HOT RODS
Road Race Track T
Bill Holland finally builds a real hot rod, for himself.

Some companies hold picnics and corporate retreats. Not Lingenfelter Performance Engineering - these guys organized a track day at Muncie Dragway as a way to thank their customers and allow the employees to have some fun. The quarter-mile strip just outside Albany, Indiana is conveniently located less than an hour south of Lingenfelter headquarters in Decatur. While the skies were black and threatening all morning, the rain never quite arrived, allowing several dozen LPE customers and friends to try their cars on the track.

Every year we get reader mes-sages asking about the fate of a potential breakthrough engine technology developed by late legendary racing engine builder and high-perf tuner Henry "Smokey" Yunick with his longtime collaborator Ralph Johnson. HOT ROD first reported on this adiabatic, "hot vapor" (or "hot air") engine in the June '84 issue. "The Next Step" by C.J. Baker fully explained how Smokey developed a 2.5L (151ci) Iron Duke four-cylinder Fiero engine that met all '80s emissions standards (with a carburetor and no computer), made 250 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque (compared with about 90 hp and 125 lb-ft stock), went 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds (stock was 12 to 13 seconds), and managed to get as high as 51 mpg on the highway running 93-octane pump unleaded premium gas (the stocker got about 35 mpg on 87-octane). The hot-vapor engine did all this running unheard of high temperatures at an extremely lean air/fuel ratio, in seeming violation of accepted internal-combustion-engine physics.

Welcome to the Hot Rods section of the mag, where all the car features live. Know of a great ride that should be here? Got killer photos of cars in action along with details about them? Tip us off: email HOTROD@hotrod.com or mail to HOT ROD Hot Rods, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245.