Hot Rod Lincoln at SEMA 

As a teenager in the nineteen seventies the author loved Commander Cody’s version of the song “Hot Rod Lincoln” but when my father heard the song he would say that in his youth he had owned a 1941 V-12 Lincoln Zephyr which was a “dog” when it came to performance. The truth was the 292-cubic inch Lincoln V-12 flathead engines only developed a little over 110 horsepower and were notoriously unreliable.

Pat Reisinger of Reisinger Custom Rebuilding LLC of Evansville Indiana loved the idea of a “Hot Rod Lincoln” but he decided to send his 1947 306-cubic inch V-12 flathead engine to H& H Flatheads to add power. H&H in La Cresenta California added Ken Austin aluminum cylinder heads and a supercharger topped by four Stromberg 97 carburetors that brought the engine to life with 295 horsepower.

 

Now with the engine making good power, Pat built the car as he started with a Brookville Roadsters 1931 Model A 5-window body mounted on 1932 Ford rails with a Winters quick-change rear end and dropped I-beam front end. The period look is finished off with steel wheels with Lincoln V-12 hubcaps.

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Reisinger’s creation which he calls “V Doce” (Doce is Spanish for twelve) was on display in the NSRA (National Street Rod Association) booth at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show.

All photos by the author

HONDA RACING AT SEMA 2017

 

 

The American Honda Motor Company booth at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show was heavily populated with racing machines.

Honda Concept Kart

 

 

The Honda Concept Shifter Kart is powered by an electric start 250 CC single cylinder liquid cooled engine four stroke engine CRF250R connected to a five-speed transmission in a Aluminous Kart chassis.

 

 

Honda F3

The 2018 F3 Americas Series racer drew a lot of attention due to its FIA-approved Halo concept cockpit protection on its Ligier Crawford carbon fiber moncoque chassis which features adjustable front and rear wings. The F3 racer is powered by a 270-horsepower turbocharged fuel-injected Honda K20 motor as used in the Honda Civic Type R connected to a sequential Sandev six-speed transmission which is shifted by the driver with paddles adjacent to the steering wheel.    

 

 

The F3 Americas series sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) will debut in April 2018 with a total of six race weekends which will feature two 30-minute races per weekend.  The 2018 F3 races will be contested at Virginia International Raceway, Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Pittsburgh International Race Complex, New Jersey Motorsports Park with the season finale at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.   

Acura ARX-05

For the 2018 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar season, Team Penske will campaign the Acura ARX-05 DPi prototype. The Oreca 07 chassis will be powered by the Acura 3.5-liter AR35TT twin-turbo V-6 engine which is used in the Acura MDX, RDX, TLX and RLX passenger cars tuned to produce around 600 horsepower.

 

 

Two Team Penske Acura  ARX-05 racers will debut in the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona scheduled for this weekend January 27 and 28 2018. The Acuras will have a powerful drivers lineup that includes 2017 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar champion Ricky Taylor, Graham Rahal and three-time Indianapolis 500-mile race champion Helio Castroneves in the #7 car.

 

 

2016 INDYCAR champion Simon Pagenaud, two-time Indianapolis 500-mile race champion Juan Pablo Montoya, and 2014 IMSA GTD champion Dane Cameron will be teamed in the #6 entry. Taylor and Castroneves will team to compete on the entire 2018 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar championship trail in one car with Cameron and Montoya teammates in the other car.

Acura TLX GT

 

This specially prepared Acura TLX racer driven by Peter Cunningham set a new Open Class record at the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, finished second overall and earned Cunningham Rookie of the Year honors at the “Race to the Clouds.” The Acura’s steel unibody was fitted a full steel roll cage carbon fiber hood, trunk deck, front splitter and massive rear wing The car is powered by a modified Acura J35Z3 3.5 liter fuel-inject SOHC engine mated by an all-wheel drive system which propelled the TLX up the mountain in a time of 9 minutes and 33.797 seconds.   

