Muscle Car Fan

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Pop the hood on a Chevelle wearing SS 396 badges and there’s a good chance it isn’t actually a 396 anymore. What started as a limited 1965 option built around a Corvette-derived big-block grew into one of muscle car history’s most recognizable names — one Chevrolet kept using even after the engine underneath it grew to 402 cubic inches. Read on to find out how a badge became more valuable than the number it was supposed to represent.

Everybody remembers the Hemi. Almost nobody remembers that Plymouth’s first real street brawler wore a wedge-head 426 instead, a full year before the street Hemi even existed, and this ragtop is one of the rarest ways you could have ordered one. Read on to find out how a car with almost no advertising still out-muscled half the flashier iron of its era.

This 1969 Pontiac Firebird sat forgotten for years, its factory 400 engine buried under rat nests and grime, until the Turnin Rust crew finally got it running — and the exhaust blew out a literal dust storm in the process. Built originally for strip use, the car earned its Dirty Bird nickname on the spot. Watch to see what years of neglect actually did to a genuine factory 400-powered Firebird, and how much of it is still worth saving.

“How to Maintain Value with Proper Maintenance” offers a humorous take on keeping your muscle car in top shape and value. It highlights the importance of proper storage, regular waxing for that showroom shine, and avoiding turning your classic into a drive-thru diner. Keep records like a car detective, change fluids by time not mileage, and don’t skimp on quality parts. Remember, your engine should purr, not sputter. And for heaven’s sake, avoid drilling holes for that disco-era sunroof idea!

Don Yenko built the Deuce Nova to solve a problem insurance companies created — premiums on obvious muscle cars had gotten so steep that he hid a 360-horsepower LT1 engine inside Chevrolet’s most unassuming compact instead. This sunflower-yellow survivor is the third Yenko Deuce Nova MuscleCarOfTheWeek has featured, following an orange car and a Brothers Collection example. Watch to see how a car built to be ignored became one of the most sought-after Novas ever made.

Sixty years ago, this 1964 Rambler American was AMC’s best-selling answer to the compact wars — thrifty, practical, and about as far from a muscle car as Kenosha built that year. Somewhere along the way it picked up a 350 small-block and a 700R4 overdrive automatic, and now it’s a sleeper most people never see coming.

Donut Media spent sixty years of Mustang-versus-Camaro history breaking it down decade by decade, scoring heritage, performance, and availability rather than just horsepower numbers. The comparisons range from the expected — Shelby’s GT500 against the Camaro ZL1 1LE — to matchups most fans have never considered, like the IROC-Z against Ford’s police-spec Mustang SSP. Host Joey Rassool promised to stay unbiased. The comments section has thoughts about how that went.

After sitting for twenty-five years, this 1967 Pontiac Firebird’s TH350 transmission wouldn’t move the car at all — not forward, not backward. Arrowhead Garage walks through the exact diagnostic process, from checking fluid at operating temperature to the often-overlooked torque converter drain-down that happens during long-term storage. It’s a temporary fix with a full rebuild still ahead, but it’s also a detailed lesson in exactly what stored transmissions do to themselves over time.

Gord Nelson had a bucket list, and near the top of it sat a Mercury Cougar Eliminator most muscle car fans overlook in favor of its Mustang cousin. When he found one buried in the newspaper classifieds, his wife told him to go get it. What he ended up with wears an engine rating that never quite matched what these cars could do at the strip. Read on to find out the real story under that Competition Orange hood.

David Freiburger’s 1970 Dodge Super Bee sat filthy in a barn for 36 years before he finally rescued the exact car he’d been chasing since he was a teenager. In this installment, decades of accumulated grime finally comes off before reassembly around a budget 440 he already built and dyno-tested. Watch to see just how much thirty-six years of neglect really left behind.

Ron Hoeft bought this 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS Super Sport new, let it go at some point over the following decades, and then — against long odds — tracked it down and bought the exact same car back. Host Lou Costabile sits down with Ron at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals to hear the full story behind the big-block 427, the rare factory vinyl top, and a reunion most owners never get.


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