Expensive Vehicles

If you are a casual No Prep drag racing fan, you may not realize that there are actually two very different types that go on regularly. Front side, or from the tree, No Prep is what you find most often and is the racing that has become popular on No Prep Kings and such on TV. It’s tough to get a real fast car down any no prep surface, but when you are racing somewhere that is a drag strip then the rubber will get put down as cars continue to race on it and the track is used to taking rubber so it will get better and better as the event goes on. The other type of No Prep racing is backside, or from the top end. This is much more closely related to street racing as the top end of most drag strips is asphalt, is much coarser pavement, and has never had a layer of rubber on it. It still takes rubber as the event goes on, but not nearly as well as a front side race does. The difference may seem minor, but it really can change the setup on a car dramatically. For these cars to run as quick

Leroy, the twin-turbo Vette cart that was built by Cleetus McFarland, is a quick and fast hot rod. It’s been in the 7’s using an H-pattern shifted manual transmission, has the looks of a Mad Max vehicle, and is a fan favorite. This is one of those rides that gets attention everywhere it goes. Over the years it has gotten more powerful, better prepared, and ultimately quicker and quicker. With some serious chassis changes and adjustments it is getting more and more aggressive down low and is now in the 1.0 second range for 60 foot times! Check it out as they chase the 6’s! Video Description: Leroy is working HARD to get this 6 second run, but not enough cool down time caused some serious damage to our clutch. Hopefully we can get it fixed! The post Leroy Breaks His Record AGAIN!!!!! QUEST FOR 6’S HAS BEGUN… Cleetus Pushing It! appeared first on BangShift.com . https://ift.tt/hj4NDTb from BangShift.com https://ift.tt/6eXnQFq

Awe crap, he’s doing it. Richard Holdener is comparing Pontiac vs Chevrolet to determine which factory “small-block” is best. Is bigger better? Are they apples to oranges? Will this piss of Chevrolet fans and make Pontiac guys too confident? Oh man this could be a real battle royal! In this video, Richard is going to test both classic muscle car combos to see how they stack up against each other. He’s done plenty of classic muscle car combos, to see what kind of power they really make in comparison to what the factory claimed, but whenever you pit a couple of them against each other people get really fired up. Check it out below. Video Description: HOW MUCH POWER DID A PONTIAC RAM AIR 400 MAKE? HOW MUCH POWER DID THE 1970 LT-1 350 REALLY MAKE? IS A RAM AIR 400 PONTIAC MORE POWERFUL THAN A CHEVY 350? IS THERE A REPLACEMENT FOR DISPLACEMENT? HOW MUCH EXTRA HORSEPOWER AND TORQUE DOES INCREASED DISPLACEMENT ADD? WOULD A RAM AIR FIREBIRD OR GTO BEAT AN LT-1 CAMARO OR CORVETTE? CHECK OUT

This is a great video if you love learning about engines. Gong back to the time of WWII, it takes us through the basic design and operation of a few different types of diesel engines that were used on submarines at the time. There’s the “traditional” four stroke, the two stroke, the double acting piston engine, the opposed piston engine, and more. This is all done in a clear, concise, and really interesting way. The animations are great and they make sense of some stuff that we had been confused about, especially when it comes to the opposed and double acting stuff. There’ so many interesting ways people have tried to make the piston engine better, stronger, and more efficient over the years. While many of them have failed by and large, engineers have learned something from every blind hole they ever jumped down. No, we are not driving cars around with opposed or double acting piston engines, but the design was the right layout for stuff of this size and scale back in the day. Imagin

Once again, Jim Hrody is out and about collecting photos of awesome rides on his adventures. This latest show is from the final Morris Illinois Cruise Night of the year and has all kinds of cool and fun hot rods, customs, trucks, and more. We’ll have a few more galleries from this show as well, so stay tuned for more to come. Plus, this is just one of the shows that was going on in Morris that weekend and he visited the others as well! (Words and Photos by Jim Hrody) Once a month from June through October, Morris, Illinois has what most likely is the largest ‘downtown’ cruise night in the Chicago-Joliet region. A count of 700 cars & trucks is not uncommon, with the highest total to date reaching as high as 975 vehicles. A different charity each month benefits from the nightly proceeds. With the October version being the latest municipal cruise night in the region, the last one of the season for Morris, and with many cars getting decorated for Halloween, you never know what’s going

