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The 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS arrived at the tail end of the muscle car era, when new unleaded-fuel requirements trimmed the standard 350 V8 down to 270 horsepower — the only engine Chevrolet offered that year. Just 7,015 Nova SS models were built, making it one of the rarest Super Sport badges Chevrolet ever produced. Tracing back to 1962 as GM’s compact answer to the Ford Falcon, the Nova proved that big performance didn’t require a big car.
This 1967 Mustang Fastback, the first Mustang body style built to handle Ford’s big-block power, now runs a modern 302 crate engine dyno-tested at 370 horsepower. It’s a common resto-mod formula: keep the aggressive ’67 silhouette, swap in reliable modern power underneath. Here’s what makes this generation such a natural platform for the build.
Plymouth built the 1968 Road Runner to be cheap and fast, then let buyers pile a $714 Hemi on top of a car designed around a stripped-down budget pitch. Only 1,019 out of roughly 45,000 Road Runners built that year got the big engine. Here’s why so few buyers took Plymouth up on its most contradictory option.
Only 17 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertibles were built in 1970 with the 440 Six-Barrel engine and a four-speed manual transmission, fewer than the automatic version of the same car, and a fraction of the attention the Hemi ‘Cuda gets. Here’s why this quieter big-block convertible might be the rarer find of the two.
This 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport arrived during the one year Ford dared to redesign the Torino from the ground up, then walked the styling back within twelve months. Under the hood sits a 351 Cobra Jet, a Cleveland-block V8 carrying real Boss 351 lineage. Here’s why this specific model year stands apart from every Torino before or after it.
This 1970 Ford Torino Cobra hides a numbers-matching 429 Thunder Jet V8 behind one of Ford’s most overlooked muscle-car nameplates. A Marti Report confirms its rare factory combination of a close-ratio four-speed, 3.50 Trac-Lok rear end, and factory air conditioning, an unusual pairing for a car built to run the quarter-mile. Here’s why this quiet-badged Torino deserves more attention than it ever got.
1967 was the first year Buick fitted the Riviera with its all-new 430-cubic-inch V-8, replacing the older Nailhead design with a bigger-valve engine rated at 360 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque. Buick kept the 430 in production for only three model years before superseding it with the 455 in 1970, making this a narrow window in Riviera history. Add the Gran Sport package’s heavy-duty suspension and Positraction rear end, and a numbers-matching example like this one represents a genuinely rare combination.
Ford built the Boss 302 purely to satisfy SCCA Trans Am homologation rules, which required at least 6,500 street versions before the race car could compete — Ford built 7,013 over two years to clear that bar. The 302-cubic-inch V-8’s 290 factory horsepower undersold what the car could really do, and Parnelli Jones proved it by winning the 1970 Trans Am championship outright. Ford retired the Boss 302 after just two model years, its job against the Camaro already done.
Underneath this C10’s deliberately rough patina sits a 550-horsepower drivetrain that has nothing in common with its beat-up exterior, a classic rat rod sleeper built on one of the most collectible classic truck platforms around. Here is what it actually takes to build one that can back up the look.
The 1970 Plymouth GTX offered buyers a choice between three big-block V-8s — a 375-hp 440, a 390-hp 440 Six Barrel, and a 425-hp 426 Hemi — but only 7,748 were built that year. Just 72 left the factory with the Hemi, making surviving examples exceptionally rare today. The GTX’s declining sales that year foreshadowed Plymouth’s shift toward other muscle car nameplates in the years that followed.
Ford built 25,517 Mustang GTs for the 1966 model year, a nearly 70 percent jump from the GT package’s debut in 1965. But because the GT Equipment Group could be paired with different body styles and engines, individual cars vary widely even within that number. Here’s the real production figure, and why it still confuses collectors decades later.
What began as a simple plan for a weekend cruiser turned into one of the baddest 1967 Chevrolet Chevelles on the street. Filmed at Steve Holcomb’s Pro Auto Custom Interiors, this build hides a 427 LSX making 700 horsepower and 690 lb-ft of torque under a clean first-generation A-body. Owner Billy Bob never set out to build a monster, but that’s exactly what he ended up with. Take a closer look.
This B5 Blue Demon hides a surprisingly serious 340 cubic inch V8 under what Dodge originally sold as a budget-minded compact. Only 10,098 Demon 340s were built in 1971, backed by a forged crankshaft, high-flow heads, and a Rallye suspension package most economy buyers never thought to ask for. It’s proof that Dodge’s cheapest muscle car still had real teeth.
At the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show, one 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda pulled the biggest crowd on the floor, and its owner’s name had a lot to do with it. Built by carbon-fiber specialists SpeedKore and owned by comedian Kevin Hart, this E-body pairs the most iconic shape of the muscle era with thoroughly modern engineering. It’s equal parts legend and reinvention. See why it stopped everyone who walked past.