hot auto review

When you see "your" car for the first time, you just know it. There's a moment of connection when you identify with it followed quickly by the annoying feeling that someone else owns it. That inspirational moment is even more significant when you realize you're neither looking for a project nor are you even aware you're a hot rodder.

That's pretty much how it happened to Ray Dunham, as he strolled through the Donut Derelicts car gathering in Huntington Beach, California, early one Saturday morning about three years ago. Ray had a real appreciation for vintage style, particularly '50s-era cruisers, but it had been a while since he'd built anything. Vintage, two-toned VW Beetles had been his thing in high school until he made the pragmatic choice after graduation to fumigate the Bugs and get a reliable and user-friendly late-model daily driver. But Ray was never satisfied without something to tinker on and eventually picked up a '57 Harley-Davidson. The Panhead satisfied his urges for a while until a friend and fellow biker met an untimely end while riding. Ray's girlfriend was understandably shaken and persuaded him to sell the Harley, and he was once again left without a project.

But that Saturday morning, as Ray was walking among some of the sharpest hot rods in the area, his eyes landed on a beater '36 Ford three-window coupe, and he was awestruck. Ray had no background in vintage cars outside of his VW experience and had to ask someone what it was, but he knew he'd found "his" car. It was initially not for sale, but persistence pays, and eventually, a deal was struck and the '36 was his.

As tends to happen when purchases are made with the heart rather than the head, Ray paid too much for a car that needed a lot of work. The slammed '36 had no suspension travel and scraped the running boards on nearly every dip, rise, or turn. And everything rattled. On top of that, the car's driveability was marginal at best. The brakes were scary, and the tired, near-stock flathead could barely reach cruising speed, typically overheating when it did. It quickly became obvious that Ray had bought a project rather than a driver. He began replacing parts a few at a time, making a list of what was needed as he went, but the further he went and the longer the list got, the more he realized he was simply bandaging the problems. So eventually, he resolved to rebuild the car from scratch.

The most interesting part about this resolution was that Ray had no idea how to correctly build a '36 Ford, or any other hot rod, and he had never been involved with the culture; his slate was as blank as his car's. In retrospect, that was probably for the best. Rather than relying solely upon conventionally styled '30s rods to determine the look for his '36, Ray drew upon his VW past to create a retro but classy appearance that simply suited his style and taste.

Of course, what the eye notices most when it sees the car for the first time is the striking satin-black and gloss-red paint combo. Ray may not have been able to identify the car, but the moment he saw it, he knew it would be two-toned. A little time with a friend and a photo-editing program sealed the deal for the red/black theme. Why satin-finish black rather than gloss? Ray just felt it had more visual impact, plus it gave the '36 a little more traditional hot-rod attitude to balance the low and fender-skirted custom stance.

Since retro was the theme and style was important, nothing would do for motivation other than a well-detailed flathead. However, whatever the look, performance is always cool, so the flattie was built with vintage style outside but modern internals, including a Scat crank to bring it up to 276 ci and a Weiand supercharger to top it off. The Weiand may not be vintage, but Ray wanted the '36 to be as fun to drive as it was to look at. And with no hood, the vertical ascent of the engine made for a great visual.

For the interior, Ray wanted it to glow with a quality of material and finish like a high-end, modern street rod while retaining the feel of a '50s custom, so the interior was wrapped in pleated vinyl and dyed to match the red of the fenders. Everything else was carefully chosen to fit the vision Ray had in his head and mostly assembled in a small one-car garage by Ray and a couple of friends.

That's briefly the story of how Ray finished his dream car the first time. What you see in these photos is actually the second iteration of the '36. Ray built the car to have fun with, and shortly after it was finished, an overzealous throttle stab with a 6,100-rpm burnout ended with a massive flywheel explosion sending shrapnel through steel in all directions except, fortunately, up through the floor. Naturally, Ray was disgusted and heartbroken, but you can't give up on your dream car, so Ray grabbed a ratchet and started disassembling the car again. Eight months later, the coupe was back in one piece as you see it here.

Though he's a little more careful about how hard he pushes it now, Ray's still not afraid to drive the coupe like a real car. He routinely drives it three or more times a week and has made the 200-mile round trip to San Diego a few times, attracting attention everywhere he goes.

Admirers often debate about how to label the car, and it's been called everything from classy to bitchin' as well as hot rod, street rod, and pretty much every other classification. "People often ask me if it's a hot rod or a custom," Ray says. "And I'm not sure what to say, since I really wasn't trying for it to be either. I just built the car I wanted."

