 |
Mecum’s 2017 Kissimmee auction moved nearly 2,000 cars over ten days for more than $86 million, but the muscle car story wasn’t about factory options, it was about competition history. Vintage drag racers from two significant private collections stole attention from the seven-figure Hemis that had defined the previous year’s sale. The results showed real racing pedigree can outweigh raw rarity at auction.
A 1968 Ford Mustang fastback is already one of the most iconic muscle car shapes ever built, so what happens when a pro-touring build throws out every 1968-era compromise underneath it? Modern stroker small-blocks, EFI, independent front suspension, and big brakes turn a beautiful old shape into something that can genuinely run with contemporary performance cars, at a cost that can climb into six figures. Here’s what actually separates a real pro-touring build from a fresh paint job.
Barrett-Jackson’s 46th Annual Scottsdale Auction promises to rev up excitement with a docket full of rare Mopars, including the ultra-rare ’70 Plymouth HEMI ’Cuda. This beauty, one of only 14 ever built, boasts a history that could make even the most seasoned car enthusiast’s engine purr. With its national record-setting past, this Mopar is the crown jewel of the event, ready to steal the spotlight faster than you can say, “Start your engines!” Get ready for a bidding frenzy, car fans!
Under-$10,000 classic convertibles aren’t a myth — Alfa Romeo Spiders, droptop Beetles, and even 1970s-80s Mercedes SLs regularly sell for less than a new economy car. The catch is knowing which cars are genuinely affordable to own versus which just look that way on the price tag, and a pre-purchase inspection is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy.
Often credited as the car that invented the muscle car category, this Tiger Gold 1965 Pontiac GTO pairs the 389 V8 with a close-ratio four-speed, limited-slip differential, and upgraded brakes — an options sheet built for driving hard, not just showing off. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week series returns to the ’65 GTO because no two examples tell quite the same story. What would you have ordered on yours? Find out what makes this one different.
This 1968 Plymouth Satellite convertible arrived the same year Plymouth reshuffled its entire intermediate lineup, introducing the Sport Satellite as a new range-topping model over a freshly redesigned B-body. Under the hood could be anything from a mild 318 V8 to the 425-horsepower 426 Hemi that made Plymouth’s street cars famous. Only 136,136 Satellites were built for 1968, and convertibles remain the rarest survivors of the bunch.
This first-generation Chevrolet Camaro is wearing the SS package that proved Chevrolet could take GM’s answer to the Mustang seriously as a genuine performance machine. Buyers in 1967 could choose anywhere from a 295-horsepower small-block up to a 375-horsepower L78 big-block, and Chevrolet built roughly 34,411 SS Camaros that first year. Here’s what separated the quick ones from the merely stylish ones.
This two-tone turquoise-and-white Buick Roadmaster was Buick’s flagship statement car for most of the postwar era, built to tell the neighbors you’d arrived. Under that long hood sat a 320-plus cubic inch straight-eight paired with the industry-first Dynaflow automatic, and two-tone paint like this was a genuine extra-cost option most buyers skipped. Here’s what made the Roadmaster worth flagship money when it was new.
A concours-quality restoration isn’t measured in weekends — it’s measured in years, with top shops logging 4,000-plus labor hours per car at $135-plus per hour. The difference between a nice classic and a Pebble Beach contender comes down to details most people would never notice: bolt heads, stitching patterns, and paint sheens matched to factory records decades old.
Pop the hood on a Chevelle badged SS 396 and there’s a decent chance the engine underneath isn’t actually 396 cubic inches anymore — Chevrolet kept the name even after the big-block grew to 402ci in 1970. What started in 1965 as a limited-run, Corvette-powered option became one of the most chased badges in muscle car history. Here’s how a number that stopped being accurate became legendary anyway.
Chevrolet built two half-car, half-truck oddballs three decades apart, and they couldn’t be more different under the skin. The 1970 El Camino SS could be ordered with a 450-horsepower LS6 454, while the 2004 SSR leaned on a 300-horsepower Corvette-sourced small-block wrapped in retro styling and a folding hardtop. One is a genuine muscle car, the other a low-production novelty. Here’s how they actually stack up.
A 707-horsepower Hellcat and a 455-horsepower Camaro SS look like a mismatch on paper — but quarter-mile drag racing rarely goes purely by the numbers. Launch technique and driver skill can close a 250-horsepower gap fast, and that unpredictability is exactly why Dodge-versus-Chevy grudge matches never get old.
The Mustang RTR program splits sharply into two philosophies: Spec 1 focuses on appearance alone, while Spec 2 adds genuine Ford Performance hardware to meaningfully boost horsepower on both V8 and EcoBoost models. Because every upgrade runs through official Ford Performance parts, buyers get serious performance gains without voiding their factory warranty, a rare combination in the tuning world. Later variants pushed even further with a supercharged Spec 3 option. It’s a program built by a professional drift driver, and it shows in how the upgrades are prioritized.
1963 was the year Chevrolet’s Impala officially stepped out of the Bel Air’s shadow, becoming its own flagship model after the Bel Air Sport Coupe was discontinued, and it sold better than ever, moving roughly 832,600 units with 153,271 SS packages. This particular car keeps its original four-speed manual, a genuine rarity on a full-size Chevy from an era when most big-block buyers checked the automatic box instead. With upgrades kept mostly under the surface and nothing custom beyond the interior, it’s a clean, honest example of Chevrolet’s breakout year.
A black-on-black Dodge Charger parked on a cobblestone street could be any number of things under the hood — and in 1969, that uncertainty was half the fun. Dodge backed the R/T badge with a standard 375-horsepower 440 Magnum and an optional 425-horsepower 426 Hemi that fewer than 500 buyers ever got their hands on. Here’s what actually separated the everyday R/T from the unicorns.