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Manufacturers do not normally sell cars on drag radials, but the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon arrived with 315/40R18 units developed specifically for it, each measuring 12.6 inches wide. The result was a 15 percent larger contact patch and more than double the grip of a standard Hellcat. Read on for why the tires, not the 840 horsepower, were the component that made every one of the Demon’s numbers possible.
In 1961 an American designer decided a Corvette was not European enough, so he shipped one to Turin and had Vignale build a new body over it by hand. The result headlined the Paris Salon and landed on magazine covers, and underneath the Italian coachwork it is still fundamentally a C1 Corvette. Here is how the Kelly Corvette came to exist, and why the American-chassis, Italian-body formula was more common than you would think.
Before Mopar’s High-Impact color names became legend, a handful of green paint codes only existed for a single model year, vivid enough to earn nicknames like Sublime and Sassy Grass. This piece traces where those shades came from, why some vanished within twelve months, and how a traffic-light-inspired green ended up on some of the boldest muscle cars of 1969 and 1970.
Pontiac rushed its answer to the Ford Mustang into showrooms in barely six months, borrowing GM’s F-body platform and grafting on a face unlike anything else on the road. Buyers could order this first-generation Firebird with four completely different engines, from a mild six-cylinder to a 325-horsepower V8 borrowed from the GTO. Fewer than three years later, the rarest versions were already becoming collector gold.
Most show cars arrive on a trailer. This 1971 Camaro street machine drove 275 miles under its own power to reach the show field, with an LS swap under a hood that was never meant to hide it. Chevrolet built 114,630 Camaros that year, and only 4,862 of them were Z/28s. Read on to find out why a strike at the Norwood plant made 1971 the second-generation F-body’s real first year.
Every month, without fail, a market square in central Helsinki fills with American muscle cars, classics, hot rods, and the occasional Japanese oddball — all gathered for a meet that has nothing to do with Detroit, SEMA, or any American car culture hub. This Jamboolio video captures the September 2017 Cruising Night at its liveliest, from a 1967 Mustang commenters called “perfect” to a Death Proof-inspired Nova prowling the crowd. It’s proof that the sound of a V8 translates in any language. Watch to see what shows up next.
A 1,500-horsepower turbocharged Foxbody Mustang known as the Dragonfly squares off against a Supra with real Street Outlaws pedigree, and the pass turns into something nobody in the stands expected: over 200 feet of controlled power wheelie down the center of the track. Built to run 7-second passes and still be driven home afterward, Dwayne’s small-tire Mustang put on a display of car control that comment sections are still talking about. Watch how close this one actually got.
When vandals set fire to a family’s classic Mustang Mach 1, insurance alone couldn’t cover what the car actually meant to them. A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $11,800 from strangers moved by the story, far exceeding what anyone expected. The Mach 1’s history as one of Ford’s most important pony car nameplates only made the loss sting more for enthusiasts who heard about it. Read on to find out what made this car so significant in the first place.
By 1977 the muscle car era was finished, and yet 411,038 people still bought a Chevrolet Monte Carlo that made no pretense of going fast. Two engines, one automatic transmission, and a $300 option package explain what those buyers were actually paying for. Read on to find out why the last of the big Monte Carlos is finally getting a second look from collectors who once ignored it entirely.
That satisfied grin after finishing a repair yourself instead of paying a shop isn’t just about pride — a recent survey found a third of DIYers save more than $1,000 a year on maintenance alone. For classic muscle car owners dealing with scarce parts and premium labor rates, the savings run even deeper. Here are the jobs worth tackling in the driveway, and the classic-car-specific habits that keep a numbers-matching engine healthy.
Before it became a footnote in “hot or not” debates, the Mercury Cougar beat every other 1967 Detroit product to the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. Built on a name originally floated for the Mustang, it stretched that platform three inches longer and dressed it in a genuinely upscale cabin. Engine options topped out with a 320-horsepower 390 V8. Here’s what made this pony car different from the one it was compared to constantly.
This week’s mystery car traces back to a Chevrolet compact that quietly became one of the best big-block sleepers of its era. Once the second-generation Nova borrowed its platform from the Camaro, a 396-cubic-inch V8 became available — and Chevrolet never even advertised it. Only 7,209 SS 396 Novas were built that model year. There’s also a wrinkle in this particular car’s body style worth a second look.
Chevrolet built the 1957 Bel Air Sport Coupe hardtop for exactly one model year, and more than 166,000 buyers took one home. The car that launched an entire nostalgia industry hid a genuinely reworked platform under the chrome, plus an engine option almost nobody on the showroom floor knew to ask for. Read on to find out what separates the ordinary 1957 Bel Air from the one collectors chase today.
The Shelby Drop is the rare classic Mustang upgrade that costs nothing but a drill bit, an afternoon, and a willingness to put a permanent hole in an original shock tower. It relocates the front upper control arm about an inch lower, rewriting the camber curve and cutting body roll on a chassis Ford tuned for boulevard comfort. Shelby American did it to every GT350 and GT500 of the era, and Ford’s own assembly line never followed. Read on for what it actually changes, and what it cannot.
Plymouth built somewhere around 550 ‘Cuda convertibles for 1970, and only 262 of them carried the 340 four-barrel. Narrow that by transmission and paint code and the surviving population gets very small very quickly. This EB5 Blue Fire Metallic car sits at the intersection of all of it — and the engine that made it rare at the time is the one enthusiasts now argue was the best choice in the catalog.