for the electric windows that incorporate the smart window feature, since manual windows for Mustangs don’t exist.
Billet Specialties wheels running 295-65-15-inch Hoosiers out back handle rolling stock. As of the first day of Drag Week, Trance, along with his son Justin who’s riding shotgun, has driven the Mustang about 100 miles and made 10 passes at their local drag, so even though they are fairly confident about 2016 Drag Week, this is a fairly fresh build that we’ll be watching close throughout the week.
From where we sit, this approach is a great way to get into a high-digit Cobra Jet or COPO Camaro for a lot less dough. Trance wants to go with twin-turbos by next year’s Drag Week, and as you can see there is plenty of room in that large engine bay, so his Mustang has so much going for it that we hope you keep it in mind for your weekend warrior or Drag Week whip.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
At the 2016 HOT ROD Drag Week we’ve got some big tire heavy breathers that bring a smile to all who gaze upon them and the sheer craziness of imagining them plying small-town USA’s 2-lanes. Joe Bouska’s 1967 Camaro is hard to imagine rolling down Main St., but that’s what it’s doing. Bouska and his brother Martin from Wellston, Oklahoma, are Drag Week virgins. They picked up the Camaro as a roller including the cage built by Jackie Dealers in Texas, about six years ago. It’s a back-half car certified to 6-seconds running a 40-spline, 3.89 9-inch with Aerospace Components disc brakes at the ends. Moving forward a Flipomatic Powerglide shifts the gears running a Marty Chance converter. A Smith Racecraft bolt-in front cage houses Afco front shocks.
A Texas Race Engines (TRE) 638ci Bowtie big block features a 4.75 stroke and 4.625 bore, with a Lunati crank. Mike Henson in Yukon, Oklahoma, breathed on the engine to sweeten things for the Bouska brothers. GRP rods and Wiseco pistons with Total Seal rings make up the reciprocating system, and a TRE custom cam with 1.8 Jessel rockers mystery lifters Henson is keeping a secret finish off the heads. Nitrous Solutions package controls the laughing gas. The big block dynos at 1150hp with 14:1 compression, and the first thing you wonder after reading that is how can it run on the street without pounding holes into the tops of the pistons? Well, one of the brothers’ sponsors is Boostane from Florida. They make an additive that raises the octane, which is what you have to have for that kind of compression. For every 10 gallons of fuel they tip in a quart of Boostane. Joe’s put only about 100 miles on the Camaro and in that short squirt he found the engine ran with great manners on the octane boost, so we’ll check back with him over the next few days to see how the Camaro performs on the Drag Week route.
Back to the car, a stainless floor and fiberglass dash lighten things up inside. Outside Feather Carbon front fenders, hood, doors, cowl panel, and deck lid make for a 3030-pound racecar. Holeshot wheels wrapped in 33-16-15 Hoosier slicks complete the rolling stock.
Joe says the car bogs down a little at launch, but gets on the pipe mid-track, continuing to pull in the traps. In his only pass in the car it ran 7.77 at 169 mph shutting off completely at 5.3 seconds, so the mangled run shows the potential of this green monster machine. Since he’s only licensed to 7.5 we won’t be seeing any crazy times this year, but future plans call for Joe getting a quicker license, and also a Gear Vendors unit to tame things down on Main St, where the eternal madness will continue.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
The 1966 Corvette of Dave Schroeder, a car well known at HOT ROD Drag Week and in other street-legal drag racing circles, hit the wall yesterday when the parachutes failed to deploy. Fortunately, Schroeder was unharmed but the car is down and out for the remainder of Drag Week Competition.
“It wasn’t that hard a tap,” said Schroeder. “The chutes didn’t open at the end of the track, and I was coming up pretty hard; I braked too hard and locked up the rear wheels. I let off but there was no steering through the traps.”
The wreck happened on what was Schroder’s best pass to date, a 6.85 at 199.52 mph. “I told my wife it needed some paint, a radiator, and a tire,” Schroder said. “ Maybe we should send a call out for a racer in need of some parts,” he laughed. The car suffered damage to the chassis, radiator, body, struts, and likely a few more areas that will be found later at the shop.
“It didn’t feel bad when it tagged the wall, Schroeder said. “I was more pissed off than anything else. I almost had to buy a new carbon helmet because when I got out; I just about threw it on the ground and smashed it.
The car, which is still an original ’66 Corvette from behind the doors back, had received some upgrades to make it more street-friendly for 2016 competition. A set of 1.5:1 rocker arms replaced the 1.9s during street drives and valve spring oilers kept the springs cool and lubricated in traffic. A bigger radiator and twin,16-inch electric fans were also added to keep the 872ci mountain motor running cool.
Once the ‘Vette returns home to Toronto, Canada, it will be treated to a full rebuild. “Oh yea, we’ll be back next year,” added Schroeder.
