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An orange classic sits on a Midwest showroom floor hiding something the era it was built in never offered: a modern 6.1-liter HEMI under the hood. First developed for the Chrysler 300C and Dodge Challenger SRT8, the engine has become a favorite swap for restomod builders chasing usable power without sacrificing the classic look or the price of a real SRT Demon. Here’s why this particular combination keeps showing up on dealer lots.
Enthusiasts wear the word on hats and tattoo it on their arms, but ask them what “Mopar” actually means and most start guessing. Regular Car Reviews sets out to close that gap with its signature blend of real history and deadpan humor. The origin is older and more literal than fans expect, tracing Chrysler’s arc from a maker of canned antifreeze to a full-blown performance icon. Watch and finally learn what you’ve been shouting all along.
V8TV’s Muscle Car Of The Week puts the spotlight on a 1968 Plymouth GTX convertible hiding the most feared engine of the era beneath its hood: the legendary 426 HEMI. Built as a luxurious answer to the stripped-down muscle formula, an open-top HEMI GTX sits at the very pinnacle of Mopar desirability. Plymouth made only a tiny handful, making survivors among the rarest cars in existence. See why this NASCAR-bred elephant motor still commands staggering respect.
Nick Panaritis finally found the 1970 Challenger he wanted for his freshly rebuilt 426 HEMI, but there’s a catch: the car turned out to be a genuine, rare Challenger T/A. Now he faces a decision that splits the Mopar world in two. Does he preserve an original piece of Trans-Am racing history, or build the one-of-none HEMI brawler he’s always dreamed about? Nick’s Garage puts the question straight to the audience, and the answer is anything but obvious.
Behind a locked gate in Virginia’s Northern Neck sits a private hoard of muscle cars left to age in the weeds, documented over one Thanksgiving weekend on the condition that the location stay secret. Chargers, Chevelles, and Mustangs rest exactly where they were parked decades ago, each one a project someone meant to finish. The cars are not for sale, which turns a treasure hunt into a meditation on decay and preservation. Watch a stash the outside world was never meant to see.
These three overlooked muscle cars all earned obscurity in different ways, from a Hemi Dart built purely for the drag strip to a Rebel Machine unveiled at NHRA’s biggest stage. The Hemi Dart’s 426 engine ran quarter-mile times in the nine-second range not long after leaving the factory, numbers that still hold up decades later. AMC’s Machine countered with a standard 340-horsepower V8 built for straight-line bragging rights of its own. Here’s what made each of these forgotten muscle cars worth a second look.
Meet Alf and his stunning 1965 Chevy II Nova SS, a true muscle car prowling the streets of Adelaide, Australia. Imported in 2008, this beauty flaunts its original California plates and showroom condition, thanks to Alf’s meticulous care. With a 283 engine and two-speed PowerGlide transmission, it’s nearly original—except for the cheeky Flowmaster mufflers for extra oomph. Alf even ditched the dealer-installed AC for authenticity, a decision he might sweat over during summer cruises!
Pontiac named this GTO trim after a running gag from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, then built it tough enough to make the joke stick. The Judge launched in January 1969 as a direct answer to the Plymouth Road Runner, standard with a 366-horsepower Ram Air III V8 and an optional Ram Air IV that pushed things further. Only 6,833 Judges were built that year, and the rarest Ram Air IV versions numbered under 300. Here’s how to tell which engine — and which era of Pontiac’s horsepower war — this particular Judge represents.
A rare 1968 Hemi Road Runner lines up against an even rarer 1970 Hemi Cuda, both packing Chrysler’s legendary 426 Hemi with dual four-barrels and a bulletproof TorqueFlite automatic. With identical engines, the quarter-mile becomes a pure test of everything else, and Road Test TV captures the “Elephant Stampede” in full. It is a Mopar debate more than fifty years in the making, settled one pass at a time. Watch to see which legend gets to the finish line first.
A 1970 Chevelle SS454 wrapped in factory Fathom Blue is muscle car shorthand for the absolute peak of the era, and this one has the presence to prove it. Nineteen-seventy was the year Chevrolet finally unleashed the 454 big-block in the Chevelle, in LS6 form good for a fearsome 450 horsepower. Bold paint, cowl-induction hood, and twin stripes complete one of the most coveted shapes in American performance. Watch a genuine icon of the golden age up close.
A genuine big-block first-generation Camaro hides most of its proof away from the parts people usually check first. Chevrolet’s engineers left tells in the heater box hose routing, the off-center engine placement, and even a hole in the firewall meant for a specific transmission. Small-block clones dressed up with the right badges have fooled buyers for decades. Here’s how to actually verify what’s under a first-gen Camaro’s hood before taking the seller’s word for it.
This 1970 Plymouth Superbird is not a tribute or a clone, it is the actual number 43 that Richard Petty drove and raced in NASCAR, now housed at the Richard Petty Museum. Filmed by Lou Costabile at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, the walkaround gets its story straight from Larry Laney, who has cared for Petty’s cars for twenty years. It is a genuine piece of aero-warrior history from the era of the winged Mopars. Watch to hear the details only an insider knows.
An orange first-gen Chevy Nova charges down the pit road at Kansas Speedway during the WYCO Racing “Operation Octane” no-prep event and promptly tries to swap ends in a full 360 spin. With the wall waiting and the tires gone loose, the driver makes a split-second call that turns a near-disaster into a highlight. It is no-prep racing at its most nerve-wracking, where car control matters as much as power. Watch to see how he saves it.