There are a lot of tool kits on sale right now, as so many manufacturers put their stuff on sale for Black Friday holiday sales. Not only do they put everything on sale, but they also have been making holiday-specific models in recent years. But are these low buck holiday models worth buying? This video from the Torque Test Channel will put a couple of them through their paces to see. These start at just $99, and even if they aren’t the best with regards to power, they might be all you really need. That totally depends on what you are going to do with them. Video Description: The Ryobi Kit: https://homedepot.sjv.io/kjeRNz Next step up in power for the $ would be the SeeSii: https://amzn.to/3FuZTYE or Ryobi P262: https://amzn.to/3XEMpjO Our lifetime of TOOL RANKINGS : https://etsy.me/3G8j3QK Today we buy the new Ryobi PCL265K1 Impact wrench kit and new Ridgid R86215K from Home Depot to see if they are any good and more specifically if they are perhaps the same. The post A

If you are like me, then you have looked at just about every conceivable “CNC Plasma Cutter” option there is out there. And man there are a lot of them. I’d love to have one of those big 5’x10′ CNC plasma tables, but some of the smaller units are probably more approachable for the average person. But even if you get one that is just 2’x4′ it takes up space in your garage or shop. So what other options are out there for someone not wanting to take up too much space? Arcdroid is the answer, and that’s what Newbern just got. He’s going to walk us through what this thing does, and how it works, but for someone wanting to get into a plasma table that doesn’t take up room this might be the right choice. Video Description: On this episode my buddy Andrew Miller comes by to deliver his famous cnc robot. I pick up a Harbor Freight Titanium 65 amp plasma cutter and we put both to the test. Click the link to check out the Arcdroid cnc robot. https://arcdroidcnc.com ?aff=8 To learn more about

We love these 1950s promotional videos because they all follow along the same line. There are moments where they’re educational, moments where they are completely ridiculous, and (to us anyway) they’re entertaining as hell from tip to stern. When it comes to spending as much money as you could spend on a domestic car in 1957 (and there were pretty much ONLY domestic cars in 1957) few could suck a wallet dry faster than a Chrysler Imperial or a Cadillac 62. We’re kind of surprised that the 1957 Lincoln Continental was not included here but perhaps they had not hit the showrooms yet by the time this film was made. As we can see the engineers are dressed as if they are going ice fishing so we can surmise that this was made very early in the 1957 year. Typically the new cars were coming out in the fall for the next year at this time so it makes sense that they’d snatch a Cadillac up quick and then get to work as far as the comparison testing. It’s impossible to deny that the Imperial wa

If you have spent any time at the drags you have likely watched a jet dragster or a jet funny car make a run. There’s smoke, there’s fire, there’s that familiar shrill scream as the afterburner lights and the car swooshes down the track. These cars have put more butts into more seats at tracks since 1960 than literally anything else ever created. 99 times out of 100 things go according to plan. This is not one of those times. Jet Car racer Brian Mitchell and his machine star in this video and the did not put on the show they were expecting. What you are going to see is a fan video made directly next to the track. Pay close attention right around the 1:00 mark as the crew plugs the car in and starts to spin the engine up. Immediately upon doing that you will see fuel begin to pour from the back of it like a fire hose. You can do the math on what happens next here. The engine lights and the next thing you know there is a lake of fire behind the car. The crew person closest to the camer

