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Somewhere in the 1980s, the boxy, sharp-edged shapes that defined an entire generation of American cars quietly disappeared, replaced within about a decade by the curves nearly every car still wears today. Vox traces the shift back to a specific Ford sedan, a wind tunnel, and fuel economy rules that made drag coefficient a bottom-line issue for every automaker. The explanation has almost nothing to do with changing taste.
Superchargers and turbochargers both force more air into an engine, but they get there in fundamentally different ways — one mechanically driven off the crank, the other spinning on exhaust gas that would otherwise go to waste. That difference shapes everything from throttle response to how much horsepower a build can realistically chase. Watch the breakdown of exactly where each one wins.
Mark Lieberman spent three years talking an Ohio owner into selling a Tucker ’48 that had sat since 1982 with barely 8,000 miles on the odometer. Only 51 of these cars were ever built, and 47 are known to survive today, which is part of why one sold for nearly $3 million in 2013. Read on to find out how this particular barn find compares to every other Tucker Lieberman has restored.
This 1970 Plymouth Superbird was built to win NASCAR races, not just look fast — but the detail everyone remembers is the horn, which plays an actual “meep meep” straight out of the Road Runner cartoon. Between the original $4,794.62 window sticker and the aerodynamics NASCAR forced onto the design, this in-depth walkaround finds a lot more than a gimmick. Watch to hear the horn for yourself.
This decade-old compilation from HighSpeedManiaNET catalogs five dyno runs that went sideways — literally, in at least one case — from a Shelby with enough power to break the machine itself to an engine viewers could hear drop from eight cylinders to six mid-pull. Commenters have spent years timestamping the chaos down to the second, arguing over which fail is the worst of the bunch. It’s a reminder that strapping a car down doesn’t always mean it’s staying put. Watch to see all five.
During the final round of the Stick Shift class at I-29 No Prep in 2017, the Unicorn C5 Corvette — finally dialed in after a round of suspension and tire changes — caught fire mid-pass when a loose injector o-ring sprayed fuel onto the engine bay. A competing Subaru driver’s fast thinking with a fire extinguisher kept real damage to a minimum, and 1320video walks through exactly what went wrong and why. The car lived to race another day. Watch to see how close it came to not.
A routine nitrous pass off Mexico Racing League’s camera turns into a real-time lesson in why a 100-shot kit needs its own dedicated fuel system to survive. What starts as a hard, loud launch ends with something under the hood giving way in an instant, and a comment section full of tuners explaining exactly why. The failure has nothing to do with the car being cheap and everything to do with basic nitrous fueling math. See what actually went wrong.
Gearhead Garage breaks down 11 of the most common muscle car upgrades that actually hurt performance, safety, or resale value — from oversized wheels to spool rear ends. Some of these mods are things owners save years to install. According to this list, that might be the problem. Watch Part 1 to see the full breakdown.
This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am checks nearly every box serious collectors look for: the handling-focused WS6 package, the rare four-speed manual, and the big-block-adjacent 400 four-barrel, all still together after more than four decades. Viewers are already piecing together its origin story from small details, including a telling clue about why its interior plastics never baked in the sun. Filmed on a real road test with Rob at Street Machines, not a static show floor. Watch to see how it actually drives.
A viewer’s engine ran smooth, started fine, and seemed simply low on power, until he pulled a worn camshaft and found some valves barely opening at all. Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske breaks down the four things every gasoline engine needs to make power, and why each one quietly fades with age. One fix turned into a bigger power gain than anyone expected. What’s actually happening inside an engine that feels “just old”?
At an RT66 Test N Tune event in 2015, Rich Kent’s E85-fueled 1962 Mercury Comet did something a brand-new 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat never expected: it beat it clean off the line. The video’s own description reveals the Hellcat had run nearly three seconds quicker just a week earlier, turning a simple grudge race into a years-long argument about driving versus horsepower. Watch to see the run that started the controversy.
A 1939 Buick sits silent for forty years, and John Haelig finally turns the key on camera. The handful of viewers who watched are split between a simple, all-caps reaction and a sharper question about whether the engine cranked slower than it should have. Behind that single detail is a real, high-stakes revival process, dried seals, gummed-up fuel, and an engine that could be damaged in seconds if brought back to life the wrong way. Was this prewar straight-eight actually ready to run again?
ChrisFix’s guide to restarting a car that’s been sitting for months has racked up more than eleven million views, and the checklist inside it explains why — oil, fuel, locks, and cooling systems all degrade in ways that can wreck an engine if you just turn the key. Along the way, ChrisFix and his crew stumbled onto something in the engine bay nobody expected to find. Watch to see what it takes to bring a long-dormant car back safely — and what was waiting under the hood.
This thirty-minute compilation from Vantaa Cruising, a recurring car meet in Tikkurila, Finland, captures a night of burnouts, custom hot rods, and modified American muscle that one Oregon-based commenter admitted could never happen back home. There’s not a single Mustang in the lineup, but there is a rubber duck mounted as a hood ornament. Watch to see how seriously Finland’s underground muscle car scene takes American car culture.
In February 2013, Lars Skroder challenged his brother to find an unrestored 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda with a build sheet, a four-speed, and its original owner still attached. Three weeks later, a YouTube video led him to Greg Peterson, who had owned the Hemi Orange car since he was sixteen. Read on to find out how a graduation gift became one of the most original ‘Cudas on the planet.