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Long before Pontiac built the GTO and started the muscle car era in earnest, Chevrolet was already chasing serious horsepower out of a small-block V8 — and doing it with fuel injection instead of a carburetor. This 1959 Corvette from The Brothers Collection wears its rare Rochester Ramjet system under a crown sapphire hood, a full decade ahead of the cars usually credited with starting the muscle car story. Watch to see what a factory fuelie 283 actually looks like in person.
A 1969 Corvette with the ultra-rare L88 427 — one of only 116 built — lines up against a 1972 Oldsmobile 442 W30, one of just 772 made, in a quarter-mile race between two factory options that were both deliberately underrated on paper. A former 442 owner in the comments insists his car’s true output was well beyond its listed 300 horsepower. Watch the run and the trap speeds that back him up.
After thirty years sitting untouched with its original one owner, this 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 XL — a genuine 428, four-speed big-block — fires back up on camera in Hotwoods Pontoon’s footage. Commenters flooded in with memories of nearly identical family cars from the same era, and one pointed out the fitting choice of Hotel California playing as the engine came back to life. Watch to see whether three decades of silence was enough to keep this 428 from running again.
For years, collectors traded rumors about an untouched, low-mileage 1970 Chevelle SS 454 LS6 without ever confirming it was real. My Car Story host Lou Costabile tracks down the car — all-original, with just 4,305 miles and even its factory tires still on it — and the chain of connections that finally brought it to owner David Beem. Commenters are calling it a genuine Holy Grail of muscle car survivors. Watch the moment its LS6 fires up for the first time in years.
Chevrolet officially rated the 1968 Camaro Z/28’s 302 small-block at 290 horsepower, a number this episode of Muscle Car Of The Week puts to the test on the dyno, with results considerably higher. Built around SCCA Trans-Am rules, the Z/28 paired that underrated engine with a stiffened chassis and the only 15-inch Rally wheels ever fitted to a first-gen Camaro. Watch to see how far off the factory number really was.
A countdown of “8 of Chevrolet’s Greatest Engines” left off the small-block 350 entirely, and muscle car fans in the comments are not having it. From the 1955 original 265 that started the whole small-block family, to the 409, the high-output 327, the 450-horsepower LS6 454, and a stock numbers-matching 427 nearly lost to a Jeep swap for under , the real list of Chevy greats might look nothing like the video’s. Which engines actually deserve the crown?
Oldsmobile’s second-generation Cutlass abandoned its underperforming compact roots for an intermediate-size platform, and by April 1964 it had spawned the 4-4-2, an option package built on the bones of a police pursuit special. From a strong first sales year to a rare 1967 Turnpike model, the G2 Cutlass quietly built the foundation for one of Oldsmobile’s most respected performance names. Read on to find out how it evolved year to year.
This 1967 Chevrolet Nova SS hides a 565 cubic-inch Dart Pro M aluminum big block reportedly making 900 horsepower — a number that has nothing to do with anything Chevrolet built for this body style. A narrowed 9-inch rear on ladder bars, a transbrake, and a tubbed six-point cage all point toward serious quarter-mile intentions, while custom Indigo Blue paint and stainless trim keep it show-worthy too. Gateway Classic Cars documented every part on this Chicago showroom build. Watch to see what a full Pro Street transformation of a compact muscle car actually looks like.
V8TV does not re-run the quarter-mile for this countdown, it pulls the quickest elapsed times magazines actually published in 1970 and pairs each ranking with a real survivor from the Brothers Collection. Hemi Challengers, an LS6 Chevelle, a 455 Stage 1 Buick GSX, and a stripped-down Road Runner all make the cut. Watch to see which car actually topped the list, it is not the one most people assume.
Pontiac built only eight 1969 Trans Am convertibles, and V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week caught up with the very first one ever produced — RAIII 400 power, a rare blue interior, and options like power windows that were unusual for a car built primarily as an SCCA homologation special. Restorer Gary Riley walks through the car’s history from the floor of the 2015 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals. Even in the comments, collectors still disagree on the exact production numbers. Watch to see what makes this one of the rarest Trans Ams ever built.
A 1973 comparison test that Australian magazines dreamed up but never actually ran finally happens decades late, pairing Fords Falcon XA GT Hardtop, Chryslers Charger E55, Holdens Monaro 350, and the doomed Leyland Force 7V in one frame. Three of these cars fought it out on Australian roads and racetracks for real; the fourth never got the chance, killed by British Leylands 1974 collapse before a single customer could buy one. Shannons Insurance staged the recreation the industry never managed in period. Which of these four legends finally comes out on top?
This compilation skips the usual Camaro-and-Mustang highlight reel to spotlight muscle cars that never got their due — built entirely around engine sound and on-screen text rather than narration. Cars like the AMC Rebel Machine and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler packed genuinely competitive specs but never had the marketing muscle of their more famous rivals. Decades later, they’re still waiting for recognition.
Long before the 1968 Corvette reached showrooms, GM design chief Bill Mitchell used a one-off 1967 Camaro convertible called the Cherokee to test styling ideas that would define it. Muscle Car Of The Week talks with restorer Charley Hutton about bringing the car back, including bumper and color details subtle enough that even longtime Camaro owners miss them. Watch to see the concept even collectors rarely know exists.
Snowball Bishop’s old Ford coupe dirt-track racer sat behind his barn for decades, its Chrysler 440 V8 silent and its racing days seemingly over. Hagerty’s Redline Rebuild crew took on the full teardown-to-startup rebuild, hitting real delays along the way before finally getting the engine running and the car back on an actual dirt track after a fifty-year hiatus. It’s grassroots racing history, not a garage queen.
V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week spends time with a 440-powered 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona from The Brothers Collection, breaking down the aerodynamic nose cone and towering rear wing that made it the first car to officially top 200 mph on a NASCAR superspeedway. Comments dig into the engineering, the Daytona-versus-Superbird confusion, and even a family drag-racing memory from the car’s original era. It’s a deep look at Detroit’s wildest aero experiment. Watch to see the full breakdown.