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AMC built exactly one two-seat steel-bodied American sports car during the muscle car era, and it wasn’t trying to be subtle about its ambitions. The AMX set 106 world speed and endurance records before its public debut, then backed that up with genuine cornering ability alongside straight-line speed. Read on to see how a three-year model run earned back-to-back engineering awards from the Society of Automotive Engineers.
The Ford Galaxie’s first three model years hid a genuine engineering experiment behind conventional full-size styling — a batch of roughly 200 lightweight race-only cars built to shed weight nobody expected Ford to bother losing. Add a one-year-only retractable hardtop and a short-lived Starliner body style, and the 1959-1961 Galaxie turns out to be far more interesting than its reputation as just a big sedan suggests. Read on for what made these years different.
The full-size Impala rarely makes anyone’s mental list of great muscle cars, which usually starts with Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, and Chargers. But before the Chevelle existed, the Impala SS was where Chevrolet kept its performance program, and the engines available in it were serious enough that the Beach Boys wrote a hit song about one. The case for reassessing the Impala is stronger than the hobby generally admits.
Dale and Phyllis bought their Boss 429 Mustang new on March 18, 1969, from a dealer in Memphis, and then did something almost nobody does: they kept every piece of paper that came with it. Nearly five decades and 21,400 miles later, the car crossed the block at Barrett-Jackson in Las Vegas still wearing its original drivetrain and carrying its window sticker. Read on for why that documentation is worth as much as the engine.
The 1969 Camaro shows up at nearly every car show in America, which makes it easy to forget how enormous the gap is between a base six-cylinder car and a COPO 427. Same body, same year, wildly different money. Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard walks through what actually separates them and where the traps are hiding. Read on to find out what to check before you write a deposit on one.
This 1967 Ford Mustang GT Fastback started life as a documented S-code 390 California car before a ground-up rebuild pushed it to Shelby GT500 specification inside and out, right down to the correct wheels and fiberglass hood. Backed by a Marti Report and sold through Fast Lane Classic Cars, it offers genuine Shelby presence at a fraction of what a real 1967 GT500 now commands at auction. Watch to see the build up close.
A small group of muscle car enthusiasts built Equus Automotive around a simple bet: that a hand-built coupe with a Corvette ZR1 drivetrain and a retro-inspired body could compete with far more established manufacturers. The Bass770 backs that bet with 640 horsepower, carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes, and a six-figure price tag to match. Read on to see what a four-month custom build actually gets you.
Ford’s FE and FT V8 family wore more names than almost any engine Detroit ever built — Marauder, Interceptor, Thunderbird Special V8 — depending on the badge on the fender and the year on the title. This first installment breaks down the block architecture, oiling designs, and riser-head terminology that confuses even experienced Ford collectors, tracing the family from its earliest 332 and 352 cubic inch beginnings. Read on for the specs that matter before your next FE rebuild.
A turbocharged modern Camaro and a nitrous-fed first-generation car lined up at the same Redemption 6.0 session in Tulsa, Oklahoma, finally putting decades of new-school-versus-old-school arguments to an actual test. Urban Hillbilly Videos captured the Big Tire Class run in full, unedited, letting two completely different performance philosophies settle their differences on the same strip. Read on to see which approach came out ahead.
A two-character code on the door tag is the first thing serious 1969 Mustang buyers check — R-Code identifies the 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air V8, officially rated at 335 horsepower but closer to 400 in reality. RamblinAround documented one Acapulco Blue example carrying that code alongside a remarkably complete factory option list, all confirmed by a Marti Report. Read on to find out why Ford built the Cobra Jet in the first place.
This 1966 Ford Fairlane 500XL hides a 1969-spec 428 Cobra Jet under its personal-luxury styling, backed by a four-speed, a 9-inch Posi rear, and period-correct 427 R-code exhaust manifolds. WeBe Autos Ltd. is offering it as a finished, sorted build rather than an unfinished project. Watch the full walkaround for the complete parts list.
The 1969 Camaro looks simple from across a parking lot and turns genuinely complicated the moment real money enters the conversation — Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard has spent years mapping exactly why. From the ultra-rare ZL1 to the SS396 and Z/28, engine originality and structural condition can separate a $40,000 car from a $400,000 one. Read on to find out where first-gen Camaros actually rust, and what separates a real restoration from a convincing cover-up.
In 1981, Pontiac answered a shrinking performance budget with a genuinely strange idea: the first mass-production turbocharged V8 in an American car, wrapped in the loudest graphics package the Trans Am ever wore. The 210-horsepower engine was groundbreaking and unreliable in roughly equal measure, and reviewers are still divided on whether the gamble paid off. Read on to find out why collectors now pay a premium for the rare survivors that got it right.
Six muscle cars made a factory habit out of hiding serious performance behind plain trim, insurance-friendly badges, and body styles nobody expected to be fast — including a supercharged Studebaker and a Ford pickup. The strategy wasn’t an accident; it was a pricing decision aimed squarely at 1960s insurance underwriters. Today, those same disguises make authentication one of the hardest problems in the collector market. Read on to find out which cars made the list and why documentation is worth more than the badge on the fender.
In 2005, Dodge, Ford, and Chevrolet all had their absolute best on dealer lots at the same time — a 500-horsepower Viper, a 550-horsepower Ford GT built to honor Le Mans, and a Corvette C6 that undercut both on price without giving up much performance. Nobody realized how specific that moment was until all three became collectibles. Read on to find out what a head-to-head comparison test revealed about each car’s real character.