April 1973, Hot Rod magazine Hornet Hatchbacks, Mild & Wild Meet 6000-Mile Radar Detector Test By John Fuchs New car road tests are standard fare in the pages of Hot Rod Magazine, but occasionally a special car comes along that deserves a different type of treatment. Such an occasion occurred recently, and the car with charisma was the completely restyled ’73 Hornet Hatchback from American Motors. Suddenly our test Hornet had become two test Hornets, and our standard road test became a rather unique cross-country comparison test and radar detector evaluation. Originally we had ordered a Hatchback, complete with the largest factory-available engine, the 360-cubic-inch, two-barrel version, and a list of options as long as Wilt Chamberlain’s arms. Power steering, power disc brakes, AM/FM radio, rear window defroster, limited-slip diff erential, Torque-Command automatic trans and Goodyear radial tires were only some of the add-on goodies. Then we learned that a performance- oriented dealership in Mesa, Arizona, was taking this same kind of Hornet and replacing the 360 with AMC’s top-of-the-line 401-cube four-barrel motor (otherwise not available in the Hornet). It’s a natural swap, considering that the engines are externally identical, so everything bolts right ep. A 401 Hornet equipped with a 2.87 gear was also a natural for a cross-country trip, so armed with an innocuous white Randall-American-prepared Hornet, C.J. Baker, Hot Rod’s intrepid Performance Editor, and I became entry number 30 in the prestigious Cannonball event: a trip to New York and back over the public highways at quasi-legal speeds. It was all part of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, a thinly disguised cross-country auto "rally" conceived in madness several years ago by Brock Yates, the formerly respected Senior Editor of a small East Coast sports car magazine. In an attempt to protest both unrealistic speed limit laws in this country and contests abundant with finely printed rules, Yates had invented a contest with only one rule: The winners were those people who drove from New York to Los Angeles in the shortest .clasped time. Period. Any vehicle, any route, any number of drivers and any speed that you deemed reasonable, proper and competitive, and that’s it. The major stipulation was that you must physically drive the machine to California; no fair putting it on an airplane and flying it out. And if you got busted by The Man, well, it certainly would be detrimental to your elapsed time. ------------------------------------- Hornet for ’73 features extremely attractive styling, good handling with optional radial tires, and a comfortable ride, especially when traveling across country and back. Cavernous hatchback shown empty on 360 model (left) and full on 401 model. Three 22- gallon fuel cells plus 10-pound fire extinguisher and plenty of spare parts will fit with no sweat when back seat’s down. ------------------------------------- The original Cannonball was a solo event, with Yates and friends going the distance in just over 41 hours in a Dodge Van appropriately named Moon Trash II. (Editor’s Note: The original Moon Trash is a yet-to-be released movie by Steve Smith starring, among others, Yates, Charlie Foi, Terry Cook, and introducing Candace Harding.) Cannonball II, run in the late fall of ’71, drew 23 enthusiasts in eight vehicles. It %as won by some-time writer Yates and so,me-time race driver Dan Gurney in an all-the-time sleek Fer-rari Daytona with the unbelievable coast-to-coast time of 35 hours and 56 minutes. And so Cannonball II went into the history books, and into the pages of that sports car magazine as well, bringing about an avalanche of 458 potential entries for the third running of this madcap endeavor, including one from a pair of press crazies from Los Angeles: C.J. "Cannonball" Baker and John "Feather-foot" Fuchs. Of course neither Petersen Publishing Company nor Hot Rod Magazine would allow itself to become involved in such irresponsible madness, so C.J. and I were forced to invent a subterfuge and tackle the undertaking as a private venture. False rumors, started by Yates no doubt, that our eventual entry of a 401 Hornet was nothing less than a full-bore factory- sponsored effort, were maliciously circulated. Incidentally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank American Mctors for their cooperation. As a token of our thanks, we have presented AMC with an award, aptly titled the "Perpetual Looking-Aside-In-The- Face-Of-Imminent-Disaster Trophy". Since we’re always looking for a new slant on car-testing, we hit upon the idea of a cross- country road test of a specially prepared 1973 Hornet Hatchback and two different models of radar detectors. While our 360 Hornet is an interesting package, the Randall 401 variant offered an even more suitable .alternative to the cross-country "test" proposition: a perfect cross-country "touring" car. So we wangled one for the ride. =====(article within article)============================= The radar aspect of the test was the most challenging part, to see if it is possible to find a police radar trap before it finds you. One unit was a small self-powered device from Radatron in North Tonawanda, New York, that lists for about $40. The other runs off the vehicle’s electrical system, costs about twice as much, is called The Snooper, and is made by Autotronics in Dallas, Texas. But our 6000-mile radar detector test backfired, as the whole country was traversed without a sound from the radar detectors. Could it be that the police are not, in fact, hiding behind every rock and bush? There was only one way to find out: Set up a test with an actual police