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Buried in the caption of a classic car-show photo is a number that means something very specific to Mopar people: 340. It’s the displacement, in cubic inches, of one of the most respected small-block V8s Chrysler ever built, one that punched well above its weight class against bigger factory rivals. Here’s what actually made that small-block worth remembering.
A 1968 Pontiac Firebird convertible and a 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda both wear the muscle car label, but they represent almost opposite bets, one built for volume, the other for almost none at all. Only 114 Hemi Cudas were built in 1971, seven of them convertibles, and that scarcity now commands multi-million-dollar auction prices. Here is how these two cars compare, and why rarity ended up mattering more than raw performance.
A woman in a red dress leans against a turquoise Dodge Charger in this decades-old photo, but the real question isn’t who’s more photogenic — it’s what’s hiding under that long fastback hood. Chargers wearing the R/T badge left the factory with a big-block or Hemi, no exceptions, and the top-dog 440 Magnum cars threw down 375 horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque. That’s a lot more interesting than a caption contest.
This 1968 lineup photo puts three very different Dodges side by side: the lightweight Dart GTS, the full-size Coronet R/T, and the radically styled Charger R/T. Each one represented a different bet on what muscle car buyers wanted that year, light weight and agility, big-block brute force, or head-turning design. The Coronet R/T’s Hemi option was built in numbers so small that survivors are among the rarest Mopars around today. Which one would you have driven off the lot in 1968?
Plymouth only built the ‘Cuda with quad headlights, fender gills, and six round taillights for a single model year — and then never touched that look again. Compare it to the cleaner 1970 face it replaced and you’ll understand why E-body fans still argue over which year actually nailed the look. One thing both years agree on: neither one apologizes for being a muscle car.
A single red convertible on a showroom floor kicked off one of Detroit’s fiercest rivalries — and the car everyone assumes won wasn’t the one that actually won in 1955. Ford’s Thunderbird and Chevy’s Corvette arrived within a year of each other, aimed at the same buyer, but built on opposite ideas of what a “sports car” should be. One offered two-seat purity; the other offered a V8, power windows, and comfort. The sales gap between them that year still stuns people who assume the Corvette always ruled.
Dodge’s High Impact color palette hit showrooms in the summer of 1969, and Hemi Orange became the color everyone remembers, whether you call it orange or something closer to red depending on the light. This head-to-head pits that factory boldness against the opposite approach, a blacked-out Charger built to let its fastback lines do the talking instead. Both looks came out of the same wild era of Mopar styling. Only one of them is genuinely rare enough to command real money today.
The Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Challenger shared the same E-body platform, the same engine lineup up through the 426 Hemi, and the same fate when EPA and insurance rules ended the big-block era in 1974. What set them apart was never under the hood – it was two inches of wheelbase, a different grille, and which showroom you happened to walk into. Which one is the better muscle car has been a real argument in this community for over 50 years now.
A red Plymouth Belvedere and a silver Pontiac Grand Prix face off in this shot, representing two completely different takes on 1965 performance — one a street-brawler mid-size that could be ordered with a 365-horsepower 426, the other a personal luxury coupe riding high off Pontiac’s Car of the Year sweep. Which one you’d have picked in period probably says a lot about whether you wanted raw displacement or chrome-trimmed comfort. Here’s how the Belvedere and Grand Prix actually stack up, spec for spec.
Two Chevelle SS builds, one in red and one in blue, are parked side by side — and muscle car fans have been arguing over paint colors like this since the SS badge debuted in 1966. Both cars wear the aggressive stance that made the Chevelle SS one of GM’s most collectible muscle cars, backed by the big-block engines — from the 396 to the legendary LS6 454 — that built the SS reputation in the first place.
Ford’s Mustang sold over 400,000 units in its first year and practically invented a category by accident. Chevrolet answered with the Camaro in 1967, and Dodge joined the fight in 1970 with the Challenger, setting up a three-way rivalry that played out on showroom floors and Trans-Am tracks alike. Here’s how one company’s runaway hit turned into the most famous three-way fight in American muscle car history.
A 1968 Pontiac Firebird convertible and a 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible both wear the muscle car convertible badge, but that’s about where the similarities end. One rolled off the line by the thousands with a menu of strong V8 options; the other was built in numbers so small that most Mopar dealers never saw one. Compare their production runs and you’ll understand instantly why one sells as a great weekend driver and the other sells as a multi-million-dollar unicorn.
Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro — it’s the question that’s split muscle car fans since Chevrolet built the Camaro in 1966 for one reason: to dethrone the Mustang. What followed was a decades-long arms race of big-block engines, homologation specials, and Trans-Am glory that neither side ever really won outright. Six decades later, the argument hasn’t cooled off one degree, and pulling up next to either one still means somebody’s about to make their case.
Before Buick ever got its hands on it, this design was turned down by both Cadillac and Chevrolet, two divisions that supposedly had the flashier reputations. What Buick built instead became one of GM’s most quietly potent personal luxury cars, eventually packing a 455-cid V8 good for over 500 lb-ft of torque. Why did the flashier divisions walk away from a shape this bold, and how did a Buick end up out-muscling cars it was never supposed to compete with?
Two rival muscle cars, one shared problem — by 1973 the engines that made both of these nameplates famous were already gone or gutted by emissions rules. Dodge’s Challenger walked into the model year with no big block option left at all, while Chevrolet’s Camaro found a quieter way to keep some performance alive. Neither one wins a drag race against its late-’60s ancestor, but both tell the real story of how the muscle car era actually ended.