 |
Aston Martin built the DB11 around two things it had never used before: a new aluminum platform and a twin-turbocharged V12, hidden inside one of the most classically shaped grand tourers the brand had made in years. The results were numbers no naturally aspirated Aston V12 had ever hit, including 600 horsepower and a 3.6-second sprint to 60. Here’s how Aston Martin’s biggest technical gamble in decades still ended up feeling completely true to form.
While the SOHC Cammer Comets chased A/FX glory in 1965, Bill Stroppe quietly built fifteen lightweight Comet Cyclones for the B/FX class, running a 289 that could approach 450 horsepower thanks to four Weber carburetors and a curb weight stripped down to about 2,600 pounds. Here’s how a small-block Comet punched so far above its displacement.
The Mercury Zephyr wasn’t built for the drag strip, but this 1979 example nicknamed ‘Black Betty’ has spent recent seasons proving that a forgotten compact can hang with purpose-built muscle. Powered by a nitrous-fed small-block Ford, it has run through some of Oklahoma’s toughest bracket events at Thunder Valley Raceway Park. Here’s why an unlikely platform keeps finding its way into the winner’s circle.
This 2010 Camaro SS runs 840 rear-wheel horsepower from an LS3 stacking 10 psi of ProCharger boost with a 100-horsepower nitrous shot on top, built with internals upgraded specifically to survive the combination. Here’s what it actually takes to push a factory LS3 that far past its stock 426-horsepower ceiling without it coming apart.
Plymouth built the 1970 ‘Cuda on an entirely new platform specifically so it could finally handle the biggest engines Chrysler made, then built shockingly few of them with the full 440 Six Pack package. Just 1,755 ‘Cuda 440+6 hardtops left the factory that year, and only 130 of those carried the iconic shaker hood. Here’s what makes this numbers-matching example one of the rarest combinations Plymouth ever built.
At Cars & Coffee Italy, American muscle cars are the rare exception surrounded by a sea of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Paganis – sometimes a single Corvette represents the entire US contingent. But Italy’s relationship with American V8 power runs deeper than one car meet suggests, with coachbuilders like De Tomaso and Iso quietly stuffing Ford and Chevy engines into exotic Italian bodies for decades.
Buried in the 1969 Mustang lineup, tucked between an aging GT nameplate and the debut of the Mach 1, sits one of the rarest performance Mustangs Ford ever built. Only 5,396 GT models left the factory that year, wearing a serious handling package that most casual shoppers walked right past. Under the hood, a 390 four-barrel V8 backed up the stripes and styled wheels with real muscle. Track one down today and you’re not just buying a Mustang — you’re buying one of Ford’s best-kept secrets from ’69.
Chevrolet’s El Camino beat Ford’s own Ranchero in sales during its first year on the market in 1959, then Chevrolet walked away from the whole concept just two years later. It wouldn’t return until 1964, and on a completely different platform. Here’s the strange, short two-year story behind the first-generation El Camino, and why this 1959-60-era truck represents a distinct chapter most people don’t even realize existed.
This Fox Body Mustang trades the usual small-block-plus-boost formula for something far more aggressive: a genuine big-block under the hood backed by a 900-horsepower shot of nitrous. Squeezing a big-block into a chassis designed around Ford’s compact Windsor V8s takes real fabrication work before the nitrous even enters the picture. The nickname Lucifer isn’t just for show — a combination this potent demands a bottom end and fuel system built to survive it.
This 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible pairs two options rarely seen together: a rear tonneau cover that fakes a sporty two-seat look, and a Continental Kit spare-tire carrier lifted straight from the luxury car playbook. Under the hood sits Ford’s standard 390-cube V8 making 300 horsepower, enough to move the big convertible to 60 mph in around 11 seconds. It’s less about outright speed and more about a distinctive, well-optioned personal luxury cruiser from Ford’s golden era.
Before the B-body fastback made Charger a household name, Dodge quietly tried it out on a compact hardtop in 1965 — and this Dart Charger, powered by the 273-cube V8, is one of the results. Dodge built only 180 factory versions before switching the badge to its bigger, more famous sibling the following year. Most Dart Chargers people encounter today were actually dealer-installed kits rather than true factory cars, which makes an original like this one the rarer find.
Dodge moved nearly 100,000 Chargers in 1968, but only 475 of them left the factory with the 426 Hemi under the hood — a number so small it puts every surviving example in rare-car territory before you even factor in color. This particular Charger pairs that Hemi with a shade rarely seen on Chargers today, echoing some of the genuinely scarce factory colors documented from that model year. A 4-speed stick backs up the engine, keeping the whole package period-correct and driver-focused.
Muscle car and pony car get used interchangeably by casual fans, but Car Throttle breaks down why that’s technically wrong — and why the distinction traces back further than most people realize. The difference has less to do with horsepower than with the platform a manufacturer started with in the first place. Find out which side of the line your favorite nameplate actually falls on.
This 1966 Nova rolled off the factory line as basic transportation, the kind of compact nobody expected to see twice. Today it’s home to a ProCharger-fed engine putting down roughly 2200 horsepower, more than ten stock Novas combined, riding on a chassis that used to be somebody’s grocery-getter. It’s one of the purest sleeper builds in the muscle car world: a shape everyone dismisses, hiding a number nobody sees coming until it’s too late to react.
Pontiac built exactly 697 Trans Ams for the 1969 model year, and only eight of them left the factory as convertibles — making this one of the rarest body styles in muscle car history. Every surviving example reportedly came equipped with the Ram Air III engine, so there’s no such thing as a mild 1969 Trans Am convertible. Whether this particular car was truly first off the line is harder to pin down, but its place among just eight survivors isn’t in question.