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Ford promised the 2018 Mustang GT would be the fastest Mustang the company had ever built, and the 5.0-liter V8 jumped to 460 horsepower to back it up. But hitting the sub-four-second number required a very specific options list that most buyers never checked. Here is what was actually in that combination, why the claim needed an asterisk, and how quickly the 2020 GT500 took the title away.
The Ford Galaxie’s first three model years hid a genuine engineering experiment behind conventional full-size styling — a batch of roughly 200 lightweight race-only cars built to shed weight nobody expected Ford to bother losing. Add a one-year-only retractable hardtop and a short-lived Starliner body style, and the 1959-1961 Galaxie turns out to be far more interesting than its reputation as just a big sedan suggests. Read on for what made these years different.
This 1967 Ford Mustang GT Fastback started life as a documented S-code 390 California car before a ground-up rebuild pushed it to Shelby GT500 specification inside and out, right down to the correct wheels and fiberglass hood. Backed by a Marti Report and sold through Fast Lane Classic Cars, it offers genuine Shelby presence at a fraction of what a real 1967 GT500 now commands at auction. Watch to see the build up close.
The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon was engineered to lift its front wheels off the line from the factory, with 840 horsepower and a 9.65 second quarter mile. So when a prototype turned up at a racing event with an audible engine knock, the question everyone had been quietly asking finally surfaced. Read on for what detonation actually does to a supercharged engine, and why a prototype failure is not the same as a design flaw.
Ford’s FE and FT V8 family wore more names than almost any engine Detroit ever built — Marauder, Interceptor, Thunderbird Special V8 — depending on the badge on the fender and the year on the title. This first installment breaks down the block architecture, oiling designs, and riser-head terminology that confuses even experienced Ford collectors, tracing the family from its earliest 332 and 352 cubic inch beginnings. Read on for the specs that matter before your next FE rebuild.
Pontiac has the strongest claim to inventing the category. Ford has the sales records by an enormous margin. Dodge and Plymouth have what collectors are willing to pay today, which is a completely different ranking. Every camp is quoting a real number and reaching a different answer, because they are all using different measuring sticks. Read on for what each one actually proves, and which one settles it.
Ford built one of its best naturally aspirated V8s for the SVT Mustang Cobra and Ford GT, then quietly dropped variants of it into a Lincoln and a Mercury that almost nobody cross-shops for performance. The used market still hasn’t caught up to what’s actually under the hood of these cars. Read on to find out which two overlooked models carry genuine Cobra-engine credentials for a fraction of Mustang money, and what to check before buying one.
Ford rushed the original Thunderbird into existence as a direct response to the Chevrolet Corvette, seriously considering names like Apache and P-51 Mustang before settling on a mythical bird at the last minute. The two-seat 1955-56 car outsold the Corvette 23 to 1 and introduced a genuinely inventive hydraulic top-and-trunk system with a few real quirks. Read on to find out what Ford got right, and what still leaked.
Built almost exclusively for California dealers and inspired by a secretive Shelby prototype, the 1968 Mustang GT/CS combined fog lamps, a rear spoiler, and exclusive striping into a distinct model Ford never planned as a mainstream offering. Production fell short of its 5,000-unit target, and the car’s own name is still debated by historians decades later. Read on to find out how one regional sales manager talked Dearborn into building it.
An 84mm turbo poking through the grille tells experienced drag racers everything they need to know before the engine fires. This Mustang carries an LS swap and runs in the eight second bracket, which requires roughly four-figure horsepower and a chassis certified to match. Read on for why the boost curve matters more than the peak number, and why consistency is harder to achieve than speed.
Plymouth built the 1970 ‘Cuda on an all-new E-body platform designed specifically to house its biggest engines, and dropping in the 426 Street Hemi produced one of the rarest muscle cars Detroit ever made — just 652 examples, split across three transmission choices. Nine outrageous colors and the shaker hood completed the package. Read on to find out what actually separates a genuine numbers-matching Hemi ‘Cuda from a well-built tribute.
This white Mercury Cougar could be a modest six-cylinder cruiser or one of the scarcest big-block muscle cars Mercury ever built, and the only way to tell is a small badge easy to miss. Only a fraction of 1969 Eliminators carried the largest engine Mercury offered that year. Read on to find out just how rare this one really is.
At the Detroit Auto Show, Ford paired a virtual reality ride imagining flying drones and self-driving pods with real engineering demonstrations, including wind tunnel testing for the returning Ford GT and a new 10-speed transmission for the F-150. Read on to find out which parts of Ford’s future-mobility pitch turned out to be accurate, and which were pure show-floor theater.
Ford did not sell the second-generation GT to whoever showed up with a check. Buyers applied, Ford chose, and one of the earliest cars delivered went out the door at $527,000 after its owner specified a paint color that alone cost more than a well-equipped Mustang. Here is how the selection process worked, what the options actually added, and why the car underneath all of it is best understood as a race car that happens to have license plates.