 |
The fifth-generation Camaro returned for 2010 with five trims, a 426-horsepower SS, and a 550-horsepower LS7 concept car that eventually became a 69-unit COPO production run. It paced the Indy 500 three years running and became the dominant Chevrolet on NASCAR grids by 2013. Read on for the full breakdown of engines, trims, and racing pedigree behind the Camaro’s comeback.
Built in 1996, this Buick GSX became the first GS Pro Street car to break into the 9-second quarter-mile bracket, debuting at the GS Nationals and winning its class outright. Fourteen years later, new owner Bob Ortolani brought it back to the same shop for a fresh powerplant, and this video captures the very first day that combination hit the strip, three passes that kept dropping the number, followed by an unplanned wheelie nobody saw coming. Watch the full run and see how close the car came to the 9.40s.
This 1977 Pontiac Firebird Esprit in Buckskin Gold carries a direct link to The Rockford Files, the car James Garner’s character made famous on TV. But its history runs deeper than a screen connection – a mid-1977 factory supply shortage quietly swapped the engine spec partway through the model year. Add the redesigned square-headlight front end and rare option packages like Skybird, and this Esprit turns out to be more complicated than its laid-back reputation suggests.
This 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle SS went through a nearly three-year restoration before Vanguard Motor Sales put it up for sale, and the spec sheet reveals more than a fresh coat of paint — Edelbrock heads, a Ford 9-inch rear end, and an engine block with a story of its own. Watch the full walkaround to see what’s really under the surface.
Audi’s R8 was already fast enough to embarrass supercars costing twice as much, which did not stop German tuner MTM from unveiling a 5-liter biturbo version at Geneva in 2011 and then spending two years making it substantially wilder. By 2013 the GT version was making 802 horsepower and running to 223 mph. Read on for what MTM changed, and why the chassis work mattered more than the engine.
Dave Murawski has owned this 1972 Buick GS Stage 1 — Arctic White paint, 455 CI engine — since 2010, fulfilling a fascination that started when he was thirteen. Lou Costabile catches up with him at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, and even commenters loyal to other GM muscle cars admit the GS is winning them over. Watch to hear the full story behind the N-25-optioned Stage 1.
The Series 2 Lotus Elise failed its U.S. headlight regulations and failed the 5 mph impact test, and it was sold in America anyway — under a three-year exemption. It went on to become what many consider the finest Lotus ever built, running a Toyota engine with a cylinder head designed by Yamaha. Read on to find out how a company famous for adding lightness ended up 187 pounds heavier and still faster than before.
A longtime Hot Wheels collector breaks down why 2007 through 2010 stands out as one of the strongest stretches for muscle car castings the mainline dollar line ever produced. The video digs into why elusive Treasure Hunt variants almost never turn up on store pegs, and where dedicated collectors actually find them instead. It is a look at scale-model collecting taken as seriously as any full-size restoration. Watch to see which castings make the cut.
Jesse Matlock has owned this 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda since 2010, but it took roughly 7,000 hours — about three and a half years of build time — to turn it into the car he calls ‘Striker.’ Lou Costabile caught up with Matlock at the World of Wheels Car Show in Rosemont, Illinois to hear the story behind the paint, the fabrication, and the name. Watch to see what earns a restomod the title of baddest Cuda on the planet.
This 1963 Chevrolet Corvette convertible looks period-correct from ten feet away, but everything holding it together is decades newer than the body it’s wearing — a brand-new LS2 crate V8, a Bowtie Stage 3 automatic, four-wheel disc brakes, and ice-cold A/C hidden behind a frame-off restoration that took two years to complete. Vanguard Motor Sales walks through a build sheet detailed enough to make plenty of numbers-matching purists reconsider what “correct” should actually mean. Watch to see exactly what a modern restomod Corvette gets right — and what it deliberately leaves behind.
In the mid-2010s, three hypercars fought for the title of world’s fastest production car, but only one of them actually won it. Koenigsegg, Bugatti, and Hennessey each pushed past 267 mph, yet a technicality in how records get certified kept one blistering-fast contender out of the books entirely. Here’s how the numbers actually broke down.
Before the Tesla Model S ever reached dealerships, there was the Roadster — unveiled at a private, invitation-only event in a Santa Monica hangar in 2006 and eventually delivered to 2,418 owners across 31 countries. By 2013, Tesla’s Model S sedan could hit 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, seat seven passengers, and still return real-world usability that undercut the Roadster’s price by tens of thousands of dollars. Read on for the full numbers behind Tesla’s first decade of building genuinely quick electric cars.
Chevrolet’s fifth-generation Camaro asked buyers to accept cramped rear seats, a stingy trunk, and windshield pillars thick enough to hide a delivery truck — then handed back handling that punches well above its price. Between 2011 and 2013 the lineup grew from a competent 312-horsepower V6 coupe into something far stranger: a supercharged ZL1 capable of 580 horsepower and a 180-mph top speed. Read on to see how a retro-styled pony car became one of the most surprising performance bargains of its era.
Tesla’s original two-seat Roadster picked up serious upgrades between 2010 and 2012 — a hand-wound stator for more efficient power delivery, adjustable suspension, noise-damping body panels, and a genuinely upscale leather interior. A mid-cycle refresh added new wheels, a touchscreen, and hot-climate hardware before Tesla’s Lotus-based chassis supply ran out for good. Read on to find out how a Silicon Valley startup’s first car built a case for electric performance long before it became mainstream.