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Nobody built cars to disappear quite like Chevrolet built the 1964 Biscayne, the cheapest full-size car in the lineup, yet a rare handful of buyers spec’d it with the same 409 big-block that made the Impala SS famous. Stripped of chrome and drag-strip focused, a 409 Biscayne is arguably the ultimate factory sleeper of its era. Here is why even dedicated Chevrolet historians cannot agree on exactly how many were built.
At the Barrett-Jackson Collection Showroom in Scottsdale, Lou Costabile talks with Showroom Sales Associate Mike Hoye about a 1972 Chevrolet Camaro SS finished in an uncommon Gulf Green paint over a 350 V8. 1972 marked one of the final years for the original SS badge before it disappeared from the Camaro lineup for a decade. See what makes this color and condition combination stand out.
A 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 running a factory Turbo Hydramatic 400 automatic squares off against a modified 1951 Henry J nicknamed the Green M&M in this quarter mile nostalgia drag race. Kaiser-Frazer built the Henry J as a stripped-down economy car decades before drag racers discovered its featherweight unibody made it a natural straight-line weapon. Viewers praised the channel’s consistent camera work and asked for more up-close burnout footage. Does decades of muscle car engineering really beat a proper weight-to-power ratio down the strip?
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you move it — a line quoted constantly in car culture and rarely questioned. One engineer decided to actually test the claim against real physics instead of letting the metaphor stand, adding a direct power-to-weight versus torque-to-weight comparison to answer the towing questions the idea always raises. Watch to find out whether the wall analogy holds up at all.
Ford gave the compact Falcon real muscle with the Sprint package and its 289 V8, only to watch its own Mustang, built on the same platform, make the Falcon obsolete almost overnight. Just 300 Sprint convertibles and 2,806 Sprint hardtops were sold in the model’s final year. Here is the story of the compact that lost to its own sibling.
A supercharged Corvette photographed on move-out day at a 2012 Chicago muscle car show did something most modified cars can only pull off at full throttle, it broke its own rear tires loose just idling in the parking lot. Surrounded by Dodge Daytonas, Plymouth Superbirds, and COPO Camaros, this flame-painted build still managed to steal the spotlight from cars with far bigger reputations. The sound alone had onlookers stopping mid-conversation. What does it take for one car to out-shout a lot full of legends?
The decades-old Mustang-versus-Camaro rivalry has found unlikely new life in China, where Ford’s later-arriving pony car has outsold Chevrolet’s by more than 3-to-1 despite a four-year head start for the Camaro. The gap traces back to one detail muscle car fans will recognize instantly: engine choice. Read on to find out why a turbocharged four-cylinder cost Chevrolet the fight.
Jay Leno rides shotgun in the legendary Hemi Under Glass, a 2,500-horsepower exhibition car built to run an entire quarter mile balanced on its rear wheels, driven by veteran stunt driver Bob Riggle. Even with decades of automotive experience, Leno’s reaction on camera makes clear this ride is unlike anything else in his garage. Watch to see how a car engineered to defy physics actually feels from the passenger seat.
A 1970 Dodge Coronet with a six-cylinder and a stock rear end really was pretty pedestrian by today’s standards – but that’s not the whole story. Order the same car as a Super Bee with the 426 Hemi and the right gearing, and documented runs put it in the 12-second quarter mile bracket at well over 100 mph. Factory horsepower ratings from that era were also notoriously conservative, hiding just how much these engines actually made. Here’s the case for why “muscle cars were slow” doesn’t hold up once you look past the average car.
The 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger built its reputation on a 340 small-block that punched well above its weight class in a lightweight A-body, despite the Dart nameplate’s humble slant-six reputation. This particular example takes a different road, running a heavily built 318 with an aggressive cam and a stout rear end. Read on to see what the build actually delivers on the street.
For the Camaro’s 50th anniversary, Chevrolet didn’t settle for a badge and a paint stripe. The sixth-generation car arrived smaller, sharper-handling, and backed by a lineup running from a 275-horsepower turbo-four up to a 455-horsepower SS V8, with a new ZL1 added specifically for the occasion. Here’s what made the anniversary edition — and the platform underneath it — genuinely worth the celebration.
A small fender badge reading Futuramic marked one of the biggest technological shifts Oldsmobile ever made: the return of the Hydra-Matic automatic transmission after a wartime production pause. Oldsmobile beat Cadillac to market with a fully automatic transmission by an entire year. The 1948 restyle paired that transmission with features few other cars of the era could match.
The 1962 Corvette closed out the original C1 body style while quietly introducing the 327 small block that would carry the nameplate for years afterward. Buyers who paid extra for the Ramjet fuel injection option got a car that could genuinely compete with much pricier machinery. Few of them realized they were also buying the last Corvette that would ever wear a wraparound windshield.
This 1964 Dodge Polara isn’t numbers-matching — and one commenter says that hasn’t stopped it from being “worth every penny” of its roughly $39,000 asking price. Under the hood is a full crossram 426 Max Wedge with dual four-barrels and fender-exit headers, backed by a four-speed and a 4.11-geared Dana 60 built purely for launching hard. A full-size sleeper with a well-preserved original interior, it’s the kind of Mopar that collectors chase for substance over paperwork. Watch the walkaround and hear it run.