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The 1966 Chevrolet Nova SS started life as a humble compact, but buried deep in its order form was an engine option that turned it into one of the quickest bargains on the street. For 2,535 dollars, the right box checked could put a genuine performance engine under the hood of a car most people assumed was just economical transportation.
That old meme comparing a subtly lowered classic to a modern stance build isn’t just a joke about changing trends — it’s a debate with real, tangled history behind it. Some trace lowered cars back to racetrack physics, others to 1940s taildragger customs, and still others to 1980s Japanese street culture. This piece untangles where stance actually came from.
Jeff Lutz has built three 1957 Chevy race cars, and this one is the culmination of everything the first two taught him plus what he learned campaigning a Pro Mod 1969 Camaro. The new car returns to steel roof and quarter panels, satisfying both class rules and the standards set on Street Outlaws. Lutz was the first Drag Week competitor to average in the six-second range. Read on for what makes the third attempt different.
By 1973, insurance surcharges, emissions rules, and new bumper regulations had already reshaped the muscle car era that once defined Plymouth’s Barracuda. The E-body soldiered on regardless, sharing its platform with the Dodge Challenger. Production numbers from this final full season tell a quieter, less celebrated story than the Hemi-powered years that usually get the attention.
This Ford Model T “Lightning Bug” was driven by “Kookie” on the late-1950s TV hit “77 Sunset Strip,” spawning countless look-alikes over the decades since. Reportedly the genuine article rather than a replica, it now wears a 454-cubic-inch big-block Chevy engine in a body built for basic 1920s transportation. Here is how that unlikely combination came together.
Pontiac built the first-generation Firebird for only three model years, from 1967 to 1969, before a full redesign — and each year left its own visual clues behind. The 1969 model brought the biggest changes of the run: a longer, wider body and a distinctive one-piece Lexan front bumper-grille, along with the mid-year debut of the Trans Am package. Spotting which year a given Firebird belongs to often comes down to details as small as the grille shape and bumper design.
Fewer than fifty 1969 Pontiac GTOs left the factory with the Ram Air IV V8, a four-speed manual, and a convertible body all at once. This green survivor from The Brothers Collection went through a full restoration before its debut at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago — and one commenter claims a famous rock drummer once owned it. Watch the reveal and judge the rock crusher four-speed for yourself.
Car and Driver rides shotgun in the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 at Willow Springs International Raceway, a demanding high-speed circuit known as “The Fastest Road in the West.” The track’s unforgiving sweepers are exactly the kind of test that separates real aerodynamic grip from marketing claims. Watch to see how GM’s most track-focused Corvette handles it.
A supercharged LSX-swapped Chevelle lines up against a supercharged WS6 Trans Am at a BAR Shootout event, pitting a modernized classic against GM’s own factory-performance answer from the LS1 era. TheBayAreaRacing caught the pass, and the matchup says a lot about how two very different approaches to Chevrolet performance stack up on the same stretch of pavement. Watch to see which philosophy wins.
Australia built its own answer to the muscle car wars, and the sharpest weapon it produced was a six-cylinder. The 1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T E49 ran a 265-cubic-inch Hemi-six with triple 45mm Webers, a shot-peened crank and tuned-length headers, and Wheels magazine named it the fastest-accelerating car built in Australia that year. Only 149 were made. Read on to find out how a straight-six embarrassed V8s twice its displacement.
Someone crowned this clip ‘The Greatest Burnout of All Time,’ a bold claim in a genre with no shortage of contenders. See where the tradition of smoking tires for a crowd actually started, how it spread from drag strip prep to parking-lot ritual, and why it’s grown into a full-blown competitive event at shows like Summernats.
A free monthly parking-lot meetup has quietly become the largest car gathering in the entire state of Oklahoma. See how Coffee and Cars OKC grew from a simple Saturday morning tradition into a genuine charity fundraiser. This particular meet carried extra weight, tied to the Oklahoma City Auto Show’s 100th anniversary.
James Finney has built a reputation most no-prep racers only dream about, and his win at Conquer the Concrete just added another chapter to it. Racing on bare, unprepped pavement at Thunder Valley Raceway Park outside Oklahoma City, Finney walked away with a $10,000 check on top of more than $45,000 already banked across his last three major no-prep events. What actually separates a driver who wins consistently on a surface built to punish everyone equally? Read on to find out what’s behind the streak.
Full-size 1970s Cadillacs like the Fleetwood and Eldorado stretched close to 20 feet long and packed a 500-cubic-inch V8, the largest displacement engine GM ever put in a regular passenger car, all in the name of comfort over cornering. The Eldorado’s front-wheel-drive layout, borrowed from the Oldsmobile Toronado, made an already enormous car even stranger to engineer. Read on to find out why bigger, heavier, and harder to turn was exactly the point Cadillac was chasing.
Ford spent five decades selling the Mustang on noise, torque, and attitude, then quietly engineered in independent rear suspension, magnetic dampers, and an exhaust system with a mode designed to avoid annoying the neighbors. The result was a better car in almost every measurable way, and it started an argument that has not ended. Read on for what changed, why it changed, and what Ford refused to give up.