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Plymouth built exactly five 1971 ‘Cuda 440-6 four-speed convertibles, out of only 17 six-barrel convertibles made that year at all. The combination arrived just as insurance surcharges and emissions rules were strangling the muscle car era, making this one of the rarest regular-production Mopars ever built. Surviving examples now sell for anywhere from $400,000 to well over $1 million.
The old-vs-new muscle car debate is not really about horsepower numbers — those were settled on paper decades ago. It is about whether a mechanical, feedback-heavy driving experience means more than a modern car’s warranty-backed, traction-controlled speed. Both sides have a real case, which is exactly why the argument refuses to die at every stoplight where the two eras meet.
None of the Eleanor Mustangs built for Gone in 60 Seconds were real Shelbys — twelve Dupont Pepper Gray fastbacks were dressed up for filming, and only three could actually be driven. The genuine 1967 GT500 carried a 428 Cobra V8 rated at 355 horsepower, no widebody kit required. Decades later, the actual movie hero car sold for $1 million, proof a fictional silhouette can outvalue the real thing.
That deluxe leather interior isn’t the real reason 1972 matters in Corvette history. This was the last model year for chrome bumpers front and rear, the removable rear window, and horsepower numbers that hadn’t yet been gutted by tightening emissions rules. See what made this quiet transition year the end of an era for the classic C3 Corvette.
A ’69 Camaro named after a prehistoric 60-foot shark shouldn’t be able to keep up with fully-funded no-prep teams. Builder Brent Austin put this one together alone, in his home garage, in about a year. See the 565-inch big block and ProCharger combo that earned Megalodon its name, and why it keeps showing up at the front of the pack at events like No Prep Mayhem.
Chevrolet had less than a year to answer the Ford Mustang, and the Camaro it rushed to market in 1967 ended up defining an entire era of American performance cars. Buyers could order the style-focused RS package with its hidden headlights, or step up to the SS for real hardware including access to the 396 big-block V8. That same year, a Camaro RS/SS convertible paced the Indianapolis 500, and Chevrolet sold 100 replicas to commemorate it.
No-prep drag racing strips away the sticky track surface most cars depend on for grip, turning every run into a battle against wheelspin on bare concrete. At the Conquer the Concrete event in Oklahoma City, James ‘Birdman’ Finney turned that chaos into a $10,000 payday. It capped a run that had already put more than $45,000 in his pocket across his previous three major no-prep races.
While Pontiac was busy launching the muscle car era with the GTO in 1964, Dodge buyers could order this Dart GT convertible with the complete opposite formula: a 145-horsepower Slant Six built for economy and reliability instead of quarter-mile bragging rights. It wasn’t quick by any muscle car measure, needing roughly 15 seconds to reach 60 mph, but it returned 16-17 mpg and rarely broke down. 1964 also marked the last year for Dodge’s quirky pushbutton automatic transmission.
A supercharged Shelby GT500 and a naturally aspirated Camaro SS look like an unfair fight on paper, with the Ford flagship out-gunning the Chevy by hundreds of horsepower. But drag strip results rarely play out exactly how the spec sheet predicts once real drivers and launch technique enter the picture. That gap between paper power and track performance is why this matchup never stops getting filmed.
The 1968 Camaro Z/28 was not built to look fast, it was built to legally qualify for Trans-Am racing, and that single requirement shaped everything about it. Chevrolet engineers combined two different small-block dimensions to create an all-new 302 just to squeak under the series displacement limit. On track, the gamble paid off with manufacturer championships against Ford, Mercury, and later AMC.
The Porsche 930 Turbo earned its ‘Widowmaker’ nickname the hard way — a short wheelbase and rear-engine layout that could turn an ill-timed throttle input into a violent pendulum swing at the limit. Born from Can-Am turbo technology and built to satisfy homologation rules, the 930 arrived in the U.S. in 1976 with a 3.0-liter flat-six making 260 horsepower. Later 3.3-liter versions pushed output higher still, cementing the 930’s reputation as one of the most demanding production sports cars Porsche ever sold.
Ford’s 1968 Torino GT paced the Indianapolis 500 in convertible form, then backed up that spotlight moment with a NASCAR championship season and a mid-year Cobra Jet 428 that the factory rated conservatively at 335 horsepower. Car and Driver clocked a Cobra Jet-equipped Torino at 14.2 seconds in the quarter mile. Of the three body styles offered, the fastback proved by far the most popular, with over 74,000 built against just 5,317 convertibles.
The Lockheed U-2 is so difficult to fly that it needs a high-speed chase car, sometimes even a Tesla, sprinting down the runway beside it on every takeoff and landing. Filmed at RAF Fairford, this footage shows two of these Cold War spy planes rocketing skyward while their outrigger wheels drop away. The pilot, sealed in a pressure suit, can barely see out. Find out why this 1950s legend still needs a car to get airborne.
By 1968, the Mercury Cougar had proven its European-flavored take on Ford’s pony car platform was no fluke, backed by three newly added V8 options topping out at a 390-horsepower 427. The rare XR7-G package, just 622 built, paid tribute to racing driver Dan Gurney with unique trim and an available sunroof. Under the polished intake and Hooker headers of a modified example like this one lies a car built during the Cougar’s most ambitious model year yet.