 

 

     

Acura NSX Time Attack

 

 

This modified Acura NSX GT3 racer finished third in the Time Attack class at the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb driven by James Robinson. Basically a production car with a huge rear wing added, tuning was accomplished through modifications of the Acura Sport Hybrid Super Handling all-Wheel drive system. The output of the 3.5-liter twin turbocharged V-6 engine is supplemented by a direct driveshaft electric motor to the rear wheels and a pair of electric motors acting on the front axle.

 

Follow Acura Motorsports throughout the 2018 season at https://www.imsa.com/manufacturers/acura-motorsports

 

All photos by the author

The 2018 Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels® editions at SEMA 2017

 

 

 

Every generation of the Chevrolet Camaro has been replicated as a 1/64 scale die-cast car by Mattel’s Hot Wheels®. To celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Hot Wheels die-cast cars, Chevrolet debuted the Hot Wheels® edition 2018 Camaro at the 2017 SEMA show (Specialty Equipment Market Association) which they call “a die-cast dream come true.”

 

 

 

The Hot Wheels® package which costs $4,995, and available as either the coupe of convertible features an exclusive “Crush” exterior color with “Satin Graphite” stripes with Silver Metallic accents, 20-inch Satin Graphite machine-faced wheels, “Satin Graphite” ground effects, a unique grille with Galvano chrome inserts and Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary fender badges.

 

 

The Hot Wheels® edition Camaro interior features Jet Black leather-appointed interior with orange inserts and orange accent stitching, a suede-wrapped steering wheel with orange accent stitching and Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary badge, orange knee bolsters and seat belts, and premium carpeted floor mats with Orange stitching and ghost stripes.

 

 

 

On the other side of the Chevrolet booth at SEMA 2017 was the wilder, COPO (Central Office Production Order) Hot Wheels® edition Camaro, of which only 69 will be built during the 2018 model year available only to randomly selected lottery winners.

 

 

The COPO Camaro is designed for NHRA Stock Eliminator competition with a solid rear axle, full Chromoloy NHRA-certified roll cage, Weld wheels, high-rise carbon fiber hood, a LSX 350-cubic inch supercharged engine and Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary fender badges in addition to many racing-only features such as wheelie bars. Chevrolet predicts eight-second elapsed times on the quarter-mile drag strip from the COPO Camaro.

 

 

 

Photos by the author

 

 

The WILD
Jeep Quicksand concept
 

 

While at the 2018 Silicon Valley Auto Show in San Jose, the author spotted the wild Jeep “Quicksand” concept that debuted at the 2017 Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah which blends both off-road and gasser dragster styling cues to create an  “X-rated” 4 x 4.   

The Wrangler-based concept features a longer wheelbase, trimmed front and rear body, a flip-forward hood and a chopped hardtop.

Each corner is supported by coil-over shock absorbers. What looks like a drag racing parachute is actually a recovery rope pack complete a “Secure before Flight” tag.

 

 

The Quicksand rides on 18-inch “kidney bean” simulated mag wheels, up front wrapped in 32-inch diameter BF Goodrich® Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires. To in order to achieve a ‘hot rod rake’ the rear tires are 37 inches in diameter.

 

 

What looks like a classic hot rod detail the Moon tank is actually a Warn winch.

 

 

 

The power plant is a fuel injected 392-cubic-inch ‘Hemi’  V-8 crate engine with  gasser style fender headers mated to a Getrag six-speed manual transmission connected to a two-speed, part-time transfer case that sends power to the front Dana 44 axle

 

 

The interior features a roll bar, two leather seats and matching sprayed in bedliner.

 

This shot shows the fuel cell

 

Note the tilt-out windshield glass.

 

 

The Quicksand concept is based on the new JL-generation 2018 Wrangler which uses aluminum, composites, and magnesium to save nearly 200 pounds over the previous JK-generation Wrangler. The new JL-generation also has a new "sport bar" structure and offers an optional 270-horsepower all-aluminum 2.0-liter direct fuel injected with a twin-scroll turbocharger and electronic wastegate. 

