Sema?...

[Bob Parmenter]

You should have seen the look on Dan's face when they pulled back the curtain on the "viewing rooms"!! Ooops, I promised not to tell.................!!

In the "why ask why" category was the independent front suspension in the Hot Rods and Horsepower booth. It was a display piece with the front rails of one of their '32 frames. It had what appeared to be a dropped beam axle that was cut so that it would pivot on torsion bars just under the rails. It got weirder from there. At the ends of the axles were spindles that looked something like MII units, but not exactly, mounted to the axle end at what would normally be the lower ball joint attachment point. Then there was a single bar control arm to the top of the spindle, tying back to a bracket on the frame rail. Personally it looks like a Rube Goldburg concoction. Nicely chromed, and good craftsmanship, but very strange looking. For the "I want to be different" crowd I guess! Otherwise it looks like an inelegant answer to a question that was probably never asked. Straighten me out here kenny.

Ford had some interesting crate engines on display. They're really pushing the single and double ohc modular motors, particularly the new 5.0 version. A supercharged version had a nicely designed intake plenum that was above the blower, and the accessories mounted to the front (alt, a/c, p/s,,,,)were very nicely tucked in tight. To emphasize the potential, they had a HR&HP roadster in their booth with either a 4.6 or 5.0 dohc engine in it. Looked pretty good................although the chrome frame detracted some.

I'm not a big fan of billet in general, and Billet Specialties stuff really hasn't done much for me in the past. But they had a display engine with a front mount system for a serpentine belt driven accessory package that was gorgeous as well as very compact and well engineered. Many folks are going in this direction, Vintage Air being one of the first I recall, but somehow the others look very "clunky" when compared to the Billet Spec. unit.

CPP, http://www.classicperform.com/, has a nice aluminum master cylinder they've just released. It has an integrated, adjustable proportioning valve, and is set up to exit the lines from the bottom of the unit. For those who insist on mounting the master cylinder to the firewall it would make for a much neater looking installation. It comes in both natural cast, and full polished finish.

And for the flathead nuts among us who would like to have the functionality of an alternator, but want to keep the look of their old generator, Powermaster, www.powermastermotorsports.com, has come up with a solution in both polished aluminum, and black finish. It comes with an integrated bracket to mount to the intake manifold just as the originals did. Pretty clean unit.