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Ted Stephens owns all five surviving screen-used Dodge Challengers from the 1997 TV remake of Vanishing Point — the only ones left, since every car from the original 1971 film has been destroyed. His favorite of the five, a white 1970 Challenger RT, hides a detail almost no movie car ever gets: a genuine HEMI under the hood instead of a stunt-friendly substitute. It’s a piece of film history most fans don’t even know exists.
This 1985 Chevrolet El Camino crossed a strange threshold: old enough to be called a classic, but built for buyers who still saw it as a practical work vehicle rather than a collectible. Nicknamed the Cowboy Cadillac for straddling truck and car in equal measure, it carries original paint, original bench seating, and a full comfort-options sheet, plus a GM Goodwrench 350 crate engine standing in for whatever came from the factory. Read on for what made this coupe-utility, and its unlikely nickname, last eight years longer than its closest rival.
Pontiac built just over one hundred genuine Ram Air IV engines before the option disappeared, and this freshly restored 1969 Firebird — deliberately basic, with no power steering and a four-speed — is wearing one of them. One commenter rebuilt an entirely different Pontiac to the same specification decades later just to chase that reputation. From a birthday gift remembered fifty years later to a debate over the vinyl roof, this Firebird’s comment section says as much as the car itself. Watch the full walkaround.
Buried under winter road grime for years, this 1970 Plymouth Superbird turned out to be one of the most original wing cars still in existence — 40,000 miles, its factory 440, four-speed, and Dana 60 rear all intact. Instead of a full restoration, the owner chose careful preservation, right down to re-leading the body seams the way Plymouth did in 1970. What’s under all that grime is rarer than most collectors ever get to find. Watch the discovery and early repair work up close.
This 1973 Lincoln Continental wasn’t restored for a trophy — it was rebuilt because the owner’s mother once drove this exact car, and Manns Restoration in Festus, Missouri took that responsibility seriously. The numbers-matching 460 V8 got a full rebuild, the suspension and brakes were gone through top to bottom, and the body came back looking showroom-fresh under a new white vinyl top. Watch to see how a family memory became a rolling restoration.
In February 2013, Lars Skroder challenged his brother to find an unrestored 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda with a build sheet, a four-speed, and its original owner still attached. Three weeks later, a YouTube video led him to Greg Peterson, who had owned the Hemi Orange car since he was sixteen. Read on to find out how a graduation gift became one of the most original ‘Cudas on the planet.
This 1980 AMC AMX Spirit has under 8,000 original miles and has stayed with owner Bud Brick, unmodified, since 2011 — a remarkable survival story for a car built by the smallest of Detroit’s automakers. Its straight-six engine draws real praise in the comments from owners who gave up only about 10 horsepower compared to the V8 option. My Car Story host Lou Costabile continues his search for overlooked American survivors. See how well this AMC has held up.
The 1965 Buick Riviera Gran Sport was the first year Buick attached that badge to its personal luxury coupe, and the package hid a genuinely serious performance setup under all that plush trim. Dual four-barrel carburetors, a stiffened chassis and a limited-slip rear turned a two-and-a-half-ton cruiser into something that could embarrass much lighter cars. This particular build adds a custom interior, aftermarket wheels and a lowered stance without losing what made the car special. Read on for what the Gran Sport package really included.
A 1968 Dodge Charger body, a twin-turbo Viper V10, and a Corvette chassis underneath — this Swedish-built hybrid took five years to complete and reportedly left Jay Leno speechless. Street-legal and rated around 1,000 horsepower, it’s the kind of build that mixes three unrelated platforms into something none of their original manufacturers ever intended. Commenters keep coming back to one detail above all else: the sound. Watch to hear why.
At the 2016 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, a 10,000-mile Olds W-30, an 11,000-mile Hemi ‘Cuda gifted to a high schooler, and a 1968 Camaro SS350 that vanished for thirty years all sat in the same Vintage Certification area — untouched, unrestored, and worth more for it. Read on to find out what makes original beat restored.
Pontiac’s planners expected to sell about 5,000 GTOs for 1964. They sold 32,450, and General Motors dropped its displacement cap on mid-size cars the following year. That is how the muscle car era actually started, and it started as an option package that skirted a corporate rule. A genuinely unrestored early example, still wearing its factory paint and drivetrain, is worth chasing precisely because so few survived intact.
A 1963 Chevrolet Impala with its original four-speed manual is a genuinely uncommon thing, because most full-size Chevys of the era left the factory with an automatic and the manual cars carry a premium today because of it. This one has been upgraded underneath while keeping that transmission and a largely untouched interior. Read on for what made 1963 the Impala’s breakout year, what the 409 really offered, and what to verify before believing any of the badges.
Enzo Ferrari reportedly called it the most beautiful car ever made, and the Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its permanent collection, which is not something most sports cars can claim. The Series I E-Type ran from 1961 to 1968 on a 3.8 liter twin-cam six with triple SU carburetors, and the earliest cars have identifying details worth serious money. Read on for what separates a flat-floor car from everything that followed.
A recent horsepower-per-dollar ranking crowned the Chevrolet Camaro the best value on sale, fitting, since the ranking landed during the models final production year. From the 455-horsepower Camaro to unexpected contenders like the Tesla Model 3 Performance, here is where cheap horsepower lives now, and how it compares to the muscle car bargains collectors still chase today.