CAFE ROPE-A-DOPE AS THE INVADERS WIN

According to the Automotive News, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced "backers of rival fuel economy proposals had agreed to withdraw them in the interests of passing a consensus energy bill in the House before lawmakers take a summer break."

For the moment, this sidelines the Hobson’s choice between "a punch in the gut" (the Hill-Terry Bill) or "a gunshot to the head" (the Markey-Platts "doomsday scenario" bill).

Markey-Platts would demand combined car-truck standards increase to 35 m.p.g. by 2018. (Kiss your GT500 and your race car hauler good-by under that one) The Hill-Terry alternative logically keeps car and truck standards separate. However, it still pumps up the fleet average about 30 to 40 percent by 2022.

"Today's vehicles average about 25 m.p.g.," according to the Automotive News.

BUT, "House and Senate negotiators could approve a stringent Senate-passed measure [raising car-truck standards to a combined average of 35 m.p.g.] and avoid House consideration of an industry-backed alternative."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has telegraphed as much when he advised reporters on Tuesday that the energy bill to be send to President Bush WILL include fuel economy standards.

In other words, it’s just a slick procedural "rope-a-dope" by the liberals to avoid a serious debate on the disastrous Markey-Platts proposal.

All of this stealth maneuvering undoubtedly chagrins the enviro-radicals, (such as the PEW-istas) and the anti-vehicular choice crowd. These "true believers" fret every day that automobile enthusiasts, sportsmen, and small business owners have the freedom to choose such "evil" "gas-guzzling" machines as Dodge Vipers, Z06 Corvettes, Ford Explorers and full-size crew cab pickup trucks. Their "low-carbon footprint" nirvana is for everyone who is not riding government-controlled mass transit to be forced into tiny vehicles powered by electricity or combustion engines of less capacity than a two-liter soda bottle.

The new low-key approach comes in the wake of both UAW contract negotiations and the expected news that the imports have finally won more than half of the U.S. auto market. Apparently the liberals don’t want to look like they are "piling on" to the Detroit 3 until AFTER the UAW extracts their forced tribute and the public at large gets more used the dominance of the offshore invaders in the U.S. vehicle marketplace. Then they can sneak through their crazy, politically motivated CAFE increase in a back-door procedural manoeuver called a "conference committee report."

Meanwhile, the mainstream media, and even industry oracles like the Automotive News, will continue to condition the masses for the coming technology-driven price increases and loss of vehicle choice which WILL result from wild fuel economy average increases.

For example, even the conservative Wall Street Journal is in the act. On August 1, 2007, WSJ published a story about an obscure Portland, Oregon electric car drag racer known on the street as "Plasma boy," who has electrified an ancient Datsun (dubbed the "White Zombie") into a 380+ volt, Corvette killing, doorslammer.

While the fact that, Plasma boy’s Reddy Kilowatt whip trips the lights "in the twelves" at a spot over 100 m.p.h. is mildly shocking to ordinary "petrolheads," the real metamessage of such obscure stories is that "everything will be okay if you let us outlaw your dirty, gas-guzzling factory hot rods." Stories touting the obscure, all-electric Tesla roadster are geared for a similar pacifying impact.

Don’t buy it.

Certainly, as long as the governments don’t completely ban vehicle modifications, somebody somewhere will be figuring out how to make whatever’s left into some sort of a race car. But each ratcheting upward of the entry-level costs and technology strips away another strata of performance market participants. And the liberals know that raising cost and regulatory barriers to automotive free expression is a disincentive to the grassroots motorsports and collecting activities they oppose.

Notwithstanding all of the futuristic "Willie Wiredhand" dreams, the visceral and economic backbone of hot rodding is internal combustion engines. One look at the Street Rod Nationals (getting underway today (August 2, 2007) in Louisville, Kentucky) or countless other automotive happenings confirms this. And as the upcoming 75th Anniversary of the ‘32 Ford "Deuce" V8 demonstrates, traditional V8 power is still Number One in the hearts and minds of millions of grassroots enthusiasts.

CAFE increases of the sort favored by the liberals will deprive millions of grassroots enthusiasts the "raw materials" (i.e. V8 Mustangs, heavy-duty OEM performance parts, junkyard V8s, RWD/AWD sports sedans and coupes) necessary for the next generation of hot rodding and sportsman racing. And what’s left will become so expensive and complex that scores of enthusiasts will be forever priced out of the market (notwithstanding whatever the "electric racers" develop as a "clean" alternative).

CAFE increases will also further tilt the table to the imports as the sorts of vehicles traditionally associated with the Detroit 3 are regulated into obscurity. For example, even though Ford Motor Company builds a hybrid SUV and its acclaimed "Mexican Mazda" (the Fusion), the public perception is that the experts in small car quality and hybrids reside in Tokyo, not Dearborn. Thus the sales battle will be forced on turf where the Japanese are already entrenched (and handily winning). In essence, Markey-Platts or similarly draconian proposals will hamstring Detroit by depriving them of the only products where they still have an actual and psychological advantage. It’s almost like forcing them to fight IWO JIMA with Saimiri swords!

At least there’s still some time to fight this government meddling, even if the battle has apparently moved to the secret, "smoke-filled rooms" for the time being.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY’S BEST KEPT SECRET?

It’s no secret that forced induction (mainly supercharging) is about the only thing which has kept grassroots Ford racers, street rodders and tuners competitive on power over the past fifteen years.

