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Muscle car fans have been arguing about what counts as ‘the future’ of the genre for over a decade, and the answer just got a lot more complicated. Back when the supercharged Hellcat represented peak muscle, collectors were paying top dollar for 1967-71 originals like they might vanish overnight. Now Dodge’s answer is an electric Charger that fakes engine noise through a patented speaker system. Here’s how the debate has evolved from Hemi displacement to decibels.
Every recurring video or talk show has to start somewhere, and the first episode almost never gets the fanfare of the ones that follow – no big reveal, no marquee guest, just an introduction to the people steering the conversation going forward. Before diving into builds, history, or debates over which engine option was really the best of its era, it helps to know who’s asking the questions and who’s shaping what makes it to the screen. So who’s behind the camera, and who decides what gets cut? Read on to find out.
Pontiac has the strongest claim to inventing the category. Ford has the sales records by an enormous margin. Dodge and Plymouth have what collectors are willing to pay today, which is a completely different ranking. Every camp is quoting a real number and reaching a different answer, because they are all using different measuring sticks. Read on for what each one actually proves, and which one settles it.
Ask anyone who has finished more than one muscle car restoration what they would do differently and the same handful of regrets keep surfacing, regardless of what car was on the lift. Almost none of them involve the engine or the paint. They involve decisions made in the first three weeks, before any of the interesting work begins. Read on for the mistakes experienced restorers only seem to learn about after making them once.
Muscle cars and sports cars get lumped together constantly, but the real dividing line isn’t attitude — it’s a specific set of engineering decisions around displacement, weight, and chassis design made an ocean apart. A 1970 Chevelle SS454 outweighed a period Porsche 911S by more than 1,400 pounds, and that gap explains more than any horsepower figure could. Read on to find out exactly where the line falls, and why it’s gotten blurrier in the decades since.
Gateway Classic Cars has become the country’s largest classic car sales operation since 1999, with around 15 showrooms, more than 90,000 customers, and a website drawing over 8 million views a month. Sellers pay nothing up front, but they sign a 90-day exclusive contract and pay a commission at sale, while buyers often commit based on photos alone. Read on to find out how the consignment process really works and which side of the deal comes out ahead.
A supercharged Hemi wasn’t the surprising part of the Charger SRT Hellcat – the stopwatch numbers were. This four-door family sedan runs 0-60 in roughly 3.6 seconds and tops out near 204 mph, numbers that would embarrass plenty of dedicated two-door muscle cars. Here’s how Dodge built a genuine supercar into a car meant for car seats.
Ross Mills, editor of Muscle Car Fan, sits down to talk through the restoration mistakes that seasoned builders only learn the hard way, from rust that hides where you cannot see it to numbers-matching engines that quietly determine a car”s resale value. It is the kind of practical knowledge no shop manual bothers to include. Read on to find out which shortcuts the veterans wish they had never taken.