“The [original] body is a 300 pound weight penalty,” said Schroeder. “We don’t have a shot of sticking with Lutz and Bailey with the power we have.” So, while he is adamant the ‘Vette will be rebuilt, he dropped a few casual hints that something bigger and meaner might be in his future for Drag Week 2017.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
After a horrendous crash at the 2015 Roadkill Nights in Pontiac, Michigan, Brain Kohlmann got his bell rung good. Like off from work for over a month good. Getting bonked on the head with a flying fire extinguisher torpedo can do serious damage to your noggin. He was kind of done drag racing his cool 1931 Chrysler 3-window coupe, something that being in such close proximity to Union Grove Drag Strip just outside of Racine, Wisconsin, was a staple of his adult life. With stock frame rails and safety equipment you would expect in an old hot rod, smacking the wall at 150mph makes one reflect on launching oneself in a Chrysler coffin. But soon he decided if he was going to continue doing what he loved in the car of his dreams, he needed two things—a much safer car, and a nitro-fueled Chrysler Hemi coupe capable of 6-second passes at over 200mph that he could drive on Drag Week. We’re down with Brian’s logic, sense of perspective, and obvious intellect.
We’re all the better for Brian’s clear thought, racing drive, and building abilities, which after only one year he’s back with his reborn Chrysler coupe. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of doubt, fear, and escaping logic, Drag Week has its first nitro-fueled entrant. The only class in Drag Week that allows the use of anything other than conventional fuels is the Unlimited class, which is where the coupe is slotted. And as with other more competitive classes in Drag Week, a fuel system that can be switched between nitro and gasoline is mandatory. Brian fashioned a system that uses a magneto in front of the Hemi to spark the juice, and a conventionally placed distributor at the rear where all 392 Chrysler Hemis get spark.
EFI allows for easy switching between the two, as well as timing and fuel curves exclusive to each fuel. Brian was a little close to the vest about every element of the switchover, telling us, “I don’t want to tell you and then find out that it doesn’t work.” With only a few miles on the coupe this is definitely a work in progress.
The chassis was patterned after the old Logghe ladder-type double tube Funny Car frames from the 1960s. And the roll cage ensures that any more introductions to walls or barriers will be better on Brian’s brain. His plan is to ease into elapsed times from day to day as his license is certified for 7-second passes, so the full potential of the Chrysler’s fury won’t be found this week. But it should be fun watching a fuel coupe handle the highways, byways, and drag strips for the 2016 HOT ROD Drag Week.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
Every one of our quartet of 1970-‘72 Monte owners at the 2016 Drag Week readily admit their cars are heavy pigs. Most tip the scales at over 4000-pounds. That’s not exactly what one looks for in a quick race car. Yet two of these Montes are in the rarified seven-second range and another is in the eights. So what’s up with the Montes? We talked to the four owners to see what they’re running, what their combos and strategy is, and what these four guys know that has escaped those of us who have grown up always told that weight is your enemy.
Mark Vinson
Street Race, Big Block, Power Adder
Best Drag Week ET so far: 8.54
Mark’s a Ford guy, so the mystery only deepens. He’s owned his Monte for nine years, acquiring it in lieu of money owed. It was a factory big block loaded car with air, which it still has along with power steering, brakes, and a nice audio system. He was going to make it fast and flip it, but the more he wrenched on it the more he liked the performance, and how it felt, and continued to improve it. At 4040-pounds it’s not a lightweight. This is Mark’s third Drag Week, and though he’s continued to go faster, the Monte is only certified to 8.50. At this point he’s on the brakes to keep it at that cap, as his best Drag Week times indicates. Why not certify it into the sevens? He wants to keep it“a fast street sleeper” because—guess what? He drives it all over—it’s a street car.
His brother Matt is a Pro Mod driver so they use full Racepak data acquisition to help monitor the car. He feels that a lot of the success, besides the 940hp quivering under the fiberglass hood, is the rear end setup. The bar angles, settings, and valving are all monitored, and he says are set to help launch well.
The 582ci engine is a Dart iron block with Dart Pro 1 355 T-6 heads massaged by Domhoff in Harmony, PA. A large Bullet Cam grind bumps the valves, and an Applied Nitrous 2-stage plate sprays the laughing gas. A Rossler 400 trans runs a Coan Racing Supermega 4200rpm converter, but Mark says it’s taken a lot of massaging the stators, plates, and variations on lockup to nail down launch and shift points in the quarter. It spins a Gear Vendors overdrive hooked to the 3.70:1 9-inch running drag radials.
Mark tries to make a single run, and then blows outta Dodge for the next track. He told us there is no secret to the Montes, it’s just circumstances that landed him with the car, and then a gradual progression to run quicker without defeating the street sleeper intent.
George Gallimore
Super Street, Big Block, Power Adder
Best Drag Week ET so far: 7.71
George was looking for something he could package some honkin’ turbos into without cutting up the car and getting into a lot of body and chassis mods. Look at the engine shots of any of our quartet of Montes and they look like they exhibit extreme engine setback—but that’s all stock. So there was a definite plan with George’s Monte madness. This is his 4th Drag Week with this car in Super Street.
A Dart iron block runs Diamond pistons and 555 Brodix Head Hunter heads. Among other fails George broke a pin boss on one of his pistons last year. He says Drag Week is so hard on the car that he rebuilds the engine after each year. Yeeoowww! He’s using new, larger Precision Pro Mod 94mm turbos running between 30-35psi of boost. He’s also running a larger intercooler which he says is helping.
A Rossler TH210 Turbo 400 trans is on its 3rd Drag Week. George feels his best times are by babying the car off of the line. In back a 3.25:1 9-inch rear with Mark Williams axles and third member spins the tires. He also runs a Gear Vendors overdrive.
Besides the larger turbos and intercooler, another change from last year is shedding 100-pounds from cutting off the frame ahead of the motor mounts, replacing it with lightweight tubing. Still, the Monte hits the scales at over 4000-pounds.
