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Only three of the eleven Mustangs built for the 2000 Gone in 60 Seconds could actually drive — the rest were stunt shells that never needed to run. That car, known as Eleanor, has since spawned a full replica industry, with modern builds now available with twin-turbo big blocks the original film cars never had. A recent court ruling finally settled who’s allowed to build one. Here’s the real story behind Hollywood’s most famous Mustang.
1971 was the only year Plymouth gave the ‘Cuda four headlights and strange fender-mounted gills — a look the brand tried once and never repeated. Under that one-year-only face sat six possible engines, topped by a 426 Hemi in its final season, and a convertible body so rare that only a handful were ever built with a manual transmission. Here’s what made this single model year one of the most collectible in Mopar history.
A 1970 Dodge Charger R/T could be ordered two very different ways under the hood, and the difference came down to how many carburetors Chrysler bolted to its 440-cubic-inch big block. Inside, the SE package added leather seats and wood trim rarely associated with a muscle car of this era. The combination of brute torque and unexpected comfort is exactly why this Charger still turns heads. Here’s what separated the standard 440 from the fire-breathing Six-Pack version.
This 1973 Plymouth Road Runner reportedly wears the only Halo Canopy vinyl top ever fitted to the model that year – a rare option on a nameplate that started five years earlier as a deliberately stripped-down muscle car. By 1973, new sheet metal and softer styling had pushed sales up 40%, even as a 440-cubic-inch V8 carried on the model’s big-block reputation. A vinyl top on a muscle car sounds like a contradiction, but by 1973 it was exactly where the segment was headed.
The Ringbrothers didn’t restore this 1965 Mustang Fastback, they rebuilt it almost entirely in carbon fiber, widened its stance by four inches, and dropped nearly 700 pounds in the process. Under the hood sits a 959-horsepower LS7-based engine that has nothing to do with Ford, making this one of the more unconventional Mustang builds to ever hit the SEMA floor. It raises a real question about how much of a car can change before it stops being what it started as.
This 1970 Dodge Super Bee, finished in factory Plum Crazy Purple with a 440 V8 and pistol-grip four-speed, rolled onto the World of Wheels show floor in Rosemont, Illinois as a fully restored, all-original example. The restorer behind it, Mark Klopack, explains exactly what it took to get there. Watch to hear the story straight from the shop that did the work.
AMC was the smallest of Detroit’s automakers, so instead of trying to out-muscle Ford and Chevy, it partnered with Hurst to build a car engineered for exactly one job: NHRA F/Stock drag racing. Demand for the resulting SC/Rambler blew past AMC’s modest 500-car plan so fast the company tripled production to 1,512. Under that plain white hardtop sat a genuine 390-cubic-inch V8, a four-speed, and a factory price of just $2,998. It remains one of the era’s most purpose-built, and most overlooked, muscle cars.
A 1937 Dodge Brothers coupe that’s logged over 1,000 miles on a single cruise isn’t just a show car – it’s proof this build was sorted properly. Underneath that vintage steel sits a Chevy V8, a Ford 9-inch rear end, and a TH350 automatic, three different badges working together under one roof. Add power disc brakes, vintage-style air conditioning, and a Plum Crazy paint job, and you get a genuine street machine built to actually be driven. It’s hot rodding’s oldest tradition, done right.
Ford’s paperwork claimed the 429 Super Cobra Jet made just 375 horsepower – a number that quarter-mile timeslips in the 13s made almost laughable. Reinforced internals, a solid-lifter cam, and optional 3.91 Drag Pack gearing turned the Torino Cobra into a stoplight threat few rivals saw coming. Fewer than 1 in 200 Torinos left the factory with this exact combination. That rarity is exactly why collectors treat surviving examples like artifacts today.
The 2012 Camaro ZL1 packs a supercharged 580 horsepower against the Boss 302’s naturally aspirated 444 — a gap that looks decisive on paper. But magazine quarter-mile tests tell a different story, with the Mustang running times within tenths of a second of its heavier-hitting rival. It’s a reminder that raw horsepower numbers don’t always predict what happens at the stripe.
What if the fastest way to enjoy a classic Camaro isn’t more horsepower, but less of it used better? A growing number of builders are chasing a 400-horsepower sweet spot instead of four-digit dyno numbers, blending pro-touring suspension with genuine daily-driver reliability. The result is a first- or second-generation Camaro that can handle a commute and a track day on the same tank of gas. Here’s what makes the “Pro Daily” philosophy different.
Plymouth’s biggest factory Barracuda engine topped out around 390 horsepower — nowhere near the 550-horsepower supercharged builds you’ll see today. Here’s how a compact pony car that once sacrificed power steering just to fit a 440 became the platform builders keep pushing past its original limits.
Ford rated the 427 side-oiler at a suspiciously modest 355 horsepower – a number nobody who raced against a Shelby GT500 ever believed. Born on NASCAR superspeedways and re-engineered to fix a crippling oiling flaw, this big-block never even appeared on the GT500’s official order sheet. Yet a handful of dealers built them anyway, creating one of the most sought-after combinations in Shelby history. Real output, by most estimates, was nowhere close to what the factory admitted.
This 1963 Chevrolet Corvette custom, built as the “Split Second,” turned heads the moment it came off the trailer at the 2017 Detroit Autorama — before anyone had even seen what was under the hood. The stance, the color, and the wheel choice all landed perfectly, but it’s the stack-injected 327 and custom flush-mounted glass that turned a good-looking car into a serious build. ScottieDTV caught it on the show floor. Watch to see what made this one impossible to walk past.
Project Deep South is a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air riding on an LS3, black chrome trim, and a candy apple paintjob, but the original car came with a 140-horsepower inline-six as standard equipment. That gap between stock and swapped is exactly why the ’57 became a favorite drag strip and hot rod platform starting in the 1960s, thanks to an engine bay big enough for GM’s biggest blocks. This build is just the latest chapter in a six-decade tradition.