 |
Chevrolet built only 69 all-aluminum ZL1 Camaros and 116 L88 Corvettes in 1969 — two of the rarest big-block cars GM ever sold. Road Test TV lined up a genuine example of each for a quarter-mile showdown few collectors will ever see in person. Watch to find out which factory 427 actually wins the race.
Car and Driver’s own testing crowned the 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 the quickest car of the 1960s at 4.3 seconds to sixty, edging out legends like the Hemi Charger and Corvette 427 further down the list. Period testing standards were far looser than today’s, with factory-tuned engines and sticky rubber skewing plenty of these numbers. Still, this list captures exactly how far a handful of cars pushed acceleration in a decade that had no rulebook for it yet.
Dan Mershon has owned eleven Shelby AC Cobras over the course of his driving career, which makes his opinion on the original 289-powered cars worth taking seriously. Filmed at a Cars and Coffee show in Scottsdale, this genuine 1965 Cobra gets the kind of expert breakdown that only comes from someone who has spent decades comparing the real thing to the kit cars imitating it. His verdict might surprise Cobra fans expecting the bigger-engine cars to win.
Introducing the legendary Ford V8 engines, where horsepower meets horsepower! Kicking off in ’57 with the Edsel’s brand new FE 361 engine, Ford revved up the excitement. Need speed for your ride or a power-packed pickup? Meet the FT 360 with its torque-tastic performance. And don’t miss the 390—perfect for the Mustang, with horses under the hood to match. Enter the 406, a short-lived racing legend, soon to be replaced by the iconic 427. Ford’s V8 engines are the real horsepower heroes!
This 1967 Chevy Impala SS in Elkhart Blue hides one of the rarest factory options Chevrolet ever offered on a full-size car: a genuine 427-cubic-inch big block. Owner David Fritzsche has kept it since 2007, and by every account, the sound alone stops conversations at a show. Spotted at a Cars & Cops event in Chicago, this Impala proves full-size factory muscle deserves more credit than it usually gets. Watch to hear it run.
In 1964, Ford squeezed a race-bred 427 V8 into the Galaxie 500, and NASCAR promptly banned the racing version as “too exotic” before it could dominate a single superspeedway. Only 3,140 R-code Galaxies were built that year, and just 76 are known to survive today. Here’s the story behind Ford’s short-lived big-block gamble and the handful of survivors still turning heads.
A genuine Ford GT-40 doesn’t often leave the show circuit, let alone line up against a modern Dodge Hellcat on an airstrip. At Omega Motorsport’s NoFlyZone Midwest event, that’s exactly what happened, and the result had little to do with which car had more horsepower on paper. The GT-40 was built in the 1960s to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, and some of that engineering still translates six decades later. See how a Le Mans legend handled a fight nobody expected it to win.
The 1963 Buick Riviera almost wore a Cadillac badge instead, GM’s styling chief originally designed it as a LaSalle-branded personal luxury coupe before Cadillac passed and Buick claimed the project. Deliberately limited to 40,000 units to preserve its exclusivity, the Riviera paired genuine luxury styling with a 325-horsepower Nailhead V8 capable of 0-60 in around 8 seconds. It’s a car built on a rejection that turned into one of Buick’s most important models of the decade.
A casual online post about an old car sitting in a barn led one collector on a short drive through Wisconsin and straight into muscle car history: a 1967 Mercury Comet Caliente built with the ultra-rare R-code 427, dual four-barrel carburetors, and a four-speed manual. Cars this specific almost never survive intact, let alone get rediscovered by accident. Watch to see exactly what fifty years in a barn does to a car this rare.
This Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT Fastback carries twelve MCA National Titles and two National Grand Championships — an unusually decorated record for a car that, in period, actually sold worse than the plain hardtop. 1968 was a pivotal year for the GT, with a mid-year Cobra Jet engine option and new safety features arriving almost unannounced. Here’s what made this particular model year, and this particular car, stand out.
Tim Allen has wanted a Camaro like this since he was a teenager, and on Jay Leno’s Garage he finally shows it off — a 1968 Camaro built around the ultra-rare factory COPO 427 program, GM’s internal loophole for putting big-block muscle into a car it officially wasn’t supposed to have. Builder Bodie Stroud took it further, delivering 505 horsepower wrapped in bodywork that still looks unmistakably period-correct. Jay Leno gets behind the wheel to see if it lives up to the reputation. Watch the burnout that settles the argument.
Ford’s 1967 Mustang order sheet topped out with the 390 cubic inch S-Code V8 — the biggest engine the pony car could carry that year, rated at 320 horsepower and roughly 427 lb-ft of torque. Most buyers chose lighter, cheaper small-block options instead, which is exactly why documented S-Code GT Fastbacks like this one are so scarce today. Ford built roughly 28,800 Mustangs with this engine across the entire 1967 lineup. Here’s what made the biggest ’67 Mustang engine such a hard sell.
In the Ford Motors V8 saga, the Mercury’s 410 FE engine flexed its muscles from ’66 to ’67, merging the 390’s bore with the 428’s stroke for a mechanical love child. Meanwhile, the 427 FE engine roared onto racetracks, its power only outshone by its confusing math: 425 cubes? Seems like someone rounded up! Ford’s 427 Cammer, a NASCAR contender with a timing chain longer than a politician’s promise, boasted up to 657 hp. That’s enough power to make even the most stubborn valve nod in agreement!
In 1966 you could buy a Chevrolet Impala Super Sport that looked like a dignified family cruiser and hid one of the most fearsome engines Chevy built. This Marina Blue example carries the new-for-1966 427 in its hottest L72 trim, a 425-horsepower big block backed by a close-ratio four-speed. V8TV walks through the full-size sleeper, from its stacked console gauges to its willingness to smoke the tires for miles. It is a reminder that the big Impala could run with anything. Watch the full breakdown.