Check it out https://www.jeep.com/wrangler.html


Photos by the author

How competitive was the Chili Bowl?

A snapshot of championship diversity

 

 

 

 

By now, most racing fans know that Christopher Bell a member of the powerful Keith Kunz Motorsports/Toyota Racing Development team successfully defended his title as the 2018 Chili Bowl Nationals champion. Bell took the victory after his teammate and fellow NASCAR star Kyle Larson suffered an engine failure midway through the 55-lap feature race.

KKM Toyota -powered Spike chassis entries won three of the four 2018 Chili Bowl preliminary night features and Bell’s win is KKM’s fourth consecutive Chili Bowl win since 2015. KKM was dominant on Saturday as in addition to claiming the feature win, all three steps of the podium went to KKM drivers – Rico Abreu was second and Spencer Bayston was third.

With such domination by one team, some may ask the question with 345 entries in 2018, how competitive and diverse is the Chili Bowl? Consider the starting field for the first of two C-Main 15 lap features which included Tanner Thorson the 2016 USAC (United States Auto Club) National Midget Champion and  2017 National Midget Driver of the Year, 2008 ARCA stock car champion Justin Allgaier who finished third in the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity series, and Steve Buckwalter, who has over 30 wins on the tough ARDC (American Racing Drivers Club) midget circuit and was their 2010 series champion.

That trio was joined by multi-time ASCS (American Sprint Car Series) Northwest division champion Roger Crockett, three-time POWRi midget series champion Zach Daum, World of Outlaws late model series champion and 2006 Chili Bowl champion Tim McCreadie, and multi-time USAC Southwest sprint car champion RJ Johnson.

As if that is not a tough enough field, it also included two-time USAC National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon, Sprint Car Challenge Tour (SCCT) sprint car series star Colby Copeland, CJ Leary who won four USAC National sprint car features in 2017 USAC/CRA multi-time winner Jake Swanson, three-time King of West sprint car champion Kyle Hirst and USAC National Sprint car series star Thomas Meseraull who was the 2004 BCRA (Bay Cities Racing Association) Midget series champion.  

Of the twenty cars and drivers in the first C-Main race, only the top six advanced to the tail of the first B-main race – Thorson, Allgaier, local driver Ace McCarthy who races with the POWRi series, Daum, Bacon and Leary. Of those six drivers only one -Tanner Thorson-was able to advance to the night’s 55-lap feature where he finished fourth behind his three former teammates, as for 2018, Thorson drives for the Dooling-Hayward Motorsports/Richard Childress Racing team.  

 

 

Kilby Racing continues 2018 season prep

 

In the early weeks of 2018, Kilby Racing in Bealeton Virginia continued to prepare for Bradley Kilby’s inaugural season in a limited late model race car.

 

Racers know that you can’t win unless you get to the track, so recently the Kilby team purchased a new 41-foot triple-axle race trailer and Chevrolet dually pickup which the fun-loving family team immediately nicknamed the “white freight train.”

 

 

With this rig, from Phillip Morris Trailer Town, the 2017 Dominion Speedway Bandelero track champion’s team will have plenty of room to work.

 

Bradley will begin testing his limited late model racer during March in preparation for his first 2018 race on April 7 at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg Virginia. C

Check out the full 2018 Dominion schedule at http://ovaltrack.dominionraceway.com/2108-oval-track-schedule/ and follow Bradley’s accomplishments on this site and be sure to “like” Kilby Racing on Facebook.   

Photos courtesy of Kilby Racing

Justin Grant wins Chili Bowl night four

 

Friday night was Vacuworx night at the 32nd annual Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa Oklahoma. Coming into the night the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) team was undefeated with three straight preliminary night wins for Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu and Christopher Bell.