radar unit, since we encountered no police during our sprint. An obliging but unnamed California police department agreed to help out, and dutifully showed up with the latest example of scientific weaponry: a radar gun. This hand-held device looks like something out of Buck Rogers. The officer merely calibrates the unit with a tuning fork, then points it at a moving object, which can be moving either toward or away from the gun. The speed of that object magically appears in a window located where the hammer mechanism appears on a normal gun. Incidentally, the radar gun is compact enough to be used by (stationary) motorcycle cops. Deadly, absolutely deadly. Since the gun has been in use, there have been 37 arrests and 36 convictions. But can a $1000 speed gun be beat by a $40 or a $60 detector, we wondered. Well, yes and no. We made almost a dozen runs at the gun, first with one detector on, then the other, then both, and came to the following conclusions: The Snooper (the expensive model) gave a loud and clear warning a full quarter-mile before the gun could get a reading, while the Radar Sentry gives a very weak and almost imperceptible signal about a tenth of a mile before the police get a reading. The Radar Sentry gives off its loudest warning at about a quarter of a mile before the actual radar unit’s location but a quarter of a mile after the unit has recorded your speed. In other words, when The Snooper goes off, you’ve got about 1000-1300 feet to hit the binders if you’re speeding; when the Radar Sentry goes off loud enough for you to hear it in a normal driving situation, you’d better reach for your wallet if you’ve been speeding, ’cause you’ve been had by The Man. This test, of course, takes no account for hills, trees, bends in the road, or other traffic, because it was performed on a relatively level, straight and empty stretch of highway. But at least we proved one thing: that one of the radar detectors actually works, a fact borne out by several Cannonball competitors who were not as lucky as we were and did encounter some radar traps. In radar detectors, as in many other things, you apparently get what you pay for. ===================== Randall prepared our 401 Hornet with some special goodies, including the 2.87 rear, Goodyear radials and a set of Hooker Headers. We added a few other necessary items. First on the list were three auxiliary 22-gallon fuel cells, complete with internal foam and rollover valves. Two of these units were kindly donated by Dorm Allen, while the third came from Aero-Tech Laboratories. An aircraft surplus five-way valve and steel braided lines completed the system, giving us a total onboard capacity of 73 usable gallons of fuel, enough to go almost a thousand miles without stopping. Other items for our motoring pleasure included a pair of 100,000candlepower aircraft landing lights, a speed-control device from Annuncionics, a digital-readout speedometer from Rotiform Corporation and Delco air shocks to cope with the extra gasoline’s weight. To improve the safety aspect of the vehicle, a rollbar, competition seat belts, shoulder harnesses and Velvetouch semimetallic brakes, all from Lakewood, were added on our way to New York. Two radar detectors completed the package. It would be interesting indeed to see just how many of those nasty little radar traps we could ferret out with the aid of our space-age devices. After all, with police lurking stealthily behind every rock and bridge abutment, keeping a watchful Big Brother eye on the speed of traffic, we could once and for all prove the worth of such detectors. And off we went merrily on our way from Los Angeles to the Red Ball Garage in New York City, the official starting point for the Cannonball. We, along with 33 other teams, had been selected by Yates from among the barrage of entries to participate in this annual rite. The trip back East was relatively uneventful as we spent hours calculating mileages, noting landmarks and picking appropriately spaced gas stations. And our Hornet turned out to be an excellent car for the journey, running mile after trou-ble-free mile all the way across the country. That 401 had more than enough horsepower for our needs, the handling package and radials made the car suitably stable, and the stock bucket seats were oh, so comfortable. If only we could have equipped the car with reclining seats, we’d have been in business, but that option is not available on the Hatchback. The ’73 Hornet is an extremely pleasant car to go motoring in, whether it’s hopping across town or cruising across country. More than that, it is a well-engineered car with an integrated package feeling where all the elements complement without overpowering each other. The power on hand was more than most drivers would want, but Randall’s 401 package was not meant for the average motorist. It’s designed for the enthusiast, and a fairly well-heeled one at that. Our test car, which included options like the big automatic, limited-slip rearend, deluxe interior, handling package, power steering, heavy-duty cooling package, radio, floor-mounted shifter and that 401/four-barrel, had a sticker price of just over $4600, making it plain that performance, 1973 style, does not come cheap. For the budget-minded enthusiast, though, a 401 Hornet can be had for as little as $3395, and that price even includes a one-way airplane ticket to Mesa, Arizona, from anywhere in the country. On our return to L.A. with this latter-day supercar, we decided to find the true potential of this machine in the quarter-mile, but first it required a trip to Bonanza American in North Hollywood, where the 2.87:1 gear was replaced with a 4.10: 1. Our