Kiril

Bright green classic muscle car on display indoors with hood open.

1971 Plymouth Cuda in Sassy Grass Green Paint & 440 Engine

A restorer who wouldn’t hand his own ‘Cuda over to anyone else, a paint color pulled straight from Chrysler’s loudest era, and a 440 that one viewer called “a monster” before the walkaround even finished. Lou Costabile caught up with Tom Benson on the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale floor to find out how a self-restored 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda ended up looking factory-fresh in Sassy Grass Green. The comments reveal an even wilder history hiding behind that color code. What was it actually like to own one of these new?

White Chevrolet Tahoe SUV parked on a gravel surface.

The 2018 Tahoe RST is the muscle car of Chevy SUVs

by Kiril

The 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe RST pairs a 420-horsepower, 460-lb-ft 6.2-liter V8 with a 10-speed automatic shared with the Camaro ZL1, hitting 60 mph in a claimed 5.7 seconds while still towing up to 8,300 pounds. Choosing that engine also unlocks Magnetic Ride Control, plus optional Borla exhaust and Brembo brakes. It’s proof Chevy is willing to loan its performance parts bin to the family truck.

Classic white 1970 Ford Mustang in a garage with black racing stripes.

Ford Mustang 1969 GT

by Kiril

A 1969 Ford Mustang GT is rarer than most shoppers realize — Ford built only 5,396 of them that year as buyers rushed toward the flashier new Mach 1 instead. This numbers-matching example carries a genuine 320-horsepower 390 four-barrel, dual exhaust, and the tighter chassis tuning that made the GT package more than a stripe kit. Read on to find out why the GT still trails the Mach 1 in recognition despite being the tougher car to find.

Orange classic convertible car parked, showcasing retro style.

Shelby Mustang 1970 GT 350 Convertible

by Kiril

When Carroll Shelby’s partnership with Ford ended in 1969, Ford quietly re-tagged leftover 1969 Shelby Mustangs with 1970 VIN plates under FBI oversight, creating a strange final chapter for the GT350 badge. Only 789 of these “1970” cars exist, and just 10 convertibles combined a 4-speed manual with air conditioning. Read on to find out how a leftover-inventory loophole became one of Shelby history’s most talked-about footnotes.

Bright orange classic car with hood open at a car show.

Chevrolet Nova 1970 Street Machine

by Kiril

This 1970 Chevrolet Nova wears a modern LS swap and carbon fiber accents, but the platform underneath was already capable of serious performance straight from the factory — Chevrolet’s own 396-badged, actually 402-cubic-inch, big block was available for just $475 that year. Read on to find out what Chevrolet’s engineers offered buyers before anyone thought to drop in an LS.

Row of classic muscle cars in a museum exhibit.

426 Hemi Cuda Challenger Convertibles Display

by Kiril

Twenty-seven genuine 426 Hemi ‘Cuda and Challenger convertibles rolled onto one Chicago show field in 2015, shattering a record nobody had broken in decades. With only 41 of these cars ever built across two model years, gathering even a handful in one place was once considered remarkable. See how a single weekend brought together a meaningful slice of an entire production run, and why the math behind that rarity is more brutal than most enthusiasts realize.

Pontiac Trans Am Convertible 1969

by Kiril

Pontiac built just 8 convertible versions of its brand-new 1969 Trans Am, all equipped with the top-tier Ram Air III engine, out of a total production run of only 697 cars. The body style then disappeared from the Trans Am lineup for decades, leaving these eight cars in a strange, isolated place in Pontiac history. Read on to find out why price guides barely apply to a population this small.

Classic black vintage car driving on the road.

The 1967 Dodge Coronet 440 R/T Was King of the Displacement Wars

by Kiril

Dodge’s Coronet R/T did not bother hiding its best engine in the options list; a 375-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch Magnum V8 came standard, backed by torsion-bar suspension and heavy-duty brakes that lived up to the Road and Track name. Buyers chasing even more had the legendary 426 Hemi waiting further up the order sheet. Here is how the Coronet R/T backed up its displacement-war bragging rights on the strip.

Front view of a classic blue muscle car in a studio.

Hot or Not?

by Kiril

This blue Cougar XR-7 might just look like another 1970 pony car at first glance, but its wood-rimmed wheel and simulated walnut dash tell a different story. Mercury built it to feel like a personal luxury coupe, not a stripped-down performance car, and buyers agreed in far smaller numbers than you’d expect. Before casting a vote, here’s what actually separates this car from its Mustang cousin.

Dodge Charger DAYTONA and Two Plymouth SUPERBIRDS

by Kiril

NASCAR’s homologation rules forced Dodge and Plymouth to build two of the strangest, most aggressive cars either company ever sold to the public: the winged Daytona and its follow-up act, the Superbird. With production numbers in the hundreds and a NASCAR pedigree that only grows more legendary with time, these cars now command seven figures at major auctions. Read on to find out what actually separates one winged warrior from the other.

Sleek black sports car parked on a patterned pavement.

This Is the 1,000-HP 2017 Trans Am 455 Super Duty

by Kiril

At the 2017 New York Auto Show, a small Florida company stole attention away from every major manufacturer with a car that technically should not exist: a modern Trans Am making roughly 1,000 horsepower from a NASCAR-engineered 455 big-block. Built on a Camaro-based chassis and priced well into six figures, it is less a restoration than a full continuation of Pontiac’s most legendary nameplate. Read on to find out what your money actually buys.

Classic black muscle car parked on a suburban street.

Dodge Coronet 1969 R/T

by Kiril

The 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T spent that model year quietly overshadowed by a six-pack-fed newcomer and a certain winged fastback stealing every headline. Buried in the order books, though, is a detail that sets it apart from nearly every other Coronet built that year: an engine option so rare that barely more than a hundred buyers ever checked the box. Read on to find out why collectors are finally paying attention.

Classic white convertible car parked outdoors on a sunny day.

Ford Mustang 1966 Convertible National Award Winner

by Kiril

Ray Brownfield has owned this 1966 Mustang convertible since 1982, restoring it into a Mustang Club of America National Award Winner. Only 72,119 of the 607,568 Mustangs Ford built that year were convertibles, and national-level judging holds them to a standard most owners never attempt. Four decades of patient ownership is written into every detail, the kind of commitment most restorations do not survive.

A sleek red sports car parked on a street corner near a crosswalk.

Dodge Viper Show 2015

by Kiril

The Vipers gathered at this 2015 show were living on borrowed time, even if nobody knew the exact date yet. This piece looks at what made the final-generation Viper, 645 horsepower, naturally aspirated, six-speed manual, the angriest version of a car that never once used a turbo or supercharger in 26 years of production.

White sports car with red racing stripes parked outdoors.

The Fastest New American Muscle Cars on the Road

by Kiril

Modern muscle cars like the Hellcat twins hit numbers the original 1960s and 1970s era never touched, but they get there through supercharging and computer control instead of big cubic inches and low compression. Here’s a closer look at how Detroit’s horsepower war came back in the 2010s, and what changed in the engineering between the original muscle car boom and its modern revival.

Posts By: Kiril