This 1939 Oldsmobile convertible sparked a hot-or-not debate the moment its photo hit the internet, but there’s more to the story than looks alone. Depending on trim, it left the factory with either a 216-cubic-inch six or a 257-cubic-inch straight-eight backed by Oldsmobile’s clutch-free Safety Transmission a genuinely advanced feature for 1939. Only about 16,165 L-Series 80s were built that year, making this droptop rarer than it first appears.
There is only one factory-produced Shelby Mustang GT500 convertible in existence from the 1967 model year, and Lou Costabile tracked it down at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, where owners Brian […]
A Candy Apple Red 1965 Ford Mustang convertible with GT trim, an “A” code 289 four-barrel, and a four-speed manual transmission is the kind of car that doesn’t need context to make an impression — […]
Dodge borrowed a system every car already has — the air conditioner — and used it to make the Challenger SRT Demon’s engine breathe colder, denser air on demand. The result, called the SRT Power Chiller, was strange enough to win an award usually reserved for actual tech gadgets, not muscle cars. Paired with a supercharger larger than the Hellcat’s, it helped the Demon set new benchmarks for factory-built drag performance.
A name like “Grave Robbers Restoration” sounds like a stunt until you learn where it actually comes from: a childhood spent riding to the beach in a stepfather’s 1967 Mustang Fastback. That single car set Norman Sargent on a path toward rescuing forgotten classics rather than restoring pristine survivors. The Mustang in question also happened to arrive during the model’s first major redesign, with a new big-block option that changed what the fastback could be.
A nine-photo gallery of a 1953 Cadillac, credited to Gateway Classic Cars, arrived with almost no explanation of what’s actually pictured. The pillarless hardtop styling and chrome-bowed headliner are pure factory deVille — but the engine listed in the caption doesn’t match anything Cadillac built that year. That contradiction is worth digging into before assuming this is a stock survivor. Here’s what the numbers actually say.
A white Mercury Cougar sits parked with nothing but a fender badge hinting at what’s under the hood — is it hot, or is it just another Cougar? The engine option this particular badge points to was Mercury’s biggest and rarest offering for the model that year, one only a few hundred Cougars ever received. Knowing how uncommon that combination actually was changes the entire verdict.
The Shaker hood scoop is one of the most theatrical performance accessories that any American manufacturer ever offered from the factory, a piece of engineering theater that solves a real problem while simultaneously making the […]
In 1968, the Dodge Dart got a facelift and a new attitude, thanks to some racing enthusiasts whispering sweet nothings in Chrysler’s ear. Enter the Hurst-Hemi Dart, a bare-bones, speed-demon with a 426-cubic-inch Hemi engine that could blaze through a quarter-mile in under 11 seconds. Only 50 of these beasts were made, each sporting fiberglass fenders, a Hurst shift kit, and a no-frills interior. If you find one, it might cost you around $250,000, but hey, what’s pocket change for a piece of automotive history?
Finding a 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertible would be significant under any circumstances, but the one that Road Test TV documented carries a combination of factory specifications so rare that many serious Mopar collectors go their […]
The video starts like most mornings in any busy garage — ordinary, unremarkable, exactly the kind of routine that makes what comes next all the more jarring. A car had been left on a two-post […]
When a stock Dodge Challenger SRT Scat Pack pulls up next to a Ford Mustang GT with a 5.0 Coyote V8, the conversation is familiar to anyone who follows modern muscle — two legitimately fast […]
The Plymouth Duster is one of the more underappreciated chapters in the Mopar performance story, a car that arrived in 1970 as a lightweight, affordable alternative to the heavier E-body models and immediately proved it […]
A 1939 Oldsmobile convertible walked away with the most coveted trophy in the custom car world at the 2016 Detroit Autorama — the Ridler Award, given to exactly one car each year. What makes the story unusual is the donor car itself, reportedly one of only two known Oldsmobile Model 60s left on earth. Built by Harold Chapman’s team for owners Debbie and Billy Thomas, “Olds Cool” turned an irreplaceable classic into a show-stopping custom.