George likes to “one-and-done” Drag Week making a single run, turning in his slip, and then he’s off to the next track. As he says, “We take our time because anything can happen.” The car is certified to a 6.50 ET so his mid-7 times are well within the car’s potential limits—providing George can overcome the weight disadvantage. But the Montes seem to sparkle with magic fairy dust so who knows what we might see at Drag Week in the coming years from this Monte?
Jacob Foster
Street Race, Big Block, Naturally Aspirated
Best Drag Week ET so far: 10.85
This Monte is just about Jacob’s first car—he’s owned it since he was 17, so that’s why he’s ended up racing it at Drag Week. There was really no sinister race plan, other than he likes to go fast. Which means there may be more mods in the works down the road, as Jacob says he’s not shy about cutting the car up to get lower times. To this point it’s relatively slice-free.
Starting with a 4200-pound car he’s shaved it down to 3870-pounds, the lightest of our quartet. Fiberglass bumpers, some brackets removed, lightening holes in places like the core support, and a lighter gas tank are just some of the changes he’s made in the pursuit of poundage.
The car is in many ways like a bracket car it’s so consistent, so Jacob is also a “one-and-done” Drag Week racer. He’s retained the stock A-arms, with Moroso Trick springs. A manual box out of a 1970 Chevelle replaces the heavier and power-sapping power steering.
Jacob says, “Horsepower and cubic inches is how to go fast. I try to keep it a street car so it even runs the crash bars in the doors, and an 8-point cage that s tucked out of the way.”
The engine starts with a 540ci Dart iron Shafiroff Racing Ultrastreet big block. Brodix Race Rite heads run a hydraulic roller cam. Why hydraulic lifters? Jacob says for a maintenance free engine. CFM Performance in Indy ported and polished the heads, with a .650 lift on the cam. Brodix intake has been flow-matched to the heads. This all dynos at 950hp at the rear wheels. He’s got a spray plate for nitrous but runs in the naturally aspirated class so no spray allowed. Jacob’s plugged the nitrous, but running it he gets into the 9s.
A Coan 400 transmission with a pro brake but no Gear Vendors takes care of the shifts, and a 12-bolt takes up the rear. He says he likes the 12-bolt because bearings and seals can be found at any auto parts store—an important consideration for Drag Week.
Jacob says the magic of the Monte’s is there is no magic.
Mike Roy
Street Race, Big Block, Power Adder
Best Drag Week ET so far: 7.66
Mikes Monte is the quickest of our Monte quartet, which you would expect from someone that’s a staple of Drag Week wins. He’s owned the car 21 years, and it’s been a steady search for speed. He took us quickly through the stages of his Monte: Starting as a nice driver he says, “That lasted about a day and then I was bored.” With early mods he was hitting 13.20 ETs. Adding nitrous lowered times to 11.80. A larger big block yielded 10.80 ETs, then bolting on a Pro Charger supercharger got him into the mid-9s, before radically altering the car with a back-half in 2005. For 2011 Mike converted over to the twin-turbos, which he’s run in the last five Drag Weeks.
The iron Dart block is a 540ci, with a 4.5-inch bore and 4.25-inch stroke. The raw Edelbrock heads were machined and massaged by Curtis Boggs at RFD in Virginia Beach. A Sniper Profiler intake is fed by two Precision Turbo GT55 88mm snails set at 33-pounds of boost—though he tells the competition they’re set at 15-pounds just to mess around. A Coan Engineering 210 Turbo 400 combined with a Gear Vendors overdrive spins the Larson-fab’d 9-inch with a 3.70:1 gear. He relies on Big Stuff data, which he reviews at night.
To shed some heft the heavy hauler has a fiberglass front bumper, hood and trunk lid. Still, at 4085-pounds this is a fat cat that takes wheelie bars and a deft touch to hammer through the traps. The Monte is certified for a 7.50 ET, so Mike is close to the limits spec’d for this car.
Gassing up Gassers every 60 miles while blazing the byways and boulevards of Midwest America, then boiling hoops through six days of drag strip shenanigans is the essence of Drag Week.
The image of several full-on Gassers, some with trailers in tow, winging across America is so wrong it’s a joy to behold. Kids in SUVs waving, gazing, with smiles, pointing in amazement spreads the Gasser gospel. From hippies to Amish buggies pulling the reins of their scared steeds, all gawk in amazement.
Drag seekers Jay Grabiak in his primered ‘55,
Mark Gissendaner’s mamba green ’40 Chevy coupe,
and Drag Week winning Chisholm and Stasiak’s black’55, and more hang ‘em high.
These relics, exhausts pounding pavement, are driving 200-plus miles a day to take in the sights and back road burghs one dragway a day.
Here’s the gallery of Gasser madness through the lens of photo ace Wes Allison—the Gasser chronicles of Drag Week 2016.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
Mike Wenzler doesn’t know why he traded his ‘62 409 Impala for this Pro Stock 1987 Camaro built by Willie Rells in San Diego, that has bashed and gashed most of its life in AHRA Top Sportsman, with two Pro Stock passes at birth before landing on its lid. Michael got the car as a roller, then wondered what to do with it. Drag Week looked like fun, and so the shop owner from Battle Creek, Michigan, got the Camaro into Drag Week trim over a two-year period.
