Muscle Car Fan

Latest Posts Under: History

Chevrolet’s ‘W’ series big block ran into a hard power ceiling around 6,500 rpm, prompting a near-total redesign that became the Mark IV, nicknamed the ‘porcupine’ engine for its distinctive splayed valve angles. The new architecture kept key ‘W’ features like side-oiling and Moraine main bearings while dramatically improving high-rpm breathing. Read on to find out exactly what changed under the valve covers.

Dodge revived the Super Bee name for a 2013 Charger SRT8 variant built around a 470-horsepower, 6.4-liter Hemi V8 capable of a sub-5-second run to 60 mph. Beyond the straight-line speed, the car pairs Brembo brakes, Bilstein dampers, and a genuinely upscale Nappa leather interior with practical four-door, five-passenger versatility. Read on to find out what else separates the Super Bee from the rest of the Charger lineup.

Often called the car that started the entire muscle car genre, this 1965 Pontiac GTO rolls in wearing Tiger Gold paint, a 389 V8, and the close-ratio four-speed and limited-slip rear end that made it more than just a big engine in a mid-size body. Former GTO owners flooded the comments with their own stories, from decade-long daily-driver ownership to heated debates over the single best factory color combination. Watch the breakdown of the car that made John DeLorean’s rule-bending idea a legend.

Ford spent months teasing the next Shelby GT500 in camouflage and speculation before confirming it for the 2020 model year. Spy shots revealed a wider front track, massive Brembo brakes, and a supercharged version of the GT350’s 5.2-liter V8, while rumors pointed toward horsepower figures that dwarfed the outgoing GT500’s 662. Read on to find out how close the leaked details actually came to the car Ford eventually built.

A vintage Chevelle SS lines up against a modern Pontiac G8 in a straightforward drag race, and the result left at least one viewer typing in all caps demanding to know how the Chevelle possibly lost. Between the G8’s LS-based V8 and decades of advances in fuel injection and tire technology, this matchup turns out closer, and more lopsided, than nameplate reputation alone would predict. Watch the pass that still divides old-school muscle car loyalists.

The 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 ditched the screaming, race-homologated 302 V8 that defined its first two years for something radically different: a torquier, street-tuned LT-1 350. Some fans call it the best Z28 Chevrolet ever built; others say it lost the racing soul that made the nameplate special in the first place. Decades later, original owners are still driving these cars daily, and the argument over which engine, and which era, got it right hasn’t cooled off one bit. Watch to see the case for 1970.

King Rose Archives’ vintage newsreel-style profile of the Ford Thunderbird traces the car from its 1955 two-seat debut through the decades when Ford kept redefining what a “Thunderbird” even was. The comments underneath it read like their own oral history — a 427-powered 1962 bought as a $2,000 wedding present, a 1966 428 Q-code picked up for $600 from a woman who called it ugly, and a Sammy Davis Jr. sighting from decades ago. Watch the original piece, then read what four generations of T-Bird owners had to add.

Chrysler built roughly 9,137 street Hemi cars between 1966 and 1971, and only a sliver of them left the factory as convertibles. The 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T Hemi convertible is widely considered the rarest of the bunch at just two built, with Hagerty pegging a top example near $1.3 million. A numbers-matching 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible brought $3.5 million at Mecum in 2014. Read on for why the drop-tops are so scarce and what separates a real one from a clone.

MadRatt Garage’s air ride saga on his 1964 Chevy C10 hits a stubborn snag in this Part 2: the compressor finally works, but the front bag won’t release air no matter what he tries. It’s the kind of real-world troubleshooting that separates DIY restoration content from polished shop videos — no guaranteed fix, no script, just a guy working through a problem on a budget. Watch to see whether he finds the culprit, or adds it to next episode’s to-do list.

Tom’s one-day transformation of a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle didn’t just change the way the car looks — it started an argument in the comments before the video even hit widescreen. Between a debated wheel swap, a safety tip about a badly placed fuel filter, and a soundtrack that reduced multiple viewers to tears for reasons that had nothing to do with the car, this quick build turned into something bigger than a Saturday project. Watch to see what a single afternoon and the right set of wheels can actually do.

This special report confidently explained why and when FCA was about to retire its legendary Hemi V8, and years of comments posted underneath it tell a very different story. Owners with hundreds of thousands of miles on their 5.7-liter Hemis, buyers racing to purchase one before it’s gone, and even an enthusiast writing in from Italy all showed up to correct the timeline. Watch the original case for the Hemi’s death, then see why the internet never let it stick.

By 1977, the Dodge Charger nameplate barely resembled the fastback muscle car that made it famous a decade earlier — and the R/T badge on this particular car raises a question most muscle car reviews skip entirely: was it still earning that name, or just borrowing it? AutoMastersHQ digs into the specs, the styling, and the restoration realities of a Charger most collectors overlook. Watch to find out what got lost, and what actually survived, in the decade between 1968 and 1977.

Episode 220 of Muscle Car of the Week puts a 1971 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am under the spotlight, a car built at the exact moment insurance surcharges and tightening emissions rules were squeezing the muscle car era from every direction. Retaining the 455 H.O. option was Pontiac’s answer. Watch the full video to see why viewers are calling it Pontiac’s best Trans Am.

In 1984, a dare on a dirt road outside Kingman, Arizona taught Vicki how to drive a stick shift in her sister’s black 1967 Camaro RS/SS — and planted a want that took nearly thirty years to satisfy. In 2013, she finally found her own, an almost perfectly restored example listed on Craigslist in Brooklyn, Michigan. Read on for how one proving-them-wrong moment turned into a lifelong Camaro obsession, complete with a matching-numbers engine still waiting for its turn.

Car News TV’s countdown of Ford’s greatest engines opens with the flathead V8 and closes on a hard-pulling 428 Cobra Jet Mustang — but it is what got left out that dominated the comments. Viewers made the case for the 351 Cleveland, the long-running 300 straight six, and even the modern Coyote 5.0, each with their own specific ownership stories. Watch the countdown, then see what fans think should have made the cut.


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