RideLust

Image: Callaway SportTrucks

What do you do if you like to go fast, but still need the ability to haul stuff? You could buy a Ford Raptor, but the truck is set up for desert pre-running, not on-pavement fun. Dodge no longer makes the V10 equipped SRT-10, and the Chevy 454 SS is a distant memory. If your pickup tastes run to something with a bow tie on the grille, Callaway has a bolt-on kit for the Silverado 1500 that adds 135 horsepower and 115 ft lb of torque to the stock 5.3 liter V8, bringing it up to 450 horsepower and 450 ft pounds of torque. In case that’s not good enough for you, Callaway also offers a kit with 540 horsepower and 522 for pounds of torque, which should ensure you get the mulch home from the garden center, pronto. Read More…

One Horsepower = Not Enough

Recently, Inside Line ran a story about their long-term Infinity M56 having more than 400 hp (420, to be exact).  The question posed is one I have often wondered about myself.  At what point, if any, does one say “this car has too much horsepower”?  It almost reminds me of razors – remember when they came out with the Mach 3, then the Quattro, then the five-blade Fusion?  At some point, we’ll all be shaving with seventeen blades I am sure of it, but I digress.  When I was a young’n, my engine of choice was Honda; small displacement, around 150 hp, and four little naturally-aspirated cylinders.  The cars were relatively light and there was more than enough power to get me into trouble.  I vivdly remember sometime around 2003 seeing a commercial for the Acura TL boasting 225 hp, a number that honestly blew my mind at the time (remember, I grew up in the era of economy, not muscle cars).  Back then, 420 horses on a family sedan would have been unfathomable.  So what happened? Read More…

If you’ve ever turned wrenches on a car or a bike, chances are good that you’ve upgraded an exhaust system at one time or another. The cheap and easy way to do this is to replace the muffler, or (better yet) the exhaust system from the catalytic converter on back. The real horsepower gains come from replacing stock exhaust manifolds with headers, then replacing the entire exhaust system with a less restrictive one. Dyno data shows this to be an effective way to add horsepower to almost any vehicle, but do you know why this works? The video below shows how it works and even (briefly) explains why; think of it as science class for those of us with dirt under our fingernails. Read More…

I think I have just found the cure for cabin fever! This is an ice dragster that belongs to the Frozen Asset race team out of Minnesota. The concept is simple; take a Spitzer dragster chassis, insert one big honkin’ 2000 hp Pro Line twin-turbo V8 and a rear-trac complete with full spike regalia and you’ve got what is perhaps the baddest machine ever to have run across frozen H20. The pilot of this nut-ball machine is a gentlemen by the name of Paul Groth, he’s the lunatic that back in the 1980′s took the Budwiser Sno King to a top ice speed of over 200 mph using a blown big-block Chevy. The fabrication was done by Performance Concepts of Mokena, IL and by the looks of it they did an outstanding job. Now I’m all for going fast but I like good old fashion tarmac, not a surface that goes against everything that a good pair of brakes stand for. Click through for the video.
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Horsepower and art combined. Image: Lingenfelter

If you’ve been holding back on buying a Cadillac CTS-V because 556 horsepower just wasn’t enough for you, Lingenfelter Performance has your back. Go ahead and buy that CTS-V, then have it shipped to Lingenfelter in Decatur, IL, for the full-meal-deal LPE package install. The net result will be over 700 horsepower at the crank, and 623 rear-wheel horsepower. The full LPE package will also give you 617 ft lb of torque at the rear wheels, which ought to make light work of turning those expensive Michelin Pilots into tire smoke. Read More…

You may not know this, but over in the UK, American hot rods and muscle cars have a huge following. Since their inception the Brits have been importing them to get their own taste of some big block muscle. Charger’s, Camaro’s, ’57 Chevy’s and countless Fords have been raced and modified to suit their owners tastes, just as they have been over here for years and years. The above video shows a run that took place back in 1977 in the UK. It was put on in conjunction with the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) and had in its attendance some of the coolest modified street rods out there. Hot Rodding is a hobby that truly knows no borders and is in fact popular in just about every part of the world where cars are present. The above video is a bit on the grainy side, but in my opinion it just lends to the true feeling of what the hot-rodding culture represents.

Source: RalfBecker.com

Just recently I posted up a full review of the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro RS, a car that I thoroughly enjoyed. Its 312 hp V6 was a bit peaky, but still provided all the power that most could want, while costing thousands less than its V8 counterpart. For 2012 though things under the hood may be changing for the base model Camaro in the form of a new 3.6-liter V6 that supposedly makes between 325-330 hp. Labeled the LFX, the engine is a DOHC unit with variable valve timing (VVT), spark-ignition direct-injection and E85 capabilities. If this mill does find its way into the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro it’ll be just another shot fired across the bow of Ford in the pony car wars.

Other specs for the 2012 Camaro include:
• New Carbon Flash Metallic (aka Black Granite) color (2SS and 2LT only)
• 45th Anniversary Appearance Package (2SS and 2LT only)
• 3 sets of 20″ wheel designs (likely one for 45th anniversary package)
• Rear view camera (2SS, 1SS, 2Lt, and 1LT)
• Suspension system special ride and handling (FE4) (2SS coupe, 1SS coupe only)

Source: Camaro5.com

Back in the mid-1960′s the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) formed the Trans-Am Racing Series that pitted production based vehicles against each other in head to head competition. Trans-Am Racing was unbelievably popular and is still considered by some to be one of the best series ever to have been put together. Picture full-on muscle cars like the Plymouth Barracuda, AMC Javelin, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro racing head to head on some of the best circuits in United States. These were the days when racing was racing. There was no traction or stability control and no anti-lock brakes. Hell, these cars ran on leaf-springs and in doing so showed us that the old muscle cars of yesteryear truly could go around corners if properly set-up. I was visiting over at Pro-touring.com, a web site that is dedicated to making full-on corner carvers out of vintage American muscle, when I came upon a thread containing some wonderful old photographs of Trans Am racing in its heyday. These photos were taken by Dave Friedman and give us a little insight into how amazing this series really was.
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Photo by Anthony Mair

Sometimes you just get an idea in your head and come hell or high water you’re going to execute it. The idea may not be well thought out and it may not even be practical, but at the end of the day what great things ever came from playing it safe. Take this wicked 1927 Ford Model T Roadster for example, it was built by Gordon Tronson of Henderson, Nevada in an unbelievably quick 6-month time period. Tronson is originally from New Zealand and has a history of building and racing funny cars, so when the idea for Double-Trouble popped into his head one day, he knew he just had to build it.
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In the mid-1980′s the performance car market in the United States was still in a pretty dismal state of tune. There were a few rays of light like the Ford Mustang GT and Pontiac Trans Am, but the only real shining star was Buick’s one year only 1987 GNX. Sure it was expensive, but it had the numbers to back up the price. Back then anything with horsepower numbers over 200 was a big deal, so when the GNX came out with its underrated 276 bhp and 360 lb-ft. of torque, enthusiasts couldn’t help but take notice. There was however one inherent problem… the car cost $30,000, around $10,000 more than a standard Buick Grand National. Collectors knew the car was something special and because of this most were sold immediately.
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