And so, another day of racing is in the books.  We continue to learn and get better, but we are still chasing our first win.  But not being the winner doesn't mean we didn't have a great time.  Not only did we get to  put our car through it's paces, but we got to hang out with some friends and make a few new ones, too.  A great big thanks goes out to Jeff and Robin Engle for letting us hang out with them in their trailer between races....the sun was pretty brutal and the shade they provided was a much needed relief.  As some of you may know, we have been following some of Jeff's exploits with his 1966 4-door Chevelle since last year.  He managed to pull off his fastest ever 1/8 mile speed.  He managed to go just a little over 102mph in just 660ft.  That is an impressive run....but do you think jeff was satisfied....NO!!!....while he did have a great big smile on his face after that, the only thing he said was...."next time we go 103".  Now that, folks, is how the mind of a true racer works.

The video we shot from this event has been handed over to our production department and will be coming soon.  There was alot of great racing happening at 'Yello Belly Drag Strip' and we are going to bring some of that action to you.  This track has been in operation since 1955 and is the oldest operating track in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex.  And when I say it's the oldest...I mean it.  This track still has a lot of the old school feel, from the tight staging lanes to the spectator areas that are only a couple feet from the track, from one end to the other.  This set up made it very hard to get alot of decent shots of the racing action, but I think I managed to get some....I guess we will all see when the video comes back from production....I can hardly wait...how about you?

Super Chevy, Ennis Texas 2013
For the second year in a row, Hot Rods Now, went to Super Chevy in Ennis Texas.  We showed and raced a Camaro.  Last year we took our 1990 IROC Z...this year we took pur 1970 SS Camaro.  I won't give anything away, but lets just say our curse of showing up to the drag strip and not getting to race has ended.  Also, we went a little faster than last year.  In fact we beat the time we had in our IROC by 1.76 seconds.  Watch for the video coming very soon (See Video Here).  We will also be bringing you some of the great cars we saw there on our "Picture Of The Day" page starting tomorrow.  So come on back and see what we saw.  I promise you won't be disappointed.

Tiffany, the driver of our Camaro, was the only female driver in the drag racing event this year.  This didn't intimidate her or slow her down one bit.  In fact, I think it just gave her more incentive to go out there and try to beat the pants off the guys.  I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that her competitive nature made her push the Camaro harder and harder every time she pulled up to the tree....and she got faster and faster with every pass.  (see video above)

There is one thing every Hot-Rodder, Classic Car owner, and weekend enthusiast has got to have.  That's good insurance to protect their investment.  When it comes to good coverage, low rates and the kind of personal service you expect and demand, there is no other place to get it all except The Phoenix Insurance.  I found The Phoenix Insurance at a car show.  That's right...they don't just sell Classic and Collector car insurance...they really participate in the hobby.  In fact, they have an amazing build that we will cover here in the very near future, but for now let's talk about them.  They had a sign above their booth that said "Ask me how I can save you money on your insurance"....so I asked them.  It turns out they offer all the services we, as car-guys want, like flat bed towing, road side assistance, agreed value and so much more.  What they offered was as good as or in most cases better than my current coverage.  But then we got down to the nuts and bolts....How much does it cost?  The quote they gave me was a significant savings over the policy I currently have.  If that wasn't enough to make me change my mind, the courteous service I received from the knowlegable staff was.  These folks really know cars and have a genuine interest in providing the best coverage at the most reasonable rates. 

Last year in September I attended the Hwy 80 Progressive Car Cruise.  This annual event is held in east Texas and goes to four cities, for four different car shows in one day.  The event usually draws quite a large crowd at each venue along with the caravan of great cars that cruises from city to city.  This one looked like it was going to be rained out....but it wasn't...Oh, don't get me wrong.  It rained, alright.  In fact, it rained for

In today's world, it's best if a guy does little sweet things for the woman he loves...things he does just because he loves her....and for no other reason than that.....and if that guy is truly lucky, his wonderful woman will return the favor and get him special things he would really like.....things like making arrangements for him to get his hands on an Audi R8 for an hour.  After all, that's how I scored this test drive....it was all arranged by my beautiful wife.  All I had to do was show up and drive the dickens outta this car.  I sure love her. 

Here are a few facts about this Audi R8:

4.2L FSI V8 engine
430 hp @ 7900 rpm
316 ft lb torque @ 4500 rpm
0-60 in 4.4 seconds
All Wheel Drive
Automatic trans with manual mode and paddle shifters
Top speed 187 mph

This particular car came with every option available for this model, including the carbon fiber body package and carbon fiber in the engine bay.  That alone was a $4500 option.  Total cost on this car as delivered was $143,000....and they let me drive it....Well if you wanna see how that went, just watch the video below.  I would like to thank my 'guide' David for going the extra mile and shooting some film for me while we were out driving.  That was above and beyond the call of duty.  If you wanna drive this car or one of the other half dozen or so exotics they have, just check out 'DFW Drive Your Dream'.

