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Mercury built more than ten thousand Cyclone GT hardtops for 1970, but only a few hundred of them left the factory with the engine that made the model’s reputation. Three different 429s were available, ranging from a smooth cruiser to a solid-lifter drag car, and a well-restored example tells you almost nothing about which one you are looking at until you check. Here is how to read a 1970 Cyclone GT, and why the Drag Pack cars are the ones worth chasing.
Dodge offered its fearsome Max Wedge 413 across the entire 1962 Dart lineup, station wagons included, pairing a genuinely dangerous big-block with a brand-new lightweight unibody platform. Two states of tune were available, both capable of closing in on a 12-second quarter mile in a car built to also haul groceries. Chryslers engineers proved a mid-size car could out-drag much larger machinery years before the GTO existed. This wagon is a reminder that Mopars muscle car reputation started in unlikely places.
John Wischmann set out to run 7-second quarter-mile passes at every stop of Rocky Mountain Race Week in a twin-turbo big-block Camaro, then drive it on public roads to the next track and do it again, without a single mechanical failure. Viewers keep comparing the turbo whistle to a screaming eagle, and the launches show almost no wasted motion or tire shake. Reliability and speed are not supposed to go together at this level. Watch to see whether this build proves that wrong.
The 1967 Chevrolet Nova SS looked like a mild refresh of Chevrolet’s compact Chevy II, but underneath was a genuine giant-killer: a 350-horsepower 327 V8 available for just $93 more than the base engine. Here’s how the Nova went from economy car to muscle car contender, and what the safety updates of 1967 changed for good.
A small-block Chevy engine builder with decades of grease under his fingernails sets out to settle one of the hobby’s oldest arguments: which factory cylinder heads are actually worth chasing, and which ones are budget-build traps. Casting numbers, camel-hump chambers, and a warranty-replacement secret tied to the 1969 Z/28 Camaro all make an appearance. Viewers with their own engine-building histories have kept the debate going in the comments for over a decade. Watch to find out which heads made his list, and which ones did not.
Ranking the greatest muscle cars of all time was always going to start an argument, but slotting a Mercedes-Benz Brabus Bullit 800 into the number three spot sent this comment section into open revolt. Viewers debate what actually counts as a muscle car, what got left off entirely, and whether horsepower numbers alone should decide the list at all. See which cars purists say are missing.
EngineLabs and the Horsepower Wars crew settled the endless LS-versus-Coyote debate the only way that counts: two engine builds, a strict $9,999 budget each, and a dyno at the respected Westech Performance Group that doesn’t care about brand loyalty. The results compare more than peak horsepower, weighing efficiency and power delivery across the curve for both platforms. See which engine came out on top — and why the argument still won’t die in the comments.
American Motors built the Ambassador as its flagship for eighteen model years, and 1966 was the year the gamble finally paid off, with sales climbing to roughly 71,000 from under 19,000 just two years earlier. The DPL hardtop sat at the very top of that range with reclining buckets and AMC’s largest V8. Here is why an unrestored survivor from a brand this overlooked is genuinely harder to find than a big-name muscle car.
The Auto Rules wanted to answer a question every backyard mechanic has joked about: can you supercharge an engine with a leaf blower? The answer, tested on a 5.4-liter V8, isn’t a simple yes or no — there’s no real boost involved, yet the dyno still showed a gain. Commenters are already lobbying for a turbocharged leaf blower as the sequel. Watch to see exactly how many horsepower a cheap tool can buy.
GM’s 1971 switch to low-lead fuel dropped the Buick 455’s compression from 10.0:1 to 8.5:1, and the Stage 1 rating fell from 360 horsepower to 345. Buick built the car anyway, with a hotter camshaft, larger valves, a recalibrated Quadrajet and 3.42 Positraction as standard, and roughly 81 of them left the factory as convertibles. Period tests still recorded mid-13-second quarter miles. Read on for what a genuine Stage 1 has to prove before you write the check.
Back-to-back fuel crises in 1973 and 1979 forced Pontiac to rethink the Trans-Am from the ground up, and the result was a 1982 redesign built almost entirely around wind tunnel data — roughly 500 pounds lighter, capable of 34 mpg with the four-cylinder engine, and styled with hidden headlights and a frameless rear window. Read on to see how that fuel-crisis compromise eventually turned into the fastest production car in North America.
The Fab Forums picks up a die grinder and starts reshaping a stock intake manifold’s runners in real time, explaining exactly why port-matching — not just polishing things smooth — is the technique that actually adds power. It’s raw, unscripted shop footage rather than a polished tutorial, showing the kind of decision-making that separates a home porting job that works from one that just looks like it should. Watch the process unfold bit by bit.
Alf’s 1965 Chevy II Nova SS still wears its original California dealer plates, decades after Hovey-Dallas Chevrolet first sold it — only now it’s a familiar sight near Seaview Road outside Adelaide, Australia, following a 2008 import. The car runs its factory 283 V8 and PowerGlide transmission, kept close to stock except for dual Flowmaster mufflers and a fresh set of mags. Read on to see how a documented, three-owner Nova crossed an ocean and stayed true to its roots.
Restomod builders spend years blending classic muscle car looks with modern reliability, and then Dodge handed shoppers a finished version of that dream on a new-car lot. The Challenger held its retro shape for its entire production run while Mustang and Camaro moved on. So what was actually still missing from it? Read on for the case enthusiasts made, the answers Dodge gave instead, and how the argument ended.
Ford loyalists and Chevrolet diehards have been arguing about the 5.0-liter Mustang and the TPI Camaro since both cars were new, and the argument has never actually been settled with the engines on a dyno. That is exactly what this shootout sets out to do, starting with baseline pulls on a 5.0L HO 302 and an LB9 TPI 305. The numbers are smaller than modern muscle. Read on to find out what these two engines really made.