 |
Episode 184 of Muscle Car of the Week features a showroom-fresh, triple-black 1971 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 convertible — one of the highest-torque muscle cars Detroit built that year, wrapped in a color combination viewers still call ‘sweet’ decades later. Commenters are already asking whether a Buick Grand National might be hiding in the same collection. Watch to see what else made this car Buick’s cleanest case for muscle and luxury coexisting.
Kyle of BoostedBoiKyle took the least likely sleeper platform imaginable, a minivan, and pointed a turbocharger at it, chasing a dyno number that startled even his own crew. A shower of sparks mid-pull and a hubcap moment fourteen minutes in became the video’s two most-discussed details. Comments are already joking about a cop pulling it over for triple-digit speeds. Watch the full build and dyno pull for yourself.
Everyone remembers the muscle car coupes, but Detroit built some genuinely serious trucks during the same era, including one that could be ordered with the same 429 Cobra Jet found in the meanest Fords of 1970. Even the humble F-100 borrowed its name from a supersonic fighter jet. Here’s the real performance history behind five of the era’s best trucks.
This two-owner 1968 Ford Torino GT carries a documented 390 four-barrel rated at 335 horsepower, backed by window stickers, the original invoice, and a title copy tracing it to day one. Ford built the Torino to go head-to-head with the Chevelle SS and GTO, and this survivor still wears the paper trail to prove it earned its place. Read on to find out what period testers clocked at the drag strip.
Before the Pontiac GTO existed, corporate policy at General Motors made it impossible: no mid-size car could carry an engine over 330 cubic inches, period. John DeLorean and a small team of engineers built one anyway, testing it in nighttime street races before their bosses even knew it existed. This archival documentary traces how that quiet act of rule-breaking, plus a name borrowed from Ferrari, turned into the car that saved Pontiac and launched an entire era of American muscle. Watch to find out how close it came to never happening at all.
Buick only built 2,487 LeSabre convertibles for 1970, and this numbers-matching example carries the rare high-compression 350 that most buyers skipped over. Kept in the same Texas family since new, with original paperwork to prove it, it’s a documented survivor from the last year of a body style before Buick’s convertibles started disappearing for good. Here’s what made the high-compression option worth chasing.
A 1968 Plymouth GTX in B5 Blue with the rare 440+6 Six Pack setup would be notable on its own, but owner Kevin Plummer’s reason for buying it is what turns heads. He spent years chasing down the exact car his father owned when he was a boy, and he’s owned it since 2015. The comment section fills with strangers telling nearly identical stories about their own fathers.
The third-gen Chevrolet El Camino, 1968-1972, truly revved up the muscle car game with its Malibu-inspired style and Chevelle platform. In ’68, it flaunted options like posi-traction and a power disk brake for those who wanted to stop as impressively as they could go. The high-performance SS debuted, with engines roaring up to 375 bhp. By 1970, it could house a monstrous LS6 454 engine, racing through the quarter-mile in 13 seconds! Alas, emissions rules in ’71 took a bit of the vroom out of its zoom.
The Dodge Charger burst onto the scene in 1966, a sleek, fastback beauty that made its Coronet cousin look like the introverted sibling at a car family reunion. Luxuriously priced at $3,100, it was like a Marlin with a snazzier hat. Boasting hidden headlights and a taillight grin, it packed options from a 318-cubic-inch engine to the roaring 426 Hemi. In 1967, the Charger donned fender signals and a vinyl roof, but sales took a nosedive—guess not everyone wanted a car that could double as a disco.
No-prep racing strips away the safety net of a perfectly prepped track and dares drivers to make it work anyway, and this chopped-top Chevy Nova wagon is built for exactly that kind of chaos. A 632 cubic inch big block and two kits of nitrous turn a family hauler into something that launches like a bomb going off. Swamp Thing and crew brought it to Wichita’s No Prep Mayhem to prove it. Traction was optional; horsepower was not.
Ford discontinued the 429 Cobra Jet after 1971, and by 1972 tightening emissions rules had wiped both that big-block and the Boss 351 off the Mach 1 order sheet entirely, leaving the 351 Cleveland as the biggest engine on the menu. So why does this Screaming Yellow ’72 Mach 1 have a 429 under the hood? Read on to see the two explanations, and what it would take to prove which one is true.
Step into the jet age with Cadillac’s Series 62 from 1954 to 1956, where luxury meets aerodynamic audacity! The ’54 model dropped a few pounds—vertically—and flaunted a wraparound Eldorado windshield, making heads turn faster than its 17.5-second 0-60 mph. In ’55, Cadillac added tubeless tires and a “hockey stick” chrome trim, boosting sales to a record 118,190. By ’56, the Series 62 had a grill fancier than a Michelin-starred meal and could sprint to 60 mph in a brisk, for its size, 12 seconds.
Muscle cars aren’t just vehicles; they’re an attitude on wheels. Take Eleanor, the iconic 1967 Mustang from “Gone in 60 Seconds,” a true embodiment of muscle car spirit. These beasts, often powered by roaring V8 engines, dominated drag racing from the ’60s to ’80s. With insane torque and horsepower, they offer rides that’ll make your jaw drop—and maybe your toupee fly off. Thanks to innovations like Dodge’s all-wheel drive Challenger GT, driving these monsters isn’t just for sunny days anymore!
This 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner packs a 390-cubic-inch V8 that could be optioned up to 401 horsepower on paper, paired with a stripped-down three-on-the-tree manual and no power assist anywhere. Years before anyone used the phrase ‘muscle car,’ Ford was already quietly building the ingredients for one. Read on to find out what driving a full-size Ford built this way actually felt like.