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The 2017 Dodge Challenger GT quietly did something none of its muscle car ancestors ever managed: it put real power down on wet and snow-covered pavement without sacrificing the long hood and retro fastback shape that make a Challenger a Challenger. Built around a V6 rather than a Hemi and borrowing all-wheel-drive hardware already proven on the Charger and 300, it opened the pony car up to a buyer who’d never seriously considered one before. Read on to find out how Dodge pulled it off.
Bolt a modern LS V8 into a 1956 Chevy and you have built a hot rod. Bolt that same body to an Art Morrison GT Sport chassis and you have built something closer to a modern sports car wearing a vintage suit. Frank Devlin built his 210 in honor of the brother who taught him to drive in one, and the engineering underneath is decades newer than the sheet metal above it. Read on for what actually gets replaced, and how much of the original car survives a build like this.
Ford received more than 6,800 applications for exactly 500 build slots on the new GT, and it hand-picked every buyer who made the cut. Getting an allocation was never about writing the biggest check. Jay Leno’s decade-plus history with the original 2005 GT gave him a case most applicants could not match, and when his car arrived in Shadow Black with Competition Orange stripes, he skipped the press junket entirely and pointed his own camera at it. Read on for what that application process actually required.
Ten reveals hit the floor of the 2017 New York International Auto Show, from a twin-turbo Lincoln Navigator shedding 200 pounds to Honda’s unprecedented three-way electric, hybrid, and hydrogen bet on the Clarity nameplate. A few aisles over, Dodge quietly stole the spotlight with a burnout demonstration previewing the Challenger SRT Demon. Not every debut that grabbed headlines that week turned out to matter years later. Read on to find out which ones actually reshaped their segments.
Dodge claimed the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon would launch harder than any production car ever had, and it made that claim before a single customer car reached a dragstrip. The number that mattered was not peak horsepower, it was what happened in the first 150 milliseconds after the driver released the TransBrake. Only 3,000 were built for the United States. Read on for how the whole car was engineered around a single moment.
Chevrolet’s own factory-fastest Corvette made 650 horsepower and already felt like it was testing the limits of a street car. Then a tuner took the lesser Grand Sport, stroked it from 6.2 to 6.8 liters, bolted on a supercharger and reached roughly 800 horsepower and 750 lb-ft, wearing a badge that has been frightening Chevrolet rivals since the 1960s. Only a small number were ever built. Read on for what the Yenko/SC package actually changes and where that name came from.
For the Mustang’s fiftieth anniversary, Ford threw out the playbook: the 2015 car shared no carryover parts with any Mustang before it, introduced an independent rear suspension the nameplate had only used once in its history, and brought back a four-cylinder option for the first time since 1993. It was the moment the pony car stopped being a straight-line specialist and started chasing sports cars. Read on for what changed underneath, and what the solid-axle crowd lost in the process.
The 2017 Dodge Charger Daytona 392 runs the quarter mile in the mid-twelves with room for four adults and a week of groceries. Its 6.4-liter HEMI makes 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft, wrapped in satin black graphics borrowed from the supercharged Hellcat but priced well below it. It is the last of a breed that Detroit has now stopped building. Read on for what the 392 package actually adds, and where that Daytona badge came from.
Bloodshed Motors converted a 1968 Mustang fastback to all-electric power, and the result hits 60 mph in 1.79 seconds with 800 horsepower and total silence. Builder Mitch Medford refuses to call it a hot rod, coining “Lightning Rod” instead. Watch to see why a build that broke from tradition entirely has racked up over a million views.
Fifty-nine classic cars, from a 1919 Model T to a 1976 Porsche, were washed, polished, and readied for auction — the result of twenty years of quiet work by Cal Phillips, an Idaho farmer and World War II veteran who didn’t start collecting cars until he retired in 1994. His collection refused to specialize, mixing Model As and Studebakers with Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Read on to find out how big the collection actually got, and what the auction ultimately raised.
In 2017 a road-legal, fully plated McLaren P1 LM lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 6:43.2, burying the standing production record by nearly nine seconds with 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack at the wheel. Only six of these Lanzante-converted cars were ever built, each one a deliberate tribute to the six original McLaren F1 LMs. Then, instead of loading it onto a trailer, the team simply drove it home to the UK on public roads. Read on for how a converted track car beat every factory at its own game.
Three of Australia’s most legendary muscle cars crossed the same Melbourne auction floor together, and anyone who follows Aussie car culture knows what that means. A Holden Monaro GTS, a Ford Falcon GT-HO, and a Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T represent the three brands that turned Bathurst into a genuine battleground. With estimates running from $100,000 to $250,000, the fight was never about which one is fastest on paper. Read on for why these three cars still divide a country.
The Hot Rod Power Tour has grown from a modest 1995 cruise into the largest touring car event in the country, and one stop at Gateway Motorsports Park proved just how far it has outgrown its own expectations. Organizers planned for roughly 5,800 vehicles and watched more than 6,000 roll through the gates instead. Read on to find out how a magazine road trip became a seven-city phenomenon.
Fiat Chrysler’s decision to renew its trademark on the Cuda name reignited a rumor that has refused to die for the better part of a decade: that Dodge might resurrect one of Mopar’s most storied nameplates. The renewal alone proves nothing, since automakers routinely protect names they have no plans to use. Read on to find out what the paperwork actually reveals, and why the speculation keeps coming back.
A 5,300-pound SUV hitting 60 mph in the time it takes to read this sentence sounds like a typo, but Patrick Rall’s in-car footage of a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk running its Launch Control system proves the number is real. Two runs, two nearly identical times, and a supercharged engine borrowed straight from a Hellcat explain how a family hauler ended up embarrassing sports cars at stoplights.