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A stock 1979 Camaro Z/28 made 175 horsepower — respectable for an era squeezed by emissions rules and fuel crises, but nothing like the muscle car glory days. Chevrolet still sold more than 80,000 of them, making it the best-selling Z28 generation ever. This particular example takes a different route to make up the difference, swapping in a Procharged small block that finally delivers on the performance the body style always promised.
This 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne wasn’t a glamour car when it left the factory — it was Chevrolet’s stripped-down, fleet-spec full-size sedan. The turquoise custom build featured on “My Car Story” came out of Alex Levesque’s Automotive Mentor Group, a Chicago shop that has spent 24 years teaching at-risk youth the restoration trade. Watch to see how a mission-driven shop turned an overlooked model into a showpiece.
A restored red 1972 Plymouth Barracuda catches the eye instantly, but the story behind its engine bay is more complicated than the Cuda’s Hemi reputation suggests. By 1972, Chrysler had already dropped its biggest engines from the lineup, leaving the 340 V8 as the top option and production numbers in steep decline. Here’s what actually changed under the hood in the model’s twilight year — and why it still matters to collectors.
Alloway’s Hot Rod Shop brought a 1965 Buick Riviera to SEMA 2016 that looks nearly stock — until you notice the 19-inch and 22-inch wheels, the dropped stance, and the distinctly non-Buick rumble under the hood. Underneath that familiar personal-luxury coupe body sits a Chevrolet 502 cubic-inch big-block V8 and a Tremec 5-speed manual, riding on an Art Morrison front clip and Currie Enterprises rear end. It’s a build that trades factory originality for shock value, and it worked.
This bright green Dodge Charger runs a Procharged Hemi making a reported 800-plus horsepower, complete with a subwoofer-equipped interior built for daily driving, and it still shows up to closed-course airstrip events like the Pikes Peak Airstrip Attack. Few builds actually try to do everything well at once. Watch it prove that a car can be fast, loud, and livable all at the same time.
Chevrolet completely reinvented the El Camino for 1966, swapping its old body for fresh Chevelle-based sheet metal and, for the first time, pushing production past 35,000 units. Buyers could order anything from a 275-horsepower 327 four-barrel V8 up to a brand-new 396 big block making as much as 375 horsepower, turning a car-truck hybrid into something that could genuinely run with Chevrolet’s muscle cars. This clean California example shows exactly why the formula finally clicked.
This 1967 Camaro RS convertible pairs Chevy’s flashy Rally Sport appearance package, hidden headlamps included, with a 327-cubic-inch Turbo-Fire V8 rated at 275 horsepower, good for 0-62 mph in around 7.5 seconds. Only 10,675 of the RS-equipped Camaros built that year were convertibles. The badges were pure theater; the drivetrain underneath did the real work.
The 1967 Mustang’s first real redesign made the pony car longer, wider, and sharper-looking, with the fastback body style becoming the shape enthusiasts still chase today. A four-barrel 289 V8 could push a fastback through the quarter-mile in about 15.2 seconds. With 53,651 fastbacks built that year, clean original survivors are getting harder to find every season.
This 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster Coupe keeps its factory-correct looks while hiding a thoroughly modern drivetrain underneath, including fuel injection and an overdrive transmission most 1940s buyers never dreamed of. The result is a resto-mod built to actually be driven, not just displayed. Watch the test drive and see how a nearly 80-year-old coupe handles like something built decades later.
Just 117 buyers ordered a 426 Hemi in their 1967 Dodge Charger, and barely half of those got the four-speed manual built to handle it. Dodge rated the engine at 425 horsepower, though race-tuned versions of the same basic design made closer to 500, numbers that trace directly back to NASCAR’s decision to ban the original 1964 race Hemi from competition. This Auto Show Hemi Charger was Dodge’s way of proving the connection between what it raced and what, rarely, it actually sold.
This 1970 Chevelle SS convertible carries the LS6 454, a 450-horsepower engine that, for one year only, out-rated even the Corvette. Chevrolet built just 4,475 SS454 LS6 Chevelles in 1970, and historians estimate only 20 to 25 were convertibles. That makes this one of the rarest muscle cars Chevrolet ever put a price tag on.
Every 1969 Shelby GT500 came standard with a 428 Cobra Jet V8 rated at 335 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, wearing police-interceptor rods and 427 low-riser heads under an unassuming hood scoop. Only 1,402 were built that year, and a rare 166 of them hid an even tougher Super Cobra Jet package meant for the drag strip. Here’s what made the ’69 GT500 the muscle Mustang collectors still chase hardest today.
In 2017, a heavily aero’d Dodge Viper ACR-Extreme, driven by endurance racer Dominik Farnbacher, lapped the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife in an official 7:03.45 – a time that put American muscle in company with hypercars costing far more. The run became an instant reference point for anyone debating where Detroit’s most extreme sports car belongs on the Ring’s leaderboard. Watch the full lap and see the number for yourself.