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A 1969 Dodge Daytona spent nine years sitting in a Kansas City junkyard, one of roughly fifty impounded cars slowly waiting their turn at the crusher after a used-car dealer’s title fraud scheme collapsed. One collector’s memory of a Richard Petty magazine ad is the only reason it still exists, and the deal he struck to save it was stranger than most restoration stories get. Read on for how it ended up winning a Concours Gold award decades later.
Pontiac built the first-generation Firebird for only three model years, from 1967 to 1969, before a full redesign — and each year left its own visual clues behind. The 1969 model brought the biggest changes of the run: a longer, wider body and a distinctive one-piece Lexan front bumper-grille, along with the mid-year debut of the Trans Am package. Spotting which year a given Firebird belongs to often comes down to details as small as the grille shape and bumper design.
MotorTrend’s Generation Gap pits a numbers-matching 1968 Pontiac Firebird against a 2010 Lingenfelter-built Trans Am tribute making more than double the horsepower. The spec sheet says it isn’t close — 320 horsepower against 655 — but the comments turned into a real argument about authenticity versus raw performance. Watch to see which Firebird wins, and decide for yourself whether horsepower settles it.
V8TV built Episode 230 of Muscle Car of the Week as a tribute to the Chevrolet Camaro’s 50th anniversary, narrowing five decades of history down to five cars from The Brothers Collection. Viewers pushed back hard, defending the DZ302-powered Z/28 and pointing out the missing Baldwin-Motion and COPO cars. Watch the list and weigh in on which Camaro deserved a spot.
Fewer than fifty 1969 Pontiac GTOs left the factory with the Ram Air IV V8, a four-speed manual, and a convertible body all at once. This green survivor from The Brothers Collection went through a full restoration before its debut at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago — and one commenter claims a famous rock drummer once owned it. Watch the reveal and judge the rock crusher four-speed for yourself.
Before it ever appeared on screen, “Maximus” was already one of the most ambitious Mopar builds anywhere — a 1968 Dodge Charger built by Tom Nelson of Nelson Racing Engines, discovered by a film crew at the SEMA trade show. Over 2,000 hours of bodywork and roughly 2,000 horsepower later, it closed out Fast & Furious 7 by recreating a scene from the franchise’s original 2001 film.
Nearly 1.3 million views, zero narration, and a comment section that has spent over a decade arguing about what got left out — that’s the strange staying power of this ’20 Best Muscle Cars’ compilation. Viewers have nominated everything from the Plymouth Superbird to a 1969 AMX still parked in someone’s driveway as glaring omissions. Watch the list and see if your own pick made the cut.
Jesse Matlock has owned this 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda since 2010, but it took roughly 7,000 hours — about three and a half years of build time — to turn it into the car he calls ‘Striker.’ Lou Costabile caught up with Matlock at the World of Wheels Car Show in Rosemont, Illinois to hear the story behind the paint, the fabrication, and the name. Watch to see what earns a restomod the title of baddest Cuda on the planet.
This 1970 Plymouth Road Runner convertible was special-ordered new by the current owner’s father, sold decades ago, and lost to the family entirely — until his son tracked it down and bought it back. Auto Archaeology brought it straight to the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals 2017 Barn Finds display, dust and all. Watch to hear the full story behind why it earned the nickname “Holy Grail.”
Two Hemi-badged muscle cars, side by side, and no caption to settle the argument. Whichever specific models these are, that small emblem alone guarantees a debate, the 426 Hemi was rated at 425 horsepower when it reached showrooms in 1966, a figure most enthusiasts still consider conservative. It is proof that in the Mopar world, the badge can matter as much as the car wearing it.
This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am rolled into V8 Speed & Resto Shop running like anything but a bird of fire — and rolled out with a FAST EZ-EFI fuel injection system, a 2004R overdrive transmission, and a COMP Cams roller valvetrain under its Pontiac 400. The upgrades are the kind Pontiac purists argue about for hours. See exactly what changed and why the team made each call.
A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback built in the image of Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds should be judged on its widebody kit and hood pins. Instead, nearly every comment on this Mainly Musclecars build is about one thing, the paint. Watch to see the color that convinced longtime Mustang fans, and at least one skeptical spouse, that this Eleanor tribute finally got it right.
This 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 sat dormant for decades under a barn tarp before its rare four-speed manual and 428 FE big block finally roared back to life. Full-size Fords like this one quietly offered serious performance alongside the more famous Mustangs and Torinos of the era. Watch the careful, methodical process behind waking up a big block that hadn’t run in a generation.
Two Dodge Challengers, a 1971 and a 1973, line up on a public street in Lebanon for a race that surprised viewers who never expected E-body Mopars outside Europe. A lime-green car’s Brazilian flag hides a personal family story, and the uploader has strong words for anyone who underestimates American muscle. What actually happens when these two launch?
A supercharged LSX-swapped Chevelle lines up against a supercharged WS6 Trans Am at a BAR Shootout event, pitting a modernized classic against GM’s own factory-performance answer from the LS1 era. TheBayAreaRacing caught the pass, and the matchup says a lot about how two very different approaches to Chevrolet performance stack up on the same stretch of pavement. Watch to see which philosophy wins.