The Top 11: Most Violent Automotive Products


The Top 11: Most Violent Automotive Products

It has been way too long since we have done a Top 11 list so we decided to go straight to where we live, naming the most violent stuff in the world of gearheads. These are the parts we wish we could use to full effect every day of the year. They are the items that say you mean bidness and have the stones to back it up. It’s the stuff that separates the braggers from the doers, or that identifies a real poser if they have any of these items but don’t use them as God intended. See if you agree and if you don’t tell us how badly we botched it in the comment section below –

The Top 11 Most Violent Automotive Products

11) Detroit Locker: This great product falls near the bottom of the list because it’s hidden in the car so that bystanders cannot fear it by presence alone, and also because, in theory, a spool is more violent. But, truth be told, most people think that a Detroit Locker is just an absurd idea for a passenger car, and we enjoy their squirmyness.

10) Dominator: Here’s another one we love, but it places low on the list because the lovable 4500-series Holley carb has been used too many times by fairground-cruising wankers. It’s because they grock the concept but lack the hardware to actually need a Dominator. And when you need a Domi, you’ve arrived at a new level of gearheadom. Better yet, need two.

9) V-Gate Shifter: Ah, the inline shifter. Be it Hurst, Long, or Mr. Gasket, the vertigate four-speed shifter means pure bangshifting greatness and is sure to confound any neophyte who happens to stumble into your car.

8) Fogger: There’s nitrous, and then there’s nitrous. As much as we approve of guys hosing 400 or 500 extra ponies through a stack of plate systems, there’s something extra special about port injection of the laughing gas. When you see a polished Fogger at a car show, you think the guy’s a wiener. But when you see it at the street races, you’ve witnessed violence at its purest.

7) Boggers: You car guys may not know about 4×4 stuff, so let us introduce you to the Super Swamper Bogger, the most aggressively treaded tire you can buy with or without a DOT rating. Better yet, you can get ‘em in sizes up to 54 inches tall, and there are no pansy radials available. This junk moves some earth.

6) Rockwell Axles: Here’s another pick from the 4×4 world. When Dana 60s stopped being enough meat for today’s huge tires, military/industrial axles became needed. The Rockwells are 2.5-ton rated and use multiple gear reduction for a ratio of 6.72:1. The aftermarket sells 47-spline, 2.00-inch axles for them. Casual observers do not run Rockwells.

5) Lenco: Whether a Lenco or a Jeffco, the full-manual, planetary-gear trans with the Lightning Rod shifters pretty much makes you a man as long as you have the power to demand it and the chassis to handle it. It’s almost a letdown that Lencos have proven far more streetable than anyone thought in the ‘80s.

4) Sonny Leonard 932ci Crate Engine: The world’s baddest crate engine! Sonny sells a 2,200hp, 932ci, 5.300-inch-bore-spacing, naturally aspirated monster for just $89,300. This is one mill you’ll never see in a delicately refined Pro Touring car.

3) PSI Blower: Our list had to include at least one implement of boost. We thought about listing the most wicked turbos and blowers individually, but when it came down to it, we decided that none of them are as severe as a true PSI lung.

2) Nitro: You know you’ve got good violence when your racing fuel makes guys cry and has the potential to make ears bleed from a city block away. Add nitro to anything and it gets more violent. It should have topped the list…but…

1) Hydrazine: You know what makes nitro badder asser?  Hydrazine. It’s rocket fuel, totally unstable, illegal on most planets, and with the ability to grow you an eleventh finger if you snorf it too hard while pouring it into your Hemi just before you blow out the side of the block.


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14 thoughts on “The Top 11: Most Violent Automotive Products

  1. Ron Ward

    Yep, I concur. Turbonique deserves a place on the list. I might also throw into the mix a transbrake.

  2. 38P

    Tree’d me on the Turbonique (a product that desperately needs reengineering and a brilliant comeback . . . .)

    I never really thought of V-gates and Dominators as all that “violent.”

  3. Chevy Hatin'Mad Geordie

    Hydrazine eh? So that’s what I’ve been putting in me whisky – ne wonder I’m as mad as a box of frogs and see Chevys crawling all over me- aaaaaaaaaaagggggghh!

  4. 38P

    As a kid, I saw a Gen I Falcon that had been jacked to the sky on nothing more than SIX-INCH LEAF SPRING SHACKLES violently oscillate from lane-to-lane on the boulevard . . . .

    (Of course that the car came stock without any sort of anti-sway bars and was jacked so high on seemingly stock 4×14″ wheels probably didn’t help its stability . . . .)

    So, from that demonstration of violent yaw and roll, I’d have to say that cheap high-lift LEAF SPRING SHACKLES were one of the most “violent” automotive products of the ’60s. . . . .

  5. Lee

    Chrysler AWB “Funny Cars” of the 1960s. Factory Altered Wheel Base with a full Race Hemi engine

  6. Don

    Wow I never knew that PSI was down the street from me. I will have to stop by and check them out sometime. As for the Detroit Locker they are not so bad on the street. I have run them in Mustangs with no problems.

  7. NickL

    I had the Vgate on a Richmond 5 speed and a Detroit locker in my old Nova. Couple that with a 268/[email protected] cammed 11:1 350 and we had all kinds of high winding fun. Really though I used to drive this thing on long cruises and 500 mile trips. Not too big of a deal really.

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