 |
Ray Brownfield’s red 1966 Mustang convertible looks like a straightforward restoration until you ask which 289 is under the hood. Ford sold three completely different versions of that engine in 1966 behind identical fender badges, and the spread ran from 200 horsepower to 271. Brownfield has owned the car since 2005 and turned the restoration around in five months. Read on to find out why that single engine question changes what the car is worth and how it drives.
The 2017 Camaro 1LE promised to be everything you ever wanted to know about the track package, and the spec sheet mostly delivers on that. GM built two distinct versions — one around the V6, one around the SS — each with its own suspension tune, Brembo brakes, and electronic limited-slip differential. The results, including a 4.2-second 0-60 for the SS version, turned a $4,500-$6,500 option into one of the best performance bargains Chevy has ever offered.
A turbocharged, LSx-swapped Chevrolet Nova SS launched so hard at SCT Indianapolis that its front wheels left the ground entirely, dragging its rear bumper for roughly half the quarter mile — and losing its hood along the way. Viewers immediately noticed the near-cinematic violence of the moment and the driver’s cool head in keeping the car straight. Watch the full run, and the wheelie that had commenters wondering if a wheelie bar should be mandatory.
From twenty feet away this is a clean 1966 Corvette Sting Ray. Lift the hood and you find a supercharged 454 big-block, an engine Chevrolet would not put into production for another four years, topped with fuel injection and custom tuned by Craven Performance. It is the kind of build that forces every C2 purist to decide where modified ends and something else begins. Read on for what it took to make it work.
The original post about this 1967 Camaro says almost nothing, and that restraint is more interesting than a spec sheet would be. First-generation Camaros built for street machine duty are not shy cars, and the gap between what left the Norwood assembly line in 1967 and what sits under a car like this now is enormous. Read on to find out what builders actually do to these cars and which decisions separate a serious build from an expensive one.
A one-line caption — USA vs AUS!! — is the entire pitch behind this burnout showdown, and it turns out the two countries aren’t even competing in the same sport. American burnouts are spontaneous tire-frying stunts, while Australia has spent decades turning them into a judged motorsport built around the Summernats Burnout Masters. The difference comes down to one signature move most American drivers still haven’t mastered: the tip-in.
This Candy Apple Red 1965 Ford Mustang convertible pairs the desirable A-code 289 four-barrel V8 with a four-speed manual, GT trim, and factory Rally-Pac gauges – a combination that was already rare when new. Spotted on the lot at Garrett Classics in Texas, it’s sparked a lively debate among viewers over its exact model year. Watch to see what details actually settle the argument.
At the Volo Auto Museum in rural Illinois, director Brian Grams walks through a 1972 Plymouth Duster finished in Hemi Orange paint and powered by Chrysler’s well-regarded 340 small block V8. It is not the museum’s flashiest car, but the flood of first-car memories it triggered in viewers — from a 1976 Dart Lite to a regretted 1971 Demon — says something about why budget Mopars still matter. Watch to find out what made this compact performance car a museum piece.
A 1939 Oldsmobile convertible walked away with the most coveted trophy in the custom car world at the 2016 Detroit Autorama — the Ridler Award, given to exactly one car each year. What makes the story unusual is the donor car itself, reportedly one of only two known Oldsmobile Model 60s left on earth. Built by Harold Chapman’s team for owners Debbie and Billy Thomas, “Olds Cool” turned an irreplaceable classic into a show-stopping custom.
A pro-touring Chevelle, an LS-swapped C10, a supercharged Hemi ‘Cuda, and a naturally aspirated Ferrari V12 all showed up for the same test drive session — an unlikely lineup by any measure. Each car represents a different philosophy for chasing speed, from big-inch American muscle to modern engine swaps to old-school Italian engineering. Comparing all four side by side raises a simple question: which approach actually wins on the road?
Dropping a modern supercharged Hemi into a 1968 Charger sounds like heresy right up until it fires. This car was the first running, driving vintage muscle car built around a genuine 707-horsepower 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 pulled from a 2015 Dodge Charger SRT, a combination that appeared on no order sheet in 1968 and makes far more power than the original 426 Hemi ever did. Read on to find out what it actually takes to make that swap work.
Spotted at the 2017 Bama Coast Cruise alongside the Metal Brothers’ display, this 1955 Chevrolet Nomad pairs a modern LS-series V8 with a traditional, unrestored-looking interior — built to be driven, not trailered. The video and its comments make the case for why Nomads still command a premium over other Tri-Five wagons, and why station wagons in general remain one of the most underrated entry points into classic Chevrolet ownership.
A 1968 Firebird and a modern Trans Am conversion making 655 horsepower have almost nothing in common except a badge, and on paper the comparison is over before it begins. Swap the keys, though, and the verdict gets far less obvious. Here is what separated Pontiac’s early F-body from its modern namesake, why the older car still wins arguments it should lose on numbers, and what got lost in between.
A 1965 Plymouth wearing rare copper paint and a 426 badge sounds like it should be running the legendary Hemi. It isn’t. A full year before the street Hemi rewrote what that number meant, Plymouth was already building a completely different 426 around a wedge combustion chamber. It lasted two model years before disappearing from the brochures almost entirely. Read on to find out what happened to the other 426.
Only one model year of Corvette ever wore the split rear window, and Chevrolet deleted it after twelve months because the designers and the engineers could not agree. That single detail is why a 1963 Sting Ray coupe carries a premium no other C2 can match, and why building one into a Pro Touring car with an LS3 and side pipes is such a loaded decision. This one crossed the block at Auburn. Read on to find out what that split window actually cost.