hot auto review

Found out what happened and who’s quick on the first REAL day of Drag Week 2007.

Wednesday, Sept 12, 8:00 am

It was a late night yesterday and I was too wrecked to blog. Yesterday we started out at Union Grove Dragaway, the oldest continuously operated track in the country. It turned out to be the first REAL day of Drag Week, meaning it was the first time that these cars had to race after having been driven 200 miles in the rain the day before. The wear and tear showed up quickly, with lots of wrenching in the pits.

In Big Block Power Adder, Curt Johnson in his white Chevelle seemed to have the field covered until the trans blew up at Da Grove. He found a TH400 with a buddy in Rockford, Illinois, and once it got to the track, a bunch of guys ganged up on it and had it swapped in 45 minutes. But the new trans is slipping to 10-second times in the 8-second car, so there will have to be another solution today. The glitch has put Jay Brown back in striking distance of the win with his blown FE 69 Mach 1 running mid 9s.

We also saw blown head gaskets, broken rockers, junk shifters, a few more blown transmissions, and more.

Phil Cooper in his Unlimited Purple II Nova came back strong with more 7.80s passes…wow! However, the Hot Rod team insisted that Phil’s crew chief ride in the race car, per the rules, rather than in another car that he had entered with his wife. Sadly, they chose not to do that, and have packed it up and gone home. That leaves Unlimited to Steve Roth in his 7.60-capable Camaro and Larry Larson in his 8.0-second Nova as the heavy hitters. We’ve followed both on them on the highway to ensure they are legit.

If the Unlimited cars don’t make it all the way, then the overall win could go to Roger Tangorra in Modified or to either Ev Bernardo or Dan Marks in Small Block Power Adder. All are in the mid 8s. In Pro Street, Mike Thompson, Jack Miller, and Michael Roy are also all in the running. We have more 8-second cars than ever. It’s going to be a super tight race.

As it stands now, the bump for the 32-car open comp race in Daily Driver is around 12.80. Our quickest Daily Driver cars are both in the 10.80s.

This morning we are at Wisconsin International Raceway. Today’s events will once again change the face of the competition. More updates tonight.

The first day of racing is done and we’ve already seen quick times - but also some attrition.

Monday Sept 10, 7:20 pm

We just rolled into Union Grove, Wisconsin, after about a 6 hour drive in the rain from Cordova earlier today. The good news is that we got in a full day of racing, and we had the first-ever 7-second passes on Drag Week. Steve (whose last name I need to get) in the black, tube-chassis Camaro with a Procharged big-block ran a 7.64, then hit the road and was seen on the highway in the rain with a trailer behind the car. Phil Cooper in his Purple II Nova blasted a 7.81. He and Crazy Charlie packed up late and have not yet been seen in Wisconsin.

Doc Fox in his yellow Vette pulled a huge wheelstand, and when it came down, the water pump broke off the engine and wrecked the radiator. They’re still trying to fix it.

The Hubers with the turbo four banger is normally in the 8s, but he’s been having troubles. Jay Brown had blown up his trans last night but got it cured and ran in the 9.6s. We had 4 cars drop out so far, but we’ll see how many actually show at the track in the morning.

DF

We see many familiar faces and a bunch of new ones as 121 cars go through Drag Week Tech.

Sunday, Sept. 9, 3:00 pm

We’re here at the Cordova track and have just wrapped up tech. We have 121 cars registered, which, if we recall correctly, is exactly the same as we had last year. Lots of familiar faces here and a handful of three-timers, plus a whole bunch of first timers.

There was not much drama in tech this year except for several guys who showed up late and got turned away because they missed the 2 pm cutoff time. Most notably, last year’s winner Eddie Miller did not leave Florida until this morning and is not going to be here in time. Sad, because he put tons of work in and would have put on a good show.

As for the other Unlimited heavy hitters, we’ve got Phil Cooper’s Purple II here, plus a new tube-chassis car from Doug Cline, and the Denny Terzich-built black Camaro that didn’t survive the drive last year, but that went 7.70 in testing earlier today. We’ve already seen several small-tire cars in the 8s.

Here are the car counts as of this morning:
Daily Driver, 71 cars
Unlimited, 8 cars
Pro NA 2
Pro PA 7
Modified NA 4
Modified PA 3
Small Block NA 9
Small Block PA 10
Big Block NA 4
Big Block PA 4

- David Freiburger

HOT ROD Staffers Bog Down at the Starting Line

OK, false start. Half the staff is stuck in a plane delay out of Burbank. We’re going to arrive about 1 am tonight. Beer is already being consumed, and sleep deprivation is the perfect way to kick off Drag Week, anyway.

- David Freiburger

All week long HOT ROD Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger will be posting his take on Drag Week 2007. Check back here each day for DF’s unique look at Drag Week 2007 and see who’s got the right stuff to be this year’s champ.

