Hot Rod Garage Episode Rating Graph

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa take the Twinpala, a twin LS-engined ’06 Chevy Impala SS and turn it up to 11! A completely insane twin-turbo system boosts the two stock LS4 engines to more than 900 WHP. The stock transmissions can’t hang, so the boys install two Gearstar upgraded 4T65Es and get ready for action. At Maple Grove Raceway, Angelo pilots the Redneck Veyron to crush the quarter-mile at more than 139 miles per hour, and 10.40 e.t. on street tires! HOT ROD Garage has never been wilder!

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!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, 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.

When the HRG director picked up a '71 Sedan DeVille for himself, it was his first hot rod. Unaware how fast old parts can fail, it overheated badly, destroying the 5.3 LS engine. Tony and Lucky make it right by raiding the Drift Thislimo for a 6.0, plus other add-ons that should keep the "Cecil B DeVille" rolling.

Tony and Angelo pick up a complete running and driving 2004 Mustang GT on the cheap, with the goal of turning it into a really fun car. They install better suspension and brakes, give it more power, and throw in some interior and exterior upgrades.

This time on HOT ROD Garage, watch hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa dig into Lucky's personal '66 Chevelle to wake it from a long slumber. Last time we saw this car run was years ago. It left our garage with a supercharged LS engine making big power. Like any good hot-rodder, Lucky turned it up until it popped, and the car was sent to the back of his shop. Now it's time to get this thing back on the road with a sweet 475-hp NA LS engine, built with AFR heads, and a rack-and-pinion conversion to make it drive even better. Of course we have to take it to the track for

This time on HOT ROD Garage, we take our rowdy 401 AMC V-8 engine that we built a couple years ago and cram it inside of our very crusty 1974 Javelin. On the way in, we pair the V-8 with a proper four-speed Super T-10 Transmission, longtube headers, and a ton of other hot parts. The goal is to have this package turned into a 1971 Trans Am tribute racer, so once it's running and driving the first step is to take it onto a road racing course and see just how far we have to go with this car.

An all-wheel-drive sport truck should really have all of its wheels driving; that's the goal as Alex and Lucky upgrade a Typhoon trans and everything from the transfer case forward, bulletproofing parts until the next one fails.

Lucky Costa and Alex Taylor join forces to build hot rods in every shape imaginable; from the American RWD V-8s that would be expected to oddball and niche performers that wouldn't, they build them fast, build them cool and build them right.

The team's long disappointed Grand National has finally earned its keep at Hot Rod Garage; with whiff after whiff at the dragstrip, the team has pulled out all the stops, called a few friends and finally got to the bottom of what's holding them back.

After years of living a polarizing existence with an electric motor, Alex and Lucky have been given the go-ahead to bring Project X back to its glory days as a gas-huffing machine; there's no better way than a simple 1,000-hp crate 632 from GM.

Let's face it, we've all got budgets. Sometimes the best hot rodding you can do is with that old truck in the field, and Roadkill Garage's old project Tater Truck has been loafing around the MotorTrend offices for years just begging for some love. What can we do with this sluggish, tired, and granny-geared F250? Two words: Spud Life.

Just like drag racing before it, roll racing is starting to get organized and move to the track. As stewards of speed, it's only right that we try our hand at this rolling-start craze. We're just one Vortech V7 install away from pitting Lucky's soon-to-be 1,000-hp Chevelle against last season's 1,000-hp Caprice PPV.

Freshly stoked off of their win at Roadkill Nights, Alex and Lucky take on double the cars for double the seat time. A broken but Coyote-swapped '04 Mustang and a leaking but eager '74 Javelin track screamer are both just barely on the disabled list, and it's time to get them off. When some friendly sparring on the road course is just a few wrenches away, how do you not?

With the 28-day thrash from field car to big-tire Savoy complete, Alex and Lucky prep the Crown Hic and DiesEl Camino for a burnout competition with the Roadkill and FWF guys. Then it's down to business as Alex flexes her stick shift skills in the Influencer Grudge Match drag race at Roadkill Nights. Woodward Ave, here we come!

On this very busy episode of Hot Rod Garage, the gang gets sick, loses the shop, and still manages to finish the Savoy. Not just finish it, but transform it from its shell of a self into a blown, injected, six-speed, tube-chassised, big-tire Savoy. It's a feat of endurance and one heck of a sight to behold.

Having near-zero experience in the sport of drifting, Alex and Lucky bring a pair of unexpected stock into the HRG stable -- the catch all of entry-level drift cars, two Nissan 370Zs. Drift-prepping the twin-Zs with ultra basic upgrades, these once abused and beaten Zs will continue to be abused and beaten, except this time under the watchful tutelage of an actual pro drifter.

The Grand Trashional gets one more shot at making the power it deserves. Alex and Lucky put all their faith in heads, a cam, hopes and a dream. And because they're gluttons for punishment, they introduce another creampuff to the fleet -- yet another must-have GM turbo V6. But at least this one will be fast, right?

