History | Muscle Car Fan

1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with bold blue and black racing stripes.

1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air

Ford’s paperwork said the 1969 Mustang Mach 1’s 428 Cobra Jet made 335 horsepower — a number almost nobody who drove one actually believed. When Cobra Jet-powered cars started running 13.8-second quarter miles, NHRA officials moved them into a tougher competition class within months. This particular Mach 1, finished in Ram Air trim and pulled from the Brothers Collection, is a reminder of how aggressively Ford sandbagged its muscle car numbers. Watch to see why this body style still turns heads from every angle.

1971 Dodge Charger Daytona in a showroom, showcasing its sleek white design and iconic nose cone.

1971 Dodge Charger Daytona with a Sunroof & Hemi Engine Sound

by Wes

Dodge never actually built a 1971 Charger Daytona — the aero-warrior program ended after 1970. Gary and Pam Beineke built one anyway, using documentation of an actual Chrysler prototype, then added a 472 Six Pack, a Bi-wing spoiler, a pistol-grip five-speed, and, improbably, a sunroof. Completed in 2001 and shown at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, it’s a recreation detailed enough to make Mopar loyalists stop and ask questions. Watch to see how close two people got to building the car Chrysler almost made.

Classic 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee in black with bold stripes.

1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee 472 Hemi Mopar Muscle Car

by Wes

This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee wears a 472 cubic-inch Hemi under its hood — bigger than anything Dodge offered from the factory in this body style — backed by a four-speed manual transmission. Photographed at Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles, Missouri, it’s the kind of B-body Mopar that inspired decades of grade-school parking-lot burnouts and grown men promising to buy one the day they win the lottery. Watch to see what a stroked Hemi and a cartoon bee badge can still do to a crowd.

1973 Oldsmobile 442 in silver with red accents on display outdoors.

1970 Oldsmobile 442 W-30 – Never Bested!

by Wes

Oldsmobile built its single best muscle car in 1970, and the 442 W-30 has never been matched by anything the brand made afterward. Between an owner still driving his thirty years later and a family’s own Hurst-shifted Holiday Coupe, the stories behind this car go well beyond a spec sheet. Watch to see exactly what earned the 442 W-30 its “never bested” reputation.

Ultra-Rare Barn Find!!: 1968 Shelby GT500KR Convertible

by Wes

Nelson Bandy spent years trying to buy a 1968 Shelby GT500KR convertible from the young couple who owned it in Lobelville, Tennessee, before finally closing the deal in the summer of 1978. He has driven it so rarely since that it spent the last 30 years hidden inside a pair of storage containers. Read on to find out what makes this one of just 318 GT500KR convertibles built, and why Bandy still cannot decide whether to restore it or just get it running as-is.

Black-and-white ad showcasing three Ford Falcon models from 1964.

VINTAGE: 1964 Plymouth Valiant vs Ford Falcon & Mercury Comet

by Wes

Long before Chrysler, Ford, and Mercury were trading horsepower figures in the muscle car wars, they were fighting over compact cars, and this rare Mopar training film pits the Valiant directly against the Ford Falcon and Mercury Comet. Made for dealership staff rather than the buying public, it’s a rawer look at how manufacturers actually sized up the competition. Watch to see the unglamorous platform war that quietly set up everything that came after it.

A blue 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda AAR with distinctive stripes.

Breakdown/ History: 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda AAR in EB5 Blue

by Wes

This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda AAR in EB5 Blue wears the signature strobe stripe and free-breathing 340 Six Pack that Plymouth built specifically to homologate the car for SCCA Trans-Am racing. Genuine AAR ‘Cudas carry a distinct VIN sequence that separates them from tribute cars wearing the same graphics, and this one checks out. Restored and offered through V8 Speed & Resto Shop, it’s a reminder that some of the era’s best-looking muscle cars started life as racing paperwork. Watch to see what a homologation special looks like done right.

Classic black muscle car with racing stripes parked outdoors.

