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Pontiac rushed its answer to the Ford Mustang into showrooms in barely six months, borrowing GM’s F-body platform and grafting on a face unlike anything else on the road. Buyers could order this first-generation Firebird with four completely different engines, from a mild six-cylinder to a 325-horsepower V8 borrowed from the GTO. Fewer than three years later, the rarest versions were already becoming collector gold.
Anyone can name the Mustang, the Charger, and the Chevelle, but the muscle era was full of hot machines that sold in small numbers and then vanished from memory. This countdown from Car News TV hunts down seven forgotten performers, presented with no voiceover so the engines speak for themselves. How many can you name before they appear on screen? Test your knowledge and meet the cars history overlooked.
A muscle car engine bay does not need a collision to end in flames, just fifty-year-old wiring, a weeping fuel line, and enough heat to bring them together. This piece looks at why classic-car fires happen, from brittle insulation hiding bare copper to fuel lines nobody thought to replace. It is the kind of failure that gives almost no warning, which is exactly why it is worth understanding before it happens to you.
Seven curious facts about Dodge, and exactly one of them is a deliberate lie planted to test you. From the 1968 Charger’s “Coke bottle” styling to the Viper’s Lamborghini-influenced V10 and the Dodge brothers’ tangled history with Henry Ford, every claim sounds just true enough and just strange enough to fool you. Can you spot the fake before the reveal? Lock in your guess and find out.
This 1967 Chevrolet Camaro carries a detail that shouldn’t exist on paper: a 472-cubic-inch V8, a displacement Chevrolet never offered in any Camaro. The explanation is a later engine swap borrowing from Cadillac’s big-block lineup — a popular resto-mod move for builders chasing torque numbers the factory options sheet never allowed. Here’s how a Cadillac engine ends up under a Camaro’s hood.
A motor oil designed to last a full year or twenty thousand miles sounds like marketing fantasy to anyone raised on the three-thousand-mile oil change. So Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained spent two days inside Mobil 1’s New Jersey testing facility to find out whether that claim can actually be proven. What he documents is less a sales pitch than a rare look at the science behind every bottle you buy. See how the number holds up.
This Tiger Gold 1965 Pontiac GTO is widely credited as the car that launched the muscle car era, yet its story is stranger and richer than the legend suggests. With a 389 V8, a close-ratio four-speed, and a paint color pulled straight from Pontiac’s wildest ad campaign, it is rare without being untouchable. The V8TV crew breaks down exactly why this one deserves a closer look. See what the details reveal.
This review of the 2018 Camaro ZL1 comes from a driver who has owned both a Hellcat and a Camaro SS 1LE, so he knows overwhelming power and sharp handling in his bones. The ZL1 packs a supercharged 650-horsepower LT4 V8, the same basic engine as the Corvette Z06, in a chassis that runs with far pricier machinery. He calls it the almost perfect car, and the whole review lives in that word. Watch to find out what the almost really means.
That satisfied grin after finishing a repair yourself instead of paying a shop isn’t just about pride — a recent survey found a third of DIYers save more than $1,000 a year on maintenance alone. For classic muscle car owners dealing with scarce parts and premium labor rates, the savings run even deeper. Here are the jobs worth tackling in the driveway, and the classic-car-specific habits that keep a numbers-matching engine healthy.
The drag racing footage that still circulates online today traces back to a genuine arms race between Detroit automakers in the late 1960s. Manufacturers weren’t just selling fast cars — they were building machines engineered to win on the strip and still function as daily transportation. That rivalry produced icons like the Dodge Charger R/T and Chevelle SS 454, and legends like Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney. Here’s how the golden era of muscle car drag racing actually came together, and why it ended so fast.
Before it became a footnote in “hot or not” debates, the Mercury Cougar beat every other 1967 Detroit product to the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. Built on a name originally floated for the Mustang, it stretched that platform three inches longer and dressed it in a genuinely upscale cabin. Engine options topped out with a 320-horsepower 390 V8. Here’s what made this pony car different from the one it was compared to constantly.
This week’s mystery car traces back to a Chevrolet compact that quietly became one of the best big-block sleepers of its era. Once the second-generation Nova borrowed its platform from the Camaro, a 396-cubic-inch V8 became available — and Chevrolet never even advertised it. Only 7,209 SS 396 Novas were built that model year. There’s also a wrinkle in this particular car’s body style worth a second look.
Muscle car owners joke about it, but the math behind a full restoration is no laughing matter. Between labor rates that average $125 an hour, parts bills that can top $10,000, and paint jobs running into five figures, a frame-off build can quietly climb past $100,000. The single biggest budget-buster is usually the one nobody sees coming: rust hidden beneath the surface. Here’s where the real money actually goes.
Hennessey Performance took a 6.2-liter Cadillac Escalade, added a supercharger, and turned a three-ton luxury SUV into an 800-horsepower drag machine. Then they lined it up against a stock 2018 Camaro ZL1 and its 650-horsepower supercharged LT4 V8. It becomes a pure power-to-weight battle: the Escalade has the bigger number but far more mass to drag down the strip. Watch to see whether Detroit’s most serious muscle car can hold off a supercharged land yacht.
The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE starts with a supercharged 650-horsepower LT4 V8, but power was never the ZL1’s problem. The 1LE package adds motorsport-grade Multimatic DSSV dampers, adjustable suspension, sticky Goodyear rubber, and serious aero to turn brute force into genuine precision. MotorWeek puts it to the test around the fast turns of Roebling Road Raceway, and the verdict is blunt: simply the best Camaro yet. Watch to see American muscle finally conquer the road course.