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By 1973, most of Plymouth’s real performance had already been regulated away — except for one engine nobody expected much from. Bud Lindemann puts this Cuda 340 through a full road test, and the stopwatch tells a story that surprised buyers who’d already written off the smog era. Watch to see exactly how quick a detuned Mopar could still be.
Three divisions inside the same company built three different Hemi V8s in the early 1950s, and each one ended up with a completely different personality. Chrysler chased outright power, DeSoto split the difference, and Dodge built the smallest and mildest of the three while publicly insisting it wanted nothing to do with the horsepower race. The Red Ram’s reputation today is a little ironic given that pitch. Read on to find out how the smallest early Hemi became one of the most beloved.
There’s nothing like driving a muscle car, and sometimes, they wear a sedan disguise. These six sedans pack a punch, turning grocery runs into heart-racing adventures. Take the Dodge Durango, for instance—it’s part SUV, part muscle car, like a Clark Kent of vehicles. Or the Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack, offering cheap thrills with its 485 hp V-8. It’s secretly a muscle car in a business suit, ready to unleash a caramel-thick rumble at any moment. Who says practicality can’t have a rebellious streak?
Vanguard Motor Sales took this 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle — stock #5668, documented with over 100 photos and finished in a bold orange that’s winning over commenters — out for a real test drive instead of just a showroom walkaround. It’s a rare, transparent look at how a dealer actually vets a classic before it lists it. See how the Chevelle performs when the pedal goes down.
This 1971 Dodge Challenger looks almost stock — no R/T badge, no scoop, nothing to give away what’s underneath. That’s exactly the point. Built to dodge 1971’s brutal muscle car insurance surcharges, it hides a 383 four-speed combination with a Hurst pistol-grip shifter under an unassuming exterior, and this vintage road test puts it through real acceleration and braking runs to prove the disguise. Watch to see why some of the smartest muscle car builds were the ones that never announced themselves.
Wider tires mean more grip — or so every car enthusiast has been told. Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske put that assumption to the test at NWAPA’s 2017 Mudfest, running sixty-to-zero braking tests across twenty-seven different AWD and 4×4 trucks and SUVs with a Vbox data logger. The results complicate the simple version of the story muscle car owners repeat about tire width, weight, and stopping distance. Commenters, including more than one physics teacher’s former student, dig into exactly why. Watch to see what the data actually says.
The muscle car market took its hardest hit in decades after 2009, and recovery has been slow and uneven ever since. One of the quietest comeback stories belongs to a car most people forget was ever a muscle car at all: the Mercury Cougar Eliminator, built in numbers far smaller than the Mustang it was designed to beat. Here’s why collectors are paying attention now.
The five-figure muscle car market has cooled at the top, but the real action right now is happening under $10,000 — a corner of the hobby where second-tier icons like fourth-gen Dodge Chargers, Mercury Cougars, and even AMC Matadors are quietly building a following. We look at which overlooked classics are still genuinely affordable, and why a growing appetite for vintage trucks and SUVs is reshaping where collector money goes next.
Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard spent time with a 1963 split-window Corvette to explain what makes the C2 the most collectible generation in the model’s history — and where buyers get burned if they don’t know what to check. It’s a buyers guide built from decades of watching these cars change hands, including one correction Hagerty had to issue after the fact. Watch to find out what even an executive editor got wrong on camera.
Bladed Angel’s tour of six fast American cars under $10,000 has become a minor cult favorite for one honest reason: the host flubs a torque unit on camera, catches it, and leaves the apology in rather than editing it out. Picks range from a Mach 1 to sleeper domestics most budget shoppers overlook, but the real twist comes later, when the host admits he ignored his own Mustang advice and bought a 2016 GT instead. Watch to see the full list and the confession that follows it.
Car News Central counts down seven of the rarest American cars ever built, from a two-off Duesenberg SSJ capable of 140 mph to a Corvette L88 whose real horsepower figure still sparks arguments in the comments. Along the way: an eight-car Trans Am convertible run split evenly between automatics and four-speeds, and the last Studebaker fast enough to matter. Watch to see the full list.
In June 2017, the Dodge Challenger did something it hadn’t managed in at least seven years, it outsold both the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro in a single month, 6,605 units to 6,186 and 4,691. Here’s how the old-guard underdog pulled off the upset, and why the year-to-date numbers tell a more complicated story.
A stock-looking late-model Mustang that pushes past 1,400 horsepower and still gets driven to Starbucks sounds like a car-guy tall tale, but this Hellion Turbo build makes it real. Running sub-9-second quarter miles while staying fully streetable, no trailer required, it’s the kind of sleeper build that earns respect at the track and stays completely invisible everywhere else. And the person behind the wheel embarrassing unsuspecting cars at the light? The Hellion Turbo owner’s own wife.
In the years right after World War II, Packard wasn’t just competing with Cadillac for America’s luxury car buyers — it was actually winning, with the Clipper-era lineup outselling Cadillac and LaSalle combined for a stretch. This 1949 Eight represents that high point: America’s last great straight-eight era, built the same year Packard’s total production topped 116,000 cars. It also marks the beginning of the end, since the brand still lacked the modern overhead-valve V8 that was about to reshape the entire industry.