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Garage 54 has never met a bad automotive idea it wasn’t willing to actually test, and this time the target is something every driver takes for granted: the humble tire. Swap the air for solid concrete and suddenly a component built to flex and absorb impact becomes rigid, heavy, and completely unforgiving. The physics working against this experiment are obvious on paper — but watching them play out is another thing entirely. See how far the concrete-filled tires actually get.
Nick’s Garage pulled the numbers-matching 440 out of a genuinely rare 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T convertible, tore it down completely, and is now putting it back together piece by piece. The real test comes at the end, when the freshly rebuilt big block gets strapped to a dyno and pushed toward redline. For an engine this scarce, that pull means a lot more than just a number on a screen. Watch to see if the rebuild holds up.
OldCarMemories set out to rank the five best V8 engines of the muscle car era, and immediately ran into the argument every gearhead has had at least once: which 426 Hemi are we even talking about? The factory street version and the ultra-rare racing-spec variant get lumped together more often than they should, and untangling that distinction changes the whole conversation. Watch to see which five engines made the final cut — and whether your favorite survived.
A genuine Formula 1 car doesn’t belong anywhere near a red light, a school zone, or a line of minivans — and yet that’s exactly where this footage finds one, engine screaming just inches off the pavement. Street FX Motorsport TV has built a name for capturing extreme machinery in the most mundane settings imaginable, and this clip might be their best contrast yet. The result is equal parts absurd and mesmerizing. Watch to see how an F1 car survives an ordinary commute.
Mercury built the Cougar Eliminator to shed the badge’s soft image, backing it with a Trans-Am racing pedigree and an engine lineup that ran from a high-revving 302 all the way to twin 428 Cobra Jets. With barely over 4,600 built across both model years combined, it’s one of the rarer ways into serious late-1960s performance.
1971 was the year emissions rules started catching up with the El Camino, but Chevrolet’s big-block options — including a 454 cubic inch LS5 — were still on the order sheet. We look at what made this transition year both a turning point and one of the last real chances to order a genuinely quick El Camino.
Bond’s DB5 and Dom Toretto’s Charger are not the only movie muscle cars worth remembering. A black Trans Am and a customized Mustang fastback both left just as big a mark on car culture, one by boosting real-world sales and the other by spawning an entire tribute-car industry. Here is the rest of the list.
Is engine braking with a manual transmission actually bad for your car, or is that just something drivers repeat without checking? Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained breaks down the real mechanics behind downshifting to slow down, and where the wear-and-tear concerns are legitimate versus overblown. For anyone driving a stick-shift muscle car, the answer affects real maintenance decisions. Watch to find out where the line actually is.
Mikey V.’s 1972 AMC Javelin SST puts out roughly 900 horsepower and, weather permitting, he still drives it as a daily driver. The car has been his since his father, an American Motors employee, gave him the choice between a Hornet and a Javelin as a kid. Lou Costabile’s My Car Story caught up with Mikey and his Javelin at Wisconsin’s World of Wheels show. Watch to hear the full story in his own words.
A 10-second Plymouth Cuda and a 10-second Chevy S10 pickup do not belong on the same dragstrip by any traditional measure, but Road Test TV lined them up anyway at Palm Beach International Raceway. Both trucks and muscle cars can hide serious builds under ordinary sheet metal, and this race is a reminder that the quarter mile does not care which one looks faster sitting still. Watch to see which one actually is.
This Dodge Challenger runs a 392 Hemi under the hood, but the engine is only part of the story once you see what AceWhips.NET’s cameras found sitting on 32-inch Amani wheels and floaters. This build has little interest in blending in, and that is exactly the point. Watch to see the reaction it is built to get.
Back in 1977, a 15-year-old Larry F. embarked on his automotive journey with a $400 purchase of a 1970 Pontiac GTO. Despite needing a bit of love, it roared to life and even survived a Cardinal red makeover. Fast forward to a heartbreaking day in a GTO junkyard, where Larry and his son stumbled upon the skeletal remains of his beloved car. Missing its bumpers, engine, and more, it was a sad sight. Larry joked about almost shedding tears, with his son confirming, “I thought you were going to cry too.”
Buick’s turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 looked like it had run out of road when the Regal went front-wheel drive in 1988, cutting off the platform that made it famous. But the engine got one final assignment for 1989, landing under the hood of a very different GM nameplate for its last hurrah. OldCarMemories.com’s four-part documentary series closes out the full story. Watch to see where this engine ended up.