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By day this red, white, and blue Javelin was Car #3, dicing it out in SCCA Trans-Am with Mustangs and Camaros that outnumbered AMC ten to one. By off-season it became a test mule for one of the sharpest operations in American racing. Read on to find out what Penske’s people found when they finally put this car on the stopwatch.
A flyer promising prize money at a March drag shootout doesn’t tell you much on its own — but the track behind it, an NHRA-affiliated eighth-mile strip built for grudge racing and small-tire shootouts, has plenty of story to it. Door-crasher format, cash on the line, and a community that shows up test-and-tune after test-and-tune. Here’s what actually happens when the tree drops and real money’s riding on it.
Muscle Car Of The Week usually reaches decades into the past for its features. This week it barely reaches back at all, spotlighting a 2012 Ford Mustang BOSS 302 carrying a designation most viewers have never encountered, Tooling Tryout Number 1, a label reserved for cars used to validate factory production tooling before a model reaches dealers. Built as a direct descendant of the original 1969-1970 BOSS 302, this modern revival turns out to be faster than nearly everything else in the collection. Watch to find out why.
Most restored Chevelles come with a history full of guesswork. This 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS does not, its original 396 V8, TH400 transmission, and 12-bolt posi rear end are all numbers-matching and documented, complete with the factory build sheet that specified them from day one. Finished in the uncommon factory color Burnished Brown and treated to a full frame-off restoration, this California car has the paper trail most restored muscle cars only claim to have. Watch to see what a fully documented survivor actually looks like.
When Ford realized their Mustangs were being outpaced by Chevy’s Camaros, they brought out the big guns (or engines, rather) with the Boss 302 in 1969-70. This Mustang was like the cool kid at school with its sleek design, minus those non-functional rear scoops. Packed with power, it could hit 0-60 in 6.9 seconds, leaving others in the dust. At $3,720, it was a steal back then, though good luck finding one now that won’t cost you more than a small island!
Rev up your engines, because we’re diving into the Chevy Big Block’s 427 variations! Picture this: the 1969 ZL1 Mark IV, a powerhouse that shed 110 lbs thanks to its aluminum build, making it as light as your grandma’s cast iron skillet. This beast demands 103 octane fuel, so forget about a Sunday drive unless you’re packing the good stuff. With a roaring 524 gross hp, it can zip through a quarter mile in just 11.62 seconds. But, hold onto your wallets—this speedster doubled the Corvette’s price in ’69!
Pontiac built exactly eight 1969 Firebird Trans Am convertibles, and V8TV has now featured every single one of them, including this fourth car, the one with the lowest VIN sequence number of the group. The eighth car in the set went missing for years before finally surfacing and getting restored in 2016. See what makes this particular Trans Am worth a second look inside an already impossibly rare set of eight.
This 1969 Buick Skylark wears every badge and stripe of a genuine GS – right down to the hood scoop and monogrammed vinyl roof – but underneath is a more modest Special Deluxe coupe running a smaller 280-horsepower V8. Buick built only 3,574 examples of the California GS, an affordable package that let buyers buy the muscle car look without the muscle car price tag. Tom McCahill still clocked it to 60 mph in under 10 seconds.
For the 1969 model year, the Camaro was the belle of the SCCA Trans Am ball, equipped with Corvette-like stopping power thanks to four-piston calipers. Only 206 of these beauties sported the $500 JL8 option, making them rarer than a unicorn on a racetrack. The Z28 package was a powerhouse, boasting a 302-cubic-inch engine, and the COPO version went rogue with a 427-cubic-inch beast, courtesy of Don Yenko. And let’s not forget the ZL-1, an all-aluminum marvel, crafted with love and 16 hours of labor!
Pontiac sold the 1964 Grand Prix as a personal-luxury coupe, all formal styling and quiet comfort — but buyers who checked the right boxes on the order sheet could walk out with a genuine 421 HO Tri-Power making 370 horsepower and a brand-new Muncie 4-speed. Here’s the real top-of-the-line engine lineup, and why one number that keeps getting repeated about this car isn’t quite right.
This compilation runs four real 1969 commercials back to back: Pontiac GTO, Ford Mustang Mach 1, Lincoln Mercury Cougar, and Plymouth Road Runner, each selling the same basic promise with a completely different pitch. Watching them in sequence makes each brand’s advertising strategy, attitude, performance credibility, upscale polish, or cartoon charm, obvious in a way a single ad never shows. See which pitch actually holds up six decades later.
Chevrolet’s 350 small-block went through four dramatically different personalities in barely a decade — from the 425-horsepower NHRA-rated LT-1 in 1970 to a computer-assisted, 190-horsepower L81 just eleven years later. Tracing the L46, LT-1, L82, and L81 in sequence lays out exactly how emissions rules and changing priorities reshaped one of GM’s most important engines. Read on for the full breakdown, casting numbers included.
For the show’s 200th episode, V8TV sat down with three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser next to the exact 1969 Ford Torino he drove to victory at Pikes Peak — a car built by Bill Stroppe, Holman & Moody, and powered by a Smokey Yunick-built Boss 429. Unser hadn’t seen it since 1969. Watch to hear him tell the story of a car, and a win, he clearly hasn’t forgotten.
Earl spent his entire working life saving up for a Lamborghini Miura. He finally bought one, drove it for years, then let it sit untouched in his garage for fifteen years as he grew older. When a determined collector named Jeff finally tracked the car down, he discovered a completely original, unrestored 1969 Miura now valued at $2.5 million. Watch the full story of a barn find fifty years in the making.
