Our 2015 ARP/STREET RODDER Road Tour 1961 Sunliner is a dual-purpose vehicle. It's built to carry Road Tour leader Jerry Dixey all over the United States safely, powerfully, and enjoyably between June and October. It's also built to make an impression—when it shows up in the magazine and on the website, when it's rolling down a highway with all the other participants on the Road Tour, and at every Tour stop and car show when Dixey throws open the doors and lifts the custom hood.
We've read some of the comments on social media begging us not to pack our 2015 Road Tour car with a predictable or lackluster engine. Fear not. We've never let you down before and we're not going to start with this Road Tour car. Not only will our remarkable custom 1961 Ford be Ford-powered, but it will be impressively powered.
Our friends at Ford Performance have seen to that, by providing a 535hp version of their 427ci crate engine (PN M-6007-Z427FRT). These engines are based on the same block as the BOSS 351, and Ford Performance calls them "a modern version of the legendary 427." Ron Ceridono provides a thorough description of the engine elsewhere on this website. You can read Ron's thorough detailed article here.
Impressive, right? It doesn't stop there. These engines only make power if you feed them, and for that we'll be adding FAST fuel injection from COMP Performance Group, and a twin supercharger kit from TorqStorm. The TorqStorm system includes billet mounting brackets and tubing. The simple setup involves running the tubes from the right and left superchargers up and over the top of the engine to the hat above the throttle body and intake manifold. Troy Ladd and the fabricators at Hollywood Hot Rods had their own vision for the engine compartment, however, and decided to clean things up by hiding the tubes as much as possible.
As the photos illustrate, the decision involved a lot of fitting and fabricating, including the construction of a unique air hat to top the throttle body and intake. We think the idea, and the effort to achieve it, will impress you and everyone who encounters the car.
Hollywood Hot Rods is the sponsor builder of the ARP/STREET RODDER Road Tour 1961 Ford Sunliner. The Eastwood Company is the tool's sponsor and Miller Electric is the welding/cutting products sponsor. The success if the Sunliner would be impossible without the talent and tools provided by these partners.
Eric Black designed the 1961 Ford Sunliner that is the 2015 ARP/STREET RODDER Road Tour car, built at Hollywood Hot Rods. The engine compartment had to live up to Black's vision.
Our horsepower 427ci crate engine from Ford Performance is enhanced by a Ford small-block twin supercharger kit from TorqStorm.
The TorqStorm superchargers and fastened to the billet mounting brackets with seven fasteners. The superchargers can be mounted with the outlets pointing upward, with short tubes running to the throttle body and manifold. HHR had a different idea and pointed the outlets outward.
Getting pressurized air from the superchargers to the engine involves an impressive custom induction duct system, partially shown here.
Cold air meets a pair of K&N air cleaners mounted behind the custom mesh screen grille. See the story on building the grille at http://bit.ly/1bHCamC.
This fabricated bracket positions the passenger side air cleaner behind the grille.
Here is the driver side bracket fastened in place in the inner fenderwell.
The 3-1/2-inch-diameter ducts deliver the air from the air cleaners, passing through the custom inner fender panels to the supercharger inlets. The driver side is shown here.
Here is the same thing on the passenger side.
The air enters the TorqStorm supercharger inlet at the back. Pressurized air exits from the side. Three-inch ducts carry the pressurized air from the TorqStorm units.
The outlet side ducts pass through the inner fenders and back through the firewall. This is the driver side.
This is the passenger side outlet duct.
The outlet side pressurized air ducts were fitted with bungs for the TorqStorm blow-off valves.
You see both the intake side and the pressurized side tubing, with a blow-off valve installed on the pressurized side.
Another look at the other side of the car. The ducting is configured differently because of where the two superchargers' outlets are positioned.
The TorqStorm blow-off valves release pressurized air when the throttle is closed to prevent excessive pressure on the supercharger at one end and the throttle body at the other end.
After passing through the firewall, the ducts make two 90-degree turns back into the engine compartment …
… where they reach their destination at the throttle body.
To complete the process, HHR fabricated one-off hat, starting with the U-shaped tubing seen here.
Air outlet holes and a mounting plate were added to the underside of the hat.
The upper side of the hat is in the process of being sealed.
A steel lid has been made and installed.
Holes were drilled to allow the hat to be mounted to the throttle body base plate and intake manifold.
An insert for the top of the hat was created from a piece of 3/8-inch aluminum.
The circular aluminum plate was machined for a precision fit.
This is what it looked like right off the lathe.
This is what it looked like when finished and securely mounted on the hat.
The pressurized air ducts connect to the hat to complete the circuit.
Our mighty Ford engine is getting all the air in can handle, and with the ducts hidden out of sight, the engine compartment looks cool and clean.
At the time of this writing, it's about 6-1/2 weeks until the June 6 public unveiling of the 1961 Ford Sunliner at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. From there, the NHRA Motorsport Museum Tour, the first leg of the 2015 ARP/STREET RODDER Road Tour will begin a one-week ride to Austin, Texas. Click here for details on that trip or any of the eight legs of the Road Tour. You'll also find a registration application, so that you can join us on the road.
Road Tour 1961 Ford Sunliner Sponsors:
The 1961 Ford Sunliner, our ARP/STREET RODDER Road Tour car, is built with the invaluable help of a lot of generous sponsors. The following companies have partnered with STREET RODDER to make this possible.
Automotive Racing Products: Title Sponsor/Official Fasteners
AMSOIL INC.: Presenting Sponsor/Official Lubricant & Fuel Additives
Ford Performance: Presenting Sponsor/Official Engine
AM Hot Rod Glasswindows Aeromotive Inc.fuel system California Car Covercar care Custom Autosoundaudio equipment Dakota Digitalgauges Dynamat (Dynamic Control)insulation/noise control Dynatech Driveshaftsdriveshaft The Eastwood Companytools FAST (CPG)EFI system Flaming River Industriessteering components Flowmasterexhaust and headers Hollywood Hot Rodsbuilder Hughes Performancetransmission Lokar Productsshifter/accessories Miller Electric Mfg. Co.welding/cutting products Painless Performancewiring/electrical system PPGpaint/coatings ProCar by Scatseats The Roadster Shopframe/frontend Sherm's Custom Platingchrome plating Scat Enterprisescranks/rods Specialty Power Windowspower windows/wipers Speedway Motorsretail/speed shop Steele Rubber Productsweatherstripping/rubber parts TorqStormtwin supercharger U.S. Radiatorradiator/cooling Vintage Airair conditioning Wilwood Engineeringbrakes
