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When Studebaker’s finances turned dire in the mid-1950s, the company didn’t try to out-glitz Detroit — it stripped a car down to the bone and bet on budget-minded buyers instead. The gamble worked better than anyone predicted, with the bare-bones Scotsman eventually outselling Studebaker’s own upscale models combined. Here’s the story behind the six-cylinder machine that briefly saved the independent automaker.
Most hot rod builders chase horsepower with a turbocharger or a bigger cam, but a rare few skip straight to doubling their cylinder count. A 14-liter, 1,400-horsepower V16 sounds like a tall tale, yet it exists, and the original suggestion that LS swaps are a dime a dozen is hard to argue with. Read on for why sixteen cylinders are so rare, what it would take to fit one in a car, and why the idea refuses to go away.
Gas Ronda’s bright orange 1965 Mustang is one of a handful of A/FX factory drag cars built with Ford’s 427 SOHC Cammer engine, an all-out answer to Chrysler’s Hemi that Ford engineers designed in roughly 90 days. Holman-Moody stripped these cars down to almost nothing before the season started. Restored to as-raced condition, it shows exactly how far a factory would go to win a class in 1965.
Edmunds pits the new all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack against the V8 Challenger Scat Pack it is meant to replace, testing whether synthesized exhaust sound and instant torque can stand in for six decades of Hemi V8 identity. The comments are split just as sharply as the reviewers, skeptics call the fake engine noise a gimmick, while at least one real owner insists the EV is objectively quicker and better-handling. Depreciation has already reshaped the value argument since launch. Watch to see where Edmunds lands.
When Carroll Shelby learned Bill Cosby had been driving foreign exotics, he didn’t just object, he built a 900-horsepower Cobra Super Snake to settle the argument. CSX 3303, one of only two automatic Super Snake 427s ever made, arrived at Cosby’s front door via Shelby’s associate Barry Galloway, complete with a dash plaque guaranteeing 200 mph. Cosby drove it once around the block and handed the keys straight back. Read on to find out how a department store argument turned into one of the strangest deliveries in Shelby history.
An all-wheel-drive Audi S2 running a Precision 6466 turbocharger on a 2.2-liter five-cylinder against a nitrous-fed Chevelle leaning on cubic inches is one of the oldest arguments in street racing, staged in metal. Turbo versus nitrous, import versus muscle, four driven wheels versus two. The horsepower numbers are only half the story. Read on to find out which factor usually decides it.
A full year or two before the GTO, Barracuda, or Mustang existed, Studebaker, a company that was already dying financially, built a supercharged, aircraft-cockpit-inspired coupe that set a genuine Bonneville land speed record for a factory-stock production car. This 1964 Avanti R2, one of the last built before Studebaker’s original run ended, comes from The Brothers Collection with remarkably low original mileage. Commenters still argue over whether it deserves the title of America’s first true muscle car. Watch and decide for yourself.
Beyond the Cyclone, GTO, and Cougar, a handful of other muscle cars from the same era are still trading for surprisingly little, some for less than a new economy car. Find out which overlooked models are worth chasing, and what actually separates a genuine bargain from an expensive mistake.
Most serious street builds stop somewhere near 1,000 horsepower and call it finished. The 1967 Chevy Nova known as The Hulk runs a pair of 88mm Pro Mod turbochargers and roughly 2,500 horsepower, putting a car General Motors originally sold as an economy compact into the low seven-second range. It has appeared on Street Outlaws, and its numbers still sound like a typo. Here is what it takes to build one.
Filmed at Raceway Park’s Street Wars event in Englishtown, New Jersey on November 2, 2014, this compilation lines up American muscle against import tuner cars run after run down the quarter mile. One entrant, a compact SUV nobody expected to take seriously, turned in a number that still has commenters arguing years later. Watch to see which side actually earned bragging rights that day.
Only 15 factory Devin SS roadsters were ever built, yet they out-accelerated far pricier European sports cars of their era. Here’s how Bill Devin’s SCCA racing pedigree shaped the reputation behind every surviving Devin body, including roadsters like this one.
White paint, blue stripes, a scooped hood, and a name that would eventually define Pontiac performance for two decades. Almost nobody bought one in 1969. The Trans Am option cost $1,083 on an already expensive Firebird and found fewer than 700 takers, of which only eight were convertibles. Read on for what the first-year Trans Am actually included, why Pontiac paid a royalty on every one, and what makes the Ram Air IV cars nearly unobtainable.
A 2017 Dream Giveaway sweepstakes paired a numbers-matching 1967 Camaro RS with a Lingenfelter-built 2017 ZL1 pushing well past factory horsepower — plus $35,000 cash, all for a $3 ticket. The real story isn’t the prize total, it’s what Lingenfelter actually built before handing over the keys. Read on to find out.
A group of friends buys a Camaro with a known-knocking LT1 V8, decides doughnuts are worth the risk, and captures the exact moment the small block’s bottom end finally gives out. Beyond the viral laughter in the comments, the failure lines up with one of the Gen II LT1’s well-documented weak points — and the engine’s return of a legendary GM badge name in 1992 makes the whole clip more interesting than a simple blown motor. Watch to see how it ends.
Gregg Hamilton’s Pontiac Trans Am started as a childhood dream inspired by Smokey and the Bandit — and turned into something no one expected. Trained by top World Rally Championship teams, Hamilton skipped the traditional big-inch V8 in favor of a GM 5.3-liter truck engine, then applied rally-derived suspension knowledge to give this Firebird handling most muscle cars never get close to. It’s a build defined by engineering judgment over budget. Watch to see how rally-car thinking reshaped an American icon.