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In June 1976, cruising Gratiot Avenue, I was sure my beefed-up ’67 Barracuda was unbeatable—until a Pontiac 2+2 convertible rolled up. With a 421 tri-power engine, it left me red-faced and $50 lighter. This rare beast, a big brother to the GTO, packed 376 HP and 461 ft. lbs. of torque. Though never hitting GTO sales, it wowed with dual exhausts and heavy-duty springs. The 2+2 even tried a comeback in ’86, but like my race victory that day, it was short-lived!
A lime-green Cougar so radically reworked that showgoers assumed it was a new model altogether — that was Mercury’s 1970 El Gato concept, unveiled at back-to-back auto shows before vanishing for good. It borrowed its fastback roofline from a Mustang, swapped its back seat for a European-style cargo shelf, and tested run-flat tire technology that failed spectacularly. Ford’s standard practice of destroying show cars means no one has documented seeing it since 1970. Here’s the story behind Mercury’s strangest concept car.
The Hummer H2 promised military toughness but delivered a badge-heavy SUV built on the same bones as a Chevy Tahoe. Doug DeMuro isn’t the only reviewer who’s called it out for cheap interior plastics, poor visibility, and gas mileage that barely breaks double digits. Two decades later, though, the H2 has quietly become a favorite among off-road builders and collectors who don’t mind the ridicule. Is today’s punchline tomorrow’s icon?
Owner Jesse Matlock named his 1971 Plymouth Cuda “Striker” because it was the first car to strike this set of custom details, and the number behind that claim is staggering: roughly 7,000 hours, or three and a half years of work. Captured on My Car Story with Lou Costabile at the World of Wheels show, it is one man’s answer to how far a Cuda can be pushed. Listen to it run.
Jay Leno has seen everything, so when he gets excited about an AMC Javelin, you pay attention. This 1972 underdog is a Ringbrothers restomod built for Prestone, and it hides a jaw-dropping secret: an 1,100-horsepower Hellcat engine fed by a 4.5-liter Whipple supercharger. It is a forgotten AMC turned into a supercar killer. Watch to see why over a million people tuned in to Leno’s garage.
A 1979 Pontiac Trans Am arrived at V8 Speed and Resto with a firewall full of rust and factory flaws, and the team refused to settle for a patch. Instead they fabricate a custom panel from 20-gauge steel using a bead roller and a Pullmax, turning a hidden repair into a genuine showpiece. It is a masterclass in shaping metal the right way. Watch to see raw steel become art under the hood.
An 11-alarm fire tore through a 530-foot warehouse at Country Classic Cars in Staunton, Illinois, destroying 143 vehicles including one-of-a-kind Hemi Road Runners, Chevelles, and Camaros. Investigators traced the blaze to one of five cars in the building’s center but never confirmed a cause. Here’s what happened, and what was lost, the night one of Route 66’s best-known classic car dealerships caught fire.
This restored 1966 Chevelle SS looks period-correct on the outside, but its 565 cubic inch supercharged V8 making roughly 750 horsepower has nothing to do with the factory 396 options Chevrolet actually offered that year. Even the rarest original engine, the 375-horsepower L78, doesn’t come close. Here’s how this build compares to what left the factory floor.
At Nick’s Garage, the dyno room is where every build finally tells the truth — but this time the dyno itself breaks down, and the whole shop grinds to a halt. Waiting in the wings is a freshly restored 1967 Plymouth GTX packing a 440 big block that needs to be tested and tuned. Can Nick and the crew get the equipment running before the star of the show gets its moment? Find out whether the GTX makes the numbers it was built for.
A classic Chevrolet Chevelle idles with a sound no small block ever made — a low, diesel clatter where a rumbling V8 should be. Someone dropped a GM Duramax turbodiesel between the fenders of a car built for gasoline and tire smoke, and the result is one of the more unexpected builds in the muscle car world. It shouldn’t work, and yet the torque figures make a compelling argument. Find out why a diesel Chevelle turns so many heads.
A Panther Pink 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A rolls onto the dyno at a Mopar show in Farmington, Minnesota, and the crowd stops talking. The color says toy store; the sound coming off the rollers says something else entirely. This is a homologation-bred street brawler wearing one of Detroit’s most disarming paint codes, and the readout everyone leaned in to see tells the real story. Find out what a car this pink is actually hiding.
In 2017, Ford let fans vote piece by piece to build their own dream prize — a location, a performance vehicle, and a NASCAR driver, all combined into one giveaway. The winning combination paired a Shelby GT350 Mustang with NASCAR driver Danica Patrick at Ford Performance Racing School. The sweepstakes has long since closed, but it’s a good look back at how far Ford went to keep fans voting.
It looks like a clean 1969 Mustang Fastback, but almost nothing on this car is what it seems. Built by Schwartz Performance as a Raybestos Brakes sweepstakes giveaway for the 2016 SEMA Show, it took roughly 1,400 hours to turn a rust-free California donor into vintage sheetmetal over fully modern underpinnings. On My Car Story, Jeff Schwartz walks through the build and fires it up. Watch to hear this restomod Mustang start for the first time.
