 |
Keeping a hot rod or muscle car roadworthy depends on more than just good wrenching, it depends on an entire parts and restoration industry working the way it should. When that supply chain is healthy, everyday driving a classic gets a lot less stressful. Here’s a look at what that actually means for owners keeping these cars on the road.
At a small cruise-in show, a brand-new Shelby GT350 Mustang ended up parked in a grove of trees next to rat rods and restored classics, and that mix is exactly the draw. Local cruise-ins don’t need velvet ropes to pull a crowd; they just need cars people actually love. Here’s what keeps events like this one going strong.
Tom Derych spent the mid-1970s racing a 440-powered Dart at New York National Speedway, but it wasn’t until 1989 that he found the Mopar he’d really been chasing. A Sublime Green 1970 Charger with a troubled blown 440 became the starting point for a hand-built 472-cubic-inch Hemi-headed engine. Here’s how he turned a non-running show car into the muscle car he always wanted.
Chevrolet turned pace car duty at the 1969 Indianapolis 500 into one of the most collectible RPO packages of the muscle car era. Every Z11 Camaro left the factory in the same Dover White and orange houndstooth livery, but the engine underneath varied wildly. Here’s what separated the small-block replicas from the rare big-block, four-speed pace cars true collectors still hunt for.
Despite what a lot of listings say, Chevrolet never actually put a 454-cubic-inch big block in the Chevelle SS during the 1969 model year, that engine arrived a year later. The biggest option in ’69 was the 396, offered in three horsepower tunes topping out at 375. The ‘396/454’ label usually shows up because so many of these cars end up as 454 swap platforms. Here’s what the factory actually built versus what most of these cars are running today.
On a summer night in Union Grove, Wisconsin, a drag strip packed with thousands of racing fans became the scene of a targeted, point-blank shooting that left three men dead. Authorities say the gunman singled out his victims before vanishing into the crowd, turning a night of quarter-mile passes into a manhunt. Here’s what investigators pieced together about the attack and the rivalry believed to be behind it.
Hurst set out to build 50 of these R-Code Mustangs and only finished 16, making this Oxford White and Gold example one of the rarest modern muscle cars around. A Kenne Bell supercharger nearly doubles the stock Coyote V8’s output to a claimed 750 horsepower. It still carries the trademark Hurst shifter with the white ball that’s defined the brand for decades. Here’s what makes this particular build so hard to find.
An SS badge on a 1970 Chevelle didn’t guarantee a big-block underneath, the package spanned everything from a mild 350 up to the 450-horsepower LS6 454. This particular car runs a built, bored-out 350 with an Edelbrock carburetor, putting it in small-block territory rather than the big-block wars the model year is best remembered for. 1970 was the peak year for Chevelle performance options across the board. Here’s where a car like this actually fits.
Burt Reynolds sold more than one ‘Bandit’ Trans Am over the years, and each auction seemed to top the last. This black tribute car, built around a 600-plus horsepower Butler Performance engine, brought $275,000 at Barrett-Jackson, with Reynolds himself on hand to help push the bidding higher. Later Bandit cars from his collection would sell for even more. Here’s why the price kept climbing.