Interesting Facts | Muscle Car Fan

Close-up of a mechanical assembly with red and black components and connected hoses.

Drag Racing Engine – X-Block Gets Dyno’ Tested for X-Mas

Nick’s Garage turned Christmas week into a holiday tradition built entirely around horsepower, pouring shots of Ouzo before strapping a freshly built Mopar X-block to the dyno. Viewers immediately recognized the engine as Chrysler’s high-performance 340, a small block that punched above its displacement against the 350s and 302s of its era. Between the shop-family comment section and the raw, door-open exhaust note, this is less a spec-sheet video than a shop full of engine builders sharing their holiday. Watch to see what the pull actually makes.

1969 Pontiac Firebird RAM AIR V8 in pristine condition.

Breakdown/Review: 1969 Pontiac Firebird Ram Air IV 4-Speed

by Wes

Pontiac built only 157 Ram Air IV Firebird hardtops for the 1969 model year, just 55 of them Trans Ams, and this freshly restored Firebird, pulled from The Brothers Collection, carries its original numbers-matching example paired with a 4-speed Muncie. Muscle Car Of The Week walks through what makes the RA IV’s idle and powerband so distinct from lesser Pontiac V8s. Watch to see one of the 102 standard Firebirds that got it.

1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible with $3,500,000 auction value in 2014.

Top Ten Most Expensive Muscle Cars

by Wes

Fast Muscle Car counted down the ten most expensive muscle cars ever sold, and the comment section immediately went to work correcting engine specs and arguing over which cars even belong on the list. From a Ford GT40 that some viewers say is not a muscle car at all to a Chevelle engine dispute, the reactions say as much as the countdown itself. Watch and see if you agree with the order.

Three classic Ford muscle cars with open hoods in a showroom.

1971 Ford Boss 351 in Grabber Lime Paint & Engine Sound

by Wes

Ford built the Boss 351 for exactly one model year, and Jeff Ball’s grabber lime 1971 example draws out some serious quarter-mile debate in the comments — including the claim that it actually beat a 429 Cobra Jet Mustang in a straight line. Lou Costabile gets the full story at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont.

A red 1970 Dodge Charger muscle car on a road with fall foliage.

830 WHP “Mayhem” 1969 Dodge Charger by Detroit Speed

by Wes

Detroit Speed dropped a blown modern HEMI into a 1969 Charger and built out 830 wheel horsepower, a number so high that TheSmokingTire had to publicly correct its own original estimate. Viewers immediately compared it to Roadkill’s notorious General Mayhem, just cleaned up and sent to finishing school. Watch the full build.

Red car performing a dyno test in a garage.

Demon vs Hellcat on the Dyno!

by Wes

The same owner puts his Dodge Demon and Hellcat on the same dyno, on the same day, to finally settle which supercharged Hemi actually makes more power at the wheels. The numbers confirm Dodge’s engineering gap between the two cars, and the video hints there’s still more locked away in the Demon’s factory race-fuel mode. Demonology’s channel built its following on exactly this kind of head-to-head test.

What Color To Paint it? Army Serviceman Buys 71 Charger To Put 572 Hemi In

by Pat C

An Army aircraft mechanic stationed overseas bought this rust-free 1971 Dodge Charger sight-unseen, with plans to drop in a 572-cubic-inch Hemi built for over 800 horsepower. Before the media blasting and undercoating are even finished, one question remains unresolved: stick with factory-correct yellow, or go full restomod with flat black and bold stripes? The build taps into a growing wave of big-block Charger restomods that trade numbers-matching originality for modern muscle and serious street presence.

1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda AAR

by Wes

Only five 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda AARs were ever finished in FT6 Burnt Tan, and only two are known to survive. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week profiles the rare homologation special built so Plymouth could legally race the ‘Cuda in SCCA Trans Am — complete with a triple-carbureted 340, side-exit exhaust, and a rulebook-driven design most casual fans never notice.