McLaren’s involvement in the Indy 500 has been interesting over the last few years. In 2019 they had an awful re-launch at the race but things really came around in 2020 and 2021. We mention all of this because the video you were going to see shows the Gulf McLaren team competing at the Indy 500 in 1973. While McLaren’s life has been dominated by Formula One racing through the decades, the company has good history and legacy at the Speedway, which is forgotten by many. Johnny Rutherford was the driver for the team in 1973 and this film shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of the race. It even shows, in shocking detail the crash that killed Swede Savage. The horrendous wreck did not take Savage’s life at the moment of impact, rather it gravely injured the 26-year old from California and he lingered in the hospital for some five weeks before passing. It’s tough to watch. The 1973 race was also marked by awful weather, days of delays, and ultimately it took three days to get the thing

We share a fair amount of rust repair videos around here because most of the cars and trucks we’re into are older and that means many of you out there are going to have examples that have at least some rust. And if you are building something with a lot of aftermarket support then you can get all the patch and replacement panels you could ever want, but if you are building something else then you might have to make your own. Or if you are building something completely weird, like this Econoline pickup, then you know there isn’t going to be much in the way of aftermarket sheet metal available. So in that case, a video like this just might offer the advice and support you need to make your own panels for your project. Check it out below. Video Description: This ratty 1965 Ford Econoline pickup has been sitting on the lift for too long. Let’s get back to fixing all the rust, making our own repair panels from scratch. The post Making Patch Panels For A 1965 Ford E100 Van Pickup From S

No matter where you purchase your rear-end housings from, there are some basic questions, measurements, etc that are required before you make an order. With that said, there are also some decisions to be made with regard to optional upgrades. These could include things like gussets, braces, and even materials themselves. After all, some applications might be well suited for a complete chromoly rear axle housing. Others might find that mild steel is really the better choice for them. Regardless of your application, there are scenarios that you need to consider before shopping. That’s why the guys at Tin Soldier race cars put together a video to address the most common questions they get from customers, along with some questions you might not have thought to ask. I recently ordered a rear axle housing from Quick Performance for my 1956 Chevrolet Station Wagon. This rear housing needed to be narrower than stock, but needed to maintain stock rear mounting locations. In addition, we used

This right here is nasty and proof that nitromethane is the elixir of the horsepower gods no matter what type of engine it is being burned in. The video we see below is cringeworthy at the start but hand with it because the dyno pulls and horsepower this thing makes (along with the nose) are worth the price of admission. So, what are we looking at? Apparently a little Honda Civic that gets street raced a bunch and one that is naturally aspirated, as a 2.4L version of a Honda K engine in it and it’s claimed to be wearing an un-ported cylinder head. The first pulls are made on VP Racing Fuels M5 which is methanol with some of the companies patented additives in it to make it work better. The car sounds good, makes a really wicked dyno pull and is pretty pissed off for an NA engine of about 146ci. But then the good stuff enters the picture. The guys flush the fuel system and dump in the VP Racing Fuels 50/50 pre-mixed blend of nitromethane and M5 methanol. The car immediately sounds lik

We all can admit that for every positive thing there is about being a gearhead, there’s at least two points against it. We love to see a shiny, brand-new, well-built engine in the engine bay, ready to start. But we remember the hands covered in aged grease and oil, the broken exhaust manifold bolts, the busted knuckles and the crunched finger it took to get there. We love road trips, with the air rushing in through opened windows as the sun sets on the gorgeous scenery on a drive. We would rather forget the boiling radiator, the fuel bill and the complaints from non-car folk passengers along the way. There are two major items that Kevin would like to address in this video. First and foremost is the dangers of rust. This 2005 Ford F-150 seems like it should be far and away from the dangers of the tin worm, and on the surface it looks perfectly fine for a nearly twenty-year-old beater truck. If he hadn’t shown us what the frame looks like (read: Titanic’s staircase railings), we would’v

Here’s our third gallery of photos from Bob Chiluk! (Photos by Bob Chiluk) The Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals are the World’s Largest indoor car show showcasing muscle cars, Corvettes, and dealer-built supercars, and thanks to our friend and BANGshift contributor Bob Chiluk, we’ve got galleries of photos from this awesome event to share with all of you. This is a very large show and one that has all kinds of cool vehicles on display, along with vehicle debuts, celebrity appearances, and more. There is no shortage of stuff to drool over, and they’ve even got a really neat survivor area of the show that has some really epic finds. If you like barn finds, then you will dig that gallery for sure, and we’ll have it rolling tomorrow. There are a lot of rare and interesting muscle cars at this show, including stuff that was designed to travel the show circuit and then disappear, and never again see the light of day. This event has those kinds of cars in spades, and it is awesome to see

