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In 1970, Plymouth gave the Barracuda an entirely new body just to make room for the 426 Hemi — something the old Valiant-based platform could never have handled. The two model years that followed brought colors named “Moulin Rouge” and “Sassy Grass Green,” a four-headlight styling change found in no other year, and a Hemi-powered racing chapter that oddly plays out better in France than in America. Read on to find out what made this brief window so collectible.
Episode 239 of Muscle Car of the Week spotlights a 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T built around the legendary 440 Six Pack, straight from the Brothers Collection. Shot in deep black paint during golden hour, this Mean Machine was built for one purpose: burning up the drag strip. Watch the full walkaround.
A nitrous-fed 1970 Chevy Impala, a four-door family sedan by any normal definition, lines up against a Mustang LX and a supercharged Shelby GT500 in this quarter-mile footage. The results have viewers arguing for years about sandbagging, wheel size, and whether an unglamorous big-block sedan deserves a spot in the same conversation as a factory-supercharged Mustang. Watch to see who actually crosses the stripe first.
A vintage 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T commercial has quietly become a cult favorite for reasons that have little to do with horsepower: a blustering, law-enforcement bit built around a Southern sheriff that viewers now recognize as an eerie preview of Buford T. Justice, seven years before Smokey and the Bandit made the archetype famous. Behind the joke sits a genuinely serious muscle car, available with everything from a 383 Magnum up to the 426 Hemi. Watch the full spot to see where the joke started.
This numbers-matching 1970 Plymouth Cuda pairs its factory 440 Six Pack V8 with a pistol-grip 4-speed and a restoration matched down to the original paint and trim codes. In the comments, one owner recalls an unrestored French example with the same drivetrain selling for ,000. Watch to see what a correctly restored Six Pack Cuda looks like today.
Before it became the most famous crime-fighting car on television, the 1955 Lincoln Futura was a $250,000 Ghia-built concept car with a double plastic canopy and a 300-horsepower V8. A decade later, George Barris pulled it out of storage and turned it into the original Batmobile. Here’s the real story behind the car everyone’s been trying to guess.
Plymouth needed an answer to the Pontiac GTO, and in 1967 they built one by dropping a standard 440-cubic-inch, 375-horsepower Super Commando V8 into a dressed-up Belvedere and calling it the GTX. Unlike most muscle cars of the era, buyers didn’t have to option their way up to big power – Plymouth handed it to them standard, with the fabled 426 Hemi waiting as an upgrade.
A Plymouth Fury wasn’t even a real model in 1958 — it was just an option box you checked on a Belvedere. By the mid-1960s it was hiding a 365-horsepower “Street Wedge” V8 in a full-size body, and by the mid-1970s it had swapped that muscle for cruise control, a digital clock, and a six-barrel-optioned GT package along the way. Read on to find out how one nameplate lived several completely different automotive lives.
This 1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II was built to race the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird on NASCAR’s fastest tracks, using the same aerodynamic-war engineering, before a rule change ended the entire aero era before it ever competed. Owner Steve Honnell preserves the genuine 1-of-1 car alongside its period jacket and factory stereo, complete with the 429’s unmistakable 12.5:1-compression growl. Watch to hear a NASCAR weapon that never got to fight.
Nick’s Garage pulled a rare 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A Six Pack out of nine years of storage and waited until after closing to attempt the first start alone. A 340ci engine that’s sat that long can seize, hydro-lock, or simply refuse to catch — and the only way to know is to turn the key. Watch to see which way it goes.
A rare 1970 Yenko Nova — one of only 175 built with the solid-lifter LT1 350 — lines up against a car most fans would never expect to see at a drag strip: a supercharged 1964 Studebaker Challenger R3 known on the Pure Stock circuit as “plain brown wrapper.” One car carries a legendary tuner’s name. The other carries a Paxton supercharger and a reputation for embarrassing far more famous machinery. Detailed specs, a genuine underdog story, and a finish line that does not care which badge looks better. Watch to see which one gets there first.
Chevrolet planned to build one hundred Grand Sport Corvettes in 1963. Only five ever left the factory, and all five still survive in private hands today. That’s just the beginning of the story of the second-generation Corvette’s five model years, which moved from a one-year-only split rear window to a factory 427 so powerful Chevrolet wouldn’t put the real horsepower number on paper. Read on to find out how the Sting Ray earned its reputation.
Bob Welling served as a Marine in Vietnam, came home a died-in-the-wool Chevy guy, and still ended up chasing down a piece of 1968 Mopar history decades later. What started as a simple fix for an engine rattle turned into a full supercharged Hemi build — one so powerful that hitting the throttle at highway speed sends the rear end sideways. Read on to find out how a tribute to Dodge’s rarest factory drag cars became Bob’s daily street cruiser.
The 1974 Torino tried to be two cars at once: a muscle car still carrying a Cobra Jet option, and a brand-new luxury model, the Gran Torino Elite, built for buyers who’d rather have a power sunroof than a four-speed. Federal bumper mandates added inches and pounds, a one-year seatbelt interlock law came and went, and the fastback body style vanished for good. Read on to find out how one model year captured the entire identity crisis facing American performance cars in 1974.
Dodge didn’t build the Charger 500 to win car shows — they built it to win NASCAR races, flush grille and all. Bud Lindemann puts this 426 Hemi example through acceleration, braking, and cornering tests loaded with one-liners that are still quoted decades later. Watch to see why enthusiasts call it the holy grail of Chargers.