Starting with a Merlin III big block with 4.600-inch bore and 4.500-inch stroke, Wenzler assembled the 598-inch engine with J&E pistons and Total Seal rings. The crank and billet rods are from Ohio Crank. Interestingly, the compression is 9.49:1. Mike swears it is. Heads are Dart Pro1 380s that are right out of the box with the exception of being O-ringed. He says, “All I did was gasket match them and bolted them on, that’s all.” Headers are a Dynatech kit put together by Mike. Valvetrain, including the cam, are Comp Cams components. The intake is a Dart tunnel ram un-ported—“not smoothed, not cleaned.” Two Dominator 1050 Pro System carbs crown the intake. A quick corner-to-corner stagger is the extent of the carb tickle. The nitrous system is what Mike calls a hodgepodge, with a fogger and plenum by NOS, with solenoids and other pieces controlled by the grid. He uses a Racepak UDX log-on dash system for that.
The distributor and belt drive is by Jessel, in conjunction with an MSD crank trigger, with the controller and alternator by MSD. Transmission is a Rossler 210 Pro Mod Turbo 400 hooked to a Gear Vendors overdrive. The fab’d 9-inch is by Willie Rells and runs a 4.10 gear. Rear shocks are Pro Stock–type Koni electrics and controller from Lamb, which Mike says was very helpful with advice and setup. Afco made a trick radiator that contains two 16-inch electric fans.
Mike’s Camaro came in 2nd last year in Drag Week’s craziest class: Unlimited. This year he’s also in 2nd behind Jeff Lutz. Best times have been 7.52 at 188-plus mph. He wants to see how close he can get to 200mph, and is thinking about air conditioning for those hot, 200-plus mile treks, blitzing strip to strip on Drag Week. “The car has been good to us at Drag Week,” says Mike. “Sleep deprivation is the problem.”
At the US 131 track in Mike’s home state of Michigan he had over 50 friends and relatives in the stands. His wife was surprised when fans from different countries came by to root him on or offer advice. She had no idea Mike and his “grey ghost” Camaro were famous worldwide. Well, at least Drag Week famous.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
Tommy O’Donnell from Fort Worth is a lucky puppy. His grandfather “NE” bought this 1957 210 hardtop new in ‘57 to drag race. They made a million ‘57 Bel Air hardtops, but 210s are fairly rare. This one was a stripper with no radio, and a straight six with a 3-speed on the column. That’s how NE raced it, though he had a Wayne head and other period cool performance goodies over the years. Punched out to 310ci it ran 13.90s at 100mph. In 1970 it got a nice red paint job for $29.95 at Earl Scheib. Then in 1972 when bracket racing came to town, NE quit racing the 210. By the mid-1980s Tommy’s dad John bought the old racer from NE, and then Tommy drove it through high school with the six. After that it languished in the hot Texas sun for 15 years before tommy rescued it in 2013 to make into a Drag Week warrior for our 2014 event.
Now it’s running a 383ci small block with a SCAT stroker crank, stock rods, and hypereutectic pistons. Blue Print aluminum heads with hydraulic roller lifters and a bump stick with .536” lift and 230/250 duration. Compression is 10.0:1. An Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake is fed by a Quickfuel 750 carb. The Chevy dynos at 430hp. MSD ignition is used throughout, and fenderwell headers are from Hooker. Transmission is a Turbo 350 with Hughes internals and a B&M 2400rpm stall. Rear end is a 9-inch Ford with Strange internals and a 3.50:1 ring gear spinning 275 M/T Drag Radials.
The front suspension was completely rebuilt using tube A-arms because they were cheaper than rebuilding the stockers. The old Chevy weighs out at 3585-pounds, and the best time in NA configuration is 12.31at 109-plus mph. With spray, however, this sucker will flat fly to 11-flat quarter mile runs.
We are saddened to learn that Rod & Custom Magazine editor and founder of Camarillo, California, Neuspeed Performance Systems; Bill Neumann died September 6, 2016. Hitting the East Coast car show circuit with his channeled 1931 high boy roadster in 1961, a chance meeting with Car Craft’s Dick Day landed him a staff position at Car Craft. When the entire staff of Rod & Custom was fired over some hi-jinx later in the year Neumann became R&C’s new editor starting with the December 1961 issue. He directed the editorial content toward a “junior” HOT ROD slant, so model car building, slot cars, and wild Ed Roth and George Barris creations became a big part of the package. Scale models and slot cars were so popular that for eight months Petersen Publishing added a second R&C called Rod & Custom Models that was devoted exclusively to that subject matter, though as Neumann lamented, “I was doing two magazines a month but paid for doing one.” By 1966 Neumann left R&C to first start an advertising agency specializing in marketing, engineering, and consulting for the aftermarket, and then through his work promoting both the Ford Pinto and then VW Rabbit he started Neuspeed specializing in 4-banger performance applications. For decades Neuspeed has flourished in the tuner market. In his later years he found time to build a 1932 Ford roadster and coupe, both independently suspended high boys built to as high a standard as he applied to all projects he was involved with. He was also an advocate for wounded vets, having given an Action Track wheelchair to a wounded vet through donations from employees from his company. “We’re a small company, so we’re trying to set an example of a small company doing the best we can for the veterans that do the most for us,” Neumann said. “They earn our freedom for us.” His three sons Gary, Aaron, and Jeff survive him.
