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Decades before muscle cars ruled American roads, Cleveland engine builder Alexander Winton set out in 1897 to prove a car could survive an 800-mile trip from Ohio to New York City, and did it in nine days over roads barely fit for a horse and buggy. His stubborn pursuit of reliability didn’t stop there, eventually paving the way for the first successful cross-country automobile drive in 1903. Here’s the story of the record-setting trip that helped convince America cars were here to stay.
Everyone talks about the Hemi, but Plymouth’s Street Wedge quietly did the dirty work a full year earlier. This 1965 Satellite convertible pairs the big 426 wedge-head V8 with genuinely rare drop-top production, a car built for real driving, not just bragging rights. Curious how rare this Mopar actually is compared to its more famous siblings?
A Factory Five-built Cobra replica, titled as a 1966, showed up at a dealership with a supercharged, fuel-injected 302 making a claimed 450 horsepower and 3-to-4-second 0-60 estimates. Reviewers called the paint, interior, and drivetrain some of the best they had seen in a replica — and unlike an original Cobra, this one has power steering. Whether a kit car can really deliver a genuine Cobra experience is worth finding out.
The first-gen Camaro was rushed to market to catch the Mustang, and this 1967 convertible takes that pressure-cooker pony car and adds power Chevy never offered from the factory. A 383 stroker, chassis mods, and Hugger Orange paint turn a rush job into a genuine street brawler. Here is what actually went into building it.
A black-on-black ’64 Impala SS is one thing, but pair it with the factory 327/300-horsepower 4-speed combination and you’ve got one of the best-balanced performance packages Chevrolet offered that year. Straight, unrestored survivors wearing this exact color combination are harder to find than you’d think, since dark paint shows every flaw a car has picked up over sixty years. Here’s what made the 327 4-speed such a sweet spot for full-size Chevy performance in 1964.
David Cach’s TorRed 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat earned June’s Hellcat of the Month honors on the SRT Hellcat Facebook page, and it’s easy to see why once you know what the car is packing. A supercharged 707-horsepower HEMI, a two-key system that limits power for valet mode, and a mid-3-second sprint to 60 made the first-generation Hellcat one of the most significant muscle cars of its era. Here’s what made this particular build stand out from the crowd.
There’s an old assumption that a life spent around European sports cars ruins your ability to build a proper American muscle car. This Roadster Shop-built 1967 Chevelle, packing a 680-horsepower Whipple-supercharged LS3 and a custom Fast Track chassis, exists to dismantle that idea completely. Here’s what’s actually under the arrow-straight black paint — and why the build’s restraint matters as much as its horsepower.
Two Chevelle SS builds, one in red and one in blue, are parked side by side — and muscle car fans have been arguing over paint colors like this since the SS badge debuted in 1966. Both cars wear the aggressive stance that made the Chevelle SS one of GM’s most collectible muscle cars, backed by the big-block engines — from the 396 to the legendary LS6 454 — that built the SS reputation in the first place.
Before the Li’l Red Express ever got its gold stripes, Dodge had the Warlock, a bucket-seat, wood-trimmed factory truck that proved pickups could have style a year before its more famous sibling stole the spotlight. This restored example backs up the looks with an Edelbrock-fed V8 and a redone bed. Here is the story behind Mopar’s forgotten muscle truck.
Owned by the same driver since he was fourteen, this Oldsmobile has grown up right alongside its owner into a genuine 8-second street car. That is a number most weekend cruisers only dream about, and it has earned every bit of it. See what it takes to turn a childhood Olds into a Streetcar Takeover contender, and why the 4-4-2 name still commands respect on the strip.
1972 was the year Pontiac stopped building a production GTO convertible — but buyers who knew where to look could still order every bit of GTO muscle, including the 300-horse 455 HO, in the LeMans Sport Convertible. Only about 3,400 were built, making it one of the rarest drop-tops of the muscle car era. Here’s the story of the GTO that never wore the name, and why it still deserves a second look.
James Garner never owned the Firebird everyone remembers from The Rockford Files — the original screen car is long gone, like most 1970s TV vehicles. This 1978 Pontiac Firebird Esprit, spotted at the 2017 World of Wheels in Birmingham, is built to replicate it in exacting detail. For anyone who grew up watching Jim Rockford drive it, seeing this tribute in person hits differently than a rerun ever could.
Chevrolet’s L71 package dropped a 435-horsepower, triple-carbureted 427 into the 1967 Corvette and refused to offer it with an automatic or air conditioning — this was built strictly for drivers. Only 3,754 buyers, about 16% of that year’s production, ordered it. Here’s why the Tri-Power 427 Sting Ray remains one of the most sought-after Corvettes ever built.
This 1968 Ford Torino GT carries one of Ford’s rarest factory options: the 428 Cobra Jet, introduced mid-year and installed in only a fraction of that year’s Torinos. Now part of the Volo Auto Museum’s collection in Illinois, its Candy Apple Red paint and numbers-matching engine tell a story museum director Brian Grams is glad to walk through in detail. Few Cobra Jet cars survive with their history this well documented. See what makes this one worth the trip to Volo.
Ford’s 2013 Shelby GT500 already made 662 horsepower — Shelby American’s Super Snake package took that to as much as 850 with a supercharger upgrade, forged Wildwood brakes, and a reworked cooling system. Only 500 were built. We dig into the numbers behind the question this car practically dares you to ask: is 850 horsepower too much?