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Park a 1968 Camaro RS beside a 1969 SS and most people see two versions of the same car. They are not. One year separates a subtle, almost European-looking coupe from the aggressive, creased shape that became the definitive first-generation Camaro. Understanding what changed, and why RS and SS were never the same kind of option, explains why these two cars command such different money today.
A 1969 Camaro making close to a thousand horsepower would normally be the headline, but on this build the supercharged 416 small-block is almost the least interesting part. Hand-laid carbon bodywork, machined billet hardware, a completely re-engineered chassis, and a six-speed manual describe a car meant to be driven hard rather than trailered. Here is what went into it, and why builds at this level change what the rest of the market can buy.
Michelle Bongiovanni’s classmates at Penn State did not believe her, and it is hard to blame them. She spends weekends running eight-second quarter miles in a Mustang that Ford builds specifically so it cannot be registered for the road. The Cobra Jet is one of the strangest things a manufacturer sells: a factory-built drag car with no VIN for street use and no pretense of being anything else. Read on to find out how a Mustang ends up like this.
This C7 Corvette kept its Stingray silhouette and almost nothing else. Between the frame rails sits an Outlaw 548 HEMI force-fed by two 102mm Precision ball-bearing turbochargers, a combination credited with 3,500 horsepower and capable of a 4.05-second eighth mile on its very first outing. It is a Chevrolet body wrapped around a Chrysler idea, riding on a tube chassis, chasing traction every bit as hard as it chases power. Read on to find out how a car like this actually works.
On paper the fifth-generation Camaro ZL1 has no business hanging with a Challenger SRT Hellcat down a quarter mile. The Hellcat brings 707 horsepower to a fight the ZL1 enters with 580, and the trap speeds tell the same story. But drag racing punishes anyone who trusts a spec sheet, and this particular pairing produced a result Mopar fans did not enjoy. Read on to find out where the horsepower advantage actually goes.
Held every May on the Indiana State Fairgrounds the week before the Indy 500, Dana Mecum’s Original Spring Classic has grown into one of the largest muscle car auctions in the country. Its 30th anniversary sale set a then-record $55.6 million across 1,208 cars sold, headlined by a $1.45 million Porsche and a Vault Find Corvette that drew a moment of silence for its late owner. Less than a decade later, the same event was moving over three times that much money.
A 1969 Chevelle carrying a 540 cubic inch big-block and a pair of turbochargers is not a factory car with upgrades. It is a purpose-built drag chassis wearing a 1969 body, with an aftermarket block, forged internals, a fuel system that costs more than most project cars, and a chassis reinforced from firewall to bumper. Here is what that combination actually requires, and why builders keep choosing this shape to wrap it in.
Bobby at Alloway’s Hot Rod Shop says there are only two engines like this one anywhere in the world, and it lives under the hood of a 1955 Plymouth Savoy that looks almost stock at first glance. Between the Art Morrison chassis, a custom interior from Pro Auto Custom Interiors’ Steve Holcomb, and that over-500-cubic-inch polished aluminum Hemi, this build hides serious ambition behind restrained styling. Watch to see how ScottieDTV’s camera uncovers what makes it so rare.
By 1976 the muscle car era was supposedly finished, yet Pontiac was still selling a Trans Am with 455 cubic inches under a shaker scoop and a four-speed behind it. The catch is how briefly that combination existed and how few people could actually order it. This is the story of Detroit’s last big-inch holdout and why 200 horsepower meant more than the number suggests.
Tom Lembeck owns one of roughly 39 surviving 1969 Dodge Daytona Chargers built with a genuine factory 426 Hemi, and instead of trailering it to shows, he drives it through Chicago traffic and lays rubber in parking lots. Viewers called his willingness to use a seven-figure wing car ‘Hallelujah’-worthy. Once an unsold oddity gathering dust on dealer lots, this NASCAR homologation special is now one of the most coveted Mopars in existence. See what makes Lembeck’s Daytona different.
The 1969 Pontiac GTO everyone remembers wears Judge decals and a rear spoiler. The one enthusiasts quietly prefer wears neither. A 400-cubic-inch four-barrel, a close-ratio four-speed, and 445 lb-ft arriving at just 3,000 rpm made the undecorated GTO the better street car by almost every measure that matters. Here is why the plain one keeps winning the argument.
When Ford pulled the covers off the 2018 Mustang convertible, the biggest news was not what got added. It was what quietly disappeared from the order sheet after decades of being the default choice for droptop buyers. What replaced it split the lineup into two extremes with nothing in the middle, and gave the convertible a dashboard that had no business being in a pony car. Read on for what changed.
The fastest engine Ford offered in the 1966 Mustang had no badge, no brochure spread, and no salesman pushing it. It hid behind a single letter in the vehicle identification number, and fewer than one percent of that year’s buyers ever checked the box. What that letter bought you was a solid-lifter V8 built to rev like a race engine, and the details that give it away are still the first thing collectors look for.
No car show in the country claims a longer unbroken run than the one that kicks off the West Coast’s season every January — and its nine-foot America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy has been chased by legendary builders for generations. What started as a tightly focused 1950 roadster show in Oakland has grown into an everything-under-one-roof event covering tri-fives, muscle cars, customs, and rat rods.
In 1966, Ford and Carroll Shelby handed roughly a thousand genuine Shelby GT350s to Hertz and let anyone with a license and a credit card rent one by the weekend. The Rent-A-Racer program moved GT350 production from a few hundred cars to 2,378, generated decades of lore about roll bars and race numbers, and produced one of the most collectible Mustang variants ever built. Here is how it actually happened.