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Nick Panaritis takes on a build with a deceptively simple goal: 600 horsepower from a 1968 440, on pump gas, reliable enough to drive every day. Part one follows the teardown and reassembly of an engine pulled straight out of a client’s own Charger, with commenters pointing to real-world proof the target is achievable. Watch to see how the build starts.
Carroll Shelby’s 1965 GT350 was a 306-horsepower race car with a license plate, and it earned three straight SCCA B-Production championships to prove it. Fifty years later Ford revived the name on a Mustang with a high-revving flat-plane V8, a manual transmission, and a suspension tuned for the track. Parked side by side, the two cars look nothing alike, but they share one uncompromising mission. Read on to find out whether the new car truly earns the badge.
Buying a classic car sounds romantic until the bills start arriving, and TFL Classics built an entire spinoff series around exactly that gap between expectation and reality. Episode 2 of “Load Bearing Paint” counts down the top five pitfalls to avoid, but it’s the comment section that delivers the real lessons, including one viewer’s $250 junkyard find that became a $13,000 project he still doesn’t regret. What separates buyers who finish their projects from the ones who don’t?
This 1966 Ford F-100 Shortbed Fleetside cruising around Dallas carries a small fender badge that marks it as one of the earliest trucks built on Ford’s Twin I-Beam front suspension, a design that stayed in production under F-Series pickups for three decades. With a small-block Ford V8 and updated air conditioning, it is set up to be driven, not just admired. Read on to find out why two forged beams beat the solid axle everyone else was still using.
Ask ten gearheads to define ‘muscle car’ and you’ll get ten different answers — and at least one argument about whether a Mustang counts. The real definition comes down to a specific formula Detroit stumbled into in the mid-1960s: a mid-size body paired with the biggest engine a manufacturer had to offer. From the Pontiac GTO’s accidental invention of the category to a modern restomod chasing genuine ZL1 power, read on to see what actually separates a muscle car from every other fast classic.
A rotted-out 1970 Dodge Challenger becomes Project Ultra Violet in this POWERNATION Detroit Muscle build. The crew brings in chassis builder Jeff Schwartz for a full-frame conversion, grafts in a low-deck aluminum Hemi and a Tremec six-speed, and finishes it off with metallic purple paint and graphics from builder Chris Ryan. Watch to see how a shell most shops would have scrapped becomes a genuinely modern resto-mod.
This 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner packs a 390-cubic-inch V8 that could be optioned up to 401 horsepower on paper, paired with a stripped-down three-on-the-tree manual and no power assist anywhere. Years before anyone used the phrase ‘muscle car,’ Ford was already quietly building the ingredients for one. Read on to find out what driving a full-size Ford built this way actually felt like.
This Forest green 1951 Ford F1 half-ton shortbed wears the Five-Star Cab that grew out of Ford’s Million Dollar Cab redesign, and it backs it up with an upgraded 350, power steering, disc brakes, and air conditioning that no 1951 work truck ever offered. Ford built about 117,400 F1 pickups that year, yet very few survive looking this sharp. Read on to find out what Ford’s investment bought truck buyers and how this build finished the job.
A factory mix-up put an SS badge on this 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu convertible — and when it was restored decades later, the family that had owned it since new put the mistake right back on, badge and all. The story was even verified and published in the Grand Rapids Press back in 1996. Watch to find out why a factory error became part of the car’s identity instead of something to correct.
Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale week has a way of setting the tone for where muscle car money is headed each year, and 2017 was no exception. With 1,719 vehicles crossing the block and 40 sales records falling, the results revealed which corners of the market were heating up — and which classics were starting to share the spotlight with unexpected competition. A Shelby GT350 and a Boss 429 both cracked six figures, but the real headline was who else was cashing in.
Car News Central counts down seven of the rarest American cars ever built, from a two-off Duesenberg SSJ capable of 140 mph to a Corvette L88 whose real horsepower figure still sparks arguments in the comments. Along the way: an eight-car Trans Am convertible run split evenly between automatics and four-speeds, and the last Studebaker fast enough to matter. Watch to see the full list.
Automotive Territory rounds up ten classic American muscle cars rebuilt with modern engines, transmissions, and brakes — machines its host argues could outperform today’s supercars. Builders like Ring Brothers show up on the list, and the comments have turned into a running debate over whether a restomod still counts as a real muscle car. Watch to see the full ten and decide for yourself.
Chevrolet dropped its first real big-block into the Corvette in 1966, and the numbers on paper barely tell the whole story. The 427 arrived in two versions, a 390-horsepower hydraulic-lifter L36 and a 425-horsepower solid-lifter L72 that Chevrolet had briefly advertised at 450. Nearly one in five of the 27,720 Corvettes built that year carried the top engine. Read on to find out what made the 427-powered ’66 Sting Ray one of the most significant Corvettes Chevrolet ever built.
Butch Clayton’s 1978 Jeep CJ5 stood on two wheels at a quarterly Ladson car show, tires and frame on full display, but the stunt was the least remarkable thing about it. His father bought the Jeep, and Butch and his son William restored it together during a hard year, turning an AMC-era off-roader into three generations of family history. From the 304 V8 it shares with AMC’s muscle cars to why a one-family CJ matters more than a rare one, read on to find out what makes this Lowcountry Jeep worth a second look.
This Tahoe Turquoise 1966 Ford Mustang convertible carries the 76B Pony interior package, a 225-horsepower 289 four-barrel, factory wire hubcaps, and a power top — nearly every option a 1966 convertible buyer could check. Ford sold over 72,000 Mustang convertibles that year, more than double its nearest rival. Read on to find out exactly what made the Pony interior worth the extra money.