HP | Muscle Car Fan

A classic 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T 426 HEMI in black.

Breakdown/History: 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T 426 HEMI

This triple black 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T carries the paperwork of Mr. Norm’s Grand-Spaulding Dodge, the Chicago dealership famous for building factory Hemi muscle cars regular buyers could special-order off the showroom floor. Under the hood sits a 425-horsepower 426 Hemi, built in the final model year before compression ratios and horsepower ratings changed for good. Mopar fans in the comments call it a dream car outright. Watch to see why documentation matters as much as horsepower on a car like this.

Classic black vintage car parked on a street with trees in the background.

1964 Ford Galaxie 500 427 4-Speed R-Code

by Kiril

A high schooler in 1964 who never forgot the sound of an identical car lighting up his street. An Air Force veteran turned away by dealers who wouldn’t sell him one. A rumored history running moonshine through the Georgia mountains. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week tracked down a Raven black 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 packing the rare R-code 427 rated at 425 horsepower and a 4-speed manual. What was actually bolted under that unassuming black hood?

1969 Hurst SC/Rambler muscle car in red and white with blue wheels.

Muscle Car Of The Week Video #71: 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler

by Wes

A dressed-up economy car isnt supposed to be a drag strip threat, but the 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler broke that rule on purpose. American Motors partnered with Hurst Performance to drop a genuine V8 into its compact Rambler platform, creating an underdog muscle car most people never saw coming from the smallest of Detroits automakers. A former AMC dealership employee still remembers the shock of watching one leave the showroom for the first time. What was AMCs overlooked drag strip terror really capable of?

Rear view of an orange vintage muscle car with open hood at a car show.

THIS GUY MADE A FORD GT OUT OF A 1970 MUSTANG MACH 1!!!!!

by Wes

This 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 looks stock from every angle until you notice its engine bay is empty, because the drivetrain has been relocated behind the driver entirely. The build borrows its ambition from Ford’s own mid-engine GT supercar and applies it to a car never designed for the layout. Read on to find out what it took to make a Cleveland-powered classic work as a mid-engine machine.

2017 Ford GT in white with blue and red accents parked outside a modern building.

2017 Ford GT # H043 in White & Blue & V6 Turbo Engine Sound

by Wes

Ford built roughly 1,350 examples of its modern GT, and this one, build number H043, in white with blue racing stripes, has had a single owner since new. Randy Smalley sat down with My Car Story host Lou Costabile in Florida to talk through the 650-horsepower V6 twin-turbo under the hood and why he actually drives it.

Classic blue and white vintage pickup truck parked on a road.

Ford Ranchero 1969 GT 428 Cobra Jet

by Kiril

The Ranchero occupied a strange spot in Ford’s lineup — part car, part truck, and rarely taken seriously by muscle car buyers chasing a Mustang or Torino instead. This 1969 GT changes that calculation entirely by packing a 428 Cobra Jet under the hood. Read on to find out how a car-truck hybrid ended up with one of the most feared engines of the entire muscle car era.

Classic black vintage car parked under a cloudy sky.

Buick Invicta 1960 Convertible 401 Nailhead V8

by Kiril

This 1960 Buick Invicta convertible still carries its original 401 cubic-inch Nailhead V8, a genuine 325-horsepower engine Buick built for buyers who wanted real performance without admitting they wanted a hot rod. The nickname that followed the Invicta around, “the banker’s hot rod,” captures exactly the contradiction between its respectable badge and what was actually happening under the hood. Read on to find out what made this quietly powerful Buick tick.

A bright red 1970 Plymouth HEMI 'Cuda convertible.

1970 Plymouth 426 Hemi ‘Cuda #1

by Wes

This 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible isn’t just rare — it’s the very first of only fourteen ever built, wearing Rallye Red paint, a black top, and the Shaker hood scoop that came standard on every Hemi ‘Cuda. Underneath sits the legendary 426 Hemi V8, rated at 425 horsepower and fed by dual four-barrel carburetors. Decades later, it remains one of the most sought-after Mopars in existence. See what makes serial number one worth more than the other thirteen.