Quick Inspection: '36 Ford three-window coupe
Ray Dunham * Costa Mesa, CA

Powertrain
Engine: One of the most eye-catching parts of the car is the perfectly detailed '53 Mercury flathead. Assembled by Bob McKray Performance, the flattie uses a 351/416 bore and a 4-inch stroke from H-beam rods and a Scat crank to displace 276 ci. The Ross pistons only create 7:1 compression under those Edelbrock cylinder heads, but that's still a little more than a stock flathead and ideal for forced induction. The Weiand 142 supercharger is part of a kit offered by Roadrunner Engineering and includes the intake.

Power: Even supercharged, flatties don't make bucket-loads of power, but 235 hp at 5,000 rpm with 350 lb-ft of torque provides solid motivation for the '36, since it tips the scales at around 2,500 pounds.

Transmission: We were impressed to see a stick shift in this rod rather than the automatic found in most cruisers. A stock Chevy T5 is on the other end of that 36-inch shifter with the grinning skull, though it's now sporting a Cornhusker bellhousing and a Wilcap billet-steel flywheel.

Rearend: A stock Posi-traction axle from a '68 Camaro fit surprisingly well inside the fenders.

Chassis
Frame: No aftermarket street-rod chassis here-the stock Henry rails still lie beneath the sheetmetal.

Suspension: A Ford drop axle connects to stock spindles up front with Air Ride Technologies airbags for ride-height control. The rear utilizes custom-built leaf springs for locating the axle and rides on Air Ride airbags as well. The steering box is from a '40 Ford.

Brakes: Old- school manual drum brakes take up all corners, with the original '68 Camaro units in the rear and drums from an early Lincoln up front.

Wheels: Steelies from Wheelsmith measure 15x7 in the front and 15x8 in the rear. The wheel covers are the popular '57 Cadillac hubcaps.

Tires:
Mastercraft wide-white radials are 185-15 in the front and 195-15 in the rear.

Style
Body: There was actually a lot of work to do to the original '36 Ford three-window sheetmetal, including repairing the rear roll pan, quarter-panels, cowl vent, and fenders. The roof was given a 3-inch chop by Chris Thompson. Fenders from a '35 Ford, already in place when Ray bought the car, fit up to a custom-made '36 grille, and '41 Chevy pickup headlights replace the original pieces. The fender skirts are custom-made. After the flywheel failure, the same fenders were repaired and worked straight again.

Paint: The unique color combination is probably the part of the car that sticks with people the most. The red on the fenders and running boards is '00 Chevy Victory Red, while the satin black is a custom-mixed finish. The finish was laid by Mascar Auto Body in Costa Mesa, California.

Interior: Ray's goal was to make the interior of the car glow as much as the red paint, and Westminster Auto Upholstery in Westminster, California, did a near perfect job with the color of the retro-stitched vinyl. Little touches make all the difference. The pedals look like custom pieces but are actually chromed stockers from a '40 Ford, and the armrests are from a '56 Chevy pickup. Stewart-Warner gauges fill the dash, and Lexus carpet was dyed a custom red to match the vinyl.

One of the most famous magazine project cars of all time, PHR’s Project X, is set to debut its newest incarnation October 30th at SEMA after a complete rebuild with the help of GM Performance Parts.

Project X, arguably one of the most famous magazine project car of all time, is slated to debut its newest incarnation October 30th at this year’s SEMA show in Vegas. The 1957 Chevy was completely rebuilt the help of GM Performance Parts.

Popular Hot Rodding magazine first got hold of the ‘57 back in 1965. It was called Project X because the staffers couldn’t come up with a name for it right away and when someone said Project X and it stuck. Since its inception as a project car for PHR it has seen 90 editorials, and 19 magazine covers. The car was even in the 1980 film Hollywood Knights.

To help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ‘57 Chevy and the Chevy Big Block, PHR asked GM Performance Parts to help them give Project X its ultimate makeover. Since its inception as a project car for PHR it has seen 90 editorials, and 19 magazine covers. The car graced the silver screen in the 1980 film Hollywood Knights.

The newest version of Project X will feature:

- Redesigned/fabricated/modified frame/suspension/drivetrain
- Redesigned/refined the hood/hood hinge/radiator core support
- Redesigned/modified the door window sheetmetal
- Redesigned/fabricated the rear wheelwells/floor sheetmetal
- Multiple appearance innovations that incorporate 50 years of GM Design cues
- Vehicle built to immaculate ‘international car show’ standards

HOT ROD has long talked about how cool it would be to build a NASCAR-style car for the street. We were hoping to help jump-start a trend, but few people have taken the bait. Rick Stanton, however, did it perfectly. There are street cars with the paint, wheels, and stripped interior to evoke the raw power of '60s NASCAR race cars, and then there's Rick's Torino Talladega. This is as close to a NASCAR-spec car as the state of California will allow someone to slap a tag on. And you better believe that Rick drives it on the streets of Orange County when he's in the mood. But this isn't a big-paycheck car that was put together in a year or so; it's a product of utter persistence for the past couple of decades and adherence to a dream of youth. Rick had lusted after a Talladega ever since the first time he saw one running in NASCAR's big league, but once he actually sat in one at a local dealer and looked out over the extended and drop-nosed hood, he was fully hooked. He swore one day he'd have one of his own, but the Talladega that Rick wanted, Ford never built.

