Featured Hot Rods New Hot Rod Magazine

Who would want to spoil an old car by adding more horsepower than needed, what a stupid idea.

Here I thought we were hot rodders. Silly me, stock only from now on!

 

I wasn't aware today's hotrod magazine was ever something that would fit in here . I've never seen this place go so far with " git off my lawn" !

 

After thumbing through the latest issue, I flipped to the cover and saw “Oct 2025.”

Only four more issues to endure.

 

It amazes me that people want to try and limit where and when people should like and apply new tech. Not a person reading this is on a monochromatic screen. Nor are they using the original MS windows program. There is a time and place for the tech. It’s not OK to try and tell someone how they should think about car tech saying newer tech is unwanted while sporting the latest smartphone, watch, and computer. Yes I like a “traditional hotrod”, but if I was younger I would be looking at whatever made me faster, safer, and most importantly cost less to achieve. The cars we drove in our youth would have a hard time stacking up with a similar horsepower car using modern tech. Who doesn’t remember that a car that roiled over the odometer was an accomplishment. Throwaway cars can turn over 100,000 miles now. And many are where the kids are finding the engines they are rebuilding to that 1000 HP mark. There is something to be said about the new tech. In this site it’s said in the OT forum. The kids today are building toys with more power than we ever imagined and still have the money to buy a magazine. Why shouldn’t those magazines cater to them?

 

In order to cater to advertisers and today's market they have to present what is current in 2024, not 1965, remember the custom van stuff in the 70's, and a dozen other trends that came and went. I flip through the book store copy before I buy it, last one I bought was 75th anniversary issue, waiting for TRJ to be back on news stand, haven't seen one yet.

 

Hot Rod mag for year still under $12 ? Bargain compared to a Big Mac or Whopper meal , $12

If you are capable go out drive one of these 550 plus Vehicles , Its surprising,
Most 6,7,8,9 speed transmissions.
A few weeks ago , base model vette
7:70s 1/8 traction control ,,in auto.
A woman that didn't know how to stage the car and never went down a track before.

I am old vehicle guy thoe ,

There is a few of us that are
Speed , Gs etc. Junky's ,
I feel Drag & Hot Rods are a off spring of Land Speed , instead of 1 mile plus
To first 1/16 then 660 or 1320 @ a faster paste,
I know what 1,800 feels like , to jump into 2,500 plus No , & could not imagine, But willing to work up ,
I think , but maybe not ,
I called Frank up , to run what I feel like
I want to shoot for , The class of car on hand is to small for me ,
Most driver now are 180ish less 5-10 & shorter .
For street car driven 3-4 times a week
Happy with , low 6's 1/8th , on small
6 inch wide tires , I do a few pulls out away from others ,
I have another combo , I could under
6's in 1/8 spinning street driven ,
Based on Gen One style parts,
Can be Hard on parts / wear ,
Thoe , 100 oct needed not on pump No more even E85 not common where I drive around ,
Hard on lifters , close to 3 k
Valve springs 1,200 ish
Oil changes few times a month.
Have another combo playing with
45 cid smaller , this one with 4 link
Just working on tune with pump gas
Might get to high 5s with Drag Radials ,
I have another combo Straight 6 ,
On ease will 1,300 , 8,500 rpms low maintenance compair to Gen I set up,
Cut the 6 back to under 7,500 rpms
800ish @ fly will go 30,000 miles
Off topic Jap , on paper , 640ish
Should get to mid 5 s , on pump gas
183 cid ,
@squirrel has a very simple combo
Very low maintenance 427 , Blower ,
Afbs or Carters , th400 gear vender
Chris crossing the US.
I have a Aluminum sb that can get 500
Out of , I think Im going to do 427 like @squirrel just sb , I was going to do much bigger with like 15 deg heads
Or SB2 ,,, Its just so expensive now,

By the way M-T web sight has
Several on line mags archives for free
to look threw cover to cover .

 

Yuppers and to get a 17 year old to hand over the 7 or 8 bucks for a copy off the magazine rack r ack you have to have the latest and hottest hot lick thing going and not rehashed old stuff. If you get in the stack of 1961 Hot Rod magazines there isn't a hell of a lot about flatheads or straight six Chevys in them. It was how to get more horsepower out of the latest engine you saw in the dealer's showrooms. It's always been that way with Hot Rod and if we want to read an article on how to hop up a 327 we have to go back to 62/67 issues because after that it was how to hop up a 350.

Still the most boring people you can be around are those with a closed mind who never venture outside their little world to see what is going on in the rest of the world or explore a bit.

 

Just a matter of time before Warner Bros/Discovery pulls the plug on ALL the automotive stuff.
The suits don't give a shit about cars.

