Just about anyone can put together a car show; just throw a few flyers in car windows and tell people where to be. You are bound to have a couple cars show up. However, it takes a whole lot more than that to create an extravaganza that everyone from around the country hears about and is willing to cruise cross-country to attend.
The SEMA Show is the automotive performance industry’s most important yearly shindig—a trade-show gathering of parts manufacturers and car builders representing every kink in the gearhead world. It’s where business gets done, it’s the launching point for thousands of new products, and it has become one of the nation’s most interesting and diverse car shows. The project cars on display are advocates of the newest components and styles in the niches of hot rods, muscle cars, imports, street trucks, and 4x4s.
At HOT ROD, we look at the SEMA Show as an indicator of trends coming and going, and we walk the aisles looking for consistent themes in the creations of car builders nationwide. Here we present the fruit of this year’s hunt.—David Freiburger
This is a great article. If you are building a hot rod from scratch or you are taking your muscle car to a modern level you will find some good information in this piece. I toyed with the idea of putting a modern manual 5 speed trans in my 70 Mustang, but I opted for a rebuild Shelby 4 speed manual. (Check out all 3 parts.)
Derided as “slushboxes” in the days when hot rodding was young, automatic transmissions have long since closed the performance gap and won the respect of (at least some of) the most dedicated lead foots. Today, even the fuel-economy advantages of the old-standard stick shift are more memory than reality, as the shiftless set has drawn even with, or pulled slightly ahead of, the shifters. Backing up these advances is a great deal of detailed engineering, especially of the electronic variety.
But a lot of it’s simply due to more gears—a wider range of ratios, allowing for relaxed, low-rpm cruising with peak torque still available on demand. About 10 years ago, a four-speed automatic with a lockup converter was the hot ticket to optimize performance with economy. Now the OEMs are building five-, six- and seven-speed automatics—and hot rodders want them, too.
Not that the shift-for-yourself crowd has been caught napping—six gears are now the required minimum in any respectable OEM performance car, and that’s left three-pedal rodders craving more ratios, too.
More Is Better
“Enthusiasts in every segment of the hot rod and muscle car markets are removing traditional three-speed gearboxes and replacing them with modern four-, five- and six-speed transmissions,” said Stanley Poff, who heads product and sales for TCI Automotive in Ashland, Mississippi. “As they experience modern overdrive automatics in their daily drivers, they become more inclined to want the same driving experience in their hot rods.”
TCI’s new 6x Six-Speed can be adapted to most GM small-block, big-block or LS engines; Ford small and big blocks; and Chrysler small blocks, big blocks and late-model Hemis.
“We build it in a modified GM 4L80E case that’s been machined to accept modular bellhousings, and we keep all of the Reid Racing bellhousings in stock,” Poff said. “We can put together a complete package for all of those applications, including the transmission, bellhousing, EZ-TCU electronic control, cooler, shifter (conventional and/or paddle-type), TCI transmission fluid and a dipstick.”
TCI currently offers the 6x in two models, rated for 850 and 1,000 horsepower, respectively. Models for 1,250 and 1,500 horsepower are in the works, according to Poff.
The market has also responded well to the company’s EZ-TCU, he said.
“It allows you to retrofit a modern electronically controlled automatic transmission, such as our 6x, or the GM 4L60E, 4L65E, 4L70E, 4L80E or 4L85E, to a carbureted engine, or an engine with a self-tuning EFI system such as the FAST EZ-EFI,” Poff said.
TCI worked with FAST to develop the EZ-TCU.
“It follows the FAST model of being extremely user-friendly and easy to install even by people who lack either tuning or electronics experience,” Poff said. “We sell a lot of EZ-TCU units to people who want to put a crate engine and electronic transmission in a classic street rod or muscle car.”
Pete Nichols, sales manager for Hughes Performance in Phoenix, pointed to the classic muscle car market, where “more and more people are building these cars with significantly higher-than-stock levels of horsepower and torque,” he said. “That requires a premium, high-strength aftermarket torque converter and transmission assembly.”
To meet these demands, Hughes now builds all of its GM 700R-4, 200-4R and Ford AOD transmissions with the upgraded, constant-pressure valve bodies.
“These valve bodies contribute to improved shift quality and more consistent shift timing, while reducing the possibility of premature transmission failure due to a broken or incorrectly adjusted throttle-valve (TV) cable,” Nichols explained. “The new design also eliminates a lot of the complexity and hassle associated with the TV system on these transmissions, so retrofitting them into older cars is easier than before.”
Hughes has also introduced a custom bellhousing system that allows builders to bolt the popular GM 4L80E behind a wide variety of GM, Ford and Chrysler engines without using an adapter. The company offers custom 4L80E options for applications producing 500–1,500-plus flywheel horsepower, and for virtually any popular V-8 engine.
Nichols emphasized the need to properly flush the transmission cooler and cooler lines before installing a new torque converter.
“Debris gets easily trapped in the old cooler and then it gets flushed out during the initial run-in period, inevitably working its way into the valve body, governor, etc.,” he said, adding that getting a new cooler is the best way to prevent debris-related failures.
In some cases, a slew of random images just don’t do a build any justice. Case in point, this well-done footage of Yannick Sire’s dual-engined, open-wheeled speed machine. As a gearhead, you’re probably well aware that the birth of hot rodding was nurtured from the sunny west coast of Southern California. It’s there you’ll find custom rod builders like George Barris and the infamous S0-Cal Speed Shop.
Following along in their footsteps, Yannick Sire is not only taking inspiration from those before him but indeed, pushing it beyond most peoples comfort levels. We couldn’t help but post such an amazing build. Although this might not run bottom 11s at the track or clip an amazing lap time during an autocross course, its pretty awesome.
If this doesn’t inspire you, we aren’t quite sure what will. For the most part, we’ll let the video do most of the talking on this one. West Los Angeles rod builder, Yannick Sire has reinvigorated the West Coast’s tradition of radical street rodding with his full-custom hot rod, a hybrid creation of many different parts from different cars.
Sire, is truly an inspirational genius. Sire even hand-crafted each of the 16 individual header tubes himself.
The real trademark, however, of Sire’s custom rod are the two, 450-horse Chevy small-blocks, both outfitted with a heavy-breathing set of Air Flow Research (AFR) cylinder heads. Not only does this combination sound amazing, its equaling out to fire-breathing 16 cylinders.
Sire’s wheel choice consists of a 20 x 9.5-/20 x 10.5-inch front/rear combination from an ’02-’03, BMW X5. The Continental tires are P275/35R20 and P315/35R20, respectively. The front suspension uses custom, unequal length A-arms with second-gen Camaro, two-inch drop spindles.
Since slowing down is just as, if not more important, Sire upgraded the braking system to 14-inch Corvette Z06 on all four corners. Stering is handled by a Subaru STI rack-and-pinion. At the front of Sire’s V16 rod are a set of QA1 coilovers with a rate of 650 lb/in, and the completed vehicle weighs in at an estimated 2500 pounds.
For the last several years in the performance craft, we’ve had made the general statement that there are two ways to make any car or truck go fast: make it lighter or else more powerful. In the case of Yannick Sire and his 16-cylinder hot rod, both principles have been exercised to the absolute extreme!
