This is Washington State Patrol Trooper Mike Cheek, who chased down and caught the scumbags who stole Devin Meucci's Charger.
It's From FranceThis month's cover car came from Kreations Auto Body in Rio Dell, California, where this oddball is also going together. Yup, that's a '66 Citroen (it's French), which is getting a one-off Art Morrison G-Max chassis and an LS1 small-block. Why a Citroen? "The customer likes European cars," says Kreations' Kevin Bradley. "Porsches and things like that. He had this Citroen and wanted to make it a Can-Am-style car that's really fast, but also one that he could take his family out in." The four-seat four-door car was a perfectly stock daily driver ("I drove it into the shop," says Bradley) and will remain mostly stock on the outside but is fully custom everywhere else, including the fabricated sheetmetal dash. The car should be done about mid-March. -Rob Kinnan
Theft RecoveryThirty-year-old Devin Meucci (Seattle, Washington) is building a '69 Charger that's eerily similar to the one Steve Strope just built for George Poteet, but Meucci's owned this car since his high school days. Where Poteet's car has kind of a modern stock-car vibe, Devin's will be full Pro Touring, as if Chrysler's SRT group built a project car. We think it's cool that he's not tempted to put a crate Hemi in the car like everyone else does, instead relying on the original, numbers-matching 383 and feeding it with a bottle. Gear Vendors is helping out by supplying an overdrive for the 727 automatic, and the 831/44 rear will have sensible 3.55:1 gears. An aftermarket K-member, Flaming River rack-and-pinion steering, Wilwood brakes, and three-piece wheels from iForged (20s and 19s) make up the suspension, while stretched wheelwells and a notched rear valance to clear the exhaust will be the only appreciable body mods. The back story on the project is that the car was stolen in January '05, but the cops found it and the thief is doing time. With his baby back home, Devin decided to get the project off the ground. He hopes to have it on this year's Power Tour(tm). -Rob Kinnan
Drag Week FoxNever a big fan of T-tops on anything, we're nevertheless jazzed at how excited 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords magazine Tech Editor KJ Jones is about his latest project, this '86 Mustang T-top coupe. It's not every day you see a Mustang notch with T-tops, and when KJ found this one available he jumped on it. That was about the same time he started hearing about how awesome Drag Week(tm) is, so he's full-throttle on building his Fox-body for the '06 (hopefully) Drag Week(tm) event. The goal is mid 10s without having to break out tools over 1,500 miles, and he's using a Keith Craft 347 with a Novi 2000 blower to do it. An AOD and 3.73 gears will make it livable on the highway, a Chris Alston's Chassisworks 'cage will tighten the flexible car up, and suspension parts from Racecraft Inc. will make it hook. Watch for a complete buildup in 5.0, and check out Drag Week(tm) coverage in the January '07 issue to see if he got it done in time.-Rob Kinnan
'Shiner styleThis is a good example of the right customer bringing the right car to the right shop. To begin with, somehow the customer finds an original '39 Ford Deluxe coupe with only 11,000 miles on it in Pacific Palisades, California. It has never been wrecked or repainted. Then he enlisted the guys at Hot Rods and Hobbies in Torrance, California, to build it with the goal of accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative. The body will be left stock but made arrow-straight, and even the factory trim will remain after being polished. In a moment of modernization, however, HR&H tossed the frame and drivetrain in favor of a new chassis from The Roadster Shop and dropped in a Chevy 327 with an original '57 Corvette dual-quad setup exhaling through a dual-exhaust system by Doug Holmburg. The mohair has seen its day, so distressed leather covers the original bench seat. The '39 steering column was modified to work with power rack-and-pinion steering, the woodgrain dash is stock, and halogen lights and a Heidt's independent frontend keep the 16-inch bias-plies pointed in the right direction on those moonless nights when the revenuer's on your tail. An air-conditioning system will keep the driver from getting a sweaty upper lip, and there's a Harmon Kardon stereo system to make sure he doesn't have to listen to the sirens, even if you can't black out the flashing red and blues in a '39 rearview mirror that doesn't have that flipper-switch thingy. This car makes us want to build stills in our backyards. -Randy Lorentzen
Project F-BombHot Rod has been working with Tom Nelson at Nelson Racing Engines (Nelsonracingengines.com) on a scheme we came up with to support our Drag Week(tm) event: It's all about 1,000 hp you can drive every day. Nelson thinks he'll easily clear that number with our version of his typical 406ci twin-turbo crate engine. This one uses HOT ROD's old Anvil test engine with a Lunati bottom end, Brodix 227cc heads, a very mild Comp custom cam, and boost from Innovative Turbo. Our plan is to stab the engine into our '73 Camaro (The F-Bomb) with a TH400 and a Gear Vendors unit and drive it like a rental car. The mill goes on the dyno soon, so stay tuned for an update. Meanwhile, e-mail us at HOTROD@primedia.com or hit the HOTROD.com message boards and tell us what the Camaro should look like. What color? What wheels? Full drag-race vibe, or more Pro Touring? How about full-on Captain America in retro red, white, and blue? We're listening. -David Freiburger