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Chrysler engineer Gary Romberg spent 1969 and 1970 wind-tunnel testing the shape that became the Dodge Charger Daytona, adding an 18-inch nose cone and a roofline-clearing rear wing that combined for 1,800 pounds of downforce. The result was a 0.28 drag coefficient, a first 200 mph NASCAR lap, and a win at Talladega – all from a car Dodge built only 503 examples of. These photos put that legend side by side with a modern Hellcat.
Dodge built the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon so extreme that NHRA banned it from record-legal drag competition before it ever lined up at a track. With 840 horsepower, a 9.65-second quarter mile, and the ability to pop a wheelie off the line, it set records no production car has matched since. Dodge built only 3,000 for the US market, and even the passenger seat was a one-dollar option rather than standard equipment.
It sounds like corporate paranoia, but automakers really have spent decades nudging (and sometimes strong-arming) their own employees into driving what they build. From GM’s employee discount to Ford’s A-Plan pricing, the perks are real, and so is the unwritten pressure behind them. Here’s how deep the loyalty runs on the factory floor.
Beyond the well-known bargains, plenty of affordable muscle car ownership still hides in plain sight. Cars like the Chevrolet Nova, Dodge Dart Sport, and Buick Skylark deliver real small-block performance for a fraction of what a comparable Camaro or Mustang costs. The simple reason: fewer buyers chase these badges, which keeps demand, and prices, refreshingly low.
By 1972, Chevrolet’s Nova SS had lost its factory big-block option, leaving buyers with a single 200-horsepower 350 small block backed by a strong handling and appearance package. Production actually climbed that year to 12,309 units, nearly double the year before. The car in this feature belongs to an owner whose enthusiasm for his Nova rivals anything you will find on the collector car show circuit.
Roy Brizio grew up around his father’s South San Francisco speed shop and turned that upbringing into one of hot rodding’s most respected builder names. His 1987 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster win put him on the map, and clients like Eric Clapton and Neil Young have kept him building for over four decades. Here is the story behind one of hot rodding’s quiet legends.
Chad Hill and the team at Hot Rod Chassis and Cycle built a 1967 Chevelle called Rush for road racing, not drag strips, complete with a front splitter, rear wing, and a Ridetech Tiger Cage suspension. Turning a car built for straight lines into a genuine corner carver takes more than bolt-on parts. Here is what goes into a build like this.
Long before Tallahassee had a legal place to race, drivers settled things on remote Leon County roads like Mission Road. The city’s answer was a sanctioned strip on west Highway 20, built in the mid-1960s as drag racing nationwide moved out of the shadows. Here is a look back at that transition and the outlaw scene it never fully replaced.
A dashboard puck that plugged into any car and projected navigation, texts, and calls onto the windshield sounded like the future in 2015. Navdy raised over a million dollars in a week and shipped thousands of units before quietly shutting down in 2019. Here is what doomed one of the most promising aftermarket heads-up displays ever built.
A record crowd of 90,000 turned out when Barrett-Jackson brought its collector car auction to Mohegan Sun Casino for the first time. More than 500 vehicles sold for over $26 million, led by a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88. See what made this Northeast debut one for the record books — and why it’s still growing.
A stroked LS3 and a 10-mile traffic jam outside the California/Nevada line are what it took to strand Project Orange Krate, a 1971 Camaro with a project-car pedigree that traces back to the long-defunct Camaro Performers magazine. It’s second in magazine-build longevity only to the legendary Project X. Running out of gas mid-desert on I-15 turned a good weekend at Holley LS Fest West into a lesson every pro-touring builder eventually learns the hard way: horsepower changes your fuel math more than your gauge admits.
“Oldies but goodies: Classic Auto to open in El Paso” takes readers on a nostalgic ride with Gary Miller’s new showroom, filled with classic autos and memorabilia that once belonged to Bob Taylor. After 37 years in Bloomington, Taylor retired but can’t escape his past as Miller buys up his collection. Located off Route 24 in El Paso, this 6,500-square-foot tribute to automotive nostalgia is set to rev engines and hearts alike, proving once more that classic never goes out of style—much like a Boomer in bell-bottoms.
Fiat Chrysler quietly renewed its trademark on the ‘Cuda’ name with the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 16, following its 2015 renewal of ‘Barracuda.’ Automakers protect old nameplates as a matter of routine, so a filing alone does not confirm a new model is coming. Still, the timing fueled speculation that FCA was considering two successors to the Dodge Challenger – one keeping the Challenger name, another reviving Barracuda or Cuda as a smaller convertible. Whether paperwork turns into pavement remains to be seen.
When GM lifted its ban on big-block engines in mid-size cars for 1970, Chevrolet dropped a 454 into the Chevelle SS in two flavors: a wild 450-horsepower LS6 and the more common 360-horsepower LS5 featured here. Here’s what actually separated the two, and why the LS5 ended up carrying the big-block Chevelle banner for years after the LS6 disappeared.