History | Muscle Car Fan

Ford Fairlane Ranchero – Conception 1957 to 1959

This 1957 Ford Fairlane Club Victoria hardtop hides a fuel-injected 5.0-liter Fox-body V8 under its Colonial White and Spectramaster Blue two-tone paint, backed by an AOD automatic and a 9-inch Ford rear. The gauge cluster and power windows were adapted from a 1988 Thunderbird, while Granada front brakes and Fatman dropped spindles modernize the ride without erasing the original drums out back. Vanguard Motor Sales in Michigan has the full build documented. Watch to see how three decades of Ford parts bins ended up under one 1950s roofline.

A vintage drag racing car performing a wheelie at a race event.

428 Cobra Jet Mustang vs Ram Air 400 Firebird 1/4 mile Drag Race – Road Test TV

by Wes

Road Test TV pits a rare 1969 428 Cobra Jet Mustang GT Coupe, one of only 243 built, against an equally scarce 1968 Pontiac Firebird Ram Air 400. Commenters immediately dig up a 1968 Car and Driver test where the Ram Air 400 beat four rival muscle cars outright, setting the stakes for this quarter-mile rematch. Watch to see whether Pontiac’s airflow-focused engineering or Ford’s Cobra Jet muscle wins this round.

A 1967 Chevrolet Camaro in light green with a man standing beside it.

Secret Ist ever 1967 Camaro built May 1966 Num. N100001

by Wes

Serial number N100001 places this 1967 Camaro among the very first pilot cars Chevrolet ever assembled, built in May 1966 months before the model’s public debut. Somewhere along the way it became a race car, a transformation that still divides viewers between frustration and relief that the original parts were reportedly saved. Watch to see the car, and the debate, for yourself.

Classic 1968 Pontiac GTO Judge in orange on display.

1970 Pontiac GTO JUDGE on MUSCLE CAR REVIEW

by Wes

GM pulled a Super Bowl IV commercial for this car’s Vacuum Operated Exhaust option after it aired exactly once, and cancelled the option itself just weeks later. This 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge review digs into that history, the Ram Air engines that defined the package, and the Orbit Orange paint that became the Judge’s visual signature. Watch to find out how rare the surviving VOE-equipped cars really are.

1971 yellow Plymouth Hemicuda convertible car showcased.

Review/Breakdown: 1971 Plymouth hemicuda Convertible

by Wes

Only eleven 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertibles left the factory with the 426 Hemi under the hood, out of just 374 convertibles built for the entire model year. This bright yellow and white example from The Brothers Collection pairs Chrysler’s most feared engine with a body style built for leisurely summer cruising, a mismatch that makes it one of the rarest muscle cars ever sold. Watch the full breakdown to see why.

A white 1967 Ford Mustang fastback on a scenic highway at sunset.

The Martini Mustang is Loud & Fast Art

by Wes

Builder Steve Strope calls it his cancer, only half joking, and the Mustang fastback he built to answer one strange question proves the obsession was worth it: what if Ford and Martini Racing had actually partnered up? Powered by a motor descended from Ford’s 1960s Lotus Indy Car program and wrapped in one of motorsport’s most iconic liveries, this build rewards close inspection. Watch to see the details fans are still finding.

Ferrari California Special—A Short History

by Ross Mills

A Ferrari 250 California Special once owned by actor James Coburn sold for $11 million in 2008, a staggering jump from its status as a low-volume, hand-built specialty model when it debuted in 1961. Every 250-series Ferrari shared the same race-bred V12 and a weight advantage that let it out-corner faster, heavier rivals like Jaguar on the track. Read on to find out how the California Special’s siblings, the 250S, 250MM, and Monza, each carved out their own piece of Ferrari’s early competition history.

A classic black muscle car driving on a road under a clear sky.

