Drag vs. Street Caster
Caster is simply the angle of the front spindle when viewed from the side of the car, and straight-line machines and corner carvers call for vastly different caster settings. A spindle that tilts rearward has positive caster, while a spindle that tilts forward has negative caster. Since light steering and wandering is a consequence of negative caster, almost all production cars have a few degrees of positive caster built-in from the factory. Where road cars and drag cars differ is in the amount of positive caster that's desirable. "The greater the positive caster, the better the car's straight-line stability and the more effort it requires to move the steering wheel," Bill Buck says. "These aren't necessarily bad things in a drag car, so I like to set caster at 5 to 7 degrees in straight-line applications, however, heavy steering effort isn't ideal for a street or road race car, and the wheel can have a tendency to jolt when you hit a bump with too much positive caster. Consequently, you want to limit positive caster to about 2 degrees in these types of applications, which makes the car feel more agile while still providing enough straight-line stability."
-Stephen Kiminline_mediumwraptextright26928025/features/0912phr_1993_ford_mustang_notchback0912phr_08_o+1993_ford_mustang_notchback+spindle.jpgTrue

Thirty-five years of age is a bit late to get into the hot rodding game, but there's no doubt that Josh Martin is a real-deal car guy. No, he doesn't have the requisite yard full of decrepit jalopies, or a kitchen repurposed as an engine assembly room, however, despite his relatively grease-free resum, Josh's visceral instincts tell a different tale. While the only thing most men remember about the 1996 flick Swingers is the hot little number named Heather Graham, Josh was mesmerized by the '64 Comet he saw on screen. With a scintillating young lady stealing most the thunder, even most car guys wouldn't give the Comet a second look. Nonetheless, Josh knew he had to build himself a Comet one day, and 13 years later, that day has finally arrived. His vision has materialized in the form of a '65 Comet hardtop that packs a 540hp late-model GT500 motor, a six-speed stick, and a full Art Morrison chassis. Granted, Josh is an unseasoned rookie, he's built a far nicer car on his first try than most veterans could build after their hundredth attempt.

It's hard to believe that we started work on this big blue Ford over two years now. When we managed to score the '70 Fairlane 500 off eBay for $8,000 we knew we were already ahead of the game. It's one of the big advantages to buying an offbeat nameplate. While mechanically challenged, the Fairlane had great paint, a laser-straight body, new chrome, a cherry interior, and best of all, zero rust-even under the white vinyl top. For something "popular" like a Mustang or a Camaro, we could have paid twice as much.

So you've decided to start shopping for a project car, and for one reason or another, you've got a limited budget. There are always going to be economic lulls and discouraging situations, but when it forces you to lose out on your hobby and your passion, then hope can be hard to keep. It's still possible, even on a limited budget, to find a cool running and driving project car; chances are it won't be a '69 Camaro, a Mustang fastback, or a Hemi 'Cuda, but who said you always need one of those to be cool?inline_mediumwraptextright31041555/features/0912phr_20_affordable_project_cars0912phr_01_o+20_affordable_project_cars+laguna.jpgTrue

It was hate at first sight. Like having your marriage arranged with an ugly chick, Steve Yoder Jr.'s parents bought him a '76 Laguna when he turned 16. They figured that forcing their boy into a turd of a first car would keep him out of trouble, but the sinister ploy failed miserably. After 23 years and several iterations, Steve has yet to dump the Laguna. And why would he? Pretty she ain't, but the big-block-powered ogre rips the quarter-mile to the tune of 10.96 at 122 mph on a slim budget of $25,000. In a world infested with aesthetically blessed but athletically inept muscle cars, this Laguna has no interest in contributing to the problem.inline_mediumwraptextright26812165/features/0912phr_1976_chevy_laguna_s30912phr_01_o+1976_chevy_laguna_s3+grille.jpgTrue