Once again, Jim Hrody is out and about collecting photos of awesome rides on his adventures. This latest show is from the final Morris Illinois Cruise Night of the year and has all kinds of cool and fun hot rods, customs, trucks, and more. We’ll have a few more galleries from this show as well, so stay tuned for more to come. Plus, this is just one of the shows that was going on in Morris that weekend and he visited the others as well! (Words and Photos by Jim Hrody) Once a month from June through October, Morris, Illinois has what most likely is the largest ‘downtown’ cruise night in the Chicago-Joliet region. A count of 700 cars & trucks is not uncommon, with the highest total to date reaching as high as 975 vehicles. A different charity each month benefits from the nightly proceeds. With the October version being the latest municipal cruise night in the region, the last one of the season for Morris, and with many cars getting decorated for Halloween, you never know what’s going

We all know the stories about hydrazine and drag racing. The hypergolic monopropellant used in rockets was used by hot rodders in the 1960s to spice up the nitromethane they were using in their engines. It was gotten in strange ways, it was used by guys who really didn’t fully understand what they were dealing with, and it was transported around in pickup trucks and station wagons across the nation. We’ll never know exactly how widespread hydrazine use was. Old guys like to embellish stories as we all know but the reality is that it did get used and after watching this video you’ll see how freakishly nasty the junk is. No, the video below has nothing to do with drag racing but it is the best thing we have ever watched on hydrazine because it goes into some of what it is and a lot of how it should be properly handled, how it can mess you up, and why it is used. In this case, the video is centered around the then new F-16 fighter jet. No, the F-16 did not run on hydrazine but it had an

Everyone has been hot and bothered about junkyard LS engines for the past few years, but before that, there were plenty of traditional small-block Chevrolets that were coming out of junkyards too. And there are still more of them at wrecking yards to this day. Plus there are a jillion of them in trucks and suvs for sale on FB Marketplace. So what do you do to one if you want cheap and easy performance? Watch. Video Description: EMISSIONS LEGAL SBC CAM SWAP-WHAT IS IT WORTH? WHAT CHEAP MODS ADD POWER TO A SMALL BLOCK CHEVY? HOW MUCH POWER IS A Q-JET WORTH? 2BRL VS 4 BRL CARB SWAP! MILD, PURE ENERGY CAM SWAP! HOW MUCH ARE PORTED, STOCK 882 HEADS WORTH? ARE ALUMINUM HEADS AND A BIGGER CAM WORTHWHILE? HOW CAN I MAKE POWER WITH MY SMALL BLOCK? IS A VORTEC L31 A GOOD PLACE TO START? CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO WHERE I TESTED THE FOLLOWING PERFORMANCE UPGRADES: LONG-TUBE HEADERS, 4-BARREL (Q-JET) INTAKE AND CARB, MILD 246 CAM AND PORTED 882 HEADS, RPM AIR GAP AND HOLLEY 750 CARB, HOLLEY ALUMINUM

If you’ve ever had a crank pulley bolt that won’t come out, you know what true frustration feels like. Hondas are famous for having a 19mm crank bolt that is exposed to the elements and that never EVER want to come out after their first installation. In response, tool manufacturers have created weighted sockets. These heavy sockets are able to break these tough-to-remove bolts loose and they do it with relative ease. But how do they really work? I mean is it just because they are heavy? Or is there some magic going on here? Or is the magic just physics? Well, if someone wants to know then someone has to test and that means making sockets, not just trying out the ones you can buy from your tool supplier. How heavy is too heavy? What kind of Frankenstein concoctions can the Torque Test Channel come up with to test them? Watch. The post Weighted Sockets = More Power. So is Heaviest Best? Physicist is stumped appeared first on BangShift.com . https://ift.tt/MO7omPe from BangShift

