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Brainerd International Raceway traces back to 1968, when it opened as Donnybrooke Speedway carved through the woods of central Minnesota. Its Muscle Car Series crowns a champion across three races rather than one, and last year’s Outlaw Class came down to a single point between three drivers. Read on for how modern doorslammers running six-second quarter miles at over 200 mph trace back to the same platforms that ran the 13s in the 1960s.
Rumors of a modern Plymouth ‘Cuda revival have circulated in the Mopar press for years, but the original nameplate earned its legendary status the hard way — starting as a compact Valiant-based fastback in 1964, then gaining a 425-horsepower 426 Hemi option by 1970 after fifty factory race cars tested the combination in 1968. Genuine Hemi Cuda convertibles now sell for seven figures at major auctions. Read on to find out why Dodge keeps circling back to a nameplate it retired decades ago.
Dearborn Steel Tubing built 21 Mercury Comet A/FX cars for 1964, each with a NASCAR-derived 427 High Riser rated at a deeply understated 425 horsepower, fiberglass hood, fenders, doors and bumpers, and Plexiglas windows throughout. At roughly 3,200 pounds they ran 11.3 to 11.6 at around 125 mph. Dyno Don Nicholson, Ronnie Sox and Jack Chrisman all drove them. Read on for what separates a documented original from a very good tribute.
A twelve-year-old fell in love with this generation of Mustang after watching a red one chase a Bond villain in Diamonds Are Forever, and this 1971 Mach 1’s 429 Super Cobra Jet is exactly the engine that backs up that on-screen reputation. The bigger, heavier redesign split fans the moment it launched. See why so many of them ended up owning two or three anyway.
A black-and-gold 1978 Pontiac Trans Am built to Burt Reynolds’ own specification crossed the Barrett-Jackson block in Las Vegas in 2018, weeks after the actor’s death, and brought $192,500. Two other 1978 Trans Ams in the same sale, mechanically similar but with no connection to Reynolds, sold for a fraction of that. The gap is the whole story of how provenance works in the collector market, and why the Bandit car mattered in the first place.
The crew running the Texas Grim Reaper showed up to their first no-prep event with $50,000 on the line and a 522-cubic-inch big block Corvette wearing a screw-type supercharger loud enough to make spectators cover their ears. They made the finals anyway. Here is why that combination works on a surface with no traction compound at all.
No 1966 Chevelle ever left a Chevrolet assembly plant with 496 cubic inches under the hood, because that number simply did not exist on Chevy’s big-block order sheet yet. So a car wearing SS 496 badges is telling you something about the person who built it rather than the factory that shipped it. Here is what Chevrolet actually offered in 1966, and where a genuine 496 really comes from.
1957 was the year the Corvette stopped being just a pretty face, and this Polo White Roadster carries the 283-cubic-inch engine option that made the case. Bill Kotzum of Corvette Mike Midwest walks through why the rare, temperamental fuel-injected version briefly made this America’s quickest production car. Ford had an answer of its own that same year. See how the two rivals compared.
A carburetor rebuilding shop shouldn’t still be in business in the 21st century — fuel injection took over new car production decades ago. But a quick drive past a fading Coke sign in Little Rock is a reminder that classic cars, old farm equipment, and stubborn collectors have kept this particular trade alive long after Detroit gave up on it.
At Heartland Park Topeka, one driver has built a reputation for treeing the field, out-reacting seasoned competitors off the line, in a nitrous-fed K5 Blazer nicknamed Open Container. He runs the truck with hand controls, and the comment section keeps circling back to one word: respect. See the runs that have fans asking if there is anyone he cannot beat off the line.
To legally race its wing-nosed Charger on NASCAR’s superspeedways in 1969, Dodge had to build at least 500 street-legal versions first, whether buyers wanted one or not. This Daytona is one of just 503 built to satisfy that rule, and one of 433 fitted with a 440 instead of the Hemi. Some viewers say it is more than any ordinary muscle car deserves to be called. Here is why the rule that created it still matters.
This 1965 Ford Galaxie 500R looks like any other full-size family car of its era, right up until you learn what is under the hood: a dual-quad 427 side-oiler paired with a 4-speed manual. Viewers are calling it their favorite Muscle Car Of The Week episode yet, and the comment section is already lobbying for more full-size sleepers like it. See the burnout that sealed the deal.
A rare 1970 Chevelle SS396 convertible sat parked for decades after being bought new in the Detroit area, and when Patrick Glenn Nichols finally tracked it down in 2017, its odometer became the most argued-over detail in the whole story. Commenters point to worn pedals and a rusted-out SS emblem as evidence the real mileage, and the real history, do not match the dash. See what the wear pattern actually reveals.
A hail storm should have ended this Dodge Challenger’s story before it started, but Stanley “Dirt Monkey” Genadek saw a blank canvas instead of a write-off. The build adds a 3-inch lift, true off-road tires, full rhinoliner armor, and underglow lighting to turn a modern muscle car into something closer to a wasteland runner. Viewers who hated the concept at first are now among its biggest fans.
A light blue 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport with a 351 under the hood and an exhaust note that still gets attention decades later. This was Ford’s redesigned Torino arriving at the worst possible moment in muscle car history, and one engine in the entire lineup carried the Cobra Jet name. Thirty-six years later a Clint Eastwood film would make the shape famous all over again. Read on to find out what the 1972 Gran Torino Sport really was.