I swear to god and country what I am about to tell all of you this is true.

A few yrs ago while I still believed in what I read in Hot Rod as factual I read a article about how Don Hardy build a kit to put in a V6 4.3 in a Chevette.It had headers in the captions and engine mounts.Pretty much everything you would need and looked liked Don Hardy had built a kit.

So off we go to our annually Drag Racers auction in Indy.I thought just by luck or divine intervention that was the year NASCAR stopped using the V6's.So all the "good stuff" for them was going across the auction block and me having a buyers delight because no one but me wanted the extra inventory.I'm into it,but not quite deep yet and my partner is telling my whoa,it costs tons more to be different.Yeah bullheaded as I am I ignored him.We get home and I send the stuff to be finished machined from the rough cores they where.Now the money gets real serious.My partner has stopped returning my calls and I fear the partnership is in trouble after at that time 15 to 17 yrs of being together.I drive 60 miles to his house and work that out with him and while I am there call Don Hardy for the mounts and headers.The shop foreman gets on the line and wants to know who I am.I explain to him we had bought kits from them before and wanted the one for the V6 4.3 Chevette.He says yeah well we can't do that.So being under tons of pressure already I ask him why the hell not??.He tells me they told Hot Rod not to publish that article,that they where not certain they could mass produce that kit and damm Hot Rod jumped the gun on it and they have been getting calls from angry Don Hardy customers.I said I saw headers and mounts.He tells me yeah Hot Rod drew those into the pictures and they where never built.So much for trusting rag magazine.Don Hardy pushed the project out back of the shop and cancelled building the project.

We because we where in as much money as (well really me with partnership money) we where,we finished out the project and raced it for a yr selling it off losing for the first time on a car.Losing big that is.$$$$$$$

Told my partner as we traveled as a swap meet vendor I was waiting to meet the publisher of Hot Rod again.Sure enough I (we) did.Told him about a pending law suit.That he had ten days before the lawyer my partner's wife worked for to settle it out of court.Gave him the contact info.7 days later the lawyer called with a check for my partner to pick up.No-it wasn't for the total loss,the expenses of the initial investment for the parts.After-all it was their article the mislead me in the first place.

As I said,it was yrs ago.The hard lesson learned is these magazines main goal is to sell the products that advertize in the magazine.The projects,results,choices of who's products,is all based on that.If you think anything different,your sadly mistaken.Some of us think of Hot Rodding as a sport.And that is fine.But it is truly a industry.We should never lose sight of that.Rant over.

On a positive note.I have gained much respect for Competition Products.They have treated me really well and I recommend them to people who want to buy quality at a reasonable price.

One last thing.I find for a link to read monthly the following:

Engine Builder - Serving Professional Engine Builders and Rebuilders with information on rebuilt engines, engine parts and performance engines

It is a good link because it is sort of geared towards shops in the industry where you get some insight to some cool tips and tricks from industry leaders.Still some glossy paged articles that you have to read between the lines,but not as much.