HOT ROD Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive
The award for winning the big prize at HOT ROD Drag Week can sometimes continue well after the accolades, acceptance speeches, and hugs and kisses are over. For Jeff Lutz, after the crowds were gone and the Drag Week award ceremonies were over, there was another award of sorts waiting for him in the shadows of the empty grandstands of National Trails Raceway in Columbus, Ohio. Lurking in the dark was Aussie troublemaker Harry Haig with a bottle of liquid refreshment he wanted to personally present to winner Lutz. A rite of passage for any sports winner we’ve all seen from Indy to the World Series, the bottle of Champagne—that celebratory cork-popping magnum of Moet. We watched Harry patiently wait until just the right moment when he leaped over the fence separating the track from the crowd, racing toward a startled Lutz. Lutz took a quick left once he saw the charging Haig with his bottle of bubbly love, but with the carafe shaken and the cork popped, Lutz was no match for the pressurized pleasure of champagne aimed straight at him. He could only enjoy the body burn of alcohol in his eyes, nose and mouth. Could this be the new tradition for celebrating a Drag Week win? Will all of the winners be wearing goggles to all future Drag Week ceremonies? And what do you do when you’re drenched with half a bottle of champagne? You do what Lutz did—you drink it down!
My dad would say the best artists hide their mistakes. I don’t know what an accountant was doing giving advice to his budding car designer son, but there is no better example of this adage than Earl Bruce’s Gullwing Mercedes. Back in the 1950s, the hardest custom color to shoot was Candy Root Beer. I’ve asked the custom paint greats like Larry Watson and Junior Conway about this odd phenomenon, and they said it was something about the pigments; after laying down the perfect Candy Root Beer, it would sometimes blotch for no reason. It was a peculiar color unto itself. So for those in the know a nice Candy Root Beer paint job with no blemishes had a certain cache. In 1955 Bruce had his then-new 300 SL Gullwing painted Candy Root Beer, and sure enough, the lower portions of the body started to blotch soon after the lacquer set up. Von Dutch was just making a name for himself flaming and pinstriping cars in the L.A. area, so Bruce wheeled the Merc’ over to ’Dutch’s for a flame job “to cover up the bad spots.” According to ’Dutch, after two cases of beer, a few jugs of wine, and about 20-odd rolls of masking tape, the white flame job was almost complete. Outlined in yellow pinstriping and with a custom ’Dutch-fabbed grille shield thrown into the deal, one of the most notorious paint jobs ever created was foisted upon the streets of L.A. ’Dutch said, “People couldn’t accept a flamed 300 SL Gullwing back then. They thought it was desecrating a shrine.”
New books have just been published by or about individuals both near and dear to HOT ROD, which should make them of interest to you. The First Lady of Motorsports: Linda Vaughn by former HOT ROD Editor Rob Kinnan and the second Hot Rod Gallery II by former HOT ROD Editor Pat Ganahl are lush pictorials with plenty of commentary to make for important additions to your automotive libraries.
The Linda Vaughn book is a fascinating look at motorsports itself, featuring behind-the-scenes views of those both participating in all of the racing arenas, be it Indy, drag racing, NASCAR, and more. There is also behind-the-scenes information you may or may not have heard of revealed through Linda’s involvement with promotion, marketing, and advertising in all motorsports. With a forward by Don Garlits and touching tributes by such racing greats as Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, and Dario Franchitti, this is a truly unique look at auto racing from a unique racing icon, Linda Vaughn.
Pat Ganahl’s Hot Rod Gallery II comes on the heels of his first Gallery I, continuing where it left off with unique and rare shots of some of hot rodding’s most significant and sometimes controversial cars, along with interesting commentary and insight only Pat can bring. With the holidays not too far off, these are three books sure to delight any hot rod or motorsports enthusiast.
This is Harry “Hand Grenade” Hibler in Mike Butler’s Top Fuel dragster at the 1971 March Meet at Famoso. Harry ran San Fernando Drag Strip for years in the late-1950s until it closed in 1966, as well as running HOT ROD Magazine as its illustrious publisher all through the 1980s and up to 1996. The Hand Grenade moniker was from his reputation for never lifting, tending to blow stuff up. A lot. Harry was the previous year’s runner-up at the 1970 March Meet, losing to best friend Tony Nancy in the final. This dragster ran an Ed Pink cast-iron, 426ci Chrysler on 95-percent nitro. Butler owned the car and wrenched, while actor Lloyd Haynes supplied some dough to keep the operation afloat. Doug Fisher, who crewed on a number of successful Top Fuel cars, is leaning over the blower. Behind Fisher is Dave Bono, who crewed the entire time Hibler drove, which lasted two years. A well-circulated photo of this car in the middle of a massive blower explosion with the blower launched as high as the grandstands lends credence to Harry’s nickname. Hibler says, “Like most teams in those days, the operation was funded mainly out of Mike’s pocket with enough sponsor money to help buy quality new parts—not the junk ones.” They ran a best of 5.90 and 236-plus mph. This was the last season front-engine dragsters dominated Top Fuel.