Classic 1971 Plymouth Cuda on display at a muscle car show.

Walkaround of Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) 2017

by Wes

Internal Combustion’s 4K walkaround of the 2017 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals captures the Rosemont, Illinois show known for its Time Capsule survivor awards alongside concours-level restorations. The creator calls out Mopars, Boss 429 Mustangs, and Pontiac Firebirds as personal favorites, while one viewer argues the show is missing the average joe car altogether. MCACN’s indoor November format gives fragile, unrestored originals a weather-proof stage most summer shows can’t offer. Watch to see what an indoor survivor-focused show actually looks like up close.

A customized Chevrolet Camaro with vibrant paint and open doors in a garage.

1967 Chevrolet Camaro “V12 LS” 2017 NSRA Street Rod Nationals

by Wes

Mike bought his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro at nineteen with a plan he couldn’t yet execute — a build centered on an engine most Camaro owners have never heard of. Nearly two decades later, Quality Custom Rides finally sourced the specialty V12LS motor he’d been waiting for, and wrapped it in suicide doors, an air-ride stance, and custom paint. The plan now is simple: drive the wheels off it. See what a V12 swap actually looks like under a first-gen Camaro’s hood.

Super Rare! 1970 Dodge Coronet Convertible 4 Speed – 440 tear down

by Wes

A 440-powered, four-speed Dodge Coronet convertible is rare enough on its own — most big-block Mopar buyers skipped the convertible body entirely. Nick’s Garage treats the teardown of this particular example less like routine work and more like something worth savoring, and the engine underneath explains exactly why. Viewers with decades of engine-building experience call it one of the most satisfying breakdowns the shop has posted. Watch to see what a patient, detail-focused teardown of a genuinely rare Mopar actually looks like.

Mechanic working on a car part in a garage with 'Roadkill Extra' branding.

Compression Ratio Explained

by Wes

Compression ratio is the number every engine builder throws around, and the one most can’t actually explain past ‘higher is better.’ Roadkill Extra host David Freiburger breaks down exactly what it measures, why pushing it too far invites engine-destroying detonation, and how builders actually raise or lower it on a real engine. One top comment argues the fourteen-minute video teaches the concept better than a university engineering class. Here’s what actually earned that praise.

Three men with three classic cars in Portland for a $3K project.

Project Portland: 3 Guys, $3K, 3 Classic Cars

by Wes

Hagerty sent three of its own editors onto the streets of Portland with $3,000 apiece to find the best classic car that budget could buy, and came back with an Alfa Romeo, a Volkswagen Beetle, and a rotary-powered Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE. Commenters didn’t hold back — questioning the RX-7’s shift points, disputing the Beetle’s model year by its taillights, and side-eyeing the Alfa’s flame paint job. Watch to see whether $3,000 really stretched as far as the video claims.

1965 Shelby Powered Mercer Cobrat By Virgil Exner

by Pat C

A magazine assignment to imagine a forgotten luxury nameplate reborn somehow became a fully functional one-off, built on a genuine Shelby Cobra chassis and dressed in copper and brass. Commissioned by a metals trade association rather than an automaker, the Mercer-Cobra combined retro coachbuilt styling with real Shelby performance underneath. Decades later, it sold for $660,000 at a Monterey auction. How does a concept car built to promote copper end up among the most valuable one-offs in Shelby history?

A restored 1970 Pontiac GTO red muscle car on display in a showroom.

1964 Pontiac GTO Post Coupe that was Found in a Farmers Field

by Wes

This 1964 Pontiac GTO Post Coupe was pulled out of an open farmer’s field, not a barn, and somehow made it back to red-paint condition in time for the 25th Annual Indian Uprising All Pontiac Weekend. Owner Dick Boneske shares the surprisingly simple story behind the find directly from the farmer who wanted it gone. As a first-year GTO, this car carries more historical weight than its rough backstory suggests. Watch the full story.

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