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Three divisions inside the same company built three different Hemi V8s in the early 1950s, and each one ended up with a completely different personality. Chrysler chased outright power, DeSoto split the difference, and Dodge built the smallest and mildest of the three while publicly insisting it wanted nothing to do with the horsepower race. The Red Ram’s reputation today is a little ironic given that pitch. Read on to find out how the smallest early Hemi became one of the most beloved.
Months before Dodge officially unveiled the Challenger SRT Demon, fans spotted silver, flare-fendered Challengers in an early trailer for The Fate of the Furious, with Vin Diesel appearing in a behind-the-scenes clip alongside one. The car backed up the hype: a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 making 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft of torque, good for a 2.3-second 0-60 run. It’s one of the most dramatic factory-to-Hollywood crossovers in modern muscle car history.
The 440 Six Barrel gave the 1970 Road Runner three two-barrel carburetors, 390 horsepower, 490 lb-ft of torque, and a Dana 60 rear axle — the same hardware the mid-1969 A12 package introduced with its pinned-down fiberglass hood and hubcap-less steel wheels. Just 1,815 were built for 1970, and it ran the quarter mile in the low thirteens. Read on for why it was the smarter buy than a Hemi.
There’s an old test for spotting a genuinely serious engine: does it clear one horsepower for every cubic inch? This 1967 Corvette’s 427 doesn’t just pass that test, the 435-horse version blows past it entirely, and Chevrolet’s official numbers were famously conservative to begin with. Between the three street 427s and the race-only L88 lurking behind them, this generation of Corvette hid some of the most underrated horsepower figures of the entire muscle car era.
A restorer who wouldn’t hand his own ‘Cuda over to anyone else, a paint color pulled straight from Chrysler’s loudest era, and a 440 that one viewer called “a monster” before the walkaround even finished. Lou Costabile caught up with Tom Benson on the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale floor to find out how a self-restored 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda ended up looking factory-fresh in Sassy Grass Green. The comments reveal an even wilder history hiding behind that color code. What was it actually like to own one of these new?
The 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe RST pairs a 420-horsepower, 460-lb-ft 6.2-liter V8 with a 10-speed automatic shared with the Camaro ZL1, hitting 60 mph in a claimed 5.7 seconds while still towing up to 8,300 pounds. Choosing that engine also unlocks Magnetic Ride Control, plus optional Borla exhaust and Brembo brakes. It’s proof Chevy is willing to loan its performance parts bin to the family truck.
A 1969 Ford Mustang GT is rarer than most shoppers realize — Ford built only 5,396 of them that year as buyers rushed toward the flashier new Mach 1 instead. This numbers-matching example carries a genuine 320-horsepower 390 four-barrel, dual exhaust, and the tighter chassis tuning that made the GT package more than a stripe kit. Read on to find out why the GT still trails the Mach 1 in recognition despite being the tougher car to find.
This 1970 Chevrolet Nova wears a modern LS swap and carbon fiber accents, but the platform underneath was already capable of serious performance straight from the factory — Chevrolet’s own 396-badged, actually 402-cubic-inch, big block was available for just $475 that year. Read on to find out what Chevrolet’s engineers offered buyers before anyone thought to drop in an LS.
Twenty-seven genuine 426 Hemi ‘Cuda and Challenger convertibles rolled onto one Chicago show field in 2015, shattering a record nobody had broken in decades. With only 41 of these cars ever built across two model years, gathering even a handful in one place was once considered remarkable. See how a single weekend brought together a meaningful slice of an entire production run, and why the math behind that rarity is more brutal than most enthusiasts realize.
Pontiac built just 8 convertible versions of its brand-new 1969 Trans Am, all equipped with the top-tier Ram Air III engine, out of a total production run of only 697 cars. The body style then disappeared from the Trans Am lineup for decades, leaving these eight cars in a strange, isolated place in Pontiac history. Read on to find out why price guides barely apply to a population this small.
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.
This blue Cougar XR-7 might just look like another 1970 pony car at first glance, but its wood-rimmed wheel and simulated walnut dash tell a different story. Mercury built it to feel like a personal luxury coupe, not a stripped-down performance car, and buyers agreed in far smaller numbers than you’d expect. Before casting a vote, here’s what actually separates this car from its Mustang cousin.
NASCAR’s homologation rules forced Dodge and Plymouth to build two of the strangest, most aggressive cars either company ever sold to the public: the winged Daytona and its follow-up act, the Superbird. With production numbers in the hundreds and a NASCAR pedigree that only grows more legendary with time, these cars now command seven figures at major auctions. Read on to find out what actually separates one winged warrior from the other.
At the 2017 New York Auto Show, a small Florida company stole attention away from every major manufacturer with a car that technically should not exist: a modern Trans Am making roughly 1,000 horsepower from a NASCAR-engineered 455 big-block. Built on a Camaro-based chassis and priced well into six figures, it is less a restoration than a full continuation of Pontiac’s most legendary nameplate. Read on to find out what your money actually buys.
The 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T spent that model year quietly overshadowed by a six-pack-fed newcomer and a certain winged fastback stealing every headline. Buried in the order books, though, is a detail that sets it apart from nearly every other Coronet built that year: an engine option so rare that barely more than a hundred buyers ever checked the box. Read on to find out why collectors are finally paying attention.