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A Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 lined up for a rolling highway pull, the kind of real-world test that does not always agree with drag-strip time slips. The Hellcat’s 57-horsepower advantage on paper met the ZL1’s lighter chassis and quicker-spooling supercharger on the open road. Read on to see why the result depended more on speed range and gearing than on the horsepower figures alone.
Pro driver Randy Pobst put the 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE through a hot lap at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as part of Motor Trend’s 2017 Best Driver’s Car competition — a field normally dominated by six-figure exotics. Built with track-tuned suspension and aerodynamics beyond the standard ZL1, the 1LE was Chevrolet’s answer to anyone who doubted a Camaro belonged on the same list as genuine supercars.
Dodge’s teaser campaign for the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon leaned entirely on math instead of marketing hype, previewing a launch force over 35 percent higher than the already-brutal Hellcat. With 840 horsepower on race fuel, a one-seat factory configuration, and only 3,000 units built, the Demon turned out to be one of the most deliberately extreme muscle cars Detroit has ever sold. Read on for the numbers behind the teaser.
Dodge’s 707-horsepower supercharged Hellcat engine was never built with winter traction in mind — it exists to turn tires into smoke on dry pavement, not tiptoe around ice. Watching a supercharged Hemi V8 fight for grip in a snow-covered parking lot reveals more about this engine’s absurd power than any quarter-mile time could. Dodge even built a second, lower-output key specifically to keep 707 horsepower away from unprepared drivers. Read on to find out why these clips keep circulating.
A battered Dodge Challenger sat forgotten in an Australian garage for years, its owner unaware of what he had until he saw the same car in a movie trailer. It is a 1971 dressed as a 1970, built to survive one of the most dangerous practical stunts of the 2000s, with reinforced door frames welded on so a stuntwoman could ride the hood. Read on for how it was built, how it was found, and what a screen-used car is really worth.
For the Super Snake’s fiftieth anniversary, Shelby American could have printed a badge and called it a celebration. Instead the Las Vegas shop built its first factory concept car in more than a decade, and pointed a nameplate famous for quarter-mile bragging rights squarely at road courses. Read on to find out what changed underneath, and why the width mattered more than the horsepower.
A single stretch of muscle car headlines captured just how wide the hobby’s range really is: a collector-car auction billing itself as the world’s largest, a long-overdue disc brake upgrade for classic GM cars, and a 526-horsepower Ford Shelby GT350 built around a flat-plane crank V8. Read on to see how a record auction, a cheap brake fix, and one seriously fast new Mustang all connect.
The 55th Chicago World of Wheels packed the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center with muscle cars, customs, and hot rods for its own version of March Madness. The show traces back to a 1962 Navy Pier gathering staged by the Gas Hoppers Car Club, and it survived a fire that destroyed McCormick Place, years in exile, and a 2010 move to Rosemont. Read on to find out how an ISCA-sanctioned winter show became the marquee stop for Midwest muscle car fans.
Pikes Peak’s thin air punishes forced induction, which is why the 1969 Camaro known as Big Red traded its usual supercharged big-block for a naturally aspirated combination built just for the mountain. Another competitor drove his twin-turbo street Mustang nearly 3,600 miles round-trip simply to reach the starting line, then raced through goats and fog. Read on to see how two very different preparation strategies played out on the same 12.42-mile course.
Registration opened for the 2017 Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car with Danny Popp, an ASE Master Technician and GM-Certified Corvette specialist, defending three straight championships. The series scores road course, autocross, braking, acceleration, and design judging together, and Popp made history in 2011 as the first winner in a modern car, a 2006 Corvette Z06. Read on to find out what it takes to keep beating a field of classic and late-model muscle across every discipline.
Three divisions inside the same company built three different Hemi V8s in the early 1950s, and each one ended up with a completely different personality. Chrysler chased outright power, DeSoto split the difference, and Dodge built the smallest and mildest of the three while publicly insisting it wanted nothing to do with the horsepower race. The Red Ram’s reputation today is a little ironic given that pitch. Read on to find out how the smallest early Hemi became one of the most beloved.
Months before Dodge officially unveiled the Challenger SRT Demon, fans spotted silver, flare-fendered Challengers in an early trailer for The Fate of the Furious, with Vin Diesel appearing in a behind-the-scenes clip alongside one. The car backed up the hype: a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 making 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft of torque, good for a 2.3-second 0-60 run. It’s one of the most dramatic factory-to-Hollywood crossovers in modern muscle car history.
The 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe RST pairs a 420-horsepower, 460-lb-ft 6.2-liter V8 with a 10-speed automatic shared with the Camaro ZL1, hitting 60 mph in a claimed 5.7 seconds while still towing up to 8,300 pounds. Choosing that engine also unlocks Magnetic Ride Control, plus optional Borla exhaust and Brembo brakes. It’s proof Chevy is willing to loan its performance parts bin to the family truck.
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.
A Swedish filmmaker named Albert pointed a GoPro Hero 5 at a muscle car meet in the middle of Stockholm, four thousand miles from Detroit, and turned it into something that plays more like a short film than a car show recap. The low, sweeping shots and a Cranneg remix soundtrack pulled praise from viewers across Europe and the Americas alike. Watch to see how far the American muscle car hobby actually travels.