His name is Lang Paciulli, but his buddies call him Langenfelter. Obviously, the clever nickname is inspired by the late John Lingenfelter, a man legendary for his wickedly fast yet docile street cars. The real question is, however, whether Lang's handle is merely a cheap rip-off spawned from a lack of creativity, or a genuine tribute to the modern automotive icon based on peerless car-building talents. Granted, Lang's got a long way to go until his resumè can stack up against the prolific accomplishments of his namesake, but he's certainly jumping onto the big stage in a rather flamboyant fashion. The '67 Camaro presented here packs a twin-turbo 385ci small-block that belches out 1,174 hp and 1,000 lb-ft at just 10 psi of boost. Surprisingly, that's not the impressive part. Neither is the fact that the car gets the job done on 91-octane gas and rips the quarter-mile in 9.40 seconds at 150 mph on drag radials and a primitive leaf-spring rear suspension. What we dig the most is that this could very well be the most streetable 1,000-plus horsepower street machine in existence.inline_mediumwraptextrightBody mods have been limited to a Harwood 2-inch cowl hood and custom mini-tubs.26782978/features/0910phr_1967_chevy_camaro0910phr_01_z+1967_chevy_camaro+cowl_hood.jpgTrue

It's not that Rob Morell is impossible to please. He's just always tinkering, trying something new, pushing the limits, and applying what he learns to make things work better. All of which are admirable traits, unless you're trying to finish a project car.inline_mediumwraptextright30995817/features/0911phr_1973_chevy_camaro0911phr_01_z+1973_chevy_camaro+hood.jpgTrue

Born and raised in a mountain community just inland of Eureka, California, Brian Finch didn't get exposed to many hot rods or muscle cars. His father was a timber faller whose only involvement in the automotive industry was driving to work. Where did Brian get the bug? His friends were all into totally unrelated things, caught up in the social activities the small-town school offered. After some deep thought and hours rooting through the family albums, he figured out where he got his interest from. In many of the pictures he had tools and parts of household appliances scattered about. From a very young age Brian was interested in how things came apart and what made them tick. Brian told us: "As soon as I could hold a wrench in my hand, I was looking for something to put it on." Taking apart toasters and radios was very interesting to Brian at first, but as he approached his teen years, he was looking for more of a challenge. He thought of cars as very large and complicated toasters that he wanted to take a closer look at. He read every hot rodding magazine he could get his hand on, cover to cover.inline_mediumwraptextright30995199/features/0911phr_1967_ford_mustang_coupe0911phr_01_z+1967_ford_mustang_coupe+front_view.jpgTrue

A stute PHR readers will remember this '65 Dodge Coronet from the "Hometown Heroes" photo contest in our January '09 issue, but my personal introduction to the hot rodding world of Brandon Bussard would come several months later.

We finally got over the hump with our '75 Laguna project car. As most of you know from your own project cars, there's an important psychological barrier you cross once the engine and transmission are installed, and we finally got past that with this month's installment of Project Talladega.

For many of us, growing up in neighborhoods with a hodgepodge of ethnic backgrounds meant that it was not uncommon to go to a friend's birthday party where the highlight of the event occurred as mom and dad brought out a piata and hung it from a tree branch. Kids would gather 'round the papier-mache replica of a favorite animal, person, or even a car, and the blindfolded birthday boy would swing a stick at the ersatz icon hoping to break it in half allowing the contents to spill about the yard. Kids would rush the scene picking up candy and toys all the while laughing and screaming. For Russell Rosales, building his '68 Mustang was a lot like building a piata. Taking all the best goodies and treats and putting them together in a beautiful shell that all the other kids admired. The best part though was when he was done with construction and was able to beat on it.

When he was 18 years old, Gary Abraham thought he was living the dream. He had a '70 Nova built to the hilt, and a hot girl by his side. One fateful evening, they decided to take the car to Union Grove Dragstrip and put 'er to the wood to see how fast it would really go. Unfortunately, a leaky fuel hose and a hot header pipe conspired to put his dreams up in smoke with the car still in the burnout box. The end result was that his old Deuce ended up being burned blacker than melba toast and he had to shelve his car fetish for a while.

Street Fighter
Our '66 Mustang, Project Street Fighter, has gotten a complete suspension overhaul and recently its straight-six engine was removed to make way for something new. We wanted something that was as reliable as a crate engine, but something that was still special. We didn't have to think very long to figure out the perfect engine builder for the job: Smeding Performance. When it comes to building crate motors, Smeding delivers quality custom engines at the crate motor price, with the savings to match.

