hot auto review

On the Street, torque is King…and the bigger the engine, the more torque it will make.

An engine's torque potential is very closely tied to its displacement. "Within a given range, torque is a function of cylinder filling, engine displacement, and volumetric efficiency," says World Product's Bill Mitchell (www.worldcastings.com). "There is a torque limit to any given normally aspirated engine because it relates to how atmosphere can fill the cylinder at a given speed." You'll never make 500 lb-ft with a 283, but you can do it in your sleep with a 540. In other words, the most effective way to raise torque output is to increase engine size. There's no replacement for displacement (except a supercharger).What about changing the stroke but keeping overall engine displacement the same (the old long-stroke/small-bore versus short-stroke/big-bore debate)? On a dual-purpose hot rod engine, juggling the bore and stroke won't significantly change the amount of torque at the peak, but the short stroke combo will usually raise the rpm at which peak torque occurs. If your raise the rpm where torque occurs, this will raise the top-end power potential, but at the expense of the extreme bottom-end.

If the engine were to operate primarily under 5,000 rpm, says noted engine-builder David Reher of Reher-Morrison Racing Engines (www.rehermorrison.com), favoring a longer stroke helps get piston speed up. "The piston comes away from TDC a little faster with a longer stroke. That gives a better signal to the intake tract and makes the motor more responsive."
However, beyond 6,500 rpm, a large-bore engine simply breathes better compared to an equivalent-displacement but longer-stroke engine. The larger bore unshrouds the valves (and depending on available cylinder head configurations, allows running bigger valves). This assumes, of course, that there are sufficient quality heads available to supply a high-rpm engine’s increased airflow needs.
With ultra-high-rpm (over 8,000 rpm), normally-aspirated racing engines, an extremely high-rpm power peak may slightly reduce the amount of peak torque compared to the same basic engine setup in street trim. At the extremes, breathing restrictions due to reduced time to fill the cylinders as well as friction losses increase exponentially, leading to significant efficiency losses. Anything you can do to reduce friction in a high-rpm engine is therefore extremely important. The short-stroke configuration in and of itself enhances engine durability by relieving cylinder wall thrust-loading, slowing piston speed, and reducing internal friction from what it otherwise would be with the long-stroke combo. Besides shortening the stroke, consider long rods, short pistons, low-friction rings, reduced bearing diameters, and positive crankcase evacuation.

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Elton “Al” Eckstrand, who campaigned a series of Mopar Super Stockers in the 1960s under the “Lawman” banner, passed away in Naples, Florida on May 10. He was 79.

A Detroit attorney whose clients included the Chrysler Corporation, Eckstrand was Top Stock Eliminator at the 1963 NHRA Winternationals and was runner-up to the Ramchargers at the U.S. Nationals at Indy. Along with his own “Lawman” Dodges and Plymouths, he also drove occasionally for the Golden Commandos, Plymouth’s factory racing team.

    In the mid-‘60s, Eckstrand grew concerned about the rising number of highway fatalities, then reaching 50,000 per year, a shocking percentage of them returning Vietnam veterans. With support from Chrysler, Eckstrand set up a traveling clinic to educate servicemen on road safety. He toured military bases throughout Europe with a ’66 Dodge Charger Street Hemi, also called “The Lawman,” giving performance driving lessons and demonstrations.

   Later, with support from Ford, he toured bases in Southeast Asia and Europe with a similar program using a fleet of Boss 429 and Cobra Jet Mustangs. Eckstrand then lived in Europe and restored a historic Scottish castle before returning to the United States in 1999. His ‘66 Dodge Charger “Lawman” is now on display at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Eckstrand was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2000. –Bill McGuire
 

Tougher economy and emissions laws and increased energy costs might drive the Detroit Three to produce a new class of pickup trucks in the coming years – smaller, lighter and more car-like.

Many analysts are predicting that just as sport utility vehicles have adapted to industry forces, the pickup market will evolve as well. In response to higher fuel prices and stricter regulations, the automakers introduced lighter and more fuel-efficient SUVs, often based on passenger car platforms rather than traditional light truck chassis. Industry observers believe that pickups may soon parallel the SUV’s story arc. For now this potential new market segment has picked up the label “lifestyle pickups.”

