Fun Stuff | Muscle Car Fan

Engine bay of a classic car with detailed mechanical components.

How to Install Nitrous on Your Small Block V8 (1972 Challenger)

A plate-style NOS nitrous kit, a Mopar small-block, and a set of suspiciously modern Dodge Challenger wheels come together in this Horsepower Wars install video, but the dyno numbers sparked more debate than the wrench work. While the crew walks through fuel enrichment, timing retard, and purge-line basics on a project car that might be running a stroked 402 cubic inch small-block, one commenter wasnt buying the horsepower gain shown on the Dynojet pulls. Is the modest bump proof that plate nitrous has limits, or is there more going on under that hood than the numbers let on?

Rusty vintage car parked outdoors with snow around it.

Top 5 Pitfalls to Avoid when Buying a Classic Car Preview

by Wes

Buying a classic car sounds romantic until the bills start arriving, and TFL Classics built an entire spinoff series around exactly that gap between expectation and reality. Episode 2 of “Load Bearing Paint” counts down the top five pitfalls to avoid, but it’s the comment section that delivers the real lessons, including one viewer’s $250 junkyard find that became a $13,000 project he still doesn’t regret. What separates buyers who finish their projects from the ones who don’t?

A white SUV airborne during a drag race on a straight track.

9 Second Buick GSX Stage2 GS Stage1 9.51 @ 140

by Wes

Built in 1996, this Buick GSX became the first GS Pro Street car to break into the 9-second quarter-mile bracket, debuting at the GS Nationals and winning its class outright. Fourteen years later, new owner Bob Ortolani brought it back to the same shop for a fresh powerplant, and this video captures the very first day that combination hit the strip, three passes that kept dropping the number, followed by an unplanned wheelie nobody saw coming. Watch the full run and see how close the car came to the 9.40s.

Rusty, abandoned classic Plymouth car in an overgrown lot.

Camaro SS started after 28 years…

by Wes

Matthew Betz’s dad let this 1969 Camaro RS/SS sit for 28 years before it finally started again — and that dramatic restart was just the beginning. This update picks up years later, deep into sandblasting the rusted metal ahead of a full rebuild around an aluminum big block. Longtime followers are still demanding updates. See how far a real, multi-year father-son build has come.

Video thumbnail questioning if wider tires provide more grip.

Do Wider Tires Actually Have More Grip? Testing 27 Cars

by Wes

Wider tires mean more grip — or so every car enthusiast has been told. Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske put that assumption to the test at NWAPA’s 2017 Mudfest, running sixty-to-zero braking tests across twenty-seven different AWD and 4×4 trucks and SUVs with a Vbox data logger. The results complicate the simple version of the story muscle car owners repeat about tire width, weight, and stopping distance. Commenters, including more than one physics teacher’s former student, dig into exactly why. Watch to see what the data actually says.

1966 Plymouth Belvedere II 426 HEMI convertible car with classic design.

Breakdown/Review: 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II Convertible 426 Hemi

by Wes

Exactly ten 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II convertibles were built with the factory 426 Hemi, and this one, from The Brothers Collection, is Episode 228 of V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week series. Most comments focused on the car’s rarity and color — but a few sharp-eyed viewers flagged a driver’s door that doesn’t sit quite right where it meets the rocker panel. On a car built in single-digit numbers, that kind of scrutiny comes with the territory. Watch the full walkaround.

A crowd gathers outdoors on a cold day near parked cars.

Turkey Day Muscle Car Burnouts

by Wes

A decade ago, filmmaker Anthony Giampapa pointed his camera at a Thanksgiving morning parking lot and simply let it run, catching an unscripted mix of muscle cars doing what they do best. There’s no narration, no sponsor, and no script — just the raw sound and smoke of a grassroots burnout meet that still holds up ten years later. It’s a small, unpolished clip with under a thousand views, but it captures something plenty of bigger productions miss entirely.

Comparison of two Pontiac GTO models from different eras.