While standard magazine protocol involves pulling the handle on the dyno, patting yourself on the back, and calling it a day, readers want more than just engine buildups destined to languish idly as pricey garage decorations. To make amends for these pathetic wastes of horsepower, back in the June issue we chronicled the build of a 532ci big-block Ford that spit out 775 hp and 673 lb-ft on pump gas. This big lump was conceived with an actual purpose in mind-go figure-and that's to drop it on a full-weight '93 Mustang notchback, run solid 9s on drag radials and a stock-style suspension, and survive the 200-mile roundtrip trek to the dragstrip while maintaining street legality. With the key ingredient in the powertrain complete, the next step is selecting a trans capable of surviving the harsh demands of a dual-purpose street/strip role. Given our needs, it only makes sense to go hybrid.

In an era when fat people are "horizontally gifted," lazy deadbeats are "motivationally challenged," and Washington bureaucrats are "ethically reserved," guys like Blake McIlwain are a refreshing throwback. His blunt, off-color, and socially taboo commentary is just what the doctor ordered for battling the assault on literal accuracy known as political correctness. While this personality trait may seem inconsequential in the walk of building hot rods, Blake's irreverent attitude is what defines the essence of his '69 Firebird. Nothing about it is status quo. When asked about dropping a big-block Chevy into a Pontiac he quips, "I knew it would piss off the purists, but the people whining about it are the same ones in my rearview mirror." That's a lot of talk, but with a best-to-date e.t. of 10.41 at 130 mph, we'll take his word for it. Fortunately, Blake's far more concerned with executing his vision of what a street machine should be than potentially offending his slower competition.

Spray an Olds Cutlass in Barrio Gold, and the thing could damn well start hopping up and down spontaneously right there in the paint booth. And that's before the obligatory-shapely Latina is airbrushed onto the hood. To the go-fast crowd, the concept of livin' the low life-where gazillion-spoke wheels and Ron Jeremy-spec velvet upholstery reigns supreme-can seem downright bizarre. Ironically, combining an oddball gold '71 Cutlass and an oddball car builder in Jeff Schwartz has yielded a creation that's pretty darn normal. Like you learned way back in high school algebra class, a negative times a negative really does equal a positive. This Cutlass packs a 600hp LS7, rides on a cutting-edge Pro Touring chassis, knocks down 20 mpg, and changes direction like a raggedy House Speaker. On second thought, this thing's way better than a merely "normal" g-Machine.

In early 1969, the underdog New York Jets upset the favored Baltimore Colts to win Super Bowl III; Led Zeppelin I, the first heavy-metal album was released; the Beatles gave their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London; and the Boeing 747 jumbo jet made its maiden flight.

At first, the submissions only trickled in. Was our country truly in such economic doldrums that nobody cared about hot rodding any more? The fact that the Reader Projects issue was announced the third week of February at the depth of an economic tsunami didn't bode well, or so we thought. Then the envelopes started hitting about one a day. OK, things might not be all that bad, but the stack of mail was still hurtin'. It looked like we might even have to scratch our idea for a Readers' Projects theme issue due to lack of interest. Then about a week before the April 2 deadline, the floodgates opened, and the mailman was delivering your entries daily in tote boxes. Ay carumba!

NASCAR's premiere shindig--which started out as the Strictly Stock Series--later turned into the Grand National Series before morphing into the Winston Cup Series, followed by the Nextel Cup Series, and then the Sprint Cup Series. Obviously, change is part of the game in this sport, but it's all starting to resemble a sketch comedy routine. For instance, when Jimmie Johnson crosses the finish line in First, it's not his Chevrolet Impala that got him there, but rather his Lowe's Chevrolet Impala. And Jimmie never forgets to remind you of that in his post-race interviews either. Likewise, of the only three active drivers with multiple championships under their belts, none of them speak with a proper drawl, and two are California hippies for goodness sakes. Who would've imagined that a sport once defined by hillbilly hooligans trading licks on the infield grass would one day be superseded by scripted drivers sanitized by corporate sponsors?