American Aston Martin? ’66 Malibu

by Wes

Enzo Morales took a 1966 Chevrolet Malibu, a trim level Chevrolet never intended to be anything special, and built it into something viewers compare to a Mercedes CL63 or a Bentley Continental GT. The result raises a genuinely odd question: can an American mid-size sedan earn the nickname ‘American Aston Martin’? Watch to see the build, and the burnout, that convinced a crowd of onlookers the answer is yes.

Porsche Carrera GT 2004 to 2007

by Ross Mills

Porsche’s Carrera GT nearly never happened; its V10 engine was designed in 1992, shelved, revived, and shelved again before finally reaching production in 2004, funded in part by profits from the Cayenne SUV that had once stolen its budget. Only 1,270 were built through 2006, each one carrying racing details like a wood shift knob borrowed from the Porsche 917 and a left-side ignition switch built for Le Mans-style starts. Read on to find out how a shelved engineering project became one of the last analog Porsche supercars ever built.

Driver's view inside Richard Petty's NASCAR race car on the track.

Riding In Richard Petty’s Superbird

by Wes

Todd Werner’s restored #43 Plymouth Superbird carries the STP livery and race history tied directly to Richard Petty, one of the most recognizable combinations in NASCAR history. Filmed from the passenger floor of the car itself at Atlanta Motor Speedway, this ride-along captures what made Plymouth’s aero-war weapon so intimidating before NASCAR regulated it out of competition after a single season. Watch to see why fans call it the greatest NASCAR machine ever built.

Classic 1969 Pontiac Firebird in green displayed indoors.

1969 Pontiac Firebird in Verdoro Green & 400 Ram Air IV Engine Sound

by Wes

Tom Stutzman’s 1969 Pontiac Firebird wears one of Pontiac’s rarest paint colors over one of its rarest engines, a 400 cubic inch Ram Air IV most buyers never got the chance to order. Restored over several years by Barnes Classic Restorations and shown at the notoriously detail-obsessed Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, this Firebird represents the kind of correctness that takes real judges to fully appreciate. Watch to find out what separates a genuinely correct restoration from one that only looks right from a distance.

Classic red Dodge Challenger R/T parked outdoors with HEMI badge.

This Dodge Hemi Challenger R/T Is One Family’s Surviving Muscle Car

by Wes

Juan Escalante’s father fell for the Dodge Challenger at the 1969 Detroit Auto Show, months before it reached dealerships. The 426 Hemi, four-speed R/T he eventually bought — one of only 137 built with that combination — spent 24 years in Venezuela, where local enthusiasts nicknamed it ‘El Hemi,’ before a nine-year restoration brought it back. The car was finished in 2005. Its owner didn’t live to see it.

Ford Torino 1971

by Ross Mills

Ford retired both the Fairlane and Falcon nameplates for 1971, folding everything into a fourteen-model Torino lineup that ranged from a plain two-door sedan to the four-speed, 285-hp Torino Cobra. EPA-mandated compression cuts quietly trimmed horsepower across nearly every engine that year, even as Ford kept offering genuine performance touches like the Ram Air shaker hood and Hurst-shifted four-speeds. Read on to find out what a magazine-tuned Cobra 429 could still do at the drag strip in 1971.

A restored 1970 Plymouth Cuda Custom Restored car in bright orange.

805 HP 1970 Plymouth Cuda Custom Restomod & Engine Sound

by Wes

Jeff Schwartz of Schwartz Performance Inc. spent two years turning a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda into something far more than a restoration: a Pearl Orange Metallic restomod packing 805 horsepower from a 426 Hemi, built on a modern chassis and engineered to handle like a road-ready race car. The shape is instantly familiar. Almost everything underneath it isn’t.

El Camino Last Generation-1979 until 1987

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet’s fifth-generation El Camino, built from 1979 through 1987, had to survive an energy crisis that punished anything with a big V8, and it did so with a shrinking body, a maze of trim names, and even a diesel V8 option that saved fuel but earned a reputation for expensive repairs. Read on to find out how a car-truck hybrid balanced performance and economy through one of the toughest decades for American muscle.

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