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A rat rod is supposed to look like it barely runs, which is exactly what makes a genuine 550-horsepower Chevrolet C10 sleeper so satisfying. Underneath the patina sits a drivetrain with nothing in common with the bodywork, most likely an LS swap producing roughly double what the strongest factory engine ever managed. Read on for how a half-ton work truck became one of the most sought-after platforms in the hobby.
Classic cars like this one weren’t built for efficiency; they were built to turn heads at stoplights and dominate weekend car shows decades later. Deep paint, real chrome, and body lines drawn before computers ever touched a car design tell you everything about the era before you even read the badge. The debate over which classic deserves the spotlight hasn’t slowed down since these cars left the factory floor.
Brian Carpenter’s 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G looks like a dressed-up small-block Cougar at first glance, but the details tell a different story — a functional Ram Air-capable hood scoop, sequential taillights, and sunroof switches wired in whether or not the car actually has a moonroof. Cougar historians estimate Mercury built only around 619 of these for 1968, making it far rarer than the similarly-named Dan Gurney Special package many people mistake it for. Watch to see what actually separates the two.
Nearly two decades before airbags became mandatory, General Motors quietly built and sold them, first on government fleet cars, then as a factory option across four full-size luxury nameplates. Here is the surprisingly early and short-lived story of GM’s Air Cushion Restraint System, and why the technology vanished from showrooms for almost twenty years.
MotorWeek puts the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk through both a track test and a street drive to answer an odd question: can a family SUV with a 707-horsepower supercharged HEMI actually behave like a performance car? The numbers, including a 0-60 time that beats plenty of dedicated sports cars, are only part of the story. Host John H. Davis brings three decades of consistency to a review of one of the strangest vehicles Jeep ever built. The verdict explains why it is still talked about years later.
Ford did not build the Boss 429 because customers were asking for it. NASCAR’s rulebook demanded that a race engine be sold to the public before it could compete, so Ford dropped a semi-hemi big block into the one car nobody expected — and then discovered the regular assembly line could not physically build it. Only 859 left the shop in 1969. Read on for what that homologation gamble actually cost, and whether it paid off.
A comedy short built entirely around Mustang owner stereotypes turns out to be backed by a genuinely serious car, a supercharged 2011 Ford Mustang GT putting down roughly 850 horsepower to the wheels. Owner John Fulks even converted it to an automatic specifically to be more competitive at the strip. Muscle Vs Tuner’s short has stuck around in Mustang circles for years because it is made by people who clearly live inside the joke. The reactions in the comments prove it landed exactly as intended.
Learning to drive a manual transmission used to be a rite of passage for muscle car fans, usually behind the wheel of a hand-me-down or a patient parent’s classic. As stick shifts have all but disappeared from new car lots, that tradition has gotten rarer by the year. Here’s a look at how manual transmissions went from standard equipment to an enthusiast novelty, and why a small comeback might be underway.
A backyard tree-felling job starts exactly by the book — a wedge cut, a truck backed up as insurance, a plan for which way the trunk should fall. Then the tree reverses direction mid-cut, and the truck that was supposed to be backup becomes the target. Viewers have spent years picking apart the exact moment the hinge wood failed. Watch to see how close a few degrees came to the difference between a Tuesday chore and a viral wreck.
Ask a room full of Mustang owners how many 1966 GTs Ford actually built and you will get answers scattered across a very wide range, most of them wrong in one direction or the other. The GT Equipment Group had only existed for a single model year before 1966, and Ford’s factory records from the period are not as tidy as collectors would like. The real number surprises people who assume GTs were either far rarer or far more common than they were. Read on for the figure and why it keeps getting argued about.
This restored 1966 Chevelle SS looks period-correct on the outside, but its 565 cubic inch supercharged V8 making roughly 750 horsepower has nothing to do with the factory 396 options Chevrolet actually offered that year. Even the rarest original engine, the 375-horsepower L78, doesn’t come close. Here’s how this build compares to what left the factory floor.
Someone swapped a heavy-duty GM Duramax diesel into a classic Chevelle, and the result sounds less like a muscle car and more like construction equipment. Currently running mid-14-second quarter miles, this build is — according to commenters — barely scratching what a properly built Duramax swap can eventually do. Comparisons to a locally famous Duramax Grand National running 8-second passes set the bar high. Watch to see this unconventional build make its pass.
By 2016, the Ford Mustang had transformed from a beloved but provincial American icon into a genuine global performance car, built at the factory in right-hand-drive for the first time in the nameplate’s history. Independent rear suspension and a chassis tuned for corners rather than just straight lines opened waiting lists across dozens of new countries. Read on to find out what made 2016 the Mustang’s breakout year worldwide.