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This 1969 Shelby GT500 crossed the block at Auctions America’s Fall Collector Car Weekend in Auburn, Indiana, as a genuinely all-original example — factory paint, an untouched interior, and a Cobra Jet V8 that’s never been pulled for a rebuild. Cars this honest rarely surface at auction anymore, and this one raises the age-old restore-or-preserve question. Watch to see what nearly fifty years of originality actually looks like.
Pontiac spent 1968 quietly fixing the Firebird’s first-year problems, dropping the vent windows for Astro Ventilation, replacing single-leaf rear springs with multi-leaf units, and adding staggered shocks. The new 350, which actually displaced 354 cubic inches, came as a 265-horsepower two-barrel or a 320-horsepower HO. Pontiac built 107,112 Firebirds that year. This one still wears its factory engine and interior. Read on for what originality really requires.
This 1956 Chevrolet pickup rolled into the 24th annual Auto Crusade car show wearing nearly all of its original 1956 sheet metal — just one small patch panel — under a stance and wheel package that’s already earning it awards. Commenters who know these trucks call it “pin perfect.” But according to its builders, it wasn’t made to sit still. See what a truck built to actually be driven looks like when it’s done right.
A 1964 Pontiac Catalina Safari station wagon, spotted on the streets of Montreal, drew a comment from the person who actually built it years earlier, confirming the interior is untouched since the restoration. Commenters still cannot agree whether it carries a 389 or 421 V8. Watch the full walk-around and see why wagons deserve more credit in muscle car circles.
The 1963 Buick Riviera almost wore a Cadillac badge instead, GM’s styling chief originally designed it as a LaSalle-branded personal luxury coupe before Cadillac passed and Buick claimed the project. Deliberately limited to 40,000 units to preserve its exclusivity, the Riviera paired genuine luxury styling with a 325-horsepower Nailhead V8 capable of 0-60 in around 8 seconds. It’s a car built on a rejection that turned into one of Buick’s most important models of the decade.
In 1969, Plymouth paid Warner Bros. for the rights to a cartoon bird, its signature meep-meep horn, and an entire ad campaign built around outrunning a coyote. This commercial captures that gamble at its peak, arriving the same year the Road Runner won Motor Trend Car of the Year over cars that cost far more. It is proof that a genuinely fast car could still afford to be a little ridiculous. Watch the pitch that convinced a generation of buyers.
Tom Lembeck owns one of roughly 39 surviving 1969 Dodge Daytona Chargers built with a genuine factory 426 Hemi, and instead of trailering it to shows, he drives it through Chicago traffic and lays rubber in parking lots. Viewers called his willingness to use a seven-figure wing car ‘Hallelujah’-worthy. Once an unsold oddity gathering dust on dealer lots, this NASCAR homologation special is now one of the most coveted Mopars in existence. See what makes Lembeck’s Daytona different.
Ryan Brutt, The Auto Archaeologist, returns for a third visit to a private warehouse hiding a stunning run of aero-era Mopars, Daytonas, a Superbird, and more, parked alongside far more ordinary iron. Not every car here is a survivor ready to drive, and one viewer’s own Superbird memory adds a layer the video alone could not. Watch to see what three visits still has not fully uncovered.
A German Formula One driver once drove a Porsche 550 Spyder underneath a closed railway crossing gate during a race, without slowing down. That is how low the car sat, and part of why a 1,498cc four-cylinder could humiliate machinery with twice the displacement. Then James Dean bought chassis number 55, had a name painted on the trunk lid, and turned a race car into something else entirely. Read on for the whole story.
Hidden in a Texas garage since 1977, this 1965 Corvair Monza 140 emerged with just 29,000 original miles and all its factory parts still attached. It also happens to represent the exact model year Chevrolet fixed the rear suspension flaw that made the Corvair infamous. Read on to find out what changed underneath, and why 1965 became the best-selling year the nameplate ever had.
This 1969 Shelby GT350 keeps its factory body and interior exactly as they left the assembly line, while a 408 stroker motor quietly replaces the original 351 under the hood. American Legends Hot Rods in Phoenix built the swap specifically to balance driveability with visual originality, a philosophy that divides collectors but keeps cars like this one on the road instead of in a trailer. The burgundy paint without stripes is a deliberate departure from the expected Shelby look. Watch to hear what a 408 stroker sounds like in a fifty-year-old body.
A rare 425-horsepower 426 Hemi Road Runner — 1 of just 287 built in 1970 — takes on a 440 Six Pack Challenger in a quarter-mile grudge match that Mopar fans still can’t agree on decades later. Both cars sold for around $4,000 new and are now worth 20 to 40 times that. Watch to see which factory legend crosses the line first.
210 episodes into covering the Brothers Collection, Muscle Car of the Week finally ranks the convertibles — pulling from a 1967 Mustang K-code, a 1964 Plymouth Satellite 426 Wedge, a fuel-injected 1959 Corvette, and a 440 Six Barrel ‘Cuda in Tor-Red. Each car represents a different era and manufacturer’s approach to open-top American performance. The comments are already split over which one deserves the top spot. Watch to see the full lineup and decide which convertible you’d pick.
A full year or two before the GTO, Barracuda, or Mustang existed, Studebaker, a company that was already dying financially, built a supercharged, aircraft-cockpit-inspired coupe that set a genuine Bonneville land speed record for a factory-stock production car. This 1964 Avanti R2, one of the last built before Studebaker’s original run ended, comes from The Brothers Collection with remarkably low original mileage. Commenters still argue over whether it deserves the title of America’s first true muscle car. Watch and decide for yourself.
Lokar’s Muscle Car Shifter Knob is built to replicate the look and feel of a factory GM shifter closely enough to fool most people at a car show, and it won SEMA’s award for Best New Interior Accessory Product. The install is quick but order-dependent: the shifter must be in Park, the set screw inside the knob stays untouched, and the adapter housing has to be held steady while tightening. Read on for exactly how to avoid the mistakes first-timers make.