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The 1970 Boss 302 exists for one reason: Ford needed to beat the Camaro Z/28 in Trans-Am racing, and the rules said it had to sell street versions to do it. The engine that resulted borrowed cylinder head technology from an entirely different Ford engine family to solve a breathing problem, and production more than quadrupled between the first and second model years. Read on to find out what changed, and why the 1970 car is the one enthusiasts chase.
A 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL convertible with the R-code 427 was one of the strangest performance cars Ford ever sold: a two-ton, four-seat drop-top carrying a dual-quad big block that the factory refused to pair with an automatic transmission. Checking that single order-sheet letter changed the suspension, the driveshaft, and the brakes before the car ever reached a dealer. Read on to find out why so few of these survived the decade they were built in.
Ray Brownfield’s red 1966 Mustang convertible looks like a straightforward restoration until you ask which 289 is under the hood. Ford sold three completely different versions of that engine in 1966 behind identical fender badges, and the spread ran from 200 horsepower to 271. Brownfield has owned the car since 2005 and turned the restoration around in five months. Read on to find out why that single engine question changes what the car is worth and how it drives.
The 2017 Camaro 1LE was not one package but two, and the cheaper version turned out to be the surprise. A $4,500 box on the V6 coupe bought suspension hardware pulled from the SS, a limited-slip differential, and skidpad numbers that embarrassed cars costing twice as much. The V8 version went further still. Here is exactly what each one included, what the two setups did differently, and why the 1LE became a cult badge almost immediately.
A turbocharged, LSx-swapped Chevrolet Nova SS launched so hard at SCT Indianapolis that its front wheels left the ground entirely, dragging its rear bumper for roughly half the quarter mile — and losing its hood along the way. Viewers immediately noticed the near-cinematic violence of the moment and the driver’s cool head in keeping the car straight. Watch the full run, and the wheelie that had commenters wondering if a wheelie bar should be mandatory.
From twenty feet away this is a clean 1966 Corvette Sting Ray. Lift the hood and you find a supercharged 454 big-block, an engine Chevrolet would not put into production for another four years, topped with fuel injection and custom tuned by Craven Performance. It is the kind of build that forces every C2 purist to decide where modified ends and something else begins. Read on for what it took to make it work.
The original post about this 1967 Camaro says almost nothing, and that restraint is more interesting than a spec sheet would be. First-generation Camaros built for street machine duty are not shy cars, and the gap between what left the Norwood assembly line in 1967 and what sits under a car like this now is enormous. Read on to find out what builders actually do to these cars and which decisions separate a serious build from an expensive one.
USA vs AUS!! is the entire debate, and muscle car fans on both sides of the Pacific are certain their country builds the better burnout. One side treats it as spontaneous hooliganism; the other turns it into a judged sport with a stage and a trophy. Read on to find out which country’s approach actually holds up.
This Candy Apple Red 1965 Ford Mustang convertible pairs the desirable A-code 289 four-barrel V8 with a four-speed manual, GT trim, and factory Rally-Pac gauges – a combination that was already rare when new. Spotted on the lot at Garrett Classics in Texas, it’s sparked a lively debate among viewers over its exact model year. Watch to see what details actually settle the argument.
At the Volo Auto Museum in rural Illinois, director Brian Grams walks through a 1972 Plymouth Duster finished in Hemi Orange paint and powered by Chrysler’s well-regarded 340 small block V8. It is not the museum’s flashiest car, but the flood of first-car memories it triggered in viewers — from a 1976 Dart Lite to a regretted 1971 Demon — says something about why budget Mopars still matter. Watch to find out what made this compact performance car a museum piece.
A 700-plus horsepower Chevelle convertible, an LS-swapped C10 pickup, a supercharged Hemi Cuda, and a naturally aspirated Ferrari 550 Maranello in the same test drive lineup. Three of them earned their character through modification decades after leaving the factory. One arrived that way. Read on for what separates a restomod from an engineered car, and which of the four actually wins on a back road.
Dropping a modern supercharged Hemi into a 1968 Charger sounds like heresy right up until it fires. This car was the first running, driving vintage muscle car built around a genuine 707-horsepower 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 pulled from a 2015 Dodge Charger SRT, a combination that appeared on no order sheet in 1968 and makes far more power than the original 426 Hemi ever did. Read on to find out what it actually takes to make that swap work.
Spotted at the 2017 Bama Coast Cruise alongside the Metal Brothers’ display, this 1955 Chevrolet Nomad pairs a modern LS-series V8 with a traditional, unrestored-looking interior — built to be driven, not trailered. The video and its comments make the case for why Nomads still command a premium over other Tri-Five wagons, and why station wagons in general remain one of the most underrated entry points into classic Chevrolet ownership.
A 1968 Firebird and a modern Trans Am conversion making 655 horsepower have almost nothing in common except a badge, and on paper the comparison is over before it begins. Swap the keys, though, and the verdict gets far less obvious. Here is what separated Pontiac’s early F-body from its modern namesake, why the older car still wins arguments it should lose on numbers, and what got lost in between.
A 1965 Plymouth wearing rare copper paint and a 426 badge sounds like it should be running the legendary Hemi. It isn’t. A full year before the street Hemi rewrote what that number meant, Plymouth was already building a completely different 426 around a wedge combustion chamber. It lasted two model years before disappearing from the brochures almost entirely. Read on to find out what happened to the other 426.