Saturday, Sept. 8:30 am

The HOT ROD staff has nearly gotten the office work under control and is headed to the airport right now to go to Cordova, Illinois, for Drag Week. As it stands right now, we have about 135 pre-entered cars. Some will drop out and others will show up on site without having pre-registered, so we’re guessing a total vehicle count of around 100 cars unless the weather turns bad. As it stands, we’ve got about a 40% chance of rain Monday. But Drag Week goes on–we’ll hit the road, rain or shine.

So far it sounds like we’ll have Bill Fowler back in his convertible Mustang with “Pontiac Brian” Rock riding shotgun this year. Phil Cooper is thrashing to bring Purple II, his new tube-chassis car, probably without crew guy Crazy Charlie. We also hear that Larry Larson will be back with his blown Nova that ran in 2005. Dustin Hasse has been teasing people with his unknown plans to bring an all-new car. We’re thinking Hemi. Speaking of Mopar guys, last year’s winner Eddie Miller was last seen changing rings on his new Indy-headed Wedge and thrashing like mad to get it running in time to make it to Illinois from Florida by Sunday. We’ll see what happens. Eddie is drama. Finally, there have been rumors of a 6-second Pro Mod car showing up. We’ll find out if that’s true when the MSD Kickoff Party fires up tomorrow morning.

Like most of you reading this, Bud Brutsman was a 15-year-old kid who wanted nothing more than a hot rod of his own to cruise for girls. He would devour HOT ROD and all the other car magazines he could get his hands on. Then, on Christmas morning in 1985, thinking that he'd already opened all his presents, his dad called him over to the window and pointed in the direction of their barn. Bud instantly recognized the taillights of a '69 Mustang and lit out the door, sprinting through the Wyoming snow in his pajamas and bare feet. As he got closer, the realization that it was a Mach 1 made him nearly hyperventilate with excitement. But when he got around to the passenger side, he noticed it wasn't as cherry as he'd hoped. "It looked like it had been hit by a train."

Instantly deflated, he moped back to the house wondering why his dad had played such a cruel trick on him. What he didn't realize was that his dad bought the car as a father-son project with the hope they'd rebuild it together into a presentable street machine over the following spring and summer. "I was such an ungrateful 15-year-old," Bud says. "I didn't know what a father-son project was all about, what it meant. I just wanted to go run around. I'm bummed about it now, but I didn't want anything to do with it." The Mach 1 still sits beside the Brutsman family barn, having not moved since December 25, 1985.

Fast forward to 2004. Bud is enormously successful as the creative force behind Overhaulin', the show that makes people's dreams come true by tricking them into thinking their prized car has been stolen, only to reveal to them a finished Chip Foose custom "overhaul" of the car a week later. HOT ROD had done a big story on Bud that proclaimed him the King of Car TV; he was making bank, and he was on a big roll-until Christopher Titus called him a hypocrite.

"It was on the '04 Power Tour(tm)," Bud says. "I'm standing there with Kevin King and a bunch of people, and Titus walks up and calls me a hypocrite. I asked why, and he said 'You're in HOT ROD and everybody thinks you're a car guy, but you don't even own a hot rod.' I thought about it, and you know what? He was right."

On the spot, King said he could build a car for him at Year One's shop and Bud bit. After a few months of trying on different body styles, Bud realized he needed to build a '69 Mustang fastback just like his "first" car. King found the car and Year One's Phil Brewer came up with a rendering that showed the Mustang with black paint, black trim, black wheels, black interior-black everything. The name given to the concept was Blackened, an homage to the only color you'll ever see Bud wear. He instantly fell in love with the concept and gave them the go-ahead to build it.

Over the course of the next year, Bud learned what it was like to have a car done for him, as opposed to doing it for someone else for the sake of a TV show. He and the Year One guys e-mailed back and forth to decide on different parts and pieces to use, and they hashed out what to do in different areas of the car. Bud had some custom stuff he wanted done. "I never liked the way the front driving lights looked," he says, "so we changed them. And the bottom of the rocker panels always bugged me so we cleaned those up too."

It's Bud's car so you know it had to have some sort of Chip Foose influence. "Chip and I were both at Year One for an event, and we were looking at the car trying to decide what to do with the sidescoops. Before I knew it, Chip was doing his thing with some tape and cardboard and he redesigned them. He also redid the front spoiler to make it look better, so it's nice to be able to say that I've got some Foose work on the car."

Of course, the real credit for Blackened goes to Brewer, who spearheaded the project and made it happen with a crew of five guys. They created custom touches for the car, which included building those sidescoops, the custom front valance with functional brake cooling and intercooler ducts, the hoodscoop, the rear valance, the rocker-panel extensions, the LED taillights, and the front and rear bumpers. Since Year One's main business is to sell parts, the company wisely decided to use the car to develop the hoodscoop, front spoiler, dash insert, front valance and taillights. You can buy the same parts from the Year One catalog.

