Hot Rod Magazine
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Hot Rod magazine is a popular American monthly magazine devoted the hobby of hot rodding, or modifying automobiles for performance and appearance.
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[edit] History
Hot Rod magazine is the oldest magazine devoted to hot rodding having been published since 1948. Robert E. Petersen founded the magazine and his Petersen Publishing Company was the original publisher. The magazine is currently published by Source Interlink. Hot Rod Magazine has licensed affiliation with UTI (Universal Technical Institute). The first editor of Hot Rod Magazine was Wally Parks who created the National Hot Rod Association.
[edit] Sponsored Events
The Hot Rod Power Tour is an organized tour where people in the car hobby drive a pre-planned route throughout the country. It began in 1995 when Hot Rod Magazine staff members decided to take some of their project cars on a cross-country drive from Los Angeles, CA to Norwalk, OH. Thousands of people participated along the way but only seven participants (other than staff members) made the entire journey and were inducted into the original "Long Hauler Gang". Since its inception, this event has continued to gain in popularity and is now one of the most anticipated automotive events each year. It is typically six to eight days in length and held in late May or early June. In recent years, the tour has evolved to become what is essentially a continuous trek around the United States in that it begins in or near the location that it ended in the previous year. Each stop is combined with events or activities that vary as much as the participants themselves.
Hot Rod 1 Camaro
Intro
The brain child of Mark Vogt of Classic Inudstries[1] and Original Equipment Reproduction(OER)[2], Jim Barber of Classic Automotive Restoration Specialists[3], and Doug Evans, Group Publisher of Hot Rod magazine[4]. The HOT ROD 1 Camaro is the first car HOT ROD magazine has ever licensed. HOT ROD got in on the ground floor of the Camaro body production to build the HOT ROD 1 Camaro using the second all steel reproduction body built by Dynacorn [5]. The car also includes a very exclusive GM Performance Parts[6] all-aluminum Ram Jet ZL1 big block engine. For ideas on the design of the car, HOT ROD contacted artist Steve Sanford who came up with the Camaro Remix concept. Sanford used cues from '69 but added some modern touches. The car was then painted a 1969 Rallye Green and debuted at the November 2004 SEMA show in Las Vegas.
The Bodies
All steel stock replacement 1969 Camaro convertible bodies from Dyacorn weighs 900lbs crated and ships in about 4-6 weeks. "The sheet metal is all stamped in Taiwan, requiring 850 separate sheetmetal stampings welded into 35 separate subassemblies." The welding is much better than the original 1969 bodies, so much so that the rigidity is significantly improved and the cocktail shakers are not needed. The bodies accept original parts, but do require some fitting to get seams right. It is hard to predict what these bodies will do to the value of the real production Camaros.
The Engine
The original 427 ZL1 from General Motors was all aluminum and was made for Rat Rods, but found its way into 69 Camaros and only 2 Corvettes. "It was short lived and became part of hot-rodding lore, but 30 years later GM Performance Parts decided to resurrect and recast the ZL-1. They put a 454 crank into the blocks, slid in a Comp Cams solid roller, topped it with a pair of aluminum oval-port heads and a Ram Jet electronic-fuel-injection manifold." It pulls 510hp and 500lb-ft troque. GM made 200 of them but they were all sold to dealers. Instead of buying one back from a dealer, HOT ROD convinced GM to clean up the R&D prototype of the engine, thus making the HOT ROD 1 Camaro the first all new ZL1 '69 Camaro in 36 years.
Assembly
According to Jim Barber at CARS Inc. he and his crew put about 874 hours into building the car. Being the first of the turn-key camaros (HOT ROD licensed CARS the ability to make 69 of these under the HOT ROD 1 nameplate) they learned as they worked. For instance, "the optional Detroit Speed minitub kit requires a lot of cutting on the stock floorpan and wheelwells." They have since cut down the time significantly by using a laser-guided cutter. Another example is the firewall, the body came with a heater-box hole cut into the firewall but CARS wanted it to be flat. They now have gotten the firewall with 3 different treatments: filled in, heater hole and ac hole. There are 307 different parts required to build a camaro from scratch but they learned as they worked and can now assemble a turn-key camaro in half the time.
