History | Muscle Car Fan

Chevrolet Big Blocks W series—The First Generation

Chevrolet’s 348, 409, and 427-cubic-inch “W series” engines look nearly identical from the outside, sharing interchangeable heads and the same basic block architecture — with one telltale difference: dipstick placement. Introduced in 1958 as Chevrolet’s first true big-block V8, the family climbed from a 250-horsepower Turbo-Thrust up to a 350-horsepower Special Super Turbo-Thrust before the 409 and 427 took over as the brand’s flagship big-blocks. Read on for how to tell these engines apart and where each one fits in Chevrolet’s horsepower history.

Close-up of a classic car engine with a shiny air filter and chrome details.

5 Best Unknown V8 Engines From The Muscle Car Era

by Wes

A list of five supposedly forgotten muscle car V8s, set up in contrast to household names like the 426 Hemi and LS6 454, immediately sparked an argument in the comments from viewers who insist none of these engines were ever actually unknown. Along the way, commenters add their own nominees, including a Corvair sleeper that reportedly humiliated Chevelles and GTOs on the street. Watch to see which engines made the cut, and which ones viewers think got left out.

Person opening a garage door to reveal stacked blue barrels inside.

1961 Corvette Sees the Light of Day After 50 years

by Wes

Fifty years is long enough for a car to outlive the reasons someone parked it in the first place. This 1961 Corvette finally rolled back into daylight after five decades in storage, and the timing matters: 1961 was the last year Chevrolet built the Corvette exclusively around the 283 small-block, including a rare fuel-injected option. Here’s what makes a survivor like this one worth a second look.

A yellow sports car speeding on a winding mountain road at sunset.

2010 Challenger vs.1970 Challenger | Comparison Test |

by Wes

Inside Line pits a 2010 Dodge Challenger against its 1970 ancestor in this Edmunds.com comparison test — but the vintage car is not stock. It is a Hotchkis-modified Trans Am platform car, and viewers who have ridden in it firsthand explain exactly what was changed and what was not. Watch to see how a well-rounded modern Challenger stacks up against fifty-year-old muscle built for the road course.

Top 10 wheels featured on Muscle Car of the Week.

Hot Wheels: Top 10 Wheels From Muscle Cars

by Wes

Inside The Brothers Collection, one of the largest privately held muscle car archives in the country, Muscle Car Of The Week ranked ten factory wheel designs that defined the era — from Yenko’s Atlas aluminum wheel to the Mopar A12’s no-frills steel 15-incher. One comment on the episode sums up the era’s logic perfectly: stamped steel wheels with dog-dish caps usually meant the money went into the engine instead. Watch to see which design took the top spot.

Two classic muscle cars parked in front of a vintage gas station.

70’s Muscle Cars

by Wes

My Classic Car’s Dennis finds two of 1970’s rarest survivors in the same Indiana town: the only Ram Air III GTO Judge built in Orbit Orange, and a 440-Six Barrel Plymouth Road Runner convertible, one of roughly thirty ever made. See the factory details behind both cars, how the Six Pack carburetor setup actually worked, and a commenter’s vivid memory of seeing one new at a mall in 1970.

1956 Ford Galaxy convertible displayed in a classic car showroom.

Restoration Blog: 1966 Ford Galaxie, Ultimate Edition

by Wes

Jay Leno ordered this 1966 Ford Galaxie as a sixteen-year-old, reportedly behind his father’s back, and decades later he’s calling its restoration ‘finally’ complete for the third time. Along the way, one exchange about a muffler and a rocketship has become, according to his own fans, one of the best stories Jay has ever told on the show. Watch to see what took the Ultimate Edition build so long to get right.

Tesla Electric enter 2013 “S” Sedan muscle Roadster from 2006

by Ross Mills

Before the Tesla Model S ever reached dealerships, there was the Roadster — unveiled at a private, invitation-only event in a Santa Monica hangar in 2006 and eventually delivered to 2,418 owners across 31 countries. By 2013, Tesla’s Model S sedan could hit 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, seat seven passengers, and still return real-world usability that undercut the Roadster’s price by tens of thousands of dollars. Read on for the full numbers behind Tesla’s first decade of building genuinely quick electric cars.