Tired of every media outlet spouting the same public relations stuff about the greatest car to come out of Detroit since the Model A? Car manufacturers make it too easy these days. They hand out USB thumb drives with all the standard information, and the newspapers, websites, and magazines regurgitate on command. As well they should because it's important to get out the news about all the technological breakthroughs in this much-anticipated muscle car. But we decided to dig a little deeper to ferret out some details that might make your decision to buy a little easier. Nevertheless, should you still want all the specs and PR boilerplate, we've got it for you in its entirety on www.popularhotrodding.com (search keyword: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro).

Enough with all the doom and gloom, please. We've been through this drill before, so put a sock in it, preferably one that reeks of stinky and politically incorrect hydrocarbons that will drift all the way to Kyoto. Sure, history has proven that overzealous regulation--courtesy of Feds who roll in SUVs with lobbyist checks spilling out the back--can castrate our beloved performance cars in no time flat. With rumors that a car czar, presumably imported from 16th century Russia, may soon be crowned to oversee the Big Three, it's certainly understandable why some hot rodders are worried. While we can't predict the future, we can look to the past for glimmers of hope.

It's not like you need a car magazine to tell you times are rough, but when message board thugs can no longer gouge helpless daddies for Hannah Montana tickets like they used to, it certainly reinforces the pervasiveness of the situation. What's more, rumor has it that Dr. 90210 is running a buy-one-implant-get-the-next-implant-free special. For hot rodders, in a hobby funded entirely by disposable income, spending it on project cars may seem a bit counter intuitive. That's why the timing of Troy Day's story couldn't be more appropriate. He built an entire car--a big-block-powered, 11-second '69 Camaro at that--for what many '69 Camaro owners spend on paint and body work alone. By simply doing his thing, he's now sitting on a fat pile of equity. So if passion alone isn't enough to keep those wrenches turning given the current economic climate, the prospect of possibly making a few bucks in the process should definitely help the cause.

'69 Camaro
Sick Seconds
Denny Terzich of North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, has built some bad rides in his time, but none like this one. He started building cars on a professional level with his father, uncle, and cousin in 1994, forming his business called Pro Rides. He built a '56 Chevy that turned up all over the magazines and won the Goodguy's Street Machine of the Year award in 2002. He built many famous cars for companies like Summit Racing, but decided to go back to building cars for himself. Aside from building world-class show and race cars, Denny owns a business selling classic cars that allows him to build his cars exactly how he wants.

'68 Camaro
Family Coupe
For Carl Casanova of Glendale, California, cars were a part of his life from the day he was born. His father was a mechanic, and wouldn't ever fix anything for him, instead choosing to help him fix it. He was into everything that could be taken apart. This was the first sign that he would become an engineer. His sister even had the bug, and sported a '67 Camaro Carl had his eye on. In 1981, the day came she needed to sell the Camaro because she needed a truck. It so happened that Carl had a '71 El Camino to put up as an even trade. Carl didn't feel too guilty about the trade since the 210,000 miles on the Camaro left it in need of a new engine that he had replaced for her in the past. Carl was still a teenager when he got the car, so he could only do minor upgrades including swapping the tired Powerglide for a TH350 transmission. He would have liked to do a manual swap but he just didn't have the time, money, or knowledge at the time. He drove the Camaro though high school and most of college until the rearend finally let go after over 300,000 miles. With his focus on earning his degree in engineering, he couldn't get around to fixing it for some time.

We've got your weapons of mass destruction right here, buddy. The thing is, it's not fueled by enriched uranium and you can't find it in Iraq, so it's highly unlikely to be named to the Axis of Evil any time soon. Damn. Fortunately, the WMD in question here will further fan the flames of the raging horsepower arms race. The specimen at hand is waging biological warfare on all gasoline engines in existence one tank of biodiesel at a time. Stuffed, quite literally, with a 6.6L Duramax V-8, Mike Racke's '70 Chevelle has the goods to bury Rats, Hemis, and 460s 6 feet under, and kicks out enough torque to pull them back out.