Muscle Car Fan

2018 Ford Mustang GT performing a burnout on a desert road.

2018 Ford Mustang GT Premium Reviewed

A five-horsepower correction shouldn’t matter much in a world of 700-horsepower crate engines, but when Driving Sports TV’s Ryan revisits his own numbers mid-review of the 2018 Ford Mustang GT Premium, it turns into a lesson in what actually separates this car from its closest rival. Between desert-road sound testing, a new ten-speed automatic smart enough to nail its own launches, and a Cobra Jet intake swap pulled straight from viewer mod lists, this GT Premium raises a real question: is 460 factory horsepower still the whole story?

Two men standing next to a purple and a black sports car on a road.

Watch the New Chevy Camaro ZL1 Race the Dodge Challenger Hellcat

by Kiril

Fifty-seven horsepower separated the sixth-generation Camaro ZL1 from the Challenger SRT Hellcat, and the Dodge held the bigger number. Hennessey Performance lined them up anyway, and the horsepower column turned out to be the least interesting part of the comparison — because weight, gearing, tire width, and what happens in the first sixty feet decide a drag race long before either car reaches top gear. Read on to find out why 650 horsepower and 707 horsepower end up much closer than the spec sheets suggest.

A black 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury 426 Max Wedge car.

Breakdown/Review: 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury 426 Max Wedge

by Wes

This 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury doesn’t look like a race car — and that’s the point. Under a conservative full-size body sits Chrysler’s factory 426 Max Wedge, a 415-horsepower dual-quad engine serious enough to have impressed drag racing legend Don Garlits himself. One commenter called it “the Hellcat of its time,” a sleeper built a full year before Pontiac’s GTO popularized the muscle car formula. Watch to see what’s hiding under that Sport Fury badge.

Classic cream-colored Cadillac station wagon with vintage charm.

Scarce ’64 Pontiac Catalina Station Wagon!

by Kiril

A 1964 Pontiac Catalina Safari station wagon, spotted on the streets of Montreal, drew a comment from the person who actually built it years earlier, confirming the interior is untouched since the restoration. Commenters still cannot agree whether it carries a 389 or 421 V8. Watch the full walk-around and see why wagons deserve more credit in muscle car circles.

A sleek black Dodge Challenger parked outdoors with trees in the background.

Dodge Challenger GT Review! | Is It A Proper Muscle Car?

by Wes

Dodge builds an all-wheel-drive Challenger, but the only engine you can get with it is a V6 — so EddieX asks the obvious, slightly provocative question: does that still count as a muscle car? The answer that comes back from actual GT owners in the snowbelt has almost nothing to do with horsepower, and everything to do with why they bought this exact car in the first place. What does “muscle car” even mean once winter tires enter the conversation?

Mechanic explains teardown of Chevy 350 small block engine in workshop.

How-To Tear Down Chevy 350 Small Block

by Wes

A junkyard Chevy 350 gets torn down on camera, one bolt at a time, in an episode that’s quietly racked up nearly two million views. Between a self-issued correction about the engine’s origin, a flood of hard-won rebuild tips in the comments, and a teenager crediting the series with teaching him to wrench, there’s a reason this teardown has outlasted flashier build videos. What is it about a simple disassembly that keeps drawing people back years later?

Person explaining the HEMI engine with a whiteboard and diagrams.

HEMI Engine – Explained

by Wes

Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske breaks down what a hemispherical combustion chamber actually is — the dome-shaped design behind Chrysler’s legendary 426 Hemi, and the reason the name became shorthand for raw American power. The real story involves valve geometry, spark plug placement, and a genuine engineering tradeoff most casual fans never learn about. Watch to see why modern Hemi-badged engines aren’t quite what the original name promised.

Ford Mustang 1967 Fastback 408 cui Stroker

by Kiril

Plenty of 1967 Mustang fastbacks look completely factory at a cruise night and are hiding an engine Ford never built. The 408 stroker starts with a 351 Windsor block, opens the bores slightly, and swaps in a longer-throw crankshaft to reach 408 cubic inches — all while fitting in the same space a 289 once occupied. The result is one of the most effective sleeper combinations in the Ford world. Read on to find out how the recipe works and where two identical-looking builds end up in completely different places.

Red classic Ford Mustang on display at an indoor car show.

This is the Only Factory Convertible 1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang

by Kiril

In late 1966, three brand-new Mustangs sat finished in Shelby American’s Los Angeles shop, all painted Candyapple Red: a coupe, a fastback, and a convertible. Two became the template for a production run. The third never did, because Ford shelved the convertible GT500 for a year, leaving exactly one 1967 example in existence — and Carroll Shelby kept it for himself. Read on to find out what happened to serial number 0139.

Ford Mustang – Twin Turbo “Eleanor” GT500

by Kiril

Hollywood built eleven Mustangs to play Eleanor in the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, and only three of them could actually be driven. None was a real Shelby GT500. A quarter century later the replica business built around that car is still going, now offering twin-turbocharged and Coyote-powered versions the film cars never had, and a federal appeals court has finally settled the long-running fight over who is allowed to build them. Read on to find out how a movie prop became one of the most copied Mustangs ever made.

A classic purple vintage car displayed indoors at a car show.

Plymouth ‘Cuda 1971 Custom

by Kiril

Plymouth gave the 1971 ‘Cuda a face it wore for exactly one model year: four headlights and a set of non-functional gills stamped into the front fenders. Behind that one-year-only sheet metal sat an engine list running from a 340 small-block to the 426 HEMI in its final season, and production numbers so small that some combinations can be counted on two hands. It was also the last year Plymouth offered any of it. Read on to find out why 1971 became the most collectible year in the car’s history.

Buick Riviera 1963 images

by Ross Mills

The 1963 Buick Riviera almost wore a Cadillac badge instead, GM’s styling chief originally designed it as a LaSalle-branded personal luxury coupe before Cadillac passed and Buick claimed the project. Deliberately limited to 40,000 units to preserve its exclusivity, the Riviera paired genuine luxury styling with a 325-horsepower Nailhead V8 capable of 0-60 in around 8 seconds. It’s a car built on a rejection that turned into one of Buick’s most important models of the decade.

A rusty 1968 Dodge Charger parked outdoors with overcast skies.

1968 Dodge Charger Junkyard Find!

by Wes

This 1968 Dodge Charger was hidden so deep in an old junkyard it wasn’t even visible from the road — and it might still be sitting there if a family hadn’t decided to buy it on the spot. The car’s condition surprised viewers, but the real standout was a young kid confidently correcting an adult’s Super Bee trivia. Watch to see the find and the moment that had everyone talking.

Driver's view inside a vintage car steering on a road.

1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 350 V8 – POV TEST DRIVE

by Wes

A dealership straps a brand new GoPro to the dash for one final drive in a 1979 Camaro Z28 before it leaves for a new owner the next morning — and the internet can’t decide what to focus on first. Is it the exhaust note commenters say gives them goosebumps, or the boldly colored interior that’s already become a running joke? One story buried in the comments about a similar Camaro’s tragic fate suggests there’s more riding on this handoff than anyone watching realizes.

Dodge Charger 1970 R/T SE 440 7.2L

by Kiril

The 1970 Charger R/T SE is the version that confuses people. R/T meant 440 Magnum, heavy-duty everything, and 375 horsepower. SE meant leather, wood grain, and deep-dish wheel covers. Combining them produced a car that Dodge itself struggled to explain, and only a small fraction of 1970 R/T buyers ordered it. Here is what that combination was actually for.

Welcome to the exhilarating world of muscle cars!