Things are a trickling. If hot rodders are a bunch of power-hungry piranhas, it's race-inspired technology permeating into the mainstream-such as cutting-edge engine coatings, billet aluminum blocks, and various titanium doohickeys-that usually make us bite. As it turns out, however, the trickle-down effect isn't just limited to performance parts. Adapting some elements of the street rodding scene, without fully committing to its mandatory membership at the temple of chrome and polish, certainly has its benefits. Say what you will about how the typical '32 Ford is (or is not?) used, but there's no disputing that street rods represent the pinnacle of automotive craftsmanship. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars building a car for the sole purpose of pleasing a judge has a way of doing that. Not that we'd ever promote such a silly practice, but the same fastidious attention to detail can work brilliantly when applied to muscle cars.
For proof, just take a look at Air Ride's project Supernova, which is the giveaway car for the 2009 Goodguys show season. Its shaved driprails and flush-mounted front and rear windshields add a subtle yet undeniably amped-up aesthetic appeal. The look is so slick, it's as if the reworked sheetmetal is conspiring with air molecules to cut aerodynamic drag and stick it to the OPEC bastards. Of course, this mod won't really reduce your car's drag coefficient, but it is a hot topic we see floating on the Internet and in our inbox. Does the procedure require bigger glass? Is it as easy as getting busy with a cutoff wheel? How much welding is required? How do you keep the roof from warping and shifting? To find out, follow along with Kurt Blackgrove, Dennis Neihaus, and Shane Wagner of Precision Coachworks as they perform the procedure on Air Ride's '70 Nova.
