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Tom Lembeck has owned fourteen 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertibles, but this Jamaica Blue example with the 440 Six Pack still holds a specific title: the first big-block ‘Cuda he ever bought, back in 1997. Nearly three decades later, it still looks close to showroom-fresh. Watch to hear why, out of fourteen cars, this is the one Tom keeps coming back to.
This bagged, stock-interior 1963 Chevrolet Impala turned up at Cruisin’ The Coast without a single show trophy to its name – just a clean stance, real wheels, and the honest wear of a car that’s actually been driven. Its SS badge marks the first year Chevrolet made the trim its own full sub-series, backed by an optional 409 big-block that inspired a Beach Boys song. Read on to find out why a driver like this one outshines the trailer queens parked next to it.
The 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger built its reputation on a 340 small-block that punched well above its weight class in a lightweight A-body, despite the Dart nameplate’s humble slant-six reputation. This particular example takes a different road, running a heavily built 318 with an aggressive cam and a stout rear end. Read on to see what the build actually delivers on the street.
Phil Martin sold his 1965 GTO, regretted it, and bought this charcoal blue 1966 replacement in 1995 to fill the gap it left behind. Lou Costabile catches up with Phil and the car at Rosemont’s World of Wheels show, and the comments spend as much time praising the restoration work as they do debating whether 1966 or 1967 wore the GTO’s taillights better.
1971 was Chevrolet best-ever year for truck production, and the C10 pickup was the model buyers wanted most. This street build pairs a 355 small block and roller cam with tasteful two-tone paint over a truck that already had a strong factory foundation. Here is what made the stock 1971 C10 such a good starting point in the first place.
This 1969 Mercury Cougar convertible goes all-in on triple black paint, top, and interior, powered by the brand-new 351 Windsor V8 that debuted that same year and would go on to power Fords for two more decades. Cougars have always delivered genuine Mustang performance with a nicer interior, at a lower price than the badge everyone remembers. Read on to find out why this triple-black build makes that case so well.
This restored 1978 Dodge Warlock predates the far more famous Li’l Red Express by a full year and nearly wore that program’s name before the two split into separate trucks. Its black-and-gold looks now come backed by genuine mechanical work, including an Edelbrock-topped V8 and a completely rebuilt bed riding on American Racing wheels. Read on to find out how a stylish work truck ended up starting a whole Mopar legend nobody quite remembers correctly.
Three years of build time went into this 1970 Chevelle, and it shows in details most viewers would never think to look for: nickel-plated trim swapped in for factory chrome, and baseball-style seam stitching on every seat. The result is a resto-mod so thorough that even seasoned muscle car fans in the comments are struggling to find a flaw. Watch to see what three years of obsessive attention to detail actually looks like.
Ford quietly developed the 428 Cobra Jet under a program called “Cougar-Mustang Performance Car” starting in late 1966, and when it finally hit dealer lots in April 1968 it turned an already popular pony car into a genuine drag strip weapon almost overnight. Only 1,299 Mustangs got the option that year out of roughly 317,000 built. Read on to find out how a mid-year engine swap changed the Mustang’s reputation forever.
This 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T showed up at the 2013 Pigeon Forge Rod Run wearing a 426 HEMI badge, one of the rarest engine options Dodge ever put in a midsize body, and got nothing more than a quick, unscripted walk-around. No narration, no backstory, just a camera and a car worth stopping for. What that raw footage reveals, and what separates a documented HEMI Coronet from the clones that outnumber them, comes down to details most people would walk right past.
This 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible sits at the exact hinge point between two eras of the Thunderbird nameplate — the swoopy Bullet Bird was gone, and the boxier, gadget-laden fourth generation had just arrived. It carries a 390 V8, a power-folding top, and a swing-away steering wheel most drivers today have never touched. Read on to find out what made 1964 the year the Thunderbird reinvented itself.
Legens Hot Rods took a 1960 Ford pickup and gutted everything a straight-six workhorse used to be, dropping in a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 topped with a stacked, individual-runner injection setup borrowed straight from vintage racing. The build made the SEMA Show floor in 2016, with a custom interior and deep red paint built to match the ambition under the hood. See how a sixty-year-old work truck became a genuinely quick street build.
A GoPro Hero2 zip-tied to a wheelie bar caught something most drag strip cameras never get close enough to see: the violent tire shake of a Top Alcohol Funny Car launching at Grand Bend Motorplex. Commenters broke down the 4,000-horsepower-class physics and even spotted distorted tire plies left behind afterward. What does over 270 mph in just over five seconds actually look like from three feet away?
When a stolen car barreled back toward a crowded park, one father in a lifted diesel truck did not wait for police — he drove straight into its path. The split-second collision, caught on multiple cell phones and picked up by HLN, ended a dangerous chase involving a 14-year-old joyrider in seconds flat. Online, the internet split between calling it reckless and calling it heroic, while comment sections debated whose vehicle came out looking better. Watch to see exactly how close it came to going wrong.
Four cars line up for a pink slip race in 2 Fast 2 Furious, and the build sheet behind each one is more accurate than most movie car scenes ever bother to be. Brian O’Conner’s Evo VII wears taillights from the newer Evo VIII, Roman Pearce’s Eclipse Spyder kept its stock engine under a wide-body kit, and the Camaro squaring off against a 426 Hemi Challenger is actually a period-correct Yenko replica built just for the film. See which build holds up best once the lights turn green.