Posts By: Kiril
A preview of 2018’s new-car debuts could not have predicted how wild the model year would actually get. Alongside redesigned sedans, Kia’s rear-drive Stinger, Lexus’s V8 LC coupe, and the first American Civic Type R, Dodge was finishing an 840-horsepower Challenger SRT Demon built specifically for the drag strip. Here is how a year full of sensible launches ended up defined by a street-legal quarter-mile weapon.
Dodge only sold the Demon for two model years before quietly retiring the name, and only a fraction of those cars left the factory with the 340 small-block. This B5 Blue example is one of them — a budget compact that was hiding a genuinely serious mechanical package under a cartoon devil decal. Here is what made the Demon 340 the sleeper Mopar nobody took seriously in 1971, and why collectors take it very seriously now.
Kevin Hart’s Speedkore-built 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda, nicknamed ‘Menace,’ stunned crowds at the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show — then was seriously crashed, leaving fans mourning a car they’d followed for years. According to commenters tracking its fate, the ‘Cuda came back rebuilt with a modern Hellcat crate engine, giving a fifty-year-old muscle car icon more power than it ever had from the factory. This is the story of a show-stopping build that refused to stay wrecked.
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?
Dave Mock of DMC Custom Vehicles pulled this 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible out of a field and rebuilt it down to its original factory order sheet — right down to a rare Autronic Eye automatic headlight dimmer most ’57 owners never even ordered. Finished in a Surf Green paint combination longtime Chevy fans say they’ve never seen on a car this well restored, it debuted at Wisconsin’s World of Wheels show to a crowd that couldn’t believe how deep the option list actually went. See what a no-compromise Tri-Five restoration actually looks like.
By 1974 the muscle car era was circling the drain, and Plymouth’s Road Runner was fighting to stay relevant at all. This orange Satellite recreates the look on B-body bones, complete with the correct purple Beep Beep horn. A 1974 Satellite even turned up on screen in the third Dirty Harry film. Read on to find out whether a clone like this is a tribute to a dying breed or the smartest way to enjoy one.
By 2016, the Ford Mustang had transformed from a beloved but provincial American icon into a genuine global performance car, built at the factory in right-hand-drive for the first time in the nameplate’s history. Independent rear suspension and a chassis tuned for corners rather than just straight lines opened waiting lists across dozens of new countries. Read on to find out what made 2016 the Mustang’s breakout year worldwide.
GME Performance, a Leipzig tuning shop most American enthusiasts have never heard of, built a Mustang GT making 705 horsepower and 590 lb-ft, enough to put a stock Hellcat on notice. What separates it from the usual dyno-number flex is everything that came with it: adjustable coil-overs, ventilated floating brake discs, a full aero kit, and a 3.9-second 0-62 time. Read on for how the build came together and how it stacks up against Ford’s own factory answers.
A Mercury running under NASCAR lights sounds like a trivia-night trick question today, but at the turn of the 1970s a Montego-based stocker was a legitimate threat on the high banks. Mercury’s competition effort leaned on the Cyclone Spoiler II, a Boss 429-powered homologation special clocked at 199.6 mph in period testing. This particular car carries the scars of something built to run rather than to sit under a cover. Read on for how it got there, and why the story ended so fast.
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.
Chevrolet built roughly 491,000 Impalas in 1961. Only 453 wore the new Super Sport badge, and just 142 of those got the 409. That combination — a full-size family sedan hiding an engine built for the drag strip — is why some historians point to this car, not a mid-size intermediate, as Detroit’s first real muscle car. Here is what the SS package included and how the 409 earned its reputation.
Beyond the ZL-1 Camaro and Hemi ‘Cuda convertible, the rarest American muscle cars share a pattern collectors have only recently caught onto: overlooked badges, one-year-only engine options, and production runs smaller than a typical high school graduating class. The Buick GSX Stage 1, built just 846 times across three years, is the clearest proof that rarity doesn’t always announce itself at the time.