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The 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T Shaker Edition revives a trick first seen on the 1970 Challenger: an engine-mounted hood scoop that visibly shudders with every throttle blip. Under the shaking sheet metal sits a 5.7-liter HEMI V8, a six-speed manual option, and a full Super Track Pack of suspension and brake upgrades. It is a package built as much for theater as for performance, and it is becoming a favorite among Challenger collectors.
This 1966 AMC Ambassador DPL is a rare, all-original survivor finished in factory Samoa Light Gold, representing the top of American Motors’ entire lineup that year. The DPL trim, new for 1966, came standard with reclining bucket seats and deep-pile carpeting, and this example carries AMC’s largest available engine, a 327-cubic-inch V8. Ambassador sales nearly quadrupled between 1964 and 1966 as AMC’s upscale strategy caught on with buyers. Original, unmolested examples like this one are increasingly difficult to find today.
The 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX paired civilized styling with genuine muscle, and the rarest version of all combined a drop-top body with the fire-breathing 426 Hemi engine. Plymouth built only 17 Hemi GTX convertibles that year, and roughly thirteen are known to survive today. This deep dive covers the production numbers, the pricey engine option that separated casual buyers from true performance seekers, and why documented survivors now command serious money at auction. Few muscle cars combine rarity and pedigree quite like this one.
A supercharged modern V8, a hood scoop borrowed from a completely different Ford, and a name that doubles as a literal horsepower claim — this 1957 Custom 300 build hides more engineering under its moonshine-runner theme than the average muscle car restoration. Here’s what’s actually bolted underneath 700 Proof’s blacked-out trim.
A short wide bed Chevy truck from 1965 doesn’t look radically different from the trucks around it — but that model year quietly introduced a new V8 option and one of the first factory air conditioning systems ever offered on a half-ton Chevrolet. Here’s what actually changed under a truck most people just call ‘awesome.’
This replica sounds fantastic, but the original 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder it’s copying has a story darker than any muscle car legend. James Dean owned his for nine days before it killed him, and the wreckage that survived went missing decades ago despite a standing million-dollar reward. Here’s the real history behind the car everyone still calls ‘Little Bastard.’
Jay Leno’s garage holds hundreds of cars, but only a handful made the cut when The Drive asked him to name his American muscle favorites. The list runs from an expected numbers-matching Hemi Challenger to a reworked Oldsmobile Toronado throwing over 1,000 horsepower at its rear wheels — proof that even a career car collector’s favorites can still surprise.
A V8-powered chainsaw sounds like the kind of thing only a muscle car fanatic would build in a garage — until you learn the record for cutting speed belongs to a company on the other side of the world. From a 508-pound Buick-powered monster nicknamed ‘The Predator’ to an Australian saw built purely for marketing, these builds prove a V8 will make anything sound like it belongs on a drag strip.
One of the two Mustangs used in Bullitts legendary chase scene was heavily modified by veteran racer Max Balchowsky and never seen again after filming wrapped. The surviving cars stripped-down look and 390-cubic-inch V8 helped create the most famous car chase sequence in film history. Heres what actually went into building it.
1969 was the best-selling year the Plymouth Road Runner ever had, and this four-speed 383 exemplifies why: a 335-horsepower engine borrowed cam specs from the 440 Super Commando, all wrapped in one of the muscle car eras most affordable packages. See the specs and performance numbers that made this budget muscle car a genuine competitor.
The 1971 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 arrived just as emissions rules and insurance surcharges were squeezing the life out of Detroit’s muscle car boom, forcing a detuned 345-horsepower rating down from the prior year’s 360. Even softened, its 455-cubic-inch V-8 still ran low-14-second quarter miles behind dual exhaust and a functional ram-air hood. Only 801 Stage 1 hardtops were built that year, and a mere 114 came with the four-speed manual, making surviving stick-shift cars among the rarest Buicks of the era.
The 1957 Ford Thunderbird was the last of the two-seat Birds before Ford chased volume and made it bigger — which is exactly why it’s so coveted today. This Raven Black example rides on a 312 Y-block and stacks the options high: power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, power windows, and a black porthole top. It’s a road test, not a static walkaround, so you get to see how it moves. Find out if it drives as good as it looks.
The 1953 Buick Special sedan looked like business as usual on the outside, with over one hundred thousand examples rolling off the line. Underneath, though, it was quietly closing out two eras at once: the last Buick straight-eight engine and the last of the swooping postwar body style before a boxier redesign arrived in 1954. What convinced Buick to hold the line on tradition just one more year?
This 1960 Chevrolet Impala convertible wears Ermine White over one of Detroit’s most flamboyant designs, from the batwing rear deck to the triple taillights. Under the hood sits a 348 with Tri-Power — three two-barrel carburetors that let it idle gently and then roar. Now residing at the Volo Auto Museum, it’s the kind of open-top cruiser that blurs the line between collectible and driver. Take the full tour and decide which side it falls on.