Down on cubic inches to their "Brand X’ competition, forced induction is the great equalizer for Ford fans. Supercharging and, to a lesser extent, turbocharging took hold in the FoMoCo performance aftermarket during the pushrod 5.0 Mustang era and both have exploded in popularity in the years since Modular V8 power assumed OEM dominance.

Ford Motor Company (F) has occasionally recognized this in their U.S. showrooms with legendary limited production supercharged offerings -- such as the 2003-2004 "Terminator" SVT Cobra, the second generation 5.4 SVT Lightning and supercharged Harley-Davidson pickup trucks, the current 500 horsepower GT500, and the late 550 horsepower Ford GT supercar.

On the other hand, Ford Racing Performance Parts (FRPP) has more often than not ignored forced induction. Until recently, except for an occasional non-intercooled, low-boost supercharger kit and a few upgrades for the 2003-2004 SVT Cobra, FRPP’s offerings were au natural ("all motor," in current "tuner" parlance). Even as superchargers sprouted in 5.0 and 4.6 Mustangs almost like a factory option, FRPP stubbornly kept pushing crate engines which were not "boost-ready." To be fair, FRPP is often constrained both by its apparent primary mission (homologating serious racing parts, such as the Grand Am-series "Cammer" engine) and the need to keep costs low by using as many OEM assembly-line parts as possible.

However, when the OEM production line yielded gems like the "Terminator" Cobra engine, the FRPP catalog generally failed to offer them at reasonable price, if at all (the current on-line FRPP catalog does list 5.4 GT engines . . . at an MSRP of $38,000! And you could buy a good used car for the crate price of a production GT500 engine). Even the most myopic FRPP apologist must admit that FRPP has been late to the power-adder party and a few inches of boost short.

But now . . . maybe . . . FRPP is ready to "take it to the streets" with a serious forced induction Modular mill: The "Aluminator."

The Aluminator is FRPP’s best kept secret. FRPP’s website gives few details on it. The September 2007 issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords (at page 46), fills in some of the blanks, though.

The Aluminator is based on a Cosworth-tweaked, 2005-present Mustang GT production block. FRPP claims "double the duty cycles" of prior aluminum 4.6 blocks (presumably including the benchmark Teksid blocks). However, instead of filling the bottom end with the spindly, powdered-metal, cracked-cap and hypereutectic CRAP that FoMoCo’s moronic bean counters saddle the production ponies with, FRPP slams in "the goods" that even "Terminator" John Colletti would approve of:

-- An eight-bolt FORGED crankshaft
– Manley H-beam connecting rods
– Mahle forged pistons (which work with 2V and 4V heads) with either 10.5:1 or 8.5:1 compression ratio (4V head).

What’s even better, Aluminator long blocks feature FOUR VALVE Mach I/ 2003-2004 Cobra heads and 4V front dress!

Enterprising parts matchers can step up to new CNC 4V heads and other FR500 top-end parts.

Direct bolt-ins for "all motor" Mach Is and "Terminator" Cobras are both supposedly available. Thus, engine swappers who have to satisfy "the Man" through emissions testing and underhood inspections may be able to slide Aluminators by in pre-2004 models.

FRPP apparently has licked the durability issues which required the 2003-2004 Cobra to use an iron block. The proof is its long term test in Ken Gushi’s "drift" Mustang, wherein an Aluminator lived the entire 2006 professional drifting season with 700 supercharged horsepower and a 7,000 r.p.m. rev limit – and no engine failures!

Long suffering 1996-1998 Mustang GT, naturally aspirated SVT Cobra, and Marauder owners, your new engine is FINALLY READY.

The same issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords contains Richard Holdener’s recipes for up to "1000 h.p." from the 4V Modular – based on the 2003 "Terminator" engine. More than a few FoMoCo racers and rodders are undoubtedly salivating at the prospect of an ‘03 Cobra-spec Aluminator fitted with an HP Performance twin turbo kit, a Paxton Novi 2000, a Kenne-Bell supercharger or even a FoMoCo production-type Eaton Roots blower.

Hopefully, the Aluminator will tide FoMoCo’s grassroots racers and rodders over until the future BOSS/Hurricane trickles down to the streets. Now if FRPP would only ADVERTISE IT . . . and offer some "boost ready" SBF/BBF pushrod power for the old-schoolers, too . . . .

A SHOUT OUT TO DAVID FREIBURGER AND HOT ROD MAGAZINE

The September 2007 issue of Hot Rod Magazine is a definite keeper. Although Hot Rod honcho David Freiburger’s insane, mega-buck Nelson twin-turbocharged "F-Bomb" Camaro missed its expected debut (because of a testing crash), Freiburger and company filled in the "turbo hole" with a triad of bitchin’ home-built turbocharged supercars.

Leading the way is Paul Johnson’s incredible 848 RWHP twin-turbocharged 455 PONTIAC -Powered (Real Pontiac, not Chevy) 1980 Trans Am. Johnson’s Pontiac features sanitary new TIG welded twin turbo exhaust manifolds from www.turbopontiacs.com.

Also included in HRM’s turbo-fest is the wild 1300 h.p. SBC/single-106-mm-turbo-powered 1964 Rambler Classic Four-Door of Brian Anderson that almost shocked Hot Rod’s Pump Gas Drags a while back.

Filling in the low-buck position is a Mike Sitar-style budget 5.0 Mustang twin turbo by Mike Bruell (who claims only a couple thousand in the entire engine/power-adder combo and nearly 200 boosted drag strip passes on a bone-stock, junkyard Mercury Mountaineer short block).

This issue of Hot Rod is a must read for anyone interested in turbocharging REAL (V8) engines.