You've been thinking about it; now sign up. HOT ROD is back in 2010 with the sixth running of the greatest street-car drag race ever: Drag Week(tm), the event that requires competitors to drive 1,000-plus miles in five days while racing at four different dragstrips along the way. The winners are the cars in each class that set the lowest average e.t. over the five races, and the overall quickest car is named HOT ROD's Fastest Street Car in America.inline_mediumwraptextright32569380/dragweek/hrdp_1005_2010_hot_rod_drag_week_official_dates_ruleshrdp_1005_01_o+2010_hot_rod_drag_week+official_dates_rules.jpgTrue

College is expensive. SEMA can help. If you know someone preparing for a career in the automotive industry, we're ready to lend a hand. And if you know someone with outstanding student loans, we can help, too. SEMA maintains a program to pay part of the college tuition costs of today's top students or contribute toward your employees' student loans.

It's just like a race car driver to pick an engine and then worry about what car to build around it. Of course, when you are four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson, you can do just about whatever you want with your cars. This '67 Camaro just happens to be a tribute to fallen engine builder Randy Dorton, and it's powered by a real-deal Cup motor right out of the Hendrick Motorsports shop.

In a world without limits, camshaft designers have known for decades what profiles they'd like to grind. But real-world technological limitations-in terms of design feasibility, materials science, and manufacturing process-have held them back. Now, the introduction of sophisticated lobe design and analysis software, better materials, and computer-controlled manufacturing has pushed cams and lifters into a whole new performance envelope. Then there's recent original-equipment innovations such as variable valve timing (VVT) and perhaps ultimately electronic valve timing. There's no telling where it will all end. From the lowest street cam to the most radical high-end professional racing applications, big changes are occurring, so HOT ROD felt it was high-time we took a look at the state of today's cam and lifter technology.inline_mediumwraptextrightCams used to be designed by hand, based on experience and a laborious cut-and-try, trial-and-error approach. Now major companies like Comp Cams design all their new cams, lifters, and valvetrain parts on the computer. The advanced software gives cam profilers much more discrete control over the exact shape of the lobe profile than ever before.26961599/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1004_cam_lifter_technologyhrdp_1004_01+cam_and_lifter_technology+.jpgTrue

You've probably seen bullet-nose Studebakers with sharks' teeth nose art on the fenders, an attempt to recognize the WWII airplane-inspired design of the car, but Doug Hodak of Darien, Illinois, went much further than that, building his '50 Champion Starlight coupe to resemble a Lockheed P-38 Lightning "as close as the Illinois Department of Transportation would allow." Doug gave instructions to the body shop to, in his words, "make the body shine like the underside of a pop can." Once that was done, he painstakingly researched the correct P-38 graphics, which he then applied to the car along with 750 rivets. The drivetrain is stock Studie, including the flathead six, but it's not the power that draws stares.inline_mediumwraptextright28151188/featuredvehicles/hrdp_1004_1950_studebaker_championhrdp_1004_01+1950_studebaker_champion_starlight+front_view.jpgTrue