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Engineering Explained breaks down ten real mechanical reasons engines lose horsepower over time, from dirty air filters and exhaust restrictions to worn piston rings and carbon-fouled intake valves. It all comes back to four essentials: air, fuel, compression, and spark. If your engine doesn’t feel like it used to, this explains exactly why.
Rich Kent’s 429-cubic-inch, E85-fueled 1962 Mercury Comet takes on a 707-horsepower 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat at RT66’s Test N Tune — and the results aren’t what the horsepower numbers alone would predict. With the Hellcat spinning off the line and the Comet launching wheels-up, this grudge match has sparked debate for years. Watch it play out and decide for yourself who really won.
Roadkill Extra host David Freiburger breaks down compression ratio — what it actually measures, why it controls so much of an engine’s performance and fuel needs, and how builders raise or lower it in the real world. It’s the theory made practical, right down to using a compression-ratio calculator correctly. Tune in before your next engine build.
1976 was the last year Pontiac offered a genuine 455 cubic inch V8 in the Firebird Trans Am — only 7,100 were built, every one paired exclusively with a four-speed manual, before emissions regulations finally caught up to Pontiac’s biggest big-block. This gray Trans Am represents the twilight of an era when a factory muscle car could still be ordered with real cubic inches, even as the rest of Detroit was already backing away.
Doug DeMuro puts the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk through his signature deep-dive review, tackling the SUV that borrowed its supercharged Hellcat V8 straight from the Dodge Challenger. At roughly $100,000, it claimed the title of the most powerful SUV ever made. Doug breaks down whether the price tag, the quirks, and the absurd power actually add up. See how it scores on the DougScore.
Owner Stacy Walters Rossi fell in love with Corvettes at age seven, the moment an orange example “winked” at her. Now she owns and drives this 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster in white, one of the earliest examples of the model ever built. Photographed at Iron Gate Motor Condos in Naperville, Illinois, this car represents Corvette history before the small-block V8 changed everything. Hear her tell the story herself.
At Sanair Dragway in October 2007, a 1971 Boss 351 Mustang lined up against a 505-horsepower Corvette Z06 in a grudge match billed as the ultimate street machine showdown. On paper, the Corvette’s power advantage should have made it a formality. What happened at the tree turned this into one of the more talked-about upsets in street racing footage. Watch to see who actually crossed first.
An untouched 1969 Camaro SS L78 396 emerged straight from a barn and into the spotlight at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals’ Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section. With its rare 425-horsepower big block and 4-speed still intact, this survivor represents one of the most collectible factory combinations Chevrolet ever built. Auto Archaeology tracked it down exactly as time left it. See what decades of dust couldn’t hide.
Most 1700-horsepower street cars lean on all-wheel drive to keep that kind of power manageable. This Nth Moto-built Viper ACR does it the hard way — rear-wheel drive, manual h-pattern shifting, and an eighteen-inch street tire — going head to head against AWD GT-Rs and Lamborghinis at TX2K18. That Racing Channel captures a night of what happens when raw, unassisted horsepower meets Texas streets. See why they’re calling it the most savage street car they’ve filmed.
A 1968 Pontiac Firebird convertible and a 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible both wear the muscle car convertible badge, but that’s about where the similarities end. One rolled off the line by the thousands with a menu of strong V8 options; the other was built in numbers so small that most Mopar dealers never saw one. Compare their production runs and you’ll understand instantly why one sells as a great weekend driver and the other sells as a multi-million-dollar unicorn.
John Haelig’s 1939 Buick hadn’t run in forty years, and there was no guarantee the straight-eight under the hood would do anything but sit silent when the key finally turned. Watch as decades of dormancy meet a careful, methodical attempt to bring a genuine prewar survivor back to life. The outcome isn’t scripted, and that’s exactly what makes it worth watching.
Horsepower claims from the muscle car era have never been simple to trust, thanks to underrated factory numbers and a mid-decade switch from gross to net ratings. Car News TV ranks eight of the biggest classic muscle car names by horsepower, letting the on-screen numbers do the arguing instead of narration. See which legendary engine actually comes out on top — and whether it matches what you already assumed.
Glen Kellmann has owned his 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T convertible since 2003, and in all his years of attending car shows, he says he’s never once run into another one — Chrysler built fewer than two hundred that year. Lou Costabile catches up with him and his factory 440-powered ragtop to find out what it’s like owning a piece of muscle car history this scarce. Hear the full story behind one of the rarest convertibles from the era.
This 1955 Pontiac Star Chief arrived the same year Pontiac retired its straight-eight engine for good, replacing it with the new Strato Streak V8 that would define the brand for the next two decades. Wrapped in twin Silver Streak hood trim and a light-up Indian-head ornament, it was also a genuine volume seller, with Pontiac building over 200,000 of them that year alone. Here’s the story behind the engine switch that reshaped Pontiac’s flagship.
Plymouth licensed a cartoon character’s name and horn sound for a production car, then built an entire ad campaign around selling speed without the luxury price tag. This period commercial for the 1970 Road Runner captures the muscle car boom at its confident peak, years before insurance hikes and emissions rules changed everything. It’s a glimpse of exactly how Plymouth wanted buyers to see the car the moment it hit showrooms.