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If You Like Cats,The 1970 Mercury El Gato Concept Car Is For You!

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.

Shiny vintage red convertible car with yellow interior.

Ford Roadster restomod 1934 images

by Ross Mills

Ford’s 1934 Model 40 was cheap, practical transportation for a country climbing out of the Depression — not a performance car. Somehow it became the chassis hot rodders have chased for nearly a century. This burnt-orange build trades the original flathead V8 for a 350 small-block, air suspension, and a fully custom leather interior while keeping the shape that started it all. Here’s why this humble Ford still turns heads at every show it enters.

Classic red convertible car with a sleek design.

Plymouth Fury III – 1967 images

by Ross Mills

Plymouth sold the Fury in three trim levels sharing one C-body platform, with the Fury III positioned as the upscale, best-equipped version of the bunch. Most buyers chose comfort over speed, which makes this 383 cubic inch, 4-speed manual example a genuinely uncommon way to order a car built primarily to coddle its passengers.

The Aerovette Mid-Engine XP-882 John DeLorean Vette

by Pat C

Canceled by John DeLorean, revived by John DeLorean, and eventually powered by an exotic four-rotor Wankel engine that never stood a chance once the 1973 oil crisis hit — the GM Aerovette’s path to nowhere is one of the strangest stories in Corvette history. Developed by legendary engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov as the XP-882, it previewed a mid-engine Corvette layout GM wouldn’t actually put into production for another five decades.

Classic white 1970s muscle car with sleek design and chrome accents.

Pontiac Grand Prix 1974 images

by Ross Mills

The 1974 Pontiac Grand Prix arrived just as the muscle car era was winding down, wearing a federally mandated 5-mph bumper and an emissions-strangled 400-cubic-inch V8 that made noticeably less power than earlier versions. Pontiac leaned into comfort and styling instead, and buyers responded: despite the power cuts, nearly 100,000 Grand Prixs sold that year. It remains one of the clearer snapshots of how regulation reshaped Detroit’s performance cars almost overnight.

Hudson Super Six 1949 images

by Ross Mills

The 1949 Hudson Super Six hid a genuinely clever piece of engineering under its conservative styling: a lowered unibody shell mounted over a reinforced ladder frame, dropping the cabin floor below the frame rails for a lower center of gravity than most full-size American cars offered. Hudson called it Step-Down construction, and it gave the Super Six handling that outclassed rivals from Buick and Chrysler. Nearly 100,000 were built in 1949 alone — one of the more underappreciated engineering stories in postwar Detroit.

Classic red muscle car with black racing stripes in a showroom.

Chevrolet El Camino SS 1971 images

by Ross Mills

By 1970, Chevrolet let El Camino SS buyers order the same 454-cubic-inch big block that powered the fastest Chevelles, including a 450-horsepower LS6 option good for a 13.44-second quarter mile. This example carries the SS package and a big-block V8 backed by a Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 transmission. Chevrolet built only around 500 El Camino SS 454s that year, making a documented big-block example a genuinely rare way to combine a cargo bed with serious factory horsepower.

A sleek black vintage hot rod car parked in a lot.

Ford restomod Roadster 1932 images

by Ross Mills

Long before this restomod’s ceramic headers and chrome mags, the 1932 Ford roadster had already become the battleground for hot rodding’s biggest debate: Ford body, Chevy heart. Once the small-block Chevy V8 proved itself in the mid-1950s, legendary builds swapped out their Ford flatheads, and this build carries that same tradition forward.

Classic turquoise 1960s two-door car in a showroom.

Chevrolet Chevy II – 1965 images

by Ross Mills

This 1965 Chevy II carries the most basic drivetrain Chevrolet offered that year: a 194-cubic-inch inline six paired with a 2-speed automatic. The same platform, though, could be ordered with a 283-cubic-inch V8 making up to 225 horsepower, or as the sportier Nova Super Sport coupe. Chevrolet built the Chevy II fast and cheap to answer the Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant, moving 122,800 of them in 1965 alone across a lineup that ranged from grocery-getter to genuine performance car.

Classic black 1969 Ford Mustang parked outdoors.

Ford Mustang Mach I 1969

by Ross Mills

Ford built the 1969 Mustang Mach 1 to close a sales gap that had opened up against the Camaro and Firebird, and the fix worked almost instantly: 72,458 Mach 1s found buyers that year against only 5,396 of the outgoing GT trim. Factory engines ranged from a standard 351 Windsor up to the 428 Cobra Jet, rated at 335 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque. Ford dropped the GT trim entirely the following year, letting the Mach 1 carry the performance Mustang banner alone.

Classic white convertible car parked near a lake under a clear sky.

Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst/Olds 1971 images

by Ross Mills

This is the third of just twenty-five prototypes Oldsmobile built ahead of the officially revived 1972 Hurst/Olds, which would go on to pace the Indianapolis 500. The original Hurst/Olds partnership debuted in 1968 before going dormant for two full years, and 1971 also marked the last year Oldsmobile sold the 442 as its own standalone model. The Rocket 350 V8 under this car’s hood carried the same engineering that would define the production Hurst/Olds cars buyers could purchase in 1972.

The Most Embarrassing Vehicle to Drive?

by Pat C

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?

Ford Mustang 1970- Boss 302 images

by Ross Mills

Ford built this Boss 302 Mustang to satisfy SCCA Trans-Am homologation rules, which required at least 6,500 production copies before the race car could compete. Ford ended up building 7,014 for 1970, exceeding the quota by 514 cars, each carrying a fortified 302-cubic-inch V8 making 290 horsepower and a suspension tuned for road-course duty. Period road tests clocked the quarter mile in 14.9 seconds at 93.4 mph. Ford dropped the model after just two years on the market.

Silver classic muscle car with black racing stripes.

Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 1970 images

by Ross Mills

Oldsmobile reshaped the 1970 Cutlass Supreme around comfort and style rather than raw muscle car numbers — but buried in the order sheet was an option code that turned this luxury coupe into something considerably faster than its badge suggested. Most buyers never checked that box, which is exactly what makes finding one today interesting.

Classic black hot rod with red and white accents, showcased outdoors.

Ford Tudor Sedan restomod 1932 images

by Ross Mills

This 1932 Ford Tudor Sedan drops a 392 Hemi and a Bluetooth-compatible 1400-watt stereo into an eighty-plus-year-old body, turning a Depression-era family car into something that would embarrass most modern sports cars off the line. Here’s why the ’32 Ford refuses to go out of style, and what builders keep doing differently under the hood.

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