1970 Pontiac GTO $33,900.00

by Wes

This 1970 Pontiac GTO isn’t a real Judge, and the Texas dealership selling it isn’t trying to say otherwise — it’s a genuine 242-code GTO wearing a body-up restoration and Judge-tribute styling, priced at $33,900. Under the hood is a correctly dressed 400 with HO heads, backed by Baer disc brakes and Hotchkis suspension for a car that can actually stop and turn. At 57,000 original miles, it’s asking buyers to decide what authenticity is really worth.

1973 Buick Century GS Sport Coupe in gold with 455 engine.

1973 Buick Century Gran Sport GS Stage 1 in Gold & 455 Engine Sound

by Wes

Phil Roitman’s 1973 Buick Century Gran Sport Stage 1 just earned a perfect 1,000-out-of-1,000 score at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, and commenters say its 455-cubic-inch idle might be the best-sounding exhaust note from any 1973 car, period. Roitman has owned the Harvest Gold Gran Sport since 2005 — and he holds another distinction too, having been the very first guest ever filmed for this YouTube series four years before this appearance. Watch to hear the engine note that has viewers arguing Buick built the real sleeper of 1973.

A red 1965 Chevrolet Malibu SS convertible with white interior.

History/Breakdown: 1965 Chevrolet Malibu SS 396 Z16

by Wes

Chevrolet built only 201 examples of the 1965 Chevelle Malibu SS Z16, and this Rally Red survivor may be one of an estimated 65 still around today. Under the hood sits the 375-horsepower L37 396, a detuned cousin of the Corvette’s L78, backed by a Muncie four-speed and an options list — tilt wheel, four-speaker stereo, 160-mph speedometer — that reads more like a luxury package than a muscle car spec sheet. One commenter even claims to own car number 40 of the original 201. Watch to see what made the Z16 Chevrolet’s quiet halo car.

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by Jack Harmon

A 1969 Camaro parked in rural Indiana since the 1970s turns out to be one of only 201 genuine Super Yenko conversions, and one of an even smaller handful built with an automatic transmission. See what made Don Yenko’s COPO loophole so effective, and why this Fathom Green survivor might be one of the rarest SYC Camaros left.

Original 1971 AMC Gremlin at a car event.

Only 674 original miles !! Superbird !!! Original Paint / Unrestored – Road Test TV

by Wes

A 1970 Plymouth Superbird spent nineteen years sitting before anyone put real miles on it, and it still shows just 674 on the odometer today. The factory B5 blue paint has never been touched by a repaint gun, and the numbers-matching 440 Super Commando under the hood still traces back to the original build sheet. Only 1,920 Superbirds were built for NASCAR homologation, and this one may be among the best-preserved survivors left. Is a car this original meant to be driven, or protected?

Classic 1955 Plymouth car in vibrant red on display with informational placards.

1965 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S Unrestored with 5804

by Wes

This 1965 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S has just 5,804 original miles — and after two careful owners spanning nearly six decades, this was its first car show ever. Owner Ron George’s dad got him and his brother into Mopars as kids, and this unrestored survivor even has commenters debating a muffler note that later model years reportedly lost. Watch to see what nearly six decades of restraint actually looks like.

Classic red convertible car parked near a wooded area on a sunny day.

Buick Skylark 1970 GSX tribute car-MCF George has bragging rights!

by Ross Mills

George was not hunting for a classic when he spotted a Buick Skylark with a for-sale sign in Lisbon, Ohio, in the summer of 2014; he just stopped for a closer look. What he found was a GS455-powered GSX tribute car with its original numbers-matching 350 engine stored safely away, parked in a garage alongside a small private muscle car collection. Read on to find out about the one-of-a-kind GM production mistake that makes a factory GS455 Stage I Skylark one of the rarest muscle cars of 1970.

1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback in green with black stripes.

1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback in Lime Gold Green & Engine Sound

by Wes

Cliff Batson calls himself a Chevy guy — but he’s owned this 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback in an unusual shade of Lime Gold since 1990, and it’s never left his garage. Under the hood is a drivetrain combo collectors still chase decades later, and the body shares its shape with the most famous car chase in movie history. Watch to find out why a self-described Chevy guy never let this Ford go.

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