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Posts Tagged: Big Three

Packard Model 8 -1949 images

by Ross Mills

In the years right after World War II, Packard wasn’t just competing with Cadillac for America’s luxury car buyers — it was actually winning, with the Clipper-era lineup outselling Cadillac and LaSalle combined for a stretch. This 1949 Eight represents that high point: America’s last great straight-eight era, built the same year Packard’s total production topped 116,000 cars. It also marks the beginning of the end, since the brand still lacked the modern overhead-valve V8 that was about to reshape the entire industry.

Studebaker Scotsman 1958 images

by Ross Mills

When Studebaker’s finances turned dire in the mid-1950s, the company didn’t try to out-glitz Detroit — it stripped a car down to the bone and bet on budget-minded buyers instead. The gamble worked better than anyone predicted, with the bare-bones Scotsman eventually outselling Studebaker’s own upscale models combined. Here’s the story behind the six-cylinder machine that briefly saved the independent automaker.

Classic red Ford Mustang in a vintage garage setting.

800HP 1970 Mustang Adds New Meaning To Boss!

by Kiril

A shop’s 800-horsepower build starting from a numbers-matching 1970 Ford Boss 302 highlights just how far modern engine building has come from Ford’s original homologation special, a car built purely to satisfy SCCA Trans-Am racing rules rather than chase a horsepower record. The factory version made a modest 290 horsepower; this one makes nearly triple that. Read on to find out exactly what separates the two and how a rulebook, not a dyno, created the original Boss 302.

A vibrant blue classic muscle car on display at a car show.

2017 Detroit Autorama Massive Muscle Car Photo Gallery

by Kiril

More than 800 cars packed Cobo Center for the 65th annual Detroit Autorama in 2017, one of the most significant gatherings in the hot rod and custom car world. The Ridler Award, reserved for cars debuting for the very first time in public, went to a scratch-built 1933 Ford Roadster running a 427 big block. What else was hiding among 800 cars competing for the hobby’s biggest stage?

Classic blue and white 1960s American car on a sunny street.

1966 Buick Skylark GS was strong but costly member of mid-’60s muscle car race

by Kiril

The 1966 Buick Skylark Gran Sport carried a 401-cubic-inch nailhead V8 that Buick was obliged to advertise as a 400, because GM had capped intermediate engine displacement at that figure. It made 325 horsepower and a genuinely enormous 445 lb-ft of torque, which is how the engine got its Wildcat 445 name. It also cost meaningfully more than a GTO. Read on for why Buick’s muscle car was the fastest one nobody bought.

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