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For the 2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Jailbreak, Dodge scrapped its usual color-and-trim restrictions and let buyers build almost any combination they wanted — on top of an 807-horsepower supercharged HEMI. Here is what made the last of Dodge’s rule-breaking Challengers such a standout, and why it is already one of the more collectible late-era Hellcats.
Classic muscle cars were built during a narrow window of cheap gas and factory-versus-factory competition that’s never been fully repeated — which is exactly why the appeal never faded. Here’s a quick look at why this specific era still headlines auctions and car shows decades later.
Plymouth’s pony car hit dealer lots weeks ahead of the Mustang, then spent a decade morphing through six-pack big blocks, a 426 Hemi, and a one-year-only shark-nose face before Chrysler pulled the plug in 1974. Here’s the fast history behind every year of the Barracuda.
Richard Hammond spent a day daily-driving DriveTribe’s 707-horsepower Dodge Charger Hellcat, and by the end, the car built for chaos had quietly won him over. Here’s what the specs, the sound, and his own reaction reveal about America’s most unhinged family sedan.
1972 was the last year Chevrolet built a Corvette with full chrome front and rear bumpers, and the last year for the high-performance LT1 small-block and its ZR1 racing package. It’s also the year Chevrolet switched from gross to net horsepower ratings, making a 350 or 454 Corvette’s numbers look smaller on paper even though nothing mechanical had really changed. Nearly 20,500 Sports Coupes sold that year, proof the C3 was still going strong right before its biggest transition.
A 1969 Pontiac GTO convertible built with the factory Ram Air IV and a four-speed manual is one of the rarest driveline combinations Pontiac ever offered — quicker than nearly any GTO on the road and scarcer than most Judges. This Champagne-over-black example shows why collectors chase the plain-looking GTOs just as hard as the flashy ones.
Pop the hood on a Chevelle badged SS 396 and there’s a decent chance the engine underneath isn’t actually 396 cubic inches anymore — Chevrolet kept the name even after the big-block grew to 402ci in 1970. What started in 1965 as a limited-run, Corvette-powered option became one of the most chased badges in muscle car history. Here’s how a number that stopped being accurate became legendary anyway.
Ford buried the Shelby GT500 name twice before bringing it back as a 760-horsepower supercharged Mustang capable of a 10.7-second quarter mile — and even Jay Leno couldn’t stop comparing it to a McLaren F1.
Everyone talks about the Hemi, but Plymouth’s Street Wedge quietly did the dirty work a full year earlier. This 1965 Satellite convertible pairs the big 426 wedge-head V8 with genuinely rare drop-top production, a car built for real driving, not just bragging rights. Curious how rare this Mopar actually is compared to its more famous siblings?
This 1969 Pontiac Firebird sat forgotten for years, its factory 400 engine buried under rat nests and grime, until the Turnin Rust crew finally got it running — and the exhaust blew out a literal dust storm in the process. Built originally for strip use, the car earned its Dirty Bird nickname on the spot. Watch to see what years of neglect actually did to a genuine factory big-block Firebird, and how much of it is still worth saving.
“How to Maintain Value with Proper Maintenance” offers a humorous take on keeping your muscle car in top shape and value. It highlights the importance of proper storage, regular waxing for that showroom shine, and avoiding turning your classic into a drive-thru diner. Keep records like a car detective, change fluids by time not mileage, and don’t skimp on quality parts. Remember, your engine should purr, not sputter. And for heaven’s sake, avoid drilling holes for that disco-era sunroof idea!
Don Yenko built the Deuce Nova to solve a problem insurance companies created — premiums on obvious muscle cars had gotten so steep that he hid a 360-horsepower LT1 engine inside Chevrolet’s most unassuming compact instead. This sunflower-yellow survivor is the third Yenko Deuce Nova MuscleCarOfTheWeek has featured, following an orange car and a Brothers Collection example. Watch to see how a car built to be ignored became one of the most sought-after Novas ever made.
Sixty years ago, this 1964 Rambler American was AMC’s best-selling answer to the compact wars — thrifty, practical, and about as far from a muscle car as Kenosha built that year. Somewhere along the way it picked up a 350 small-block and a 700R4 overdrive automatic, and now it’s a sleeper most people never see coming.
Donut Media spent sixty years of Mustang-versus-Camaro history breaking it down decade by decade, scoring heritage, performance, and availability rather than just horsepower numbers. The comparisons range from the expected — Shelby’s GT500 against the Camaro ZL1 1LE — to matchups most fans have never considered, like the IROC-Z against Ford’s police-spec Mustang SSP. Host Joey Rassool promised to stay unbiased. The comments section has thoughts about how that went.
After sitting for twenty-five years, this 1967 Pontiac Firebird’s TH350 transmission wouldn’t move the car at all — not forward, not backward. Arrowhead Garage walks through the exact diagnostic process, from checking fluid at operating temperature to the often-overlooked torque converter drain-down that happens during long-term storage. It’s a temporary fix with a full rebuild still ahead, but it’s also a detailed lesson in exactly what stored transmissions do to themselves over time.