John "Gunner" Gunnell
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Pontiac’s Straight 8s

The Pontiac L-head straight eight was used in production cars for 21 years between 1933 and 1954. This classic engine was advertised as a powerplant that could run 100,000 miles without a major overhaul.

British Invasion – All the King’s Horsepower

Interest in British sports cars grew in the U.S. after World War II, when soldiers returning from England brought MG TCs home with them. Soon other sports cars came from “across the pond.”

Racing with the Ramchargers

Before Neil Newman’s tenure with Chrysler Marine ­Division, he had gone to school at the Chrysler Engineering Institute (CEI) with many members of the original, legendary “Ramchargers” drag racing team.

Green Strategies: Recycled Engine Parts Save Profits

The list of reclaimed bare engine blocks on the Kenmonth Engine Company website (www.danamotorssac.com) is enough to warm the heart of any vintage vehicle collector. There’s an AMC 401-cid big-block for $800, five 1959 thru 1966 Buick “Nailheads” for $450 each, a 390 for a tail-finned ‘59 Caddy for $450, a 216-cid Chevy “Stovebolt 6”

Two of a Kind – Dodge Bros. Celebrate 100 Years

Engine builders John and Horace Dodge started making automobiles in 1914 — 100 years ago. However, the Dodge brothers actually got into the automobile industry in 1900 and actually manufactured engines under contract to Henry Ford in 1900. Eventually, they built all of Ford’s mechanical parts. John and Horace were talented machinists who started at

A Fitting Solution to Lasting Longer

Since 2000, Abradable Powder Coatings have been used in auto production to coat supercharger rotors. These “clearance coatings” can also be used to safely minimize piston clearances, minimize piston rock and slap and promote better ring sealing and increase power. When clearance coatings are used, leak down lasts longer, too. For the last eight years,

Vintage V8s: Exploring 100 Years of Cadillac Engines

For more than a century, the name Cadillac has been synonymous with performance, style and passion. And in those early years of the Cadillac Automobile Company, it was a former loom mechanic – Henry Martyn Leland – who was credited with forging the technologies that separated Cadillac from the other automobile businesses that were springing

‘Visible Vette’ Shows off ‘427 Mystery Engine’

In a twist on the “Visible V8” model you may have built as a kid, Kevin Mackay built a visible lifesized ’Vette.   Then, he made it even more unusual by stuffing it with a famous racing engine that was used in an ultra-rare Corvette racing car that went 180 mph at the 12 Hours

Harry A. Miller’s Masterpiece Motors

Miller’s engines and cars were – and still are – works of art Each year, in early July, some five-dozen racing relics come thundering out of the pages of history books to circle the famous one-mile long track at Milwaukee’s Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.   There are Lozier, Mercer, Hupmobile, Ford, Chrysler and Kurtis creations with

Gems From ’49 Bell Catalog

Long before the Internet, there was a man with a vision – and a catalog When Roy Richter wrote, “Here it is”on the inside cover of his 1949 Bell Auto Parts Catalog, he probably didn’t realize what he started. He said it was, “the most comprehensive and up-to-date catalog of racing equipment.” Bell Auto Parts

Vintage Engine Goodies

There are probably a million ways to dress-up a classic show car’s engine. You can add colorful spark plug wires to any vintage motor. You can install Chevy Orange logo valve covers on any 1958-’86 slant edge small-block Chevy. You can get a universal-fit Airbox air cleaner with a blue HPR filter, for muscle cars

How a Legend Got His Start

Last March, when Ed “Isky” Iskenderian picked up the Robert E. Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Hot Rod & Restoration Show in Indianapolis, he talked about the automobile engine business in the early years. The Iskenderians were Armenians who fled Turkey and came to America around 1910, settling in Northern California’s wine country.