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The dream of a low-buck muscle car bargain is still alive at every car show, and so are the stories of buyers who chased it home only to find rust, a mismatched engine, or a title problem. This article walks through why genuine bargains are so rare now, the checks that expose a bad deal before money changes hands, the costs that never appear on the sale sticker, and the one situation where a cheap muscle car is actually the smart buy. Read on to find out how to tell the difference.
This bright green Dodge Charger hides an 800-horsepower Procharged Hemi and a subwoofer-equipped interior — built, per commenters, by the owner himself. 1320video catches the car running Colorado Springs Airport’s runway at the 2017 Pikes Peak Airstrip Attack. Viewers call the owner a badass for actually driving it instead of trailering a build this serious. Watch to see what a real daily-driven, 800-horsepower Hemi can do.
Casey Underdahl and his father dragged a 1969 Camaro body from Georgia to Minnesota believing it was ready for paint. What they actually bought was a shell with filler and seam sealer hiding rust in the firewall, roof, and window channels. What came out the other end was a pro-touring car built to be judged on a stopwatch, not a show field. Read on to find out what it takes to make a G-machine that actually does everything.
Ahead of its New York Auto Show debut, rumors swirled that the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon would ship with just a driver’s seat and nothing else. The rumor turned out to be true, and it was only the beginning of a weight-loss campaign that stripped carpeting, sound-deadening, and even the power steering wheel controls in pursuit of one specific record. Read on to find out exactly how far Dodge went, and what buyers could still get back.
Dodge handed over the keys to a 707-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat and it delivered exactly the kind of experience the numbers promise, which is to say a slightly alarming one. But the Hellcat’s real significance was not the power figure. It was what that figure forced every other manufacturer in Detroit to do next, and how quickly Dodge itself made the car obsolete. Here is what actually made it work.
This clean California 1966 Chevrolet El Camino wears a Chip Foose-inspired paint scheme and 17-inch Torque Thrust wheels over a 327 backed by an automatic. The 1966 model year mattered for the El Camino because Chevrolet restyled the Chevelle it was built on and, more importantly, finally made the 396 big block available. Production climbed past 35,000 units. Read on to find out what made this the year the formula finally worked.
This Bolero Red 1967 Camaro convertible wears the Rally Sport package, which bought hidden headlamps and extra brightwork and precisely zero additional horsepower. Underneath sits the 327 Turbo-Fire V8, rated at 275 horsepower and quick enough to make the point without a big-block badge. Only a small fraction of RS Camaros that year were convertibles. Read on to find out why the mid-range V8 drop-top is the combination collectors quietly prefer.
1974 marked the final year Plymouth built the Road Runner on its original mid-size platform, with engine options still ranging from a mild 318 up to a 440 big block wearing GTX badges. Production had fallen to 11,555 cars, down from 19,056 the year before, as the muscle car era wound down. The Road Runner nameplate held on one more year on the larger Fury-based B-body before being reduced to a Volare trim package in 1976.
Tom Lembeck has owned this 1970 Plymouth Superbird — one of roughly 135 built with the 426 Hemi — since 2007, and Lou Costabile catches up with him in Chicago for ‘My Car Story.’ Finished in Plymouth’s High Impact Vitamin C orange, the car draws no shortage of comments calling it the most memorable muscle car of the 1970s. Watch to hear Lembeck’s decade-plus history with one of Mopar’s rarest homologation specials.
Springtime Yellow paint makes this 1967 Mustang Fastback look cheerful, which undersells what Ford actually changed that year. The 1967 model was the first significant redesign of the Mustang, wider and longer specifically to make room for a big block, and it was also the last year for the legendary K-code 289. Ford built just over 71,000 fastbacks that year against nearly half a million Mustangs total. Read on to find out what makes the fastback the one enthusiasts chase.
Alfa Romeo built a car named after Montreal, unveiled it at Expo 67 in Montreal, and then never legally sold a single new example in Canada or anywhere else in North America. Fewer than 4,000 were built, and the word Montreal appears on the car exactly once, hidden on the ashtray cover. Under the hood sits a detuned racing V8 from a sports prototype. Read on for how one of Bertone’s most striking shapes became a car almost nobody on this continent could buy.
Dave Murawski has owned this 1972 Buick GS Stage 1 — Arctic White paint, 455 CI engine — since 2010, fulfilling a fascination that started when he was thirteen. Lou Costabile catches up with him at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, and even commenters loyal to other GM muscle cars admit the GS is winning them over. Watch to hear the full story behind the N-25-optioned Stage 1.
This 1960 Ford Thunderbird sat in storage from the 1970s until 2002, then spent thirteen more years in restoration before finally starting up again at the World of Wheels show in West Allis, Wisconsin. Owner Mike Adam’s wife Lynne learned to drive on this exact car decades ago, which makes its Monte Carlo Red return to running condition a family milestone as much as an automotive one. The third-generation ‘Squarebird’ rarely gets this kind of spotlight. Watch the full engine start-up and hear the whole story.
A 1967 Shelby GT350 sat still for three decades before somebody finally turned the key and let it idle back to life. The ’67 was the year Shelby’s Mustang grew up, gained weight, and split its own fan base right down the middle. Between a factory Paxton option, a fiberglass nose nobody expected, and a production run small enough to matter today, there is more to this car than the dust on it suggests. Read on to find out why the ’67 still divides people.
The State Street Nationals began in the 1990s as a small fundraiser for Santa Barbara’s Page Youth Center and has since grown into one of California’s largest downtown car shows, drawing 300-plus vehicles across roughly ten city blocks. Because every worker volunteers their time, 100 percent of the proceeds reach the charities involved. The cars are the draw, but the mission is what keeps it running.