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Ed Wood built a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu with two Oldsmobile V8s under a stretched hood, decided 500 horsepower was insufficient, and replaced both of them with a surplus Allison V-1710 — the twelve-cylinder aircraft engine that powered the P-38 Lightning and the earliest P-51 Mustangs. It displaced 1,710 cubic inches. It was street-legal. Read on for how a warbird engine ends up in a mid-size Chevy.
This 1957 Chevrolet Corvette has been rebuilt from the frame up around an Art Morrison chassis and an LS2 V8 from a modern Corvette, keeping the shape that made the car famous while replacing almost everything underneath it. The original car earned its reputation with one horsepower per cubic inch and America’s first production fuel injection. Read on for what a build like this gains, what it gives up, and why the argument still divides collectors.
For 1970, General Motors dropped the internal rule capping intermediate cars at 400 cubic inches, and Chevrolet answered with RPO LS6: a 454 rated at 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft on 11.25:1 compression and a solid-lifter camshaft. Roughly 4,475 Chevelles got it, and it lasted exactly one model year in that car. Whether any particular survivor is the very last one built is a far harder question. Read on to find out why.
In 1971, Ford stopped playing it safe with the Mustang and built the biggest, widest Mach 1 yet — three inches wider just to fit the monstrous 429 big block under that twin-scooped hood. Buyers had their pick of a 302 Windsor, three flavors of 351 Cleveland, or the top-shelf 429 Cobra Jet, and nearly a quarter of all ’71 Mustang buyers wanted the Mach 1’s attitude. It’s the last truly big, truly intimidating Mustang Ford built before the muscle car era ran out of road.
Somewhere out there is a muscle car that looks entirely ordinary and is quietly worth more than the house it is parked behind. The difference between a $50,000 car and a seven-figure one usually comes down to a build sheet, an engine code, and a body style. Here is what actually drives values at the top of the collector market, and which cars have run away from the pack while others sat still.
A supercharged Plymouth Duster nicknamed ‘the Ghost’ goes wheel-to-wheel through an entire quarter mile at NEAD’s No Prep Throwdown in Oskaloosa, Iowa, landing a spot in the Small Tire class finals against serious competition. The close finish — and the loyal Mopar crowd cheering it on — turned a regional grassroots race into a clip that’s still inspiring viewers to start their own builds years later. Watch the full pass.
Pontiac built just 697 Firebird Trans Ams for 1969, including only eight convertibles, and the nameplate nearly disappeared before it had a chance to catch on. Two Ram Air engines were offered, but the Ram Air IV went into only 55 cars, all of them coupes. Here is what separated those cars from the rest, and why a legendary third engine never actually reached a customer.
Before the Boss 302 or the Mach 1, the biggest engine a Mustang buyer could order was the S-code 390. Rated at roughly 320 horsepower and 427 lb-ft of torque, it turned the 1967 fastback into the serious performance choice a full year before the 428 Cobra Jet arrived. It also wore the exact silhouette that Steve McQueen would make famous. Here is what the GT 390 package actually included.
Plymouth’s second-generation Barracuda gets overshadowed by the E-body cars that followed, but the 1967 Formula S hid something genuinely rare under its Coke-bottle bodywork: a 383-cubic-inch big block squeezed into a compact engine bay. The fit was so tight that power steering was not available at all. Fewer than two thousand buyers took the option, and the compromises tell you exactly how hard it was.
Jay Leno owns hundreds of cars, but few tell a story as understated as his 1966 Dodge Coronet, a boxy family coupe hiding one of the most feared engines Detroit ever sold to the public. That small “426 Hemi” fender badge marks the first model year Chrysler offered the Hemi as a genuine street engine rather than a race-only exotic, sold in just three B-body nameplates. Read on to find out why a car this plain-looking still commands serious respect from collectors like Leno.
This Competition Yellow 1955 Chevrolet 210 keeps almost nothing it was born with. The original frame, suspension, and inline-six are gone, replaced by a full Art Morrison chassis and a Corvette-derived LS6 aluminum V8. Somehow it still reads unmistakably as a Tri-Five the instant you see it. Read on for what actually changes underneath a build like this, and why the Tri-Five became the default canvas for American restomodding.
A bright red 1971 Dodge Challenger is easy to admire and surprisingly hard to read, because 1971 was the year Dodge quietly began dismantling the option sheet that made the car famous. It was the final season for the 426 Hemi, the final season for the R/T badge, and the final season for the convertible. Fewer than a hundred buyers took the biggest engine on offer. Read on for what made this the Challenger’s last complete year.
Chevrolet built the ultimate track-ready C7 Corvette, then deliberately left out the supercharger everyone assumed was the whole point. The 2017 Grand Sport got the Z06’s wide body, brakes, and chassis hardware paired with the Stingray’s naturally aspirated LT1. It sounds like a compromise on paper and turned out to be nothing of the sort. Read on to find out why so many buyers picked it over the more powerful car.
Ron Rufo wasn’t shopping for a car when he pulled into a Tinley Park show and happened to park beside a white 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. It won Best of Show that afternoon, he struck up a friendship with the owner, and in 2001 the car became his. It’s also the model year Pontiac widened its track five inches and built an entire brand identity around it. Read on to find out what Wide-Track really changed.
The Original Super Chevy Show’s stop in Martin, Michigan runs on a track with real history: US131 Motorsports Park started life as Martin Dragway back in 1962, long before a million renovation turned it into today’s national-touring-ready facility. The event’s entry rule is just as distinctive, any car can compete, even a Mustang, as long as it’s GM-powered. Here’s what made this particular weekend more than just another drag meet.