The KKM team fell one spot short on  Friday night as Justin Grant driving for the Clauson-Marshall team won the 25-lap with Spencer Bayston the reigning USAC midget driving champion finishing second ahead of POWRi regular Andrew Felker who started the race from eleventh place. NASCAR Monster Energy Cup series star Kasey Kahne finished fifth.

 

Felker has quite a comeback story at the 2018 Chili Bowl as he crashed his car in practice on Monday after less then a lap of practice and it required complete disassembly before the frame was straightened, then the car was rebuilt. 

Grant who reigned as the 2007 Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) season champion continued another trend for the week as he earlier won his heat race and qualifying race, along with other strong contenders Chad Boat, Alex Schutte, Dave Darland and Damion Gardner, who finished fourth in the night’s A feature. Boat led the first four laps of the feature yielding to Gardner who led until lap turn two of lap seventeen when Grant took the lead with an outside pass in turn two.

The Chili Bowl Nationals winds up tonight with the 55-lap feature race.

Keith Kunz Racing three for three!

 

 

With Christopher Bell's sweep of the Thursday night Chili Bowl Nationals preliminary night as he won his heat race, qualifying race and the 25-lap feature, Keith Kunz Racing (KKR) is for three for three with preliminary night feature wins so far this week at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

 

Bell built a lead of nearly five seconds at time during the John Christner Trucking feature race, but second place Shane Golobic closed to as close as one second in the closing laps, but got no closer. Third place was captured by Chase Johnson driving for Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) President Del Morris with veteran Tracy Hines fourth and Indiana's Caleb Armstrong fifth.

 

Ryan Bernal driving for Clauson-Marshall Racing started the featured 17th and finished sixth. Two other drivers started the A-Main after starting from the D-Main - both Tanner Thorsen and Michael Pickens both had trouble in their heat races and raced hard to make up for their earlier troubles.  

 

 

Rico Abreu wins the second night

of the 2108 Chili Bowl Nationals

 

 

Two-time Chili Bowl Nationals champion Rico Abreu made a triumphant return to racing last night as won the Hard Rock Casino qualifying night A-feature in thrilling fashion. Abreu who had been of a race car since a hard crash at the USAC Four Crown Nationals at Eldora battled Tyler Thomas as the two drivers battled slide jobs throughout the 25 lap feature.

 

Kevin Thomas Jr. finished third with Sammy Swindell fourth edging Chris Windom with whom Swindell battled most of the last half of the race. Abreu won his beat race and his qualifying race and started the feature from the front row.

 

The night's most serious accident occurred on the final lap of the second 10-lap qualifying race when leader Brady Bacon flipped and his car became stuck in the catch fence. The dedicated Chili Bowl track crew worked diligently to extract the car from its precarious position with minimal damage. Bacon was unhurt and returned for his B-feature and advanced into the night's A feature where he finished 13th.

 

Earnhardt Jr. won his 
15th consecutive
NASCAR  
Most Popular Driver Award

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who retired from full-time competition in the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) Monster Energy Cup Series at the conclusion of the 2017 season, was named the National Motorsports Press Association's (NMPA) Most Popular Driver for the 15th consecutive year.

Earnhardt, 43, the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was named on nearly 68 percent of the votes cast by fans - the Most Popular Driver Award is the only major NASCAR award determined solely by fan vote. It has been presented annually since 1953 - the recipients were originally determined by a poll of the competitors but it became a fan-driven program in 1984 under the auspices of the NMPA.

Earnhardt is one of eight drivers to receive the award on multiple occasions. Other multiple-time Most Popular Driver award winners include Lee and Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, and Darrell Waltrip.  

Only one driver, Bill Elliott, has won the award more times than Earnhardt Jr.  Elliott was named the series’ most popular driver 16 times between 1984 and 2002. Dale Earnhardt Sr. broke Elliott’s stranglehold from 1991 to 2001, when he won the Most Popular Driver award for the only time in 2001.