Performance
The CARS Inc and HOT ROD magazine crews took the car out on the '05 Power Tour where the car was driven well over 80 mph a lot of the way. It averaged 14.5 miles per gallon. When it was taken to Farmington Motorsports Park and raced on the eighth mile dragstip it ran 8.21 and 87mph translated to quarter mile 12.69 at 109.64mph in 95F' weather.
After the HOT ROD magazine staff had the car for an extended amount of time it was returned to Jim Barber and is currently being considered for museum showing.
] and Original Equipment Reproduction(OER)[2], Jim Barber of Classic Automotive Restoration Specialists[3], and Doug Evans, Group Publisher of Hot Rod magazine[4]. The HOT ROD 1 Camaro is the first car HOT ROD magazine has ever licensed.(1) HOT ROD got in on the ground floor of the Camaro body production to build the HOT ROD 1 Camaro using the second all steel reproduction body built by Dynacorn [5]. The car also includes a very exclusive GM Performance Parts[6] all-aluminum Ram Jet ZL1 big block engine. For ideas on the design of the car, HOT ROD contacted artist Steve Sanford who came up with the Camaro Remix concept. Sanford used cues from '69 but added some modern touches. The car was then painted a 1969 Rallye Green and debuted at the November 2004 SEMA show in Las Vegas. (3)
The Bodies
All steel stock replacement 1969 Camaro convertible bodies from Dyacorn weighs 900lbs crated and ships in about 4-6 weeks. "The sheet metal is all stamped in Taiwan, requireing 850 separate sheetmetal stampings welded into 35 separate subassemblies."(2) The welding is much better than the original 1969 bodies, so much so that the rigidity is significantly improved and the cocktail shakers are not needed. The bodies accept original parts, but do require some fitting to get seams right. It is hard to predict what these bodies will do to the value of the real production Camaros.(2)
The Engine
The original 427 ZL1 from General Motors was all aluminum and was made for Rat Rods, but found its way into 69 Camaros and only 2 Corvettes. "It was short lived and became part of hot-rodding lore, but 30 years later GM Performance Parts decided to resurrect and recast the ZL-1. They put a 454 crank into the blocks, slid in a Comp Cams solid roller, topped it with a pair of aluminum oval-port heads and a Ram Jet electronic-fuel-injection manifold."(2) It pulls 510hp and 500lb-ft troque. GM made 200 of them but they were all sold to dealers. Instead of buying one back from a dealer, HOT ROD convinced GM to clean up the R&D prototype of the engine, thus making the HOT ROD 1 Camaro the first all new ZL1 '69 Camaro in 36 years.(2)
Assembly
According to Jim Barber at CARS Inc. he and his crew put about 874 hours into building the car.(4) Being the first of the turn-key camaros (HOT ROD licensed CARS the ability to make 69 of these under the HOT ROD 1 nameplate) they learned as they worked. For instance, "the optional Detroit Speed minitub kit requires a lot of cutting on the stock floorpan and wheelwells."(2) They have since cut down the time significantly by using a laser-guided cutter. Another example is the firewall, the body came with a heater-box hole cut into the firewall but CARS wanted it to be flat. They now have gotten the firewall with 3 different treatments: filled in, heater hole and ac hole. There are 307 different parts required to build a camaro from scratch but they learned as they worked and can now assemble a turn-key camaro in half the time.(2)
Performance
The CARS Inc and HOT ROD magazine crews took the car out on the '05 Power Tour where the car was driven well over 80 mph a lot of the way. It averaged 14.5 miles per gallon. When it was taken to Farmington Motorsports Park and raced on the eighth mile dragstip it ran 8.21 and 87mph translated to quarter mile 12.69 at 109.64mph in 95F' weather.(2)
After the HOT ROD magazine staff had the car for an extended amount of time it was returned to Jim Barber and is currently being considered for museum showing.(4)
References Footnotes
1 Hot Rod & Restoration. February 2007, Volume 10, Number 2, pg 98-106 2 Hot Rod. December 2005, pg 44-94 3 Hot Rod. October 2004, pg 48-52 4 Classic Automotive Restoration Specialists Inc. Interview, March 2008.
[edit] Video games
ValuSoft have published Hot Rod: American Street Drag and Hot Rod: Garage to Glory, which are drag racing video games trying to win the virtual cover of Hot Rod Magazine.
