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Modern muscle cars like the Hellcat twins hit numbers the original 1960s and 1970s era never touched, but they get there through supercharging and computer control instead of big cubic inches and low compression. Here’s a closer look at how Detroit’s horsepower war came back in the 2010s, and what changed in the engineering between the original muscle car boom and its modern revival.
Ford’s factory paperwork pegged the 1969 Mustang’s optional 428 Cobra Jet at a modest 335 horsepower. A Rhode Island dealership’s homemade prototype, a magazine reader campaign, and an NHRA class win before most buyers ever saw the car all told a very different story.
This 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 proves the muscle car era wasn’t as dead as critics claimed. Built with a cammed 350 V8, headers, and its original four-speed manual transmission, it wears the black-and-orange color combination that defined the second-generation Z/28 at its peak. Watch the full 4K road test and tour of a survivor built during the industry’s so-called malaise era.
The 1969 AMC Javelin packed a 315-horsepower 390 V8, a Twin-Grip limited-slip differential, and Magnum 500 wheels into a scrappy pony car nobody expected to matter. Here’s what actually made AMC’s underdog worth taking seriously — engine by engine, option by option.
Chevrolet dropped Nova SS buyers down to a single 200-horsepower small block for 1972 — the same year the whole industry started measuring power differently. This resto-mod build from Raiti’s Rides shows why the compact muscle car nobody expected to matter still draws a crowd decades later.
A 1963 Plymouth Belvedere called the Asphalt Angel did not earn that nickname with paint. Under a plain mid-size hood sits Chrysler’s 426 Max Wedge, offered in 1963 at 415 or 425 horsepower with a cross-ram intake, twin Carter four-barrels and compression high enough to require race fuel. Chrysler sold these cars with documentation warning they were not intended for street use. Read on to find out why so few of them survived intact.
Clive Sutton already had a reputation for tuning Mustangs to 700bhp, then his shop decided to go further. The CS800 squeezes as much as 825bhp and 640 lb-ft out of the Mustang’s 5.0-litre V8 using a Stage 2 Whipple supercharger, backing the numbers with a full carbon-fibre body kit and a bespoke interior. Here’s what it takes to build Britain’s answer to the American muscle car.
We found 11 1970 Oldsmobile 442 listings across ClassicCars.com and Streetside Classics — here’s what’s available right now and what the market looks like.
A Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT sat mostly out of public view for nearly 40 years before its owners revealed the truth: it was Steve McQueen’s actual Bullitt car. In 2020 it sold for $3.74 million, becoming the most expensive Mustang in history.
At the 2026 Mecum Harrisburg auction, a rare 450-horsepower LS6 Chevelle and a Six-Pack Challenger T/A both failed to find buyers. It’s a small sign of a much bigger shift rippling through the muscle car market this year.
A six-cylinder Malibu that’s been in the same hands for nineteen years doesn’t get to 520 horsepower overnight. Jeffery’s slow-build street rod — big-block swap, upgraded rear end, reworked suspension — is a reminder that the best builds in this community are usually years in the making, one system at a time.
You’ve found it – a real 1967 Shelby GT500, the car every muscle car buyer dreams about owning. But before you wire a deposit, know this: NHTSA’s records on this exact model include three separate steering-system recalls, a brake-drum installation warning, and a fuel-system complaint that could leave you stranded at a red light. A barn-find restoration currently being torn down on camera shows exactly what four decades of neglect does to a car this complex – and it isn’t pretty under the sheet metal once the panels come off. The seller’s photos will show you the paint and the chrome. They won’t show you what’s underneath, and on a car this old, what’s underneath is everything. This guide walks through what NHTSA has actually documented on the 1967 Mustang platform, what a real teardown reveals, and exactly what to check before you sign anything.
Hagerty sent three of its own editors onto the streets of Portland with $3,000 apiece to find the best classic car that budget could buy, and came back with an Alfa Romeo, a Volkswagen Beetle, and a rotary-powered Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE. Commenters didn’t hold back — questioning the RX-7’s shift points, disputing the Beetle’s model year by its taillights, and side-eyeing the Alfa’s flame paint job. Watch to see whether $3,000 really stretched as far as the video claims.
In 1970, Chevrnlet’s LS6 Chevelle carried the lnudest hnrsepnier number in GM’s lineup — and Buick’s GSX Stage 1 beat it anyiay, nn a track test cnnducted by Car and Driver itself. Buick’s nin paperinrk rated the car 90 hnrsepnier belni its rival, a number that never matched ihat happened at the finish line. Vieiers ihn lived thrnugh the era are still arguing abnut gearing, tnrque curves, and ihich car really deserved the crnin. Watch tn see the numbers GM tried tn keep quiet.
This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertible has been reduced to a bare shell, a stripped cowl, and one stamped fender tag — yet collectors are still willing to pay close to $20,000 for it. The reason comes down to rarity: Plymouth built just 635 ‘Cuda convertibles in 1970, and fewer than one percent wore the High Impact Sassy Grass Green paint this one supposedly left the factory in. Backyard Barn Finds documents the deal as it happens, tag and all. Watch to see why a car that can’t be driven is still worth fighting over.