Back in 1969 Ford and Dodge were the front runners in NASCAR competition. Ford's new Torino fastback that debuted in 1968 was an effective design, but Dodge's Hemi-powered Chargers still had it outgunned. Since NASCAR had banned Ford from using the 427ci SOHC motor, Ford regrouped and decided to come to the track in 1969 with a new engine and a new body. The slippery Torino fastback worked well, but wind-tunnel testing showed that the nose was producing excessive drag. To combat this, Ford extended the Torino's front fenders by about 5 inches and drooped them. The grille was flush-mounted, and the front bumper was swapped for a rear one that was cut and reshaped to fit closely to the body. To skirt NASCAR's minimum-height rule, Ford rolled the rocker panels an inch higher so the Torino could be lowered another inch. The resulting car was named after the newly opened Superspeedway in Alabama, and the Torino Talladega was born.

In those days Stock Car racing revolved around production vehicles, so to homologate the Talladega for NASCAR racing, Ford had to produce at least 500 cars for the public before it was allowed to compete. Unfortunately, since homologation rules were separate for the car and the engine, John Q. Public would never get his hands on a factory Boss-powered Talladega. Production cars had a 428 CJ and most were automatics, while the wicked Boss 429 went into a few Mustangs to compete with ZL1 Camaros.

Through the years Rick gathered parts for the project knowing all along that the only correct engine to put in the car was the Boss '9. Eventually he stumbled upon just the right car in a Southern California junkyard. It was little more than a body sans engine, trans, rearend, and wheels, and there wasn't a straight piece of sheetmetal to be found, but it was all there and rust-free. The pace of the project was slow but steady, as Rick continued to track down the parts he needed. If he'd simply wanted a Talladega with a Street-spec Boss engine, that wouldn't have been so challenging, but Rick's plans had morphed into the desire to re-create one of a handful of Talladegas that did get Boss engines--the actual NASCAR contenders.

Left to his own devices, who knows how long Rick might have lingered on the project, but a spark was lit in January 2004 when he learned there was going to be an Aero Warrior Car reunion at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. In conjunction with the four-day event, on Sunday the Aero Warrior Club would be invited onto the track for a parade lap prior to the start of the big race. Of course Rick's Talladega was nowhere close to completion, and the possibility of the car coming together enough to make the event seemed slim. However, with the chance of a lifetime staring him in the face, Rick and his wife Sherrie made the decision to clear their social calendars and work tirelessly for the next seven months to see if they could make it happen.

With just five days before they had to leave to make the reunion, with the Talladega in rough primer, Rick started the massively stroked Boss engine for the first time. A noise arose from the bottom end, and Rick and Sherrie's hearts sank. Thankfully, the clatter was found to be a connecting rod barely hitting the windage tray in the dry-sump oil pan. With the help of his friends Dave Arter, Gene Crowell, Brian Bruning, and Jim and Brian Tapscott, the engine was yanked, repaired, and dropped back in just in time to leave two days late for Talladega. The tale has a happy ending, though: Rick did get to the reunion in time to lap the Talladega around its namesake track.

The flames didn't cool afterward. Rick and Sherrie stayed diligent, and in August of this year they took the completed Talladega as it's seen here to another four-day Aero Warrior Car reunion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Rick got to tread more historic asphalt in a parade lap before the ARCA Race on the famous Milwaukee Mile.

All this just leaves us pondering one thing. We have vintage Trans-Am racing--wouldn't a little vintage NASCAR be double-bitchin'?

Quick Inspection:
'69 Ford Torino Talladega
Rick Stanton
Fullerton, CA

POWERTRAIN
Engine: A Ford A460 block received an offset-ground, forged 494 Can-Am crank and 4340 Eagle H-beam rods to yield a 4.600x4.500-inch bore and stroke and 598 ci. Ross flat-top pistons yield 11.0:1 compression with unported Ford C9AE-C heads with 2.40 intake and 1.90 exhaust valves. An Isky solid roller cam is spec'd at 0.672 lift with a 262 intake and 268 exhaust duration at 0.050. The Dominator flows 1,250 cfm through a NASCAR torque box intake.

Power: Though the intake limits its rpm potential, the big Boss still makes 742 hp at 5,800 rpm and 752 lb-ft of torque at 4,600 rpm.

Transmission: NASCAR-spec Talladegas used four-speed Top Loaders, so Rick has one complete with a Lakewood scattershield and a McLeod clutch.

