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A black-and-gold 1978 Pontiac Trans Am built to Burt Reynolds’ own specification crossed the Barrett-Jackson block in Las Vegas in 2018, weeks after the actor’s death, and brought $192,500. Two other 1978 Trans Ams in the same sale, mechanically similar but with no connection to Reynolds, sold for a fraction of that. The gap is the whole story of how provenance works in the collector market, and why the Bandit car mattered in the first place.
A carburetor rebuilding shop shouldn’t still be in business in the 21st century — fuel injection took over new car production decades ago. But a quick drive past a fading Coke sign in Little Rock is a reminder that classic cars, old farm equipment, and stubborn collectors have kept this particular trade alive long after Detroit gave up on it.
Before anyone saw the finished car, the rumor mill had settled on 900 horsepower for Dodge’s drag-strip Challenger. The truth turned out stranger: three separate power ratings, two ignition keys, and one very specific grade of gasoline standing between the driver and the full number. Only about 3,300 were ever built. Read on for what the speculation got wrong, and why the horsepower figure mattered less than the mission.
EngineLabs and the Horsepower Wars crew settled the endless LS-versus-Coyote debate the only way that counts: two engine builds, a strict $9,999 budget each, and a dyno at the respected Westech Performance Group that doesn’t care about brand loyalty. The results compare more than peak horsepower, weighing efficiency and power delivery across the curve for both platforms. See which engine came out on top — and why the argument still won’t die in the comments.
Hennessey Performance took an already track-focused Camaro ZL1 and pushed it to roughly 1,000 horsepower, building a car aggressive enough to earn the name Exorcist. Forrest’s Auto Reviews got behind the wheel to kick off 2018, delivering an unscripted, iPhone-shot drive that shows exactly what four-figure horsepower feels like in a car that started as GM’s factory flagship. Watch the drive and see why the muscle car era’s comeback is more than nostalgia.
Andre Gordon’s blue 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger runs a genuine 340-cubic-inch V8 with a four-speed manual and Hurst pistol-grip shifter — a far cry from the Fiat-based compact Dodge revived decades later, or the Pro Stock Dart five-time champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. campaigns at the NHRA’s top level. Read on to see how one nameplate ended up telling three completely different stories.
Gunther and Maggie Buerman turned a private collection into New England’s largest auto museum, housed in a 114,000-square-foot former missile plant in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Since opening in June 2017, the Newport Car Museum has grouped more than 75 cars into six themed galleries spanning Corvettes, Shelbys, fin-era cruisers, and American muscle. What started as one couple deciding not to keep their cars locked away became a destination built to feel like an art gallery as much as a garage.
A four-cylinder Mustang sounds like a contradiction, but Ford’s 2.3-liter EcoBoost makes more torque than the V6 it replaced, delivers it 1,600 rpm sooner, and returns 32 mpg on the highway. It also takes weight off the nose and responds to tuning in ways a naturally aspirated engine never could. The compromise is the noise, and it is a real one. Read on for why Ford already tried this once in 1984.
The Challenger SRT Demon’s launch procedure reads like a checklist from a flight manual: line lock, brake, burnout, stage, release. Behind it sits a system that builds boost before the car moves, a set of factory drag radials, and an air conditioning circuit repurposed to chill intake air. The front wheels leave the ground by nearly three feet. Read on for how Dodge got there, and what the car is like the rest of the time.
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?
Plymouth built 108 Hemi ‘Cuda hardtops for 1971 and just eleven convertibles, which is why this specific corner of the Mopar market operates on a completely different scale from everything around it. The car in question has covered 2,010 miles since new and was custom-ordered with the desirable boxes already ticked. Whether that adds up to a seven-figure asking price depends less on rarity than on paperwork. Here is what actually drives the numbers.
A one-minute trailer for Fate of the Furious sent shockwaves through the muscle car community in December 2016 — buried in the fast cuts was a widebody Dodge Challenger nobody had officially seen before, wearing a Hellcat-inspired face months ahead of its real reveal. Fans also spotted a modified Charger and a widebody Plymouth GTX sharing the frame with a Lamborghini and a Subaru WRX STI. Read on to find out what Dodge was quietly teasing before it was ready to talk about it.
For 23 months straight, the Ford Mustang outsold the Chevrolet Camaro every single month — until one September, when Chevrolet edged ahead by just 148 units, 6,577 to 6,429. The swing came right as Ford halted Mustang production over a sales slide, while new 2017 Camaro ZL1s were posting 554 rear-wheel horsepower on customer dynos. Read on to see how one of America’s oldest rivalries flipped in a single month.