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Jay Leno’s garage takes a detour from Ferraris this time, bringing in five classic California Highway Patrol vehicles spanning four decades of law enforcement history. CHP Captain Matt Guthrie and former Commissioner Spike Helmick join to explain how pursuit vehicles evolved, alongside the brand-new Ford Explorer about to join the active fleet. It’s a rare look at cars built not to win races, but to catch the cars that did.
Named after Garth Brooks’ hit about ditching pretension for good company, the Friends in Low Places Car Truck and Bike Show made it to its sixth year by keeping things simple: an open field, a mix of muscle cars, trucks, and bikes, and no velvet-rope attitude. Grassroots shows like this one rarely make headlines, but they’re often where the most honest, unrestored survivors turn up.
Ford spent most of the 1960s watching the GTO and the Road Runner dominate the mid-size muscle conversation from the outside. The 1968 Torino GT, detailed by OldCarMemories.com, changed that — pairing a 390 V8 with the now-legendary 428 Cobra Jet option to turn Ford into a genuine sales leader in the segment. Watch to see what finally got Ford taken seriously.
Crossing half a million fans is a rare milestone for any niche car community, and Muscle Car Fan marked the occasion with a short trailer rather than a highlight reel. Behind the number is years of quietly building an audience through owner interviews and features rather than one viral moment. Watch to see how the community got here, and what it says about where it’s headed.
The 1970s get blamed for killing American muscle, but Zueira Automotiva’s roundup argues the decade deserves a second look. Between insurance surcharges, tightening emissions rules, and a horsepower rating system that changed overnight, plenty of genuinely quick cars got buried under a reputation they didn’t fully earn. Watch to see which ones still hold up.
Chrysler’s “Elephant” Hemi made a heavy comeback in 1964, boasting a whopping 426 cubic inches and enough size to need its own zip code. Known for its robust power, this engine was a hit in NASCAR until it got benched in 1965 for being too exclusive. Revamped for the streets in 1966, the Hemi roared into drag racing fame, proving itself the heavyweight champ. Despite its hefty price tag and appetite for parts, the 426 Hemi remains a legend that left competitors in the dust, or at least eating plenty of it!
The AC Cobra Mark III is the car that put the ‘zoom’ in ‘vroom’ and made Corvettes cry. Born from a British roadster, it was beefed up in Los Angeles with a Ford engine, transforming into a racing beast. Detroit Ford worked with Shelby to craft the Mark III, boasting a 427 engine that could hit 185 mph on race tracks and leave a trail of awestruck spectators. The British government even imposed speed limits after one Cobra hit 186 mph on the M1! Talk about leaving a mark—or a skid mark, in this case.
Only about 135 examples of the 1970 Plymouth Superbird were built with the legendary 426 Hemi, and Tom Lembeck has owned one of them, finished in Vitamin C orange, since 2007. Behind the towering wing and nose cone sits a NASCAR homologation story and one of Chrysler’s rarest street engines. Watch this Hemi Superbird up close and hear what genuine rarity sounds like at idle.
The 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal is a luxury sports car that, despite its Canadian moniker, never hit the North American market due to pesky emission and safety regulations. Only 3,917 were made, with just a handful in the Americas. Appearing first at Montreal’s 1967 world’s fair, it delighted crowds with its futuristic design by Lamborghini Miura’s creator. Its aluminum V8 engine, unique design quirks, and airplane-like cockpit make it a joy for speed enthusiasts, even if getting one is like finding a unicorn.
Dave Murawski was thirteen years old the first time a Buick GS Stage 1 caught his eye, and he didn’t own one of his own until 2010. This 1972 example in Arctic White, powered by Buick’s 455-cubic-inch big block, represents the closing of a decades-long chapter that started with a kid watching one drive past. See the car, and hear that 455, for yourself.
Lynne Adam learned to drive on this 1960 Ford Thunderbird decades before it disappeared into storage, only to reemerge in 2002 for a restoration that would take her husband Mike thirteen years to finish. Painted Monte Carlo Red, the finished Square Bird made its public debut at the 2016 World of Wheels show in Wisconsin. Watch the engine come to life for the very first time in front of a crowd.
A 1967 Shelby GT350 that spent thirty years parked in a barn is a rare enough sight on its own, rarer still when you consider Shelby only built 1,175 GT350 fastbacks that year before shifting production out of California for good. Under the redesigned car’s longer fiberglass hood sat a 306-horsepower 289 High Performance V8, with a Paxton supercharger still on the order sheet for buyers who wanted more. This barn find is a reminder of how few of these cars survive untouched.
This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee carries the rare A12 package, a 463-dollar option that swapped in a 440-cubic-inch V8 wearing three two-barrel carburetors for one strange mid-year run. Only 1,907 were built before Dodge moved on. Stock, these cars ran mid-13-second quarter miles, embarrassing plenty of pricier machinery on the strip.
A 1967 Chevrolet Impala sat untouched for thirty-three years before its owner finally turned the key to see what, if anything, would happen. Revival videos like this one capture something polished dealer walkarounds never can: the real uncertainty of bringing a long-dormant machine back to life. Watch to see whether three decades of silence gave way to a running engine.
This 1968 Buick Skylark looks almost entirely stock from the outside — which is exactly the point. Underneath sits a 455 with upgraded valve train components and a stall converter dialed in to launch hard, a combination that’s put this mostly original car into 11-second quarter mile territory. It’s the sleeper formula executed about as well as it gets. Watch the joyride and see just how much this unassuming Skylark can really do.