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A 1972 Corvette build sheet shows a horsepower number for the LS5 454 that looks like a nosedive next to earlier years, and the reason has more to do with how Detroit measured power than with what the engine actually made. This numbers-matching, Bryar Blue example with a Muncie four-speed and original Rally Wheels sits right at that turning point, and an LS6 cam and intake swap wakes it up further. Read on to find out what really happened to the horsepower wars in 1972.
For its final model year in 1984, Hurst and Oldsmobile built just 3,500 examples of a car with three separate shift levers on its console, giving drivers manual control over an ordinary automatic transmission’s upshifts. It closed out a sixteen-year partnership with a genuinely novel piece of engineering rather than just another cosmetic special edition. Read on to find out how the “Lightning Rods” console actually worked.
In late 2016, spy shots and a leaked mapping image convinced enthusiasts that Ford’s fiercest Mustang nameplate was coming back for 2017. It wasn’t — the real Shelby GT500 didn’t arrive until three years later, and when it did, it packed nearly 100 more horsepower than anyone was rumoring at the time. Here’s what actually happened between the rumor and the reveal, and why the wait ended up worth it.
This 1951 Oldsmobile 98 still runs the original 303 cubic inch Rocket V8 that helped ignite Detroit’s horsepower war, and it still wears its factory interior after all these decades. Surviving this honest is rare for a car this old. Here’s why the Rocket name mattered, and why finding one still original is worth stopping for.
Only 28,800 Mustangs left the factory in 1967 with the S-code 390 big block, out of more than 400,000 built that year, making this Candy Apple Red example a genuine rarity hiding in plain sight. Its one-year-only GTA badge and factory 320-horsepower rating set it apart from the small-block Mustangs most buyers actually chose. Read on to find out why values on these cars have stayed surprisingly reasonable.
This Forest green 1951 Ford F1 half-ton shortbed wears the Five-Star Cab that grew out of Ford’s Million Dollar Cab redesign, and it backs it up with an upgraded 350, power steering, disc brakes, and air conditioning that no 1951 work truck ever offered. Ford built about 117,400 F1 pickups that year, yet very few survive looking this sharp. Read on to find out what Ford’s investment bought truck buyers and how this build finished the job.
Dodge promised the Challenger SRT Demon would be both the fastest and the most advanced muscle car ever built, and the New York auto show debut in April 2017 had to prove it. The 840-horsepower figure handled the fastest part, but it was the technology, from Performance Pages and tire-specific launch control to a factory TransBrake and drag-mode suspension, that made the second claim stick. Read on to find out how Dodge made brute force and sophistication work together.
Pitted, dented stainless trim is one of the first things restorers toss in favor of reproduction pieces, and one of the first things veterans wish they had saved when the repro molding refuses to follow a body line. Original stainless can be brought back to a mirror finish with hammers, dollies, files, a wet-sanding progression from coarse to ultra-fine grit, and careful buffing, but the process rewards patience and punishes shortcuts. This guide walks through each stage and the mistakes that ruin good trim. Read on to find out what saving the original actually takes.
Most muscle car buyers walk right past the 1970 Pontiac Catalina Sport Wagon, but a well-optioned example could be had with the brand-new 455-cubic-inch V8 in up to 370-horsepower HO tune — genuine big-inch muscle wearing a body built to haul six or nine passengers. Only 113 of the 29,394 wagons built that year came with a manual transmission. Read on to find out why this factory sleeper still flies under the radar.
Dan Mershon has owned eleven Shelby Cobras, and he says the 289 is the one that actually looks right, with no flared rear fenders and none of the bulk that later kit-car replicas chase. The small-block Cobra was a British roadster reborn with Ford power, a car that won an FIA world championship in coupe form and that still weighs less than most modern hatchbacks. Read on to find out why the narrow-body 289 remains the purist’s Cobra.
Chevrolet almost let its meanest 1967 Chevelle engine disappear entirely, pulling it from the order sheet before quietly bringing it back as a dealer-only option nobody advertised. Only 612 cars ever got the L78 396 that model year, each one built in a narrow three-month window and stamped with details collectors still hunt for today. Rated at 375 horsepower and built to run with Ford and Mopar’s best, it turned a mid-size Chevy into a genuine street fighter. Here’s what made this rare Chevelle tick.
Ford quietly swapped engines mid-year on the 1968 Shelby GT500, and the change turned an already potent muscle car into a legend. Early cars carried the 428 Police Interceptor, rated at 360 horsepower, before Ford dropped in the underrated 428 Cobra Jet and renamed the car GT500KR, King of the Road. This red-and-white example wears the classic Shelby colors, and which 428 sits under its hood tells you exactly when it was built. Read on to find out how to tell them apart.
The 426 Hemi was not just Plymouth’s biggest engine option in 1970. It was a race-bred monster that won Daytona in its first outing and was promptly banned until Chrysler agreed to sell it to the public. Only 666 ‘Cuda buyers checked that option box in 1970, and just 14 of those cars left the factory as convertibles. Beneath the shaking hood scoop sat 425 rated horsepower and one of the most recognizable exhaust notes ever produced. Read on to find out why it disappeared after only two years.
Pontiac built exactly eight 1969 Firebird Trans Am convertibles, and V8TV has now featured every single one of them, including this fourth car, the one with the lowest VIN sequence number of the group. The eighth car in the set went missing for years before finally surfacing and getting restored in 2016. See what makes this particular Trans Am worth a second look inside an already impossibly rare set of eight.
Aftermarket transbrakes have been drag racing staples for decades, but no manufacturer had ever put one in a production car until Dodge teased the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon. The system locks the transmission so the car sits motionless at high rpm, then releases everything in an instant for a reaction-time edge reported at around 30 percent. Read on to find out how Dodge made a pit-lane modification survive daily driving, a factory warranty, and a 9.65-second quarter mile.