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Ford built exactly 57 of these R-code Fairlanes in 1966, not for showroom sales, but to satisfy a NASCAR homologation rule requiring a minimum production run. Every one wore the same white-over-black color combination and hid a 427 side-oiler under a stripped-down interior. Only about 25 are believed to survive. Here is the story behind Ford’s rarest mid-size muscle car.
Pontiac built just 7,500 examples of the 1979 10th Anniversary Trans Am to mark a decade of the badge — and inside that already-limited run, only 1,817 buyers got the 400 cubic-inch V-8 paired with a 4-speed manual. That combination makes this silver-and-charcoal special one of the last true muscle-era Firebirds, built right before the fuel crisis changed everything.
The Lincoln Continental exists because Edsel Ford wanted a better-looking car than anything Detroit was building in 1938 — so he had one made just for himself. A decade later, the 1948 convertible represents the final year of that original design, powered by a 292-cubic-inch V12 Lincoln would soon retire for good. Only 452 convertibles like this one were ever built. Here’s the story behind one of Detroit’s rarest postwar V12s.
This 1940 Chevrolet wears its original pre-war sheet metal but hides a thoroughly modern 355-cubic-inch small-block V8 under the hood, paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission Chevrolet never offered on the real 1940 model. It’s a textbook street rod build: a decades-old body around drivetrain technology that didn’t exist yet when the car was new. The small-block’s legendary tunability is exactly why builders keep reaching for it.
1974 marked the final year Plymouth built the Road Runner on its original mid-size platform, with engine options still ranging from a mild 318 up to a 440 big block wearing GTX badges. Production had fallen to 11,555 cars, down from 19,056 the year before, as the muscle car era wound down. The Road Runner nameplate held on one more year on the larger Fury-based B-body before being reduced to a Volare trim package in 1976.
This 1948 Chevrolet sedan left the factory with a 216-cubic-inch six and a three-speed gearbox built for practicality. Decades later, someone dropped in a 454-cubic-inch V8 and a 4-speed, turning a postwar family car into a genuine sleeper. The transformation raises the obvious question: how much else got upgraded along the way?
By 1976 the horsepower war was over and Detroit had lost. Pontiac marked its fiftieth anniversary with a black and gold Trans Am that looked far faster than it was, and then its engineers did something nobody else in the industry managed that decade: they made the numbers go back up. Read on to find out which two sets of cylinder heads they used to do it.
This 1967 Buick Riviera arrived the year Buick retired its long-serving “Nailhead” V8 in favor of an all-new 430 cubic-inch engine making 360 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque. That swap dropped the Riviera’s 0-60 time to roughly 7.8 seconds, genuinely quick for a two-ton personal luxury coupe. Presented here through Gateway Classic Cars, it’s a well-documented example of the Riviera’s first year with its most memorable engine.
The Chevrolet Impala carries a name borrowed from an African antelope and a backstory that started as a Corvette-inspired concept car nobody expected to reach production. From a 1956 Motorama prototype to becoming America’s best-selling car by 1965, the Impala’s rise wasn’t guaranteed at any step along the way. Read on to see how a styling sketch turned into one of the longest-running nameplates in Chevrolet history.
New federal bumper regulations forced Ford to reshape the 1973 Torino’s front end, adding weight and trimming horsepower across the lineup. Despite the changes, Ford expanded the model range with the new Gran Torino Brougham and went on to outsell the rival Chevrolet Chevelle by more than 168,000 units for the year. Read on to find out how a heavier, slower redesign still managed to win the sales fight.
This 1968 Pontiac Firebird still carries its original broadcast sheet, Protect-O-Plate, and a believable 72,000 miles — paperwork that most surviving Firebirds lost decades ago. Painted in factory-correct Alpine Blue over a Dark Teal interior, it runs a numbers-matching 400 four-barrel V8 paired to its original Turbo 400 automatic. RamblinAround caught the full walkaround and test drive at Fast Lane Classic Cars in Missouri. Watch to see what a documented, unmolested first-generation Firebird actually looks and sounds like.
A 1940 Chevrolet badge and a “350 CID V8” listing title should not belong to the same car, and yet here they are. This piece looks at what actually rolled off the factory line in 1940 (an 85-horsepower straight-six, not a big-block V8) and how a car like this ends up with a completely different heart decades later.
General Motors spent the late 1960s capping its intermediates at 400 cubic inches. When that rule disappeared for 1970, Oldsmobile answered with a 455-powered 4-4-2 whose advertised horsepower figure was almost certainly a deliberate lie. This Gateway Classic Cars example wears the badge quietly, but the W-30 story behind it involves fiberglass hoods, red plastic fenders, and an insurance industry that was watching very closely. Read on for what Lansing was really hiding.
1953 marked the final year for Ford’s legendary flathead V8, a 239 cubic inch engine that had powered the brand for 21 years. This Customline, Ford’s mid-level trim slotted between the Mainline and Crestline, was one of 761,662 built that year. It’s a car that looked ordinary on paper but carried real automotive history under the hood. Here’s what made 1953 such a pivotal year for Ford’s V8 lineup.