In addition to hosting the voting platform for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver award, fans voted to determine the Most Popular Driver in the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series also hosted on NASCAR.com.

 Elliott Sadler, who finished second in the XFINITY Series championship battle won the NASCAR XFINITY Series Most Popular Driver award and Sunoco Rookie of the Year Chase Briscoe was voted the Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver by fans.

 

Information for this article was provided by NMPA, of which the author is a member.

deTomaso Pantera by Ghia

 imported by Lincoln-Mercury

 

In September 1969 Ford Motor Company signed an agreement with Italian auto manufacturer Alejandro deTomaso to build a high-volume wedge shaped mid-engine budget supercar, the Pantera (panther in Italian) for the United States market.

Ford knew there would be a limited window of sales for this car as the Tom Tjaarda design would not meet 1975 United States crash standards, but Ford anticipated selling 5000 Panteras a year in the United States at $10,925.00 each through Lincoln-Mercury dealers. At that time a Ferrari sold for $25,000, so Ford was selling a supercar at a bargain price.  

The first Pantera, a yellow car shown at the 1970 Los Angeles Auto Show was actually a European market car with push button doors and was later photographed for the initial Pantera brochures. The Pantera was powered by a Ford 351 cubic inch V-8 fitted with a four barrel carburetor that produced 310 horsepower.

 

click to enlarge

 

The mid-mounted engine fed the power to the independently suspended rear end through a ZF five-speed transmission. With a curb weight of 3123 pounds the Pantera accelerated from a standing start to 60 miles per hour (MPH) in 5.5 seconds and covered the quarter mile in 14 seconds.
 

The Pantera was a hand-built Italian supercar with four wheel power disc brakes and four-wheel independent suspension and cast magnesium  wheels  but being hand built, the cars had some problems. The author recalls making a trip with his father in 1971 as a thirteen year old to a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Fort Wayne Indiana to look at a Pantera.
 

Upon arrival, the dealer’s salesman was unfamiliar with the car and had no brochures. The dealership’s single medium blue example was not on the showroom floor, but rather was in the service department. The salesman admitted the car wouldn’t run and was in the shop to diagnosis an apparent electrical problem.

My father and I were left alone to wander back into the empty dealership service area to look at the car and were shocked at the poor build quality in the interior and exterior panel fitment. Panteras were notoriously unreliable, with engine cooling issues as well as an inadequate cockpit ventilation system. My father bought a Lincoln Mark III instead (as if he was going to buy anything else).   

Several celebrities owned Panteras. Elvis Presley bought a yellow Pantera for one of his girlfriends, and when it wouldn’t start the enraged star shot the steering wheel, after which the car reportedly started. Playboy Enterprises bought a white 1972 Pantera, had it stripped and painted pink and gave the car to 1972 Playmate of the year Liv Lindeland. In 1974 Canadian hockey star and restaurateur Tim Horton died after he crashed his 1972 white Pantera at over 110 MPH and  was ejected. A later investigation revealed that Horton's blood alcohol was twice the legal limit.   

 

 

click to enlarge

 

The early Panteras were equipped with attractive thin chrome bumperettes, but by 1973 to meet the new US crash standards, the Pantera Lusso (“L”)  as the example seen at the “Autos of Alamo” car show was equipped with energy-absorbing reinforced steel rubber bumpers which were certainly more attractive than some cars’ added safety bumpers.   

 

At the end of the 1974 model year, as planned Lincoln-Mercury dropped the Pantera line with a  documented total of only 5262 cars sold, far short of the planned 5,000 a year. Many of the surviving Panteras have been modified as the one seen at Alamo which has a non-original pant color and  is fitted larger diameter wheels which are similar to the original Campagnolo design in addition to obvious engine upgrades.

 

The 1973 Pantera had a redesigned instrument cluster with optional wood grain – the original Pantera featured a “twin pod” design

 

All photographs by the author