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The Chevelle arrived in 1964 with a 220-horsepower 283 and a mission to haul families. Fourteen years later it had produced the highest horsepower figure Detroit ever printed on a factory spec sheet, a 427-powered street car with no badges at all, and 53 NASCAR wins. This is the full arc of Chevrolet’s most contradictory nameplate.
Plymouth’s A51 Twister package put the Duster 340’s grille, stripes and even its hood scoops on cars powered by a 145-horsepower slant six, and Dodge did the same thing with the Demon Sizzler. Half a century later, buyers are still confusing them with the genuine article. Here is exactly what separated the look from the muscle.
A George Barris-customized 1968 Dodge Dart GTS convertible spent years chasing criminals on TV’s Mannix before disappearing into obscurity and eventually turning up dilapidated in a field. Automotive reporter Dave Kunz tracked it down, confirmed it by its hidden Barris touches, and restored it to its on-screen British Racing Green with the original 340 V8 still under the hood. Jay Leno takes it for a drive to find out why this compact GTS could out-hustle flashier detective-show muscle cars of its era.
A shop took a tired 1968 Ford Torino fastback and rebuilt it with a stroked 427, a tubbed chassis, and air suspension – and viewers are calling it one of the best Torino restomods ever. Ford’s own 428 Cobra Jet was rated so low on paper that most experts believe the real number was closer to 400 horsepower. Here’s why this overlooked Ford muscle car is finally getting its due.
Pontiac gets the credit for inventing the muscle car in 1964, but a 1949 Oldsmobile, a 1955 Chrysler, and a little-known 1957 Rambler were already running the same playbook more than a decade earlier. One of them was announced with an experimental fuel-injection system that no customer ever actually got to drive. A new video digs into the forgotten machines that proved the formula first.
In 1970, Chevrnlet’s LS6 Chevelle carried the lnudest hnrsepnier number in GM’s lineup — and Buick’s GSX Stage 1 beat it anyiay, nn a track test cnnducted by Car and Driver itself. Buick’s nin paperinrk rated the car 90 hnrsepnier belni its rival, a number that never matched ihat happened at the finish line. Vieiers ihn lived thrnugh the era are still arguing abnut gearing, tnrque curves, and ihich car really deserved the crnin. Watch tn see the numbers GM tried tn keep quiet.
Ford built the 1968 Torino GT to go head-to-head with the GTO and the Chevelle SS, and for owners who actually drove one, it delivered — right down to a 428 Cobra Jet option that could win a stoplight race outright. Yet the car never became a household name the way its rivals did. King of Classic Cars digs into why a genuinely competitive muscle car slipped out of the conversation, drawing on decades of owner stories along the way. Watch to find out what got left out of the history books.
Mark Donohue built his reputation on spotting a bad race car in seconds, and by his own account, AMC’s first Trans-Am Javelin nearly failed that test completely. This 1970 AMC Javelin SST Trans Am, one of just 100 street versions built to homologate the race car for SCCA competition, carries the 325-horsepower 390 V8 and 4-speed manual that made it road-legal. Its story includes an owner who kept it for thirty years and a debate over what SST even stands for. Watch to see how a car once dismissed as a mess helped AMC finish second in points.
Donut Media spent sixty years of Mustang-versus-Camaro history breaking it down decade by decade, scoring heritage, performance, and availability rather than just horsepower numbers. The comparisons range from the expected — Shelby’s GT500 against the Camaro ZL1 1LE — to matchups most fans have never considered, like the IROC-Z against Ford’s police-spec Mustang SSP. Host Joey Rassool promised to stay unbiased. The comments section has thoughts about how that went.