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The 1969-and-a-half Dodge Super Bee A12 was built for roughly six months, equipped with a 440 Six-Pack under a fiberglass lift-off hood, and designed with one purpose in mind. Dave and Kelly Molnar brought their immaculately documented example to the 2017 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, and Muscle Car of the Week captured the full story behind the car and its restoration. Every documented A12 survivor carries its own history, and this one’s story is worth knowing.
In late 1967, Hurst’s engineers pulled a Toronado’s entire front-wheel-drive powertrain and grafted it into a brand-new Oldsmobile 442, inside 45 days and without GM’s blessing. The result sent 500 lb-ft of torque through the front wheels alone, using a loophole nobody at GM had thought to close. Decades later, only one still exists. Here’s how a secret experiment became a one-of-one legend.
Mercury sold the Cougar as the refined alternative to a Mustang, but the 428 Cobra Jet option quietly turned a handful of them into some of the rarest muscle cars of 1969. Fewer than 130 Cougars left the factory with Ram Air Cobra Jet power that year, and this convertible represents one of the scarcest combinations of all.
Order the R-code option on a 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL and buyers got far more than a bigger engine – Ford rewired the entire car around a 425-horsepower dual-quad 427, complete with a four-speed-only mandate, reinforced suspension, and station wagon brakes. Marketed as ‘Velvet Brut,’ this combination proved a full-size family car could hide genuine drag-strip menace under its chrome. Few buyers realized just how much engineering went into making that possible.
In Detroit, muscle cars roar back to life, echoing the spirit of ’69. Ford’s Boss 302 Mustang, once a track legend, now boasts 444 hp, ready to race BMW’s M3. Not to be outdone, Chevy’s Camaro ZL1, born from a dealer’s dream, revs up with a 550 hp supercharged engine. These revamped classics, blending nostalgia with cutting-edge tech, promise joy rides and new memories. Ready, set, let’s cruise down memory lane with a modern twist!
Internal Combustion’s 4K walkaround of the 2017 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals captures the Rosemont, Illinois show known for its Time Capsule survivor awards alongside concours-level restorations. The creator calls out Mopars, Boss 429 Mustangs, and Pontiac Firebirds as personal favorites, while one viewer argues the show is missing the average joe car altogether. MCACN’s indoor November format gives fragile, unrestored originals a weather-proof stage most summer shows can’t offer. Watch to see what an indoor survivor-focused show actually looks like up close.
Only 2,399 Dodge Challenger T/As were built for a single model year, and this one is one of just 1,410 finished with an automatic transmission and roughly 50 wearing its triple-black paint scheme. V8TV breaks down exactly what made the T/A a street-legal homologation special rather than just another Challenger trim. Watch to see the numbers that make it genuinely rare.
In the early 1960s, when factory racing was not technically supposed to exist under General Motors’ own corporate policy, a handful of very specific cars still rolled off assembly lines built almost entirely for the drag strip. This 1962 Chevrolet is one of them, and if you did not know to look for it, you would swear it was just another Impala. The debate over exactly what engine it is hiding still is not fully settled. Watch to see why even longtime owners disagree.
Every muscle car fan has felt exactly what that meme is poking fun at: the gap between loving these cars and actually affording one. A real restoration isn’t a weekend project, it’s a five-figure commitment before the engine even turns over. Shop labor alone can run over $100 an hour, before parts, rust repair, and insurance enter the picture. Here’s what actually stands between admiring a muscle car and owning one.
Some barn finds sit in a shed for a decade. This 1962 Oldsmobile sat untouched in a house garage for more than four decades before this video brought it back into the light, and it turns out to be one of the first two turbocharged production cars ever sold to the public. Its factory Garrett turbocharger and forgotten water-injection system predate the muscle car era most people think started it all. Watch to find out why so few of these survived.
From 1973 to 1977, Chevrolet let Chevelle Laguna buyers order front seats that swiveled a full 90 degrees toward the open door — an oddly luxurious feature bolted into a car built to chase GTOs and Road Runners. Original upholstery has since become a genuine restoration prize, with worn covers fetching hundreds of dollars. Here’s the story behind one of the strangest factory options in muscle car history.
Only two of these were ever built, and this 1957 Ford Ranchero hides one of the most unlikely muscle car secrets of the entire decade under its work-truck sheet metal. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week goes looking for the story behind a supercharged engine nobody expected to find in a Ranchero, and the NASCAR connection that explains how it got there.