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This Riviera wears the 1965 Gran Sport package, Buick’s first attempt at pairing serious performance with the Riviera’s personal-luxury styling. Under the hood sits a 425-cid Super Wildcat V8 making 360 horsepower, good for a 0-60 time around 7.7 seconds, backed by heavy-duty Al-Fin drum brakes and quick-ratio power steering to help control it. Buick marketed the package as “an iron fist in a velvet glove” – a description this custom build seems to take seriously.
Willow Springs earned its “Fastest Road in the West” nickname before most muscle cars existed, with construction starting in 1952 and its first race run in 1953. Bill Huth bought the track in 1962 hoping to run drag racing down its main straight, only to discover the straight was too short – a miscalculation that redirected Willow Springs toward the road-racing legacy it’s known for today. Decades of expansion later, it’s still the track a modern Hellcat gets tested on.
Only about 50 of the 44,808 Mustang convertibles Ford built in 1967 came with the rare 271-horsepower K-code 289 — and most of that scarce engine’s total production went straight to Shelby instead of regular Mustangs. That combination makes a documented, original K-code convertible one of the genuine unicorns of the pony car world.
Plymouth built just 2,128 Road Runner convertibles for 1969, and only 797 of those paired the 383 V8 with a four-speed manual like this one has. Loaded with the Air Grabber hood, Magnum 500 wheels, and white vinyl bucket seats, this car represents a rare, well-optioned example from the Road Runner’s breakout debut convertible year. Here’s what made 1969 such a turning point for the model.
The 2016 Pigeon Forge Rod Run turned the Smoky Mountains parkway into one long muscle car cruise, but the event’s roots go back further than most attendees realize. From an unofficial 1970s Gatlinburg cruise-in to a convention-center-sized car show, here’s the story behind one of the biggest classic car gatherings in the country.
This Ford F-100 has stayed in one family since Grandpa bought it new, and now his son and grandson are turning it into a hot rod together. Built during the final years of Ford’s Dentside generation, the truck landed at a turning point in Ford’s engine lineup as older big blocks were phased out. Still a work in progress, it’s already headed in the right direction.
Mark Wickens set out looking for something small and practical — a Mini, maybe a Mitsubishi Lancer — and came home with a numbered 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT instead. Lou Costabile caught up with car #1638 in black paint at Scottsdale’s Rock & Roll McDonald’s, one of the more unlikely regular meeting spots for serious Shelby iron. Hear how a practical car search turned into anything but.
This 2005 Mustang wears Cervini’s C-Series body kit, a tribute to the “Eleanor” Shelby GT500 from Gone in 60 Seconds, but it’s the real side-exit exhaust that sets it apart from a costume-only build. Built specifically for the 2005-2009 S197 chassis, the kit brought a functional side-pipe system, not just cosmetic scoops and a hood. Here’s the story behind the kit, and why this one sounds as good as it looks.
Built by All Speed Customs and shown at the 2017 Detroit Autorama, this 1971 Plymouth Barracuda street machine skips the expected 426 Hemi entirely in favor of a V10 and a paddle-shift transmission most classic Mopar owners have never considered. Silver paint with red accents and a custom interior built around a subwoofer-packed rear seat round out a build meant to surprise a crowd that’s seen almost everything. Watch to find out why they call it Medusa.
A single teenage joyride in a 1960 Pontiac Bonneville convertible stuck with George Hansen for decades, long enough that he eventually tracked one down and made it his own. Pontiac’s Wide-Track flagship was the priciest car in the brand’s 1960 lineup, and with the optional Tri-Power 389 V8, it hinted at the muscle car era still four years away. Here’s the story behind Hansen’s Bonneville and the specs that made it special.
Only about 1,270 buyers ordered the 440 Six Pack option on a 1970 Dodge Super Bee, and fewer than 200 of those cars were coupes, making this Plum Crazy Purple example, with its Hurst Pistol Grip four-speed and two-year restoration, a genuine rarity. The Six Pack’s triple-carb 440 borrowed internal hardware straight from Chrysler’s 426 Hemi program. Here’s what made this engine option so feared on the street.
When the Indianapolis 500 celebrated its 100th running in 2011, Chevrolet was marking its own centennial too, and sent a specially dressed Camaro SS convertible out to lead the field. Finished in Summit White with orange stripes echoing the original 1969 Camaro Pace Car, only 500 replica convertibles were built for sale. This one has fewer than 1,500 original miles on the clock.
By 1973, the Hemi and the 440 were gone from the ‘Cuda’s order sheet, emissions regulations having already claimed Chrysler’s biggest engines. What remained was a 340 V8 rated at 240 net horsepower — the strongest engine Plymouth would still let you order — plus a mid-year running change to the 360 that quietly previewed 1974’s lineup. This ‘Cuda represents the last real fight of Plymouth’s E-body muscle era before the whole platform disappeared. Here’s what made the final ‘Cudas worth remembering.
This 1968 Nova wears a 454 big-block and a four-speed – a combination Chevrolet never actually built, since the factory topped out at a 396 that year. Here’s why that makes it one of the purest sleeper builds in the muscle car hobby rather than a red flag, and what made the Nova such a popular platform for exactly this kind of swap.