 |
This muscle car isn’t smoking because something went wrong, it’s smoking because someone made it happen on purpose. Burnouts started as simple tire prep for drag racing before evolving into one of muscle car culture’s proudest traditions. What looks like chaos in this photo is actually a driver carefully balancing throttle and wheel speed for maximum effect.
This preview of 2018’s new-car debuts undersells just how wild that model year actually got, thanks to a factory Dodge built specifically to dominate the drag strip. While sedans and crossovers filled most showroom floors, a supercharged, 840-horsepower street-legal special was quietly finishing development in the background. It’s a reminder that the year’s biggest automotive story wasn’t a redesign, it was a straight-line monster.
This B5 Blue Demon hides a surprisingly serious 340 cubic inch V8 under what Dodge originally sold as a budget-minded compact. Only 10,098 Demon 340s were built in 1971, backed by a forged crankshaft, high-flow heads, and a Rallye suspension package most economy buyers never thought to ask for. It’s proof that Dodge’s cheapest muscle car still had real teeth.
At the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show, one 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda pulled the biggest crowd on the floor, and its owner’s name had a lot to do with it. Built by carbon-fiber specialists SpeedKore and owned by comedian Kevin Hart, this E-body pairs the most iconic shape of the muscle era with thoroughly modern engineering. It’s equal parts legend and reinvention. See why it stopped everyone who walked past.
A supercharger punching through the hood of this orange ‘Cuda is daring onlookers to guess both the year and just how much power is hiding underneath. If this is the 1969 model, it landed the year the ‘Cuda package became Plymouth’s most serious pony car statement, with factory V8s already reaching 375 horsepower before anyone added a blower.
A close crop of chrome grille and quad headlights is all this guessing game gives away, and that’s plenty to start an argument among Thunderbird fans. Ford reinvented the ‘Bird’s face almost every generation between 1955 and the early 1970s, from sports car to four-seat luxury cruiser. Can you place the exact year from the grille alone?
A neglected 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, pulled from a field and nearly given up for dead, reappears at the World of Wheels show in Surf Green paint and showroom-new condition. The man showing it isn’t the owner but the restorer who brought it back, and he shares just how far gone it really was. With original factory options intact and a Tri-Five silhouette that still stops traffic, this is a restoration story worth hearing from the person who lived it.
This 1974 Plymouth Satellite wears a Road Runner clone’s stripes and horn at the exact moment the real Road Runner was running out of road. The same body style even landed a cameo in a Dirty Harry film just two years later. It’s a snapshot of Detroit muscle trying to survive insurance hikes, emissions rules, and the oil crisis all at once.
Who doesn’t love the Mustang? It’s transitioned from an American icon with a cheesy reputation to a truly global and sophisticated sports car, now available in factory-built right-hand drive. The 2016 Ford Mustang stands out as the top performance car, not just for its nostalgic appeal, but for its blend of modern technology and classic muscle. It’s like finding out your high school crush is now a successful astronaut – it’s still got the charm, but now it’s got the brains too!
This German-tuned Mustang GT trades its stock 435 horsepower for a supercharged 705, dropping its 0-62 time to 3.9 seconds. Leipzig-based GME Performance backed that power jump with an adjustable suspension, floating brake discs, and a full aero kit rather than just a bigger blower. It’s proof that Germany’s tuning scene takes American muscle just as seriously as its own.
A stripped, scarred Mercury racer is a reminder that this brand once ran with the fastest stock cars in America, not just built family sedans. Mercury’s aero-era racers were timed near 200 mph and had already won a Daytona 500 before this car ever turned a lap. It arrived right as NASCAR’s Grand National division was about to become the Winston Cup Series most fans know today.
The flat-plane crank spinning behind this Shelby GT350’s grille let Ford chase an 8,250-rpm redline and a shriek that sounds nothing like a normal American V8. Hand-built on a dedicated line at the Romeo Engine Plant, the Voodoo engine became the longest-stroke flat-plane V8 ever mass-produced — and then Ford stopped building it.
Behind the orange paint and Confederate flag roof was a genuine 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, one of roughly 300 identical cars destroyed making a single television show. The hero cars carried a 375-horsepower 440 Magnum V8 backed by a four-speed manual, while lesser 318s and 383s handled routine driving scenes. Stunt drivers saved the 440-powered cars for one job only: the jumps.
A sun-drenched restoration photo with no badges in sight is daring muscle car fans to name the year and engine hiding under the hood. This nameplate saw a major style refresh and an option-package shakeup in a single model year, while its engine lineup ranged from a mild 325-horsepower V8 to a 425-horsepower COPO sleeper most buyers never even knew existed.
The Vipers gathered at this 2015 show were living on borrowed time, even if nobody knew the exact date yet. This piece looks at what made the final-generation Viper, 645 horsepower, naturally aspirated, six-speed manual, the angriest version of a car that never once used a turbo or supercharger in 26 years of production.