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A numbers-matching 1972 Oldsmobile 442 W-30 squared off against a Buick GSX Stage 1, a Pontiac Trans Am SD-455, and a Hemi Road Runner in a strict Pure Stock Drags shootout. Only Chevrolet’s chronically underrated L88 Corvette could put it away. Here’s how the torque-heavy 455 stacked up against three of Detroit’s most famous engines – and why it still gets called one of the most underrated muscle cars ever built.
A European car channel best known for reviewing supercars recently gave a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge the full walkaround-and-test-drive treatment, and its fans couldn’t stop talking about it. The Judge’s name came within a licensing dispute of never happening at all, and only a handful of the rarest version were ever built. Here’s the real story behind Pontiac’s loudest muscle car option, and the numbers that back up its reputation today.
A 1986 Pontiac Firebird sat buried under decades of grime and mildew until one owner’s daughter quietly arranged to have it fully detailed as a surprise. The crew fought mold, oxidized paint, and years of decay to bring it back to life. What happened when her father finally saw it explains why this reveal has become one of the channel’s most-watched episodes.
A 3,770-pound BMW M2 CS just out-dragged Dodge’s newest six-cylinder Charger Scat Pack and the 670-horsepower Charger Daytona EV in a head-to-head sprint. The margin at the finish line was less than half a car length, and it had almost nothing to do with horsepower. Here’s how Hagerty’s drag race actually played out — and why the lightest car in the lineup came out on top.
A California-built 1968 Mustang fastback spent four years getting reborn as a show-winning resto-mod — new 302 small-block, four-wheel disc brakes, and an Orange Glow paint job with matching seatbelts. Automotive historian Steve Magnante walks the build, and the car’s San Jose roots tie it straight back to the Bullitt-era Mustangs that made the fastback famous.
A black cherry 1970 Chevelle LS6 carries a VIN and trim-tag date stamp that place it at the very end of that year’s production run, fueling a claim that it may be the last LS6 ever built. With 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft from its 454 big block, it briefly out-muscled the Corvette itself. Only 4,475 were ever made.
The 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 wrapped a Paxton-supercharged 289 making 289 horsepower in a Raymond Loewy fiberglass body, and Studebaker sold it as the world’s fastest production car. Hemmings’ Mike Musto asks whether the last new car out of South Bend was America’s first muscle car — or its most beautiful misfire.
AMC’s 1968 AMX was America’s only two-seat rival to the Corvette — built by chopping a foot out of a Javelin and priced $1,000 cheaper. Three V8 options, a 19,134-car total run, and 52 factory Hurst drag cars later, here’s why this forgotten muscle car still has some of the most devoted owners in the hobby.
Dodge spent two years insisting the V8 muscle car era was over, replacing the Charger’s supercharged HEMI with a battery pack and then a turbocharged six-cylinder. Weak EV sales and comments from Dodge’s own CEO have changed that story: a supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 making more than 700 horsepower is reportedly locked in for the Charger’s 2028 refresh. Here’s what’s confirmed, what’s still rumor, and why the wait might be worth it.
Only 135 Plymouth Superbirds ever left the factory with a 426 Hemi under that towering rear wing, and one of them just crossed the Barrett-Jackson block for $396,000. A matching Hemi ‘Cuda wasn’t far behind at $302,500. Here’s what the pair says about which classic muscle cars are actually gaining value in 2026.