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Ford handed a compact Fairlane a NASCAR-spec 427 and built exactly 100 of them for one job: winning at the strip. The catch was hidden right on the front of the car, where the headlights should have been. Here’s how the 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt used disguised air intakes and radical weight cuts to run 11s in period — and still command six figures at auction today.
A 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda rolled onto Pawn Stars with a $90,000 price tag and Rick Harrison’s boldest compliment yet. Sharp-eyed Mopar fans in the comments weren’t buying the superlative without proof of what engine was actually under the hood. Here’s what really separates an ordinary ‘Cuda from the 114 factory Hemi cars collectors now pay millions for.
Ford built only 73 examples of the 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT with the ultra-rare 429 Super Cobra Jet Drag Pak package, and this survivor still carries its original invoice, Marti Report, and numbers-matching drivetrain. Under deceptively quiet Competition Yellow paint sits one of Detroit’s most overlooked muscle car engines, now dyno-tested past 500 horsepower.
A New Jersey car owner named Mario Rossi refused to accept a NASCAR rule that was supposed to end his Dodge Daytona program for good. So he built the smallest engine the rulebook allowed and sent it out to embarrass the sport’s biggest teams. What happened next has stayed a Mopar racing secret for over 50 years.
Ford built just 100 of these 1964 Fairlanes and disguised the 427 on the paperwork as a mild 289, then sent them drag racing against Mopar’s best. At the NHRA Winternationals, the two fastest cars in the field turned out to be two Thunderbolts racing each other. Here’s how a hand-built, fiberglass-paneled sedan won Ford a national championship in a single season.
Ford’s 1970 Torino won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award for its comfort and styling, but hidden in the order form was a solid-lifter 429 Super Cobra Jet built to run 13-second quarter miles. Only about 1,475 buyers ever combined the Drag Pack option with the Torino Cobra trim before Ford killed the combination for 1972. Here’s the story behind one of Ford’s rarest, most overlooked muscle cars.
Plymouth sold the 1969 GTX as the muscle car for buyers who wanted power without giving up polish – a blacked-out grille, an upscale cabin, and a 375-horsepower 440 standard with no options required. Only 208 of that year’s 15,602 GTXs left the factory with the legendary 426 Hemi instead. Here’s what it takes to get one of the more common 440 survivors running exactly the way Plymouth intended.
Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske spent a decade calling the Ford Shelby GT350 the greatest Mustang ever built before finally buying one. The 2018 model he found had a seized flat-plane-crank V8 and metal shavings throughout its oiling system. Here’s why he bought it anyway — and what the Voodoo engine’s quirks reveal about this car’s cult following.