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Ford built the third-generation “Bullet Bird” Thunderbird for only three model years, and 1963 was the last of them. Of the 63,313 built that year, just 5,913 were convertibles, powered by a 390 FE making 300 horsepower and 427 lb-ft and backed exclusively by an automatic. It was never intended to race anything, and that was entirely the point. Read on to find out what Ford was really building here.
Only 81 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 convertibles were built for 1971, and just 72 of those got an automatic transmission — making this triple-black example one of the rarest muscle car convertibles GM ever produced. A magazine once claimed a car just like it could beat a Hemi Plymouth GTX in the quarter mile. Here’s the story behind the numbers, and the Jim Morrison ad campaign that almost never happened.
The LeSabre name did not start as a car. It started as a jet-inspired 1951 GM Motorama show piece so popular that General Motors kept displaying it for years. By 1960 it was Buick’s entry-level full-size line, and the convertible is the version worth remembering, with returning VentiPorts, a brand-new Tri-Shield badge, and a 364 V8 that could be ordered to run on regular gas. Read on for what made 1960 a turning point for Buick.
A Northern California storage yard owner called MustangConnection1 to talk through what to do with four forgotten Mustangs, including a numbers matching 1969 Mach 1 with the factory 428 Super Cobra Jet and Drag Pack. Two more fastbacks and a loaded convertible round out the find. Watch to see exactly what has been sitting there, and why Mustang collectors online cannot stop talking about it.
When Carroll Shelby’s partnership with Ford ended in 1969, Ford quietly re-tagged leftover 1969 Shelby Mustangs with 1970 VIN plates under FBI oversight, creating a strange final chapter for the GT350 badge. Only 789 of these “1970” cars exist across GT350 and GT500, and just 10 GT350 convertibles combined a 4-speed manual with air conditioning. Read on to find out how a leftover-inventory loophole became one of Shelby history’s most talked-about footnotes.
Measuring 225 inches bumper to bumper and powered by a 401-cubic-inch V8 nicknamed the Wildcat 445, this 1960 Buick Electra convertible represented the brand’s new flagship just one year after Buick retired the Roadmaster name. Only 6,746 of these convertibles were built for the entire model year. Read on to find out what made this cream-painted example such a rare survivor.
Ford reinvented its personal-luxury flagship for 1964 with a bold, squared-off design and a cabin that felt like something out of a world’s fair — and buyers noticed, snapping up nearly 100,000 Thunderbirds that year alone. The convertible added a fully automatic power top borrowed from Lincoln, while a torquey 390-cubic-inch V8 handled the muscle underneath all that formal styling. A handful of ultra-rare special-order cars even packed a 427 V8, though most buyers stuck with the accessible 390. It remains one of the best sales years the Thunderbird nameplate ever had.
This 1969 Pontiac Firebird 400 convertible wears its original Carousel Red paint and whatever numbers-matching hardware Pontiac bolted under the hood in the final year before a full redesign. The gap between a standard 400 and the Ram Air package cars built that same year can mean tens of thousands of dollars at auction today. Read on to find out what separates a garden-variety 400 from the cars that made 1969 the high-water mark of the first-generation Firebird.
Pop the hood on this factory-black 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury and you’ll find the engine nobody brags about at car shows, and it might be the smarter choice. While everyone chases the 383 Golden Commando, this convertible went a quieter direction entirely. Read on to find out why the less famous engine might actually be the one to own.
Julia parked her 1970 Plymouth Barracuda convertible in 2003 after a minor fender bender left her too overwhelmed to deal with the repairs — and it sat for twenty-three years. When Hagerty’s Driveway Finds crew finally got the call, the durable 318 small-block came back to life faster than anyone expected. What didn’t come back so easily was Julia’s reaction to seeing it running again. Watch to see her response.
A 1968 Pontiac Firebird ordered with the right boxes checked could carry the 400 H.O. package or the mid-year Ram Air II update, complete with round-port heads and a reworked camshaft most buyers never knew existed. Out of over 107,000 Firebirds built that year, only 16,960 were convertibles, making a documented Ram Air drop-top a genuine rarity. Read on to find out what actually separated a standard 400 from Pontiac’s best-kept 1968 secret.
Buick only built 2,487 LeSabre convertibles for 1970, and this numbers-matching example carries the rare high-compression 350 that most buyers skipped over. Kept in the same Texas family since new, with original paperwork to prove it, it’s a documented survivor from the last year of a body style before Buick’s convertibles started disappearing for good. Here’s what made the high-compression option worth chasing.
Every 1970 Chevelle SS 396 badge tells a small lie, and the parenthetical in this convertible’s own description gives it away. The 396 that year was really a 402, bored out for reasons that had nothing to do with power, and Chevrolet kept the old emblem anyway. This 350-horsepower drop-top adds bucket seats, tilt wheel, air conditioning, and a power top to the story. Read on to find out why the badge and the engine stopped matching.
Only two buyers in 1966 ordered a Ford 7-Litre convertible with the dual-carburetor R-Code 427 instead of the standard 428 — and this Brothers Collection car is one of them. Muscle Car Of The Week digs into what actually separates the R-Code’s cross-bolted big block from the ordinary version riding under most 7-Litre badges. Watch to see why this one stopped the crew in their tracks.
A Buick GSX built during a five-month factory window in 1970 raises a genuine documentation question for its current owners — one that even a close look at the car’s trim and colors can’t fully settle. Its Stage 1 engine option carried an official rating widely considered too conservative for what the car could actually do. Here’s the open question at the center of this particular GSX.