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The 1978 Dodge Li’l Red Express used a light-truck emissions loophole to squeeze 225 horsepower from a 360-cubic-inch V8 at a time when most passenger cars were far more restricted. The truck’s most famous moment came in a magazine test where it beat a Chevrolet Corvette to 100 miles per hour. Read on for the regulatory quirk and the two-year production run that made this pickup a legend.
Scott Cawley’s 1950 Studebaker still wears the polarizing bullet nose that made strangers ask which direction the car was actually driving, but this one skips the trailer-queen treatment most survivors get. An updated suspension and a modern engine swap keep it as a genuine daily driver, seventy years after Studebaker’s gamble on Raymond Loewy’s design became the best-selling year in company history. Read on to see what made the design so divisive in the first place.
In the GTO’s best sales year, Pontiac built roughly six hardtop coupes for every convertible that rolled off the line, a gap that explains why drop-top GTOs command such a premium today. One body style was built for Saturday night drag strips, the other for Sunday cruising with the top down. Read on to find out how that production gap still shapes values decades later.
A 1964 Corvette with an engine that rises above its own roofline is not built to blend in. This Pro Street build claims 2,600 horsepower from a stacked, blown big-block that turns the car’s hood into an afterthought, putting it in the same conversation as some of the most extreme builds the genre has ever produced. Read on to see where that claim actually stacks up.
Somewhere between a factory-correct 1966 Mustang and a full-blown pro-touring build sits this GT restomod, nicknamed “Stylin’ Stang” by its builder. It keeps the silhouette everyone recognizes from the first Mustang generation while quietly swapping in the kind of running gear the original GT package could only dream about. Read on to find out where the line between preservation and reinvention gets drawn on a car this iconic.
A full-size family convertible that runs 15.8 seconds in the quarter-mile shouldn’t exist by most 1960s logic, but Chevrolet built exactly that when it slotted the Z24 Super Sport package onto the Impala for 1967. Hidden under understated styling sat a genuine 427 big-block rated at 385 horsepower, installed in only 2,124 Super Sports that year. Read on to find out how rare a documented convertible like this one actually is.
This turbocharged 5.3L Camaro Z/28 runs an honest six-speed manual transmission against a field increasingly dominated by automatics, pairing a screaming two-step launch with genuine low-end boost torque. It’s a philosophy nearly opposite to the original 1967 Z/28’s naturally aspirated, high-revving formula, yet it keeps that same manual-only commitment intact. Read on to find out how a modern turbo build stacks up against six decades of Z/28 history.
The Ranchero occupied a strange spot in Ford’s lineup — part car, part truck, and rarely taken seriously by muscle car buyers chasing a Mustang or Torino instead. This 1969 GT changes that calculation entirely by packing a 428 Cobra Jet under the hood. Read on to find out how a car-truck hybrid ended up with one of the most feared engines of the entire muscle car era.
Most builders with a show-quality Chevelle would never risk it on an unprepped drag surface. This one did anyway. Powered by a methanol-fed 572-cubic-inch big-block and a massive F-11 blower making an estimated 2,300 horsepower, the car went head-to-head with the competition in the unlimited class at a King of the Streets no-prep event and came out on top. Watch to see how it held the line.
Somewhere between a stock 440 Six Pack and a full 426 Hemi sits the 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 long-tube headers that finally let the 440 breathe, backed by a driveline that can survive the result. Read on to find out which factory pieces to keep, which to throw out, and how to make that much power live on the street.
Chevrolet actually builds two distinct 1LE track packages on the Camaro, a 335-horsepower V6 version and a 455-horsepower SS version, sharing the same Magnetic Ride Control suspension and Brembo brakes but differing underneath in ways most buyers never notice. Read on to find out how the V6 1LE holds its own against far pricier machinery on a demanding circuit like Willow Springs.
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 wears a 428 Cobra Jet under the hood — an engine Ford hadn’t even started developing when the car rolled off the assembly line. The genuine article, a factory 427 R-code Fairlane, was limited to just 57 cars and remains one of the rarest muscle cars most enthusiasts have never heard of. Between a Holley 650 double pumper, a Posi-equipped 9-inch rear, and a full street/strip upgrade list, this tribute earns its keep even without matching numbers. Read on to find out what separates the real R-code story from this build.
Murder Nova is one of no-prep racing’s most recognizable names, and Shawn’s newest version swaps in a smaller 482ci Proline small-block that revs to a claimed 9,500 rpm while keeping the old car’s 88mm turbos. The debut pass split the comment section between chassis critiques and loyal fans rooting for the car to find its footing. Watch to see how the new combination performed — and why viewers immediately started calling it “2.0.”
Spotted in the pits at Lights Out 8 in Georgia, this Ford-powered Mercury Comet wears a rear wing cut straight from an old barn’s tin roof, riding on a full tube chassis instead of anything resembling a stock Comet unibody. The 1320video crew got the story straight from the build itself — rat rod looks, real function underneath. See why a car built from scrap outshines rides costing ten times as much.