Hot Rodding Technical Articles

When NASA's space shuttle first went into service 30 years ago-yes, it's been that long-nobody ever intended it to be flying for three decades. To be sure, it's been upgraded, refurbished, and well maintained, but we've also lost half the fleet. The point here underscores the importance of regular care and upkeep on our antique hot rods. Even with the best loving care, it's easy for some very important items to slip between the cracks.

Some items just don't belong on a serious muscle car, and in fact it is these very same items that differentiate factory "muscle" from their more mundane "grandma" counterparts. It's no secret that the very same body line was used by the manufacturer for a wide range of model series, and it is often simply the way the vehicle is trimmed-out that denotes whether a particular machine was intended for performance. Our Satellite shares the exact body platform as the heroic Road Runner, but being a Satellite (Sebring) it left the factory sans the tell-tale performance cues such as a ralley instrument cluster, blacked-out grille, hood pins, strobe stripe, sport hood, etc. Instead, our plain Satellite came with the basic dress, and was wearing perhaps the biggest tell-tail of them all--the body side molding.

The numbers are simply staggering. Between 1973 and 1977, General Motors built 7.4 million intermediate coupes, sedans, wagons, and car-based trucks. These ranged from mundane garden-variety Chevy Malibu station wagons, all the way to premium coupes like the Pontiac Can Am, Laguna S-3, and Olds 442. Every one of them had the exact same Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS), which was ground breaking for its day. RTS was the first time a suspension had been designed substantially from the ground up by computers. RTS addressed many previously elusive bad handling traits that arose from positive camber gain, excessive scrub radius, and an absence of self-centering caster. GM's RTS marked the first time a major manufacturer demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of all the subtleties of modern suspensions in one vehicle architecture. Moreover, RTS was the first time a suspension had been designed specifically for radial tires.

Street Fighter
If you have been following the progression on our Project Street Fighter '66 Mustang, you know we're building this pony to be a corner carver that's competitive with late-model sports cars. We're giving it an old-school Trans-Am style with modern performance goodies under its skin. This Mustang isn't meant to be a smooth fairgrounds cruiser, but a built-tough race car that's legal for the street.

There's a reason why the vast majority of motorists ply the highways in newer cars, and it can be summed up in one word: comfort. Yep, to most people out there, a car is judged not by its power output, but by how many cup holders and LCD screens are present. Power windows, MP3 jacks, and heated seats aren't even considered options these days. It's easy to see how people are seduced into a new minivan over a classic muscle car. But in some areas, it doesn't have to be an "either/or" proposition. These days you can have your cake and chow down on it as well.

The history of Buick is filled with dreams, inspirations, and innovations. David Dunbar Buick built the first Buick automobile in 1901, and the next year created the first overhead valve engine for use in an automobile. Though David would leave his namesake company by 1906, the Buick Motor Company would live on to become the founding cornerstone of the General Motors empire. An impressive list of names worked for Buick at one time or another. Chief investor William Durant, Louis Chevrolet, Charles Nash, and Walter P. Chrysler were all key players for Buick. With forward thinking, the Buick brand often found itself on the cutting edge of technology. How was it, then, that the engines powering these cars were relegated to playing second fiddle in the muscle car world? That may be a question for the marketing historians. One thing is for sure though, engine builders like Mike Phillips of Automotive Machine and Performance are doing their best to ensure that the Buick powerplants don't play second fiddle to anyone.

We know you're not used to seeing coverage of ordinary car care products in a magazine dedicated to hard-core muscle, but hear us out. Meguiar's Headlight Restoration Kit is no ordinary car care product. Like a lot of you, our daily drivers have had to last a little longer, drive a little farther, and have seen a little more wear than usual as we stretch the life expectancy of our commuters in these hard economic times. Truth be told, we want a new '10 Camaro (see page 48), or a Dodge Challenger R/T (see our December '08 issue), and the old '03 Mustang GT is looking a bit dingy.

If this catches on, it won't be long before big-block Fords start showing up between the framerails of Chevelles and Camaros. In fact, it seems inevitable. When it's possible to crack 775 hp with a pump gas 532ci Ford using plebian off-the-shelf components for $9,600, Bow Tie brand loyalty seems like a sure-fire way to cross the finish line second. This isn't some bench racing exercise in bogus budgets and theoretical power figures, either. The aforementioned numbers are real, and we just did it. So scrutinize the parts list in fervent disbelief if you please. It's all there, every last nut, bolt, gasket, bearing, and freeze plug. Although it's premature to declare a new bang-for-the-buck engine platform champ after just one buildup, it's clear that Rat motors are falling behind on their mortgage payments, and big-block Fords are ready to seize the underhood real estate they once called home.

There is absolutely nothing like the sound of an engine singing in perfect tune on the dyno. At the beginning of the pull, the operator, or conductor if you will, loads the engine, pulling it down to a low, pounding baritone chant. As he releases the brake, the tone rises in a violent crescendo, finally peaking in a visceral scream that raises goose bumps. That was the sound and fury that Bill Trovato's 401-inch Oldsmobile unleashed on the DTS dyno at the '08 Jegs Engine Masters Challenge (EMC).

Street Fighter
This '66 Mustang is being transformed from an all-original six-cylinder cruiser, to a dual-purpose, road-race street car. To that end, we've replaced the factory drum brakes in the front with Wilwood 13-inch rotors and six-piston calipers, upgraded to a Wilwood dual-reservoir master cylinder, and converted the box-and-linkage-style steering to Total Control Product's rack-and-pinion steering, to get it closer to our goal.