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The 1963 Chevy II Nova SS convertible carried Chevrolet’s sportiest badge and bucket seats, floor shifter, and unique trim — but not a single extra horsepower, since the only engine offered that year was a 120-hp inline six. Chevrolet dropped the convertible body from the Nova SS lineup the very next year, making 1963 the only season you could get one with the top down. It’s a rare, six-cylinder oddity hiding behind a performance badge.
Ford’s 221-cubic-inch flathead V8 earned a nickname simply from its horsepower rating: enthusiasts still call it “the 85 horse” engine decades later, even though output actually varied across its production run. This restored 1938 Deluxe, shown here courtesy of Gateway Classic Cars, represents a quiet but important midpoint in that engine’s development, right before a bigger redesign arrived later that year.
1974 marked the final year Plymouth built the Road Runner on its original mid-size platform, with engine options still ranging from a mild 318 up to a 440 big block wearing GTX badges. Production had fallen to 11,555 cars, down from 19,056 the year before, as the muscle car era wound down. The Road Runner nameplate held on one more year on the larger Fury-based B-body before being reduced to a Volare trim package in 1976.
This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee carries the rare A12 package, a 463-dollar option that swapped in a 440-cubic-inch V8 wearing three two-barrel carburetors for one strange mid-year run. Only 1,907 were built before Dodge moved on. Stock, these cars ran mid-13-second quarter miles, embarrassing plenty of pricier machinery on the strip.
This 1965 Corvette Sting Ray carries the standard 327 V8 and 4-speed manual, not the ultra-rare fuel-injected version Chevrolet also offered that year for $538. With only 771 fuelie cars built before the option quietly disappeared, most 1965 buyers picked exactly the setup shown here. It turned out to be the smarter choice for reasons Chevrolet is own big-block engine would soon prove.
Oldsmobile never built a 383-cubic-inch engine in 1971 – the factory topped out at 455 cubic inches for the 442, the last year it existed as its own model. This Cutlass instead runs a custom stroker build paired with a 4-speed automatic, restored on camera for the Car Warriors reality series. It’s a reminder that some of the most interesting muscle car builds are the ones that ignore the original spec sheet entirely.
Chevrolet’s 1965 Z16 option packed a 396-cubic-inch, 375-horsepower big-block into the Malibu SS body years before a proper big-block platform existed for it. The package included a heavy-duty chassis, reinforced frame, and a Muncie four-speed – no automatic was offered. At nearly 60 percent of a base Malibu’s price, the option itself scared off most buyers before scarcity ever entered the picture.
This 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air represents the middle year of the legendary tri-five run, powered by the 265 cubic-inch V8 that Chevrolet refined with an integral oil filter for ’56. Depending on carburetion, that engine ranged from a mild 162 horsepower up to a genuinely quick 240-horsepower dual-quad setup capable of a 16.3-second quarter mile. Chevrolet built nearly 700,000 Bel Airs that year alone.
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.