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A 1970 Dodge Charger can hide anything from a mild 318 to a snarling 440 Six Pack under that Coke-bottle sheet metal, and the difference shows the instant the throttle opens. Here is what separated the base R/T 440 Magnum from the Six Pack and the Hemi, why the 1970 car was the last and most refined of the second generation, and why collectors still chase the numbers-matching examples. Read on to find out what is really making that exhaust note.
Ford’s 1962 Thunderbird Sports Roadster used a clever fiberglass tonneau cover to disguise a genuine four-seat convertible as a two-seat sports car, right down to spoke wire wheels and special fender badges. Check the right option box and Ford would add Tri-Power carburetion to the 390 V8, bumping output to a genuine 340 horsepower — but only 120 buyers ever did, out of 1,427 Sports Roadsters built that year. Historians estimate barely 40 of those M-code cars survive today, making this one of the rarest factory options of the entire early Thunderbird generation.
Chevrolet’s Mark IV big-block started as a truck engine and ended up terrorizing quarter-miles from Camaros to full-size Biscaynes. The 396, the 402 sold under a different name, and the legendary 427 all trace back to the same basic architecture. Read on to see how one engine family covered such wildly different cars.
Dirt Monkey, a landscaping and construction YouTuber, steps outside his usual lane to compare the Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang using three criteria most traditional car reviews never touch. The comparison split viewers along brand lines almost instantly, pulled in commenters from as far away as Lebanon debating import pricing, and even fooled one viewer about how much modification a particular Mustang build actually had. Watch to see which criteria actually decided the verdict.
At first glance it looks like a flawlessly preserved 1969 Boss 302, chrome bumpers, shaker hood and all, until the modern stance gives away a secret hiding underneath. Filmed at Tennessee’s Pigeon Forge Rod Run, this fastback pairs a reproduction Boss 302 body with the chassis of a 2007 Mustang GT, blending Ford’s Trans-Am-bred styling with modern brakes and drivetrain reliability. Viewers, including admirers as far away as the UK, are asking why Ford never built this combination themselves. So what’s really underneath that unmistakable 1969 skin?
Brenda Wallace bought her 1970 Chevelle SS396 new from Wright Chevrolet in Clarksville, Tennessee, and never let it go. That single detail puts her car in rarer company than the horsepower numbers alone suggest — Chevrolet built just 2,144 of the top L78 version that year, and one-owner survivors with documented history are harder to find than clean examples of either engine. Here’s what made a genuine 1970 SS396 special, and why the “396” badge doesn’t quite mean what it says.
This 1964 Chevrolet C10 pickup has been thoroughly modernized with a fuel-injected LS3 crate engine, an overdrive automatic, Corvette disc brakes at all four corners, and a full custom leather interior. The truck it started as had a 283 small-block, drum brakes, and a vinyl bench. Chevrolet’s 1964 cab redesign gave builders the perfect canvas for exactly this kind of transformation. Read on to find out what GM got right the first time and how this build pushed it further.
A numbers-matching 1968 Chevelle SS 396 with its original 396 CID big block and TH400 automatic doesn’t need much of a caption to earn attention — Gateway Classic Cars gave this one eight. 1968 was the year Chevrolet spun the SS 396 into its own distinct series, moving over 67,000 units across the Sport Coupe, convertible, and El Camino body styles. Here’s what made the drivetrain combination in these photos worth a second look.
The 2016 SEMA Show settled an old argument when the Ford Mustang was voted Hottest Coupe over Chevrolet’s Camaro, even though Chevy brought the bigger display. But the car that actually stole attention that year wasn’t from either factory — it was a privateer rally driver’s twin-turbo 1965 Mustang making more than 1,400 horsepower. Here’s what happened at the show that’s still a reference point for builders a decade later.
Ford built an engine so large it needed a redesigned front end just to fit under a Mustang’s hood — and only built it at all because of a NASCAR homologation rule. Fewer than 1,400 Boss 429s were ever made, each one tagged with a sequential Kar Kraft door number. Read on for how a 375-horsepower rating hid an engine capable of 600-plus, and why this remains one of the most valuable Mustangs Ford ever sold.
Everyone remembers the Mustang and Camaro when the pony car wars of the late 1960s come up, but the Mercury Cougar XR-7 quietly out-luxuried both of them. This 1969 example paired leather upholstery and a walnut-toned dash with the option to order the same 428 Cobra Jet terrorizing dragstrips in Ford’s own cars that year. Read on to find out what made Mercury’s gentleman’s muscle car a genuine performance threat hiding behind upscale trim.
David Reese built this 1966 Ford Mustang Gasser back in 2013, and it still runs its 351 Cleveland exactly the way a period-correct gasser should. What makes War Horse unusual isn’t the raised nose or the drag strip runs — it’s that its owner has actually driven it cross-country on public roads. Watch to see how a dedicated race car earns that kind of mileage.
A 1948 Indian Chief that hadn’t turned over in forty years sat quiet at Kiwi Motorcycles in Riverside, California, until a small crew decided to find out if the engine had actually died or just gone to sleep. What came next was a cloud of exhaust smoke, a rough idle settling into a steady thump, and a comment section full of riders who still remember exactly what a stock flathead V-twin sounds like. Watch to see if forty years of silence really was the end.
Chevrolet built its last El Camino in 1987, and by most counts it was also the rarest single year of the model’s entire run — barely over 13,000 built, including fewer than 900 SS models. Buyers were down to just two engines, a base V6 or an optional 305 cubic-inch V8, with the manual transmission long gone from the order sheet. There was never an official send-off; production simply wound down quietly at Chevrolet’s Mexico plant. Here’s the real story behind the final year, and why the persistent “1988 El Camino” rumor doesn’t quite hold up.
1972 was a landmark year for the Oldsmobile Cutlass for two very different reasons: it was the last year you could order a standard Cutlass convertible until the body style returned in 1990, and it was the year a Hurst-badged Cutlass became the only Indy 500 pace car ever sponsored by a parts supplier instead of an automaker. Here is the strange chain of events, starting with a wrecked pace car the year before, that made it happen.