Close-up of a red 1970 Chevrolet SS454 LS6 car emblem.

1970 Chevelle SS454 LS6 Barn Find Found In A Huge Car Collection

by Wes

A 1970 Chevelle sitting inside one of Delaware’s largest private car collections turned out to be hiding a factory LS6 454 — GM’s rarest and most powerful big-block option that year, built for just over 4,000 Chevelles nationwide. Chevelle Magazine gave it a nickname that stuck: the ‘Fossil From Flint.’ Watch to see how a cowl tag turned an overlooked coupe into a magazine-featured discovery.

Classic green muscle car with dual white racing stripes parked indoors.

True Stories of The Muscle Car Fan: AMC Exec Passes Javelin AMX With Go Package

by Pat C

Brad Mathis learned to drive on his grandfather’s grasshopper-green AMC Javelin AMX — a fully loaded “Go Package” car built by a man who spent his career working inside AMC’s High-Speed Stop Division. What started as supervised laps around a garage at age twelve grew into a personal collection of seven AMC vehicles and a Javelin now in its fourth generation of family ownership. Read on for how one family turned a single car into a lifelong AMC obsession.

Chevrolet Impala SS 1963 images

by Ross Mills

The 1963 Impala SS looks like a full-size cruiser and, ordered correctly, was one of the fastest cars Chevrolet sold that year. The car in this Gateway Classic Cars gallery carries the rare factory dash-mounted tachometer, an option most buyers skipped and the one that tells you what the original owner intended. Read on for the engine that a pop song made famous and the aluminum trim that defines the model year.

Nissan GT-R 2014 is a supercar

by Ross Mills

Nissan split its 2014 GT-R into three distinct machines built on one platform: a genuinely comfortable Premium trim, a styling-focused Black Edition, and a 150-unit Track Edition with the back seats deleted entirely. All three shared a hand-built 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 officially rated at 545 horsepower — though real-world estimates run considerably higher. With a base price near $100,000 and a claimed 2.7-second 0-62 time, the GT-R undercut plenty of pricier rivals. Read on for how the numbers broke down trim by trim.

A vintage Mercedes car with a YouTube play button overlay and text about sleeper cars.

Sleepers! Muscle Cars That Are Faster Than They Look! Muscle Car of the Week Video Episode 215 V8TV

by Wes

V8TV pulled six cars from The Brothers Collection for this Muscle Car of the Week episode, each one chosen specifically because it does not look like what it actually is — including a supercharged Studebaker Avanti and a four-door, four-speed 1965 Galaxie R-Code 427. Viewers responded by sharing their own sleeper stories, from a grandfather’s 421 Super Duty Catalina to a Corvair packing a 327 small block in the back seat. Watch to see all six.

Classics of Cuba- a treasure trove of Yank Tanks in motion

by Ross Mills

Roughly 60,000 American cars are still working the streets of Havana, kept alive for over six decades without a single factory replacement part reaching the island. Cuba’s 1959 revolution triggered a US embargo that never lifted, freezing the classic car market in place and forcing owners to fabricate parts, source Soviet substitutes, and even swap in diesel engines just to keep their “Yank Tanks” running. Read on for how economics, not nostalgia, built one of the world’s most unusual classic car fleets.

A bright orange 1970 Dodge Challenger on display outdoors at sunset.

Highest Horsepower Of The 8 Classic Muscle Cars

by Wes

Car News TV counts down the eight highest-horsepower classic muscle cars, and viewers spent the comment section correcting nearly every figure on the list. Between disputed top speeds, mismatched engine badges, and overlooked contenders like the AMX, the pushback ends up telling a more accurate and more interesting story than the countdown itself.

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