Unlike the first wave of mini-trucks that arrived from Japan in the ‘60s, which were essentially full-sized pickups in miniature with body-on-frame construction, these new trucks would be based on passenger car floorpans with unitized bodies and front-drive and all-wheel-drive layouts. And of course many could share the hybrid drivetrains of their sedan counterparts for even greater fuel economy. While not capable of pulling large trailers or hauling heavy loads, these car-like vehicles would be sufficient for more personal trucking duties: toting dirt bikes and personal watercraft, camping gear, and so on – hence the name lifestyle pickup.

   Though you can’t buy it here in the United States, the cute little pickup shown here is already produced by General Motors. Sold as the Chevy Tornado in Mexico and as the Chevrolet Montana in much of South America, the teensy truck is based on GM’s Gamma front-drive platform shared by Opel, Vauxhall, and Chevrolet subcompact cars marketed all over the world. Built at GM Brazil’s São José dos Campos plant, the Montana/Tornado is available with 1.4L and 1.8L flex-fuel engines as well as a 1.7L diesel. Industry watchers say trucks like these are probably a few years off for the American market, but if fuel prices continue to soar Chevy could have its lifestyle pickup in the showrooms in a heartbeat.

GM’s bolt-on supercharger kits for its 4-cylinder Ecotec motors offer sport compact-like performance while retaining respectable fuel economy.

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With gas prices rising towards the stratosphere, there’s renewed interest in hot-rodding four-cylinder engines. GM Performance Parts (www.gmperformanceparts.com) offers several bolt-on supercharger kits for its late-model four-cylinder engines. The kits use a Roots-type supercharger and, according to GM, “are factory-engineered and extensively tested to meet the same rigorous standards as GM’s production vehicles and components.” The superchargers are even covered under the vehicle’s warranty if the installation is performed by a GM dealer. If you want to install the kit yourself, the parts are covered by a 12-month warranty.

Had you been traveling through Laramie, Wyoming, late at night a couple of years ago, you might be relieved to learn that this car and driver actually exist. In your sleep-deprived state, you might've doubted your own eyes when a vision of a '68 Camaro miraculously appeared. Despite subfreezing temperatures, its windows were rolled all the way down, revealing a beautiful young driver. Snowflakes were falling into the car, clinging to her long hair. She was expertly steering and slipping the clutch like an old dirt-track racer. When she turned and smiled, you slapped yourself hard and slammed on the brakes. All you knew for sure was that some shuteye was long overdue.

That was no caffeine-induced hallucination, partner. Your dream girl was Liz Miles, widely known around the San Francisco Bay area as simply The Girl With the Camaro. Now 21, this California kid was in Wyoming in 2003-'04 attending the home campus of WyoTech. Her side windows are never rolled up, rain or shine or snow. Their super-dark tint is plainly illegal, plus this driver is always listening to her tires. "In the corners," she explains, "there's a very thin line between squealing and sliding."

After 15 months of continuous trade-schooling, Liz earned a business-management AA degree from WyoTech, plus half a dozen ASE certifications. Of more pride to her, she won the coveted Outstanding Student award for leading a class called Chassis Fabrication and High-Performance Engines. Of more than 2,500 students, fewer than two dozen were female. If anyone else drove an old ponycar to school, Liz never saw it in the lot where she parked a black-plate California Camaro every morning.

"Some of the kids did bring rusty hobby cars into shop classes, but not drivers," Liz recalls. "I drove the Camaro both winters. I couldn't imagine not seeing it every day. It'd be like leaving your baby somewhere! Also, I could work on it in class. The longest I've ever gone without driving it was the five weeks before I graduated when I was doing the bodywork and primer."

Her newfound welding and metalworking skills got plenty of practice on a 35-year-old body that turned out to be surprisingly rough beneath its orange repaint. She repaired all the panels and shaved everything that dared interrupt what she rates "the best lines of any car, ever." Body seams, marker lights, bumper bolts, and openings for the antenna, gas filler, and trunk lock disappeared. She wet-sanded it then sprayed the tricky primer. (Learn from a rookie body person's mistakes at www.milesspeed.com, her homegrown Web site.)

