 |
Dodge unveiled the Challenger SRT Demon just ahead of the New York auto show with numbers so extreme the company had the NHRA certify them rather than let anyone assume marketing had been involved. An 840-horsepower supercharged Hemi, a 9.65-second quarter mile, and a front end that lifts off the pavement under power. Only 3,300 were ever built, and the NHRA responded by banning it. Here is the full story.
Shelby American had not built an all-new concept car in roughly a decade, so expectations pointed toward more boost and a bigger number. Instead the company hand-built new fenders and quarter panels, stretched the rear track nearly four inches, and fitted adjustable coilovers. Read on for why a firm built on drag strip legend suddenly cared this much about cornering, and what happened to the concept afterward.
MotorWeek puts the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk through both a track test and a street drive to answer an odd question: can a family SUV with a 707-horsepower supercharged HEMI actually behave like a performance car? The numbers, including a 0-60 time that beats plenty of dedicated sports cars, are only part of the story. Host John H. Davis brings three decades of consistency to a review of one of the strangest vehicles Jeep ever built. The verdict explains why it is still talked about years later.
Ford did not build the Boss 429 because customers were asking for it. NASCAR’s rulebook demanded that a race engine be sold to the public before it could compete, so Ford dropped a semi-hemi big block into the one car nobody expected — and then discovered the regular assembly line could not physically build it. Only 859 left the shop in 1969. Read on for what that homologation gamble actually cost, and whether it paid off.
The Charlie Thomas Collection brought roughly 145 vehicles to Barrett-Jackson’s 2017 Scottsdale auction, selling for a combined $7.1 million as part of a week that ultimately generated $102.5 million and set 40 world records. Here’s a look at what one of the largest single-owner collections in recent Barrett-Jackson history actually sold for, and how it fit into a record-breaking week.
Barrett-Jackson’s first Northeast auction at Mohegan Sun sold out on opening day, so for its second year, the company added an extra day, a new concours event, and a deeper lineup of collector cars. Here’s what the expanded 2017 event actually delivered, from the final sales total to the Ride ‘N Drives that let fans test-drive new muscle cars between bids.
Ford’s Mustang beat the Camaro and Challenger for a fifth straight month in March 2017, extending a streak to 27 wins in 29 months, but the raw sales totals hid a steep year-over-year decline. This piece unpacks the numbers behind that streak, why Camaro and Challenger were actually closing the gap underneath it, and what a winning streak built on a shrinking base actually signals.
Eleanor tributes have become so common on the show circuit that most of them disappear into the crowd, wearing identical gray paint and identical black stripes. This 1967 G.T. 500 was built by an owner who clearly decided that was the whole problem, keeping the fastback bones everyone recognizes while throwing out the formula that makes the rest interchangeable. They call it the Pit Viper. Read on to find out what makes it different.
For the first time in at least seven years, the Dodge Challenger outsold both the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro in a single month, arriving right as the 840-horsepower SRT Demon dominated headlines. This piece looks at the June 2017 sales numbers behind that milestone, the year-to-date totals that told a very different story, and what became of Challenger’s long production run afterward.
More than 200 classic, sport, and muscle cars filled Saratoga Spa State Park for the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s 15th annual spring show. The museum itself has an unusual backstory, housed in a repurposed Georgian Revival building that once served as a New York State bottling plant. The turnout capped off a season-opening event with an audience built from the region’s century-old resort-town appeal. Read on to find out what made this year’s show stand out.
At one of the oldest drag strips in the country, Karen Stalba has spent 20-plus years running alcohol dragsters, cars fast enough to leave muscle cars in the dust. This weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Series brought 450-plus cars to historic Atco Dragway, a track with a record-setting past dating back to the 1960s. Here’s what made this South Jersey race weekend stand out.
The California Automobile Museum’s annual Memorial Day show pairs Corvettes and American muscle cars with a cause: honoring veterans. What began as a smaller gathering called Vettes for Vets grew into a full show with dedicated judging categories and proceeds benefiting a local Veterans Resource Center. Here’s how a parking lot car show became one of Sacramento’s most meaningful automotive traditions.
This preview of 2018’s new-car debuts undersells just how wild that model year actually got, thanks to a factory Dodge built specifically to dominate the drag strip. While sedans and crossovers filled most showroom floors, a supercharged, 840-horsepower street-legal special was quietly finishing development in the background. It’s a reminder that the year’s biggest automotive story wasn’t a redesign, it was a straight-line monster.
By 2016, the Ford Mustang had transformed from a beloved but provincial American icon into a genuine global performance car, built at the factory in right-hand-drive for the first time in the nameplate’s history. Independent rear suspension and a chassis tuned for corners rather than just straight lines opened waiting lists across dozens of new countries. Read on to find out what made 2016 the Mustang’s breakout year worldwide.
GME Performance, a Leipzig tuning shop most American enthusiasts have never heard of, built a Mustang GT making 705 horsepower and 590 lb-ft, enough to put a stock Hellcat on notice. What separates it from the usual dyno-number flex is everything that came with it: adjustable coil-overs, ventilated floating brake discs, a full aero kit, and a 3.9-second 0-62 time. Read on for how the build came together and how it stacks up against Ford’s own factory answers.