Hot Rod Garage welcomes its newest member to the HRG team, host Alex Taylor! Coming from a long history of fast cars, she and Lucky set their sights on pushing our 10s for 10K Bonemaro build into some 9-second timeslip territory. A solid plan of weight loss, a transbrake and a booster seat should all add up to the fastest pass in Bonemaro's history.

On this episode of Hot Rod Garage we put our C5 through some new, sideways paces! The 2000 Corvette has already been pumped to around 500 hp and ripped down the dragstrip in an earlier episode by host Lucky Costa. This time, Tony Angelo and his buddy Mike Edwards get it all set up to handle the turns.

We call this show HOT ROD Garage, and we’ve never built a proper prewar hot rod. When we gave Lucky Costa the chance to decide what we were building, he decided to rectify that once and for all with this mashup of parts! It’s a 1927 Ford truck body on a mostly 1929 Ford Model T frame, powered by a small-block Chevy with a good helping of random speed parts gathered over a few decades. It all adds up to a whole lot of ratty awesome hot rod! Watch Hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky slap this thing together over a very long week and take it out for a maiden cruise!

Tony and Lucky fastest project ever is the 1,000 hp 2006 Chevy Impala SS, with an entire second V8 drivetrain crammed into the back. The front engine needs work, so the guys pull it out and use this chance to upgrade everything, including new headers, intake manifolds and EFI.

In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, host Tony Angelo unveils a new passion project. Coming from a Hot Rod upbringing that turned into a career as a professional drift racer, Tony is building a 1972 `Cuda, dubbed “Fishtail,” into a Drift Muscle car to be featured at the 2016 SEMA show. This first FishTail episode covers the design and fabrication of a completely custom suspension system using a full inventory of QA1 parts and supplies. Watch Tony and cohost Lucky Costa turn this `Cuda into a sideways-handling monster!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa give you the lowdown on drag racing! Watch the guys take our 10-second turbo Camaro project and a bone-stock 1986 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, prep them for action, and hit the racetrack! There’s a full rundown on exactly how to do everything at the strip—burnouts, launching, nailing the tree, and even how to shift and slow down. Whether you are a total newbie or have been down the strip a million times, there’s lots of great info in this one.

Our C10 short-bed conversion truck has been in need of a serious power-up for years now, and it’s finally time to cram some big power into this killer street truck. Hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa are stuck on opposite coasts, but they aren’t going to let that stop them from getting the job done. Watch Tony grab a 1968 Chevy big-block and do a complete top-end upgrade. Aluminum heads, a big camshaft, and killer accessories all go onto this 454 in Tony’s Pennsylvania shop. Once it’s up and running strong, it gets shipped over to Lucky and current owner Mikey P for install with a killer Gearstar 6L80E transmission. Once it’s in and running, watch Mikey P tear it down the dragstrip with all that new power!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa decide to build a boat of a car, a 1971 Cadillac Sedan deVille, and drop it on airbags for a sweet-and-low cruiser. The Caddy, however, had other plans. The 472 Cadillac V-8 exploded on the first test drive, and it was clear we needed to swap in a serious powerplant. A 5.3 LS setup for a carburetor and a 4L60E overdrive transmission swap become the new focus of the episode. After the car is running, the guys take it on a high-speed desert blast to make sure it won’t let them down again!

We're kicking off Season 9 in a BIG WAY. 1,000-horsepower BIG. The guys set out to build a 1,000-hp Street car, using a 2014 Caprice Police Patrol car, a built 5.3 LS, and a turbo big enough to boost three cars. Tony Angelo is on the East Coast building the giant turbo system, and co-host Lucky Costa is in L.A. building the 5.3 to killer spec. Can the boys build a car with more power than anything coming out of Detroit? Who knows. The fun is in the finding out.

Hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa have set out to turn a run-of-the-mill 2014 Chevy Caprice PPV into an insanely powerful street car making over one thousand horsepower. That's more HP than literally any American car produced today. (OK, Tesla Plaid makes 1,020 electric horsies.) We take one built 5.3 truck LS engine (of course), and bolt one giant Garrett turbocharger on there and let those things sing. This is the nastiest car we've ever built, period.

After a last-minute thrash to assemble Mike Finnegan’s ’55 Chevy Bel Air, it famously cruised from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina, to attend the start of Hot Rod Power Tour 2014. The summertime road trip revealed the good and bad traits of the street-legal gasser and now it’s time to exorcize some of its demons. On this episode of Hot Rod Garage Presented by Lincoln Tech, the crew tunes the FAST XFI 2.0 electronic fuel injection system for wide-open throttle performance, lowers the front suspension, adds a pair of Viking adjustable dampers, and installs a Hurst Roll Control line lock for better burnouts. Then Finnegan takes to the drag strip to find out how well the car performs on the same wore-out pair of Firestone Cheater Slicks that he drove cross-country on. In the Q & A session, Freiburger and Finnegan discuss vintage Mustang Sportroofs, old Roadkill project cars, the F-Bomb Camaro, and of course, the staff of Motor Trend.

