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This 1969 Ford Ranchero GT hides an R-code 428 Cobra Jet under a body most people write off as “just a truck.” Ford’s meanest big-block, the same one that dominated the 1968 NHRA Winternationals, found its way onto the Ranchero option sheet that year — and almost nobody checked the box. We look at how the Ranchero grew into a genuine muscle car platform, and why this R-code example is rarer than most Mustangs wearing the same engine.
This methanol-fed, 572ci big-block Chevelle looks like a concours show car and hits like a 2,300-horsepower no-prep monster, wearing an F-11 blower the size of a filing cabinet. At a recent Kings of the Streets event, it stomped the unlimited class without picking up a scratch. See how a car this clean survives a class with no rules on power.
Somewhere between a stock 440 Six Pack and a full 426 Hemi sits a build sweet spot that pushes a Plymouth ‘Cuda well past 550 horsepower without turning it into a garage queen. Builders get there with aluminum heads, a reworked intake, and headers that finally let the 440 breathe the way it always wanted to. Pair that with a beefed-up four-speed and a Dana 60 out back, and you’ve got a ‘Cuda that can still be driven hard on a Saturday night. Here’s what actually goes into a build like that.
Chevy’s 1LE package comes in two flavors, a 335-horsepower V-6 and a 455-horsepower V-8, and both get the same Brembo brakes, Magnetic Ride Control, and electronic limited-slip differential that make this one of the best track-day bargains Chevrolet has ever built. Here is why the “budget” V-6 version might actually be the smarter buy for a lot of drivers.
A pair of veteran car show judges pulled back the curtain on what actually earns points on the show field – and it’s rarely the stuff that catches a casual walker-by’s eye. From factory-correct parts and materials to inspections of the engine bay, trunk, and undercarriage, judging a classic car is a far more forensic process than most owners realize. Here’s their advice on where to actually focus your restoration.
This 1966 Ford Fairlane 500XL lists a 428 Cobra Jet under the hood — a genuinely confusing spec, since Ford didn’t build that engine until 1968. The real 1966 R-code Fairlane ran a side-oiler 427 instead, and only 57 were built before exhaust manifold shortages shut the option down. We dig into what actually powered the real R-code cars, and why a well-executed tribute build might be the closest most enthusiasts will ever get to driving one.
Shawn Ellington’s Murder Nova is one of the most recognized cars in street racing, and its latest rebuild takes a surprising direction: a smaller 482ci small-block revving to 9,500 rpm instead of a bigger motor. The turbos stayed the same, but almost everything else about how this car makes power just changed. Find out why smaller might mean faster for the most famous Nova on the street.
Most cars at a drag radial event like Lights Out chase carbon fiber and paint that costs more than the average car payment. Then there is this Mercury Comet, built on a tube chassis with a Ford big block under the hood and a rear wing fabricated from an actual tin barn roof. 1320video tracked it down in the pits at Lights Out 8 in Georgia to find out the story behind it. It might not be the fastest car there — but it might be the most memorable.
A soft yellow paint job and gold cloth interior make this 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II look like grandma’s Sunday driver — until you find the 426 Hemi hiding under the hood. Chrysler built the Street Hemi to satisfy NASCAR homologation rules after banning the race version outright, and only a handful of Belvederes ever left the factory with one. Paired with a 4-speed stick and 425 horsepower, this is about as pure a sleeper as the muscle car era ever produced.
Chip Foose built this 1970 Mustang Fastback for the cameras on Overhaulin’, and the name alone tells you everything about its Vegas-flavored backstory. Under custom Gambler Green paint sits a 514-cube stroker big-block making 625 horsepower — not a mild dress-up job, but a genuine street-and-strip build with Ford Racing internals. It debuted to a stunned crowd at the 2004 SEMA show and has been a fan favorite ever since.
A 1965-spec Shelby Cobra with barely six miles on the clock sounds impossible until you understand the CSX4000 continuation series Carroll Shelby’s own company built between 1997 and 2009. This particular car carries a genuine CSX chassis number and factory paperwork, putting it in a completely different league from the countless kit-car Cobras out there. Under the hood sits a 427 aluminum side-oiler making 550 horsepower at the wheels, good for 0-60 in under four seconds.
A 1960 Ford F1 that traded its factory straight-six for a Coyote V-8 wearing individual-runner stacked injection, the kind of induction setup you’d expect on a vintage race car. Legens Hot Rods built this truck to SEMA-floor standards, from the stance down to a custom interior that actually fits the cab. The result is a driver-quality hot rod hiding a genuinely serious powerplant under old-school Ford sheet metal.
Yenko’s name has not meant much on a new car in decades, but a modern stroker build on the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport just brought it roaring back. With a supercharged 6.8-liter making roughly 800 horsepower, wrapped in Grand Sport hardware and genuine Yenko styling cues, only fifty of these were ever built. Here’s what’s actually under the skin.
This 1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula shows just over 47,000 miles and still wears its factory interior, which is no small thing for a car built during Detroit’s smog-choked malaise era. Formula buyers that year actually had a real decision to make between three different V8s, and this car’s 350 split the difference between the base 305 and the range-topping 400. Backed by a factory 3-speed automatic, it’s a clean survivor from a period most Firebirds didn’t make it out of unscathed.
This widebody Mustang notchback is a design pitch from Chris Cyrulewski, not a finished car — he’d completed the render and was seeking investors to build it. Whether or not it ever leaves the digital stage, concepts like this keep shaping what real owners build in the Fox-body and notchback aftermarket scene.