first pass down the drag strip confirmed our beliefs that a good set of slicks are a necessity if you’re trying to get the most from this car. The best we could do with a set of G60-15 Super Stock Formula 1 street tires mounted on l5x8 Fenton Super Shark wheels was the low 1Ss and 97 mph, with the headers closed. First gear was lost to wheelspin, and even second gear starts proved useless. With a set of slicks and the headers opened it’s definitely a 14- second car, but without the slicks we were hopelessly spinning our wheels. Upon completion of the 6000-mile durability/reliability portion of our test, we had the opportunity to compare the Randall version with the similar 360/ two-barrel Hornet. It too is a neat car, but from a completely different point of view. Except for the fact that the sheetmetal and seating positions are the same, you’d think that the 360 is a different make of car. The 401, with its dual exhausts and Mercury Tube glasspacks, has a throaty rumble to the exhaust note that lets you know right away that there’s a big engine under that hood. The 360 is the antithesis, a subdued and very well mannered machine. Its single exhaust is extremely quiet, yet the torquey engine coupled to that Chrysler-built automatic is very responsive and hence a lot of fun to drive. The 360 is no slouch at the drag strip, turning in creditable performances with a string of consistent 15.90s at 86 mph. But a performance car it’s not. The interesting thing is that the potential is there without even swapping whole engines. Since the 360 and the 401 come from the same engine family, a good many of the parts, like the four-barrel intake manifold, are interchangeable. A backyard performance enthusiast could really go to town with this car. The two nicest things about the ’73 Hornet Hatchbacks are the new styling and the physical size of the vehicles. The Hornet Hatchback is easily the best-looking car from American Motors, a company not previously renowned for its styling prowess. It’s one of the better-looking of all the ’73s (which was not exactly what we’d call a banner year for styling). While the wheelbase of this machine is only 108 inches, thus qualifying it for the economy class, the Hatchback is heavier than you’d expect. Both of our cars tipped the OCIR scales at 3175 pounds, lending reason to the rocklike stability at cruising speeds. The car has an excellent feel to it at all speeds and refuses to go light on the highway, as would many of the other econ-omy-class cars. The base price on a Hornet Hatchback, which includes such niceties as a five-mph front bumper and a low-lead gasoline engine, is in the neighborhood of $2600. Our test car, weighed down as it was with options, had a‘ sticker price of $4050. That’s a lot of money for an economy car, but this 360 had a bunch of neat features that need not be ordered by the budget-minded car buyer. One of these was a time-delay windshield wiper switch that, in addition to the normal high and speeds for the wipers, would allow the driver to select various positions where the wipers would make a single pass across the windshield at any interval between one and 20 seconds. Another nice touch was the lighting on the heater controls that would come on only when the heater was turned on and would remain dark if the heater was off'. American Motors has indeed come a long way since the days of the Nash and Rambler. But anyway, as we left our fearless heros, they were awaiting departure in their 401 Hornet, which was filled to the brim with gasoline. The Polish Racing Drivers of America claimed the right to the "Pole" position, based on their parentage, while we waited patiently in the 11th starting slot. We punched out on the Red Ball’s time clock at exactly 10:23 on the evening of Monday, November 13, and sped off' into the night toward California. In an almost unbelievable string of good fortune, eight of the 11 lights that we encountered getting out of Manhattan were green, but half an hour into New Jersey our good luck disappeared. A building on fire caught us in a traffic jam for almost 45 minutes, and then the bad weather struck. We hit torrential rains in Pennsylvania and Ohio, snow in Indiana that caused a skid into a ditch and a resultant hour’s delay, more snow in Illinois, and snow- and ice-covered roads all the way across iowa and Nebraska. The first clear roads we hit were in Wyoming, about 1700 miles out of New York, and then it snowed again in Utah. Nevada’s no-speed-limit highway was clear and dry, and we found that our 401 Hornet, flat out, with that 2.87:1 gear and ER70-14 radials, will do 128 mph. The Hornet was performing admirably, but the incredibly bad weather we’d encountered had ruined all possible chances for a win. We were just trying for a respectable finish. Motoring ever onward into California, we arrived at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach and punched in with a time of 41 hours and 15 minutes. Coast-to-coast in a car in just over a day and a half. Our 401 Hornet had done its duty without complaint, traveling from sea to shining sea with nary a problem to report save for a minor leak in a portion of rubber fuel line hose that we fixed in Rock Springs, Wyoming. And so the sun sets on our dynamic duo, who have driven across country in comfort, in safety, and in 13th place out of 28 finishers in the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. With better weather conditions we probably could have improved our position considerably. Whatever you blame it on, it certainly wasn’t the Hornet’s fault. And if you read this story, please don’t tell Terry Cook about it. We just might want to do it again next year....