In this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, we set out to build a good old-fashioned sleeper! We found a very innocent-looking and long-forgotten 1965 Plymouth Fury III wagon and began to revive the old Mopar 400 big-block from Rollsmokey. Watch Tony and Lucky take that shaky, low-compression 400, strip it to the block, and rebuild it into a 512ci stroked beast! After the new 512 big-block gets stuffed into the #furyroadmaster, it’s time to hit the streets for some fun!

In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, we finally see what kind of times we can hit with our dirt-cheap 1979 Turbo Camaro, #bonemaro! First we spend the rest of our 10k USD budget to get all 530 whp to the pavement. Tony and Lucky install subframe connectors, drag shocks, slapper bars, and a mini-spool on the car before hitting the track!

In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, we get our hands on a hot-rodding icon, Project X! In 1965, Popular Hot Rodding purchased an unremarkable 1957 Chevy 210 and began a 50-build legacy using it as a testbed for every hot, new part. It’s been sitting for years with a Pro Touring look and fuel-injected big-block, so we decided it was time to take it back to its roots! Watch Project X get a nasty LSX 376 GM Performance crate engine with a Weiand blower and two proper Holley carburetors!

In this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, watch Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa perform a complete suspension upgrade on the most iconic 1957 Chevy of all time— Project X! The guys also execute an exterior transformation to make X look like it did in the ’80s!

In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, we decide to upgrade all the necessary things to make our 1966 Fury Wagon (which is housing a 512ci V-8) safe. Watch Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa install 4 Piston disc brakes, an upgraded transmission, and axles to handle the power of our big-block Mopar. Once that’s sorted and she’s a reliable driver, we turn the power way up with cylinder heads, an intake manifold, a header, and a big, new Holley carburetor—just to make sure this car is still way out of control! Once we’re done, watch Tony literally tear the tires off the #furyroadmaster in our most epic testdrive ever!

In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa decide to go with the wind in their hair in this 1965 Pontiac Lemans convertible. The only problem is that it’s half rust and half dirt, and this thing needs a bunch of sheetmetal repair. Watch the guys replace most of the rear end of the car, and once that is all handled, they install a full frame bracing kit and make the underside of this car WAY prettier than the top side.

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, watch Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa transform a banged-up 1987 Chevrolet G10 work van into a 1977 Boogie Van clone! After completely changing the body over to a 1977, Costa installs a front-end suspension drop, while Angelo and special guest Lindsay Ross install a recently uncovered set of original ’80s bubble windows. A complete set of heads and side pipes give it some growl, and the guys finish it off with a seriously radical custom graphics package.

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, Lucky Costa’s personal ’66 Chevelle gets major upgrades to its 6.0L LS truck engine. Tony Angelo and Costa install a set of AFR heads and a Magnuson supercharger on this high-mileage, well-worn engine to really wake up the powerplant. Without any upgrades to the 100,000-plus-mile bottom end, the #66ChevHell puts down more than 500 whp!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa dive into the red-hot C10 truck market and show you how to build a killer shortbed truck on a longbed budget! Watch the guys cut, shorten, and weld a longbed C10 into a sweet shorty using a Brothers Trucks kit and bed parts. Then they turn their new shortbed C10 into a killer handling machine using the brand-new QA1 complete suspension system.

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!!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa dream of a 1969 big-block, widebody, four-speed Corvette, but they just can’t afford it! Watch the guys transform a beat-up 1974 Corvette into the ’69 widebody they really want. Installing a low-buck, 475hp big-block with killer side pipes is step one. Step two is to cut the entire body off and get the car ready for a complete 1969 changeover! Before the new body parts go on, though, there are lots of burnouts!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa build one of the most insane project cars in the history of the show! The guys head to Angelo’s personal shop in Pennsylvania to build the Twinpala. Watch them figure out how to cram an entire second drivetrain into the rear of the Impala: engine, transmission, and suspension all have to go into the car where the rear seats used to live. Once it’s all together, they put the car through its paces at Englishtown Raceway Park and light up all four tires for the most insane burnouts of all time!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa jump headfirst into the dirt track world! Watch the guys scoop up an old beat-up Nova, build a basic 350 for it, and take it to compete on a superfast half-mile dirt oval at Selinsgrove Speedway. You’ll see everything you need to do, and not do to make a competitive dirt car!! The action is wild and the failures are constant, so buckle up!

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage, hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa attempt to do the impossible: build a fast, cheap Mopar!!! It’s the end of the season and the budget is tight but it’s been too long without a Mopar. Angelo has dug through every online classified to find a 1973 Duster with some goodies on it, and Costa does his best to cram a 2005 5.7L Gen III Hemi into the car on the cheap! Can it be done? Will the myth of the cheap Mopar die in 2019? Watch and see!