Back in 1970, SCCA Trans-Am racing was at a frenzied pitch, and the factories were involved up to their navels. Chrysler Corporation answered the Trans-Am challenge with a pair of new-for-1970 E-bodies. Dodge's version was the aptly named Challenger T/A (for Trans-Am) and Plymouth's AAR Cuda was named for Dan Gurney's All American Racers who campaigned it on the factory's behalf. Both were officially sanctioned efforts with a slew of specialized "standard" equipment to make them legal for the ponycar wars.

She holds it in gear until you wince and wish she would shift, but she doesn't. The Boss was designed with revvin' in mind, and Michelle clings to the abstract without mercy as she holds the pedal to the floor until the valvetrain clatter forces a shift. We know it when we see a throttle jockey who likes to rev by the faint veil of blue smoke that follows the car around, and all the signs were there. Thirty-five years earlier, Michelle might have been the Danica Patrick of Trans-Am.

Every April, we paint a car, and this time around, we made an honest girl out of our '67 Mustang coupe, which made its first appearance in CC exactly two years ago. To refresh your memory, we picked up this lowly I-6/C4 commuter from its previous owner for $2,000. And it looked like what you'd expect from a 40-year-old car at that price. There were several layers of paint, some rust spots, and someone in the recent past was a regular practitioner of the "park by feel" method-reverse till you hit something, forward till you hit something, inch back, and ... you're good. As you'd expect, the front and rear of the car had more creases and folds than the entire cast of The Biggest Loser.

"I had a '68 Plymouth Sport Satellite when I was in high school. When I was about 19, I hit a tree and sent it to the automotive graveyard."

'If you've been following the buildup of the CC '67 Mustang, then you know all about the Global West Suspension upgrades that up 'til now have included a hefty escalation in both front and rear spring rates, a set of gnarly tubular upper and lower control arms, a beefy sway bar, adjustable strut rods, and a bunch of other goodies. We also bolted on a Stainless Steel Brakes front disc-brake conversion, and we're well on our way to converting that lame 8-inch rear to a stronger 8.8 out of a donor '88 Fox-body Mustang. But even with all this work on the suspension, there is still something not quite right. That "something" is the thin sheetmetal floorpan connection between the front and rear suspension on a '67 Mustang. Early Mustangs are notorious for their lack of structural strength. Because we have plans to emulate the Jerry Titus Trans Am from 1967, it will include the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound-Trans Am style. We knew that the thin floorpan connection between front and rear would have to be reinforced if we expected this car to come anywhere near corner-burner hero status.

'Behind The ScenesWretched Excess

Ha! Let them eat cake. We have found the definition of overt use of AN lines, fuel blocks, split Dominator carburetors, and conspicuous consumption. Tom Johnson wins with his all-alloy 632 Rat with 1,800 hp worth of nitrous and fuel lines.

If you have been following the CC/Rambler project, you might have noticed that we've made 480 hp and run 12.06 at 112 mph using a completely original fuel system. It has the crappy stock 31/48-inch pickup in the tank with original fuel lines and a Jeep Cherokee mechanical fuel pump. It works just fine, so we are going to fix it.

Before this tune-up, when the green light lit this '71 Buick Skylark would smoke the Mickey Thompson stickies down the first 100 feet or so of the track before hooking up and running. The starting-line tirespin was maddening. Part of the solution we'll show here applies to production cars with coil-sprung, nonparallel four-link rear suspensions such as '64-'72 GM A-bodies (Chevelles, Skylarks, Cutlasses, and Tempests) and Fox-and-newer Mustangs. Next month, we'll dial it in.

After decades of being viewed as nothing more than front-clip, suspension, and driveline donors, station wagons have rightfully become hip. They deliver the same flavor as their two-door siblings-that is to say, a Chevelle is still a Chevelle regardless of body style. And some eyes are even learning to appreciate the long-roofs' stretched-out bodylines, specific glass treatments, and added acreage, which gave their designers much more room to strut their stuff. From a functional standpoint you just can't beat 'em. No, we aren't yakking about stuffing them full of groceries, doilies, Barbie dolls, and other boring junk; we're saying all that rear overhang helps plant the slicks better, a real benefit on the strip or on the street, where the sleeper factor is money in the bank. But of all the station wagons, it's the two-doors and woodies that are most sought after. Feast your eyes on this sad stash of wagoons festering in the woods of Massachusetts. The two steel-bodied cars are likely in China right now, but we hear the woodies may have escaped the crusher.

