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The Ford Galaxie’s first three model years hid a genuine engineering experiment behind conventional full-size styling — a batch of roughly 200 lightweight race-only cars built to shed weight nobody expected Ford to bother losing. Add a one-year-only retractable hardtop and a short-lived Starliner body style, and the 1959-1961 Galaxie turns out to be far more interesting than its reputation as just a big sedan suggests. Read on for what made these years different.
One jump – sixteen feet high, eighty-two feet long – made this orange Charger more famous than the show itself. More than 320 identical cars were destroyed getting that stunt on film, and the welded-shut doors weren’t a style choice; they were what was left after the abuse this car was built to take.
Between 1969 and 1974, Jaguar’s E-Type went through more change than any four-year stretch in its history — detuned engines for U.S. emissions rules, a completely new V12, and a dozen ultra-rare lightweight racers built alongside the roadgoing cars. The Series III’s 5.3-liter V12 turned the E-Type into a genuinely different machine, capable of 135 mph and a 14.82-second quarter mile. Read on to find out what separates a Series II from a Series III, and why twelve specific cars from 1963 and 1964 remain the most valuable E-Types ever built.
Dodge arrived to the pony car fight five years late and compensated by building an engine bay that would accept nearly anything Chrysler made, from a slant six to a 426 Hemi. This 1971 Challenger runs a 440 big block with a four-speed, which puts it one rung below the top and in the sweet spot for anyone who wants real E-body performance without a Hemi price. Read on for what the numbers actually say.
Some barn finds sit in a shed for a decade. This 1962 Oldsmobile sat untouched in a house garage for more than four decades before this video brought it back into the light, and it turns out to be one of the first two turbocharged production cars ever sold to the public. Its factory Garrett turbocharger and forgotten water-injection system predate the muscle car era most people think started it all. Watch to find out why so few of these survived.