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Air Flow Research turned its cylinder-head business into a full car show on May 20, 2017, filling California Speedway in Fontana with everything from classic muscle to SEMA build cars and NMCA West drag competitors. The V8 Builds event paired a show-and-shine with a working autocross course and a vendor village. Here’s a look back at the cars that showed up.
This 1965 Chevrolet Malibu SS convertible pairs a rare Evening Orchid paint job with a white bucket seat interior and four-speed manual, a combination built for attention as much as speed. That same model year, Chevrolet quietly introduced the RPO Z16 package, its first 396 big block Chevelle, of which only 201 were ever built. Here’s how this convertible fits into the story of the Chevelle’s breakout year.
This 1968 Camaro pairs custom dripping-wet paint and polished Torque Thrust wheels with an engine that wouldn’t exist for another three decades, a ZZ4 crate small block making around 400 horsepower. Chevrolet built over 235,000 Camaros that model year, but few original buyers could have imagined this kind of powerplant under the hood. Here’s why builders keep reaching for the ZZ4 instead of an era-correct big block.
This 1970 Pontiac Firebird runs a 632 cubic inch big block making a documented 853 horsepower on pump gas, backed by AFR heads, forged internals, and a Holley 1250 Dominator carburetor. It’s a magazine cover build with the dyno sheet to prove every claim. See what a genuinely no-expense-spared pro-touring project actually looks like.
Plymouth built only about 115 ‘Cudas with the factory 426 Hemi in 1971, each making 425 horsepower. This build goes well past that number with a modern 572 cubic-inch Hemi crate engine putting out over 800 horsepower, paired with a one-off grille and an interior from a shop with five Detroit Autorama Great 8 awards to its name. Here’s what sets this ‘Cuda apart from the factory original.
This Riviera wears the 1965 Gran Sport package, Buick’s first attempt at pairing serious performance with the Riviera’s personal-luxury styling. Under the hood sits a 425-cid Super Wildcat V8 making 360 horsepower, good for a 0-60 time around 7.7 seconds, backed by heavy-duty Al-Fin drum brakes and quick-ratio power steering to help control it. Buick marketed the package as “an iron fist in a velvet glove” – a description this custom build seems to take seriously.
Willow Springs earned its “Fastest Road in the West” nickname before most muscle cars existed, with construction starting in 1952 and its first race run in 1953. Bill Huth bought the track in 1962 hoping to run drag racing down its main straight, only to discover the straight was too short – a miscalculation that redirected Willow Springs toward the road-racing legacy it’s known for today. Decades of expansion later, it’s still the track a modern Hellcat gets tested on.
Mustangs and Camaros get most of the credit for being easy classics to restore, but the second-generation Chevrolet Chevelle deserves a spot on the list too, thanks to the same combination of high original production and a deep reproduction parts industry. The real lesson for anyone picking a restoration project is that production numbers matter more than rarity – the muscle cars built in the highest volumes are usually the easiest and cheapest to bring back to life today.
Beyond the basics of oil changes and warm-ups, classic muscle cars need a few habits tailored to how differently they were built compared to modern daily drivers. Ethanol-blended gasoline can quietly damage decades-old fuel systems if the car sits between drives, and a battery left disconnected from a tender can die faster than expected on a car that isn’t driven daily. Small preventive steps like these are what separate a classic that stays reliable for decades from one that develops surprise problems.
Ford’s gamble on a four-seat Thunderbird could have been a flop, but by 1960 — the final year of the ‘Square Bird’ generation — it had become one of the smartest bets in the company’s history. We look at the styling that earned the nickname, the choice between a 352 and a 430 V8 under the hood, and the rare manual sunroof option that makes a handful of surviving ’60 Birds especially collectible today.
Only about 50 of the 44,808 Mustang convertibles Ford built in 1967 came with the rare 271-horsepower K-code 289 — and most of that scarce engine’s total production went straight to Shelby instead of regular Mustangs. That combination makes a documented, original K-code convertible one of the genuine unicorns of the pony car world.
Plymouth built just 2,128 Road Runner convertibles for 1969, and only 797 of those paired the 383 V8 with a four-speed manual like this one has. Loaded with the Air Grabber hood, Magnum 500 wheels, and white vinyl bucket seats, this car represents a rare, well-optioned example from the Road Runner’s breakout debut convertible year. Here’s what made 1969 such a turning point for the model.
The 2016 Pigeon Forge Rod Run turned the Smoky Mountains parkway into one long muscle car cruise, but the event’s roots go back further than most attendees realize. From an unofficial 1970s Gatlinburg cruise-in to a convention-center-sized car show, here’s the story behind one of the biggest classic car gatherings in the country.
This Ford F-100 has stayed in one family since Grandpa bought it new, and now his son and grandson are turning it into a hot rod together. Built during the final years of Ford’s Dentside generation, the truck landed at a turning point in Ford’s engine lineup as older big blocks were phased out. Still a work in progress, it’s already headed in the right direction.
