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The airbag was patented in the early 1950s, yet not one classic muscle car ever left the factory with one. General Motors tried offering it in the 1970s, Mercedes-Benz finally made it work on the 1981 S-Class, and dual front airbags did not become mandatory in the United States until 1998. Read on to find out why an idea that existed before the GTO took nearly three decades to reach a dashboard, and what that means for anyone driving a classic today.
Chevrolet sold the 1968 Corvette L88 with no heater, no radio, a horsepower rating everyone knew was fiction, and a requirement for racing fuel most gas stations never carried. It was designed to discourage casual buyers, and it worked so well that only 80 were built that year. Here is what Chevrolet was actually hiding behind that deliberately unimpressive 430-horsepower number.
BMW’s 2015 i8 looks like a concept car that escaped into showrooms, gull-wing doors, a carbon-fiber passenger cell, and two completely separate power sources that never mechanically touch. A 1.5-liter turbo three-cylinder drives the rear wheels while an electric motor independently powers the front, delivering 420 lb-ft combined and a 0-60 time of 4 seconds flat, all in a car lighter than a contemporary Corvette. Read on to find out how BMW split propulsion in two, and why the approach still matters.
1973 was a pivotal year for the Porsche 914: Porsche introduced a larger, more powerful 2.0-liter engine even as the base 1.7-liter lost horsepower to emissions rules, and a 914 became Formula 1’s first-ever dedicated safety car at a chaotic, rain-soaked Canadian Grand Prix. Here’s the story behind both milestones.
Don Yenko’s dealership built a reputation on turning ordinary Chevrolets into insurance nightmares, but by 1970 rising premiums on his Camaros and Chevelles pushed him toward an unlikely candidate: the humble Nova. The result was the ’70 Yenko Deuce, an entry-level performance model built to dodge underwriting red flags without losing the Yenko name. This example, pulled from the respected Brothers Collection, headlines Muscle Car Of The Week’s milestone 150th episode. See what makes this overlooked Yenko worth the attention.
A modern Corvette Z06 riding on upgraded BBS wheels lines up against a Shelby Cobra in this roll race capture from upyersbuddy’s channel, and the title alone hints that things didn’t go the way most spec-sheet arguments would predict. Viewers in the comments were quick to reference Top Gear’s Richard Hammond and the kind of shock only an unexpected result can produce. Watch to see which of these two very different approaches to speed comes out on top.
Carroll Shelby built only 562 examples of the original 1965 GT350, a Mustang so stripped-down and race-focused it barely resembled the more comfortable 1966 version that followed it. Hertz alone would go on to order more GT350s for its rental fleet than Shelby sold at retail. Read on to find out how one VIN code stamped with the letter ‘R’ can separate a genuine early Shelby from a look-alike.
Lokar’s Muscle Car Shifter Knob is built to replicate the look and feel of a factory GM shifter closely enough to fool most people at a car show, and it won SEMA’s award for Best New Interior Accessory Product. The install is quick but order-dependent: the shifter must be in Park, the set screw inside the knob stays untouched, and the adapter housing has to be held steady while tightening. Read on for exactly how to avoid the mistakes first-timers make.
Ron Reolfi’s 1968 Chevrolet Camaro disappeared from outside his North Canton, Ohio workplace in twenty minutes back in 1981 — and stayed gone for 33 years. The reason it eventually came back has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with a title that never legally changed hands. Watch the full story of how a decades-old paperwork trail reunited a man with the car he never stopped losing.
Nate Rider put a real number on what it costs to turn a classic Mustang into a modern restomod — starting around $35,000 for a road-ready build with a Coyote swap, updated suspension, and a completely reworked interior. The full breakdown, and the warnings from viewers who’ve done it themselves, might change how you budget your own project. Watch the full cost breakdown above.
ScottieDTV found this 1966 Chevrolet Caprice at the 2017 NSRA Street Rod Nationals South in Knoxville, and the mods are almost invisible — a seamlessly grafted Big Block Chevelle hood, a Ridetech air suspension that lays the car nearly on the ground, and a Tuned Port Injection 350 under the hood. It’s a full-size cruiser built with more restraint than flash, and the comment section calls it one of the best Caprice builds anyone’s seen. Watch to see the details up close.
A 1972 Ford Torino Sport fastback shares the screen with Clint Eastwood in the film that would later borrow its name for the title — decades after Ford built it as one of six engine options ranging from a modest inline-six to a genuinely quick Cobra Jet 351. Consumer Guide named it a best buy the same year. Read on to find out how one mid-size Ford ended up in a Hollywood movie title.
Ramo Stott’s #7 Superbird won four races across ARCA, USAC, and NASCAR-adjacent competition in the early 1970s, and current owner Doug Schellinger has spent years turning its scars into documented history, down to a rear window that Stott himself deformed with a blowtorch to pass tech inspection. Every ding, weld, and mismatched panel on this car has a story and, often, a photograph to back it up. Read on to find out how a blown engine and a stubborn NASCAR inspector shaped one of the most authenticated winged cars left on the road.
A 1982 Corvette showing up in Iceland is far less strange than it sounds once you know what that model year actually was. It was the last C3 ever built, the first Corvette with electronic fuel injection, the only one offered exclusively with an automatic, and, as a Collector Edition, the first to break $20,000 and the first with an opening rear hatch. Chevrolet built 25,407 of them. Read on to find out why it deserves a second look.
Chevrolet’s 1966 redesign gave the compact Chevy II squarer, more aggressive styling inspired by the Super Nova concept car, and buyers could order that new shape, wagon body included, with a close-ratio four-speed and the range’s top V8 option. Here’s how a family wagon ended up sharing an order form with one of GM’s most serious small-blocks.