Les just sent us the link to his new video minutes ago and we knew we had to share it right away. If you loved all our March Meet and California Hot Rod Reunion livestreams back in the day, then you know we love all things nostalgia drag racing related around here. You also know that Les Mayhew, a great friend, and owner of Nitro America, makes some of the most epic nostalgia drag racing films you’ll find anywhere. So whenever Les shares a video, we’re all over it. This latest video of his is complete coverage of the AA/Fuel Dragster, aka Nostalgia Top Fuel, class at the California Hot Rod Reunion that just happened last month at Famoso Raceway. This track is home to the March Meet and the CHRR, which makes it home to the two biggest nostalgia drag racing events on the planet. It’s a great place to watch, a great place to race, and truly historical. Watch the latest video in between eating Thanksgiving leftovers and Black Friday shopping, and let us know what you think. The post A

It’s back for Part 2, where the 428 FE is going to get ready for its crankshaft, but first, some measuring has to happen. No matter how good the machine shop is, it is always a good idea to do some measuring before you get to slamming things together. In this video Scott does just that and then gets the crank installed in preparation for hanging rods and pistons on it! Rebeldryver Scott is back with Project Mud Bomber, whose 428 has been getting machined and prepped for a full rebuild. Because parts were scarce and the machine shop a bit slow, this one has taken a little while but now it is ready to go together. Scott has gotten it all done and ready for assembly and this is the next video in the build series, so watch, learn, and stay tuned for more. CLICK HERE IF YOU  MISSED THE PREVIOUS VIDEO Video Description: We are continuing the assembly of Ford 428 big block that is going in your 1964 Galaxie 500, Project Mud Bomber. This time we are installing our machined and balanced cra

It’s that time of year again, where food, drink, family and fun take center stage on this Thanksgiving Day. And while many of you will be frying, roasting, or smoking a big bird, and watching football, we can’t forget that this day is all about giving thanks. We are incredibly thankful for the good fortune we have had this year and, on behalf of ourselves and our families, want to wish our BangShift family a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving. It certainly has been a tough one for many of you, and I can relate, but I’m thankful for what we have and what we are able to do this holiday season. Whether it’s something big that happened in your life this year, or the little things like the smiles from your family, it’s all worth being thankful for. So join us in being thankful this year, as we share the things we are thankful for in 2022. Because of the dedication of our families, all of you readers, and our BangShift Sponsors, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. We are constantly aske

Once again, Jim Hrody is out and about collecting photos of awesome rides on his adventures. This latest show is from the final Morris Illinois Cruise Night of the year and has all kinds of cool and fun hot rods, customs, trucks, and more. We’ll have a few more galleries from this show as well, so stay tuned for more to come. Plus, this is just one of the shows that was going on in Morris that weekend and he visited the others as well! (Words and Photos by Jim Hrody) Once a month from June through October, Morris, Illinois has what most likely is the largest ‘downtown’ cruise night in the Chicago-Joliet region. A count of 700 cars & trucks is not uncommon, with the highest total to date reaching as high as 975 vehicles. A different charity each month benefits from the nightly proceeds. With the October version being the latest municipal cruise night in the region, the last one of the season for Morris, and with many cars getting decorated for Halloween, you never know what’s going

In several forms of racing, they preheat the engine oil and coolant so as to preheat the engine and it’s components as well. For many of these applications it is said to be critical to go through this process to insure longevity and performance from the engine. I’ve been around a few of these engines, both in race situations and on the engine dyno, and can tell you that it’s a pain. Regardless of what you have or don’t have to do the actual heating, the whole process just ads to the time, energy, and staff that is required to run a car. Whether it is worth it or not is not what this video is about, but rather what the heating does to the engine itself. Engines that require preheating often do because the clearances present are so tight as to require heating in order to avoid damage. Sometimes it is just to keep the oil clean and well circulated prior to running. Regardless of the reason, knowing just how much a component or clearance will change due to heat is interesting and offers