Rearend: A NASCAR 9-inch with full-floating 31-spline axles uses a Ford nodular case stuffed with a Detroit Locker and 3.31 gears.

CHASSIS
Suspension: The front suspension uses stock mounting points with the addition of Afco coilovers and Global West lower control arms. The rear is just as basic with custom seven-leaf springs and Afco shocks.

Brakes: Wilwood 13-inch front and 12-inch rear rotors use four-piston calipers. The brakes also have fluid recirculators.

Wheels: Aero Race Wheels 59-series NASCAR wheels measure 15 x 9.5 all the way around with 5 inches of backspacing.

Tires: Goodyear 28x10x15 Eagles battle for traction, even when they're hot.

STYLE
Body: The Talladega may have been rust-free but it certainly wasn't cherry, since there wasn't a straight piece of sheetmetal on the car. Damage required the driver door, passenger-side doorjamb, and both quarter-panels to be replaced. Jim and Brian Tapscott of Garden Grove, California, handled the metalwork.

Paint: The car was bathed in PPG Royal Maroon (an original Talladega color) by Pro One in Santa Ana, California.

Interior: The stock dash retains the original Torino gauges with the only addition being a 5-inch Auto Meter Sport Comp tach. Other gauges mounted below the dash are vintage '60s Stewart Warner units. An RCI five-point harness holds Rick in a Kirkey race seat. The rollcage is chrome-moly.

Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. has announced it has made unprecedented advances in external combustion engine technology.

Pompano Beach, FL - October 15, 2007 - Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. has announced it has made unprecedented advances in external combustion engine technology. The patented Green Revolution Engine(TM) marks what the company believes to be the next real alternative to oil burning, environmentally-polluting, internal combustion engines.  

The engine offers a clean burning, non-polluting alternative to current gasoline and diesel powered internal combustion engines - an engine with low emissions and cool exhaust.  Picture a future in which the engines that power our lawn equipment, generators and cars are capable of running on virtually any fuel, including pure ethanol and other bio-fuels, making us less dependent upon unstable foreign oil supplies. The engine is compact, lightweight and less expensive to manufacture and operate than I/C engines, but powerful enough to run equipment as large as busses, trucks, locomotives and ships.  Cyclone’s Green Revolution Engine? is that engine of the future, and it is here now.

Cyclone’s unique engine has numerous advantages over traditional I/C engines:

*         The heat it generates is “harvested,” conserved and recycled within the engine, greatly lessening the energy and pollutants expelled into the environment, and fuels within the engine burn at lower temperatures and pressures. These processes obviate the need for costly catalytic converters to filter noxious fumes, and greatly reduce the production and expulsion of greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.  

*         The Cyclone engine can run on any type of fuel - liquid or gaseous - making it relatively independent of shortages or price spikes in particular fuels. The engine has been successfully tested on ethanol, bio-diesel and even d-Limonene, a fuel made from orange peels, as well as traditional petroleum-based fuels. Additionally, it is lubricated with de-ionized water instead of motor oil.

*        The Cyclone Engine has fewer moving parts than its I/C counterparts, making it less costly to manufacture, operate and service. Because of its fundamental characteristics, the Cyclone Engine eliminates many subsystems like oil pumps, radiators, mufflers, catalytic converters, complex high-pressure fuel injection systems and even transmissions.

The Cyclone Engine represents a major innovation, and could be a revolution in the engine field. While still in late-stage development and testing, the company is currently in licensing discussions with groups in the following industries: lawn equipment, home and commercial generators, automotive, military and government vehicles, among others. The company expects to have commercial applications in the manufacturing process by late 2008.   

Inventor Harry Schoell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cyclone Power Technologies, is a genuine entrepreneur and technology visionary, with over 30 patents to his name. Even as early as high school, Harry distinguished himself as an inventor, winning a Ford Foundation Award for an original handcrafted sailboat hull design.  Harry has worked for years to realize his dream to create the Cyclone Engine.  Over the 40 years, he has won critical acclaim in the marine hull and propulsion field, winning Engineer of the Year Award and Designer of the Year Award from Vapor Trails Magazine, and being presented with four different Innovation of the Year Awards from the NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association).

Schoell founded Cyclone in 2004. The environmentally friendly Green Revolution Engine is designed around the principles of an external combustion engine, to efficiently use any liquid or gaseous fuel and create more power and significantly less emissions than current gasoline or diesel powered internal combustion engines. The engine is scalable in its size and output such that it can be utilized for applications ranging from small generators, household and lawn equipment, to medium scales addressing automotive, power boats and light trucks, and the larger scales required in the trucking, commercial marine, off road construction equipment and stationary generator markets.  To date, Cyclone Power Technologies has completed its initial research and design of the engine, and has already successfully bench-tested single and twin cylinder engines in the smaller power range. Six-cylinder engines are currently being assembled. www.cyclonepower.com