Muscle Car Fan

Posts Tagged: power

This numbers-matching 1968 Chevrolet Impala SS 396 runs the streets of Dallas with air conditioning, power steering, a 12-bolt rear end, bucket seats and an AM eight-track. Full-size performance was never as popular as the Chevelle or Camaro, which is exactly why a genuine SS 396 Impala with its original drivetrain has become so much harder to find. Read on for what the Super Sport package actually bought and how many were really built.

A 6.0-liter LS truck engine doesn’t become a 6.2 with a few bolt-on parts, and this hands-on build video from Myvintageiron7512 shows exactly why, bore work, machine shop tolerances, and the same architecture GM used to build the LS3 that powers C6 Corvettes and fifth-gen Camaros. One viewer summed up the appeal simply: this is someone who clearly knows the platform inside and out. See what it actually takes to bridge the gap between a budget truck engine and genuine LS3-spec displacement.

RamblinAround takes this 1969 Chevrolet Nova SS out for an honest test drive instead of just walking around it, and with a performance-built 396 big-block, Edelbrock aluminum heads, and a four-speed manual under Cortez Silver paint, there’s plenty to put through its paces. Filmed at Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles, Missouri, the drive shows exactly why this often-overlooked Nova still has a following. Watch to see how a fifty-year-old four-speed muscle car actually feels on the road.

Doug Cook and the team at Motion Raceworks skipped the well-worn LS platform for something almost nobody had real data on: GM’s Gen V LT4. With virtually no seat time on the new combination, they walked straight into Hot Rod’s Drag Week 2017 chasing a record, and immediately ran into wiring harness gremlins that nearly derailed the entire attempt. See how a team with no playbook turned a fresh, largely undocumented engine build into record-setting territory.

Engine Masters puts a stubborn garage myth to the dyno: does a 3-inch exhaust really outperform a 2.5-inch system, or does it depend on what’s bolted to the other end of the pipe? Real back-to-back testing, presented by AMSOIL, replaces forum arguments with actual horsepower curves. Over six million viewers have watched the results, and builders are still citing them years later. See what the numbers actually show.

This 1970 Dodge Charger R/T pairs the 426 Hemi with a rare EB3 Light Blue Metallic and black vinyl top combination — one of just 56 Hemi Chargers built with an automatic transmission that year. Read on to find out why so few buyers said yes to the Hemi’s steep price tag, and how the engine paid off on Dodge’s most successful NASCAR season yet.

Classic Recreations, the only shop officially licensed to build continuation Shelby Mustangs, just did something purists never saw coming: it dropped a turbocharged EcoBoost engine into a car built to honor Carroll Shelby’s big-block legacy. Owner Jason Engel says the move isn’t about abandoning tradition, it’s about keeping a niche, hand-built business alive in markets where displacement taxes make a big V8 impractical. Read on to find out how a turbocharged Shelby continuation stacks up against the original.

Ford has built a full-size, rear-wheel-drive Falcon continuously in Australia since 1960, and most American muscle car fans have never seen one. It played Mad Max’s own car on screen, runs down speeders as an Australian police interceptor, and in 2014 offered a turbocharged six-cylinder quick enough to embarrass plenty of V8 rivals. Read on to find out why this nameplate’s long run was already nearing its end.

Chevrolet’s fender badge said ‘396’ on every 1970 SS Chevelle, but the actual engine under the hood measured 402 cubic inches — a quiet update the automaker never bothered to advertise. Buyers chose between a 350-horsepower street engine and a 375-horsepower solid-lifter race motor, wrapped in a convertible body built in far smaller numbers than the hardtop. Clean examples now average around $105,000 at auction. Read on to find out why a mislabeled engine became one of the most valuable badges in muscle car history.

Tyler’s Neighborhood Garage caught a cold engine fire-up on Thanksgiving morning back in 2014 — no fanfare, just a Texas-tagged Mopar coming to life with a sound one viewer compared to a radial aircraft engine starting. There’s no smoke, no stumble, and one moment at the 2:06 mark that’s still getting viewers to hit rewind years later. Watch to hear exactly why this small clip refuses to be forgotten.

GM pulled a Super Bowl IV commercial for this car’s Vacuum Operated Exhaust option after it aired exactly once, and cancelled the option itself just weeks later. This 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge review digs into that history, the Ram Air engines that defined the package, and the Orbit Orange paint that became the Judge’s visual signature. Watch to find out how rare the surviving VOE-equipped cars really are.

Enzo Morales took a 1966 Chevrolet Malibu, a trim level Chevrolet never intended to be anything special, and built it into something viewers compare to a Mercedes CL63 or a Bentley Continental GT. The result raises a genuinely odd question: can an American mid-size sedan earn the nickname ‘American Aston Martin’? Watch to see the build, and the burnout, that convinced a crowd of onlookers the answer is yes.

Oldsmobile’s 4-4-2 package debuted quietly in mid-1964, and only 2,999 examples sold that first year despite genuinely serious hardware: a 4-barrel carburetor, 4-speed manual, dual exhaust, and a 310-horsepower 330-cubic-inch V8. It shared its platform with the new Chevelle. Here’s why this overlooked debut mattered more than its sales numbers suggested.

Hudsons Rod and Customs is refreshing a 1957 Chevrolet pickup that already wears the shop’s own logo, a client’s truck serving double duty as a rolling advertisement. An LS swap is planned for reliability, while a temporary Cadillac-sourced leather interior holds things over until a fully custom cabin gets built. Watch to see what a custom shop chooses to change on its own showcase vehicle.

A five-car rundown of the least dependable vehicles ever built pairs a push-bar Ford Taurus with a Dodge Neon SRT-4 caught on fire and a Mitsubishi Evo broken down roadside, and the reasons behind each failure are more specific than the title lets on. The comments section turns into its own debate, with viewers arguing over Dodge’s reliability reputation since its Fiat ownership and trading stories of five-figure repair bills. Watch the full breakdown and see which car actually deserved its spot.

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