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The 1965 Corvette Sting Ray is remembered for its added muscle, but the real story that year was about control. New four-wheel disc brakes finally gave the car stopping power to match its ambitions, and a mid-year 425 horsepower big block gave buyers a reason to test that power to its limits. Few model years packed this much engineering change into a single production run.
When the first Fate of the Furious trailer dropped in December 2016, it was not the plot that got muscle car fans talking, it was a few fast cuts of a widebody Dodge Challenger nobody had officially seen before. The timing lined up suspiciously well with a certain Hellcat-based reveal just weeks later. What was Dodge really showing off, and did the movie beat the company to its own announcement?
Sweden’s underground street racing scene has thrived for decades thanks to a legal quirk that makes catching drivers in the act nearly impossible. Big-block, nitrous-fed American muscle cars including Camaros and Monte Carlos routinely run quarter-mile passes in the 9-second range at over 1,000 horsepower on public roads. The Stockholm Open, running since 1982, turns this underground culture into an annual spectacle.
Lou Costabile examines a black-and-silver 1978 Chevrolet Corvette at Corvette Mike Midwest, a car sitting at the crossroads of two milestones — the Corvette’s 25th anniversary and its year pacing the Indianapolis 500. A dealership specialist walks through the details that separate a genuine limited edition from a tribute. For C3 fans, it is a snapshot of late-1970s American performance and one of the most talked-about Corvettes of the decade.
A C7 Corvette-bodied Pro Mod once trapped 249.49 mph in a 5.73-second quarter-mile pass, a run fast enough to be billed as the world’s fastest Pro Mod. The reality of NHRA’s record books is more nuanced, with quicker elapsed times and higher top speeds held by other doorslammers. Here’s what that blistering run means for the Pro Mod class, and how it stacks up against the true outright records.
The 1968 Chevrolet Camaro looked like a subtle refresh of the year before, but underneath the new side marker lights and cleaner door glass sat some of the most serious performance options Chevrolet ever bolted to a pony car. From the six-thousand-dollar SS 396 to the Trans-Am-bred Z/28, this was the year Chevrolet proved a good design does not need reinventing, just refining.
Buick’s 1987 Grand National sounds like a joke until the numbers show up: a turbocharged, intercooled 3.8-liter V6 that hit 60 mph faster than a Lamborghini Countach according to Car and Driver’s own testing. The critical intercooler upgrade only arrived in 1986, permanently separating early Grand Nationals from the versions collectors chase hardest today. See what made this blacked-out coupe one of the decade’s biggest performance surprises.
In a surprising twist of automotive fate, the Chevrolet Camaro has outpaced its long-time rival, the Ford Mustang, in sales for the first time in nearly two years in the USA. This unexpected victory comes amid Ford’s decision to halt Mustang production following a sharp decline in sales. In September, Camaro revved past the competition, selling 6,577 units compared to the Mustang’s 6,429. It seems the Camaro is back to remind everyone that it’s not just a flash in the pan but a full-on V8-powered comeback.
A single letter in the VIN is all that separates an ordinary 1966 Mustang from a genuine Hi-Po 289 K-code: an engine built with a different camshaft, a thicker damper, and a mandatory four-speed that regular Mustangs never got. Ford built fewer than 25,000 of these engines before ending production in 1967, making numbers-matching survivors increasingly rare. See what made this Signal Flare Red example a true early Mustang performance legend.
The internet is buzzing with speculation: could the iconic Dodge Challenger and Charger be ditching their beloved V8 engines for a twin turbocharged V6? While purists might be clutching their pearls, rest assured, the roar of the V8 isn’t bowing out just yet. Dodge’s next-gen muscle cars are expected to keep the V8 option alive, ensuring that your morning commute can still sound like an action movie. In the world of muscle cars, some traditions—like the V8’s roar—are just too good to give up.
Dodge’s Coronet R/T did not bother hiding its best engine in the options list; a 375-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch Magnum V8 came standard, backed by torsion-bar suspension and heavy-duty brakes that lived up to the Road and Track name. Buyers chasing even more had the legendary 426 Hemi waiting further up the order sheet. Here is how the Coronet R/T backed up its displacement-war bragging rights on the strip.
Jeff Schwartz of Schwartz Performance took the forgotten, plain-Jane 1967 Ford Custom 500 and turned it into a teal-blue sleeper packing a 427 and a custom-engineered chassis. Lou Costabile gets the full story behind a car built to showcase what a properly designed frame can do. It is an object lesson in restomod philosophy: build the foundation first, then add the power. See why this humble Ford is anything but ordinary.
The 2017 Dodge Challenger comes about as close to a factory-built restomod as any new car has ever gotten, wrapping a genuinely modern platform around styling that still nods to the original 1970 E-body. With the Mustang and Camaro long since abandoning their retro looks, Challenger stands alone as the last mainstream muscle car willing to look backward on purpose. Here is what enthusiasts still think it is missing.
Car show etiquette has real unwritten rules, and this meme is poking fun at the fastest way to break one: parking too close, or worse, taking up two spots. From revving bans to a strict hands-off policy on other peoples builds, heres what actually separates a respected regular from that guy at every cruise-in.
Only 357 people ever got to order Oldsmobile’s rarest big-block sleeper: a 455-cubic-inch V8 hidden inside a Cutlass Supreme body that gave away almost nothing from the outside. Offered for just two model years under Oldsmobile’s Y79 Performance Package, the SX 455 combined torque-heavy gearing with a nearly stock appearance built to catch unsuspecting rivals off guard. Here is what made this two-year-only option so unusual.