Here is a list of cars you can drive:

Lamborghini Gallardo
Lamborghini Murcielago
Ferarri 599
Ferarri F430
Audi R8
2012 Porshce Spyder
Maserati Granturismo

In 1969 Fred Gibb wanted a more powerful car to race.  The NHRA required that at least 50 cars had to go into production before it could qualify to race in the 'Super Stock' series.  With that in mind, Gibb intended to sell all 50 cars through his own dealership.  Eventually 69 of these beasts were built.  Yenko and Berger were already selling COPO 9561 and COPO 9737 (Central Office Processing Order) Camaros with the monster 427 motors...but those were iron block cars.  GM decided to produce the COPO 9560 with an aluminum block 427.  The cars started life as a 396 SS car, sans stripes and badges.  They had the factory's best suspension set-up (F4I) along with race capable heavy duty brakes, heavy duty springs and a race ready 4 speed.  Right out of the box, this car was capable of turning low 13's with the stock exhaust and anemic looking stock tires.  Throw on some slicks, a set of headers and do a little tuning to the car and it could easily achieve mid 11's at well over 120 mph.  Not bad for right off the showroom floor in 1969.  Dick Harrel was one the best known tuners for these cars and often worked closely with Gibbs. Dick could get them consistantly turning 10's.  Many a record was broken and set by this Camaro during that time period.

If you knew what you were looking at and bought one of these, it came with a factory 5yr/50,000 mile warranty.  After all, these were completely street legal factory built cars.  Of the original 50 cars that Fred had hoped to sell, he was only able to move 13 of these cars and eventually returned more than that to the factory, where they were re-invoiced and many were then sold through other high performance dealerships.  Several had their engines removed for use in other projects...after all, the engine really was the reason to buy this four wheeled missle.  Originally this engine was designed for the Can-Am Chapparal.  It was without a doubt, the most powerful engine GM offered and was capable of producing over 500 hp from the factory.  But all those go fast goodies couldn't keep buyers from suffering from serious sticker shock.  With a price of $7269 it was almost double the cost of a COPO 9560 with a cast iron block.  So with such a narrow window of buyers, the high cost and the intention of being a race car, these are very very rare Camaros.  It's easy to see why these sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even getting near the million mark.  These don't come onto the open market very often, but when they do, the big guns come out, and they come out swinging big wallets.  But hey, if I had 'silly money' I would be one of the guys trying to buy one too.

Thanks for making www.HotRodsNow.com one of the
places you get your Hot-Rod fix...
Wild Bill (founder/creator)

Until this past week I had not had the chance to test drive a 5th Gen Camaro.  I flew from my home in Texas to North Carolina for the holidays and was going to rent a car to drive from North Carolina to South Carolina as my wife and I visited both sides of our family.  So I figured, 'what better time to take that test drive'.  We rented a bright yellow Camaro and a GPS and began our holiday adventure.  Right out of the parking lot, it was clear that, although this was only the 6 cylinder, it was not lacking in get-up-and-go.  The steering was tight, responsive and very crisp.  It was a breeze to drive.  The visibilty out of all four corners of the car was not to bad and about what I expected.  My wife, Tiffany, was a little less impressed with the visibility, but agreed that it would just take a little getting use to.  The interior was fairly basic, but this was a base level rental.  No suprises there.  All the gauges and indicators were easy to see and read once I set the tilt wheel to the right position.  At first I couldn't see the turn signal indicators, but a simple tilt-adjustment fixed that.  The seats were comfortable for the long six hour drive from one family to the other.  The rear seat leg room left a little to be desired, but who needs rear seats?  I like the sun-roof, but like all sun-roofs they are a bit noisy at highway speed.

Okay, enough with the looks and styling...what about the performance?  As I said earlier, I immediately did a fairly hard acceleration right out of the rental car parking lot and was pleased with the response I got from the long skinny pedal.  In no time flat I was nearly double the 45 mph speed limit on the long straight road out of the airport.  It was the look I was recieving from the passenger seat that kept me out of triple digits, not the car.  In both highway traffic and in-town traffic this sporty little ride had no trouble or hesitation when it came to getting around slower traffic or being the first to leave the light.  One afternoon I took my future son-in-law for a quick ride under the ruse of needing to go to the store for a cigar.  This was when I gave this car the 'Burn-Out Test'.  As I pulled out of my parent neighborhood onto the highway, I turned off the traction control, pulled the gear selector all the way back and mashed the gas to the floor where I held it.  It gave us a respectable amount of wheel spin, a little smoke and a suprisingly nice exhaust note at higher rpms.  But in all honesty it was unimpressive during this portion of the test...but hey, it is the 6 banger and not the high horsepower V8, so I will cut it a bit of slack here.  Later, the following day, as my brother and I headed to the store for yet another cigar (are you seeing a pattern here?) we decided to give the 'manual '  transmission mode a test drive.  I had given it a whirl on a previous test drive, but my brother who has a background in SCCA racing put this car through it's paces on a little winding road down by the lake.  We both came to same conclusion.  The paddle shifters are fun and could be useful if you got some track time.  During the high revving turns and during acceleration the exhaust made a nice sound and the car handled fairly well for what it is, but the V6 was just not where it's at.  For the real power and the true hot-rod exhaust tone, you gotta get the V8.  But as a daily driver for those less inclined to push a car to it's limits, this is perfect.  Plenty of power, more than a ton of good looks, and even paddle shifters for a little play time now and then.  I would be happy if this was in my driveway........

