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Chevrolet’s corporate rules banned engines over 400 cubic inches in the Camaro – until a paperwork loophole meant for fleet orders let a handful of dealers order something else entirely. The COPO 9561 and 9560 packages hid a 427 cubic inch big block under deliberately plain sheet metal, with no badges or scoops to give the game away. Fewer than 900 combined cars were built, making this quiet Camaro one of the most collectible muscle cars of its era.
Chevrolet kept the 396 name on the fenders in 1970 even after quietly enlarging the engine to 402 cubic inches. Buyers could choose the 350-horsepower L34 or the solid-lifter, 375-horsepower L78 Cowl Induction version, backed by transmissions up to the heavy-duty M22 Rock Crusher four-speed. Only 49,862 SS 396 Chevelles were built that year, and well-documented convertibles now sell for a small fortune. Here’s what made this car a legend on both the strip and the auction block.
1972 marked the quiet end of an era for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the final year of its first generation and the last time buyers could order the SS package. Nearly 181,000 were sold that year, spanning engines from a mild 165-horsepower 350 up to a 270-horsepower 454 big block. Here’s what made this closing chapter of the original Monte Carlo worth remembering.
The 1967 Shelby GT350 was built on Ford’s newly widened Mustang body, but under the hood it stayed a 306-horsepower, 289-cubic-inch small-block built for real performance. Only 1,175 were made that year, fewer than half as many as the new big-block GT500, and it marked the last GT350 developed under Carroll Shelby’s direct supervision. Here’s what made this particular model year such a turning point for the badge.
A Fox Body Mustang running twin 102mm turbochargers and a FuelTech FT500 engine management system laid down a 3.91 at low elapsed time in the eighth mile – on a tire narrow enough to look undersized for the power on tap. Driver Josh Klugger backed up the pass in qualifying, no small feat with this much boost on tap. Here’s what it actually takes to make a small block Mustang run numbers like that.
The 1965 Mustang Fastback borrowed its shape from Ferrari and Jaguar, then offered buyers three completely different versions of the same 289 V8, including a 271-horsepower HiPo variant that could not be paired with an automatic. Here is what made the Fastback the Mustang enthusiasts actually wanted.
The Camaro Z/28 actually made more torque than the Shelby GT350R at low RPM, yet lost the head-to-head anyway. Motor Trends track test of these two track-focused muscle cars came down to 230 pounds and a lot more than a horsepower number. Here is what really separated them at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.
Chevrolet’s 1966 Bel Air was designed to disappear into a parking lot — no stripes, no scoops, nothing to suggest it could embarrass anything with a bowtie or a pony on the grille. But order the RPO L35 396 big block, and that plain silver sedan hid 325 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque under a hood built for company-car anonymity. It’s one of the era’s great sleeper stories: the fastest car in the lot was also the one nobody looked at twice.
Volvo’s S90 R-Design earned an unlikely muscle car nickname from reviewers, not because of raw power but because of a level of visual aggression rare for the brand – blacked-out trim, sport seats, and a genuinely provocative reworked front end. Underneath, the numbers stay modest: up to 232 horsepower and a 0-60 time around 8.2 seconds. Here’s why a Swedish sedan earned a nickname usually reserved for big-block Americana.
Furious 7’s skyscraper jump looks impossible because it almost was. W Motors built ten replica Lykan HyperSports for the stunt, and six were destroyed getting the shot. The flight between Abu Dhabi towers was actually filmed on an Atlanta soundstage, using real glass and a real stunt driver rather than pure CGI. Here’s how the franchise’s most talked-about scene actually came together.
For three days each spring, more than 2,000 hot rods, muscle cars, and custom builds line the Pigeon Forge Parkway – but the events roots trace back to a hotel parking lot in 1983, and further still to the moonshine runners who first needed fast cars on these mountain roads. Here is how a 75-car gathering became one of the Southeasts biggest rod runs.