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Ford built roughly 50 genuine Cobra Jet Mustangs in each limited run since reviving the nameplate in 2008 — and every one of them was designed to run a specific index number, not chase outright records. This car left that rulebook behind entirely. Here’s how the outlaw racing scene around cars like this got started.
A 1965 Impala’s shape alone turned heads before a single option box got checked, but underneath that hardtop roofline sits a change Chevrolet made mid-year that quietly rewrote the car’s whole personality. Here’s what to look for to spot an early ’65 from a late one, and why one rare engine option makes some examples far scarcer.
Ford knew something 1973 Mustang buyers didn’t: this would be the last convertible Mustang for an entire decade. That single piece of information changed how buyers viewed the car, and convertible sales spiked as a result. Here’s why a seemingly ordinary blue ragtop like this one turned out to be quietly significant.
This gold-and-black coupe hides a story most casual fans miss: an engine built specifically to beat Chevrolet’s Z/28 on a road course, not a drag strip. Ford built barely two years’ worth of these before shutting the program down — right after it won the championship it was designed for. Here’s what gives it away.
Only a handful of 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T buyers skipped the standard 440 for something far more serious: the 426 Hemi. Production numbers for Hemi-equipped Coronets that year are so low that surviving cars are treated as rolling artifacts rather than used muscle cars. Here’s what made the combination so rare.
A 1968 Camaro convertible pushing 800 horsepower shouldn’t exist — Chevrolet capped Camaro engines at 400 cubic inches that year, leaving big-inch dreams to a few renegade dealers willing to break the rules. Here’s how cars like this one got their extra muscle, and why the loophole still fascinates collectors today.
The 1958 Ford Ranchero carried over its coupe utility formula from its 1957 debut but wore a fresh four-headlamp face borrowed from Ford’s flashier full-size and Thunderbird styling that year. Buyers who upgraded past the base 272 cubic inch V8 could order this car’s 292, a Y-block engine making 205 horsepower that traced its roots back to 1954. That Y-block family stuck around in Ford trucks until 1964, well after passenger cars had moved on to newer designs. Clean survivors like this one remain an accessible way into early Ranchero ownership.
Dennis Szarzynski bought his 1970 Dodge Super Bee in Top Banana Yellow in 1979, borrowed the money from his aunt to do it, and has been its sole owner ever since. The 440 Six Pack is original, the paint still commands attention, and the story is exactly what Lou Costabile built My Car Story to document. Single-owner muscle at its most genuine. Watch to hear the 440 run and meet the man who has kept it going for over four decades.
The 1936 Ford half-ton pickup arrived with a rounder grille, skirted fenders, and a one-piece steel cab that made it look closer to a passenger car than a work truck — a shape that’s kept custom builders coming back for nearly a century. Power originally came from Henry Ford’s 221 cubic inch flathead V8, good for a modest 85 horsepower. Decades later, that same smooth factory canvas supports builds like this one, complete with a tilting bed, a tilting front end, and paint loud enough to match. Few early Ford trucks translate this well into a rolling custom showpiece.
Every muscle car generation left behind small design tells — headlight count, taillight shape, hood scoop placement — that let enthusiasts nail down an exact model year at a glance. This entry tests those instincts with a car built during one of Chrysler’s most dramatic redesigns, when a shorter, wider E-body platform replaced the previous generation almost overnight. Single headlights, a divided grille, and three vertically stacked taillights are among the giveaways. Take your best guess before reading the clues below.
Ford built the 1970 Boss 302 Mustang strictly to satisfy Trans-Am homologation rules, hiring designer Larry Shinoda to give it a front spoiler, rear wing, and matte black hood unlike anything else in the Ford lineup that year. Production jumped to 7,014 units — over four times the 1969 total — powered by a 302 cubic inch V8 making 290 horsepower through big-port heads borrowed from the upcoming 351 Cleveland. New hockey-stick stripes and inboard headlights set the 1970 model apart at a glance. Numbers-matching survivors like this grabber-hood example remain some of the most sought-after Mustangs of the era.
The 1970 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda was Plymouth’s answer to a racing rulebook, built in a five-week window at the Hamtramck plant to homologate a Trans-Am contender for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team. Only 2,724 were made, each fitted with a 340 cubic inch V8 breathing through three two-barrel carburetors and rolling on mismatched front and rear tire sizes — a first for an American production car. Distinctive strobe stripes, a fiberglass shaker-style hood, and side-exit exhaust set it apart from any ordinary Barracuda.
Everyone knows the Corvette skipped a model year and the Trans Am’s T-tops leaked. Fewer know that a Southern California dealer scheme got Dodge to build the only production car ever sold new with factory Cragar wheels, or that the fearsome 440 Six Pack wasn’t even the rarest engine you could order in a 1970 Super Bee. Two more little-known muscle car facts worth knowing.