As some of you may know I am a member is a couple different car clubs.  One of those is a club for first gen Camaros.  So when I wrote the piece about the new ZL1 Camaro and followed it with a piece about the SLP upgrade to that already great car, I made sure to forward it to the guys in that club.  The blue '69 Camaro you see here, actually competed in the Texas Mile.  On race gas it is pushing 750hp at the rear wheels.  That means it's pushing about 1000 at the crank.  It reached a speed of 195mph.  That's faster than a stock Lambo and a Ferrari was able to do in the mile (they were 170 mph range) and just to put things in perspective, keep in mind that this is a stock bodied '69.  As the owner told me, "It's like pushing a barn door down the mile".  Aero-dynamics are not this cars strong suit.

But when I compared the performance and top speed of the SLP ZL1 to this car, I got a response from another guy in the club.  Here is that response:

Bill
No offense, but you need to do some more research.  First, Keiths 69' ran 195 in a standing mile.  With the claimed top speed for the SLP ZL1 of 205mph, it won't happen in a standing mile. Keiths 69' would probably top out at 215-220mph. If you want to throw some money away go with the SLP 427....the ZL1 motor with a now claimed 580hp could easily top 750hp with a pully & some methanol injection for less than $1,000 plus $500 for a tune. So you go drop $80k plus $30k+ for a new 1SS. I'll buy the factory ZL1 & have a total of maybe $60-65 in it blow your doors off & have enough left over to buy a nice 2SS Convertible..........LOL
SLP is going to use a TVS 2300 magnasun supercharger...they need to come out of the dark ages. Kenny Bell for the same money puts that 2300 to shame. SLP is done....there is a new Sheriff in town & it ain't SLP!!

I first saw this car a few months back at the Dallas Auto Show.  It made me want to sell everything I owned, if that's what it would take to buy one.  But it appears that the numbers are going be reasonable, if you are lucky enough to get one.  So lets start with the performance numbers, first.  We all knew that the powerplant for this beast was going to coming in the form of a supercharged 6.2L LSA V8.  That is basically the exact same motor in the CTS-V.  But as is GM's style, they have breathed on it a little before putting it into the ZL1.  It is going to punch out a tire smoking 580 hp and 556 ft/lb of torque.  Somewhere in the back ground I hear Tim Allen doing his best 'man-grunt'.  But this car is going to be much more than just raw power.  It is also going to be equipped with a new Magnetic Ride Control and Performance Traction Management system. (more on that sytem in an upcoming article)

Camaro chief engineer, Al Oppenheiser, has been quoted as saying, "The ZL1 Camaro delivers supercar performance and technology in the sports car segment."  I am hear to say, that if the numbers given out by GM are accurate, that is an understatement.  The ZL1 is delivering more horsepower than the Ferrari 458 and more torque than the Aston Martin DB9.  Let's not forget that the DB9 is boasting a V12, so that is no small feat.  And just to add some icing on the cake, GM is offering this car with a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty.  Can you get that on a Ferrari ?

This car is going to have two transmission options.  Either a Tremec TR6060 or the 6L90.  With the 6L90, there are a plethera of drive-style option to choose from....depending on how you want to treat the car that day.  The 'Drive' mode is for daily driving with a shift pattern that will maximize fuel economy and give you smooth shifts that won't make you spill your morning coffee.  The 'Sport' mode is set up for more aggressive driving and holds the tranny in lower gears longer for better performance.  Finally, you can choose 'Manual' for true manual control that boasts incredibly fast upshifts to leave the competiion in the rear view mirror.

The ZL1 also has several other 'Track-Ready' features, such as an oil cooler that is identical to the system found on the ZR1.  The tranny cooler works so well on both the manual and automatic versions that GM has deemed them both track-capable right from the factory.  This car even has a rear-diff cooler.  And for those high g turns you will be making on the track (or that winding, deserted road only you know about), the high performance fuel delivery system has additional fuel pick-ups on both the primary and secondary sides.  There will always be plenty of juice going to the motor if you've got the guts to keep your foot pressed down.

The only place I could find any info on a possible MSRP says it will be in the range of $47K to $48.5K.  But that doesn't include a Gas-Guzzler tax or any dealer mark-up.  I am gonna guess...and this is only my guess, that they will be closer to the 60K mark.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.  They are slated to hit dealerships in February of 2012.  You can believe I'll be there.....If only to get a closer look.