TUNING vs. Hard Parts vs. BOTH vs. Smog Testing.

[pdub]

Interesting.

Yes that sure WAS. Interesting is an understatement. But on the inspection form, they have boxes to check off.....135, 185, 200+......GYAH! I don't understand it completely, but let's don't publicize it a whole lot, though it's already too late, it's knowledge.

[Spaceman Spiff]

2015 caddy CTS-V. 10.87@128, through the FACTORY exhaust. Nice and quiet ( other than the blower shriek)
Added headers and a full aftermarket exhaust. 10.75@129. Loud, and obnoxious, almost deafening under WOT.
Your situation may vary.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

Tube headers are kind of the automotive version of women's pantyhose. They kind of look great for a few minutes. They're a pain in the butt to install**.. They're easily damaged. They don't do much for most, but some "dogs" really need 'em.

**Direct experience with headers . . . observational "experience" with pantyhose (Sorry Joe Namath fans, but real men don't wear 'em)

[Monster]

Tube headers are kind of the automotive version of women's pantyhose.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

Monster, it's like the sort of exaggerated metaphors and similes that made Tom McCahill a decent living for decades,

[RockJustRock]

Tom McCahill was a weak imitation of the TRUE master Brock Yates.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

Tom McCahill was a weak imitation of the TRUE master Brock Yates.

Who knew it was a contest? McCahill was an American institution years before anyone had much heard of Yates. So it's hard to conclude McCahill was a "weak imitation."

iməˈtāSH(ə)n
noun
1.
the action of using someone or something as a model.
"a child learns to speak by imitation"
synonyms: emulation, copying, echoing, parroting
"learning by imitation"
2.
a thing intended to simulate or copy something else.
"an imitation diamond"
synonyms: copy, simulation, reproduction, replica]

Both men (RIP) were great writers.

"Great automotive writing is memorable forever, almost as if you’d done the trip yourself" -- Neill Watson

[RockJustRock]

Exaggerated Metaphors and Similes? O.K. The best written Hot Rod Magazine EVER was Car and Driver in the early 70s. From Jean Shepard on down. Mechanix Illustrated? You must have spent a LOT of time in the High School Library AND it's magazine section must have been weak. C&D every writer had the chops to do a monthly column and every one was golden.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

The best written Hot Rod Magazine EVER was Car and Driver . . . .

Spider Gears Man would be turning at 10,000 r.p.m. at the thought any "clean hands" rag could be considered a "hot rod" magazine.

seems like hrm wants to be more like the clean hands magazines

And I'm fairly sure Spidey wouldn't agree that any magazine without Tony DeFeo, Cliff Gromer, the Brunt Brothers, Joe Oldham, Martyn Schorr, Al Kirschenbaum, "E-Booger" and the other outlaw scribes of the NYC hot rodding media is "best" . . . .

Re: your favorite dead car magazine ?

cliff gromer and the brunt brothers too

Re: What magazines do you subscribe to? Magazine decline thread got me going.

in the single days it was
car craft
hrm
super chevy
stock car racing
circle track
chp
national dragster
ss/di
national speed sport news [me and gary london hated the jarretts ]
winston cup scene
phr
popular cars
dave wallaces drag racing
doug marion's chevy newsletter
eastern rod news
muscle cars
cars illustrated

CD back in the day was well-written "clean hands" stuff (oh sure, they occasionally outsource-built a race car or two). But it was no hot rodding magazine, IMO. Not even close.

[RockJustRock]

Hi Performanece Cars was GREAT FUN. Well written. Good people. But content? It was just a Comic Book for Baldwin/Motion. Because of it's existence the rest of the motoring press was left to ignore the Shelby of the East Coast. More said. Fewer words. Too easy...

[pdub]

The best written Hot Rod Magazine EVER was Car and Driver in the early 70s.

Okay, I'll bite, for pure discussion pleasure only, and our results may vary I was buying Hot Rod and C&D off of the shelf at the convenience stores during just about that same time, or probably even earlier.

There are two things I remember from then. In Hot Rod, it was the gassers. That was the thing. And I lived nearly 60 years before I ever got a chance to see them run in person. They are doing that, still, a legacy league in the Southeast. Also in Hot Rod, I vividly remember a monthly column near the back of the magazine called "Rooster Tales." It was about racing boats and the teams that were doing it. Top end on the MPH scale racing boats.

At the same time in C&D they were doing performance checks on production cars. I was fascinated with the numbers, how fast or slow they would go in a testing environment. But what stuck with me, it's still in me after all of those years, all of the braking stats were the same. Because they were all using drum brakes. So they would fade on the 5th run, etc. Even as a kid I picked up on that. It didn't matter if it's a Ferrari or a Cadillac, all of the brakes were the same. I was left wondering why they went to so much effort to develop the stats on the brakes for every car when they were all virtually identical.

[RockJustRock]

I'm not saying Hot Rod sucked. I'm not saying ANYTHING sucked. There were bad car magazines. There was a different Super Stock that was more like HP CARS than Super Stock. Popular Hot Rodding didn't really do anything that well. But none sucked. At fifty cents how COULD they? A Hot Rod full of Vans and Dune Buggies was still GOOD. But a Car Magazine you could pour into a snifter, swirl around and inhale before devouring it cover to cover? That was C&D. A Car Magazine that made you laugh out loud? C&D. A Car Magazine you read aloud to your school teacher and used in school projects? C&D. AND they raced and built project cars, Hot Rod stuff.

[RockJustRock]

C&D Hot Rodding....

http://media.caranddriver.com/files/pontiac-gto-royal-bobcat-february-1968.pdf

http://www.caranddriver.com/archives/chevrolet-blue-maxi-camaro-z-29-archived-test-review