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The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon produces 840 horsepower on 100-octane fuel, but only after buyers install the factory Demon Crate PCM upgrade, without it, the car is capped at 808 hp. A pre-loaded boost system called Torque Reserve helped it run a 9.65-second quarter mile at 140 mph, quick enough that the NHRA banned it from sanctioned competition altogether. It remains one of the only production cars with a factory warranty that a racing body refused to let compete.
In November 2016, a Ford F-450 reclaimed the Guinness World Record for Largest Flag Pulled by a Moving Vehicle, towing a 4,124-square-foot American flag around Homestead-Miami Speedway to beat a Chevrolet Silverado’s earlier record by nearly 1,000 square feet. The Super Duty’s 440-horsepower, 925-lb-ft Power Stroke diesel V-8 got credit for the pull, which stretched well past the minimum distance required to set the new mark. It’s proof that truck bragging rights aren’t only settled at the drag strip.
A 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T doesn’t look like a factory Super Bee — because in the U.S., that car never existed. Chrysler kept the nameplate alive four extra years exclusively for Mexico, grafting a Dodge front end to a Plymouth’s tail and fitting an engine American buyers couldn’t get. One grandfather-grandson build project set out to recreate it from scratch, one badge and taillight at a time.
More than 800 cars packed Cobo Center for the 65th annual Detroit Autorama in 2017, one of the most significant gatherings in the hot rod and custom car world. The Ridler Award, reserved for cars debuting for the very first time in public, went to a scratch-built 1933 Ford Roadster running a 427 big block. What else was hiding among 800 cars competing for the hobby’s biggest stage?
Only seven 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertibles were ever built, and that scarcity has turned each surviving example into a seven-figure event whenever one reaches auction. Recent sales have ranged from 3.3 million dollars at Mecum Kissimmee to bids as high as 4.8 million that still were not enough to close a deal. Just how high can the market push a car this rare?
When the first Fate of the Furious trailer dropped in December 2016, it was not the plot that got muscle car fans talking, it was a few fast cuts of a widebody Dodge Challenger nobody had officially seen before. The timing lined up suspiciously well with a certain Hellcat-based reveal just weeks later. What was Dodge really showing off, and did the movie beat the company to its own announcement?
In a surprising twist of automotive fate, the Chevrolet Camaro has outpaced its long-time rival, the Ford Mustang, in sales for the first time in nearly two years in the USA. This unexpected victory comes amid Ford’s decision to halt Mustang production following a sharp decline in sales. In September, Camaro revved past the competition, selling 6,577 units compared to the Mustang’s 6,429. It seems the Camaro is back to remind everyone that it’s not just a flash in the pan but a full-on V8-powered comeback.
The internet is buzzing with speculation: could the iconic Dodge Challenger and Charger be ditching their beloved V8 engines for a twin turbocharged V6? While purists might be clutching their pearls, rest assured, the roar of the V8 isn’t bowing out just yet. Dodge’s next-gen muscle cars are expected to keep the V8 option alive, ensuring that your morning commute can still sound like an action movie. In the world of muscle cars, some traditions—like the V8’s roar—are just too good to give up.
Dodge’s Coronet R/T did not bother hiding its best engine in the options list; a 375-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch Magnum V8 came standard, backed by torsion-bar suspension and heavy-duty brakes that lived up to the Road and Track name. Buyers chasing even more had the legendary 426 Hemi waiting further up the order sheet. Here is how the Coronet R/T backed up its displacement-war bragging rights on the strip.
The 2017 Dodge Challenger comes about as close to a factory-built restomod as any new car has ever gotten, wrapping a genuinely modern platform around styling that still nods to the original 1970 E-body. With the Mustang and Camaro long since abandoning their retro looks, Challenger stands alone as the last mainstream muscle car willing to look backward on purpose. Here is what enthusiasts still think it is missing.
The Ford 5.0 versus Chevy 305 rivalry defined stoplight bragging rights in the late 1980s, but the brochure horsepower numbers barely hint at what was really happening under the hood. A bigger bore gave one engine a long-term advantage the other could not easily overcome, while transmission choices tilted street races before the light even turned green. Here is what actually separated these two small-block legends.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk stuffs a supercharged 707-horsepower Hellcat engine into a three-row family SUV, producing a 3.5-second 0-60 time and an 11.6-second quarter mile that few sports cars can match. Built on the same Detroit assembly line as an ordinary Grand Cherokee, it pairs Brembo brakes and reinforced suspension with room for the whole family. At just under 86,000 dollars, it remains one of the most extreme examples of factory horsepower ever bolted to something with a third-row seat.
Doug DeMuro takes a walk around the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, the most powerful Corvette Chevrolet had ever built at the time and the final, fiercest send-off for the front-engine layout before the mid-engine C8. With its supercharged LT5 V8 and comically large rear wing, it is a car built without an ounce of restraint. Watch for the quirks and features only Doug would think to point out.
This 1968 Pontiac GTO has spent five decades without a repaint, a re-upholstery, or a swapped engine, a rarity for a car built to be driven hard. Pontiac’s second-generation GTO introduced a body-colored, energy-absorbing bumper that had never appeared on a production car before, part of a redesign that helped push sales past 87,000 units and earn Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Original examples like this one command a premium collectors are increasingly willing to pay.
Chevrolet has now closed the book on the Camaro nameplate entirely, ending years of debate over whether the car ever lived up to its affordable muscle car roots. Along the way, owners fought an 8-speed automatic transmission that shuddered in traffic, gauges that were hard to read at speed, and, on some sixth-generation cars, a cooling system prone to overheating at idle. None of it showed up in the brochure. Here’s what it would have actually taken to fix the Camaro before GM decided to stop building it.