"So you're coming up to the Christmas tree and the exhaust is going bappety bappety bappety and all those little internal bits are going whumpa whumpa whumpa."

We can't stop looking at it and neither can the owner. While we were speaking with him, Bill swiveled his head at least 15 times to peek at the car all gleaming and washed in the studio. When you think Car Craft, studio shoots don't usually come to mind. The exception is when the paint and body are so good we feel obliged to drag it indoors for pro photos. It's even more likely when the paint job was performed in a guy's garage instead of a professional spray booth. Makes us wish we had that kind of talent.

Is this month's cover car giving you acid flashbacks? Don't freak-you may just be having subliminal recall. This pile of a '72 El Camino (now with a '71 nose) has appeared on CC's cover five times: Sept. '98, Feb. '99, May '99 (where it was Photoshopped yellow), Apr. '00, and now Sept. '07 (faked yellow again). That body count's gotta turn Troy Trepanier green. The car was acquired for $400 from now-Hot Rod Editor Rob Kinnan, who was then escaping California for Florida. The tale began in Feb. '99 and was followed up in May '99 when Project El Cheapo ran an uncorrected 12.93 e.t. at 103.46 mph with a used 350, 2.56 rear gears, and a big nitrous shot, all for a bumper-to-bumper investment of $1,994.87. In Sept. '99 we tossed a used 454 into it for another thousand and ran 12.43 at 105 mph. In the Apr. '00 issue we painted it all pretty Hugger Orange. Then it sat for seven years totally untouched, as we had more pressing things to do, like making sure the Disco Nova never runs either. In May 2007 the body and frame got sold back to Kinnan for $2,500, and it's turning into a big project direct with GM. At about the same time, Glad got roasted by management (moi) for shooting a "Hot Rod project car" for the cover of Car Craft. Douglas loves his job.

There's been an upswing in the popularity of AMC machinery from the days before Chrysler's acquisition of the ailing carmaker in March 1987. Though AMC was ahead of the industry in rust prevention, with the heavy use of galvanized metal and numerous dips in the phosphate tank, in the end nature always wins out. Witness this quartet of extra-salty AMC wonders we found at the recently closed Curboy's Auto Wrecking in Sturbridge, Massachussetts.

Global warming? While the tree- huggers clamor over ex-Vice President Gore's global temperature scare, we'll lay odds that when summer arrives, car crafters will be more concerned about engine warming or, more accurately, engine overheating. Cooling systems are often the last item on the "let's get it running" checklist. Unfortunately, radiators and cooling-system components qualify for afterthought status until there's a problem. Most of the time, modified cars tend to have problems with low-speed cooling. But we've also seen many scenarios where 70-mph cruising under a midday sun that can really turn up the heat. We dove radiator-neck-deep into this subject and came up with a few cool solutions. Check 'em out.

Of all the junkyard sightings, the most shocking-and uncommon-is a derelict Corvette. The mind reels at the sight of "America's sports car" in such a state of neglect. Here's one we found at the always ripe Curboy's Auto Wrecking (508/347-9650) in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Because this one has been so thoroughly stripped, we had to put on our detective caps and sleuth some details to determine whether we were looking at some mythical, million-dollar wonder (a third '69 ZL1 perhaps?) or just a common roadster, if any early Corvette can be called common.

Early F-bodies are super hot these days, especially factory-performance models and four-speed sticks. But with so many re-creations, tributes, and clones on the scene, unmolested originals are becoming hard to find. Dig on these forgotten relics we spotted in New England recently. OK, they're hardly unmolested and they're riddled with cancer, but their time-capsule status makes them a shocking sight that's music to the eyes of junkyard crawlers like us.

You Smell Something?
Cruz Pedregon had some fire trouble during the last qualifying session at the NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. According to an NHRA report, a loose fuel line in the head caused a domino effect with other parts causing the fire. That caused Pedregon and the Advanced Auto Parts team to pull out the backup car for eliminations. The team was eliminated in the first round by Eric Medlen with a 4.88 at 315 mph to Cruz's 4.98 at 280 mph. Cruz blamed the loss on unfixable gremlins in the backup car. Cruz was unhurt by the incident.

