History | Muscle Car Fan

Corvette Stingray 1967 Plus the L88 Option (’67-’69)

Chevrolet officially rated the 1967 Corvette L88 at 430 horsepower — a number almost nobody believes, with real output reputed to be closer to 560 or even 600. Only 20 of the 22,940 Corvettes built that year carried the option, which required deleting the heater, radio, and air conditioning just to qualify. A Sunray DX-entered L88 went on to win the 12 Hours of Sebring outright that same year. Read on for how Chevrolet built the most powerful — and most deliberately hidden — engine it ever put under a Corvette hood.

Classic red vintage car parked under a clear blue sky.

Mercury Comet 427 Dominates in 64 NHRA

by Pat C

Ken ‘Big Stick’ Godsey’s 1964 Mercury Comet tribute to drag racing legend Ronnie Sox made its first nine-second pass at the NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion — a wheels-up, bouncing four-speed launch that still gets commenters talking about clutch adjustment and crash-box durability years later. Barely a minute long and almost entirely without narration, the clip lets the launch speak for itself. Watch to see the pass that earned it.

Restored classic Pontiac Firebird under workshop lights.

An Ultra-Rare 1970 Hemi Coronet RT Convertible

by Wes

Mark Worman’s Graveyard Carz took on a 1970 Hemi Coronet R/T convertible — one of just two Hemi convertibles Dodge built for the 1970 model year, in a four-year Hemi convertible run that totaled closer to two dozen cars than the round number sometimes quoted. The comment section turned into an oral history project, with viewers tracing the car’s ties to the Otis Chandler collection and swapping stories about neighbors who still own its rare siblings. Watch the restoration and the history that follows it.

A blue Pontiac Trans Am and a vintage green Pontiac Firebird on a winding road.

1968 Pontiac Firebird vs 2010 Lingenfelter Trans Am

by Wes

MotorTrend’s Generation Gap pits a numbers-matching 1968 Pontiac Firebird against a 2010 Lingenfelter-built Trans Am tribute making more than double the horsepower. The spec sheet says it isn’t close — 320 horsepower against 655 — but the comments turned into a real argument about authenticity versus raw performance. Watch to see which Firebird wins, and decide for yourself whether horsepower settles it.

Yellow 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Yenko with top 5 label.

Top 5 Chevrolet Camaros

by Wes

V8TV built Episode 230 of Muscle Car of the Week as a tribute to the Chevrolet Camaro’s 50th anniversary, narrowing five decades of history down to five cars from The Brothers Collection. Viewers pushed back hard, defending the DZ302-powered Z/28 and pointing out the missing Baldwin-Motion and COPO cars. Watch the list and weigh in on which Camaro deserved a spot.

1969 Pontiac GTO Ram Air 4 Speed muscle car with open hood at a show.

Breakdown/Review: 1969 Pontiac GTO Ram Air IV 4-Speed Convertible

by Wes

Fewer than fifty 1969 Pontiac GTOs left the factory with the Ram Air IV V8, a four-speed manual, and a convertible body all at once. This green survivor from The Brothers Collection went through a full restoration before its debut at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago — and one commenter claims a famous rock drummer once owned it. Watch the reveal and judge the rock crusher four-speed for yourself.

A blue classic muscle car parked outdoors on a sunny day.

20 Best Muscle cars of all time

by Wes

Nearly 1.3 million views, zero narration, and a comment section that has spent over a decade arguing about what got left out — that’s the strange staying power of this ’20 Best Muscle Cars’ compilation. Viewers have nominated everything from the Plymouth Superbird to a 1969 AMX still parked in someone’s driveway as glaring omissions. Watch the list and see if your own pick made the cut.

Unbelievable MOPAR 440 V8 Rebuild: Vintage Ford Racer Roars Again!

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A Chrysler 440 big block living inside a vintage Ford racer is the kind of combination that makes purists twitch and racers grin. This build pairs a hot-tanked and honed RB block with upgraded pistons, a period-correct roll cage, and a carefully sorted carburetor setup. The result sounds nothing like what the badge on the body promises. Read on for why the 440 keeps ending up in cars Chrysler never built.

Rusty vintage AMC car with a weathered paint job on display.

Barn Finds: HOLY GRAIL Pink 1970 Road Runner Convertible

by Wes

This 1970 Plymouth Road Runner convertible was special-ordered new by the current owner’s father, sold decades ago, and lost to the family entirely — until his son tracked it down and bought it back. Auto Archaeology brought it straight to the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals 2017 Barn Finds display, dust and all. Watch to hear the full story behind why it earned the nickname “Holy Grail.”

Black classic sports car parked on pavement near building.

1984 Chevy Corvette – What Made It So Special?

by Kiril

The 1984 Corvette was the car Chevrolet skipped an entire model year to get right, and it arrived with a chassis so stiff that magazines complained about it while recording the highest skidpad number they had ever measured on a production car. Its 205-horsepower Cross-Fire Injection V8 was the weak link in an otherwise radical package. It still outsold every other C4 model year. Read on for what made it matter.

A black Mustang GT performs a burnout with smoke billowing from the rear tires.

1978 Pontiac Trans Am FAST EZ EFI Fuel Injection Overdrive Engine Upgrades

by Wes

This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am rolled into V8 Speed & Resto Shop running like anything but a bird of fire — and rolled out with a FAST EZ-EFI fuel injection system, a 2004R overdrive transmission, and a COMP Cams roller valvetrain under its Pontiac 400. The upgrades are the kind Pontiac purists argue about for hours. See exactly what changed and why the team made each call.

Chevrolet Chevelle 1970 SS 454

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet rated the 1970 Chevelle SS 454’s LS6 engine at 450 horsepower, but nobody who dyno-tested one believed the number — Super Chevy Magazine’s own testing pointed to something closer to 500. It was the most powerful engine Chevrolet ever put in a Chevelle, offered for exactly one year before EPA rules ended the experiment. Only 4,475 LS6 Chevelles were built in 1970, and just 137 are verified on today’s national registry. Read on for what made this one-year-only big block so different from every 454 that came after it.

Ford Motors V8 supplement FE & FT 3 of 4

by Ross Mills

Ford built the FE 427 Cammer to solve one problem: Chrysler’s 426 Hemi was dominating NASCAR, and a conventional block wasn’t going to catch it. The side-oiler engine replaced a normal camshaft with an idler shaft and a six-foot timing chain driving twin overhead cams, hollow sodium-filled exhaust valves, and a hemispherical combustion chamber Ford couldn’t even call a Hemi because Chrysler owned the name. Sold as a crate engine in 1968, the dual-carb version made 657 horsepower for $2,350. Read on for how Ford’s FE family evolved from Mercury’s 410 to this NASCAR-killer.

A sleek red 1997 Ford Mustang Fastback Eleanor in motion.

1967 Ford Mustang Fastback Eleanor Build

by Wes

A 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback built in the image of Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds should be judged on its widebody kit and hood pins. Instead, nearly every comment on this Mainly Musclecars build is about one thing, the paint. Watch to see the color that convinced longtime Mustang fans, and at least one skeptical spouse, that this Eleanor tribute finally got it right.

Car engine emitting smoke during a startup attempt.

First start in 30 years 1966 Galaxie 428 4 speed

by Wes

This 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 sat dormant for decades under a barn tarp before its rare four-speed manual and 428 FE big block finally roared back to life. Full-size Fords like this one quietly offered serious performance alongside the more famous Mustangs and Torinos of the era. Watch the careful, methodical process behind waking up a big block that hadn’t run in a generation.

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