If HOT ROD could crown a drag race king it would be Connie Kalitta. Why? Improbably, he’s the last man standing from the early days. He’s outlasted Don Garlits, Don Prudhome, Tommy Ivo, Ed McCulloch, Tom McEwen—all of the greats of drag racing. They have all retired, but Kalitta is still racing. And winning. And fielding not one but four cars—the Top Fuel dragsters of nephew Doug Kalitta and JR Todd, and the nitro Funny Cars of Del Worsham and Alexis Dejoria. His income is not derived from racing, but from his Ypsilanti, Michigan, cargo air services for the US government and private companies, though it originated from drag racing. More on that later. He won drag racing’s version of the Triple Crown by winning the 1967 NHRA, AHRA, and NASCAR Winternationals, back when NASCAR was dabbling in drag racing. With his winnings he bought a 310 Cessna and provided cargo delivery services to Ford Motor Company, who was sponsoring his Top Fuel dragster at the time, among others. This evolved to become one of the largest cargo plane services in the country, providing Kalitta the means to stay in drag racing. He and Don Schumacher are the only multi-car owners that don’t rely on racing for a living. He oversaw Shirley Muldowney’s first World Championship team in 1977. He quit racing for a time in the 1970s to focus on Kalitta Air, but in the 1980s he was back in the seat, and finished in the Top 10 seven years in that decade. 1999 was his last year of driving, when he beat his son Scott at the Gatornationals in the first-ever NHRA father-son Top Fuel final round. In 2008 he lost Scott to a fatal injury in a nitro Funny Car at Englishtown, NJ. Due to his strong conviction that Scott would want him to continue racing, he has done just that. HOT ROD has pursued Kalitta for over four years to wrangle this interview, as he doesn’t like to do them. But on this August day just prior to the Brainerd, Minnesota, races he was upbeat, forthcoming, and a willing participant at 78 years of age. At the end of the interview he said, “You know, I enjoyed this.”
A driver’s body gets pretty heavy in a car that’s going 5-Gs.”
HR] 1000-foot times keep going down today. Where do you think Top Fuel is headed?
CK] The only way you can put a control on them is to control the supercharger. NHRA has even run tests on this with different bore and stroke combos. I think you’ll see innovations with the superchargers, you know, getting the air into the engine. NHRA is dead against these high speeds.
HR] And costs to race keep soaring…
CK] Right now we are having problems with crank life. We get four or five runs on them and have to throw them away. The forged cranks we use and the quality are so much better than in the past to give longevity. NHRA has paid for some test engines to try and build a better mousetrap because the cost of doing this is crazy, I mean we can’t get full fields. NHRA is trying to put together a better program for first and second round money because those are the guys that need the help.
HR] You and Schumacher don’t rely on your winnings to be in business—you and Shu don’t need drag racing, in a sense. If one or both of you didn’t like something NHRA does you could pull out, and that puts them in a precarious spot.
CK] Yes it does. You see right now NHRA is trying to find the right person that knows what goes on in a nitro engine—a crew chief-type of person that knows his stuff, to come and work for them. Every meeting of the PRO group (the group of owners in the professional series) we invite NHRA management to sit in and hear what we’re hearing, so they’re not hearing different things from different people. The group has got teeth—would we exercise it? No, because we would shoot ourselves in the foot. If NHRA isn’t making money it hurts us, and hurts where the sport is right now. Schumacher and I have talked about it. The guys in our group that have less means, we want them to stay in drag racing. We don’t want them to go away because then there isn’t a decent show, and then there won’t be giant crowds. Spectator-wise NHRA has done well this year (2016). It’s a better show because the races are better and closer. Both Top Fuel and Funny Car are all qualifying at less than a tenth of a second. And personally I’ll help some of the competition if I think they’re doing something crazy. I mean, I’ve gone over to some guys in the pits and said, “Guys, let’s sit down and talk about what you’re doing.” Things like fuel distribution, nozzling, and compression ratios.
HR] What is it that keeps you going—is it figuring out combos, or tweaking components or what?
CK] Winning. It’s about winning. I like winning. I’ve won in the aviation—I’ve done things that nobody else has done or dreamed about doing. That’s why I’m still into it. In my hangar in Oscoda I’ve got over 1000 mechanics there and they’re the best bunch of mechanics ever assembled. 70-percent of them have been with me for 15 years or more. 70-percent of them carry an AP&P—the Airplane and Powerplant License from the FAA. Do you know what others have—they’re lucky to have 5-percent of their people who have that. My repair shop is booked up for over a year, and that’s with outside work not Kalitta Air work.
HR] How do you think fans view you.
CK] (Long silence) What I see more is people that are middle aged will come up to me and say we really appreciate all that you have done for drag racing. It’s very common that I hear a lot. If a person has grown up in a certain time then he or she has heard of me or seen me—I mean we’ve got 24 races this year and I go to all of them. It’s very gratifying that people will go out of their way to say something like that. Does it help my ego? Sure it does. I’m a real person.
HR] What was your background?
CK] I just graduated from high school and that was all. I had no formal education I just was out there learning the hard way.
HR] Did you have some grand plan to take your winnings from the 1967 NHRA Winternationals and start a charter airplane company, or was this just a fluke?