Don't know about you, but we think of old British cars as prissy little things that are slow and rusty. The only one that stands out is the V-8-powered Rover 3500 saloon. No, it doesn't serve drinks on the fly, the term saloon is Brit-speak for a four-door sedan. Produced between 1968 and 1976, these little critters were imported here in fairly large numbers. The big surprise is under the hood, where motivation comes from the former Buick/Olds all-aluminum 215 V-8. Weighing less than 300 pounds, the alloy 215 was designed for the '61-'63 Buick Special, Olds F-85 and Pontiac Tempest senior compact cars. When GM realized the aluminum engine cost too much to make and most customers were indifferent to its technological significance, they shuffled the tooling and manufacturing rights overseas to British Leyland, which stuffed them in these Rover 3500s-and Range Rover SUVs-right up until 2004. We spotted this derelict example in a New England junkyard and had to take a peek.

OK, I can hear you now: enough with the six-cylinder stuff! But hear me out, this one is really, really cool! Sure, the aluminum-block '62 Plymouth Slant Six junkyard discovery from a few issues back was pretty neat, but here's an aluminum-block inline six from ... are you ready for it ... American Motors! Yep, even AMC, which infamously pledged (at the dawn of the musclecar era, no less) "the only race we care about is the human race" was playing the alloy game when it produced this wacky, die-cast-aluminum overhead valve, 195.6-cube six popper. Produced between 1961 and 1964 as an option on fullsize Rambler models, the aluminum engine block was intended to reduce engine mass from the 460 pounds of its otherwise identical cast-iron cousin to a svelte 380 pounds. The result was improved handling and easier steering for Granny, plus bragging rights to let GM-whose cutting-edge Corvair flat 6 and 215 V-8 were made of aluminum-know that Kenosha wasn't stuck in the past. Though I wish I could report that the aluminum AMC six could boast 10:1 compression, a ram-tuned four-barrel, and at least 1 hp per cubic inch, the sad fact is even the optional two-barrel Power Pak version kicked out a humble 138 hp (127 hp in 1-BBL trim). Records show that at least 60,000 were sold before the new cast-iron 199/232 Typhoon engine family arrived on the scene in 1964 and the OHV 195.6 engine family was put to rest.

"Here is one for your horsepower page." Rick Lantz wasn't kidding when he flashed us a view of the Dominator and the 746hp dyno squiggles related to his '69 Camaro. We really couldn't resist when he threatened to drive the car on the freeway from its hiding place in Yorba Linda, California, to a scuzzy L.A. ghetto to show us the goods: four-speed, four-link, and giant Brodix 14-degree heads and all.

There's no debating that the Dana 60 is the toughest rear axle going if maximum strength is the mission. And contrary to popular belief, at 250 pounds drum-to-drum (O.E. Mopar or aftermarket automotive version), a typical Dana 60 is only 50 pounds heavier than an average Ford 9-inch. But many Car Crafters may be unaware there are several other Dana rear axles with similar appearances that are smaller and weaker. The big dog Dana 60 gets its strength from a massive 931/44-inch ring gear, which provides more gear-mesh contact area for greater load-bearing capacity, thickly webbed carrier- and pinion-bearing support sections, and beefy 30- to 35-spline axleshafts. Here's a junkyard tour to help you identify the 60 series and avoid the weaklings. So remember, regardless of what the guy at the swap meet says, just because it has a drain plug in the cover doesn't mean it's a Dana 60.

Never LiftClay Millican, the IHRA four-time Top Fuel World Champion from Drummonds, Tennessee, was racing Bruce Litton at the Dukes of Hazzard Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan, when his dragster flipped back on its wing then over on its top. At the starting line there was some tire shake but it smoothed out, so Clay stayed on the fuel, trying to make a good run. At half-track, the front end lifted at over 200 mph causing a spectacular blowover. The dragster slid through the finish line on its lid, and when the track safety crew arrived, Clay was himself, making jokes with a smile.

Orlando InfernoThings got hot in a hurry for Horsham, Pennsylvania's Elliot Thompson at last year's World Street Nationals in Orlando. In just his third heads-up race, the 20-year-old wowed the Heavy Street crowd, first by qualifying number one in his turbocharged '91 Camaro, and then with this massive explosion and fire in the opening round of eliminations. "I don't remember the tree going down, but I remember flames up my arms and I remember trying to go for my seatbelt latches and my helmet getting stuck as I tried to get out. Then I felt people pulling at me. Other than that, I don't remember getting out." The fire, which turned out to be transmission related, died down fairly quickly and the young driver suffered only minor burns to both wrists from the elastic cuffs on his sleeves.