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Picture more than 10,000 street rods packed into the Kentucky Exposition Center, and somehow a panel of judges still has to whittle that field down to just 100 standouts, twice. The NSRA Street Rod Nationals’ Top 100 program, sponsored by Painless Performance Products, is one of the toughest awards in the hobby precisely because the show is too big for a single list. This build made the cut in the outdoor field.
A 1968 Dodge Charger with a Hemi is a familiar story. This one hides a twin-turbocharged 8.0-liter Dodge Viper V10 making 1,300 horsepower, roughly triple what the engine produced in a factory RT/10. Getting a V10 that was never designed for boost to survive that kind of power takes forged internals, a billet intake and a fuel system built for E85. Read on to find out why the 1968 Charger keeps getting picked for swaps like this.
This 1977 Chevrolet Malibu has survived nearly 45 years with just 44,000 original miles and a dashboard that’s somehow never cracked — a rarity for any GM product from this era. Filmed at Country Classic Cars in Staunton, Illinois, it’s the kind of straight, unmolested survivor that malaise-era collectors are only now starting to chase. Viewers are already debating headlight trim details across Malibu model years in the comments. Watch to see what 44,000 careful miles really looks like.
Only 3,939 Ford Torino GT convertibles were built in 1970, and this one adds a rare M-code 351 Cleveland engine, factory air conditioning, and a deluxe interior on top of that already-thin production number. Read on to find out what made the Cleveland worth chasing and why so few buyers ordered the open-air version at all.
A big-block 1967 Mustang fastback can be one of two very different cars — a genuine Shelby GT500 or a standard 390 GT that looks nearly identical from across a parking lot. The difference comes down to a 428 Police Interceptor V8, a handful of interior details, and a VIN that either matches Shelby American’s registry or doesn’t. Read on to find out what actually separates the two.
By 1973, Ford already knew a smaller, fuel-conscious Mustang was coming the following year, making this the last chance to buy the car everyone still pictures when they hear the name. It was the final year for the convertible until 1983, the last for the Grande trim, and the closing chapter for the 351 Cobra Jet before federal regulations reshaped the entire lineup. Read on to find out what actually survived onto the order sheet before everything changed.
A rear-wheel-drive production car shouldn’t be able to put down 840 horsepower fast enough to hit 1.8 g’s of acceleration — but Dodge’s Challenger SRT Demon does exactly that. Engineering Explained breaks down the actual physics behind the feat, down to the equation governing tire grip, while also unpacking a rollout-measurement detail that makes the Demon’s 2.3-second 0-60 time even more impressive than it looks. Dodge’s own executives confirmed the correction directly to the Detroit News.
Chevrolet’s 2015 Camaro Z/28 borrowed its 505-horsepower LS7 engine straight from the Corvette Z06 parts bin, then wrapped it in a chassis stripped, stiffened, and fitted with racing-grade Multimatic dampers built for one job: lap times. Priced from the mid-$60,000s and offered exclusively with a manual transmission, it reportedly posted a 7:37 Nurburgring lap that embarrassed cars costing twice as much. Read on to find out what it actually took to build the fastest Camaro of its generation.
The 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger built its reputation on a 340 small-block that punched well above its weight class in a lightweight A-body, despite the Dart nameplate’s humble slant-six reputation. This particular example takes a different road, running a heavily built 318 with an aggressive cam and a stout rear end. Read on to see what the build actually delivers on the street.
Ford never actually tied the Mustang GT package to a single engine, letting 1968 buyers choose between a mild 302 V8 and the fabled 428 Cobra Jet, all wrapped in a genuinely upscale interior with a two-spoke safety steering wheel and bench-seat option. That same duality put a GT 390 fastback on movie screens in Bullitt, and the surviving ‘hero car’ later sold for $3.4 million. Read on to find out why the muscle-or-luxury debate has never actually been settled.
The 1967 Shelby GT500 traded the GT350’s twitchy small-block for a detuned police-spec 428 big-block, wrapped in the most aggressive bodywork a Mustang had worn to date. Ford’s official horsepower number fooled almost nobody who actually drove one, and the fastback body that carried it was no accident either. Read on to find out why the underrating happened in the first place.
A high schooler in 1964 who never forgot the sound of an identical car lighting up his street. An Air Force veteran turned away by dealers who wouldn’t sell him one. A rumored history running moonshine through the Georgia mountains. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week tracked down a Raven black 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 packing the rare R-code 427 rated at 425 horsepower and a 4-speed manual. What was actually bolted under that unassuming black hood?
This hugger-orange 1971 Chevelle SS wears a Baldwin-Motion badge — proof it passed through one of the strangest, most aggressive dealer-tuner partnerships of the muscle car era. Built around a 350 small-block and a Muncie four-speed rather than a big-block, it tells a different story than the factory spec sheet ever could. Read on to find out why that badge matters.
Ford doesn’t touch the Mustang lightly, and a mid-cycle refresh to the current generation brought more than just a new grille. A revamped transmission, a digital dashboard, and suspension technology borrowed from the Shelby GT350 all quietly arrived under the new sheet metal. Read on to find out which changes actually mattered to serious Mustang buyers.
This white Mustang sparks the usual guess-the-year debate, but the answer matters more than the trivia. Ford built 190,727 Mustangs for 1970 and offered the deepest performance lineup in the nameplate’s history, from the 290-horsepower Boss 302 to just 499 Boss 429s rated at 375 horsepower. Within three model years, emissions rules, insurance surcharges and a fuel crisis had ended all of it. Read on to find out what made 1970 the high-water mark.