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The 25th Raleigh Classic Car Auction filled two exhibition halls at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds with decades of automotive history, from unrestored survivors to numbers-matching classics. What began as a modest sale has grown into a twice-yearly tradition for collectors chasing originality over modification. Indoors, under controlled lighting, cars that rarely surface elsewhere finally cross the block. See what drew bidders back for a milestone 25th event.
Car and Driver straps into the Corvette ZR1, the most extreme front-engine Vette ever built, for a passenger ride at Willow Springs International Raceway. With a supercharged 6.2-liter LT5 making a monstrous 755 horsepower, this was Chevrolet’s no-excuses answer to European exotics. Willow’s fast, committed corners are exactly where those numbers get tested for real. Watch to feel what 755 horsepower does when a spec sheet turns into speed you can see.
This Dodge Challenger SRT Demon burnout clip is a quick demonstration of technology no other factory car had ever shipped with – a TransBrake that locks the transmission before launch, paired with factory drag radial tires unlike anything else sold on a showroom floor. Line lock keeps the front brakes engaged while the rear tires spin free and heat up. Here’s what was actually happening during those few seconds of tire smoke.
The Chiron’s speedometer reads up to 310 mph, but Bugatti electronically capped the regular car at 261 mph because ordinary tires couldn’t survive anything faster. A specially built prototype finally cleared 300 mph in 2019 using Michelin tires reinforced with carbon fiber and aramid fibers, tested on rigs originally designed for the Space Shuttle program. The record didn’t last forever, either. Here’s what it actually took to outrun that speedometer.
About 1,500 muscle cars, hot rods, and customs rolled through Galesburg, Illinois for a nostalgic one-night revival of the town’s old cruising strip along historic Route 66. Illinois still hosts a dense calendar of Route 66-adjacent cruise nights up and down the corridor, the same basic formula that built American cruising culture decades ago. No trophies, no judged classes – just a reason to drive somewhere and be seen. Here’s why turnout like this still happens.
A random parking-lot photo in Colorado caught a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon prototype months before its official reveal – a car that would go on to post the quickest quarter-mile and 0-to-60 time of any production vehicle ever built. Its 840-horsepower HEMI was so potent that NHRA banned it from sanctioned events without extra safety gear. Only 3,000 examples were ever built. Here’s what made this spy shot worth sharing.
Ford promised a hybrid Mustang for 2020, backed by a $700 million factory investment and a canceled Mexican plant – then the car simply never showed up. The V8-electric hybrid was supposed to match standard V8 power while adding extra low-end torque, built alongside regular Mustangs at Flat Rock Assembly. Years later, Ford’s own CEO has hinted that some form of Mustang electrification is still very much on the table. Here’s what actually happened to one of Ford’s biggest unfulfilled performance promises.
One April 2018 news cycle delivered three very different performance bets at once: a turbocharged four-cylinder Camaro finally earning a 1LE badge, a BMW M2 Competition borrowing its engine from the M3/M4, and a Buick electric SUV concept promising supercar-quick acceleration. None of these would have made sense as performance news a decade earlier.
Lou Costabile catches up with Phil Lutfy and his Petty’s Garage Bootlegger Edition 2017 Mustang, a supercharged, roughly 800-horsepower prototype that is genuinely one of one. Phil bought the car on the spot at a Scottsdale charity auction, drawn as much by the cause as the design. Built by the shop carrying Richard Petty’s name, it is closer to a boutique supercar than a factory Mustang. Watch to hear the owner explain why he raised his hand.
SEMA’s Battle of the Builders narrows roughly 180 shop-built entries down to a Top 12 split across four categories, and this pro-touring 1970 Chevelle was built to compete in exactly that field. Modern chassis work hides behind period-correct sheetmetal, chasing the same feel-over-spec-sheet formula the format was created to reward. Making the cut is its own kind of trophy in the specialty-equipment world.
Every Wednesday at Sonoma Raceway, high school students stage next to an actual patrol car and race it heads-up. The Top the Cops program, founded by retired officer Kevin McKinnie, fights illegal street racing by giving teens a safe, legal place to use the throttle. The result is fewer kids racing on the street and a rare kind of trust built one pass at a time. Watch the underdogs take on the badge.
Hennessey teased a fix for the Dodge Demon’s ‘840-horsepower letdown,’ then built its answer around a Camaro instead of the Demon itself. See how the 1,014-horsepower Exorcist Camaro stacked up against the factory Demon’s already record-setting numbers. And find out whether Hennessey ever actually delivered the promised 1,500-horsepower Demon package.
A free monthly parking-lot meetup has quietly become the largest car gathering in the entire state of Oklahoma. See how Coffee and Cars OKC grew from a simple Saturday morning tradition into a genuine charity fundraiser. This particular meet carried extra weight, tied to the Oklahoma City Auto Show’s 100th anniversary.
Weld a stainless steel panel and that shimmering rainbow discoloration is almost guaranteed to show up. It’s not just cosmetic, it’s chromium leaving the surface of your metal. Professor Hammer breaks down what’s really happening when stainless overheats, and the simple chemical and mechanical fixes that stop it from becoming a corrosion problem down the road.