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Ford’s 2018 Mustang refresh did more than reshuffle the sheet metal in response to a sharpened new Camaro. The GT quietly inherited a twin-disc clutch, suspension hardware, and Magnetic Ride Control straight off the Shelby GT350’s parts shelf, turning what looked like a mid-cycle facelift into a genuinely better driver’s car. Read on to see exactly what Ford borrowed from its own halo model.
Before a single Demon rolled off the line, FCA Powertrain engineers set themselves an internal goal that sounded impossible in 2015: a 9-second quarter mile with the front wheels lifting off the ground. Dodge revived a forgotten badge last used on a 1970s compact to carry that mission, and eventually delivered on every part of the promise. Read on to find out how close the finished Demon actually came to that original engineering target.
Ford built the Shelby GT350’s Voodoo V8 to rev to 8,250 rpm with zero turbochargers anywhere near it. A shop in Martinsville, Indiana had other plans, bolting on twin turbos for staged packages up to 1,400 horsepower. Read on to find out what it takes to nearly triple a purist engine’s output without losing what makes it distinct.
Dodge built the Challenger SRT Demon’s exhaust note as deliberately as its horsepower figure, engineering an advanced torque reserve launch system that stores boost before the car even leaves the line. The result is a deep, uneven idle unlike anything else in a parking lot, and a first-for-production-cars piece of drag-racing technology hiding behind the sound. Read on to see how it actually works.
For five years the Shelby GT500 nameplate sat dormant while rivals kept shipping ever-more-powerful factory monsters. Then camouflaged prototypes started turning up at Virginia International Raceway wearing a roll cage and a leaked oil spec sheet that hinted at serious horsepower. Read on to find out what those spy photos gave away, and how the finished car compared to the speculation.
Brett Chmura’s 1983 Chevy Monte Carlo SS started life as a mild 175-horsepower NASCAR homologation special, built at a moment when Chevrolet desperately needed an aero nose to keep winning on Sunday. Three generations after his grandfather opened the family’s first repair shop in 1959, Brett’s version makes roughly 1,000 horsepower. Read on to find out how a shade-tree family legacy turned a stock body style into something the factory never imagined.
Muscle car or pony car — Car Throttle tries to settle a debate that automotive enthusiasts have been having since the mid-1960s, tracing the difference from the original Pontiac GTO through today’s Hellcats and GT350s. The comment section turns the video into its own argument, complete with a tongue-in-cheek Jeremy Clarkson litmus test and a full lineage of what actually counts as modern muscle. Watch to see where the line really falls — and why almost nobody agrees on it.
Former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz publicly said the Ford Mustang beats the Chevrolet Camaro on packaging and visibility, an unusually blunt admission from someone who once helped run Camaro’s own manufacturer. His criticism centered on the Camaro’s narrow greenhouse and awkward driving position rather than its performance credentials. Read on for why an industry veteran’s unfiltered opinion still carries weight in the pony car debate.
V8Builds, presented by Air Flow Research, pairs a traditional show-and-shine with a genuine SCCA autocross course – turning a static parking lot event into something builders can actually drive hard. The second installment at Auto Club Speedway topped its debut at Willow Springs with a bigger crowd and deeper car count. Classic muscle, modern muscle, resto-mods, and pro touring builds are all welcome. Here’s what set it apart from a typical car show.
Rutledge Wood’s 1970 Dodge Charger carries a genuine Petty Racing pedigree, purchased new by a teenage Kyle Petty who had the run of his family’s NASCAR fab shop. The car stayed in the Petty family for decades before Wood bought it straight from Kyle’s son Austin, original 383/4-speed drivetrain intact. Fresh Wilwood brakes and a prototype RideTech suspension got it ready for serious miles. Here’s the story behind the Charger that headlined Wood’s 2017 Power Tour run.
Rod Sheffar spent nearly twenty years hunting one specific combination of Pontiac hardware: a factory W72 four-speed Trans Am, no automatic substitutes accepted. When one finally surfaced on eBay from a seller three states away, there was exactly one acceptable response time. Read on to find out what a fifty-dollar option box made this car worth two decades of searching.
The first Ford Mustang ever built was not even supposed to leave the dealership. A Newfoundland airline pilot bought it three days before launch, and Ford spent two years trying to talk him into giving it back. Read on for the accidental sale, the name that almost wasn’t Mustang, and the front-wheel-drive platform switch that almost happened decades later.
TwinRodders returns to the Fairplex in Pomona for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Machine & Muscle Car Nationals, capturing everything from a Pro Street 1968 Camaro to a blown-Hemi 1963 Dodge Polara to an Oldsmobile 442 fresh off the burnout contest. A slight chance of rain didn’t keep the fairgrounds from filling with muscle car history. Watch the full walkthrough to see what else made the cut.
Adam Kappell’s radiant green 1973 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 Type LT RS pairs a track-focused performance package with Chevrolet’s plushest available trim, a combination most Z/28 buyers that year skipped entirely. With only 11,574 Z/28s built out of nearly 97,000 total Camaros for 1973, the odds of finding one dressed in luxury-level Type LT trim get slim fast. Read on to find out just how rare this particular build really is.
Somebody spotted drain holes drilled right beside a Shelby GT350’s exhaust tips and couldn’t leave it alone online — the kind of detail that looks like a factory oversight until you remember Ford doesn’t do anything to its most exotic V8 by accident. The Voodoo 5.2-liter engine’s flat-plane crankshaft lets it rev to 8,250 rpm and make 526 horsepower without a turbo in sight. Read on to find out why those holes are there on purpose.