 

I like old cars but I also like horsepower, just because a car makes 1,000 hp doesn't mean you can't drive them, it's not making 1,000 while pulling 1800 rpm cruising down the road.
My blown, carbureted, big block 41 made right at 800 on only 3 lbs boost, I pick up the kid from school, drive it to doctor's appointments, take it eat, go to cruise nights, go pick up pizza etc etc
I've since added a bigger blower and fuel system and think it should be more efficient and make around a thousand on 6 lbs boost. Here's a boring video coming back from a doctor's visit.



My Henry J makes 650 ish, dynoed at 600 but I've upgraded a few things there too, I treat it just like the 41, drive it wherever.
photo at the doctor's



Photo at the dentist



Took it to vote



No need to bash people for liking a little horsepower, I particularly don't care for people who obsess over restoring cars or restored cars, guess what, I just walk past them at shows.

 

They just give a shit about making money. So...if you spend money on car stuff, they'll keep producing it

 

Or maybe they think they can make more with something else.

 

Yup. If we don't spend, then it goes away, and the product that people spend on takes it's place.

 

Nope we should stop buying all of it. Then in a few months we can start a thread bitching it’s gone.

 

I won’t miss it.

Just like I never shed a tear when billet and peach monochrome paint disappeared.

 

want to the latest offerings on the market look for videos from the recent SEMA Show in Las Vegas. most has nothing to do with the world here. do not let that stuff scare you away. but, many products are directed to old school that you will possibly buy for your ride. including latest paint, body repair, etc.

 

I dropped Hotrod magazine years ago after I got sick and tired of being barraged with LS engine swaps in everything. And I told all my family members to stop buying me renewals to HR for various holiday gifts.

 

just watched video by David Friebuger telling about MotorTrend dropping Roadkill and all of the spin off shows. several new episodes will be shown next year. he, and the other hosts, have You Tube shows that will bring income with paid subscriptions & selling merchandise.

 

I would rather spend my time scrolling through the feeds on "The HAMB" than waste my time and money on Hot Rag Magazine. Its definitely not what it used to be!

 

right you are. i bought my OT dodge 10 years ago, and figured its 485 hp would kill me...

 

I have been a subscriber to HRM since December 1956.
My current subscription ]and LAST issue runs out in august 2025. I remember when HRM was the number one magazine sold in the USA. When they dropped a bunch of magazines a few years ago they didn't see the fallout coming their way. We may be a minority, but when we stop buying HRM they may get the message.

 

Current corporate ownership, doesn't care about car stuff.

They just axed Roadkill, not renewing Kendig's show.
Many other shows are "on Hiatus".

Discovery bought this stuff, then Discovery got bought by Warner Bros.

 

I have had subscriptions to HRM off and on. I have seen some higher dollar more HAMB friendly cars in it from time to time and the super high dollar cars doesn't appeal to me. To me it seems they are targeting a different crowd than the interests on here. But back in the older days weren't they showing the latest and greatest for that time (which just happens to coincide with the interests on here) and they still try to for these times? We are in a smaller market and they try to attract to what they believe is a larger and more lucrative one. Just like what they are currently doing to some of the automotive shows like Roadkill etc. as mentioned. The individual entities are being gobbled up by the larger ones then the larger ones are weeding out the chaff in the efforts to make more $$. I usually watch more YouTube stuff anyways which I can pick and choose what I want to watch and interests me.

 

Wasn't there just a bunch of complaining that there weren't enough traditional hot rods at SEMA, the show for new and interesting tech in the industry? Kind of a paradox, no?

If you knew about (current editor) John McGann, you'd know that he tries very hard to cater to all aspects of the hobby (with a very limited staff), including some traditional hot rod content. I grew up reading everything I could about cars, new, old, whatever, and so I like a bit of everything. When I grew up with HRM in the 90's-2000's, Hot Rod was usually one of my last choices of the sea of magazines on the newsstand, because it wasn't stuff I could relate to. It was usually the latest and greatest, more power, quicker quarter mile times, etc. They've done a good job of trying to bring it back to the everyman, but it was never a traditional hot rod mag. It never catered exclusively to the stuff here.

Yep, that's what it was when I grew up and that's still what it is. It has more of an eye to the past now, but the complaining about the pro street issue here was hilarious. Pro street was big, what, 25-30 years ago? So they're looking to past but not the correct past? Oh bother.

 

I saw one recently on a newsstand, first one I had seen of the new format in my hands. So I flipped through it, it wasn't worth the cover price to me and I put it back. Same as I do with any other magazine.

 

You guys do realize that what we do here is the center of our universe, not the center of the actual universe, right???

 

Yikes! So much crying about a car magazine that no one is being forced to purchase. On a car forum no less. I can almost always find something of interest in most car magazines and Hot Rod is no different. Hopefully I'll never be so old that I get crotchety because a publication isn't featuring what I feel is the perfect hot rod.

 

Yes, but it is the best part of the hobby by far. But don't tell everyone or they will all want to be here......

 

What? I haven't bought a copy of Hot Rod since the sixties.

I will admit that I may have thumbed through a copy on a newstand when I was bored once in the nineties.

Welcome to being old and out of it. (Which is where I prefer to be.)