"In class, you're allowed to prime any panel you work on," she recalls. "We only had two booths for 200 kids, so I made sure to work on every single panel. Then I asked myself, 'If I'm going to primer the whole thing, how am I going to make it look good?' I couldn't picture it in any color other than orange. I called every paint store and asked the teachers about primers, but I couldn't find an orange that I liked. So, I started with a standard pink primer, then poured in brown, red, black, white, and orange until I came up with a shade that could cover PPG's translucent tinted primer. I wanted the car to be subtle-to look like less than it is. A car doesn't need to be flashy and expensive to be cool. I wasn't about to drop 800 bucks on chrome bumpers, so I stripped and primered the bumpers I had. I don't like chrome, anyway. I don't like anything shiny."

Liz took advantage of another class to create suspension parts of her own design. Since graduating, she's built a custom rear sway bar and is experimenting with homemade traction bars. The goal is to improve upon the Camaro's 12.5-second e.t.'s without compromising its equally impressive (0.97-g) lateral acceleration-all while preserving the traditions of the original SCCA Trans-Am series. Never mind that these race cars disappeared more than a decade before she was born. In particular, the ponycar that inspired her Camaro lust was Smokey Yunick's innovative and controversial No. 13. Liz has the model next to her bed, on the rollaway tool chest that serves as a nightstand, and she possibly knows as much about it as current-owner Vic Edelbrock.

"Just having something pure from that era is attractive to me," she explains. "I wanted mine to look pretty much like it did from the factory. I kept the leaf springs, factory control arms, a full back seat, and 15-inch wheels. I had to make custom steel brackets to adapt Wilwood's big, four-piston calipers and extra-thick rotors to the Rallyes and stock spindles. I need all that brake for autocrossing and road racing. It would've been easy to get a set of 16s that cleared big brakes, but I just couldn't sacrifice the 15s. I also lost 38 pounds, so it was definitely worth it.

"Since I got into road racing, I've wanted to prove that a leaf-spring, factory-control-arm car can rip with some good stuff-to break the stereotype of these cars not being able to handle. I think I'm well on my way to doing that. When I run NASA open-track days, there's not another car within 25 years; it's all Subarus, EVOs, Integras, Civics. It's kinda cool having the only one. They call it the big boat."

Liz assembled the current Mouse motor in the week before going off to college. It replaced a stroker engine that she'd built in high school. "I had to pull the 383 because its long stroke wouldn't rpm like I wanted," she explains. In fact, over the last five years, everything you see or don't see here was done by Liz's own hands except for decking the block and balancing the driveshaft.

"Two weeks after I bought the car, it was in pieces on my mom's garage floor," she says, laughing. "I didn't have a clue; I was just taking stuff apart to see how it went together." Unlike most 16-year-olds bold enough to attempt such a feat, this one actually got the car back together. Unlike most of us, this kid enjoyed neither the experience nor encouragement of some gearhead relative, neighbor, or family friend. Her parents' only mechanical contribution was the pink, battery-powered Barbie car she got from her mother, at age 7.

"This came out of her own self," insists Robin Miles, a single mom since Liz was 2. "She has an amazing ability to assimilate information and to remember everything. She's done this all on her own."

"My ability came from the Camaro," corrects her only child. "I can't even describe the impact it's had on my life. It was my entrance into the car world. It changed my friends, my maturity, everything."

"She values the car so much that if a guy wants to date her but does not like cars, he doesn't have a chance," Robin says.

Following her WyoTech graduation, the 19-year-old started a brief job search that ended in the Brentwood, California, parking lot of Dominator Street Rods (www.dominatorusa.com). Three hours of interviewing later, owner Leonard Lopez decided to hire his first female fabricator. More than a dozen people applied for the prestigious position, but only one drove up in a snarling, homebuilt ponycar.

"It worked out well," Leonard says. "I need people who pay attention to detail, and women do that. She knew she was going into a man's world. I had to take that into consideration, too: How were my employees and customers going to view that? Luckily, they're all intelligent people, and they were OK with that. Liz is smart. She doesn't have a problem giving an opinion, but she also knows when to keep it to herself. She kept everything organized, was real meticulous. She has talent and ambition. She carries herself well. That combination is hard to find in kids these days."

