Posts By: Kiril
Mark Wickens set out looking for something small and practical — a Mini, maybe a Mitsubishi Lancer — and came home with a numbered 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT instead. Lou Costabile caught up with car #1638 in black paint at Scottsdale’s Rock & Roll McDonald’s, one of the more unlikely regular meeting spots for serious Shelby iron. Hear how a practical car search turned into anything but.
This 2005 Mustang wears Cervini’s C-Series body kit, a tribute to the “Eleanor” Shelby GT500 from Gone in 60 Seconds, but it’s the real side-exit exhaust that sets it apart from a costume-only build. Built specifically for the 2005-2009 S197 chassis, the kit brought a functional side-pipe system, not just cosmetic scoops and a hood. Here’s the story behind the kit, and why this one sounds as good as it looks.
Built by All Speed Customs and shown at the 2017 Detroit Autorama, this 1971 Plymouth Barracuda street machine skips the expected 426 Hemi entirely in favor of a V10 and a paddle-shift transmission most classic Mopar owners have never considered. Silver paint with red accents and a custom interior built around a subwoofer-packed rear seat round out a build meant to surprise a crowd that’s seen almost everything. Watch to find out why they call it Medusa.
1972 was the year Chrysler pulled the Hemi from the order sheet for good and axed the Charger 500 and Super Bee nameplates right along with it, yet Charger sales still jumped nearly 29% over the year before. This SE hardtop represents Dodge’s answer to a changing muscle car market: fewer engine choices, but a 440 still available for anyone willing to look for it. Here’s why this transition-year Charger deserves more credit than it gets.
Chevrolet built roughly 165,300 Chevy II and Novas in 1966, but the wagon was always the body style nobody seemed to order, which is exactly why finding one parked next to a sedan today, like this pair, is a genuine treat. Both wear the upscale Nova trim, but only one of them was a rare sight even on new-car lots back in 1966. Here’s why the wagon deserves way more credit than it usually gets.
While most Januarys in the car world are dominated by new model reveals, this one was defined by scandal: an FBI arrest of a Volkswagen executive, a $1 billion Takata airbag settlement, and an EPA violation notice against Fiat Chrysler, all within weeks of each other. Here’s a look back at what each story actually involved, and why a month like this raised bigger questions than any new car launch could.
A single teenage joyride in a 1960 Pontiac Bonneville convertible stuck with George Hansen for decades, long enough that he eventually tracked one down and made it his own. Pontiac’s Wide-Track flagship was the priciest car in the brand’s 1960 lineup, and with the optional Tri-Power 389 V8, it hinted at the muscle car era still four years away. Here’s the story behind Hansen’s Bonneville and the specs that made it special.
Only about 453 people ordered Chevrolet’s brand-new Impala SS package when it launched in February 1961 for just $53.80 over a standard Impala — and in doing so, they bought into the very first SS-badged Chevrolet ever built. Under the right hood was a 348 V8 making up to 350 horsepower with Tri-Power. Here’s why this rare package quietly set the template every muscle car since has followed.
Only about 1,270 buyers ordered the 440 Six Pack option on a 1970 Dodge Super Bee, and fewer than 200 of those cars were coupes, making this Plum Crazy Purple example, with its Hurst Pistol Grip four-speed and two-year restoration, a genuine rarity. The Six Pack’s triple-carb 440 borrowed internal hardware straight from Chrysler’s 426 Hemi program. Here’s what made this engine option so feared on the street.
Nearly every panel on the 1969 Camaro was new that year, and buyers responded by pushing production to 243,085 units — the highest single-season total the first-generation Camaro would ever hit. Order the SS package and Chevrolet gave you a genuine choice between a 300-horsepower 350, a 375-horsepower 396, or a special-order 427 rated at 425 horsepower. Here’s what’s likely hiding under a hood like this one.
When the Indianapolis 500 celebrated its 100th running in 2011, Chevrolet was marking its own centennial too, and sent a specially dressed Camaro SS convertible out to lead the field. Finished in Summit White with orange stripes echoing the original 1969 Camaro Pace Car, only 500 replica convertibles were built for sale. This one has fewer than 1,500 original miles on the clock.
Chevrolet teased a new Nurburgring lap time for the Camaro ZL1 1LE without saying what the number actually was, and it turned out to be worth the wait. The track-focused 1LE eventually posted a 7:16.04 around the Nordschleife, nearly 14 seconds faster than the standard ZL1’s mark from the year before. That made it the fastest Camaro ever to lap the ‘Ring.
One phone call in 1966, about a yellow Charger sitting on a used car lot in Shelby, North Carolina, set off a story that kept the car in one family for 40 years, 20 of them spent parked on a lift. It was the Charger’s very first model year, introduced with rotating hidden headlights unseen on a Chrysler product since the early 1940s. Here’s the rest of Steve McCraw’s story, and what made 1966 Chargers so distinctive.
By 1973, the Hemi and the 440 were gone from the ‘Cuda’s order sheet, emissions regulations having already claimed Chrysler’s biggest engines. What remained was a 340 V8 rated at 240 net horsepower — the strongest engine Plymouth would still let you order — plus a mid-year running change to the 360 that quietly previewed 1974’s lineup. This ‘Cuda represents the last real fight of Plymouth’s E-body muscle era before the whole platform disappeared. Here’s what made the final ‘Cudas worth remembering.