 |
A Chrysler 440 big block living inside a vintage Ford racer is the kind of combination that makes purists twitch and racers grin. This build pairs a hot-tanked and honed RB block with upgraded pistons, a period-correct roll cage, and a carefully sorted carburetor setup. The result sounds nothing like what the badge on the body promises. Read on for why the 440 keeps ending up in cars Chrysler never built.
The 1969 Camaro SS 396 is remembered for sheet metal Chevrolet used for exactly one model year and then abandoned forever, but the argument that keeps collectors awake has nothing to do with the styling. Three separate states of tune wore the same SS 396 badge, and only one of them carried the solid-lifter L78. Roughly 13,970 big-block cars left the line, and telling them apart takes more than a glance. Read on to find out what actually separates them.
This 1970 Plymouth Road Runner convertible was special-ordered new by the current owner’s father, sold decades ago, and lost to the family entirely — until his son tracked it down and bought it back. Auto Archaeology brought it straight to the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals 2017 Barn Finds display, dust and all. Watch to hear the full story behind why it earned the nickname “Holy Grail.”
Two Hemi-badged muscle cars, side by side, and no caption to settle the argument. Whichever specific models these are, that small emblem alone guarantees a debate, the 426 Hemi was rated at 425 horsepower when it reached showrooms in 1966, a figure most enthusiasts still consider conservative. It is proof that in the Mopar world, the badge can matter as much as the car wearing it.
Scottie Dyer picked this 1966 Mustang convertible for his Dirty Dozen lineup completely sight unseen, betting on Classic Restorations Of Southern Indiana’s reputation before ever laying eyes on the finished car. What showed up at the 2017 Pigeon Forge Rod Run backs up the gamble — a stance and wheel combination viewers immediately praised, paired with an engine bay built to look deceptively stock. Small shop, big test, national audience. Watch to see if the build holds up.
The 1984 Corvette was the car Chevrolet skipped an entire model year to get right, and it arrived with a chassis so stiff that magazines complained about it while recording the highest skidpad number they had ever measured on a production car. Its 205-horsepower Cross-Fire Injection V8 was the weak link in an otherwise radical package. It still outsold every other C4 model year. Read on for what made it matter.
For most of automotive history, more power meant worse fuel economy, and everyone accepted the trade. Then both numbers started improving at the same time, and the average new car quietly got faster than a 1970s muscle car while returning double the mileage. Read on for the specific technologies that broke the old compromise, and what it means for anyone shopping for performance today.
Metal Brothers brought this 1970 Chevelle to Cruisin’ The Coast 2016 before it was actually finished — no interior, an LS3 still mid-tune, but a stance and mile-deep black paint job already locked in. The panel work is smooth enough that viewers are asking how many hours it took to get there. It’s a rare look at what a serious build looks like before the final polish. Watch to see how much of the hard work was already done.
This compilation skips the commentary and specs entirely, letting a lineup of American V8s speak for themselves through pure sound and acceleration. From big-block burnouts to sleeper street cars, it’s a reminder that muscle car culture has always run as much on exhaust note as horsepower figures. No narration, no sponsor pitch — just cars doing what they were built for.
This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am rolled into V8 Speed & Resto Shop running like anything but a bird of fire — and rolled out with a FAST EZ-EFI fuel injection system, a 2004R overdrive transmission, and a COMP Cams roller valvetrain under its Pontiac 400. The upgrades are the kind Pontiac purists argue about for hours. See exactly what changed and why the team made each call.
Chevrolet rated the 1970 Chevelle SS 454’s LS6 engine at 450 horsepower, but nobody who dyno-tested one believed the number — Super Chevy Magazine’s own testing pointed to something closer to 500. It was the most powerful engine Chevrolet ever put in a Chevelle, offered for exactly one year before EPA rules ended the experiment. Only 4,475 LS6 Chevelles were built in 1970, and just 137 are verified on today’s national registry. Read on for what made this one-year-only big block so different from every 454 that came after it.
A station wagon is supposed to be the sensible choice, which is exactly what makes a lime-green 1972 Plymouth Satellite with a big block under the hood so entertaining. Plymouth’s B-body wagons rode a longer wheelbase than the two-doors and rarely got credit for being able to carry the era’s larger engines at all. Read on for where the Satellite wagon fit in Plymouth’s lineup, what engines were realistically available, and why the badge disappeared after 1974.
The 1971 Hemi Cuda is the rarest and most valuable regular-production muscle car America ever built, and the reason is straightforward arithmetic: 108 hardtops and 11 convertibles left the factory, and then the option disappeared forever. It was also the only year the Cuda wore four headlights and fender gills. One convertible has sold for $3.5 million. Read on for what happened in that single model year.
Ford built the FE 427 Cammer to solve one problem: Chrysler’s 426 Hemi was dominating NASCAR, and a conventional block wasn’t going to catch it. The side-oiler engine replaced a normal camshaft with an idler shaft and a six-foot timing chain driving twin overhead cams, hollow sodium-filled exhaust valves, and a hemispherical combustion chamber Ford couldn’t even call a Hemi because Chrysler owned the name. Sold as a crate engine in 1968, the dual-carb version made 657 horsepower for $2,350. Read on for how Ford’s FE family evolved from Mercury’s 410 to this NASCAR-killer.
Shane Coffelt spent twenty years as a saturation oilfield diver, a profession that rewards exactly the patience a long restoration demands, and his 1972 Dodge Swinger is the project that best shows it. The Swinger 340 listed at 2,836 dollars and delivered real performance hardware at a compact-car price, part of Dodge’s White Hat Specials push. Here is why its horsepower rating depends entirely on the year, and how the Demon and Dart Sport names actually fit together.