CK] The guy I learned to fly from had a 310 Cessna, and he hauled auto parts around for Ford. He’d take the seats out and load it with parts for Ford. Back then they couldn’t track parts well because there were no computers—they didn’t know what they were getting, that’s why it was so lucrative for small charter aircraft operations. Well, I was intrigued, and upstairs from Ford’s racing offices was the traffic department for the auto assembly division. So my relations with Ford through racing opened up another way for me to make money, otherwise I would have just continued to try and make a living drag racing. See, Bunkie Knudsen was at GM (he was Executive Vice President), and Ford went out and hired him (February 1968). Knudsen and Mickey Thompson were tight. So he comes over to Ford and in three months spends what the money allocation was for racing for the entire year. They spent serious money. Around 1970, Ford ran into a problem with emissions, and they could not meet the first threshold because all of their top engineers were in racing. So racing is out of money and Ford’s got emissions problems, so they pulled the plug on the whole racing thing, took all of the engineers and put them in the emissions labs. When Ford quit racing my sugar daddy disappeared and I had a pretty good chunk of change in my pocket so I had the ability to take the aviation and expand that. I went from the 310 Cessna that you could put 600-pounds of freight into and went to a Volpar or what was a converted twin-Beech. The fuselage was stretched and it had Garrett turbocharged engines in it and it hauled 3400-pounds of freight. I did very well with it—it was very reliable. With that turbojet engine it just ran and ran. When Ford quit racing I was in the middle of growing my fleet of aircraft, and I found I could make a pretty good living hauling these charters with the planes I had. I ended up having seven Volpars and it was a natural for the automotive part thing.
HR] How did you get involved in Ford’s 427 Cammer in the mid-1960s?
CK] I had done a deal with Chrysler. They didn’t have the money—they were doing hand to mouth on everything they were doing. I went through HOT ROD magazine and there’s the SOHC. I had a few contacts at Ford so I talked to Jacque Passino and then Charlie Gray. At the time Gray was overseeing the drag racing portion for Ford—they were really into the racing back then. So I went down to meet with them. They had a bunch of these SOHCs and didn’t know what to do with them because NASCAR had banned them. In reality I was at the right place at the right time. This was in 1965.
HR] Why did you want it?
CK] Because I needed a sponsor like Ford. My agreement with them was you supply me a vehicle and all of the engine parts. That was a healthy deal back then when I’m sleeping in my station wagon because I don’t have money for hotels, right?
HR] Why did you want such a complicated engine?
CK] When I ran it hard I hurt stuff but I could take the heads off between rounds. I could undo the cam, and I had to be careful with the degree wheel—it had to be done right. I could set the cam, and I knew where the crank was, and split the overlap just like we do today—you drop a couple of lifters in the hole and run it on the overlap side and set the cam to it. I could take the heads off and do all of this in between rounds.
HR] And you could compensate for the chain stretch?
CK] The chain didn’t stretch—it’s hard to stretch a chain like that. I never saw chain stretch. That was Ed Pink talking and making a mountain out of a molehill, and I kicked his ass all over the place. These were great motors, nodular iron blocks which gave it a lot of validity. And you know that head in today’s time flows as good or better than anything before or since for an off of the shelf part—especially the intake side. You couldn’t put one of the intake valves in a 392 Hemi, they were so big. And because it didn’t have pushrods in the way the ports were just excellent—they were round ports.
HR] Then you went to the Boss 429…
CK] And that was a f*****g disaster, and I can tell you why. The intake port turned 120-degrees. It went down into the head and turned to create a high swirl rate to supercharge the flame propagation in the combustion chamber. I’d warm the car up and hit the throttle and I could bust a head. Literally. It took a while to figure this out. Nitro is very heavy and is a non-aromatic fuel—it doesn’t want to stay suspended. Gas is like seven pounds to the gallon and nitro is 10 pounds to the gallon, so it’s heavy. What the port was doing to me was that once it went around that corner the nitro would separate and it would be rich around the outside diameter of the combustion chamber and lean in the center, so the fuel was along the cylinder walls and nothing was in the center from the swirl rate. On Holman and Moody’s dyno it would destroy the heads. I was getting tired of this because I’d never get the engine into the chassis. There would be no signs, no blown head gaskets, just nothing and I’d blow up one of these heads. It got so bad that I drilled down next to the valve springs and put a stud down in to put a load against the combustion chamber from the backside to keep it from moving, and that helped. I even had Ford cast up some heads with a post in it. I ran it like that for two years until Ford quit racing. To this date I wish I had never done that but of course hindsight…
It was really frustrating. The induced swirl in the combustion chamber. When I thought I had discovered this I went to the engineers at Ford because they had a terrific group of engineers and they were kicking everyone’s asses. I thought it was going to be the hot setup, but it wasn’t and I didn’t realize it until much later, and I don’t think they ever realized it. Ed Pink and Pete Robinson came along later, and they were solid guys and that was exactly what Ford was looking for, but I had a couple of years on it before them. I know that guys later went to a gilmer belt and Pete Robinson with the gears, but it wasn’t going to make any difference. Remember, a chain doesn’t stretch but a belt does.
HR] Has your drag racing operation continued to make more components and buy less?
CK] Our shop does its own heads and we can do the line hones, so we can do a lot more than we could a couple of years ago. It has been a big savings for us. We do our own chassis. We watch things pretty close and we’re getting about 70 runs out of them. We have our own inspection program that is second to none and between races we’ll inspect every weld with a magnifying glass.
HR] Are the drivers today as good as when you drove?
CK] Yes because you’re only as good as the machine you’re driving, so if it’s got repeatability and quality and the ability to go down the race track isn’t compromised then it’s doing what it was designed for and that means the drivers can drive it. And knowing what the car will do helps us know when something isn’t working. Like when Alexis got in the accident in July 2016, we just put the car in the jig and put a new front end on it. Things are more sophisticated today, you’re not guessing. A bad fuel pump could bite you for six months before, but now the cars come back to the shop, the pumps come off and we have levels we test everything to so if I need a part I go to the drawer and the new part is confirmed to be like the one coming off of the car so we’re not guessing.
