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A 1968 Mustang fastback is already one of the most recognizable shapes Ford ever built, so what does a pro-touring build actually change? Almost everything you cannot see. Modern stroker small-blocks, independent front suspension, four-piston brakes, and a chassis stiff enough to use real tires turn a fifty-year-old body into something that runs with contemporary performance cars. Here is what separates a serious build from a repaint with wheels.
Barrett-Jackson’s 46th Annual Scottsdale Auction rolled a deep run of rare Mopars across the block in January 2017, and one lot in particular had the rest of the docket looking over its shoulder: a 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda listed as one of only fourteen built, carrying documented race history and national records. Here is what made that car, and the Mopar run around it, worth paying attention to.
The vintage convertible daydream usually dies at the price tag, but it does not have to. Alfa Romeo Spiders, Volkswagen Beetle cabriolets, and even 1970s and 1980s Mercedes-Benz SLs still trade for under $10,000 in the right condition, while the muscle-era American droptops most fans grew up wanting left that bracket long ago. The catch is what a cheap convertible can hide under fresh carpet and a decent-looking top. Read on for which models are still affordable, why they stayed that way, and what to check before buying one.
This Tiger Gold 1965 Pontiac GTO isn’t just another restored classic — it’s a rolling argument for why this car, more than any other, deserves credit for starting the muscle car era. Built with the desirable 389 V8, a close-ratio four-speed manual, and a limited-slip differential, it represents the GTO the way serious original buyers actually ordered it. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week series tracked down this survivor and its story. Watch to see why enthusiasts still can’t agree on much except that this car changed everything.
A 1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite convertible looks like a GTX that forgot to put its badges on, and that resemblance is doing a lot of work. The Sport Satellite was brand new for 1968, slotted above the plain Satellite on a freshly redesigned B-body, and what it could and could not be ordered with says more about Plymouth’s 1968 strategy than any brochure ever did. Read on for what was really under that hood.
A 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS could leave the factory with a 295-horsepower 350 or a 375-horsepower 396, and the difference between them matters far more than anything the badges on the fenders suggest. The SS package brought genuine hardware, including upgraded suspension and cooling alongside the higher-output V8, rather than just the bumblebee stripe. Read on for what each engine actually ran, how to tell an RS from an SS, and why documentation matters more than the model year.
A two-tone Buick Roadmaster was the postwar equivalent of a nameplate on an office door, the longest and most chrome-laden thing Buick built, with fender portholes that told everyone exactly which rung of the lineup you had purchased. Underneath the hood sat either the 320-cubic-inch straight-eight or, from 1953 onward, the 322 nailhead V8, paired to the first torque-converter automatic sold in a mass-produced American car. Read on for how to place one by its details and what they bring today.
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.
A 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS and a 2004 Chevy SSR are separated by more than three decades and roughly 150 horsepower, and the distance between them says a great deal about what each era believed performance meant. One offered a 450-horsepower LS6 454 and a bed borrowed from a Chevelle; the other a 300-horsepower truck V8 and a folding metal roof. Read on for what each actually delivered and which is the smarter buy today.
On paper, a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat against a 455-horsepower Camaro SS is not a race at all, it is a 250-horsepower head start. In practice these matchups have gone both ways often enough to deserve an explanation, and the reasons have far less to do with peak power than with 750 pounds of weight, a pair of 275-section tires, and the first sixty feet off the line. Read on for why the spec sheet keeps losing to the stopwatch.
The Mustang RTR is Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s production interpretation of the car he drifts for a living, and its tiers differ by considerably more than badges. The 472-horsepower figure attached to the GT comes from Ford Performance hardware rather than a third-party tuner, which is precisely why the factory warranty survives the upgrade intact. Read on for what separates Spec 1 from Spec 2, and why the suspension work may matter more than the power does.
A 1963 Chevrolet Impala with its original four-speed manual is a genuinely uncommon thing, because most full-size Chevys of the era left the factory with an automatic and the manual cars carry a premium today because of it. This one has been upgraded underneath while keeping that transmission and a largely untouched interior. Read on for what made 1963 the Impala’s breakout year, what the 409 really offered, and what to verify before believing any of the badges.
The 1969 Charger R/T is the car most people picture when they hear the name, and not only because of a certain orange stunt car. A 440 Magnum came standard, the Hemi was available to the very few who could justify it, and the R/T package brought suspension and brake upgrades to match. Here is what the R/T really included, what one honestly ran at the strip, and why documentation decides what a car is worth today.
Mercury launched the Cougar Eliminator in the middle of the 1969 model year, gave it a spoiler, a wing, a blacked-out grille, and access to the same Boss 302 and 428 Cobra Jet engines that made Mustangs dangerous, then killed it after two seasons. Roughly forty-five hundred were built in total, making it rarer than the Ford it was answering. Here is what separates the years, the engines, and the cars worth chasing.
The 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible landed in the middle of a total reinvention: new bodies, twin fins, the first split grille, and a track widened five inches that gave the division its Wide Track identity for the next decade. Only 11,426 convertibles were built that year, and this one carries matching numbers along with nearly every power option Pontiac offered. Read on for why the wheels moved outward and what made 1959 Pontiac’s most important model year.