"I learned a lot from Leonard," Liz says. "He gave me a whole new mindset about how to go about making things work, tackling problems. I also learned that I wanted to go back to doing this as a hobby and side jobs instead of a career. My goal coming out of school was to own a shop like that. I saw that it's 14-hour days and headaches 24 hours. You work way too much for not enough return, in my opinion."

Thus did she leave Dominator earlier this year to take a crash-course "mortgage boot camp." She has since joined the successful real-estate firm founded by her mother. As Liz builds this new career, she continues to moonlight doing fabrication and installations. Satisfied customers include a local police chief who came to Liz for big brakes on his personal car.

"Real estate allows me the freedom to work on cars and race because it's not a 9-to-5 job," she explains. "I don't have to constantly be asking for a couple of days off; I just take what I need. I'd like to make enough money to work six hours a day at this and the rest in my own shop. My dream is to sell complete replicas of Trans-Am cars; not only Camaros, but Mustangs and 'Cudas from that era, too. I like 'em all! I'd start with a body and tailor the whole car to the customer. Right now, you've got to have a historical race car to enter Trans-Am. But I think there are lots of people who would enjoy owning something like that. I'd build them whatever combination would work best for racing or street driving or both."

"It will take me 7 to 10 years to get there," she adds, then asks: "I don't think 30 is too old to start a business, do you?"

Truthfully, I don't see this dream coming true at age 30, no. I can't imagine this ambitious young woman waiting so long-for anything. Watch for Liz Miles to arrive with the revs up and the windows down well ahead of schedule.

TOP TEN DUMB QUESTIONS FROM GUYS

1. Does that have a cam in it?
Yes, and lifters and pushrods, too!

2. Is that your boyfriend's car?
Asked when I'm alone.

3. You let your girlfriend drive your car?
Asked of my male passengers.

4. Why does she always have a different guy?
Asked at autocrosses, where I always have a passenger. It slows me down, but I like to expose people to what I do.

5. What does your dad drive?
A Fiat and a Ford Ranger.

6. Why aren't you in college?
I didn't want to wait four years to get my life started, and I could see that it would not get me what I wanted.

7. Wanna race?
Street racing is done by stupid people with no respect for cars. There's too much to lose. It's mostly Hondas and stuff, anyway.

8. Why don't you have a boyfriend?
I have enough projects for right now.

9. You're here to meet boys, right?
WyoTech is a great place to get attention from guys, if that's what you're going for, but my heart was in it much deeper.

10. Who built it for you?
I did.

Quick Inspection: '68 Chevrolet Camaro
Liz Miles
Danville, California

Powertrain
Engine: The owner's third Mouse motor began with a 350 block. A forged crank propels GM powdered rods and hypereutectic pistons. Red Line Racing Oil keeps the internals alive. Liberating 0.035 inch from the business side of Dart Pro 1 aluminum heads brought compression up to the targeted 10.3:1. Liz personally matched the intake runners to a Victor Jr. manifold. Comp Cams does the heavy lifting (0.560/0.567-inch, intake/exhaust; 242/244-degree duration at 0.050 inch) motivating respective sets of solid-roller tappets, chrome-moly pushrods, and Crane 1.5:1 Gold Race rockers. MSD's ignition box and Pro Billet distributor shoot sparks through Crane 8.8mm wires to Champion plugs. Although a stock-style fuel pump remains in place, it's now acting as a block-off plate and clever camouflage for the blue Holley that's actually pulling and pushing 91-octane California gas. The owner fabricated a 1-inch pickup for the stock fuel tank then plumbed 11/42-inch aluminum tubing up to the 750-cfm Demon (which she wishes wasn't so doggone shiny). A cool combination of an Edelbrock Victor water pump and a manually activated Flex-a-lite fan enabled elimination of the engine-driven fan. Hedman headers blow through 3-inch collectors.
Power: The dyno sheet from Robello Racing (Antioch, California) shows 501 hp at 6,600 rpm and 434 lb-ft at 4,900.
Clutch: McLeod's steel flywheel, 11-inch disc, and diaphragm pressure plate spin inside a Lakewood can.
Transmission: The black tattoo on her right palm (of the classic shifter-ball H-pattern in reverse) is a stranger's first clue that this is a four-speed diehard. Liz rows a Muncie M-20 with Hurst linkage.
Rearend: Survival of the original 10-bolt speaks well of Yukon axles, Eaton's Posi unit, and 3.73 Motive gears. Spicer U-joints bookend a 3-inch driveshaft.

