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1969 was the last year for the original Firebird body, and Pontiac sent it out with its most thorough facelift yet, a new Lexan front bumper-grille and a wider, longer stance. This 400-cubic-inch, 330-horsepower example sat squarely in the middle of a lineup that topped out with a rare 345-horsepower Ram Air IV most buyers never actually ordered. Gateway Classic Cars supplied the images seen here, documenting one of the final examples of Pontiac’s original pony car shape.
Motor Trend named the 1970 Ford Torino its Car of the Year, recognizing a lineup that spanned everything from the hushed, Lincoln-quiet Brougham to the stripped-down Cobra fastback running the quarter mile in under 14 seconds. A 429 Cobra Jet-equipped Cobra could hit 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, while wagon buyers got their own dedicated towing package. Read on to find out how Ford built three completely different cars under one nameplate.
This 1968 Dodge Dart tribute build packs a 605-cubic-inch Hemi big block under a functional hood scoop, riding on a tubbed rear end built to handle far more power than Dodge’s original 80-unit Hemi Dart ever put down. Painted bright red with a chrome-and-polish engine bay to match, it channels the spirit of Dodge’s most notorious factory drag car. Read on to find out what actually separates this tribute from the real thing.
The badge on this car says V8, but the Lincoln-Zephyr that defined the late 1930s never came with one from the factory — it ran a smooth, compact V12 unlike anything else in Lincoln’s lineup before or since. Edsel Ford personally championed the design, and it helped save Lincoln during the Depression. Here’s the real story behind the engine that made the Zephyr famous, and what a V8 badge on this example likely means.
This 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible skips right past the factory’s 350-, 360-, and 366-horsepower Ram Air options and goes straight for a 461 cubic-inch stroker backed by a five-speed manual — a combination Pontiac never dreamed of building. The GOAT’s best sales year meets a modern-day engine build that would make even the Ram Air II blush. Here’s what made 1968 the GTO’s high-water mark, and why this stroker droptop earns its own bragging rights.
Two Ford Mustangs with sequential VINs and a reinforced 390 became the most famous cars in Hollywood history after Steve McQueen insisted on driving his own chase scene through the hills of San Francisco. One vanished for three decades before resurfacing at auction as the most expensive Mustang ever sold. Read on to find out what made the Bullitt cars different from every other movie prop that ever wore a fastback body.
Longtime muscle car owners agree on one non-negotiable rule before any other consideration: a rust-free vehicle. This entry breaks down the restoration secrets veterans learn the hard way, from why a fully restored car can hide more problems than a rough project to how DIY work and swap-meet sourcing can cut a six-figure restoration bill dramatically. Read on to find out what separates a smart project from a money pit.
The Chevrolet El Camino SS Choo Choo package earned its odd nickname somewhere along the way, and by 1987, the very last year Chevrolet built an El Camino at all, buyers had one final chance to check that option box. Only 861 of these were built in that final model year, out of roughly 4,950 total across the package’s entire run. Here is what made this quirky appearance package a genuine send-off for one of Chevrolet’s most unusual nameplates.
1966 was the single best-selling year the Pontiac GTO ever had — and it’s also the year Pontiac quietly buried one of its rarest factory engine options, a Ram Air camshaft package that replaced Tri-Power on paper but never really won buyers over. Barely 35 were built to factory spec. Here’s the story behind the GTO’s forgotten sales peak.
Lincoln’s 1953 Cosmopolitan packed a freshly reworked 317 cubic-inch V8 good for 205 horsepower, a 45-hp jump over the prior year. That extra muscle wasn’t just for show — Lincoln sent the Cosmopolitan into the brutal Carrera Panamericana road race and swept the top four spots against bigger-engined Cadillacs and Chryslers. See the full story behind this Hydra-Matic-equipped survivor and what made it a genuine road-racing sedan in formal luxury clothing.
The 1957 Thunderbird could be ordered with a McCulloch-Paxton supercharger and up to 340 horsepower, which made it the fastest and most desirable two-seater Ford had ever sold. It was also the last. Robert McNamara had already decided what the 1958 car would be, and the styling department drew the entire thing before a single engineer was consulted. Read on to find out why the decision that infuriated the faithful turned out to be right.
Ford expected to sell 100,000 Mustangs in the first year and passed that figure in about three months. Roughly 318,000 people bought one in the first model year, and a million had been sold inside eighteen months. The rush left its marks: cars leaving the line without headlight wiring harnesses, horn rings stamped Ford Falcon hiding under Mustang trim. Read on for why those mistakes are worth money now.
This 1967 Chevrolet Camaro carries a detail that shouldn’t exist on paper: a 472-cubic-inch V8, a displacement Chevrolet never offered in any Camaro. The explanation is a later engine swap borrowing from Cadillac’s big-block lineup — a popular resto-mod move for builders chasing torque numbers the factory options sheet never allowed. Here’s how a Cadillac engine ends up under a Camaro’s hood.
1967 marked the final year of the Chevrolet El Camino’s second generation, and one of its most overlooked performance years. Buyers could order this car-truck hybrid with seven different powertrains, topping out with an SS396 big-block borrowed straight from the Chevelle. With just 34,830 built, clean surviving examples of this last-of-its-kind El Camino are increasingly hard to find.