Brewer also got the job of making the '03 Cobra motor fit, which required the removal of the stock shock towers. That was made easier with a Martz tubular front subframe with tubular control arms and Mustang II-type spindles. Unique Performance subframe connectors tie front to back, and Unique's coilover rear suspension was used as well. Steering is via a Flaming River rack-and-pinion and column. The wheels came from Foose Designs, and they're Foose-sized-20s in back and 19s in front. Stainless Steel brakes were used, and the sizes are backward, with the rears an inch larger to better fill the openings of the taller rear wheels.

The engine is a tried-and-true package that Year One has used in two previous project Mustangs. The '03 Cobra four-cam motor is shockingly durable-many engine builders have said that the stock short-block is beefy enough to handle 1,000 hp, and we've witnessed it firsthand with no breakage. In Bud's car, like the other Year One Mustangs, the Cobra motor lost the stock Eaton blower in place of a bigger Kenne Bell driven by Metco pulleys and managed by a FAST system. It puts a reported 520 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels through an MV Performance 4R70W automatic, so it's got some scoot to back up the bad-boy image. Brewer told us Year One's "blue car" ("Year of the Mod," HOT ROD, Aug. '04), which has the same engine package, consistently runs 10.90s to 11.30s at 134 mph on drag radials. That car has a five-speed so the launches are junk, but Bud's car has an automatic that should help drop the e.t. to better match that thunderous trap speed. We hope to find out soon if we can convince him to take the car to the track.

Bud first saw the car in the parking lot outside the Las Vegas Hilton Convention Center at the '05 SEMA show. He was with Foose, Overhaulin' host Chris Jacobs, and a small crowd that followed them to the parking lot, and he was stunned at what he saw. "The best comment I heard was 'That's the car version of you,'" Bud says. King threw him the keys to the more-or-less untested Mustang and within about 10 seconds Bud had lit the tires up in a 75-foot burnout, nearly driving it straight into a parked car. King immediately yanked the keys out of his hands, knowing that it had to at least survive the next few days to help generate traffic through Year One's booth. Bud has the car now and drives it occasionally, which is understandable if you've ever suffered through the traffic in Southern California.

Why didn't Bud pull his original Mach 1 out of the weeds and use it as the basis of this car? He explains it away saying that the car needs so much work that it made more sense to just start with a better car. But maybe it's an unconscious nod to his guilty conscience, so that he can someday go back and do over the summer of 1985, shoulder to shoulder with his father turning wrenches on the project car they should have built 20 years ago.

Quick Inspection: '69 Mustang
Bud Brutsman Los Angeles, Ca

Powertrain
Engine: A 4.6L DOHC V-8 from an '03 Cobra was modified with a Kenne Bell supercharger, Metco pulleys, an Accufab throttle-body, a FAST fuel-injection controller, a custom air-filter assembly, and custom headers and exhaust using Stainless Works tubing. As in the '03 Cobra, there's an air-to-water intercooler.

Power: It puts 520 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels.

Transmission: MV Performance beefed the 4R70W four-speed automatic transmission with a Precision Industries converter and a Baumann Engineering transmission control system.

Rearend: The centersection is a Ford 9-inch stuffed with a Moser Engineering chunk and 3.73:1 gears.

Chassis
Suspension: The stock suspension was replaced with a complete Martz Chassis subframe using Martz control arms and QA1 coilovers. Unique Performance's trick independent rear suspension uses cantilevered coilovers.

Brakes: There are 13-inch Stainless Steel Brakes Corp. discs on the front and 14-inch SSBC discs on the rear.

Wheels: Chip Foose provided the wheels. They're 20x10 in back and 19x8 in front.

Tires: BFGoodrich G-force T/A radials were used, with 285/30-20s in back and 245/35-19 in front.

Style
Body: Body mods were numerous but pretty subtle. The quarter-panel scoops were modified, the spoiler is custom, and the front valance was custom-made to lose the marker lights and include ducts for brake cooling and air for the intercooler. The rockers were extended to clean up the lines, the hoodscoop is custom, and the bumpers were narrowed to tuck them closer to the body. All the trim on the car was powdercoated black. Year One's master welder Kevin Gooch did the bulk of the sheetmetal work, while Jimmy Kerlin handled fit and finish details.

Interior: Cobra Misano seats were recovered in black leather by Jeff Henderson, a Year One dash insert is full of Auto Meters, and between the seats is a custom console with an '05 Mustang shifter, a cup holder, and controls for the Vintage Air system. An Alpine AM/FM/CD/DVD player with a flip-down monitor combines with an Alpine navigation system and a whole bunch of wattage from Boston Acoustics equipment. Liberal use of Dynamat allows the stereo to do its thing without interruption. Johnny McDonald did the bulk of the interior and stereo work and Jeff Georges did most of the wiring.

Paint: Did we mention the car is black? Year One's Steve Jones sprayed it using Southern polyurethane primer, paint, and clear.