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A Precision 98mm turbocharger is roughly the size of a dinner plate, and bolted to a small-block Ford it turned this Cobra into a 2,200-horsepower payday worth $12,500. Getting a street-based V8 to survive that kind of boost means rebuilding the engine around the turbo rather than the other way around. Here is what actually goes into a build like this one.
A 1955 Chevrolet convertible custom called Payback takes the body that introduced the small-block V8 to the world and rebuilds it with modern intent. Only 41,292 Bel Air convertibles left the factory that year, and decades of hot rodding have thinned that number considerably. Read on to find out what made 1955 the most consequential year in Chevrolet history and what it takes to earn a name like Payback.
This 1963 Chevrolet C10 pickup, complete with an old-school cooler riding in the bed, comes from the single most significant model year in the C/K line’s early history. Chevrolet threw out the front suspension, deleted part of the frame, added new engines, and switched to an alternator, all in one go. Read on to find out what the company was chasing with that many changes at once.
A stripped-down body, a monster engine crammed into an engine bay it was never designed for, and a build philosophy that traces back to the dry lake beds of 1930s Southern California – few cars wear the word badass as honestly as this one. Long before magazine spreads and car shows, young enthusiasts were racing homemade specials across the Mojave under makeshift rules, laying the groundwork for everything that followed. See what decades of backyard engineering look like when it is done right.
Ford’s 1967 Mustang Fastback topped out with a 390-cubic-inch V8, and the 460 did not exist in any Ford product until the following year. This custom build drops 7.5 liters of 385-series big block into a shell wearing Bullitt-style fastback proportions and Eleanor-style silver paint, riding on chrome Cragar S/S wheels. Read on to find out what has to change to make that swap survive.
Jeep took the supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 out of Dodge’s most unhinged muscle car and bolted it into the Grand Cherokee, then rebuilt the driveline, brakes, and cooling system to survive it. The result runs 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.6, with a tow hitch attached. At $85,900, the value argument was the whole pitch. Read on for what made the Trackhawk possible and what to know before buying one used.
The 1966 Fairlane was the year Ford re-engineered the car to accept a big block, and the GT and GTA came standard with a 335-horsepower 390. The difference between the two badges comes down to a single letter and a single component. Convertible production across the whole lineup barely topped 13,000 cars, and the performance versions are a small slice of that. Read on for why this one keeps getting overlooked.
Chevrolet built just 10,100 Nova SS models for 1967, and the strongest engine on the order sheet made 275 horsepower. This one carries a 632-cubic-inch big block making four digits on the motor alone, with nitrous on top, a transbrake, and a parachute for the 160-mph shutdown. Roughly $160,000 separates the factory car from what it became.
The 1968 GTO was a complete redesign built around a gamble: a body-colored, energy-absorbing Endura front bumper with no chrome at all, something no mass-production car had tried. It won Motor Trend Car of the Year and reset how intermediate coupes were styled. A handful survive today still wearing factory paint, and that is not an accident. Read on for what makes an unrestored survivor worth more than a restoration.
Ford did not build a new engine to make the 1965 Mustang quick. It reached into a completely different car’s parts bin, pulled out an engine that had already been proving itself elsewhere for two years, and charged a serious premium for the privilege. Only a tiny fraction of buyers ever checked the box, and the horsepower figure attached to this car deserves a closer look than it usually gets.
Chevrolet has closed the book on the Camaro, ending a long argument over whether the car ever lived up to its affordable muscle roots. Owners fought a shuddering eight-speed, cooling problems at idle, and visibility that made parking a guessing game — none of which appeared in the brochure. Chevy answered by making the car better rather than cheaper, and it worked everywhere except the showroom. Read on for what a returning Camaro would have to fix.
Enthusiasts have called the third-generation Thunderbird the Bullet Bird for sixty years, and the nickname has nothing to do with how fast it was. It described the shape. This 1963, built by Manns Restoration and named Black Bullet, takes that missile-shaped body and fills the engine bay with a modern DOHC Coyote V8, a 9-inch rear on 4.11 gears, and Wilwood discs at all four corners. Here is why the Bullet Bird is such a good canvas.
Chevrolet bored the 396 out to 402 cubic inches, then sold the same engine under three different names depending on which car it went into. In the 1971 Monte Carlo it was badged Turbo-Jet 400. Rated at 300 horsepower with 400 lb-ft of torque, it was a serious engine in a car built for comfort, and almost nobody ordered it with a manual gearbox. Read on for why this combination is so unusual.
Most people who can identify a 1969 Dodge Charger on sight have never seen one in person. They know it from a television show that turned an orange, door-welded stunt car into one of the most recognizable vehicles in American culture, and that fame ended up burying what Dodge actually built. Underneath the paint sat a genuinely serious platform with a real racing record that predated Hollywood by a decade.
Mopar builds exactly one limited-edition Dodge a year, and the 2017 Challenger is the one enthusiasts keep coming back to. Only 160 were made, all with the 392 Hemi, all with a six-speed manual, all with a fender badge painted by hand at the Mopar Custom Shop. Every buyer got a birth certificate documenting their specific car. Read on for the three things that separate it from every special edition before it.