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Three Chrysler divisions built three different Hemi V8s in the early 1950s, and each one had a distinct personality. Dodge’s Red Ram — internally called the “Fire-Flash” — was the smallest and mildest of the bunch, built around economy and regular-gas reliability instead of outright performance. It still sold more than 50,000 units in its first year.
This 1968 Ford Torino GT arrived at the exact moment Ford finally stopped chasing the GTO and started genuinely competing, pairing aggressive SportsRoof styling with an available 428 Cobra Jet V8 that quietly embarrassed cars with flashier reputations. The redesign helped push the Torino to sales-leader status in its segment that year. Find out what made this underrated Ford one of the smartest muscle car buys of its era.
Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard stands beside a documented 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from the Lingenfelter Collection to show buyers exactly what separates a real numbers-matching car from an expensive clone. The guide covers fender tags, VIN decoding, common rust spots, and why only 137 R/T Hemi hardtops left the factory with the pistol-grip four-speed. It’s the same checklist serious collectors use before writing a check on a fifty-year-old muscle car. Watch to see what most buyers miss.
A nineteenth-century French physicist’s glass jar of lead and acid still powers every muscle car on the road today. Gaston Plante’s 1859 lead-acid battery set the template that Delco and Detroit’s big-block engines would come to depend on for reliable starts. Here is how a decades-old invention quietly shaped the cars in this trivia list.
Elon Musk first confirmed the Tesla Model Y would share its platform with the Model 3 sedan on a quarterly earnings call — but the crossover didn’t actually reach the public until its March 2019 unveiling, with production following in January 2020. When it arrived, roughly 76% of its parts were shared with the Model 3, and Tesla offered four powertrain configurations plus an optional third row. Here’s how the promise from that call actually played out.
This 1970 Chevrolet Impala, powered by a 350 small-block paired with a TH350 automatic, hadn’t run since 1993, 23 years of silence before this restart attempt. Using nothing more than a dwell meter, timing light, and decades of hands-on know-how, host Jonathan walks through exactly what it takes to wake up an engine everyone assumed was finished. Watch to hear how it sounds once it finally catches.
Plymouth expected to sell about 20,000 Road Runners in 1968. It sold roughly 45,000, enough to land in third place behind only the GTO and Chevelle SS 396 for muscle car sales that year. The formula was simple: a standard 383-cubic-inch V8 rated at 335 horsepower, a stripped interior, and an optional 426 Hemi for those willing to pay more. It turned out buyers didn’t need luxury trim to want serious performance, they just needed the price to make sense.
When a 1964 Ford GT40 Prototype crossed the block on day three of Mecum’s Houston auction, it took more than five minutes of relentless bidding before the hammer finally fell – and the number it landed on became the top sale of the entire event. This is GT/104, a genuine link to the car and drivers who later inspired Ford v Ferrari, with Ken Miles and Sebring 1965 baked into its history. So what does automotive perfection actually cost in today’s market?
A five-car rundown of the least dependable vehicles ever built pairs a push-bar Ford Taurus with a Dodge Neon SRT-4 caught on fire and a Mitsubishi Evo broken down roadside, and the reasons behind each failure are more specific than the title lets on. The comments section turns into its own debate, with viewers arguing over Dodge’s reliability reputation since its Fiat ownership and trading stories of five-figure repair bills. Watch the full breakdown and see which car actually deserved its spot.
The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon stole the show at the 2017 New York International Auto Show, unveiled on stage by Vin Diesel. Its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V8 makes 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft, enough for a certified 9.65-second quarter mile at 140 mph – a time so quick the NHRA officially banned the Demon from competition. It’s also the first production car certified by Guinness World Records to lift its front wheels at launch. Only 3,300 will be built, all for North America — 3,000 for the U.S. and 300 for Canada.
This 1966 AMC Ambassador DPL is a rare, all-original survivor finished in factory Samoa Light Gold, representing the top of American Motors’ entire lineup that year. The DPL trim, new for 1966, came standard with reclining bucket seats and deep-pile carpeting, and this example carries AMC’s largest available engine, a 327-cubic-inch V8. Ambassador sales nearly quadrupled between 1964 and 1966 as AMC’s upscale strategy caught on with buyers. Original, unmolested examples like this one are increasingly difficult to find today.
Plymouth’s answer to the Ford Mustang did not just need to look sporty; it needed to earn the title, and the 1965 Formula S package was how it happened. A 235 horsepower Commando V8 paired with upgraded suspension and a factory tachometer turned an ordinary Barracuda into a genuine performer. Fewer than three thousand buyers ordered it that year, so why did the option that made the car worth having stay so rare?
Next time you’re cruising around Adelaide, Australia, keep an eye out for Alf’s stunning 1965 Chevy II Nova SS. This red beauty, imported in 2008, flaunts original California plates and a 283 engine paired with a two-speed PowerGlide transmission. Alf’s dedication to authenticity shines, though he’s added some cheeky dual exhaust Flowmaster mufflers for a power boost. Spot the car, say “g’day” to Alf, and maybe get a peek into its feathered-paint-damaged past. Just don’t mention the missing A/C!
Long before Ford or Chevrolet dominated American roads, a small Michigan company was already outproducing nearly every rival combined with a simple, curved-dash runabout that most people today have never heard of. Oldsmobile’s early embrace of assembly-line manufacturing and aggressive pricing let it claim a commanding share of the entire U.S. auto market by 1903. Here is how one inexpensive little car built the template every automaker since has followed.
This 1968 Pontiac GTO has spent five decades without a repaint, a re-upholstery, or a swapped engine, a rarity for a car built to be driven hard. Pontiac’s second-generation GTO introduced a body-colored, energy-absorbing bumper that had never appeared on a production car before, part of a redesign that helped push sales past 87,000 units and earn Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Original examples like this one command a premium collectors are increasingly willing to pay.