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The 1963 Chevy II Nova SS convertible carried Chevrolet’s sportiest badge and bucket seats, floor shifter, and unique trim — but not a single extra horsepower, since the only engine offered that year was a 120-hp inline six. Chevrolet dropped the convertible body from the Nova SS lineup the very next year, making 1963 the only season you could get one with the top down. It’s a rare, six-cylinder oddity hiding behind a performance badge.
Chevrolet had an El Camino prototype drawn up in 1952 and then let it sit untouched for seven years. What finally pushed it into production was watching Ford get rewarded for the same idea. The car that resulted wore Bel Air trim over a Biscayne interior, carried a corrugated steel bed floor, and in its hottest form ran a 14-second quarter with a tri-carb 348 under the hood. Two model years later it was gone. Read on to find out what killed it.
Chevrolet’s brand-new 1966 Caprice was built for comfort, not speed — until you check the option sheet. Buried at the top sat the RPO L72, a 425-horsepower 427 big block that Chevrolet installed in just 1,856 full-size cars that year. This particular Caprice carries that rare combination under its luxury trim. It’s an odd, rare pairing that still turns heads wherever it shows up today.
Miguel Perez’s turbo AWD Chevy Silverado — nicknamed “Lady Bug” for how rough it looks — was built around a stock 5.3 pulled from a junkyard two weeks earlier and an eBay turbo running 35 pounds of boost, for a total cost around $750. His opponent’s Ford Lightning was built for real money and rated at 700 horsepower. Texans have a hashtag for exactly this situation. Watch to see who actually crossed the line first.
Pontiac says the 1964 GTO invented the muscle car. Chevrolet launched the Chevelle SS package the same model year. Chrysler loyalists point to the letter cars of the 1950s, and Oldsmobile fans go back to the 1949 Rocket 88. The argument has never been settled and probably never will be. Here is what each side actually claims, and why the Chevelle ended up mattering more than the debate itself.
This Competition Yellow 1955 Chevrolet 210 keeps almost nothing it was born with. The original frame, suspension, and inline-six are gone, replaced by a full Art Morrison chassis and a Corvette-derived LS6 aluminum V8. Somehow it still reads unmistakably as a Tri-Five the instant you see it. Read on for what actually changes underneath a build like this, and why the Tri-Five became the default canvas for American restomodding.
The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon arrived with 840 horsepower, a factory-fitted set of drag radials, and a launch violent enough that the NHRA effectively told owners they could not run it as delivered. Dodge built only 3,300 of them across a single model year, then closed the door for good. Here is what made the Demon different from the Hellcat it was built on, and why one 2.92-foot wheelie changed how everyone talks about factory muscle.
This 1958 Oldsmobile 88 carries the era’s 371-cubic-inch Rocket V8 and the one-piece wraparound backlight that replaced the old three-strut rear window design. It’s a survivor from the model year that earned Oldsmobile the unofficial nickname ‘ChromeMobile’ — and from the depths of a national recession that hit full-size car sales industrywide. Read on to find out what made this quietly capable cruiser more than just a chrome showcase.
A hidden VIN code separates GM’s last true first-generation small block from any other 350, and most owners never learn where to look for it. The Vortec 5700 L31 quietly powered Escalades, Suburbans, and full-size trucks through the late 1990s, while its oversized cousin, the 400 cubic inch small block, carried its own quirks and a notorious overheating flaw. Read on to find out what separates these two small blocks from the rest of the Chevy family, and why one of them is still available brand new today.
Chevrolet’s Camaro ZL1 1LE gives up nearly sixty horsepower to the Dodge Challenger Hellcat on paper, yet it laps a road course faster than the supercharged Mopar has ever managed. The gap comes down to what each manufacturer actually optimized for – straight-line traction versus corner-carving grip – in a horsepower war that shows no sign of ending. Read on to see how Chevrolet closed the gap without matching the Hellcat’s number.
A 3,000-horsepower claim from a Pontiac Firebird sounds like exaggeration until you look at what’s actually bolted to the engine — twin 98mm turbochargers feeding a 622 cubic inch big block Chevy, nearly 170 cubic inches past anything GM ever built in a production big block. Nicknamed ‘Birdman’ for its flamethrower antilag wheelies, this build sits at the extreme end of what’s being attempted in the twin-turbo Firebird world today. Read on to find out how that number stacks up against other extreme turbo Firebird builds — and whether 3,000 horsepower is actually believable.
A factory-built Camaro ZL1 1LE, running nothing more exotic than a six-speed manual and a set of summer tires, laid down a 7:16.04 lap at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, more than 13 seconds quicker than the standard ZL1. That time placed it among roughly the fourteen fastest production cars ever recorded on the circuit. Read on to find out what GM engineers say actually made the difference.
Chevrolet’s fifth-generation El Camino, built from 1979 through 1987, had to survive an energy crisis that punished anything with a big V8, and it did so with a shrinking body, a maze of trim names, and even a diesel V8 option that saved fuel but earned a reputation for expensive repairs. Read on to find out how a car-truck hybrid balanced performance and economy through one of the toughest decades for American muscle.
This 1948 Studebaker Commander keeps its groundbreaking postwar styling but swaps everything underneath for modern GM hardware — a Chevrolet 305 V8, a 700R4 overdrive automatic, and a Camaro front subframe with Mustang II-style steering. It’s a build that raises a fair question about how much of the original Commander survives beneath the sheet metal. See the full restomod in the photos below.
Ford built 24,946 Rancheros for 1971 and only 3,632 of them wore the GT badge. Fewer still left the factory with the 429 Super Cobra Jet, an engine that made this car-based pickup quick enough to run with a Chevelle SS 454. It was also the last year that combination existed, which is why finding a correct one takes years rather than weekends. Here is what made the 1971 Ranchero GT worth the search.