HR] You are the crew chief for JR’s dragster, right?
CK] I make the calls on JR’s car. That keeps me young, that keeps me involved, that’s how I do it because I still have the exposure to it.
HR] Do you ever reach back and use something from the past for today?
CK] Yes.
HR] How can you still be in it when Karamesines, Garlits, Prudhomme, Eddie Hill—they’re all out of it?
CK] Well, drag racing has a way of tailoring itself because of the cost. With the aviation thing behind me I can lose 2-3-million dollars and it’s not a problem. It’s all deductible, I don’t have an IRS problem, and the racecar doesn’t have a problem.
HR] What win was the most significant for you?
CK] The biggest win for me was winning the US Nationals.
HR] Who did you get the most satisfaction beating?
CK] Oh, I used to love to use up Garlits. I had a competitive nature and I didn’t like to get beat, especially by Garlits. In 1962 I built my car and put the names of all of the other drivers on it and it rubbed Garlits like you wouldn’t believe. He came over to me and said, “Take my name off of your car,” and I told him, “Get your own list.” He had quite the attitude about it.
HR] What’s something that you doggedly pursued that didn’t turn out?
CK] That Ford engine I called the porcupine 429.
HR] Did you like running Top Fuel dragsters or Funny Cars better?
CK] I liked the dragsters because there’s less s**t to go wrong in it. If you snap the body off of a Funny Car it’s an automatic $75000 hickey. It’s a nice piece, but… I can tell you the first time I drove the Funny Car at Detroit Dragway I was sitting in the car on the starting line and fired it up and they dropped the body down and I said, “What the hell am I doing here?” It was a whole new venture.
HR] Are you happy with drag racing as it stands today?
CK] I’m happy with it to a certain degree but the biggest problem we have now is that most of the drag strips we have were built in the 1960s. The surfaces are not as nice now which is concrete—1300-feet of concrete. And no bumps, because the Funny Cars are a nasty piece of equipment when they hit those bumps. A dragster will get airborne and it will survive it because of the download and efficiency of the wing on the back because that thing generates about 8000-pounds of down force at 300mph.
HR] What’s Top Fuel going to look like in 10 years?
CK] There won’t be a big change and the reason is because NHRA has teased the spectator with an awesome show and if they try to suck that in they’re shooting themselves in their own foot. The enthusiasm will leave the pits and stands and it will be flat racing like going out to the local drag strip on a Saturday night. NHRA is reviewing this now because of the cost being so prohibitive to maintain a viable Funny Car or dragster because you have to have the best of everything. I foresee that they’ll do something to the supercharger to cut back on the manifold pressure because you can only put so much compression and pressure into it until you get a problem. Not many racers understand that. In fact, I’ve got a mechanic that works for me that is good and I told him to richen it up .0040 and he said it will put the cylinder out—it’s too rich. But nooooooo, it didn’t. My whole life what I’ve done in fuel racing, I retain all of that.
HR] So what is the cylinder pressure problem?
CK] The supercharged air is getting into the combustion chamber and the spark plug has a .0013 gap in it. When the pressure gets too high, it puts out the cylinder. As the car is going down the track there will be 50-pounds of manifold pressure, and when it gets to the finish line there will be 62-pounds of manifold pressure. So the supercharger is ramming air into the engine, and so is the amount of air going into the engine because it’s rammed air. When you get a cylinder that is lean it entices the flame front propagation in the combustion chamber so the faster it goes the more power you make and the more pressure is in the combustion chamber. With that much pressure in the combustion chamber the spark can’t jump across the gap. So now if I put a cylinder out, I richen it and it comes right back to life. That’s how close to the edge we are running the combustion pressure in these engines. This happens at the end of the run when you have 330mph of wind going into the supercharger, you can see the pressure rise in the engine because of the ram air. It puts the cylinder out. It usually won’t hydraulic the engine. It happens when the engine is making a lot of horsepower, and the air is blowing into it—supercharging it. The supercharger is making about 50-pounds of air without the ram effect. I’ve had as much as 66-67-pounds of manifold pressure and it doesn’t like it.
HR] So how do you rectify that?
CK] What I’ve done to help it is I’ve got a wastegate. You could back off the manifold pressure, but then it loses the pressure it needs at slower speeds. Turbocharged cars all have wastegates because they can’t tolerate the pressure the turbos pump. And that’s what we’re doing. If you look at the back of the supercharger we have a relief valve on it.
HR] What’s something that has gone away in drag racing that you’d like to see come back?
CK] Well, the nostalgia cars are doing that.
HR] Are you tempted to field a Nostalgia dragster?
CK] I’ve kicked it around. I might be finding myself in an airplane going to Bakersfield for the Nostalgia Drags in October.
HR] Are you considering building a front engine dragster?
CK] I don’t think I would do that….
HR] Would you like to be driving?
CK] I look at it and I miss it. I can’t be competitive so why should I spend that kind of money. This old body ain’t going to make me competitive. You take those 20-year-old kids and they’ve got good timing in their bodies—I’ve worn mine out. (Expletive).
HR] How can you concentrate on racing or this massive business when both need so much concentration?
CK] Drag racing is fun, this business is fun, so I live the best of two worlds—I love what I do and do what I love. I fly and I race cars—it don’t get any better than that: One’s during the week and one’s on the weekend.
