HOT ROD Garage

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa turn a 2005 Dodge Magnum into the ultimate ride for a new "Dad," the Dad-Rod. Angelo and Costa do a complete performance upgrade: more power, better handling, and enhancements to make it look awesome. Then they added the dad-specific modifications: a custom rearview baby monitor and a killer roof rack for carrying family gear.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you have heard of the three hottest engines in all of motoring, the LS-based Chevy V-8, the Toyota turbo six-cylinder 2JZ, and the beastly 5.9L Cummins Turbodiesel. These engines are absolutely legendary and have been swapped into every chassis under the sun, but they've never gone head-to-head. On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, watch Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa hop up each one of these engines and put them to the test on the same dyno!

Most of us didn't get our dream car the first time around. As a teenager, you probably got a random hand-me-down, or saved up and bought a beater. On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, watch Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa turn a very plain-Jane  S-10 into a car that a kid would be stoked to own.  For around $3,500, the guys do a complete color change, lower the car, and make it handle. Of course they throw in some tunes too!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, we build the ultimate getaway car! Watch hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take a very plain 1979 four-door Chevy Malibu and make it ready to outrun anyone and anything. The guys install the 500hp LS-based V-8 from the engine comparo episode and run all that power through an American Powertrain TK0600. The result is a whole lot of tire smoke and lots of giggles. Stay tuned to see Part 2!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take a 500hp 1979 Malibu sleeper and turn it into an actual getaway car. The must-haves for anyone running from the law: hydraulic handbrake for quick 180s, off-road high-travel bumpstops for jumps, and a Currie 9-inch differential to handle all the abuse. After the build, watch a HOT ROD Garage version of a reenacted 1970s car chase!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take a mostly stock 1985 Ford Mustang 5.0 to a dragstrip! They set up shop at the track for two days to install a ton of go-fast parts to see just how much faster the car will go after each upgrade! The guys install all the typical mods: exhaust, intake, carb, cam, and even cylinder heads in their attempt to go quicker and quicker!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take their High School Special S-10, a truck that had been upgraded to drive, look, and sound better in a previous episode, and cram a 375hp Vortec V-8 in place of the original four-cylinder! The Vortec V-8 is a perfect candidate for a budget buildup with tons of potential. Watch the guys modify a $600 junkyard engine, and nearly double the power while keeping the stock heads! After the install, Angelo pilots the budget S-10 at the eighth-mile drags against some modern muscle and more than holds his own!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa shoehorn the 5.9L Diesel Turbo Cummins engine from an earlier episode, which made more than 400 hp and nearly 1,000 lb-ft of torque, into a 1970 El Camino! Is it a tow truck? Is it a drag race car?  We don't really know! Watch the #dieselcamino tow just about everything we had around, including a big rig!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa dig into the history of an old clunker 1956 Chevy 210 to find out the car was a 1965 NHRA H Class Champion! Once they've got an idea of how special this old Chevy is, they start on the long road getting the car back into racing shape. Watch the guys hunt down an original drivetrain, rebuild it to H/S Class specifications, and get this car back on track after sitting for decades! Will it run how it did in 1965? Check it out!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take a trip to a local SoCal auto auction with a stack of cash and some high hopes of finding a muscle car. After money changed hands and the dust settled, the guys left with a 1991 Mercedes-Benz SL500, not our typical project! Watch Angelo and Costa get the SL500 back into driving shape, and then cram in a 575hp Toyota 2JZ-GTE turbocharged, six-cylinder in place of the tired German V-8. Once the car is an absolute screamer, the guys go on the hunt to find some '80s exotics and show them what this old 'Benz can do!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa revive our old lightweight runabout, the 5.0 MG! This is a '64 MGB roadster that we crammed a 5.0 Ford V-8 into last year, resulting in one sketchy little rocket ship that didn't handle, or stop, but it sure did GO! This time, watch the guys fabricate a complete three-link rear suspension, convert the front end to a coilover suspension, and drop the car on seriously sticky rubber. Then you'll be given a killer introduction to suspension tuning while they tear up the Streets of Willow Springs International Raceway!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa drag out our 1985 Ford Mustang 5.0  GT that was a total failure. They took the car out, threw a bunch of go-fast parts at it at the dragstrip, and tried to make the car faster and faster. It did not exactly work out. On this episode, the guys investigate what went wrong, and come up with a proper plan to make things right. After rebuilding the 5.0, they hit the dragstrip and totally redeem themselves!

On this episode of Hot Rod Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa put together a killer street Big Block Chevy engine on the CHEAP! The guys try to commandeer the exotic ZL1 427 From Project X that's been sitting in a cage and get denied by the big bosses. So, instead they take a run of the mill Vortec 7400 from a junkyard, and try to make the same power numbers as the Zl1 for about 25% of the price! Watch as a bunch of go-fast bits turn this old truck engine into a killer street/race engine!!