40 Years Later: How the 2006 Pontiac GTO Stacked Up Against the Original

by Wes

In 1966, Pontiac’s newly independent GTO sold nearly 97,000 units in a single year and single-handedly helped launch the muscle car era. Four decades later, Pontiac tried to revive the name with a rebadged Holden Monaro that was faster and more refined than the original but sold just under 41,000 units across three full years. The reason why says as much about what makes a muscle car a legend as any spec sheet ever could.

Classic black muscle car with polished chrome wheels parked outdoors.

The 1972 Chevrolet Nova: Chevy’s Understated Sleeper Finally Gets Respect

by Kiril

The 1972 Chevrolet Nova spent decades as the muscle car nobody fought over — overshadowed by flashier Camaros and Chevelles wearing louder graphics and bigger reputations. That’s changed fast, with clean, numbers-matching examples climbing from bargain-bin prices into serious five and six-figure territory. Built on the same platform as the Camaro and packing a genuine Chevy V8 under its unassuming body, the ’72 Nova never needed to shout to earn respect. Read on to find out why collectors finally caught up to what this sleeper always offered.

A white GT350R car with supercharged engine showcased.

LISTEN TO THIS SHELBY GT350R HIT 8,200RPM!

by Wes

John Hennessey’s shop strapped a Shelby GT350R to the dyno wearing its new HPE850 supercharger package, running on Shell V-Power 93 octane, and posted a pull that added 311 rear-wheel horsepower and 193 lb-ft of torque over the car’s naturally aspirated baseline. The resulting graph, a dual-scale readout where the horsepower and torque curves cross around 7,400 rpm, briefly confused viewers before the final number sank in. Watch the pull to see what boosting a flat-plane-crank Voodoo V8 actually looks like on the rollers.

A black Dodge Challenger with red racing stripes at a car event.

Big, Bad,…Customized 194MPH 2008 Dodge Challenger Superbird ‘GRIZZ’ With Over 1000rwhp!

by Wes

GRIZZ isn’t a real 1970 Superbird – it’s Joel Highsmith’s modern custom tribute build, and it’s chasing numbers no factory aero car ever touched: over 1,000 rear-wheel horsepower and a 194mph top speed. Gearhead Flicks’ feature has drawn nearly 725,000 views, plus a sharp-eyed comment correcting the car’s own naming and a wild detour involving a theft and recovery. Find out where GRIZZ is racing next.

Classic 1964 Plymouth Belvedere cruising on the road.

SRT-4 vs. Plymouth Belvedere

by Wes

A mildly modified 2004 Dodge SRT-4 takes on a four-speed, 383-powered 1965 Plymouth Belvedere in a street matchup that should have favored the turbocharged compact. More than a decade of comments still argue over who really won, split between Mopar loyalists and turbo-four believers. Watch to see whether raw displacement or forced induction wins the day.

Classic red Chevrolet Chevelle in a sleek showroom setting.

Chevrolet Chevelle | Buyer’s Guide

by Wes

Hagerty Executive Editor Stefan Lombard opens with a dare: you really can’t go wrong with a Chevelle, true or false? What follows is a rundown of exactly where Chevelle buyers get burned, from cloned SS badges to rust hiding under a straight-looking floor pan. Watch before you go looking for one yourself.

A red 1969 AMC Javelin SST muscle car on display.

1970 AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue in Big Bad Orange & Engine Start

by Wes

Owner Jeffrey Filz grew up two blocks from the Kenosha plant that built this 1970 AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue Signature Edition, and the comments below Lou Costabile’s video turn up an even wilder story: a commenter’s father, a former Spitfire pilot, briefly owned one himself. Watch the full walkaround and engine start.

Two classic muscle cars face off in a drag race showdown.

426 Hemi Road Runner vs 426 Hemi Super Bee – 1/4 Mile Drag Race Video – Road Test TV

by Wes

Road Test TV lines up two of Chrysler’s rarest factory muscle cars, a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner and a 1968 Dodge Super Bee, both fitted with the legendary 426 Hemi, for a naturally aspirated quarter-mile grudge match. The comments reveal an audience less interested in who wins than in celebrating two genuine Mopar icons running clean 11-second passes. Watch to see how two of Detroit’s most feared engines settle a very friendly family argument.

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