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The 1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL offered buyers a spread of engines topped by an all-new 427-cubic-inch V8, built specifically to exploit NASCAR’s newly raised displacement limit. The rarest version, a dual-carburetor 425-horsepower R-code, saw fewer than 3,900 examples built for the entire model year. That combination of race-bred engineering and genuine scarcity makes surviving R-code Galaxies among the most valuable full-size Fords ever built.
Built during Cadillac’s 50th-anniversary year in 1952, the Series 62 accounted for a record share of the brand’s total sales that year. This example, dressed in the era’s gold anniversary trim, now runs a 4.6-liter Northstar V8 in place of its original 331-cubic-inch engine. It’s a rare pairing of golden-anniversary styling with a drivetrain from decades later.
Steam power was a genuine rival to internal combustion in the earliest days of the automobile, and Leon Serpollet’s flash boiler was central to that fight. His design generated usable steam almost instantly instead of requiring a long warm-up, and in 1902 it helped him set a 75 mph land speed record. His death in 1907 left flash-boiler technology as one of the automobile’s more fascinating dead ends.
This 1936 Chevrolet pickup started life with a modest inline-six and three-speed manual, part of a lineup that introduced hydraulic brakes and an all-steel cab that year. Somewhere along the way it was reborn with a 383 small-block V8 and a Turbo 350 automatic. The swap turns a Depression-era work truck into a driver capable of keeping up with modern traffic.
This cream-and-orange Grand Marquis is actually a mid-1980s example, built on Ford’s long-running rear-wheel-drive Panther platform shared with the Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car (badged Continental until 1981). Under the hood is a fuel-injected 5.0-liter V8 tuned for smooth cruising rather than speed. Its size, comfort, and old-school construction made it a favorite with fleets and traditionalists alike.
AMC spent forty million dollars and a million man-hours over three years before anyone outside the company saw the Hornet, then sold the base model for $1,994. It was the first American car with reinforced door beams, the first to offer a hatchback in its class, and the first to sell a designer interior. It also produced a 285-horsepower muscle car that only 784 buyers ever got. Read on for what killed it before it started.
The Ferrari Testarossa’s flat-12 engine sat mounted behind the cabin in a near-perfect 60/40 weight distribution, producing a claimed 390 horsepower in European trim, among the most powerful engines on any production car when it launched in 1984. Those famous side strakes were not styling flourishes, they fed air to radiators mounted in the car’s wide rear flanks to keep that engine cool. Production ran largely unchanged through 1991, with total output most commonly cited at 7,177 units. This 1988 example captures the model near the height of its seven-year run.
Pontiac’s 326 was actually a 336 and the 350 that replaced it in 1968 was really a 354.74, which nobody at the division ever adequately explained. The G3 LeMans carried that engine through some of the best years of the A-body, picked up big valve Ram Air heads for 1969, and by 1970 could be ordered with GTO-sized engines in a cheaper package. Read on for the LeMans years worth knowing, including the budget hardtop Chevrolet undercut within weeks.
This 1929 Ford Model A pickup keeps its century-old shape but swaps everything underneath for modern Ford hardware: a 351 Windsor crate V8, a C6 automatic, and a Ford nine-bolt rear end, all tied together with four-wheel disc brakes. The all-Ford drivetrain is a deliberate choice in a restomod world where builders often mix brands freely. 1929 also marked the year Ford introduced the closed-cab pickup, quickly overtaking the open roadster body this truck wears. The result is a genuinely drivable classic built around one brand’s parts bin.
ASVE isn’t a car brand you’ll find in any factory catalog, and that’s because it never was one. The designation shows up on titles for a specific category of vehicle that most buyers never think about until they’re staring at a title that doesn’t match anything in a VIN database. Here’s what ASVE actually means, and why a 1974-badged truck can legally wear it.
Enzo Ferrari reportedly called it the most beautiful car ever made, and the Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its permanent collection, which is not something most sports cars can claim. The Series I E-Type ran from 1961 to 1968 on a 3.8 liter twin-cam six with triple SU carburetors, and the earliest cars have identifying details worth serious money. Read on for what separates a flat-floor car from everything that followed.
A single law passed by Congress in 1965, with almost no public debate, set the clock running on the muscle car era’s biggest engines. It didn’t ban horsepower outright — it required something automakers had never had to build before, and gave them until 1968 to figure it out. Here’s how a bill introduced by Senator Edmund Muskie ended up reshaping what Detroit could sell under the hood.
The 1973 El Camino was the biggest one Chevrolet had ever built, and it arrived carrying federally mandated bumpers that nobody had designed the styling around. Underneath sat a raft of genuinely thoughtful engineering: a wider track with deliberately mismatched camber for crowned roads, computer-designed coil springs matched to each vehicle, standard front discs, and a 22-gallon tank. Read on for what the fourth generation got right in the worst possible decade for performance.
Nitrogen tire fills promise longer-lasting pressure and better mileage, but independent testing from Consumer Reports and NHTSA found the real-world gains on everyday cars are far smaller than the marketing suggests. Ordinary air is already about 78 percent nitrogen, and mixing the two does no harm at all. Read on for what nitrogen actually changes, where it makes sense, and why it will never replace a monthly pressure check.
The 1941 Chevrolet Master Deluxe and Special Deluxe carried Harley Earl’s Royal Clipper design, hidden running boards, recessed headlights, and a lower, wider stance meant to echo Buick at a Chevrolet price. Both trims shared a 216.5-cubic-inch six making 90 horsepower, differing mainly in interior trim and brightwork. Chevrolet built over 400,000 Master Deluxe examples that year, unknowingly closing out its last full production year before World War II production took over.