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1970 was the year Ford finally let the Torino nameplate flex real muscle. Motor Trend had just named it Car of the Year, and buyers could order a Torino Cobra with a Ram Air 429 and a Hurst-shifted four-speed instead of the usual family-hauler running gear. Only 7,675 took the offer. Here is what separated a Cobra Jet from a Super Cobra Jet, and why clean original interiors like this one are harder to find than the engines.
By 1965 Chevrolet had already solved the question of how to make a Corvette go fast. The harder problem was stopping it, and the four-wheel disc brakes that arrived that year were so far beyond the drums they replaced that Chevrolet offered buyers a cash credit to refuse them. Almost nobody took it. Then, in March, a 396 big block appeared on the order sheet and changed the conversation entirely. Here is what made 1965 the pivotal Sting Ray year.
A one-minute trailer for Fate of the Furious sent shockwaves through the muscle car community in December 2016 — buried in the fast cuts was a widebody Dodge Challenger nobody had officially seen before, wearing a Hellcat-inspired face months ahead of its real reveal. Fans also spotted a modified Charger and a widebody Plymouth GTX sharing the frame with a Lamborghini and a Subaru WRX STI. Read on to find out what Dodge was quietly teasing before it was ready to talk about it.
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, tracing its roots to 1982, turns this underground culture into an annual spectacle.
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.
A 1968 Chevrolet Camaro street machine carries the second-year styling changes most people miss, and underneath there was an SS package that could be ordered with a big block strong enough to end arguments at a stoplight. Chevrolet built well over two hundred thousand Camaros that year and changed almost nothing, which turned out to be the right call. Read on to find out what separates a 1968 from the car that launched the nameplate.
The 1987 Buick Grand National made 245 horsepower and 355 lb-ft of torque from an intercooled, turbocharged 3.8-liter V6, with peak torque arriving at just 2,000 rpm. The intercooler that arrived for 1986 is the single component separating these cars from the largely forgettable 1984 and 1985 versions. Roughly 20,193 were built in the final model year, and the famous Lamborghini comparison actually belongs to the 547-car GNX. Read on for what to verify before buying one.
For 23 months straight, the Ford Mustang outsold the Chevrolet Camaro every single month — until one September, when Chevrolet edged ahead by just 148 units, 6,577 to 6,429. The swing came right as Ford halted Mustang production over a sales slide, while new 2017 Camaro ZL1s were posting 554 rear-wheel horsepower on customer dynos. Read on to see how one of America’s oldest rivalries flipped in a single month.
The letter K in the fifth VIN position marks a 1966 Mustang as a Hi-Po 289 car, and almost nothing visible from the outside can prove it. The differences are internal: a solid-lifter camshaft, higher compression, a distinctly thicker harmonic balancer, and a rev range no ordinary 289 could reach. Fewer than 6,000 were built that year. Read on to find out how to tell a real one from a very convincing copy.
Back in 2016, word started spreading that Dodge might drop the V8 from the Challenger and Charger in favor of a twin-turbo V6 — a rumor most Mopar fans, including this outlet, dismissed outright. Years later, the debate turned out to be an early preview of exactly where the industry was headed. Read on to see how a rumor once written off as internet noise ended up getting the last laugh.
A plain teal-blue 1967 Ford Custom 500 looks like nothing more than a forgotten full-size sedan — until the hood comes up. Owned since 2005 by Jeff Schwartz, whose company builds custom chassis for high-horsepower builds, this Ford hides a stroked big-block FE engine and a six-speed manual behind a deliberately understated exterior. Watch to see exactly what’s behind the restraint.
Restomod builders spend years blending classic muscle car looks with modern reliability, and then Dodge handed shoppers a finished version of that dream on a new-car lot. The Challenger held its retro shape for its entire production run while Mustang and Camaro moved on. So what was actually still missing from it? Read on for the case enthusiasts made, the answers Dodge gave instead, and how the argument ended.
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.
Oldsmobile built just 357 Cutlass SX cars for 1971 and then dropped the option entirely. The SX was never a separate model, only the Y79 package, and it came with exactly one engine: a 455 making 320 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque at 2,800 rpm. It wore almost nothing to announce any of it, and that was deliberate. Read on for why Oldsmobile built a fast car designed to look like nothing at all.
Ford loyalists and Chevrolet diehards have been arguing about the 5.0-liter Mustang and the TPI Camaro since both cars were new, and the argument has never actually been settled with the engines on a dyno. That is exactly what this shootout sets out to do, starting with baseline pulls on a 5.0L HO 302 and an LB9 TPI 305. The numbers are smaller than modern muscle. Read on to find out what these two engines really made.