Muscle Car Fan

A classic 1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 in a showroom.

1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G “ Dan Gurney ” & 390 Engine Sound

Brian Carpenter’s 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G looks like a dressed-up small-block Cougar at first glance, but the details tell a different story — a functional Ram Air-capable hood scoop, sequential taillights, and sunroof switches wired in whether or not the car actually has a moonroof. Cougar historians estimate Mercury built only around 619 of these for 1968, making it far rarer than the similarly-named Dan Gurney Special package many people mistake it for. Watch to see what actually separates the two.

Classic red muscle car with a white roof parked in a garage.

1969 Pontiac Firebird Convertible Restored by New Mexican Priest Set for Charity Raffle

by Kiril

A rural New Mexico parish found an unusual way to pay for seminary education: restore a classic muscle car from the ground up and give it away. What began in 2014 with one donated vehicle had grown, by the time this 1969 Pontiac Firebird convertible crossed the raffle stage, into a volunteer restoration operation. The car was no ordinary find either, with roughly eleven thousand Firebird convertibles built that year, one previous owner, and 79,000 miles. Read on for how a diocese ended up in the classic car business.

A vintage red muscle car parked on a sunny suburban street.

Real Stories From The Muscle Car Fans First Car 71 Plymouth

by Pat C

At sixteen, John C. paid $700 in paper-route savings for a 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring, then spent the next few years turning it into a Rallye Red, leopard-interior statement piece that eventually earned him a police citation for riding too high. His story, and the garage full of friends’ cars parked alongside his, capture a slice of 1970s car culture that never made it into any factory brochure. Read on for the full build, the ticket, and the friends who were building right alongside him.

Close-up of a blue engine air cleaner with tuning tools.

Muscle Car Love Is a Wonderful Thing

by Kiril

Long before fuel economy rules smoothed out Detroit’s shapes, muscle cars were designed to be looked at, not slipped through a wind tunnel. Here is the regulatory history behind why those bold, sculptural lines eventually gave way to the rounder, more efficient cars that followed.

A classic red drag racing car on a race track at sunset.

Hot or Not?

by Kiril

This second-generation Barracuda hides one of 1968’s most underrated factory performance packages, a 275-horsepower 340 small-block Plymouth built barely a few thousand of. Here is why the Formula S 340 earned a reputation as a genuine sleeper, and how rare it actually was.

Rusty vintage car on display with exposed engine and missing parts.

1971 Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe Mopar Barn Find

by Wes

A dusty 1971 Plymouth Barracuda pulled from obscurity by the MyMopar.com forum turns out to be far rarer than it looks, a genuine 383 two-barrel Gran Coupe, one of only 161 built that year. Wearing its factory Curious Yellow paint and original hood scoops, the car has forum regulars already debating its next chapter. The community-driven rescue story behind it says as much about Mopar culture as the car itself. Commenters are already lining up to ask what happens next.

Red sports car performing a burnout with smoke around.

Dodge Demon Unleashes Hellhound of Muscle-Car Madness

by Kiril

Dodge unveiled the Challenger SRT Demon just ahead of the New York auto show with numbers so extreme the company had the NHRA certify them rather than let anyone assume marketing had been involved. An 840-horsepower supercharged Hemi, a 9.65-second quarter mile, and a front end that lifts off the pavement under power. Only 3,300 were ever built, and the NHRA responded by banning it. Here is the full story.

Classic white convertible car with sleek curves and vintage styling.

Jaguar XK120 – 1952 images

by Ross Mills

The Jaguar XK120 began life as a one-off testbed for a new engine, but the reaction at its 1948 debut convinced Jaguar to build it — and the resulting car became the fastest production car in the world at the time. This 1952 example carries the original 3.4-liter inline-six good for 180 hp and a genuine 120-mph top speed. Jaguar built just over 12,000 XK120s between 1949 and 1954, with alloy-bodied cars now among the rarest of the breed.

Mercury Cougar — First Generation 1967 to 1970

by Ross Mills

Mercury built the Cougar on Mustang bones but dressed it up like something imported from Europe, hidden headlights and all — a formula that won Car of the Year in its debut season. By the end of the decade the car had produced two of the rarest engines in the entire pony-car family, with just two units of one configuration ever built. Read on for the numbers behind the rarity.

1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 parked outdoors with a yellow paint job.

Breakdown/History: 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

by Wes

A 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 in Butternut Yellow gets the spotlight in Muscle Car Of The Weeks 131st episode, and the story behind its high-revving 302 has less to do with horsepower bragging rights than a racing rulebook. Comments dispute the factorys conservative power rating, pointing to numbers well above the advertised figure. Pulled from a private collection, this Z/28 hides several rare, order-only details most restorations miss entirely. The reason it was built at all comes down to a Trans-Am regulation most casual fans never learn.

Classic black Ford Mustang parked on a road with trees in the background.

Guess the year, make and model!

by Kiril

Ford crammed ten engine choices, including two brand-new homologation specials, into the redesigned 1969 Mustang SportsRoof, making this one of the hardest model years to guess correctly just from the outside. Here is what changed in the 69 restyle and why the engine bay tells the real story.

A classic red muscle car parked outdoors near a building.

How much would you pay for this one?

by Kiril

The triple-carb 440 under this Cuda’s hood was not a casual option. Plymouth built barely 1,700-some of them in 1970, split between four-speed and automatic cars. Here is what made the 440 Six Pack such a rare and serious performance package, and why guessing its value takes more than eyeballing the sheet metal.

Plymouth GTX 1970

by Kiril

Plymouth built just 7,748 GTXs for 1970, and only 72 of them left the factory with a 426 Street Hemi. Three big-block engines, a collapsing sales chart, and a nameplate Chrysler was already preparing to absorb into the Road Runner line make this one of the most quietly significant Mopars of the era. Read on to find out why a genuine numbers-matching 1970 GTX is so difficult to find today.

A green AMC Javelin car at the Ringbrothers event.

Ringbrothers’ 1972 AMC Javelin – Jay Leno’s Garage

by Wes

Ringbrothers built this 1972 AMC Javelin around a supercharged Hellcat engine pushing roughly 1,100 horsepower — enough to earn a genuine, rare laugh out of Jay Leno himself on Jay Leno’s Garage. Mike and Jim Ring took one of muscle car history’s most overlooked nameplates and turned it into one of the wildest builds the show has featured. Fans in the comments are already asking for more AMC. Watch to see what makes this Javelin different from anything AMC ever built.

Hudson Hornet: NASCAR’s Fabulous Favorite

by Ross Mills

Before NASCAR became a household name, the Hudson Hornet was already a genuine racing dynasty, with driver Marshall Teague finishing one season with an 83 percent winning percentage most modern teams would call impossible. Decades later the car found a second life in an unexpected place — read on to find out where.

Welcome to the exhilarating world of muscle cars!