Chassis
Frame: Stock subframes are tied with welded Competition Engineering connectors. The car's 3,220 pounds are distributed 54/46 percent (front/rear).
Suspension: QA1 single-adjustable shocks anchor all four corners. In front, a Year One quick-ratio steering box (two turns, lock to lock) gives directions to the Hotchkis 2-inch-drop coils and 111/48-inch sway bar. Rear springs are 111/42-inch-drop Hotchkis multileaves, and Liz made her own 1-inch sway bar. Energy Suspension bushings appear everywhere.
Brakes: Up front, a pair of vented, slotted, 11.750x1.250-inch Wilwood rotors meet fat Wilwood Dynolite calipers-all of which fit behind 15-inch Corvette Rallyes, thanks to caliper brackets custom-built by the owner. Liz swapped out the rear drums for Wilwood 12x0.800-inch rotors and four-piston calipers with integral mechanical parking brake.
Wheels: Wheel Vintiques steel Rallyes, 15x7- and 15x8-inch.
Tires: Dunlop 8000-series 245/50-15s all the way around.

Style
Body: The owner filled all body seams and shaved off everything the law allows. Less than legal is a glass tint so dark she doesn't dare raise the windows. Liz welded up the unnecessary bumper holes and built a smooth firewall. Her black license plate and steel, 211/42-inch cowl hood enhance the period-perfect effect.
Paint: No, it's not; this unique orange resulted from an experimental concoction of PPG primers. Liz sprayed the suede herself then masked off and painted Z/28 stripes in Krylon flat white.
Interior: The genuine-GM theme extends to a '68 SS396 tach and '69 bucket seats (selected for the added safety of headrests). The glovebox conceals MSD's 6AL, timing control, tach adapter, and shift-light switch, along with a 5-inch fuel-level gauge from a factory dash. Hidden in the ashtray are a timing-control adjuster and trunk-popper button. Liz grabs a Grant wheel, yanks a Hurst handle, and surveys half a dozen Auto Meter gauges. Her sound system is plenty powerful, but no match for an engine roar that's barely muffled by 3-inch Flowmasters and the owner's full-length exhaust system.

Steve Saleen and his new company SMS are pleased to introduce the first product in his line of Signature Series ultra-high performance vehicles, the SMS 570TM Challenger and SMS 570XTM Challenger.

As a professional racecar driver and innovative businessman, Mr. Saleen is well known as the founder of a number of Steve Saleen brands including Saleen Autosport, Saleen Productions, Saleen Speedlab, Saleen Performance, Saleen, Inc. and now SMS. In the years of building the many brands, Mr. Saleen oversaw and participated in every aspect of the business, in product development, sales and marketing. Mr. Saleen's latest endeavor will focus on the expansion into the high-end of the diverse American Muscle Car markets.

The fully certified and street legal SMS 570TM Challenger and SMS 570XTM Challenger will be based on the all-new and exciting 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T platform and will feature a SMS Supercharged 5.7L Hemi with respective power ratings from 500 to over 700 horsepower! Both models are fully equipped with a compliment of SMS ultra-high performance components including: drivetrain, suspension, aerodynamics, tires, wheels and interior.

"The horsepower and torque that we are developing from the SMS Supercharged Hemi is phenomenal" explains Billy Tally, SMS Chief Technical Officer, "combined with suspension and braking improvements our SMS Challenger will be an incredibly capable, refined and tractable automobile".  

Each of these limited edition vehicles will be personally signed by Steve Saleen as part of the SMS Signature Series product line complete with unique badges and graphics.  Production numbers will be limited per year depending on the model, and the opportunity to be one of the few owners is limited to a first-come, first-served basis, so prospective customers need to act now as production is commencing in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"The Dodge Challenger is a great canvas to start with" notes Phil Frank, Chief Creative Officer, "the SMS Challenger will help define our design DNA as we introduce some exciting and functional aesthetic innovations to this already great platform".