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Dodge did not set out to build a legend with the Charger, it set out to answer the Mustang. Putting that pony car idea on a bigger intermediate platform produced something the Mustang could never be: a full-size fastback with room for the biggest engines Chrysler made. It took a false start, a redesign, a movie chase scene, and a NASCAR aero war to get there. Read on for how the Charger earned its reputation the hard way.
A 1967 Chevrolet Impala sat untouched for thirty-three years before anyone dared turn the key again — and when it finally caught, it sounded less like a car and more like something waking up angry. Viewers have compared the ragged idle to everything from a sputtering biplane to Stephen King’s Christine clearing her throat. Watch to hear exactly what three decades of silence sounds like breaking.
Every 1967 Chevelle SS396 left the factory with a big block, but only 612 of them carried the L78, a 375-horsepower engine that was not even available when the model year started. Out of roughly 63,000 SS396s built that year, that is a survival rate that makes documented cars extraordinarily valuable. Read on to find out what separates a genuine L78 from a very well-dressed clone.
Ford built the Mach 1 to be the Mustang that did not need to shout, and buyers responded by making it nearly a quarter of all 1969 Mustang production on its first try. The matte-black hood, the pin tiedowns, and the four headlights were only the surface. What sat behind that scoop, and how conservatively Ford chose to rate it, is where the story gets interesting. Read on for the year Mach 1 became its own thing.
A green Chevelle had barely rolled off the show field before its driver decided to give the crowd one more moment to remember. Seconds later, a mistimed stab of the throttle mid-turn sent the car sideways and into a roadside ditch in front of hundreds of phones. More than two million views and over a decade later, it’s still one of the internet’s favorite reminders of what happens when a muscle car’s power outruns its driver’s patience.
This 1968 Buick Skylark runs an 11-second quarter mile thanks to a stall converter and valve train work — but the real story showed up in the comments, where a man claiming to be the car’s first owner describes getting it from his parents in 1975, catching air on gravel roads, and sliding it into an impossibly tight parking spot while showing off for a girl he later married. It is a joyride video that accidentally became a decades-long love story. Watch the full clip and read the comment for yourself.
Auto Archaeology returns to a hidden Mopar collection split between an abandoned auto parts showroom and a barn buried into a hillside — a find significant enough that Hot Rod magazine covered it separately. One commenter adds real depth on Chrysler’s High-Impact color program, explaining how Plymouth’s Moulin Rouge, In Violet, and Vitamin C matched Dodge’s differently-named Panther Pink, Plum Crazy Purple, and Go Mango. See what else the second visit uncovers.
Garage 54’s mechanics have built a channel out of answering questions nobody else bothers to ask, and this time the question was whether a torn tire could survive a full concrete pour instead of compressed air. The build gets messy fast, the shop cat makes an appearance, and the result says more about unsprung weight and tire engineering than most people expect from a shop-floor experiment. Watch to see exactly how the concrete held up once the wheel actually had to roll.
Nick’s Garage rebuilds the 440 big-block pulled from a rare 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T convertible, reassembling it piece by piece before pushing it to redline on the dyno. Comments praise the channel for teaching the process rather than just showing results — one viewer even shares finishing their own 440 stroked to 506 cubic inches. Watch to see whether the rebuild holds up under full load.
This video ranks five of the greatest V8 engines from the golden era of American muscle cars, opening with a key distinction: the 426 Street Hemi’s factory-warrantied 10.25:1 compression versus its race-only cousin. One commenter adds real-world proof of the era’s staying power — a 1970 Mustang Mach I he’s owned since 1977, now making 425 horsepower after a 351 Cleveland rebuild. See which five engines made the list.
Roadkill’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan take delivery of a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower Charger Hellcat, and a 645-horsepower Viper GT straight from Dodge, then head for a motocross track with zero regard for what any of these cars were actually built to do. With guest appearances from Motor Trend, Dirt Every Day, and a professional drifter, this episode marked the start of Dodge’s sponsorship — and it shows exactly why the partnership worked. Watch to see 2,059 combined horsepower meet terrain built for dirt bikes.
Mercury had a problem in 1968: everybody thought the Cougar was a Mustang for people who wanted leather seats and a quieter ride. The Eliminator was the answer, and it was not subtle. Competition colors, a blacked-out grille, a rear spoiler, and an engine list running from a Boss 302 to a pair of 428 Cobra Jets. Mercury built it for only two model years and roughly 4,500 total. Read on for the Trans-Am racer Mercury almost did not build.
1971 does not get talked about much in El Camino circles, and there is a reason. New emissions rules forced compression down across GM’s entire engine lineup, and the car-truck hybrid felt the squeeze for the first time. But the 454 was still on the order sheet, the SS package still meant something, and a big-block 1971 remains a narrow window into the last real muscle-era El Caminos. Read on for what was still worth ordering.
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.
The car everyone calls General Lee was never one car. It was a small army of 1969 Dodge Chargers, and most of them did not survive the job. Across 147 episodes, producers reportedly went through roughly 300 of them, scouting from the air and buying out of parking lots faster than the used car market could supply them. Only 18 were left on the lot when the show wrapped. Read on for the most destructive relationship between a TV show and a car in Hollywood history.