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American Motors never had Detroit’s budget, but for a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, its Javelin and two-seat AMX spinoff went toe-to-toe with the Mustang and Camaro on both the street and the Trans-Am track — with Roger Penske and Mark Donohue behind the wheel of a purpose-built 5.0-liter version. Watch to see why this overlooked underdog still deserves a second look.
Buick built the 1965 Riviera as a luxury coupe, then quietly optioned in a 360-horsepower 425 V8 for buyers who wanted it both ways. Fewer than 3,500 people checked that box, making the Gran Sport one of the rarest true muscle cars of the era. Decades later, Bill Burr got behind the wheel with Jay Leno – and left convinced it might be the meanest car he’s ever driven.
A 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona built to chase a 200-mph NASCAR dream has sat in a private collection without ever being titled or plated — not once in over 50 years. Only 503 of these winged Mopars were built before NASCAR rewrote the rulebook to stop them. Here’s the story behind one of the rarest muscle cars in America.
AMC had a fastback on the auto-show floor before the Mustang even existed, then handed the idea to a new CEO who scrapped it for something bigger and slower to sell. The result moved barely 17,000 units in three years, yet one six-cylinder survivor from suburban Chicago shows exactly why the story still matters — and its owner bought it in 2011 for a reason that has nothing to do with horsepower.
Dan Hallisey brought his numbers-matching 1971 Plymouth GTX onto Jay Leno’s Garage — then handed his passenger seat to the high school auto shop teacher who taught him everything he knows about engines. The 440-powered GTX, one of the last built before Plymouth retired the nameplate for 1972, still has enough torque to catch a first-timer off guard. It’s a rare episode where the teacher, not the car, ends up stealing the show.
Plymouth beat Ford to showrooms by two weeks with the 1964 Barracuda, then spent a decade playing catch-up anyway. See how a Valiant-based fastback with the biggest curved rear window ever installed on a production car turned into the Hemi ‘Cuda — a car so rare that one convertible sold at auction for $3.5 million.
The AMC Javelin arrived four years late to the pony car wars against Mustang, Camaro, and Barracuda — then delivered one of the closest championship finishes in Trans-Am history. A single point cost it the 1970 title, and a six-race win streak sealed the trophy in 1971. Here’s the racing story behind the 401-powered Javelin, plus what to check before buying one today.
A European car channel best known for reviewing supercars recently gave a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge the full walkaround-and-test-drive treatment, and its fans couldn’t stop talking about it. The Judge’s name came within a licensing dispute of never happening at all, and only a handful of the rarest version were ever built. Here’s the real story behind Pontiac’s loudest muscle car option, and the numbers that back up its reputation today.
A California-built 1968 Mustang fastback spent four years getting reborn as a show-winning resto-mod — new 302 small-block, four-wheel disc brakes, and an Orange Glow paint job with matching seatbelts. Automotive historian Steve Magnante walks the build, and the car’s San Jose roots tie it straight back to the Bullitt-era Mustangs that made the fastback famous.
A 1969 Yenko Camaro and a 1970 Ford Torino Super Cobra Jet squared off under strict factory-stock rules — no headers, no lightweight parts, nothing but what rolled off the assembly line. One car gave up 412 pounds and 75 horsepower on paper. The finish line told a much closer story than the spec sheet promised.
