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Buick’s 1957 Roadmaster 75 wasn’t even a full-year model — it arrived mid-cycle in March, fully loaded, riding on a freshly enlarged 364-cubic-inch Nailhead V8. Only 12,250 were built, and just 28 remain registered with the Buick Club of America today. Here’s what made this mid-year Roadmaster stand out. Well-preserved survivors like this one are becoming exceptionally hard to find.
This 1948 Chevrolet sedan left the factory with a 216-cubic-inch six and a three-speed gearbox built for practicality. Decades later, someone dropped in a 454-cubic-inch V8 and a 4-speed, turning a postwar family car into a genuine sleeper. The transformation raises the obvious question: how much else got upgraded along the way?
Bill Devin started out racing a modified Crosley on a car salesman’s budget — then built a modular fiberglass body mold nobody else in the industry had figured out. By 1958, his shop was shipping nearly 100 body shells a week worldwide. This particular roadster is one of only 16 built to this exact spec, running a 283 Corvette V8.
Chevrolet’s brand-new 1966 Caprice was built for comfort, not speed — until you check the option sheet. Buried at the top sat the RPO L72, a 425-horsepower 427 big block that Chevrolet installed in just 1,856 full-size cars that year. This particular Caprice carries that rare combination under its luxury trim. It’s an odd, rare pairing that still turns heads wherever it shows up today.
The AC Cobra didn’t start out as the V8 icon everyone remembers — Carroll Shelby had to rip out its underpowered straight-six and drop in a Ford V8 to make the legend happen. Only 998 originals were ever built. This modern replica carries the same shape forward in carbon fiber over a tubular steel frame, shedding weight the original engineers never could.
The 1966 Jaguar E-Type’s biggest upgrade wasn’t more horsepower, it was everything Jaguar fixed around the engine. A larger 4.2-liter inline six gained real mid-range torque, a fully synchronized gearbox erased the old car’s notoriously balky first gear, and a modernized electrical system made the E-Type as usable as it was beautiful. These photos, courtesy of Gateway Classic Cars, showcase a Series 1 example from the era widely considered the E-Type’s mechanical sweet spot.
LaSalle spent thirteen years as Cadillac’s stylish, budget-friendly companion make, only to be discontinued in 1940 at nearly the peak of its popularity. This surviving 1940 example rides on a modern V8 and automatic transmission far removed from its original L-head engine and manual gearbox. Its final year of production still puzzles collectors who wonder why GM walked away from a car selling so well.
The 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-4-2 arrived just as the muscle car era was winding down, wearing a badge built on 1960s bravado but backed by a 455 V8 rated at a modest 190 horsepower. Buyers could even order the package with a six-cylinder engine, something unthinkable a decade earlier. These photos from Gateway Classic Cars capture a transitional Cutlass caught between its muscle-car past and Detroit’s new economy-first priorities.
The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 launched with a waiting list before most buyers ever sat in one, thanks to a shortened LC platform, a numbered dash plaque, and a 425-horsepower Hemi under the hood. Riding on the same bones as the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger, it kept the long-hood look that made the original Challenger famous. Only 6,400 were built for the U.S. market, and nearly every one sold above sticker.
The 1964 Ford Falcon debuted a squarer, more mature restyle and a genuine performance option in the Sprint package, built around the Fairlane’s 260 V8. Few buyers realized this unassuming compact supplied the unitized chassis, suspension, and drivetrain components that became the foundation of the Mustang. Interchangeable parts made the Falcon easy to keep on the road, but harder to keep in Ford’s spotlight.
This 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk carries a four-barrel 289 V8 and a 3-speed Flight-O-Matic automatic, but Studebaker actually offered the engine in four different states of tune that year, including a supercharged version most fans have never heard of. Built during the company’s final years of U.S. passenger car production, every surviving GT Hawk is a piece of automotive history. Here’s what made this compact grand tourer more interesting than it looks.
A year after landing in receivership, Studebaker didn’t retreat — it redesigned its entire lineup and bet the company’s recovery on it. The 1934 Commander Regal arrived with an engineer-driven inline-eight and two features years ahead of their time, and sales more than doubled overnight. Here’s how a company on the brink turned one model year into a genuine comeback.
When Studebaker’s finances turned dire in the mid-1950s, the company didn’t try to out-glitz Detroit — it stripped a car down to the bone and bet on budget-minded buyers instead. The gamble worked better than anyone predicted, with the bare-bones Scotsman eventually outselling Studebaker’s own upscale models combined. Here’s the story behind the six-cylinder machine that briefly saved the independent automaker.