Ian is making the final push to get the Ultimate Adventure Colorado set and ready to go for the trip and that means buttoning up all kinds of “little” projects. One of them is the front bumper and included winch mount, so that is going to be the focus of this latest video. He’s also going to touch on some other stuff, because it all has to get done before it’s time to leave! Video Description: Building the custom front bumper and winch mount on the UA Colorado along with the rear anti wrap bar and radiator mount. Plus how to fix a screw up and make it stronger than the original design. The post Big Tire Garage Builds A Custom Winch Mount For The Colorado Rock Crawler appeared first on BangShift.com . https://ift.tt/D96fFBM from BangShift.com https://ift.tt/KPqbMa8

Here’s our second gallery of photos from Bob Chiluk! (Photos by Bob Chiluk) The Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals are the World’s Largest indoor car show showcasing muscle cars, Corvettes, and dealer-built supercars, and thanks to our friend and BANGshift contributor Bob Chiluk, we’ve got galleries of photos from this awesome event to share with all of you. This is a very large show and one that has all kinds of cool vehicles on display, along with vehicle debuts, celebrity appearances, and more. There is no shortage of stuff to drool over, and they’ve even got a really neat survivor area of the show that has some really epic finds. If you like barn finds, then you will dig that gallery for sure, and we’ll have it rolling tomorrow. There are a lot of rare and interesting muscle cars at this show, including stuff that was designed to travel the show circuit and then disappear, and never again see the light of day. This event has those kinds of cars in spades, and it is awesome to see

(Cover Photo Credit: Wayne Deslauriers) Welcome back to our coverage of Project Power Laggin’! Follow along as we take a tired 1979 Dodge W150 Power Wagon we found in Central Maine and transform it from a derelict roadside attraction to a dependable, powerful weekend workhorse that lives up to its given name! In this installment, we check in with the truck and see how it’s doing after the engine swap, and spruce the rig up just enough to enter it into the annual Spindles Car Club Autofest show. Read on to see how we did, and for a twist you won’t see coming!  When we last reported on Project Power Laggin’ , the Magnum 360 V8 was so fresh in the engine bay that the paint was still drying! It was running and driving, but there were still some tweaks to be made. So, we set a goal: there was an upcoming car show on the calendar that we liked to hit up every year. Could we get some of the quirks smoothed out before then and enter this rig into the show? And to further throw another wrenc

Now that the engine and trans have been fitted, and permanent mounts for them made, it’s time to figure out the steering. That sounds like it might be easy, but even the most straightforward things can become an issue when you are doing engine swaps and such. But what really makes it more challenging is the fact that this car didn’t have rack and pinion steering on it from the factory and all that area has been cut out and replaced so there is a lot more than just bolting in a steering rack and hooking it to the column. In this case not only does the steering column need to be able to connect to the rack and the rack must be mounted in the car, but it also has to have correct steering geometry so as to have the rick Ackerman and no bump steer. Math is going to happen, and lots of measuring. Watch and be inspired to get out and do more in your garage. This is a little car, and it still has lots of little things to fix on it, but Jeff is surely knocking them out. I am really digging th

I first met Mark Rogers at Mooresville Dragway one night when I was in town and came to hang out with Eric Yost (Bigun). Bigun introduced Mark to me and told me how bad ass his Mustang was and that it still had a mod motor in it and was one of the quickest anywhere. I immediately made a smart-ass comment about how an LS fits perfectly in one of those and would actually make it fast compared to the rest of the world, not just mod motor cars. He laughed and gave me some crap right back and we laughed. 20 minutes later we were standing in line at the concession stand when Mark and I bonded over our love of a good fried or bbq bologna sandwich, and we’ve been friends ever since. I still bust his balls about the mod motor, but that’s just because I can. His car is legit fast, has set several records, and is a force to be reckoned with in Ultra Street at the radial races. You probably saw our recent video where Mark accidentally tapped the wall in this car, so we thought we’d share the seri