A shiny red classic car with chrome details, shown from the rear side.

1968 Buick GS 400 for sale 600 HP burnin rubber! Port Huron Michigan $35,000

by Wes

An estate sale, a numbers-matching V8 sitting on a stand in a garage, and a certified appraiser willing to put a hard number on all of it — that’s the setup behind this 1968 Buick GS 400 out of Port Huron, Michigan. AutoAppraise’s Jason Phillips values the car at $35,000 after tallying over $20,000 in documented drivetrain work alone, but it’s the low, bellowing idle that keeps pulling viewers back years later. Is a scarce, correctly-matched GS400 actually the smartest buy in 1968 muscle?

Dodge Charger 1970 SpeedKore TANTRUM 9L Twin Turbo

by Kiril

SpeedKore built this 1970 Dodge Charger around an engine that was never intended for a road: a 9.0-liter, quad-cam racing V8 from Mercury Racing’s boat program, twin-turbocharged to 1,650 horsepower on race fuel. It debuted at SEMA, appeared in a Fast & Furious film, was gifted to Vin Diesel, and has been offered at $699,000. Here is how a marine engine ended up in a muscle car body.

1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS396 showcased as Muscle Car of the Week.

Review/Breakdown: 1967 Camaro SS396 375 HP Convertible

by Wes

This Granada Gold 1967 Camaro SS396 convertible, built for V8TV’s 50th-anniversary Camaro coverage, marks the exact mid-year moment Chevrolet finally let the 396 big block into the Camaro — a full two years after it debuted in the Impala SS. Host Kevin Oeste and The Brothers Collection dig into why the engine was late, and viewers’ own decades-old ownership stories fill in the rest.

Red sports car doing a burnout on the track, smoke billowing around.

Which Cars Have the Most Horsepower per Dollar?

by Kiril

A recent horsepower-per-dollar ranking crowned the Chevrolet Camaro the best value on sale, fitting, since the ranking landed during the models final production year. From the 455-horsepower Camaro to unexpected contenders like the Tesla Model 3 Performance, here is where cheap horsepower lives now, and how it compares to the muscle car bargains collectors still chase today.

Classic 1969 Ford Ranchero 428 Cobra Jet in blue and white.

Breakdown/Review: 1969 Ford Ranchero GT 428 Cobra Jet Video

by Wes

This 1969 Ford Ranchero GT hides a 335-horsepower 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air V8 under its Brittany Blue hood, wrapped in white GT stripes and chrome wheels courtesy of The Brothers Collection. One former owner of a nearly identical example says he used to beat 454-powered Chevelles with it. Watch to see what made this coupe utility a genuine muscle car in disguise.

Classic blue Corvette Stingray with sleek curves and sporty design.

Chevrolet Corvette 1971 LT1 350

by Kiril

Chevrolet built 21,801 Corvettes for 1971 and only 1,949 carried the LT-1 small block, split 1,306 coupes and 643 convertibles. New low-lead fuel rules cut its compression to 9.0:1 and its rating from 370 to 330 horsepower, yet it still ran to sixty in about six seconds. It could not be ordered with an automatic or air conditioning, and just eight cars got the ZR1 package. Read on for why it stayed special.

Classic white muscle car with racing stripes on display indoors.

900HP 1972 AMC Javelin SST that’s a Daily Driver

by Kiril

When Mikey V’s father, a former American Motors employee, asked his son to choose between a Hornet and a Javelin, the answer became this 1972 AMC Javelin SST, now built to make an estimated 900 horsepower and still driven as a daily commuter whenever weather allows. At Wisconsin’s World of Wheels show, viewers praised the build for keeping genuine AMC power instead of a common big-block swap. See how a father’s question turned into one of AMC’s wildest daily drivers.

Posts Tagged: HP