Hemmings – Pulpaddict

CONCEPT CARS AT THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW

Thirty years – 1992, 2002, 2012 – of CONCEPT CARS AT THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW, courtesy of Hemmings’ Mark J. McCourt.

After a coronavirus-forced two-year hiatus, the New York International Auto Show returned to the recently expanded Jacob K. Javits Center this past April. Billed as America’s longest-running auto show (first held at the original Madison Square Garden on November 3, 1900!), the Big Apple’s celebration of all things automotive has included thousands of fascinating, futuristic one-off concepts and special show cars and trucks through the years. Ford GT40 Concept, top, was displayed at the 2002 NYIAS. CGC editor, Marty Schorr, left, with the IsoRivolta Grifo 90 Concept he arranged for display at the 1992 show.

My first visit to the NYIAS was as a wide-eyed, starstruck teenager in 1990. Attending that show – an experience courtesy of and shared with my dad – was a life-changing event. Until I got my first digital camera in the mid-2000s, I came home each time with pockets filled with spent rolls of 35-mm film, the results of which often (but not always) made it into my many photo albums.

Continue reading this feature and the photo gallery@ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2022/04/12/1992-2002-2012-new-york-international-auto-show-concept-cars-old-photos?refer=news

To learn more about the history of the NYIAS, check out https://autoshowny.com/show-history/

RPO Z11: CHEVY 427 LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

By checking off RPO Z11 on a 1963 Chevrolet new car order form, you could buy a factory-built racecar. Only 57 people made that choice before GM pulled the plug. Hemmings’ Mike McNessor writes about the rare RPO Z11: CHEVY 427 LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT.

She’s so fine my… 427? Clearly not 1960s radio gold. But among Chevrolet W-engine enthusiasts, more poetic words were never written. The 427-cubic-inch Mark I big block was part of the factory-lightweight 1963 Z-11 package built to win rounds in quarter-mile competition. Unlike the ’63 Mark II 427 “Mystery Motor” of NASCAR fame, the Z-11 427 shared the combustion-chamber-in-block design of the 348 and the 409.

Chevrolet’s 348-cu.in V-8 rolled out in 1958 as the division’s top-shelf passenger car engine. The Mark I big-block was designed to provide effortless low and mid-range performance, particularly when outfitted with power-demanding accessories tailored to suit luxury-minded ’58 Impala buyers (like an automatic transmission, an A/C compressor, and a compressor for the optional air suspension). The engine’s design had a flip side as well—it needed to be versatile and durable enough to power Chevrolet’s commercial trucks.

Continue reading RPO Z11: CHEVY 427 LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT @ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2022/05/17/the-1963-chevrolet-impala-z11s-427-v8-feature?refer=news

For the complete history of the RPO Z11: CHEVY 427 program, check out https://www.amazon.com/Day-One-Automotive-Journalists-Muscle-Car/dp/0760352364/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493561421&sr=1-1&keywords=Day One by Martyn L. Schorr

CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP!

When GM engineers took the LT-1 to the next stage in 1997 – LS1 – the venerable small-block was lighter, more powerful and showcased in the C-5 Corvette. It signaled the start of a growing portfolio – CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP! Hemmings’ Daniel Strohl presents a definitive guide to LS-Series V-8s.

Just as the original Ed Cole-design Chevrolet small-block V-8 launched an era of American performance upon its introduction in the mid-Fifties, so did the LS-series third-generation small-block Chevrolet V-8 when it launched a quarter-century ago. And just as the original SBC spawned dozens of variants over its decades-long lifespan, so did the LS – enough to bewilder all but the most dedicated of engine-spotters without a comprehensive reference guide to the engine family’s various displacements, codes, and ratings. So, let’s dive into it.

Gary Savage’s aggressively-styled Datsun 280Z, above & left, is just one of many popular sports and GT cars that can be retro-fitted with an LS series V-8 engine. In this case, it’s a killer LS6. Weight savings was everything to Savage which explains the car’s ultra-lightweight Braille Lithium battery.

Every history of the LS calls it a clean-sheet design – that is, a design that carries nothing over from its predecessor, the Generation II LT-1. Indeed, engineers Tom Stephens and Ed Koerner retained only two parts from the LT-1 when designing the LS series: rod bearings and lifters. It’s a thoroughly modernized SB, with deep side skirts, cross-bolted six-bolt main bearing caps, no provision for a distributor, no coolant passages in the composite intake manifold, cathedral-port heads, and perhaps most important, all-aluminum construction.

The C-6 Corvette ushered in the upgraded, more powerful LS2 in 2005.

Yet, it’s no cutting-edge engine. Even at its introduction, critics derided its overhead-valve design – complete with the single camshaft located in the block, just two valves per cylinder, and pushrods and rocker arms in between – as antiquated. Overhead-camshaft and dual-overhead-camshaft designs had long become the standard for performance engines, after all.

Continue reading CHEVY LS: MORE POWER, LESS WEIGHT; EASY TO SWAP! @ https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/01/19/gm-built-a-blue-million-ls-series-v-8s-heres-your-guide-to-keeping-them-all-straight?refer=news&utm_source=edaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-06-04